Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

P aige drummed her fingers against her thigh as she sat on the Stone Golem's rocky thigh. "Call them back."

Drucinda let her foot sway as she kicked it over the arm of the chair. "It's only been ten minutes."

"Don't they have some kind of magical transport that they can use to get here?"

"Beam me up, Scotty," Dewey said as he flew back and forth in his version of pacing.

"This isn't Star Trek, darling. There isn't a magical tractor beam."

Paige rolled her eyes. "Call Rochelle back. I need to know what happened. I can't take anymore."

Drucinda heaved a sigh. "I'm not calling her back. If she didn't say it over the phone, she's not going to. And there's a reason for that."

Paige sank her head into her hands. "What could it be?"

"Maybe they have information about who owns the house." Dewey rubbed his chin as he sped past Paige before he swirled around and flew in the opposite direction .

"Maybe they know something about my mom, and they don't want to say it over the phone."

"Like what?" Dewey asked.

"Like she's…not alive anymore."

"Will you two please stop talking? It does us no good to conjecture about something we have no idea about. Just wait."

"We don't like waiting," Dewey answered. "We prefer doing."

"I've noticed. That's how you got yourselves stuck in a werewolf mansion, among other things."

"Oh, like you've never jumped the gun on anything," Paige shot back.

"I cannot recall a time when I have acted without thought, no."

Paige narrowed her eyes, climbing to her feet and sticking her hands on her hips. "Really? I seem to recall a ten-year-old Drucinda taking us monster hunting when there was no reason to do that."

"There was every reason. We had to retrieve the Urn of Life, remember?"

"Your mother was doing that. We didn't need to do that!"

"It was hardly done without thought. I did a great deal of thinking about it."

"For all of five seconds," Paige said.

Devon narrowed his eyes, pointing a finger at her. "Oh, wow, that was forever ago. But I remember you two. You were at Drucinda's country estate when I was there as a kid."

"Yeah, and you delivered me. Big deal."

"I didn't say it was," he answered, heat in his voice.

"Hey, Abs, you've got a hair out of place." Dewey gave him a smarmy smirk.

"Will you all shut up?" Drucinda said with a slice of her hands through the air. "I can't hear myself think with you two babbling."

"Us two? Devon was babbling, too." Dewey poked a claw at the handsome vampire.

"I wasn't babbling. I was just reminded that I met you when I was a kid."

Drucinda tapped on her phone's display before pressing it to her ear. "Please tell me the team is en-route….Excellent…No, everything is fine. I'm just impatient. I'm being slowly driven insane."

She lowered her voice, speaking the last sentence through clenched teeth as she glared at Paige and Dewey. "Thanks."

She lowered the phone and ended the call. "They'll be here in five minutes. Fast enough for you?"

Paige arched an eyebrow. "Fast enough for you? You're the one going insane."

"I think everyone's nerves are just on edge from the day," Devon said. "Let's just all take a breath and–"

"Shut up, Devon," the trio responded in unison.

He closed his mouth with a frown on his chiseled features.

Gravel crunched on the driveway. Dewey flew to the window and glanced out. "Here they come."

Footsteps pounded up the stairs and a raised voice shouted, "Someone is here!"

Henry skidded into the room moments later, huffing for breath. "Someone is coming."

"Thanks for the heads-up. We're waiting for them to–"

His eyes went wide as he spotted the Stone Golem. A shaky finger waved at it as his lower lip bobbed up and down. "There's…a…MONSTER!"

"Yes, we know," Drucinda said as she leapt from her seat. "Obviously, we have the situation well in hand."

"It wasn't at all obvious to me," Henry claimed .

"Wait here," Drucinda said as she shoved past the man. "We may need your help in wrangling him into the containment unit."

Voices carried through the hall a moment later, growing louder with each passing second. Drucinda returned with two men in tow. They peered in at the creature sitting on the broken bed before one drew his weapon.

The Golem cried out, becoming agitated.

"Whoa, what are they doing?" Paige asked.

"Simple stun gun. Step aside, ma'am."

"Ma'am?" Paige questioned.

"Ouch," Dewey whispered.

