by Carrie Jones
Jamie laughed.
Bloom simply smiled and placed his hand against the dragon’s wing and began whispering in that soft, deep tone Annie had become used to already, “Arli pullnor. Arli pullnor yearnho. Arli pullnor.”
The words resonated in the air and in Jamie’s mind. Bloom traced the wound on Grady O’Grady’s wing with his palm. It shimmered as his hand slowly went over the wound mark. Once his hand moved on, the gash became a scar, puffed up a bit from the thin filament of the wings.
Thank you, Grady O’Grady said.
“If we were back home it would be perfect,” Bloom told Annie. “It is harder to do here. Everything is harder to do here. The magic is off.”
Bloom’s eyes narrowed in anger at the ugliness of the world. Jagged mountains stretched out halfway toward the horizon. Bare trunks of trees ripped in half marked the dirty landscape. Thornbushes and pricker bushes rolled along in the fetid wind. Sharp ridges of stone jumbled up through the earth. The smell was intense. The air blew in fear like it would waft in the salt smell of brackish water.
Right near where they stood waited fifty large wooden boats, crudely made and hollow inside, but full of oars.
Jamie swallowed hard before he spoke. “This is how they will cross, now. Trolls are afraid of water, but the Raiff must have convinced them to cross here.”
But that means … Bloom let his thought dangle. He did not wish to pursue it. Annie had no such qualms.
It means that they can all come at once. It means that he will have one of us stop time soon and make the portal.
She imagined the trolls storming the Aurora beach, pulling in their nasty boats and pillaging Aurora, searching for feather boas and high-heeled shoes and pixies to eat. They would tie up the pixies and fairies. They would kill the stone giants. Annie moved closer to the dragon’s side. She had never seen anything so ugly or thought anything so ugly in her young life.
“Is it day or night here?” she asked.
Day, the dragon answered. Night is the blackest of black. Even one of your most powerful flashlights would only break the darkness a foot at the most. The light is so weak here that trolls and vampires, all the things of the dark, can travel in the day if forced to.
The children pulled off their winter coats. It was far too warm here to wear them. They stripped off their sweaters, too. The rank air clung to them, curled Annie’s hair damp against her scalp.
Eva wiped the sweat beads from her forehead, and Bloom rolled up his sleeves. SalGoud didn’t seem to notice the heat.
From the distance came a rhythmic pounding, a loud bass beat. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Squatting down, Bloom placed his hand against the red dirt that comprised the ground in the Badlands.
“What is it?” Annie asked. “That pounding?”
Trolls, Grady O’Grady answered, spitting out the word.
Bloom snapped his head up to meet Annie’s eyes with his own. “They are marching. There must be five hundred, at least five hundred.”
Annie gulped. The air vibrated with fear. The strings were still there, behind her, beckoning and swaying, a gateway back to her world. It would be so easy to just go back, to just go back and get away from this place. All she had to do was stop time, bring her friends in a boat with her, and go. But what would she be going back to and who? Everything that mattered was here. And if she opened the portal, the Raiff, those trolls, they could cross, too. There was no shutting it once it was opened.
They climbed back onto Grady O’Grady’s back, even Eva, who managed not to pass out again.
“How do we go?” Eva asked. “Where?”
In the belly of the mountains is Raiff’s fortress. We’ll fly low to avoid the orcs spotting us in flight.
As they flew, they tried to devise a way to rescue Miss Cornelia and the elves, and get rid of the Raiff and round up all the trolls and get them out of Aurora once and for all. They exchanged ideas and thoughts, and slowly an idea started to form in their heads. They jumbled over one another’s thoughts, stepping on them as a plan developed.
“We will have to stop time to get her,” Bloom said. “Then take her with us to rescue the elves.”
“But the ghosts …” Annie let her sentence hang there. She remembered her promise to the ghosts. She thought of the Woman in White holding her head. She thought about the sweet little girl ghost with her teddy. “We can’t. The ghosts can’t stand it. I promised not to do it unless I really, really had to. Maybe I won’t have to.”
