Grizelda

by Margaret Taylor

  It was packed in there, like it always was. The close proximity of so many bodies made it hot inside, and the sound of many voices crowded the dim air. Calmly, still calmly, scarily calmly, she ascended the stairs to her seat. She knew exactly what to do.

  Once the goblins had for the most part found their seats, the lights went up on the stage. The goblin with his clipboard came out and read announcements, the usual stuff about tunnel closings, culture parties, and the perennial safety warning about the collapsed mineshaft in Section B. She scarcely heard it. None of the goblins were paying attention to him, either, but they had a different reason. In the front of the stage there were two podiums, empty. They stood in opposite corners of the platform as if unwilling to get near each other.

  The goblin with the clipboard left, and then, to a silent hall, Chairman Grendel and Miner Nelin entered the stage. They walked side by side in an attempt to look amicable, but it was obvious there was barely suppressed hatred between the two of them. Each of them took a podium.

  Chairman Grendel raised his arms to address the audience.

  “Comrades! Fellow goblins! We are here today for what has become an annual tradition, the election-eve chairmancy debates. Before we begin, I’d like to warn my opponent–” He gave a little nod to Miner Nelin. “–that I’m rather used to winning these things. May he have better luck than his thirty-three predecessors.”

  There was scattered laughter. Grizelda knew that Miner Nelin would give a clever retort next. That was how it worked. But she wasn’t following the debate. It was time for her to go. She slid out of her seat and started climbing down one of the ladders that connected the Hall’s upper levels together. Each level she passed she checked that the coast was clear, but all she saw were rows and rows of goblins apparently enraptured by the proceedings below them. Nobody turned to look at her.

  She easily switched from the ladders to the stairs while the voices droned on above her. The stage over her head was silhouetted by the spotlights, a black square with a corona. What light managed to get past the stage threw the small circle of floor at the bottom of the Hall into a murky twilight. She crossed it quietly, and had almost made it to the foot of the entrance arch when somebody grabbed her arm.

  “Who’s there?” a voice said, and pulled her backward, into one of the beams of light bleeding down from the stage. In the instant she saw that it was Mechanic Lenk who had her, he saw her, too. He pulled her closer.

  “Grizelda? What are you doing here?”

  “What are you doing here?” Furious at him, she tried to twist away, but his long nails dug into her arm.

  “Tell me where you’re going! You’re up to something dangerous and I know it!”

  She glared at him.

  Lenk met her gaze with equal intensity. “As of December the fourth, you had traveled through one of the passes up to the surface on at least two occasions. Crome also tells me you are behaving strangely. This cannot go on.”

  In her surprise, for a moment she stopped struggling. It had been Lenk. Lenk, who could not even get together the courage to help defend her against Nelin’s faction, it had been Lenk who’d sent that spy after her.

  “Of all the people, I never would have thought…”

  “I never intended Bolo to try to hurt you. I hired him to look after you, tell me if you were getting into trouble. I sacked him after the unfortunate alley incident.”

  “I didn’t think you had it in you,” she said.

  His grip on her arm tightened. “Tell me where you’re going.”

  “Not until you tell me what you’re doing down here! Spying on me some more?”

  “No. Didn’t I just tell you? I don’t know a thing about what you’ve been doing since the fourth.” His expression was hard to read in the half-light. “If you must know, I always leave these meetings as early as possible so I can get more work done. The Chairman turns a blind eye, though if I officially got caught, I’d get fined.”

  His explanation fell flat. The coward Lenk, now what was he up to? She had to get up to the sewers or else she would be late. Above their heads, either the Miner or the Chairman had scored a touché, because the crowd broke into scattered applause.

  She spoke in a low growl to avoid being overheard. “If you don’t let me go, I swear I’m going to scream, and they’ll catch both of us.” She tried to twist away again, but he held her all the tighter.

  “And I say you’re not. You’re much more afraid of getting caught than I am. A fine? What do I care about a fine? You’re going to go right back up those stairs and you’re going to stay there until this debate is over.”

  He turned as if to march her back up the stairs, but she made a sudden movement, a last desperate attempt to wrench herself free. It didn’t work, but it knocked him off balance. His head hit the stone of the arch. He grunted, and for a moment his grip slackened. It was all Grizelda needed. She pulled herself loose and sprinted out into the street.

  Laricia’s fliers were suiting up in the machine graveyard. Kricker sat on the edge of the Death Ledge struggling into his riding boots. Tunya was there, too, as well as Geddy, who’d decided to go along with the breakout though he did not approve. Not all of the ratriders had, though. There were definitely fewer pixies putting on their riding gear around Kricker than the same time before their last breakout.

  He could have been one of the ones that were gone. He could have said he didn’t think they should be going in there a second time, and nobody would have guessed the real reason he didn’t want to fly. But Tunya was going.

  Plus, he had a feeling Grizzy was going to need all the help she could get.

  Laricia, already fully dressed, strode up and down the clear space behind them, offering advice to some, checking the tightness of straps for others. When she got to Kricker, she stopped.

  Kricker acknowledged her with a grunt and continued to pull on his boots. She squatted down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Stop. You’re sitting this one out.” She spoke quietly, so they’d be out of earshot of the others.

