Page 18 of Dragon's Golden Mate
“I think there’s a good chance. If the place has to come down, then an architectural salvage company will have a heyday with everything they could take out of the place. Hardware, light fixtures, pews, windows, you name it.”
Maeve walked slowly down the aisle. With each step, she felt the vibration of the building growing stronger inside her. It was that tickling in her palms, except that it was happening all over her body. Experimentally, she turned over her hand and flicked her fingers. Sparks flew and then joined, coalescing into a small orb in the center of her palm. “Something’s definitely happening here,” she noted.
Kendrick appeared at her shoulder. “Then it wasn’t just me. Do you think it’s the ley lines?”
She wanted to give him a solid answer. Kendrick had asked for her help because he believed she could provide it, but Maeve wasn’t sure. “I’ve never had to rely on the ley lines for my power before. This could be a coincidence. Maybe something else inside me healed with that shift. It’s hard to say. What do you feel?”
His chest was right next to her shoulder, and his breath caught for a moment as he looked into her eyes. “I’m not sure, either.”
Even there, when the cathedral could come crashing down around their shoulders for all they knew, it was impossible not to think about what was happening between them.
Closing her hand, Maeve let her magic dissipate. “If we’re here, maybe we should get some photographs of the gargoyles you mentioned. Then you can translate the runes,” she suggested.
He nodded. “The one on the outside of the building would be too hard to get to, but there’s one up there.” Kendrick pointed.
Maeve looked up. There was a second story, a balcony of sorts that stretched along the sides of the sanctuary over the pews. The vaults of the ceiling came down to create arches over each opening of the balcony, and a carved railing added beautiful decorative detail. Shorter pews and chairs took up the narrow space. It was just as fascinating as everything else, but she didn’t see any stone creatures.
“I must be looking in the wrong spot, because I don’t see it,” Maeve told him.
“It was right there.” Kendrick looked all along the balcony on that side. “I saw it. I know I did.”
“We could go up there,” Maeve suggested.
He hesitated for a moment before nodding and heading toward a set of stairs. “All right, but I haven’t been up here yet. I don’t know if the floor is sound, and we’ll really have to be careful.”
“That’s fine. Oh.” Maeve paused as they reached the bottom of the stairs. A gargoyle sat right on top of the newel post. His large wings were stretched out and up toward the ceiling, and his stone muscles were finely carved to show off his strength. His feet hung over the edge of the post, and the wood had been carved to make his claws look as though they were digging into it.
“This one’s easiest to see,” Kendrick told her. “It’s the only one at eye level. He’s something, isn’t he?”
Maeve was a sensible person. She knew that a statue was just a statue. Carved stones and crystals could be used for their symbolism, and sometimes the material itself could be powerful, but they weren’t alive. “That face,” she murmured, taking in the slightly uneven arched brows over doleful eyes. “He looks like he feels sorry for himself.”
“Here are the runes I mentioned.” Kendrick pointed at his toes. Then he took out his phone and snapped a picture. “It’ll be interesting to see if they’re the same on all of the gargoyles. I also have atheory that they might not be contemporary to the building.”
“Weren’t they used in this style?” Maeve asked, realizing she knew very little about the subject. Notre-Dame came to mind, but that was built long before the church in which they now stood.
“Sometimes they were.” Kendrick started up the stairs, using his feet to test the strength of each tread before he put his full weight on it. “It’s their placement that’s such a surprise. And, of course, the runes.”
The second floor was just as breathtaking as the first, except the view was different. Shafts of light, standing out in the dusty air, angled down from the windows. The vastness of the space could still be seen, but now from a dizzying height. The columns that held up the roof were topped with decorative scrollwork that simply couldn’t be appreciated from the first floor.
“Careful here.” Kendrick skirted around a hole in the floor. He moved over to the railing and leaned out slightly, craning his head to look at the sloped area where he thought one of the grotesques should be. “I just don’t understand.”
Movement caught Maeve’s eye. She stepped past him, noting a small hole near the roofline. It was justbig enough for a squirrel to squeeze in. “What are the chances that we’re not the only ones who broke into the church? You mentioned how much of what’s in here would be snapped up by an architectural salvage company. Maybe someone came in and stole it.”
“But then why not steal the one down there on the newel post? It’d be the easiest one to grab.” Kendrick moved along the gallery, leaning out to check above him once again.
“Good point.” The pews up here were much shorter to account for the space. Maeve stepped around one and froze. “Kendrick?”
“Hm?”
“The gargoyle that you’re looking for right now, what did it look like?”
“It was basically a stylized cat,” he explained, “but more savage.”
“Sort of like a mini panther?”
“Yes.
“No wings, though.”