Grady O’Grady skimmed over some broken treetops, jagged needles jabbing the sky.
They know it’s necessary, Eva argued.
“But I promised,” Annie muttered. “It doesn’t seem right to expect that I’ll have to. Maybe there will be another way.”
“We get to the fort and then we link up, and stop time. Then we go in, Annie, and we grab Miss Cornelia and bring her back to the dragon. Grady flies her through and we go rescue the elves,” SalGoud announced.
It sounds good to me, said Grady O’Grady.
It sounds too easy, Annie thought. I don’t have a good feeling.
Nobody seemed to hear her. Grady was too busy explaining what he knew of the inside of Raiff’s fortress, how he thought Miss Cornelia would be in a room in the bottom of the fort, beneath the ground. He had never been in there, of course, why would he want to go to such a place, plus he was far too big, but he’d heard some things. Dragons are good gossip gatherers.
Grady O’Grady flew tirelessly, zigzagging here and there to avoid the legions of trolls marching toward the sea and the strings.
He could not avoid the watching eyes of the crows, though. The birds’ black pupils stayed on them as they soared through the sharp trunks of trees.
They decided that the dragon would drop them off just outside the fortress. Then, they would all sneak in, find Miss Cornelia, and only stop time if absolutely necessary. Annie insisted.
A half hour later, their skin had scorched from the heat. Their faces sweltered as they flew over once-gigantic lakes that were now pools of molten sulfur. The odorous liquid belched up toward the sky whenever they passed, as if the land was trying to attack them. Fortunately, Grady O’Grady was much too fast for the liquid to ever come close.
Annie gulped after another near miss and asked, How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?
Older than old, Grady O’Grady answered. Centuries.
Do you remember being young?
It wasn’t that long ago.
How long ago was it?
It was before baseball.
Bloom started laughing. Everything is about baseball.
Yes, it is.
Well, Annie asked, were you ever scared?
Constantly.
Really?
The thought of a dragon being frightened made her feel much better, somehow.
What were you scared of? Bloom asked.
The Red Sox losing.
No, seriously, Annie begged.
Failing.
Did you ever?
Ever what?
Fail?
Grady O’Grady’s answer never came. A gigantic weight crashed down on him, and on Annie and the others. Vampires. They were caught.
26
The Meeting
The vampires lashed them into a special fireproof net, hoisted it into the air, and took wing toward the fortress.
I am sorry, children, Grady apologized.
It’s where we were headed anyway, Jamie offered.
“Not like this we weren’t,” Eva grumbled. “Nobody puts a dwarf in a net.”
For the most part, the vampires ignored them and spoke only to one another in hissing voices that reminded Jamie of snakes. The undead flyers didn’t seem to care that everyone overheard their conversation. They all listened while trying to find a somewhat comfortable position, which was basically impossible because they were all heaped together. Dragon and elf and dwarf and giant limbs entwined with humans. Annie managed
to wrap her arm around Eva’s trunk, and she pressed her head against the dragon’s rib cage, listening to the comforting beats of his heart. Eva was not so lucky. She had the dragon’s rear end smooshed right up against her face. She turned her head, but it wasn’t much help.
“Why does this happen to me?” she asked Annie, glowering.
“Can you squirm up?” she suggested.
“I can’t get anywhere.” Eva’s voice was cold. “I was supposed to be rescuing Miss Cornelia, and now I’m in a net. Dwarfs do not get in nets.”
Annie reached out her hand to try to comfort her, maybe pat her on the shoulder. She got her knee instead. “It’s okay.”
Eva kept glowering instead of answering, which was fine because a vampire yelled at them, “No talking.”
Grady O’Grady growled.
“No growling either.”
They flew in silence. Jamie strained to see the landscape, but SalGoud and Bloom were in the way. He hoped the net would hold their weight. He wasn’t sure they’d survive the fall. His hope sank. But we’re all together. We’re all together. That’s good.