  “No, I’m not.” With a final yank, he got one boot on and started to work on the next. “They need as many of us as they can.”

  “You were ill, physically ill, this afternoon. I can tell.”

  Kricker scanned the ledge around him. “Where are my goggles?”

  “You won’t lose face. I’ll make up an excuse for the others.”

  “I’m going.”

  “All right, I’ll be frank with you.” Laricia folded her arms. “Things might get hot out there tonight. I don’t know. If it does, I won’t have time to come pick you up again. You’ll be on your own.”

  “I’m going!”

  She didn’t argue with him any more. She stood up without a word, and turned her attention to the rest of the fliers.

  “Get your goggles on and find your bats, everybody,” she called. “We’re moving out.”

  Meanwhile, Warden Calding had called a general assembly of all the prison staff. Elbow-to-elbow they stood before him, officers and gendarmes alike, crowded into the too-small officers’ mess. Calding walked back and forth the head of the room as he delivered their instructions.

  “I want every entrance to the goblin tunnels covered. Stay in the shadows, don’t show yourselves. Wait until they’re right on top of you. Does everybody understand?”

  Grizelda was shaken by the incident at the Union Hall, but she forced herself to keep walking. Shaken, no, she was shaking, but she wouldn’t acknowledge it. And what would happen to her when she went back to the Union? It was too late, that was what.

  They would not all meet before they began the breakout; Jamin had decided even getting all the Undergrounders together in one place was too dangerous. Instead, each of the prearranged pairs would meet in locations scattered across the underside of Lonnes. Grizelda’s meeting place with Toby was in the sewers not far from the place where he’d first fallen on her.

  Toby was already waiti
ng for her when she got there. His look was chilly as he got to his feet.

  “Are you ready to go?” he said.

  She nodded. There was a lantern and two crowbars that had been left waiting for them; she picked them up and handed one crowbar to Toby.

  “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 27

  “I don’t like this, Geddy.”

  Laricia came up alongside Geddy as he was flying down a long straightaway and settled into pace beside him. They were in the abandoned goblin mines, near one of the cellblock entrances. He hadn’t expected her to come; this was far from the route they’d agreed on.

  “What is it? Did you see somebody?”

  He looked over his shoulder at her; a quick glance was all he could afford. She kept her eyes on her flying, impassive.

  “That’s just the thing. Nobody,” she said. “You’d think this time they’d have doubled security down here. Where is everyone?”

  “What do you want to do about it?”

  She tsked. On either side, the darkened doorways to the mine shafts flew past them. “We’ve got to call it off. This is getting too weird. Go tell Tunya and the two of you spread the word, all right? I’m just going to scout on ahead.”

  She sped up. Geddy was just beginning to turn when something exploded out of the doorway below them, a whirl of blue uniform, pockets and hands.

  “Gotcha!” came a man’s voice. Something hit Hoarfrost’s belly and his bat was sent tumbling off course. And he was spinning like a skipping stone, unable to concentrate on anything more than keeping on Hoarfrost’s back.

  “Shit!” That was Laricia.

  “Huh?”

  Finally Hoarfrost righted himself and Geddy could see. There were two gendarmes in the tunnel. One of them stared at his hands, then up at him and Laricia. “Mike, what the hell are those things?”

  “I don’t know. Don’t let them get away!” said the other one. He lunged for Laricia.

  She swooped out of the way just in time and brought Apollo down to bite on his hand, hard.

  “Get out of here!” she yelled at Geddy.

  The gendarme yelled in pain and pulled away. Geddy hesitated. What if Laricia needed help? Then there was a bang and a bullet whizzed past him, rocking him with turbulence. He caught her gesturing frantically at him to move, and he got ready to make a dash for it…

  There was a horrible jerk.

  Geddy found himself upside-down, squeezed in a furry and enclosed space, so tight he could scarcely breathe. He felt Hoarfrost pressed against him squirming mightily to get out of the gendarme’s hand. Hoarfrost must have managed to get a bite in because there was a cry of pain and for a moment the grip loosened. Geddy struggled forward in a panic, trying to get out between the man’s fingers before he was crushed again. All he got was a glimpse of tunnel ceiling and Laricia winging away from them, then the fingers closed in.

  Desperately Laricia pushed Apollo harder, harder. It had all gone wrong. It was a trap. They had Geddy and even now they were doing who knew what to him. She had to push the thought out of her mind; it was too horrible. First she had to warn the others.

  She was so busy running over in her mind which of the Undergrounders would be closest that she overshot the first pair. A blur went by below her, and she brought Apollo around in a hard turn. It was Katarin and Stevry hurrying down the tunnel, heads down. She dove, flying into their faces to get their attention.

  “Stop! Stop! It’s a trap! Pull out!”

  They looked up at her. Then without a word, they turned around and started running the other way. Laricia didn’t waste any time watching them. She was already flying off to the next group.

  The only warning Grizelda got was Geddy’s muffled voice somewhere ahead of her. She didn’t even have time to turn invisible.

