Building Harem Town 3, page 9
But I’d received the ability to read all languages.
I stared at the glyphs, and I worked to make sense of the symbols. At first, it only translated into garbled sounds that seemed to echo through my mind, but slowly, the words began to clear.
Sky of blood and stone of gray
To our frozen lords we pray
Stone of gray and bone of white
Fear our wrath when we take flight
What… the fuck?
Chapter 6
This was really fucking creepy. Between the apparently living statue, and the poem’s bizarre, ominous words, I hadn’t been this weirded out since I’d gotten to this world.
“Jack?” Aleia asked nervously. “What does it say?”
“It’s a really weird poem about gargoyles,” I explained. “It’s a little disturbing.”
“My lord, words have a lot of power,” the fairy said with an intent expression in her sea-green eyes. “Can you read it to me?”
“Sky of blood…” I began, but then I paused and reconsidered the words in front of me.
They were placed directly beneath the statue’s feet, and they looked like they’d been carved recently. The edges of the chiseled stone were razor sharp and not at all worn from age, and when I compared this to the glyphs at the base of the other statues, I could tell without a doubt they were freshly engraved.
Which meant they must be important, maybe even crucial.
“Aleia, maybe you should repeat these words after me,” I decided. “Just in case saying them out loud does anything. They’ve been added to this ledge recently, and if this woman is magically encased, magic might free her.”
“Yes, if you read me the words, I’ll say them,” Aleia agreed. “I’ll do anything to save her from the grave danger she’s in.”
“It can’t hurt to try,” I sighed. “If you can’t lift her, there must be another way to get her out of here. Now, repeat after me: sky of blood and stone of gray…”
“Wh-What?” the fairy asked. “Sk-Sky of what? I’m sorry, master. I’m just a little shaken up.”
“It’s okay, I understand,” I assured her. “Let’s take it slow. ‘Sky of blood…’”
“Sky of blood…” Aleia repeated with wide eyes as she floated in the air.
“‘Stone of gray…’” I read from the rock below the statue.
“St-Stone of gr-gray,” the strawberry-blonde stuttered. A strong breeze blew through the air near the top of the tower, and the fairy put her arms around herself and shivered.
Then a quiet but pained woman’s cry rang out for a few seconds.
“Fuck,” I muttered as my phantom heart skipped a beat.
The statue’s mournful wail was total agony, and what if the guards below heard?
I scanned down the tower to look for the gargoyles, but they didn’t seem at all suspicious. They were busy arguing like nothing strange was taking place nearby, and it made me wonder if it was possible only Aleia and I could hear the moaning. I didn’t know much about how incantations worked, but it seemed plausible that the ones reading the spell would experience the immediate effects.
“Gods,” Aleia groaned. “This just has to work.”
“I’ll go ahead and read you the next line,” I said to the fairy. “I hope the poem is saving her instead of torturing her.”
“We’re saving her,” the strawberry-blonde said in a stronger voice. “We can do this, Jack. We are going to set her free from her stone prison, and she is coming safely back to our home with us.”
“You’re so brave,” I praised Aleia. “Okay, let’s keep going. The next line is, ‘To our frozen lords we pray.’”
“Weird,” the strawberry-blonde shuddered. “To our frozen lords we pray…”
There was another immediate cry, and it was even louder than the first. The misery in the woman’s voice was heart-wrenching, and the sound made my virtual stomach flip around like I was on a roller coaster.
I checked for the guards again, but there was still no response, which made me think her cries were more magical than physical.
At least, I hoped they were. She sounded so tortured.
“She sounds miserable,” Aleia whimpered. “Oh, master, let’s hurry.”
“‘Stone of gray and bone of white,’” I read. “Ugh, I hate that line. Aleia, brace yourself for her next cry to be even louder.”
“Stone of g-gray and b-bone of white,” the fairy stuttered.
The next tortured shriek was the worst yet, and Aleia flinched and squeezed her eyes shut.