Paige stuck her hands on her hips. "First of all, I'm not a ma'am. And second, there is no need to stun him. Put that away."

"The last thing we need is a rowdy Golem. Now, step aside so we can zap him."

"I will not," Paige answered.

"Look, lady, this is set at a strong enough level to stun a Golem. It'll destroy a little pixie like you and–"

"I'm not a pixie. I'm just a shrunken human. And there is no need to stun him. I can get him into whatever containment unit you have."

The men eyed Drucinda who shrugged. "Let her try. Keep the weapons ready."

"You hear that, buddy?" Paige said to the Golem. "We're going to go for a ride."

The stone creature let out a moan.

Paige waved it away as Dewey crossed to her and landed on the broken bed. She scrambled off the Golem's leg and onto Dewey's back. "You'll be fine. It'll be fun. Now, I said stand up."

The creature dutifully rose to stand. "I said follow me."

Dewey buzzed across the room, and the Golem followed. The containment crew scrambled out of the way as the large monster pounded his way to the door, then ducked to squeeze through it.

Paige led him through the house and outside. He squinted at the lighter skies, shielding his face with a stony hand.

"It's okay. The back of the truck will be dark," Paige answered.

The creature trundled behind her, a slight moan as the sun brightened a tad. Paige crinkled her brow as they skirted the waiting truck. "Will that be big enough for him?"

"That's a magical containment transport van," Dewey answered.

"That means zero to me. Explain."

Dewey shot her an annoyed glance over his shoulder as he continued toward the black vehicle. "It expands to whatever size we need inside. On the outside, it looks like a normal box truck."

Paige arched an eyebrow. "Oh. That's neat. Sort of like the ever-expanding archives."

"Right. Same magical technology more or less." They reached the doors, and Paige twisted to face the Golem. "I said go inside."

Another groan escaped him, and his first mouth formed a frown.

"It's fine. I said go inside." Paige waved a hand at the interior of the truck.

He bleated out another cry.

"I can't understand him. I'm wearing the Crystal of Understanding, but if he's trying to tell me something, I don't know what it is."

"No, no one can understand them. The Crystal won't help. I'm not sure if we'll get anything out of him."

"Drucinda wanted to question him. "

"Yeah. It'll be rudimentary. Like showing pictures to a kid and asking him to nod or shake his head."

Paige's shoulders slump. "Oh, I thought we'd have a real shot at learning something."

"Don't get your hopes up. He's like a toddler inside that giant body."

Paige stared up at the giant beast with its frightened expression plastered on its stony face. "I'll get inside with you. Okay?"

"Not me. I'm going back with Drucinda."

"Dewey!" Paige shouted with a smack on his side. "Just get in the truck."

"Okay, okay." Dewey fluttered into the back of the vehicle.

"I said come inside."

The Golem cried again but crouched down to climb through the doors. He sat down on the metal bench along the side. It bent to the floor with his weight.

Dewey fluttered onto the still-straight part, and Paige climbed off crawling up to sit on the Golem's leg again.

Drucinda appeared at the back door with the containment team. "Ah, there. She's done it. He's inside. Let's go."

"Right." The man swung one door shut when Henry arrived.

"Just a moment. My fiancée is in there."

"Nope," Paige answered.

"Oh. I thought the pixie was staying with the perp."

"He's not a perp and I'm not a pixie. But yes, I'll stay with him."

Dewey fluttered into the air. "I'll–"

"Dewey's staying, too."

"Suit yourself. There's an emergency button on the wall." The man poked a finger at a large red button behind a glass case. "If you need help, break the glass and press it. "

"Thanks."

With that, the other door closed despite Henry's protestations, plunging them into darkness.

The Golem heaved out another cry.

"Yeah, I know," Paige said, patting his thigh. "It's dark. The least they could have done is put a light in here."

"At least some of us have slight night vision. The rest of us have to just sit here in the dark on a hard metal bench when we could have been lying on a supple leather seat while Drucinda expertly navigates us back to Paris."

"Oh, stop. This poor thing is scared."

"He ought to be. Golems in captivity tend to do poorly. But that could be because they were usually either kept as workhorses or basically broken to become showpieces. Kind of like King Kong."

