by Zoe Arden
"Of course," Kyrab said. "We understand."
"Make the call," I said
Kyrab looked angry. Zulubar kept trying to put his arms around her and she kept brushing him away.
"We'd better hurry," I said. "Now that Perx knows what we're up to, he'll probably have tripled his security staff by now. We'll have that much harder a time getting back in."
"Don't worry," said Russell. "If there's a way in, I'll find it. I'll break down every door to that castle if I have to, but we're getting in there one way or another."
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
.
.
.
* * *
* * *
.
The door in the boulder was open when we arrived. We didn't question it, we just took it as a gift from the witches above and went in. It was the middle of the night now, closer to dawn than it was to the previous dusk, and the world seemed still.
We listened carefully for any sounds of approaching goblins or guards but heard nothing. We took that as a good sign.
At the castle gate, the guard we'd seen before was still sleeping.
"Something's wrong," said my dad.
"I agree," said Russell. "This is too easy. It must be a trap."
I looked around in the darkness but there was still no sign that anyone had seen us. "We have to keep going," I said.
No one contradicted me. Even if it was a trap were walking into, we had no choice but to continue walking. Too many lives depended on us.
Once inside, it was easy to find the prison cells again. Now that we knew where they were, we didn't have to waste time searching for them. We headed straight to the door that led to the stairs that took you down into the dungeon. I'd decided that "dungeon" was most definitely the appropriate word for it, not "basement." It looked like no basement I'd ever seen before and doubted that I ever would.
"There," I said, pointing to the cell with the bars. "Up ahead."
Sheriff Knoxx must've heard my voice because he came to the bars of his cell. Colt came up beside him.
"Ava? Is that you?" Colt asked.
"Yes, it's me."
We were still ten feet away, but I could already see him shaking his head. "No, you have to go. You have to get out of here, all of you. Now. It's a trap."
An alarm as loud as five fire engines suddenly began to blare all around us. Lights began to flash. There were red ones, blue ones, white ones, and sparkly ones. It was like being stuck inside a disco with a police car.
We looked around but didn't see any guards. Russell ran to the cell and in one swift move pulled open the bars wide enough for Sheriff Knoxx and Colt to step through. They did so quickly, not wasting time. The other goblins who were in there with them all peered out nervously the through the bent bars. One of them stepped tentatively forward. I thought it was the one whose home Perx had promised to give back when he was king. I was pretty sure that wouldn't be happening now. Not if we had anything to do with it.
"Where's Eleanor?" I asked.
"We don't know," Sheriff Knoxx said. He sounded miserable. "They put her in another cell."
"There must be a women's side," my dad said. It was hard to think with the alarms and the lights.
"We need to find her," Sheriff Knoxx said.
"You all need to get out of here," one of the goblin prisoners said just as the alarms cut out. We all sighed with relief. The lights, however, continued to flash.
"I'm not leaving without my wife, Tanga," Sheriff Knoxx said. "She wouldn't leave without me."
"You'll do her no good if you're hanged in the morning or stuck back inside the cell for the rest of your life, which promises to be very short-lived," said Tanga. The other goblin prisoners had gathered round him.
We could hear footsteps clanging on the stairs now. It sounded like several dozen guards were descending.
Colt looked at the goblins. "The sheriff is right; we're not leaving without our friend. Where do they keep the women?"
The goblins conferred with each other. Tanga sighed and finally said, "Take the left fork in the cave."
We hurried in that direction, all the while feeling the guards closing in on us. Their footsteps had finally finished with the stairs and were now pounding the pavement behind us.
"There it is!" I shouted. "The fork!" To the right meant freedom, to the left meant Eleanor and possible death. If we were captured, I was fairly certain that Perx would have us all executed in the morning along with Sheriff Knoxx.
Without even thinking about it, we all veered left.
"Now what?" Trixie shouted, but her question was answered as we rounded the corner. A new cell sat just ahead of us, identical to the first. The bars lined a large, rectangular opening.
Russell ran ahead of us and grabbed hold of the bars. He pulled, but the bars didn't budge. He looked completely flummoxed for a minute before trying again. Still nothing.
"What's going on?" Colt asked, panting. We'd been running at full speed. "Why isn't it working?"
"I don't know," Russell said. He pulled and pulled but the bars wouldn't budge.
"Eleanor?" Sheriff Knoxx asked. "Are you in there?"
There was a muffled cry and then Eleanor's face appeared in the space between the bars. Her eyes were wide and wet and worried beyond measure. Two more faces appeared beside hers, their eyes just as wide and worried.
"I-I-It's part of their trap," Eleanor stammered. "Perx placed some kind of goblin's spell on the bars so that they wouldn't bend against a vampire's strength."
"I've never heard of such a spell," said Russell.
"Me neither," said Colt.
"Well, there must be one," Sheriff Knoxx snapped at them. "I mean look, it worked! The bars won't bend."
"I'm not leaving her again," I said.
"You have to," Eleanor said. "All of you. Get out now while you still can."