  “Stop! It’s a–”

  Then she was shoved sideways and onto her knees. Somebody twisted her arms behind her back and pressed her down, so her face was inches from the floor. Beside her there were feet scuffling and a thud.

  “You’re both under arrest for high treason. Get up.”

  The grip relaxed slightly. She’d had all the wind knocked out of her and for a moment she stayed where she was, stunned. It had all happened so fast, she didn’t have time to take it in that– Lord, it was a–

  The gendarme gave her a warning kick. She got up. Toby was pulling himself off the floor nearby, supervised closely by another gendarme. He had Toby’s wrists by one hand; the other was held aloft, clutching something. Geddy.

  “Don’t crush him!” she cried.

  Something metal pressed into the small of her back. “Come this way,” the gendarme said.

  “Jamin, it’s a trap! What do we do?”

  Jamin and Mitchell turned in surprise as Laricia flew down to meet them.

  “Geddy’s been taken prisoner. There are gendarmes waiting at the entrances to all of the cells. They know!”

  Jamin blanched, but he struggled to recover himself. “How many people know?”

  “Katarin and Stevry. And now you two.”

  “Tell everybody to get back to the meeting cave. We’ll decide what to do there.”

  “Right!” Laricia rose and flew off.

  Kricker heard a scream. It was not a scream of fear but of fury – so piercing that he could hear it clearly even though its source was nowhere in sight. He recognized it instantly. It was Tunya.

  Up till then he’d been having a miserable night, flying low and slow around some less-than-critical tunnels, but as soon as he heard Tunya screaming he turned his bat right around and flew in what he hoped was the right direction. He had nothing but sound to work on. She could be anywhere, on the opposite side of Lonnes for all he knew. He tried not to think about it.

  Then he turned a corner and there she was. She’d been cornered by a pair of gendarmes who were doing their best to catch her. She was constantly in motion, weaving back and forth, trying to find an opening and dash through it. Every time they blocked her she made another cry of frustration. Even then, her eyes sparkled.

  Kricker yelled before he could even think about it. “Hey! Hey, over here!”

  One of the gendarmes turned and pointed. “Look, there’s another one of them fairies!”

  This was exactly what he’d hoped would happen, though what he was going to do next he wasn’t quite sure. After a moment’s hesitation, he waved his arms over his head. “That’s right, over here! Come and get me!”

  “Kricker, what are you doing?” Tunya’s voice was higher than usual.

  “Distracting them so you can get away!” The gendarmes had both stopped to look at him now. He blew a raspberry. It had the desired effect: one of them took a step forward and swiped at him with the butt of his gun. He darted out of the way just in time, making a stomach-lurching U-turn.

  “Stop! Don’t pay attention to him! Over here!” Tunya looped around the gendarme’s head. He obliged and took aim at her instead.

  “Look, I’m trying to rescue you here–”

  “No. You get out–”

  “No. Your momma!” And with that he dove straight for the gendarme’s face. He had his lantern-stick out, trying frantically to jab something with the pointed end… He wasn’t sure if he ever connected. A moment later something hit his bat and the world was sent spinning. The other gendarme had reentered the fight and gotten a blow in with his gun.

  Then Tunya screeched. Kricker couldn’t tell what she was doing, he was still seeing double. There was a whirl of color around the gendarmes, flashing, jabbing, and they simply could not connect with her. He shook his head, trying to clear it.

  “We’re pixies!” At least he was pretty sure that’s what he said as he flew in after her.

  Finally one of the gendarmes managed to fire off a shot.

  Tunya pulled up with a jerk. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Kricker nodded. Together they shot off down the hall.

  She was doing it all over again. That iron grip on
her shoulder, the swaying lantern, the layers and layers of prison cells – it could have been that rainy day in November again, the day her normal life ended. Only this time there was a gun pointed at her back and Toby was with her.

  The two gendarmes were marching them at gunpoint up the stairs of the cell blocks. Geddy was still clutched in the other gendarme’s hand. She hadn’t heard any sound from him since they’d been caught.

  It had been planned. The whole thing had been planned. Katarin had tried to warn her the purge was a trap when they read about it in the newspaper, but she wouldn’t listen just because she’d wanted to prove a point, that witches could do Corvain some good. And now the Undergrounders were all going to pay for it.

  These gendarmes, they must have all been sitting there waiting for them.

  There was little point in struggling. The gendarmes had them at gunpoint, after all, and where would she run? Back to the Goblin Union? Instead Grizelda did her best to go looking good. She walked unnaturally erect, head up, chin jutting, and hoped Toby was doing the same, though she couldn’t afford to turn her head to look. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

  When they got to the top of the stairs the gendarmes unbarred the entrance door and led them into the medieval-looking halls in the bottom of the fort. Someone was waiting for them there.

  “We caught a couple of them, sir,” one of the gendarmes behind her said, but Grizelda hardly noticed. All of her attention was focused on the man who had received them. It was him. It was the officer who had interrogated her the day she was arrested. Sure, he had the warden’s insignia now, and he was looking frayed when before he was so calm. But she would recognize him anywhere. She could tell he recognized her, too, because from the first moment he was staring.

  “It’s you!” he said.