The Golden Egg Page 2

  “A little water will not harm me.” He gave me a comforting smile before tearing open the envelope. “You’ll find clue three where fire transforms,” he read.

  “I was hoping for a slightly more concrete clue this time,” I said drily. “Fire is used for a lot of things, and more than a few of them can be considered transformative.”

  Elron pulled the map out of his pocket. “Perhaps it is wordplay and we should be looking for a shop.” He angled the map so I could see it.

  I looked through the labeled places on the map: the Greek restaurant where the winning team would get to eat dinner, the bistro where we enjoyed our lunch, a religious square beside the park, a clothing store, an antique store, the glass shop, a historic train station, and the inn. “What about the glass shop? Fire turns sand and other chemicals into glass.”

  He frowned. “That is one of several possible meanings.” Another couple sprinted toward the fountain, and his face hardened. “But at this moment, it is the best theory we have.”

  With that, we were off again. At the glass shop we found a distinguished gentleman with a rather impressive beard, and he gave us another clue. We moved away from the counter as Elron opened the envelope and read, “You’ll find clue four where the sleepy creatures gather.”

  “Coffeehouse,” Elron and I said in unison.

  It didn’t take long to get there since it was only a few doors down. In the very back of the shop, an oversize coffee mug filled with envelopes sat on a secluded table. I quickly snatched our clue and whispered it to Elron. “You’ll find clue five in the one place everyone is welcome.”

  “I do not understand. There are a great many places everyone is welcome.” Elron glanced at the door of the shop, but we were the only ones huddled over the cup of clues.

  “I know this one.” The answer was hovering just out of reach. I closed my eyes, trying to put it together.

  “Well?”

  My eyes popped open. “The religious square. It’s something they teach in school.”

  That was enough for him. We hurried out of the coffee shop, crossed the street, and dashed through the park into the big pavilion that housed some type of altar or space for more than two dozen different belief systems. A small ornamented box with yet more clues sat in the center of the pavilion.

  I darted ahead and rifled through the envelopes. When I found ours, I ripped it open and quickly read the clue. “You’ll find clue six where fashion flocks.”

  “Flock was once a term for bits of cotton,” Elron mused.

  I pulled the map out of my pocket and pointed. “Perhaps it’s referring to a clothing shop?”

  Footfalls resounded in the near distance. I jerked my head up to see two couples barreling into the pavilion. Elron followed my gaze. “I am willing to interpret it that way. Let’s go.”

  Upon our arrival at the shop on the map, we found that there were actually two clothing shops side by side. I volunteered to take the one on the right if Elron took the one on the left. I walked in to see an older teen girl sitting on a stool behind the counter looking at her phone.

  “Excuse me, would you happen to have any clues for the scavenger hunt?”

  “No.” Her eyes never left the phone.

  “Thanks,” I muttered as I left the store. Hopefully Elron had experienced better luck.

  He exited the other shop clutching an envelope and grinning.

  “Well, what does it say?” I asked.

  Elron pried open the flap and yanked out the card. “You’ll find clue seven where old treasures find new homes.” He looked at me, and his eyes lit up. “The antique shop.”

  I blinked. “I don’t follow.”

  He pointed behind me.

  Turning, my eyes caught on a sign across the street. “Main Street Antiques,” I muttered to myself. Small script under the name caught my eye. “Where old treasures find new homes.”

  We got our next clue from a box sitting on a table made of cherrywood just inside the door. From there we went to the inn, and then to the train station, which is where we picked up our final clue. I pulled our envelope out of the box and wiggled the card out. “You’ll find the prize under the water oak,” I read.

  Elron closed his eyes.

  I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but I ignored him and consulted the map. There, at the corner of the park, was a little label, Founder’s Oak. “That has to be it.” I glanced over at Elron, but he still had his eyes closed. “Hello?”

  He held up a finger.

  I folded my arms over my chest and got ready to wait. When he went in full elf mode, he could be there for a while. In the meantime, other people would be gaining on us.

  His brow furrowed, and his eyes opened. “There is a water oak nearby, but it is outside the area of the rest of the clues.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.” I poked the map. “They’ve got to be talking about this tree, the Founder’s Oak.”

  Elron shook his head. “The water oak is here.” He pointed to a spot behind the main row of shops.

  I bit my lip as I tried to figure out the best way to present my case. “Elron, this is a mostly human town. They probably got the type of tree wrong. It doesn’t make any sense for them to send us over there.”

  “That is the water oak.”

  I held back a sigh that I knew would do the situation no good. “Well what kind of tree is the Founder’s Oak?”

  His eyes unfocused for a moment. “Live oak.”

  “Well, there you go. They got the type of tree wrong.”

  “Those two trees look nothing alike.” He drew himself up to his full height. “I do not believe even a human would mistake them.”

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and then looked him in the eye. “Trees look the same to most people.”

  “The bark color is different, and their leaves are shaped differently.” He started drawing them in the air with his fingers. “You see, the live oak has a more pointed leaf. While the water oak—”

  I caught his hands in my own. “I know those differences are clear to you, but they’re not clear to most people. I think we should go for the Founder’s Oak.”

