Terror At The Temple (Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

weasel in a hen house. But of late, Nath Dragon had been laying low, and that complicated things. Selene’s expectations must be met. He wasn’t about to disappoint her .
    He lifted the cloth cover from the first cage. A man, standing about one foot tall, stood inside, tiny arms crossed over his little chest. He had two wings. Like a humming bird's, they buzzed on and off behind him. He was a Pixlyn: rare, and almost impossible to catch unless you had honey from the trees where the Stump Giants sat.
    “The time has come to earn your freedom, little Pixlyn.”
    It turned away.
    “Oh, come now. It won’t be so bad,” Finnius said, digging a large spoon into the bubbling cauldron. “Besides, failure to carry out my order will result in certain death.”
    The Pixlyn shrugged. He was a handsome and obstinate little thing whose eyes glowed with a faint blue fire.
    Finnius snorted as he approached, holding the spoon of bubbling goo up to the bars.
    The Pixlyn held his nose.
    “Oh, I suggest you reconsider,” Finnius said, nodding to the other acolyte. “Especially since it’s not you I’m threatening.
    The man removed the cloth from the other cage.
    “It’s her.”
    The Pixlyn man let out a tiny cry of alarm. A beautiful Pixlyn woman with radiant pink eyes and bee's wings shivered inside her cage. The pixlyn man's hummingbird wings made an angry buzz as he zipped back and forth in his cage, slamming into one barred side and then the other.
    Finnius laughed. He loved seeing good creatures suffer, and it was especially salivating when it was the suffering of one loved one for another.
    “Settle down now, Pixlyn. All you have to do is seek, find and report. Of course, what you’ll be searching for could be anywhere in all of Nalzambor. Now, take a sip, a big one that will fill the little gut, and on your way you shall go.”
    The tiny little woman rose up in her cage, her squeaky little voice objecting in a language only the pixie-kind could speak. Both their tiny little hands grabbed the bars as they faced each other. Tears went down the little woman’s cheeks.
    “How adorable,” Finnius said. “Now drink!” He banged the cage with his hand. “Or I’ll kill you both right now!”
    Dejected, the little pixlyn man grabbed the spoon, gulped it down and wiped his mouth.
    “Good… Good-Good-Good. That will make you strong and help you find Nath Dragon’s trail.” He opened the bird cage door. “Go now, go! The longer it takes, the less likely she lives.”
    The Pixlyn grabbed her tiny hands on the bars, kissed them each and with the speed of an arrow, disappeared.
    As the tiny woman sobbed in her prison, Finnius tossed one of his men an empty vial and said, “Get me those tears.”

 
    CHAPTER 6
     
     
    Now there were six of them and one of me. They had leather armor and swords, and even helmets on, too. Not the kind of odds I expected in a small town like this. And to think, all I wanted was a room for the night and some food.
    “Sorry fellas, but I think I just finished the last bit of food,” I said, setting the bowl on the table. I patted my belly and burped. “Pretty tasty though, worth the wait until tomorrow. Say, any of you ugly men happen to have a toothpick on you?”
    “Shut your mouth,” the one who’d hung back in the room said. He came closer, the rest of the enforcers at his sides and spreading out except one, the big one, abnormally large, who looked like he had part giant in him. He was almost eight feet tall, and his big and meaty arms were crossed over his barrel chest as he blocked the exit.
    I backed up until I bumped into the table. What was I going to do now? I couldn’t fight them all, or could I? They came closer, wary, weathered and scarred, one just as mean looking as the other. A well-trained bunch of goons, mercenary and ex-soldiers types, men for hire judging by the steel jangling on their hips. They were the kind of men who wouldn’t hesitate to hurt or kill.
    I put my