The Gargoyle Overhead by Philippa Dowding Page B

positioned herself directly in front of him and held his face next to hers. “You and I share the mark of the stonemason Tallus. I know your first human friend was a boy named Philip. I know you left your tiny English village with him to go to France. I know you loved Mozart, and you fed apples to beggar children, and I know…” she hesitated, “and I know you can’t fly.”
    Gargoth snorted with disgust. “Well, you seem to know much about me. I suppose you are Ambergine, after all these years. But…”
    He was interrupted by a low laugh. He spun around to see the man in the white straw hat standing in the grass behind him.
    “So, you have a friend, do you? How nice of her to drop in!” the man said.
    Gargoth shook with fear, but Ambergine was already tugging at him, urging him to run. The gargoyles turned and fled, moving as quickly as they could along the dark grass. They darted behind statue after statue as the man stumbled after them. They hid and ran off in a different direction each time he fumbled past them in the dark. Despite his thick glasses, he really did not see very well at all.
    Once the man came upon them, but they both froze so still that he didn’t see them. He saw only statues.
    Another time he found their hiding spot and reached down to grab Gargoth, but Ambergine flew up in his face and spread her wings, screaming. He was so surprised that he jumped back, and Gargoth escaped.
    All that long night, the two gargoyles eluded the man in the straw hat, again and again, in an endless game of cat-and-mouse through the huge walled garden. It was an exhausting, terrifying chase, and by dawn Ambergine wasn’t sure how much longer she could run.
    As morning came, they were hiding beside a long, low building. They were weary and nearly out of places to hide. The man was once again slowly working his way toward them, looking behind each statue then creeping along to the next.
    It was made worse by the fact that he was teasing Gargoth as he crept along. “Gargoth, you know you can’t escape me! You’ll never really get away from me! Why even try?” he yelled. Gargoth scowled but stayed silent.
    Just then a delivery truck pulled up to the door of the building near them and beeped its horn. A man in a work suit came out and waved the truck inside.
    “Come on!” whispered Ambergine, pulling Gargoth along. They scurried into the building, just as the door shut with a clang behind them.
    Gargoth was petrified. They were standing in a long, narrow hallway, stacked with boxes. The truck driver and the other man were loading the boxes into the back of the truck.
    “ Shhh . Quiet,” Ambergine whispered. Just then, one of the men turned and saw the gargoyles hiding in the hall.
    “Hey! What are these doing there?” The man trotted toward them. Ambergine was about to run, but Gargoth shook his head a fraction. There was no time to run and nowhere to go anyway. Both gargoyles froze as the man reached them and grabbed them roughly.
    “Look! What should we do with these two? They must have fallen out of one of these boxes…”
    The other man walked up and looked at the two gargoyles. He whistled and ran his hand over Gargoth’s wings. “Wow. They look really real, don’t they? The boss must be making them from something special.” He looked at the two little gargoyles for a moment then at the stack of boxes beside him.
    “I don’t know where they came from, but just put them in one of these boxes. I’m already late. I’ve got to get going.”
    The first man shrugged and lifted the lid of the nearest box, carelessly tossing the two gargoyles inside. He resealed the lid and walked away.
    Inside the box, Ambergine shuddered. They were surrounded by statues of Gargoth, packed in straw.
    “What are these?” she whispered.
    “Stolen images. Me. For years, decades, the man made statues that look just like me and sent them all over the world. All without my permission, of course.”
    “That’s awful,”