We weren’t producing enough light to illuminateallthe gargoyles.The statues above a quarter of the way up remained bathed in shadows; I couldn’t think about what those hidden gargoyles were thinking or…doing.
If I heard one rustling sound, I would send a lightning bolt into every stone creature here.Now that I wasn’t completely overwhelmed by them, I could get a better handle on their number.
There had to be over a hundred in the cavern, if not more.And while it didn’t look like any of them had moved, I felt their stone eyes boring into us.
They were watching… waiting…hunting.
They’re not alive!
Are they?
The hair on my nape rose.I resisted tipping my head back to investigate the shadows.
They were there, tucked in their alcoves, claws and fangs at the ready.Would those wings make a sound, or would they descend silently on us?
“Amazing,” Tucker whispered.“Simply amazing.”
“Your idea of amazing andmyidea of amazing are completely different,” Scarlet muttered.
“I’d go with terrifying,” Callan said.
“Me too.”
Tucker pointed at the stone door overhead.“The temple is up there?”
“It is,” Ryker confirmed.
“Amazing,” Tucker breathed again.
He looked like a kid in a candy shop while I felt like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
“My father and I spent years of our lives in the temple, and neither of useversuspected something like this existed beneath it,” Tucker said.
“No one did,” Ryker said.
“What are all of these statues doing here?”Scarlet asked.
“Creeping me out,” Ianto said.
“I second that,” Callan agreed.
I wasn’t going to argue with them, but Tucker was completely fascinated by the winged sentinels as he moved further into the cavern.He turned in a circle with his head tipped back to survey the gargoyles.
“It has to mean something,” he said.
“What?”Ryker asked.
“I don’t know, but maybe, if the legends are true, we can figure that out.”
“Do you really think rain and wind can make them talk?”I asked.After the first time we’d first returned from this cavern, and revealed our discovery of the gargoyles, Tucker had told us it was a possibility.
Tucker shrugged as he surveyed the statutes.“That’s what the legend says.”
“Where did you hear this legend?”Ianto asked.
“I read it once.”
“In the temple?”I inquired.