The guards were so close that we could hear them breathing. Even if we ran now, it wouldn't matter. They were too close. We would never be able to outrun them, not at this distance. The others must have sensed the same thing because we all looked at each other with expressions of quiet acceptance.
"Well," said my dad, "at least we won't go down without a fight."
He raised his fists. Sheriff Knoxx and Colt did the same. Trixie held her index finger steady, and I raised my wand. I was glad now that I'd brought it. Russell hissed and bared his fangs.
A minute later, the guards appeared.
* * *
CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE
.
.
.
* * *
* * *
.
I'd been right when I'd thought there were dozens of them. At least thirty guards crowded around us; Perx was leading them. I wished now that we'd brought Snowball, Tootsie, and Rocky, though with this many guards I wasn't sure that even the charms of a familiar would have helped us. Perx himself seemed as though he would have been immune to the charms of Snowball, no matter how cute she was, and I wouldn't have wanted her to get hurt.
"You're loyal," Perx said, "I'll give you that." He looked around at his men. "Several of my guards thought you wouldn't return. They said that no one would be so stupid. I told them they were wrong." I wanted to smack the smug expression right off his face but didn't dare move. "I knew you wouldn't hesitate to come through the boulder door if I left it open for you. It was all so easy."
Sheriff Knoxx grunted. Russell hissed.
"If you all give up now," Perx said, "I promise to make your deaths quick and mostly painless."
I laughed. "I think we can do better than that. How about no death and no pain? That sounds like a much better deal to me."
Eleanor whimpered from behind her bars. "I can't help you from in here," she said. "There's some sort of shield around this entire cell that prevents me from using my powers."
"She's right," said Sheriff Knoxx. "It's the sam
e in the men's cell. Colt and I together couldn't even make a match light."
"Stay behind me," Russell said, stepping forward. "They might have some fancy spell for the bars on their cells, but I've learned there are no fancy spells to prevent bones from breaking. Luckily for us, I can break two legs at a time—I've had practice. Though I suppose it's unlucky for them."
Some of the guards looked suddenly nervous.
"He's just trying to scare you," Perx said.
"He's doing a good job," one of the guards said and Perx shot him a reproachful look.
"Stand your ground," Perx said. "Don't let them intimidate you. There are thirty of us and only five of them."
"Six if you count the woman in the cell," said one of the guards.
"For goblin's sake," Perx cried angrily, "don't count her. She's in a cell. She can't use her powers."
"What about us?" asked a voice from behind them. "Do we count?"
We all looked in the direction of the voice, and the prisoners we'd freed along with Sheriff Knoxx and Colt walked into view. There were maybe six of them; they were all scrawny and haggard looking, but they also looked ready for a fight. Perx suddenly looked nervous. He took a step away from them, which meant he had to take a step closer to us. He and his guards were sandwiched between us and the other prisoners now.
"We won't let you put us back in those cells," said Tanga.
"Now, then," Perx said, "let's be reasonable about this. If you leave now and take the others with you, I promise I won't execute you when you're caught." To his men, he said, "Stand your ground. These men are nothing; they can't hurt us."
One of the guards stepped forward, swinging an ax, or at least it looked like an ax. It was smaller and looked lighter than a standard ax, though.
"Who wants to go at it?" the guard asked of the freed prisoners, and none of them responded. They took two big steps backward. "That's what I thought," the guard said. "It's like Perx just told us. You're nothing. You can't hurt us."
The other guards seemed buoyed by the taunts. Perx, sensing now was the time, yelled, "Get them!"
The guards charged. Half of them ran for me, Colt, and my family, the other half ran for the freed prisoners. I saw Trixie shoot a spell that raised several goblins off the ground. They levitated for a minute and then fell on their stomachs with a flop, moaning and growling the whole time.
Colt and my father were casting spells left and right, flinging goblins around in such a way that they collided with each other and knocked themselves out, except they wouldn't stay down. I tried to cast a spell to make a goblin vanish and instead I turned him purple.
The recently freed goblins were having even worse luck than us. They were weak and tired and overstressed, and the guards easily overtook them.
Perx, sensing victory, let out a loud cry and shot a flash of light directly at Sheriff Knoxx's his chest. It hit him and sent him flying back into the bars of Eleanor's cell, where he fell to the ground unconscious. She screamed.
"Stop fighting now," Perx said, addressing my family as well as the prisoners, "and I shall execute you this evening. If you continue to fight, I shall make you suffer for a fortnight before ending your misery in a painful death that will leave you disgraced."
"You can't get away with this," I shouted. "You're hurting your own people. Don't you care at all?"
"A king's people are so beneath him that they are like rats to humans. If I must kill a few rats to take my rightful place as king, then I shall. I shall kill as many rats as it takes. "
A new voice sounded in the mix, this one deep and powerful. "If you kill enough rats, eventually one of them is bound to bite you back." Everyone in the room stopped fighting. All eyes turned to the voice. Zulubar stood just behind the freed prisoners. The prisoners, as well as the guards, parted, making a path for him to walk through.
He walked slowly, his eyes looking with horror and sadness upon the faces of the goblins Perx had held in the dungeon for who knows how long.
