AT FIRST, KERRY didn’t realize she stared at the giant ogre from the security office, because he looked nothing like himself. From a giant mountain of gray granite-like form, Paddy’s magic reduced Ruck to a small boulder of his former self. He stood barely two feet tall, his body one massive round shape with bulging biceps and thighs that resembled some sort of kid’s clay project for school rather than an actual body. How the ogre could even walk was anybody’s guess.
“Arden!” Paddy cried out as he tried to skirt past him.
Quinn, however, was quick to snatch the cluricaun’s coat by the collar before the tiny man managed to get very far. Quinn tossed the other man onto the ground, punching him in the face as Paddy fought to catch his breath.
Arden stood there, staring down at Ruck with disbelief masking his face. “Ruck? I don’t understand. You knew about this? Knew what Paddy did?”
Ruck shook his head. “No, sir,” the ogre said with a slow shake of his head. His normally deep, gravelly voice was now pitched a little higher, more child-like. “All I knew was that I caught him in the back hallway where he shouldn’t have been the other day.” He shrugged. “He said he wanted to show me something he discovered, and I accidentally set off the alarm. Nunk had warned us to stay out of that hallway. Paddy said he’d help me, so that no one would know I did it.” He shrugged again, the gesture almost pathetic on his tiny misshapen form. “Then, we went and played cards. I even won.”
Kerry glanced over her shoulder at Quinn struggling on the ground with Paddy, the two looking more like a schoolyard brawl than two men fighting. She shook her head as she walked over to them, grabbed each by the scruff of their collars and lifted them into the air. “Enough!” she shouted as she shook them, their feet sliding out from under them again. Releasing Quinn, who fell on his ass, she turned her ire onto Paddy. “Where is my sister? I know you’ve done something to her. Now, where is she?”
Paddy sneered at her. “Oh boy, she be here and there. Never in one spot, you know. That one loves to travel.”
Kerry shook the little man again. “So help me god, if you’ve done anything to hurt her, I’ll make sure they never find you.”
Paddy popped his eyebrows up at her words, for the first time, fear covering his face. “I didn’t hurt her. I swear.”
Kerry leaned down, pulling the small man up so she could get closer to his face. “Where is she?” she practically growled.
Paddy gave her a sheepish look. “To be honest, I don’t rightly know. I haven’t actually seen her in a few days.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?” Kerry demanded. “Where did you leave her?”
“Ruck, what are you doing here now?” Arden asked the ogre.
The small boulder of a creature shook his head. “I don’t know. Paddy called saying he needed help with something and that I owed him for him not ratting me out. I didn’t realize Nunk would be that angry over one little slip up. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was trying to help Paddy. That’s all.”
Arden left the ogre standing in the doorway and made his way over to where Kerry gripped Paddy by the collar. “What did you drag Ruck into this for?”
Paddy shrugged. “The ogres are a simple lot. They don’t use too much of their brains, you know. I be needing someone just like him to get me gold back.”
“It’s not your gold,” Arden snarled. “After this stunt, not even your share is yours anymore. The Elders will strip you of everything.”
“Ha!” Paddy blurted. “The leprechaun Elders perhaps, but I don’t rightly answer to them, now do I?”
“What…?” Arden started, but Quinn moved in at that point. “The cluricaun put him up to it,” Quinn said.
Arden just stared at Paddy. “Is he right? Did the Elders of the cluricaun set you onto the gold?”
“Well, half of it is rightly ours, you know,” Paddy said. “They’ve been wanting it back since your Elders agreed to allow Seraphine to use it to fund Black Hollow. They never agreed to be surety for every crazy supernatural being that sets foot into this town.”
Ruck walked along the path, heading back to the main trail, and Kerry watched him go, worried that he was making good his escape. She watched as with each step he took, his body shifted back to his true size and shape. Once he reached the end of the path and his full stature, he turned and stepped off the path as he walked along the forest floor back to where the others stood around Paddy.
Kerry watched as Paddy’s eyes grew wider, his eyebrows rising up on his forehead. She could feel him trembling in her grasp and released him as Ruck drew closer. The others just watched as the ogre reached out and snatched Paddy off the ground, lifting him high into the air, his tiny feet kicking wildly.
“You used me,” Ruck roared as he hoisted the cluricaun over his head. “I thought we were friends. I thought you were helping me. You lied to me!” Ruck shook Paddy, jerking the little man’s body all around as the ogre took his rage out on him. “We aren’t friends anymore.”
Paddy screamed, clutching to Ruck’s wrists in a vain attempt to hold on and not be flung against a redwood. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Ruck! We’re friends! I swear it! We’re friends.”
Ruck dumped Paddy at Arden’s feet, bending down and sneering at the cluricaun. “We are not friends. Friends don’t use friends. You’re just a little thief.”
Arden reached out and grabbed Paddy before the cluricaun could scamper away. “Where’s the gold?”
Paddy tried to shrug, but Ruck glowered at him, freezing the tiny man in place. “I sent it back to the home country. It’s gone. You’ll never get it.”
Kerry felt her heart sink at his words, knowing what it meant for Arden and Black Hollow. They had lost everything. The gold. Her sister. And soon the town. She thought she would throw up as the churning anxiety twisted in her stomach.
Arden wasn’t ready to give up, however. “Why did you bring Ruck here? Why not just make off with the gold and be gone?”
“I told you,” Paddy said. “The gold is gone. I wanted Ruck to help me get out of town.”
Arden turned to the giant ogre. “Is that true? Did Paddy ask you here to get him out of town?”
Ruck’s eyes were still narrow slits as he glared at Paddy. “He said he wanted to give me a farewell gift and asked me to take him to Salem.”
“A farewell gift?” Quinn repeated. “Ruck, can we see this farewell gift?”
“Now, why you be wanting to do that?” Paddy said, resuming his struggle in Arden’s grasp. “It’s a parting gift between friends. I wanted Ruck to have something to remember me by.”
“But we’re not friends,” Ruck said, and his tone almost tore Kerry’s heart. Paddy had been right when he said ogres were simple creatures. They put their trust in others easily, it seemed, and gave of their hearts. She could see herself being friends with Ruck without qualms.
Ruck reached out to the small hovel, gripping the mushroom-shaped roof with both hands and heaved it upward and over, tearing it from the stone walls. Kerry felt her eyes widen at the destruction, and the ease with which the ogre performed it. Ruck then reached inside and pulled out a small hand-carved box of deep red. He then handed the box to Arden. “He wanted to give this to me and told me to keep it safe.”
“It’s just a box,” Paddy squeaked, jumping to his feet and reaching for the box. “I thought he could keep rocks in it or something. It’s nothing special. A kind gesture from a friend, that’s all.”
Ruck shook his head. “We’re not friends.” He reached down and gripped the cluricaun by the back of his shirt and hoisted him into the air, like a rag doll. “You’re going to the police chief.”
Kerry moved over to Arden, Quinn joining them, as Arden held the box with both hands. She could tell by the look on his face that he feared the box was just a dead end. Reaching out, she gripped his bicep and gave him a squeeze. “Only one way to find out,” she said.
Arden glanced at her once, nodded, and then returned his attention to the box. With a deep breath, he opened the lid. Inside set a dozen cast-iron pots brimming with tiny gold coins.