though the prize were not close by at hand.
Deprived of honor yet the stone is found
To have within a sacred mystery,
A treasure hidden and yet free to all.”’
I considered banging my head against the table, but knew that would be bad form. My dad covered my hand in his, warning me to have patience. Iris went ahead and spoke for all of us, though, when she said, ‘Caleb, come on, this is ridiculous. What do we have to do?’
The satyr shifted in his chair, obviously uncomfortable.
‘I’m not really sure. We have to use fire, I think. Or magic. And do something to get the stone, and the White’s bones have to be involved. Other than that, I’m stumped.’
‘You can’t be stumped!’ I said, regretting my words even as I said them. ‘I’m sorry. I know you’re doing your best. But there has to be a clue in there somewhere.’
Caleb waved his handout in the air. ‘There are plenty of clues. Clues aren’t the problem. It’s what to make of those clues…’
‘Too bad we don’t speak stone,’ Gog mused, staring up at the ceiling. ‘I’m a coblynau, and I speak to earth, but that’s not really the same now, is it?’
Gog finished speaking, then looked down to find all the Rockabillian supernaturals staring at him like he’d just reinvented the wheel. He backed up a step.
‘Gog, I could kiss you right now,’ I said, causing Magog to puff up like an enraged squirrel. Ignoring her, I turned to Ryu, who was already standing.
‘I’ll go get him,’ was all the baobhan sith said as he headed out the door.
Luckily, I’d saved Gus’s life once before and our little stone-spirit owed me.
Gus’s surfaces gleamed in the light of the kitchen. He was barely tall enough to see over the table, meaning that I, sitting on the opposite side from him, had a peculiar view consisting of just a bald pate and glasses, both reflecting like the moon, hovering over the edge of the table.
Gus’s shiny head cocked one way, then the other. He reached out a tentative hand to touch the bones, then withdrew his fingers with a jerk.
‘There’s a stone in there,’ he said eventually. ‘I don’t know how, but there is.’
I sat up in my chair, and everyone else took an involuntary step forward. We’d been trying not to crowd the stone spirit, but now all bets were off.
‘Can you help us get it out?’ I asked. ‘Can you talk to it?’
‘Oh, yes. It’s very loud. It’s very angry about being kept so long. And it didn’t like that bag you put it in.’
I glanced at Ryu, who gave me a curt shake of his head, warning me to keep it together. Gus’s rapport with rocks totally skeeved me out. It was like finding out that all the toys you played with as a child were really alive. And judging.
Gus’s rocks were snarky apparently, and they were everywhere. I hated the idea of being surrounded by judgmental pebbles, and tended to react with inappropriate fits of mockery.
‘Please apologize to it for the bag,’ Ryu’s smooth voice said, brokering our exchange since I was too immature to do so.
‘Okay,’ Gus said, staring at the pile of bones in a way that made me shudder.
‘Now how can we get the stone out?’ Ryu asked. ‘We’d very much like to free it.’
Gus giggled, a strange, high-pitched sound. ‘It knows you want to use it, you don’t have to pretend. But that’s okay; it wants to be used. It has a great purpose, you know.’
‘Yes,’ Ryu said, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice. ‘We know it has a great purpose. And we want to help it succeed. But first we need to get it—’
‘It’s easy enough,’ Gus interrupted. ‘It wants me to call, and it wants the girl’s fire.’
Gus jerked his chin at me as he said the last bit, refusing once again to fully acknowledge my presence. Despite saving both him and the boulder he called home, he’d never really cottoned to me. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him.
‘It will take a very long time. And a lot of power. Can she handle it?’ By ‘she’, I knew Gus meant me. For a second I wanted to snap something rude back at him, but then I remembered the poem. It had talked about the spell taking three days. Did I have enough power?
Do I have enough power? I asked the creature.
[We will, yes. And I will