The Captain, and Sayre, looked over at Bobby.
“I don’t think I can hold him like this forever.” As the Captain spoke, Bobby could already hear the strain in his voice. “It’s best that you get out of here.” The Captain nodded at the unconscious wizard on the floor. “With Nunn in his present state, I imagine you might be able to get out of this castle entirely.”
Bobby wasn’t so sure about all this. “Why should I trust you? Aren’t you working for Nunn?”
“Nunn and I have had a falling-out.” The Captain managed a grin. The scars lined up above the smile the way they used to. “My present condition should be proof enough of that. Nunn doesn’t take kindly to others going against his orders. Unfortunately, he sometimes forgets to tell others just what those orders are.” He grimaced. “I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what I have suffered.”
He started to cough again. Old Man Sayre coughed in time. “If I had any real strength,” the Captain managed after he’d caught his breath, “I’d get out of this place.”
So this was the escape Bobby had been looking for. But he didn’t want to go alone.
“My parents—” he began.
The Captain waved at the door. “Your mother is down the hall, with a couple of the other neighbors. I would get out of here now. I’m not as strong as I once was.”
His gaze snapped back to lock with that of Sayre. Both began to shake, as if sharing some collective fit. The Captain moaned, and this time Sayre made a noise as well. Bobby decided to take the Captain’s advice and get out of there. He ran past the two quivering forms.
As he hurried down the hall, he heard two voices speak in unison: “My—lawn.”
The stone corridor Bobby ran down was featureless, save for a single open doorway. He could hear voices in the room beyond. “Maybe we should go out there and see what’s happened.”
“No. Nunn hasn’t told us anything. I think we wait for his orders.”
“Maybe something’s happened to Nunn. Maybe he’s hurt—or even dead.”
A laugh. “Come on now, Harry. You’ve seen what Nunn can do.
What could hurt something like that?”
Bobby recognized the neighbors’ voices. He peeked around the corner of the doorway to see another large stone room like the one he had just left. Jackson and Dafoe stood in the center of the room, talking.
“I don’t know, Mr. Jackson,” Bobby interrupted. “But something did hurt him. He’s out cold.”
“Leo?” his mother’s voice said from the corner. She was huddled beneath a table, as if trying to hide from the light. Her head turned from side to side, but her eyes didn’t seem to focus on anything.
“No, Mom,” Bobby replied. “It’s just me.”
“Where’s Leo?” His mother clutched at her skirt, gathering the navy fabric in her fists. “I need my Leo.”
“You heard Bobby,” Dafoe said. “Maybe this Nunn isn’t as all-powerful as you suppose. Maybe we all made a mistake in staying.”
“How do we know this isn’t some sort of test?” Jackson shot back. “The minute we turn our backs on Nunn, he could kill us all as traitors!”
Bobby didn’t have time to listen to this argument. He knew what he had to do.
“Excuse me,” he said as he passed the two adults. “My mother and I have to go.”
“Leo?” his mother said weakly as he approached.
“I’m going to take you to Leo, Mom,” Bobby whispered. It was a lie, but what else could he say? “Me, you, Dad, we’ll all be back together again.”
“Together,” she repeated. She smiled at that.
“Give me your hand, Mom.” Bobby held out his own hand for her to grab. She focused on his fingers with a sharp intake of breath, as if even fixating on a set of fingers was enough to scare the wits out of her. Her own hand quivered as she reached out and took her son’s.
“Good, Mom.” Bobby gently drew her forward, out from under the table. “Now you’ve got to stand up.”
His mother stared at him like he was speaking some foreign language.
“For Dad, Mom,” Bobby urged. “We’re doing this for Leo.” His mother smiled a shy smile and shifted around so she could stand.
“I think you should stop there,” Mr. Jackson said behind them. Bobby looked around. “What do you mean?”
Jackson sneered down at him. “If you think I’m letting the two of you walk out of here, you’re crazy.”
“Oh, come on, Carl!” Dafoe objected. “What harm can it do?”
“Nunn wouldn’t like it,” Jackson replied. “Or did you forget we were working for Nunn now?”
There was a shuffling sound outside the door. “Someone’s coming,” Dafoe said softly.
Bobby turned back to his mother. “Mom, you really should get up.”
Jackson walked quickly across the room toward him. “Leave her there!”
“I will not!” Bobby was getting angry. What right did this guy have to tell him what to do? “My mom and I are getting out of here.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jackson stopped directly behind Bobby. He held up his arm as if he was about to clip Bobby’s head with the back of his hand. “You take one step toward that door, I swear I’ll kill you.”
“Ah, now,” Nunn’s voice said from the door, “that’s where your predecessor got himself into trouble.”