"Workhorses?"

"Yeah. How do you think they built those pyramids?"

"Slaves," Paige answered.

"Yeah, both human and Golem."

Paige sighed as the truck's engine roared, transitioning from the gravel drive to the smoother pavement. "Well, I'm not going to let anything bad happen to this one."

"What if he did something awful, though?"

"Like what?" Paige asked.

"Like…killed someone."

"My mom? Do you mean what if he killed my mom?"

"Maybe. It could have happened. Or what if they kept him there to kill other people. What if whoever took your mom made her make him kill people for them."

"That's messed up. I hope that isn't what happened." Paige glanced up at the creature in the dim light and frowned. What would they learn from him? And would she even want to hear it?

They spent the next few hours of the uncomfortable ride back to Paris in silence. After what felt like an eternity, the truck rolled to a stop. The back doors opened moments later. Paige squinted against the bright lights of the underground archive's garage.

Dewey fluttered closer for Paige to climb onto his back.

"Bring him out," Drucinda said as she waited with a giant set of handcuffs.

"What are those for?"

"What do you think?"

"With you, who knows," Paige answered.

Drucinda shot her a narrow-eyed glare. "He needs to be secured. If he gets into anything in the archives, it could spell disaster."

Paige shook her head. "He's not going to like that."

"I'm certain he won't. It's up to you to convince him." Drucinda offered her an unimpressed stare.

Paige grimaced as she turned to face the giant sitting in the back of the truck. "Okay, buddy. Here's the bad news. I said let Drucinda put these handcuffs on you."

He groaned as the woman leapt into the back of the truck and approached him with the shackles.

"I said it's okay. I said she won't hurt you."

The Golem swung his arm at Drucinda, knocking her across the van. She slammed into the opposite side and slid to the floor.

Dewey raced back inside, and Paige wagged her finger at the Golem. "I said stop that. She isn't going to hurt you."

Drucinda sat up and climbed to her feet. "Great going, Paige. You're doing a fabulous job at this."

"Well, maybe if you weren't coming at him like he's a criminal," Paige said. "I said let Drucinda put the handcuffs on you."

With a groan, the Golem offered his wrists. Drucinda snapped the cuffs around them and backed away. "Now, take him out. We have an interrogation room in the back."

"Interrogation room? Can't he just sit in the archives with us?"

Drucinda arched her perfectly shaped eyebrow at Paige.

"I'll take him to the interrogation room."

With a bob of her head, Drucinda pushed past Paige and Dewey and stalked into the archive.

"Come on…uh…how do I know his name?"

Dewey shrugged as he spun around and flew out of the truck. "Who knows if Golems even have names? They aren't very communicative, as you can see. Just use your Simon Says commands to get him to follow us."

"Right." Paige twisted to eye the Golem who still sat in the back, staring after her. "I said follow me."

They led him through the archives, following Drucinda to a back room. The Golem squeezed through the door into the sparsely furnished area. After a command from Paige, he sat on the metal chair at the table. It buckled underneath him.

"Sorry about your chair," Paige said as Rochelle and Ronnie strode into the room.

"Wow," the French director said as she eyed the Golem warily. "I've never seen one up close."

Drucinda crossed her arms as she stared at the monster. "I hope we can get some information from him, though I'm not expecting much."

"And he follows your commands, Paige?" Ronnie asked.

"Yes," she answered with a bob of her head. "So far, anyway. But I don't see how we're going to get any information from him at all. He doesn't speak. He just….grunts and bleats."

"And that's about all he'll do," Drucinda answered. "We can try to prompt him with pictures or gestures, but this will not be easy. Still, he's our only link to what happened in that house."

"There has to be some way to communicate with them," Paige said.

"Given that there aren't many in captivity, that'll be difficult to assess, though we can try several things. But we have a more pressing issue to deal with at the moment." Ronnie shifted her weight as she wrung her hands.

Paige swallowed hard as she recalled the ominous message from Rochelle while they awaited the containment team. "Right. What is this about?"

Ronnie sighed, her nose wrinkling before she spoke. "Big trouble."