Rise of Allies (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 4) (19 page)

“Welllll, shoot, lil darlin’. I was on their land. Reckon I had it comin’. Tribe’s been at war on and off with the U.S. Army for years. Probably thought I was some kind o’ spy for the federales. But don’t ya fret. Folks from Texas ain’t too easy to kill.” He flashed a sudden mad grin that surely would have terrified any poor outlaw who had to duel against him at high noon.

Jake was in awe.

“I didn’t know the Yanks were connected with the Order, sir,” one of the boys spoke up, at which, the other kids nodded.

“Yep. Got passed down to us from ya’ll. Which ain’t too surprisin’, since we’re real simpatico, your country and our’n.”

“Simpatico? What does that mean?”

“Allies.” Tex shrugged his broad shoulders. “Means y’all need help, we come. We need help, y’all come. Ain’t too hard to figure out. Gotta have friends you can count on in this here vale o’ tears.”

Hear, hear,
Jake thought with a grin spreading across his face.

“So, do you have lots of magical creatures in America, Mr. Munroe?”

“Quite a few. None you’d want to meet in a dark alley. Let’s see… Large number o’ witches, good and bad, settled in New England long ago. Though, o’ course, a lot o’ them got burned. We got a Headless Horseman who’s been terrorizing folks around the town of Sleepy Hollow for a couple hundred years now.

“Vampires down in New Orleans,” he mused aloud, stroking his whiskered chin in thought. “Occasional outbreaks of zombies there, too, when the voodoo queens kick up. Very unpleasant creatures, zombies. You meet one o’ them, you aim for the head, no mistakin’.”

“What about ghosts?” Jake asked, entertained.

“Boy, half the South’s filled with ’em!” he exclaimed, leaning back in his chair. “O’ course, most of ’em’s harmless. Chupacabras in the deserts, like I told ya. Some of the Injun tribes have shamans who are shapeshifters. Got to treat ’em with respect. Last thing ya want’s an Injun curse, no sir. What else?

“We got wild, hairy ape-men livin’ in the forests everywhere ya look. Cousin to the yetis, best that we can figger. Gold goblins livin’ under Wall Street in New York. And you don’t even want to
know
what’s crawlin’ around in our swamps down yonder. Everglades… Mississippi basin… Shoot. That stuff’ll give ya nightmares.”

“Not us, Mr. Munroe,” Jake assured him boldly, glancing around at his fellow future Lightriders.

“Ha!” Instead of scolding him for bragging, Tex let out a short, loud laugh. “That’s how ya do it, son.”

The bell dinged, but nobody moved.

Even Tex ignored it, launching into another wild story full of unexpected tangents, until the kids glanced around at each other with uncertain smiles.

They were all starting to wonder if the cowboy’s “stretchers” were merely Texas tall tales or true accounts of his adventures. Jake dearly hoped it was the latter.

It all sounded so exciting.

When the students finally filed out of the room, thanking Finnderool and saying their goodbyes to Tex, Jake vowed to visit America someday, especially the Wild West.

Of course, he’d have to bring Archie and his tool-bag along. The Wild West didn’t sound like a place for young ladies, so they’d have to leave the girls at home, and that was just fine with him.

Eager to tell his cousin everything about the Lightrider session, Jake sprinted at top speed down the corridor, skidding to a halt and pausing only long enough to ask a gnome which way to the library.

The little fellow pointed to a door that led outside onto the grassy courtyard in the center of the palace’s massive quadrangle.

Flush with dreams of heroic derring-do, he hurried out and strode across the courtyard. The library was housed in its own, chapel-like building, semi-attached to the back of the palace. It was very old, with medieval arches and intricate stone carvings around the heavy door.

Jake pulled it open. As he stepped into the dimly lit, high-ceilinged space, he saw thousands of books on tall, somber shelves. But instead of the quiet he expected, a ruckus of angry shouts, taunting, and yelling was coming from somewhere nearby. The distant echoes bounced around under the vaulted ceiling, though somehow the noise was not loud enough to wake the ancient librarian, who went on snoring away at his desk.

Jake frowned, cocking his head and listening. It sounded like some kind of fight was going on.

Then his stomach clenched as he recognized a few of the voices.

“Let him go, you brute!”

“Put my brother down!”

Dani? Isabelle?

Oh, no. What now?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Trouble with Trolls

J
ake dashed off, following the sound of the fight. Heart pounding, he looked in all the bookshelf aisles he passed, but there was no sign of them. The echoing quality of the ancient stone library made it hard to tell which way the sound was coming from.

“Leave my brother alone!”

That was definitely Isabelle, which meant it was Archie who was under threat.
Blast it, where are they?

The yelling grew louder as he neared the back of the library, and came upon another large door. He shoved it open and found it was an exit onto the grounds of Merlin Hall.