"Zulubar," Perx said, a wide, fake smile spreading across his face. "It is wonderful to see you alive. We all thought you'd been killed, murdered by that savage beast." He pointed to Sheriff Knoxx, who was beginning to regain consciousness.
"You were worried for my life?" Zulubar asked, going nose to nose with Perx.
Perx took a step back, looking uncomfortable. "Yes, of course. No one could find you or your mistress."
"You mean my wife."
A murmur ran from one end of the room to the other. The guards and the prisoners forgot that they'd been fighting just a moment before and conferred with one another.
"Your wife?" Perx asked. For once, he seemed genuinely surprised. "I had no idea."
"No one did. It was the only way to keep her safe."
"Oh, well... congratulations," Perx said uncertainly. "I have been keeping the order for you while you were gone."
"Yes," Zulubar said, "I can see very well for myself the type of order you've been keeping." He paused and took another step closer to Perx so that they were once again nose to nose. Zulubar was not going to let him escape.
"You tried to kill me," Zulubar said and a second murmur ran across the room. "Worse than that, you tried to kill my wife and my unborn child."
The guards who had moments before been on Perx's side turned angry eyes on him. There were fresh growls and hisses coming from them as well as the prisoners. There were still two sides, but the sides had now switched. Instead of Perx and his guards versus everyone else, it was everyone else versus Perx.
"My king, I don't know what rumors these witches have been feeding you, but I assure you—"
Zulubar cut him off with a wave of his hand. "I have no intention of listening to any more of your lies. I should've seen the truth months ago when I first started to receive those death threats, but I was blind."
"You can't kill me," Perx said. "I'm part of the royal line. I have proof. If something were to happen to you or Sheriff Knoxx or your child, I am the only one left who can save our people."
I cleared my throat. "I thought you said you had your best doctors, scientists, and philosophers working on the problem. That they would find a solution to save your species any day now."
Perx groaned. "Our doctors and scientists are as smart as toads. The philosophers are little better. They will never come up with a solution. That is how I knew I could get away with everything. Even if I was caught, as I am now, there is nothing to be done about it." He looked at Zulubar. "You can't kill me. There are too few of us. I'm a precious commodity."
Zulubar looked at us. "He's right, I can't kill him." He looked back at Perx. "But I can keep you locked up for the rest of your life. You'll never see the light of day again." He turned to his guards. "Arrest him."
The guards did not hesitate. Zulubar was their king, and they would follow him anywhere.
* * *
CHAPTER
FORTY
.
.
.
* * *
* * *
.
A line had formed outside the bakery by the time we arrived.
"You're late," said Natalie Vargas. She tapped her watch and gave us an irritated look. Then she must have thought better of it because her look changed, and she broke into a smile.
"Oh, well," she said. "From what I hear, you all had a very long day yesterday."
I sighed. Trixie, Eleanor, and my dad sighed beside me. We had kept the bakery closed the whole day yesterday, too tired to bake. We had not even gotten back from Goblin Territory until five o' clock yesterday morning, which was the time we'd normally be getting up.
We'd spent the day lying in bed and drinking coffee. Colt had come over in the evening and we played board games with my dad and Trixie. Sheriff Knoxx and Eleanor had taken some much-needed time for themselves.
Today, however, it was back to work. Except we were still tired and were running an hour behind.
"Don't worry," Natalie said, observing
my look. "Everyone in Sweetland already knows what happened."
"I'm sure we have you to thank for that," Eleanor said.
Natalie was at the front of the line and everyone behind her was watching jealously as we talked. No doubt they thought Natalie was getting the full scoop from us before any of them would have a chance to.
"Come on," Natalie said. "Give me the dirt. Tell me what happened. Is Perx dead? Someone said Zulubar turned him into a pile of blue slime."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "Why would Zulubar turn him into a pile of slime?"
Natalie shrugged. "Vengeance?" she asked in a squeaky voice.
"He's not dead. He's just in prison, where he'll stay for a very, very long time."
Eleanor had the front door open now, and I snuck inside before Natalie could ask me anything else. The line filed slowly in behind her.
"No more than ten at a time," Eleanor shouted above the talk from the customers. She looked at my dad and asked him to stand guard manning the doors.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to check the message; it was from Lucy.
Crazy rumors are flying around. Get down here ASAP and fill me in.
I started to slip the phone back into my pocket when it buzzed a second time.
BTW, glad I was wrong about Colt being a killer.
I smiled. As much as I wanted to go down to Coffee Cove right now, Lucy would have to wait. I could meet her later after both shops closed and fill her in on everything then. Besides, if she couldn't wait, Melbourne would be there, and he could fill her in on a lot of it himself.
After all, he'd been at Russell's apartment with Kyrab and Zulubar when Kyrab had finally managed to talk Zulubar into going back to Goblin Territory. She'd had to threaten to name their baby Daffodil in order to get him to listen. Even that almost wasn't enough. The only way that Zulubar had finally agreed to go was if Melbourne promised to stay with her no matter what happened.