Jumbled up together in an undignified assortment of limbs and cloaks, Annie struggled to get a good look at the structure carved out of deep-orange rock, complete with turrets like a castle and barbed wire like a jail, but she saw it well enough to know that only something hideous would call it “Home Sweet Home,” which is exactly what was written on a gigantic latch-hook banner over the drawbridge doors.
“Weird,” she said.
SalGoud was fretting. “We’ll have to be careful, Annie. We can’t split up. Maybe as soon as we get to the ground you can stop time. Make sure you’re touching us, though …”
But there wasn’t a chance for that. Just as they hit the ground, a massive vampire wearing a fluorescent-yellow muscle T-shirt beneath his cape yanked Annie out of the net and pulled her arms behind her back. He must have been the cowboy vampire. The rest did similar things to the others. They muzzled Grady O’Grady and tethered him to a giant post and lashed the children to a long pole. Two trolls held the ends of the pole from which everyone hung upside down.
It made Annie’s heart ache. She tried desperately to make a plan as they were marched through a mostly deserted common area and taken through a huge door into the inner sanctum of the Raiff. She could stop time, but the cowboy vampire never let go of her. She knew she couldn’t outfight a vampire.
He used his free hand to knock on the door. “Well, here we are, then. Home sweet home.”
Light from hundreds of cream-colored candles filled the room. Along the walls hung portraits of a man in all sorts of different costumes. The man had blond hair and brilliant blue eyes and the strong, square sort of chin that cartoonists always give to superheroes. In one picture he was dressed as a priest, in another as a pirate. He had on a white powdered wig in one. The paintings seemed to come from several different centuries. In one he wore a toga.
Annie couldn’t help but stare at them as they passed, heading toward a high table and the fireplace.
The man seated at the table spoke indulgently, “Admiring my portraits, Annie? I do say I’m a comely devil. Don’t you agree?”
A shudder rumbled up from inside her soul, all the way from her core.
The Raiff stood up and smiled. She balled her hands into fists.
“A little angry, Annie?” he asked, waving his finger at her. “Not a good idea. Anger is bad for the complexion. Ask the trolls.”
Annie bit her lip. She willed herself to be calm as the vampires released her from the pole. She was the only one they had freed so far. She imagined the Raiff as a pirate, doing this to innocent seafarers.
“Yes, I used to have a black beard,” the Raiff said. Then he ran his perfectly manicured nails down his lapels. “They even used to call me that.”
Annie shivered but wouldn’t move a muscle on her face. Had he read her thoughts?
He moved his hand up to smooth his cheeks. “Hated the name. As if that defined me? I shaved it off. Didn’t match the hair.”
Annie refused to turn away. The vampire holding her arms kept sniffing at her neck, which made her queasy. They released Bloom from the pole and allowed him to stand. Bloom tensed and raged. A night stalker held his arms twisted behind his back. They’d taken his bow just as they’d taken her sword and Eva’s ax, leaving them all at the Raiff’s feet like offerings.
She knew the others were behind her and wanted to look, but couldn’t. She wasn’t going to let the demon out of her sight. He left his position standing in front of his chair and strode down the marble stairs toward them. He kicked Eva’s ax a bit out of the way, nonchalantly.
“My ax!” Eva bellowed.
“Muffle the dwarf.” He snapped his fingers. “Dwarfs get on my nerves.”
The fireplace flames snapped and blazed higher with each step he took toward them. He stopped maybe five feet away from them. Annie steeled herself.
The Raiff paced in front of them, stopping to stare at Bloom’s face.
“Release the girl,” he said. “But keep a finger on her at all times. We don’t want her getting any ideas, do we?”
Her arms suddenly free, Annie brushed the hair out of her eyes and reached out to touch Bloom’s arm.
“No, no, no. We don’t want you touching anyone, Little Annie Time Stopper, except maybe me.” He plucked Annie’s hand off Bloom’s shirtsleeve and forcibly pressed it against his own face. “We could stop time right now. Just the two of us, in control of the world.”
