LITMIR.BIZ

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was no one around except an old beggar with a baggy brown jacket and a white straw hat, a pair of thick glasses on the ground beside him, sleeping under a tree. Even a big city is still sometimes. She knew that soon the great red locomotion machines would start rolling by her, then she would have to hide for the day once again.

      “Perhaps tonight…” she whispered as she dozed against the great angel. “If you grant me one wish, sweet angel, please let me find him tonight…”

      With that simple prayer, Ambergine fell fast asleep.

      Chapter Eight

      Mark of the Stonemason

      A few nights later, Katherine was standing at the bottom of the stairs to Cassandra’s rooftop once again. Without saying it out loud, Katherine and Gargoth had reached an agreement about the stairs: Katherine now carried Gargoth up in the backpack. He didn’t get out or even let on that they had arrived at the store until they reached the rooftop.

      Cassandra greeted them happily at the top of the stairs, standing amid a blaze of one hundred and forty-eight flaming orange-scented pumpkin candles.

      “Hi, Katherine! Hi, Gargoth!” she said. “I lit your beacon.” She exchanged a glance with Katherine.

      “Thanks, Cassandra,” Katherine breathed, very relieved that she and Cassandra would be spared any more exposure to the delights of scorched gargoyle flesh.

      Gargoth climbed out of the backpack, waddled across the rooftop, and flopped onto the soft cushion. He looked dejected.

      “What’s the matter?” Katherine stood over him with her arms crossed. She was so used to his moods, she barely even noticed them any more.

      He was silent for a while. As usual, he wasn’t going to be rushed into anything. He pulled out his pipe and lit it, then slowly wriggled himself into a comfortable position on the cushion, blowing puffs of smoke up into the night. A streetcar rumbled loudly as it passed by far below them. A police siren wailed somewhere nearby.

      Katherine sighed and went to sit beside Cassandra, who was knitting something that looked kind of like a giant green scarf. Being a giantess (or something pretty close), Cassandra had huge hands, and knitting wasn’t all that easy for her. But she never gave up, even if she maybe should have.

      Katherine was about to say something when Gargoth cleared his throat. “I would tell you the beginning of a long story tonight, I think. But I fear it will be difficult for our friend Cassandra to follow along,” he said.

      “I’ll translate for her, don’t worry,” Katherine answered. “It’s okay. Are you finally going to tell us what the candles are for?”

      “Yes, Katherine. That and more. But first I must tell you that I fear the beacon will fail. It has taken me a long time to regain any hope…” He paused, struggling for the right words, then continued. “I think she has gone. I think Ambergine has abandoned me and will never see the beacon, and I will be forsaken here forever.”

      Katherine felt a jab of sadness, hearing the longing in Gargoth’s voice. It was very rare for him to be so open with her. “Maybe if you tell us the story you want to tell, it will make waiting easier,” she said. “I really want to hear whatever it is you have to tell us.”

      It was true. She really did want to hear. Gargoth was nothing if not interesting. His stories were always worth the wait.

      “But first, please tell us one thing right now: what is the beacon? How is it a beacon?” she said, sounding a little desperate.

      Gargoth sighed again. “Humans are so impatient!” he said, shaking his head. “Okay, Katherine. Go and climb up the chimney at the edge of the roof and look down upon the lit candles. I think you will see then.”

      Obediently, she got up and tiptoed through the lit candles across the roof. As she laid her hand on the short ladder attached to the chimney, Cassandra looked up in alarm.

      “What are you doing?” she asked.

      “He wants me to look at the pattern of the beacon.”

      “Be careful! Your parents won’t be happy with me if you get hurt.”

      “I’ll just be a second,” Katherine answered.

      She climbed the rungs of the ladder and leaned against the old chimney, looking down over the rooftop of brightly lit candles. There was a pattern, but it didn’t mean much to her.

      “What do you see?” Gargoth asked from his cushion.

      “Well, I see two diamonds on top of each other, inside a giant circle, I think. It’s kind of hard to tell for sure…” she finished.

      “Excellent, Katherine,” Gargoth said.

      She climbed down from the chimney ladder and brushed red chimney brick dust off her hands and shorts. She carefully navigated through the candles back to her lawn chair.

      “Okay, but what is it?”

      Gargoth slowly got to his feet and waddled over to his friends. He turned his back on them and opened his little wings wide. “See there, between my wings, is there a mark?” he asked.

      Katherine moved in closely to see what he meant. She held her head close to the little gargoyle’s back (but didn’t breathe in too deeply, Gargoth’s burnt flesh smell still lingered about him). Then she saw it: a small mark about the size of a coin, right between his shoulders, slightly closer to his right wing.

      It was two diamonds one on top of the other, inside a circle, like this:

      “I see it, Gargoth. But what is it?”

      “It is my beacon, Katherine. It is also the mark of my creator, the stonemason who made me. He carved one on every statue that he made. But in the whole world there are only two living gargoyles who carry this mark, as far as I know. I have one…and Ambergine has the other.”

      Chapter Nine

      Ambergine:

       Among University Students

      The little gargoyle shook her wings...

      They were heavy and tired. She huddled deep into the marble wall behind the soldier from a long-ago war. She was looking out over another busy street, but far from the water now. She had looked for days in the houses and backyards and gardens around the angel but found nothing. The statues she had found to hide her this time were in the middle of a large university. It was a group of soldiers and angels, some with wings like hers, or with guns or swords. She liked the students walking below her: they all looked busy and had much to say.

      Tonight she was going to search along the road called Queen Street, where she knew there was a store called the Golden Nautilus. She had already seen it from overhead, and it looked like the kind of place that had gargoyles.

      She yawned. She would have to get ready to fly soon. Night was coming.

      If Ambergine had peeked out from her hiding place, she might have noticed an old man standing at the foot of the soldier statue she was hiding in. But it’s just as well that she didn’t.

      He was wearing thick glasses, a white straw hat, and a big baggy brown jacket. He was looking straight up, right at her hiding spot, as if he were waiting for something. The setting sun shining right into his eyes didn’t seem to bother him one bit.

      Chapter Ten

      The Story Begins

      The candles blazed.

      Katherine and Cassandra were seated on their lawn chairs, Gargoth was on his cushion looking up at the sky. “Are you ready then?” he asked.

      “Yep. Are you ready for Gargoth’s story, Cassandra?” Katherine asked.

      Cassandra

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