“You can do this,” I told the fairy. “I know, it’s awful. But there’s just one more, and… I really hope this works.”
“Me, too, my lord.” Aleia shuddered. “I’ve never heard anything so horrible.”
“Let’s just get it over with,” I said. “‘Fear our wrath when we take flight.’”
“So cheerful,” the fairy responded as she pulled her arms around her body again. “And you’re sure this is the last line?”
“Yes,” I answered. “This is it.”
“I hope we’re prepared for whatever’s about to happen,” Aleia sighed. “Fear our wrath when we take flight.”
There was a loud cracking sound, and I flinched because I sincerely hoped we weren’t fucked. The statue was at least ten feet above any of the doors, and the music inside had been loud, but I still didn’t want to take any chances.
Webs of cracks began to spread across the stone woman’s body, and waves of horror rushed over me as they splintered her perfect lips, her nose, and then the rock-solid hair that spilled down over her shoulders and back. I was terrified for a moment that her body would be hollow like one of the gargoyles, and I actually mourned for the beautiful creature I’d never even had a chance to meet.
But then a faint glow began to radiate from behind the cracked stone, and the rock facade of the statue started to fall away in pieces.
“This is amazing,” Aleia breathed. The fairy’s lips parted wider and wider in amazement as more of the woman was revealed, and then the strawberry-blonde gasped. “She’s red!”
When I saw the hue of the bird-woman’s feathers for the first time, I was completely blown away. I hadn’t expected it from the pale granite exterior, but a large portion of the woman’s body was scarlet.
The red angel rose into the air as if she’d been tossed upward by the wind, and when she tilted her head backward and raised her arms up toward the sky, a crimson curtain of hair fell back almost to the stone ground. Her arms trailed feathers that were at least two-feet long, and their colors faded from scarlet near her skin into the rainbow hues of orange, pale yellow, and then almost white near the tips. Other than her feathers, her entire body was nearly as pale as her white robe, and she was a strange mixture of fire and ghost in the darkness.
I gazed down at the scarlet angel’s face as she floated in mid-air, and her eyes were a clear, nearly golden hue of amber. She looked up into the air with an ecstatic expression, and for a brief, strange moment, I felt like the two of us were making eye contact. I stared into the mysterious bird-woman’s yellow eyes like I was completely under her spell, and I temporarily forgot about the gargoyle cave and the danger my women were in.
I could have looked at her forever.
Well, until she collapsed to her knees. Her pointed chin dropped toward her creamy throat, and I was suddenly afraid she was going to fall and hit her head on the ledge’s rocky edge.
“Oh, no!” Aleia gasped as she put her hands on the woman’s slim shoulders to push her back upright. “Are you okay? Jack, she’s shaking, and her skin feels as cold as the stone around her. I think we need to get her out of here as quickly as we possibly can. She needs to be somewhere warm.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “Let’s figure this out.”
The feathered woman’s head lolled backward again, and her expression was more pain than ecstasy. Her amber eyes rolled back into her head, and Aleia quickly grabbed the bird-like creature’s body tighter before she fell backward. The fairy then cradled the bird-woman in her arms, and she held the stranger’s head as gently as a newborn baby.
The bird-woman’s lips were unnaturally pale, and she had bluish, bruised-looking circles under her eyes. She looked utterly exhausted and frail, and I knew there was no way she’d be able to walk back to the convent.
“Luckily she’s light,” the fairy remarked. “I’m so nervous, Jack. I know I need to be delicate with her body, but I want to get her far away from here as quickly as possible.”
“Yeah, we need to leave,” I agreed. “We need to head back to your sisters and go. Let me just look around to make sure there aren’t any gargoyles lurking.”
I scanned the tower, and while there were still two guards arguing with one another on a ledge, they weren’t looking anywhere near Aleia’s direction. There wasn’t any other action on this side of the structure, so I thought it was as good a time as any to go.