Annie struggled against him, but he was too strong. He pried her fingers out of the fist she’d made and placed her hand against his cheek. It was ice cold, so cold that it sent prickly stings into Annie’s own skin.
“Leave her alone,” Jamie growled the sentence out.
“Muffle him, too.” The Raiff stared into her eyes, and the pain spread past her hand and up her arm, and with it came an absolute immobilization. She gasped when she realized what was happening. She couldn’t move her fingers. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to move her arms. He was showing her his power, she knew. He didn’t need to. She could sense the evil of him just by the way the air vibrated around him. He seemed to fill things with shadows. She would block her thoughts, the way Grady O’Grady taught her.
“Leave her alone,” Bloom said. The same as Jamie. The words did not help.
The Raiff dropped Annie’s hand. She immediately began rubbing it back to life. She hoped she was good enough. The Raiff meanwhile focused his attention on the boy.
“Do I sense a hint of jealousy from the last elf?” Raiff smiled. “How fun!”
Bloom didn’t flinch. Raiff preened in front of him, taking a piece of invisible lint off his shirt cuff. “Would you like to hear how your parents died? It wasn’t the trolls who got them, you know. Would you like to hear how they begged, how they pleaded, how your father lost all control, sobbing for his life?”
Annie could take it no more. “You horrible, awful monster!”
Without thinking about it, she pulled back her good right arm and made a fist. It connected—smack!—into the side of the Raiff’s face before she even thought about it. His head jerked back and to the side. The vampires gasped. Bloom’s eyes widened with shock.
The Raiff turned back to her.
“Horrible, awful monster?” he asked in a mocking voice. “My feelings are hurt, Annie. And to think I thought we could be friends.”
He pivoted on his loafers and slowly stepped up the stairs. He pointed a long, crooked finger at a troll. “Bring in the old one.”
Bloom leaned toward her.
“You shouldn’t have hit him, Annie,” he whispered.
“Ah, like you didn’t want to.”
The vampire grabbed her by the neck. “No talking.”
The vampire needn’t have bothered. Truth was, the moment a side door by a bookshelf opened and a woman entered, neither Annie nor Bloom had any desire for words. Annie took a deep breath and let her gaz
e rest on the figure.
The woman’s body bent and her head struggled to stay straight up on her shoulders. Her gait was like one who had been kept awake for days, and indeed she had. The torturers refused to let her sleep. Her rainbow-clad socks were brown and dingy and full of holes, as was her dress. Her hair fled her bun and knotted and frayed, spilling out this way and that, as if trying to escape her head. A vampire and a satyr held on to each of her elbows. So little and fragile and spent, she seemed nothing like the strong proud woman who led Annie up the hill to her house that first day in Aurora. Annie had felt so safe then, safe for the first time in her life.
Miss Cornelia lifted her head and faced Annie. Her lips moved but no sound came out. It didn’t need to. Annie knew what she said.
She said, “I’m sorry.”
Annie gulped, confused, and the Raiff heard her.
“She hasn’t really been keeping herself up, has she?” he said. The difference in his tidy elegant appearance and Miss Cornelia’s was striking. “Now tell me, who do you really think is the bad guy here?”
He held his nose. “Even when I was a pirate I dressed better than that. Did you remember I was a pirate, Annie? Oh yes, a long time ago, I sailed up and down the Atlantic stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.”
“Pillaging and looting is more like it,” Bloom said. His words were responded to with a sucker punch to his stomach administered by the vampire, Brian, holding him.
“No interrupting,” the vampire hissed.
“Yes, it’s very rude. You’ve been consorting with incredibly rude people, Annie. Did you happen to notice their lack of manners? Have you been to that wretched tavern? Fights all over the place. Yet, Aurora is supposed to be a haven for the misfits, isn’t it? A place for the fae and the other kin, the Stoppers, to be safe? Is that what she told you?” He pointed at Miss Cornelia. “Well, she lied. It is just a zoo of her own amusement, a land of her own making. What I want to do is free everyone, make the entire world safe for us others.”