  He tugged his hands away. “I will admit that you have a better idea of how most people perceive trees than I do, but I do not believe the organizers of this event would make such a mistake.”

  This time I did sigh. Someone else was probably winning the scavenger hunt while we debated the proper tree to locate. “Could you just trust me?”

  “That tree is not a water oak,” he said stubbornly.

  He wasn’t going to give, no matter how many different ways I tried to explain it to him, so a few minutes later, I followed Elron down the street. Elves were stubborn, and sometimes the best way to prove them wrong was to show them. Or at least I was hoping that would work because if it didn’t, we were going to bicker over the interpretation of the last clue over and over, and that wasn’t how I wanted to spend a romantic weekend.

  He stopped dead center on the sidewalk. Two couples darted around us with irritated scowls. I intertwined our fingers and tugged him closer to the brick wall of a shop. “Are we getting close to the tree?” I tried to ask it seriously, I really did, but there wasn’t a tree anywhere near us, unless I was willing to count the crape myrtles marking each end of Main Street.

  “It is this way.” Elron pointed to a narrow alley between two buildings.

  Looking up at him, I simply couldn’t help myself. “You really think they planned on sending us down an alley? That’s hardly a way to boost business for the town.”

  “There is a water oak behind these buildings.”

  “Fine.” I sighed. “Lead the way.”

  He nodded curtly before walking into the alley. I followed him through the narrow space. The afternoon sun didn’t reach between the buildings, leaving the alley dim and damp, as if the rain that fell in the area never evaporated. The slime on the ground and the mold on the rows of bricks closest to the pavement seemed to c
onfirm that theory.

  We emerged into an expanse of cracked and broken pavement that was part road, part delivery area, and part parking lot. On either side of us were the rear entrances of the shops. A few doors were propped open, and an assortment of boxes and pallets littered the ground, some leaning against the buildings. Sure enough, on the other side of the parking lot was a metal warehouse shaded by a giant oak. I was willing to take Elron’s word that it was a water oak, but I still didn’t think it was where we’d find the prize.

  Elron turned back long enough for me to see his grin. I simply motioned for him to move forward, wanting to get this part over with. As we picked our way across the uneven asphalt, I assessed the smattering of cars. They were mostly older and parked behind specific shops. It was a little crowded about halfway down the row, where two restaurants stood next to each other, but the rest of the shops had no more than two cars. More to the point, there wasn’t a single other person back there.

  “Do you think they literally mean under the tree? Or is the last clue in the building?” He hurried to the base of the tree without waiting for an answer, which was for the best.

  I waited in the shade that the tree so kindly provided, never mind that it was the wrong one, as Elron circled the trunk, searching the ground for one of the little boxes full of cards. At this point, I didn’t care if we won the scavenger hunt. I simply wanted to finish it and have a nice evening. Was that so much to ask?

  “It isn’t here.” Elron looked at the building, then at me. “Do you think it could be in the building?”

  I shrugged. “We’re at the tree.”

  Elron walked over to the warehouse. I followed, watching as he tried the door. The knob turned. He looked over his shoulder at me.

  “Maybe I was wrong,” I said, surprising myself. Or maybe it was unlocked for a more sinister reason, but I didn’t think this was the best time to give voice to that idea. After all, this wasn’t a case the police had called me in to assist with, but a little tourist town and I was on vacation.

  He pushed the door open. I peered over his shoulder. My eyes couldn’t make out any defining features in the darkened space, but I could see pinpricks and narrow lines of light of where the metal skin of the building was failing.

  Elron patted around on the wall. A soft click reached my ears, and a single light in the center of the warehouse flickered to life, casting a yellow glow across the room.

  I blinked, willing my eyes to adjust as I nudged Elron to the side so I could stand next to him. He made a soft noise, but I barely registered it because under that one light was a giant nest, nearly fifteen feet wide. It was constructed of mostly grasses, but there was a sneaker tucked in between two wads of fabric. I really hoped there wasn’t a person under that cloth.

  The light glinted off something, drawing my attention to the center of the nest. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I closed and opened them again. Sure enough, a giant golden egg sat in the nest. It looked like it was nearly three feet tall and close to two feet in diameter. That was a lot of gold—or at least a lot of gold shell with a golden goose inside.

  That thought jostled my brain into gear. Only fertilized eggs were golden, so there had to be a mother and father goose. Golden geese were vicious and would do anything to protect their eggs, and here I was, a nearly powerless witch standing way too close to its nest. I tore my eyes away from the golden egg and scanned the building. The sides and the back were still in shadow.

  “Michelle,” Elron said, standing so close I could feel his breath on my ear, “we have to get out of here before—”

  A goose at least twenty feet tall stepped out of the shadows, golden from its beak to the tip of its tail feathers, neck arched and beady eyes locked on us. It lowered its head and hissed.

  Before I could react, Elron shoved me behind him and started to retreat slowly. He wasn’t going to get any argument from me.

  The goose darted forward, moving between us and its egg. Elron spoke so softly I could only just make out the words. “You will return to your nest and bother no one for a week.”