The forest behind the tower almost grew all the way up to the granite walls, and if the priestesses went around the back of the lair to the east, the woods grew thicker. I wanted to avoid any gargoyle surveillance, of course, even though there didn’t seem to be much, but if the women could make it into the denser cover of trees, I could lead them to the convent trail in a roundabout way.
I just hoped the gargoyles wouldn’t realize the statue was gone until the morning, and even then, they’d hopefully have no leads on who’d taken it.
“Fly back down to the ground, and hold her like that,” I instructed Aleia. “Keep flying toward those trees to the east, away from the main entrance. I’ll tell Penelope and Nicola to meet you down there.”
“Of course, my lord,” the fairy said as she flew downward toward the trees with the bird-woman held tenderly in her arms. “I will keep my eyes open for my sisters.”
“Thanks, Aleia,” I said before I addressed the women on the ground in an urgent voice. “Penelope, Nicola, I need you to move. Keep heading back toward the trees.”
“Yes, Jack,” the brunette said with a nod. She glanced at Penelope, and the two priestesses gripped one another’s hands and began to creep forward around the base of the tower.
“Where’s Aleia?” Penelope whispered.
“She has the… statue, and she’s flying down to meet you right now,” I explained.
“You got her?” the naiad breathed as her mouth fell open into a wide O shape.
“Yes, I’ll explain later,” I told the women.
Aleia landed and hid behind a tree, and she glanced around for threats with huge eyes. The woods were completely dark and nearly silent aside from the distant arguing of the gargoyle guards, and the fairy was as still as the carvings on the wall while she waited for the other two priestesses.
Penelope and Nicola continued to tiptoe until they reached the thicker patch of woods, and they headed east through the trees until they met up with Aleia. When the two priestesses caught sight of the fairy holding the injured woman in her arms, they both audibly gasped.
“What’s going on?” Nicola whispered. “You found her?”
“The statue came to life,” I explained. “She’s a real woman, like I thought, but she’s very, very ill. We have to get her back to the convent so you can try to heal her.”
“Holy shit,” the brunette said and shook her head. “I still wasn’t sure this was real.”
“Me, neither, but all we can do is head back now,” Penelope said with a firm set to her jaw. “Aleia, are you ready?”
“You have no idea.” The fairy shuddered grimly, and then she gestured with her head down to the woman in her arms. “I need to tell you more about what just happened.”
“We’ll chat more later,” the naiad said with a sympathetic look in her eyes. “Poor sister. Which way should we head next, master?”
“I want you to head east for a couple hundred yards, and then cut southwest back down to the path,” I explained.
“Got it,” Nicola agreed in a low tone. “Gods, I can’t wait to see the convent again. All these carvings and statues are too spooky for my liking.”
The women began to hike through the treacherous woods with no trail, and their legs were almost immediately covered in cuts from the low-lying, thorny bushes that crowded the forest floor. Aleia held the bird-woman carefully up in the air as she hiked between the pine trees, but she bit her lip as she looked down with worry at her delicate load.
“I wish I could carry all of you to the convent,” the strawberry-blonde said and glanced back at the other two priestesses. “That would make this so much faster.”
“Do you want to fly ahead, sister?” Penelope asked. “Perhaps Jack would allow that--”
Suddenly, the blue woman was interrupted by the loud creaking sound of stone shifting.
Shit.
The priestesses froze in place, and I adjusted my God Vision back to the lair.
Sure enough, a gargoyle with thick muscles rippling down his back had emerged onto a balcony, and he held a large silver bow in his hands.
“What was that sound?” Aleia whispered nervously. “Was it one of the doors?”
“Yeah, it was from the tower” I confirmed. “A door on the back of the building just swung open, and a gargoyle with a bow came out. You’re going to need to stay as quiet and as still as you possibly can.”
The priestesses huddled in place in the darkness, and all I could hear for a few moments was their rapid, tense breathing. The feathered woman moaned softly, and I crossed my invisible fingers that she wasn’t going to scream out in pain again.
