Thyme, who had the head of something very like an owl, and the body of something more like a humanoid bear, spoke in a light tenor and a very English accent. “If any of us are to be treated like a teacher, I believe that should be me. If you provide me with the relevant texts, I shall be pleased to offer my services as a tutor for any students here, as well as providing scholarly context from the brightest minds of a number of centuries.”
Mouse, who was sitting beside Maggie, made a pleased chuffing sound, wagged his tail, and walked up to sit at Thyme’s feet like an eager student.
“Oh,” Thyme said. “Yes, certainly, Temple dog. That includes you.”
Cardamom, whose head was a boar and whose body was like that of a squat, hugely muscled man, said, “I shall be pleased to officiate in athletic competition and any tourneys here. You will find me completely unbiased in such matters.”
Parsley and Sage both had the heads of birds of prey, sort of vaguely, and the bodies of lean and powerful men in loincloths. They spoke in the same voice, at the same time, in eerie stereo. “We clean. We mend. We build. We are glad to help.”
Bay shook his hound-dog head and yawned. He had an apelike body that looked like it would be most comfortable in quadrupedal motion, and said, “I like to keep people company.”
“Oh,” I said. “We’re doing introductions, I guess.”
Jorge popped to his feet and walked up to Basil. He poked at Basil’s leg with one finger and said, “It’s warm.”
“Yes,” Basil said gravely. “We are living stone.”
“Do you like tacos?” Jorge asked.
Basil dropped down to one knee so that his eyes were on level with Jorge’s. “We are living stone. We do not eat as mortals do.”
“Stories!” piped Cinnamon in a chirping voice. “We like stories!”
“Hmm,” Jorge said. “Do you know the one about the guy with the lightsaber?”
Every gargoyle there focused suddenly and intently upon Jorge, gathering around, while Basil said, “I am not sure. Will you tell it?”
“Yeah!” Jorge said. “Okay, so there’s these robots. Wait, no, first there’s a little spaceship, and it’s running away from thishugebad-guy spaceship!”
I was worried for a minute, that these large supernatural creatures were bunching up around a kid. But as I watched, Jorge started running through the plot ofStar Wars, and the gargoyles settled in and gathered around, expressions fascinated as they watched the boy’s glowing face. He had an audience and he loved it.
Matias walked up to me, his expression bemused.
“Harry,” he said.
“How you doing?” I asked him.
“Well,” he said. “Last year, my world fell to pieces when those things came here. Creatures, tearing apart the city.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Lot of that going around.”
“Evil things,” he said. “Not simply predators. Dark. Evil. Like demons in the Bible.”
“More of that going around than any of us would like,” I confirmed.
“When the government started talking about HBGB, I wanted to believe them. That I had been poisoned and it had given me hallucinations. But here, day after day, I see things. Things that tell me that the world is not the way I thought it was.”
I frowned at that and turned to listen more intently.
“I do not think that is so,” he said quietly. “And it frightened me for a long time.” He lifted his hands and spread them open. “I saw terriblethings happen.” He nodded and looked at me. “And I saw good men fight them.”
I swallowed and kept listening.
“You and that huge ape came to my home and fought them and saved my family. And you led us to shelter and forced the man who owned this place to let us in. Things from old stories stood with you. And I was terrified.” He smiled. “After a while, I realized. If the monsters from the old stories are true, if beings of evil run wild in this world, then it stands to reason that the opposite is true. The old stories are full not only of bad things. But good things, too. Good wizards.” He nodded at the gargoyles. “Protectors. The Little Folk we see sometimes. Powers of light that fight the darkness.”
I nodded my chin up and down quickly and held back tears. “That’s true. I don’t know if I’m one of those.”
“I do,” Matias said calmly. “I have seen you do it. I do not say that it is easy for you. Or anyone. Doing the right thing is sometimes difficult. Sometimes frightening. But I see your little girl’s dog is more than just a dog—and he is good. I see Michael Carpenter and he walks like there is always light around him.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “And I see you, with them gathering around you. I know you lost someone. I know what that looks like. I know you have been going through pain. Grief.”
