and gentlemen, is why Lotholio is my high priest.
“Any sign of Treggen?” I asked. Treggen was a warlord who ran the hobgoblins and trolls. He’d caused problems for me lately both here and in Boston. This eclipse might be the perfect time for him to attack the Urisk, when they were completely vulnerable.
“Those who follow Treggen are making their own preparations, Lord. They cannot withstand the rays of the eclipse; if they remain above ground, they will be burned to cinders.” Okay, so the Urisk were probably safe during the eclipse. “Our spies say that large forces of hobgoblins and trolls have been moving into mines in the north. No attacks or aggressive action has been taken toward the Urisk in several weeks.”
That could be good, or really, really bad. I nodded to Lotholio and sighed. I needed to hunt down Treggen. I needed to keep Megan safe. I needed to figure out who was vandalizing graves, and I needed to deal with my PITA pseudo-mother-in-law. One thing at a time, Vincent, I thought. I sent out one last comforting blessing to my followers; hopefully that’d help ease their minds with the coming eclipse. Treggen could wait for the time being. It was time to go back to Boston. I took my leave and headed back through Aviorla. Blue lights flashed in the alley behind the Children’s Museum. Crap. Two cops were taking statements from people on the street. Lucky for me this wasn’t a residential area; the only people who would’ve heard or seen anything would be late night office workers or the museum’s custodial staff, and there weren’t too many of those.
I considered telekinetically tossing a soda can away from my current location and using that as a distraction when I recognized one of the cops. Built like a linebacker and radiating an aura of confidence, Frank Grady was conferring with a uniformed officer. I stepped out from the alley and approached him.
“—make sure you bang on all the doors,” Grady was saying. “Dumpsters and cars don’t just crash themselves.”
“Evening, Frank,” I said. A few years back, I saved Frank Grady’s daughter, Katrina, from a cult of shadow men. Ever since then, he’s been my go-to guy on the Boston PD.
Grady turned to me and his eyes widened. “Mr. Corinthos,” he said, his voice suddenly taking on an air of respect. He turned back to the uniform. “What, are you on a coffee break? Move.” The other officer hastened away as Grady gently took me by the arm and led me away from the car.
“There were reports of giant blue men throwing cars into the buildings here tonight, Mr. Corinthos. Are you here because of that?”
I hated to be less than honest with Frank, but he’d just given me an easy way to not incriminate myself. “I’d caught wind of something, Frank. What do you know so far?” He referred to a small notebook as he filled me in. A couple of people on the upper floors of one of the nearby buildings had seen two blue men in mist throwing cars at the building. The eyewitnesses’ accounts didn’t mention who or what they were throwing them at. “Thanks for the info, Frank,” I said when the big detective finished. “I’ll see what I can turn up.”
“Do you know anything about what happened at the Museum of Science, Mr. Corinthos?”
I blinked. That had come out of left field, and suddenly I was worried that maybe I hadn’t disabled all the security cameras. But no, if that were the case, Frank would’ve just come out and said something. Best to play dumb for now. “No, what’s going on?” I said.
“A couple of security guards got beaten up pretty bad,” Grady said, flipping again through his notebook. “They said that these two big blue guys jumped out of the Viking exhibit and beat the ever-living crap out of them. They busted up some of the exhibits and then fled the scene. We found two empty sarcophaguses at the exhibit, and one of the guards swears the mummies that were inside were what beat him up. Eyewitnesses
“Any sign of Treggen?” I asked. Treggen was a warlord who ran the hobgoblins and trolls. He’d caused problems for me lately both here and in Boston. This eclipse might be the perfect time for him to attack the Urisk, when they were completely vulnerable.
“Those who follow Treggen are making their own preparations, Lord. They cannot withstand the rays of the eclipse; if they remain above ground, they will be burned to cinders.” Okay, so the Urisk were probably safe during the eclipse. “Our spies say that large forces of hobgoblins and trolls have been moving into mines in the north. No attacks or aggressive action has been taken toward the Urisk in several weeks.”
That could be good, or really, really bad. I nodded to Lotholio and sighed. I needed to hunt down Treggen. I needed to keep Megan safe. I needed to figure out who was vandalizing graves, and I needed to deal with my PITA pseudo-mother-in-law. One thing at a time, Vincent, I thought. I sent out one last comforting blessing to my followers; hopefully that’d help ease their minds with the coming eclipse. Treggen could wait for the time being. It was time to go back to Boston. I took my leave and headed back through Aviorla. Blue lights flashed in the alley behind the Children’s Museum. Crap. Two cops were taking statements from people on the street. Lucky for me this wasn’t a residential area; the only people who would’ve heard or seen anything would be late night office workers or the museum’s custodial staff, and there weren’t too many of those.
I considered telekinetically tossing a soda can away from my current location and using that as a distraction when I recognized one of the cops. Built like a linebacker and radiating an aura of confidence, Frank Grady was conferring with a uniformed officer. I stepped out from the alley and approached him.
“—make sure you bang on all the doors,” Grady was saying. “Dumpsters and cars don’t just crash themselves.”
“Evening, Frank,” I said. A few years back, I saved Frank Grady’s daughter, Katrina, from a cult of shadow men. Ever since then, he’s been my go-to guy on the Boston PD.
Grady turned to me and his eyes widened. “Mr. Corinthos,” he said, his voice suddenly taking on an air of respect. He turned back to the uniform. “What, are you on a coffee break? Move.” The other officer hastened away as Grady gently took me by the arm and led me away from the car.
“There were reports of giant blue men throwing cars into the buildings here tonight, Mr. Corinthos. Are you here because of that?”
I hated to be less than honest with Frank, but he’d just given me an easy way to not incriminate myself. “I’d caught wind of something, Frank. What do you know so far?” He referred to a small notebook as he filled me in. A couple of people on the upper floors of one of the nearby buildings had seen two blue men in mist throwing cars at the building. The eyewitnesses’ accounts didn’t mention who or what they were throwing them at. “Thanks for the info, Frank,” I said when the big detective finished. “I’ll see what I can turn up.”
“Do you know anything about what happened at the Museum of Science, Mr. Corinthos?”
I blinked. That had come out of left field, and suddenly I was worried that maybe I hadn’t disabled all the security cameras. But no, if that were the case, Frank would’ve just come out and said something. Best to play dumb for now. “No, what’s going on?” I said.
“A couple of security guards got beaten up pretty bad,” Grady said, flipping again through his notebook. “They said that these two big blue guys jumped out of the Viking exhibit and beat the ever-living crap out of them. They busted up some of the exhibits and then fled the scene. We found two empty sarcophaguses at the exhibit, and one of the guards swears the mummies that were inside were what beat him up. Eyewitnesses
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