As soon as he looked outside, his eyes narrowed. He had found them, all right.

Out on the green, the girls were yelling at the huge, ugly troll boy from Dr. Plantagenet’s zoo. Ogden Trumbull had a hold of Archie and was dangling him upside-down, one oversized, stone-gray hand wrapped around his skinny ankles. Archie was doing his best to reason with the brute and to keep his spectacles from falling off.

Jake stepped outside in a fury. “Hey, ugly!” he shouted. “Put the genius down!”

“Jake!” Dani cried. “Thank gosh you’re here!”

Og looked over as Jake marched toward them, glaring at the bully, his heart pounding in wrath.

“You want to pick on somebody, why don’t you fight me?” he challenged.

“Uh-oh, you’re in trouble now,” Dani taunted the creature.

Og glanced over and scowled. “Who are you?” he grunted.

“I’m that kid’s cousin, and if you don’t let him go right now, I’m going to make you very sorry.”

The hybrid sneered at him. “If you say so.”

To Jake’s horror, Og whipped Archie back like a ragdoll and threw him violently into the air, like you’d throw a stone.

The girls screamed and Archie shouted in terror as he went flying skyward in a wide arc, arms and legs pinwheeling frantically.

Just in time, Jake summoned up his telekinesis and caught Archie on a cushion of air as he started plummeting back to earth.

He checked his rage and, with a steady current of energy from his fingertips, lowered his friend safely to the ground.

“Thanks, coz,” Archie said, sounding shaken.

At once, the girls rushed over to see to him, gathering up his papers and the contents of his trusty tool-bag, which were scattered all over the ground.

With his cousin safely out of the troll boy’s grasp, Jake, still enraged, did not take his eyes off Ogden.

The brute turned to smirk at him.

“Are you all right, Arch?” Jake called in a taut voice.

“I-I think so.”

“What happened?” he demanded.

“I made the mistake of trying to be nice to that…
thing
!” Archie burst out, pointing at his tormentor. “I was only trying to help him t-turn the pages of a baby book he was trying to read, and just like that, the brute attacked me. For no reason!”

“I don’t need your help!” Ogden roared at Archie in his garbled voice. “I don’t want your pity! You can go hang!”

“You see that? Honestly!” Archie spluttered, gesturing at Ogden. “Monstrous toad! They should lock you up in one of those zoo pens because, whatever you are, you aren’t fit for civilized society!”

Og’s reply was a huge bogey, which he spat on the ground, then grinned, as though proud to prove the truth of Archie’s words.

The girls gagged.

“Oh, that’s very nice,” Archie scolded in disgust. He glanced at Jake. “I tried to run away, but this was as far as I got. He’s faster than he looks.”

“Apologize to my cousin, and then be on your way,” Jake commanded the hulk in kingly tones.

“Don’t tell me what to do, you twerp,” Og rumbled.

“You’re askin’ for it,” Jake warned, unconsciously beginning to sound like the rough street kid he used to be until a year ago.

The troll boy guffawed. “You’re no bigger than a goose turd! What can you possibly do to me?”

Jake smiled coldly. “Well, if you insist. Let me show you.” With another burst of angry power from his fingertips (and, admittedly, a slight pain in his head, for he was still not fully recovered from yesterday’s ordeal), he did the same thing to Og via telekinesis that
he
had done to Archie by brute strength.

Grunting with effort, Jake lifted Og off the ground. Suspending him in midair was not quite enough, so with a wicked smile, Jake slowly turned Archie’s tormentor upside-down.

It was amusing to see the half-troll struggle and flail. With nothing to push off against but empty air, Og could gain no leverage to escape.

Well, he brought it on himself,
Jake thought in cold satisfaction. Living on the streets had taught him one thing about survival. You had to fight back viciously against bullies right away to make them get the point.

Bullies only attacked nice people because they seemed like easy prey. But when a
nice person
fought back like a demon unexpectedly—and even better, brought allies of his own—bullies usually ran away with their tails tucked between their legs and didn’t come back.

That was the outcome Jake desired.

He hadn’t the slightest interest in hearing Og’s excuses as to
why
he had attacked Archie. No reason would have been good enough. A bully was a bully, and a troll was a troll, and that was all Jake really needed to know.

Dani understood this, too, having come from the rookery, London’s own brick-and-mortar jungle. The sheltered Archie and Isabelle, however, exchanged a startled glance.

“Ha, ha! Not so scary now, are you, ugly?” the carrot-head yelled, pointing and jeering at Ogden while Jake hoisted him higher into the air.

Still, after the strain of lifting baby Stonehenge megaliths yesterday with his mind, Jake did not want to risk blacking out again and leaving his friends at Og’s mercy.

Best to wrap up this little lesson.

“Put me down!” the brute roared.