Then the gargoyle on the tower glanced around the woods, and he flew up off the balcony directly toward the missing statue.
Fuck.
The gargoyle glanced around in disbelief for a moment when he saw the statue’s empty space, and then he balled his fists and screamed in rage. He stared back out toward the surrounding forest as his head turned from north to south, and when his gleaming black eyes danced across the woods east of the tower, his eyes initially passed over the women’s location.
That was a fucking relief.
But then his eyes shifted back, and he seemed to zero in right where the priestesses were standing.
Could the fuckers have night vision?
“Stay still,” I told the priestesses. “It looks like he can see you.”
The women stayed locked in position as the monster stared down at the woods, and the tension was almost unbearable while I waited for the gargoyle’s next move.
The monster shifted in place as he narrowed his beady eyes and breathed noisily through his half-open mouth, and then, with a horrible, leathery flapping sound, he flew out toward the woods.
The beast started to fly in tighter and tighter circles around the women’s location, and I knew I had to come up with something immediately. I wasn’t sure how much of the women he could see, but he was in the immediate vicinity, had a bow in his hand, and was dipping down lower and lower toward the tops of the trees.
What the hell was I going to do?
And then suddenly, I remembered something.
We had the Maglite.
“I want you to try to blind him with the flashlight,” I instructed the priestesses. “He’s getting closer to the ground, so you need to be careful, but quick.”
“I can do it,” Nicola whispered. “It’s in my pack.”
The brunette positioned herself behind a rock, and then, in one swift motion, she reached into her bag, pulled out the Maglite, and shone it up into the air.
“Fuuuuck,” the gargoyle hissed as the bright light blasted him directly in the eyes, and he immediately swerved downward and crashed into the top of a giant pine.
“Nice, Nicola!” I praised the brunette. “Keep shining it at him. Aleia, I need you to put the woman down and get ready with your sling.”
“Penelope, can you take her?” the fairy muttered, and the blue woman nodded, sat down on the ground, and held out her arms. The strawberry-blonde gently laid the bird-woman down, and the naiad carefully positioned the strange woman in her lap.
“Arggggh,” the gargoyle roared as he attempted to extricate himself from the sharp branches. He put a meaty hand over his eyes to try and shield himself from the light, but Nicola continued to aim the flashlight at his face.
Then Aleia shot high into the air until she was far above the gargoyle’s head. She shot a rock down toward him, but she missed by several feet.
“I’m blinded, too,” the fairy moaned. “Sorry, my lord.”
“Aleia, hold tight,” I instructed. “Don’t try to shoot again until you’re sure you can hit him.”
“I know you have my biiiird…” the gargoyle hissed, and I wasn’t even sure he’d noticed the fairy’s stone. “She’s miiine. Give her back, and I might even let you live.”
The ugly creature drew his bow again, and I was afraid he was going to blindly start shooting.
“Nicola, try to distract him so Aleia can fire a stone,” I told the brunette.
“We don’t have to fight, do we?” Nicola purred to the monster.
“What?” the blinded gargoyle asked in a startled voice. “Who are you? Bird, have you come back to life?”
“Oh, I’m just a girl who wants you to get what you need,” the brunette called as she continued to shine the flashlight directly at his face. “Do you want your bird back? I can help you.”
The gargoyle finally managed to untangle his huge, gray wings from the fir tree’s branches, and he hovered in place several feet above the women.
“Show me your face,” the beast demanded as he squinted down at the priestesses. “You sound pretty. I won’t kill you, I promise.”
“I am pretty,” Nicola giggled, and then she turned to Penelope. “Here, take the light.”
Nicola tossed the flashlight to the naiad, who caught it with an adept hand and shone it up toward the gargoyle. Then the dark-haired priestess drew her bowstring and aimed an arrow at the unaware beast.
“But where is my bird?” the gargoyle hissed. “I know you have her, and I will have her back. Turn off that light. I need to see her, or you’re going to die.”
