“Shut it,” Niamh hissed.
I shrugged. “Up to you. Listen, what I wanted to talk—”
“I can see how that might be fun. An audience. You would have to be very quiet. And very still.”
I stared at him with my eyebrows up and my mouth open, really wanting to move the conversation along but not wanting to push him. Given he’d chased two alphas off this mountain, there were clearly hidden depths to him that I didn’t want to see.
“If you dressed in brown, or maybe brown and green, you would blend in better.” He eyed my outfit. “The white sweats would only do for heavy snowfall.”
“Listen, Mr.…” I paused so he could give me his name.
“You would not want to blend in too much, though, or they wouldn’t see you at the end,” he said, clearly in need of dynamite to get him off this train of thought. “Although you are just a human woman. Maybe you’d get a better fright if you changed into that purplish sort of rainbow monster from the other day.”
“I would like to trade,” I said quickly, holding up the flowers. Granted, I’d already promised the Ivy House flowers, but hopefully he couldn’t call me on a technicality. Besides, I was delivering them. That had to count for something. “I am delivering some Ivy House flowers, directly to you…for a snack.”
As if this was the first time he was noticing them, his focus zipped to the colorful array in my hand.
“You helped me the other day—”
“Oh no, I did not,” he said. “It would go against my station to help a prisoner. No, I took my break, and tripped and broke my ankle. That was why I was absent, you see, and not able to sound the alarm when you defeated your confinement and escaped in a pretty, swirling light show. At first I thought I sprained it, of course, but upon reflection, it must have been broken, because I needed to be gone for longer than originally planned.”
“Right. Did the—”
“So you see, my absence could not be helped.”
“Gotcha. Did the mages come back to find me gone?”
“Yes.”
I waited for more. He didn’t give me anything.
“Did anyone else come—someone you hadn’t seen or met beyond those mages?” I wondered if the contract holder had shown up.
“No.”
That was a small relief, at least. “Were the mages mad?” I pressed.
“Yes. Very. They questioned my truthfulness. That is a grave offense, as you can guess.”
“Right. And then they—”
“As the guardian of this mountain and the prison herein, it is my duty to secure those detained here.”
“Totally. So did they—”
“But I am only one entity. I must take breaks. I must be able to eat, rest, and relieve myself. This is the nineties, for heaven’s sake. There are rules.”
“It’s actually the…” I waved it away. “Never mind.” He’d catch up eventually. Or never. It probably didn’t matter much to him, given his lifestyle. “Listen—”
“For their offense, I killed one of them. Justice was served on my mountain the other day. It is done.”
I looked back at Austin. Another down, three to go, and as of yesterday, they were still in the area.
“Make note of that,” Mr. Tom murmured. “Do not question the truthfulness of a basajaun, regardless of how big the lie.”
I had to agree.
I held out the flowers, feeling a fresh wave of urgency. The mages had lost someone yesterday, and they were probably still scrambling. If we could find them now, we’d have a shot at stopping them permanently, before they came after me again.
“Can you please show me to the lower cave entrance?” I asked, holding the flowers high. “I’ll trade you these flowers for it. I’m not a prisoner anymore. You don’t have to guard me.”
He stood, and I took a step back, his height incredibly daunting.
“Get ready to run,” I heard Mr. Tom say.
“I will show you because you have asked nicely.” He stepped forward. “Your friends may come, too, though they are not welcome on this mountain without you.”
“I get it. Some of them are awfully pushy—”
“You are so pretty when you fly. I would hate to dull your luster by killing one of your friends.”
I nodded and held out the flowers, doing my best not to scuttle backward the closer he got.
“I will show you as a gesture of good faith, in the hope that we can work together to give this mountain something it has never seen before. My family has never teamed up with a creature such as yourself. They will be red with envy. What name will the hikers make up about you, I wonder. Well…” He laughed as we walked, Austin and everyone else falling in silently behind us. “They would have to snap a picture first. Do you breathe fire, by chance?”
“Um…no. No fire.”
“That is okay. Maybe they will still think you’re a dragon because of your big fangs and the swirly rainbow colors that trail you when you fly.”