“Ask me nicely,” Jake taunted, but Ogden just growled.

Relenting, Jake lowered the upside-down troll until Og dangled in midair on about eye-level with him. Then he sauntered closer, careful to stay out of reach of Og’s powerful, gangly arms.

“If you ever lay a finger on my cousin again or any of my friends, I’ll pulverize ye. Savvy?” he asked, sounding as mean as he possibly could.

“Urrrgh,” Og rumbled.

Confident he had made his point, Jake stepped back and released his telekinetic hold, feeling magnanimous for his mercy. Ogden tumbled onto the ground.

But what happened next was not what Jake had expected.

He had thought Og would slink away in shame at being bested, but instead, the hybrid suddenly sprang up off the ground and lunged at him.

It all happened so fast.

Jake only had time to get in one good move to try to ward off the attack; he leaped up and kicked Ogden in the stomach.

It was like kicking a boulder.

The next thing he knew, the hybrid’s huge hand was wrapped around his throat. His feet dangled off the ground. He clutched the rocklike forearm, trying to peel away the iron fingers around his throat.

It didn’t do much good.

With Troll Boy squeezing the life out him, Jake was vaguely aware of the girls screaming and Archie trying to find anything in his tool-bag that might be of use.

“Derek, help!” Dani’s ear-splitting plea was Jake’s first indication that the Guardians had come strolling onto the scene.

Well, hurrah for Guardian instincts,
Jake thought, beginning to turn blue. Talk about good timing.

But when he looked over, Derek and Maddox St. Trinian were just watching curiously, arms folded, as though they wouldn’t dream of stepping on his toes, if he wished to vanquish this enemy himself.

Aw, come on!
Kicking his feet and pulling against the giant hand around his throat, Jake tried to turn his head to scowl impatiently at Derek.

“A little help?” he rasped.

Derek turned to Maddox. “Care to do the honors?”

The older boy nodded, crouched down briefly in a sprinter’s stance, then exploded into action, racing across the lawn like an arrow shot from a bow.

Troll Boy didn’t even see him coming.

In the next heartbeat, Maddox ran up the hulk’s broad back and hooked his arm around Ogden’s thick throat in a wrestler’s move, cutting off his air.

“Let him go,” he ordered in a menacing tone.

Bloody embarrassing,
Jake thought, annoyed to find himself, the would-be hero, in need of a rescue. He kept kicking Ogden, at least, while Maddox tightened his hold.

Og waved his free hand around angrily behind him, trying to knock Maddox off his back.

“I said let him go,” Maddox repeated.

“Can’t…breathe!” Og choked out.

“Makes two of us,” Jake wheezed. He sent Derek an impatient scowl.
Care to help here?

The master Guardian arched a brow, watching with a look of amusement and pride.

“Last chance,” Maddox warned Og through gritted teeth, while Jake started seeing black spots float across his field of vision.

Great. Now I get to faint like a little girl again in front of everyone.

“Get
off
me!” Ogden yowled.

“Wrong choice,” said Maddox. Then he gave the troll a wrench with his arm, and Ogden’s beady eyes rolled up into his head.

Og’s grip on Jake’s throat released as he crashed to the ground, out cold.

“Hooray, Maddox killed him!” Dani cried triumphantly as she came running over.

“Nah, he just fainted,” the young Guardian said, dusting off his hands, while Jake crawled out of Ogden’s reach, coughing and gasping for air. Then he sat on the grass, disgusted, and rubbed his half-strangled throat.

“Thanks,” he croaked.

Maddox nodded, eyeing the distance between where Jake sat and the unconscious hybrid. “You might want to move farther back. He’ll be awake again shortly.”

“No worries,” Derek interjected as he came strolling over. “Nice work, lad.” Then he crouched down and waited the few seconds until Og woke up.

Thus, the first thing Troll Boy saw when he came-to was the steely eyed Guardian looming over him and looking none-too-pleased.

The difference between the boys’ skill levels and his was that Derek did not have to say a word. Did not have to make a threat. Did not even have to make a
fist
.

He only had to stare for a long moment into the confused troll’s eyes, his own slightly narrowed.

Og seemed to shrink several inches in size. He whimpered slightly and slid backward away from Derek, crab-walking on his hands.

The Guardian watched his every move, still silent.

Maddox stood a short distance behind Derek, clearly ready to attack again on his trainer’s orders.

Isabelle had tiptoed over to stare at her idol, but Jake paid her little mind, loving every minute of seeing the oversized bully show his true cowardice.

A safe distance from Derek, Og jumped to his feet and knuckle-ran off in the direction of the zoo.

Dani started to jeer loudly after the fleeing brute, but Derek laid a finger over his lips and chided gently, “Shh. No need to heap coals on your enemy’s head, my little Irish brawler.”