  It stretched out its neck and hissed again.

  The sound sent a chill up my spine, but I continued my retreat one slow step at a time. Only a few weeks ago I would’ve been able to put a stop to this with a few simple spells, but I couldn’t use that kind of magic now, certainly not without risking permanent loss of my ability to do magic. I was nearly as helpless as a human.

  Elron’s voice echoed through the building. “You will stay with your nest.”

  The goose shuffled its feet but didn’t come any closer.

  I took another step backward and stood beside the doorframe. There was a rustle of feathers from deeper in the warehouse and in the dim light I could see two eyes peering at us from the darkness. There was the second golden goose. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Elron’s left hand slowly sliding up the wall until his fingers were over the light switch.

  “You and your mate will stay here.” The words had hardly left his mouth when he flipped off the lights. The next thing I knew, he’d pushed me outside and was yanking the door shut. His fingers brushed across the wood and his eyes over to the water oak before resting on me. “Run.”

  I took off like a golden goose was after me. I wasn’t sure yet if it was, but I’d heard stories of those things tracking people for hundreds of miles, so every step farther away felt like a victory. When we reached the narrower part of the alley leading to Main Street, I risked a glance behind me. The goose’s head was poking through the warehouse door.

  I skidded to a stop. I had to do something. With a twist of my wrist, my wand appeared in my hand. “Laguz!” I felt the magic flow out of me. It faltered and pain lanced through my temple. This spell was too large, and needed too much power. I clenched my teeth and forced more magic out. I wasn’t going to let myself or anyone else get eaten by this goose. The spell stabilized and I was able to cut myself free as it started to sink into the warehouse walls, hopefully preventing the goose from getting out and anything else from getting in.

  As I took off after Elron, a sharp crack echoed across the parking lot. A branch the size of a small tree fell across the door. With a squawk, the goose retreated. The spell flowed over the door, effectively sealing it off for now. I dismissed my wand and kept running.

  Elron slowed down as soon as we reached Main Street. I did the same. Even though we were panting and wide-eyed, no one seemed to be paying us much attention. I looked at Elron, who was peering back down the alley.

  “What do we do?” I whispered. “I don’t know if the spell will hold, I can’t use any more magic, and it didn’t seem keen on listening to you.”

  When he turned to me, his brow was wrinkled but his voice was steady. “We leave. Now. On the way out of town, you call the police and any witches you trust. We make this their problem. Then we drive until we’re home.”

  “Are you sure?” I cast a glance over my shoulder. Sure, the stories were terrifying, but it hadn’t come after us again. We could simply contact the local police.

  He leaned in close. “They hunt humanoids. Think that through.”

  For that thing, and its mate, to have gotten so big, well, they must have eaten a lot of people. Either the occupants of this town were astonishingly unobservant or people in positions of power, like the police, were fine with the creatures so long as they restricted their diet to visitors—visitors like us.

  My mouth was dry, and the words tasted bitter on my tongue as I said, “We need to run.”

  Once it was decided, it didn’t take long to get back to the inn, explain that we had a family emergency, grab our still-packed luggage, and leave. While Elron drove, I called three different police officers I knew, one of them a state official, and Ethel, the leader of the American witches. We were only thirty minutes down the road when I had assurances from multiple people that the creatures would be dealt with immediately.

  I relayed the information to Elron as I turned to
look at the road behind us. So far, nothing the size of a golden goose was following us, but the blasted things could fly so that didn’t mean much. We lapsed into silence. We zipped past the scenery, but I didn’t pay any attention. Between bouts of self-hatred for not being the witch I had once been and checking behind us for the goose, I wasn’t good company anyway.

  Elron sighed, and for the first time in two hours, his shoulders relaxed. “I was a town over when a group found one of those. It killed thirteen of the people who tried to capture it. I joined the hunt. Once we dealt with the goose, we found parts belonging to more than twenty people tucked in its nest.”

  “That settles it. If the police and witches don’t get rid of those things, I’ll go back when I’m stronger and do it myself.” I really didn’t want any more deaths blamed on me. There were more than enough on my head already.

  He reached across and squeezed my hand. “I will help.”

  “Thank you.” The words hung in the air, quelling any additional conversation. I watched tree after tree as we zoomed past. As shaken as I was, Elron had to feel worse. Not only had the relaxing romantic weekend been his idea but he’d wanted to examine the building.

  Finally, I pivoted so I could see him. “I know this wasn’t the weekend you had in mind, but we can still go home, watch some movies, eat popcorn, and pester everyone with phone calls until they figure out how to contain or kill the monster.”

  His eyes darted in my direction. “Are you sure? We could simply consider it a ruined weekend and plan another.”

  “I’m sure.” Not only was he running out of vacation time but watching a movie and eating popcorn sounded grand right about now. Maybe after a few days of that my heart would return to a more normal rhythm.

  “Then we will watch movies and eat popcorn.” He smiled. “I would do far more to please the woman I love.”

  “I love you, too.” I paused, trying to determine how much time was the right amount before a big swing in topic. “Now, would you mind if I tried to sleep? Unlike you, I’m not up to fighting form.”