“You must be Archer!” the man shouted. “A word with you if you please.”
Simon actually laughed. The incredibly inappropriate statement stabbed his sense of the absurd. He stood, kicking idly at a nearby rock. “Were we expecting you, Gaios?”
The white-haired man frowned at the glib reply. His gaze shifted up and in a sudden motion, his hand swung around. A wall of rock bloomed on his left at the same instant a rifle shot sounded from above. The ball cracked harmlessly off the rock shield.
Gaios snarled and used both hands to gesture. The stone wall shifted like water, flowing into a shape some fifteen feet tall. It gathered itself into a humanlike frame and began to move. The living rock creature reached down with long jagged arms to wrench a huge stone from the ground and hurl it at Hartley Hall in a single fluid motion.
The rock flew like a cannonball for the spot where Malcolm crouched. The Scotsman scrambled back as the huge stone seemed to smash against the house and explode. Nick pulled Simon and Kate back under the feeble cover of ledges and window settings. Stones and dust rained down around them.
“Malcolm!” Penny shouted, pushing away from the house, unmindful of the detritus plummeting around her.
They saw an arm waving from above. Malcolm peered down, his face white with dust. The house was uninjured. The stone had been obliterated before impact through some unknown force. Still, Penny turned angrily toward Gaios.
“No!” Simon grabbed her arm before she could bring her cannon to bear. “You can’t harm him. Stay next to the house. We’re safe here. I think.”
“You are partly correct. You can’t harm me.” Gaios strode closer so his booming voice could be heard more clearly. The stone golem moved beside him with pounding, grinding steps to stay between its master and Malcolm. “But you are not safe. Not even here in the house that Sir Roland built.”
“It’s still standing!” Kate proclaimed with a vial in one hand and a sword in the other.
“For now.” The white-haired earth elemental shifted his glowering gaze to Kate. “When I’m done, there will be nothing left of the Anstruthers. All those years of Sir Roland’s hounding me around the world, prying into my affairs. I was never able to seize him because of that key of his. Do you still have it?”
Simon pulled a gold key from his trouser pocket and held it up. “It’s worthless thanks to your Egyptian magic-eater.”
“Just like you, Archer.” Gaios stared at the key. “If it’s powerless, you won’t object to giving it to me.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Simon threw it toward the elemental. Kate and Penny both cried out in alarm. As the golden key spiraled through the air, a column of dirt shot up from the ground, surrounded the object, and collapsed back to the earth.
“Simon!” Kate rounded on him. “What are you doing?”
“It’s worthless, Kate,” he replied with a subtle quirk of his lips. “And there’s no way to re-create it.”
A short column of dirt rose next to Gaios with the key resting on top. He reached down and took it between two fingers, lifting it close to his eyes. He considered the key for a minute, turning it around from every angle, even appearing to smell it. Then he tossed it into the air. The golem caught it and held it between his two massive hands, which transformed to red-hot magma. The hands parted and dribbles of molten gold fell between its thick fingers.
“There,” Gaios said. “It’s a shame to lose such a magnificent artifact. But if I can’t use it, I don’t want you to find a way.”
“Are we done then, Gaios?” Simon asked. “That key was what you wanted from us?”
“It was once, but now you have something else I want,” Gaios bellowed. “Where is Ferghus O’Malley?”
“I don’t know. Did you check every pub in the British Isles before coming here?”
Gaios clenched his fists. “You are making a mistake, Archer. There are only two sides: me or Ash. You are not on mine, so you must be on hers. That means you will die. You may not know me—”
“I know you!” Simon interrupted harshly. “You are Gaios, murderer of Byron Pendragon and his followers. Destroyer of the Order of the Oak.” The ground vibrated under Simon’s feet.
The elemental glared from downturned eyes. “Ash told you all about me, did she?” Gaios guffawed, throwing back his head and stretching his arms out. “The day you believe anything she tells you is the day you are lost. Did she tell you that Pendragon loved her?”
“Yes. The two of them struggled to keep you in check because you were a dangerous lunatic.”
“He never loved her.” Gaios sneered.
“Strange then that, of the three, you were the one in prison.”