Bobby looked around to where the wizard sat outside the door, carried in the arms of the Captain on one side and Old Man Sayre on the other. Neither Sayre’s nor the Captain’s face held any expression whatsoever.
“Still, I think your initiative is laudable,” the wizard continued. “That’s why I’m making you the new captain of my guard. There are a few simple rules you’ll have to obey. I’ll explain them to you”—he nodded to Bobby—“after I’ve cleaned up the messy situation around here.”
Nunn waved for Bobby to come closer. “Now, Bobby, it’s time for us to complete our negotiations. I imagine we might find we have a great deal in common. Don’t you think it’s time we worked together?”
Bobby wasn’t going to do anything. Now that he had seen his mother up close, he hated the wizard even more.
“I won’t!” he screamed back at Nunn. “I won’t ever!”
“No, you won’t, Bobby,” a woman’s voice said.
With a soft pop, Mrs. Smith dropped into the room. A second pop, and she was joined by Obar.
Forty-Two
Todd wasn’t moving anymore.
That was the first thing he realized when he opened his eyes. The second was that he couldn’t see any of the Volunteers.
He heard the high cries of the Anno in the trees overhead.
He rolled from his litter and was on his feet in an instant, waiting for a new raft of arrows to fall. But there were no arrows yet, only the singsong voices of the little creatures calling for Mary Lou. And even those cries were growing fainter.
Todd felt a hand on his shoulder.
“It still wouldn’t be a bad idea if you stayed down,” Maggie said quietly.
Thomas emerged from behind a tree.
“Thought we were going to have another attack,” he announced, still studying the trees. “But they must of got what they wanted.”
“Unfortunately for whoever that was, hey?” A pile of leaves shook and rose to become Stanley.
Todd pointed back at the litter. “So you just left me out in the open for them?”
“Weren’t looking for you,” Thomas replied.
“We figured you were the safest among us,” Wilbert added with a laugh as he walked from behind another tree. “Why would the Anno want to shoot something that already looked dead?”
The Anno’s voices were gone completely now. But other voices took their place.
“Mary Lou!” a woman called from somewhere nearby. The Volunteers looked at one another.
“I’ll do the honors,” Maggie offered. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hello, the camp! We are friends! May we approach?”
“Yes, you may!” a deep voice called back. “We welcome you!”
“Forward,” Thomas remarked with a wave of his hand. All five of them walked in the direction of the voices. There was a clearing ahead, in the middle of which stood the Oomgosh.
“Many welcomes!” the tree man called in that booming voice of his. He waved one of his arms. There seemed to be something wrong with the other one, like it had been chopped off and replaced with a new green branch.
“The Newton Free Volunteers,” the Oomgosh announced to the others in the clearing. “Obar told us you were on your way.”
“I think Obar knows us better than we do,” Wilbert remarked, “for there were a few times we were not so sure we were coming.”
“Perhaps we should introduce ourselves,” Maggie began. “Todd!”
He turned at the sound of his name. It was his mother. Deep down inside, he realized, he never thought he’d see her again.
He felt himself smile as she rushed toward him. Still, he couldn’t let himself be too happy. Not yet.
“Where’s Dad?” he asked cautiously as his mother hugged him.
“He didn’t come with us,” she said simply. Todd couldn’t really tell if this made his mother happy or sad.
“He decided to stay behind with the wizard, Nunn,” another woman said. Todd looked up to see it was Nick’s mother, Mrs. Blake.
So Dad had stayed behind with Nunn? That was like his father. If he did one thing better than bullying, it was sucking up to the bigger bullies.
But that meant there was no reason for Todd not to be as happy as possible.
“Mary Lou!” Mrs. Dafoe wandered around the edge of the clearing, calling her daughter’s name. She didn’t look happy at all.
“What’s wrong here?” Maggie asked the Oomgosh.
“The girl has disappeared. One minute she was here, then as suddenly she was gone. Raven has gone to look for her.” The tree man paused and frowned. “I believe she’s in the trees.”
“Then she’s gone back to the Anno?” Todd asked. That meant she had been here only a few minutes ago. He wondered if he’d ever see her again.
“Why would she do that?” Mrs. Blake asked. “It sounded like she hated those things!”
The tiny leaves rustled as the Oomgosh shook his head. “Sometimes things happen in this place that you wouldn’t expect.” He grinned and shrugged his working shoulder. “It’s not that there are no explanations for these things. It’s just that the explanations are new as well.”
Todd wondered if the tree man meant that to be reassuring.
“Hey, Todd,” Jason called. Next to him stood Charlie. Or was it? The whole shape of his head had changed, making him look half dog and half dinosaur. The mutt was barely recognizable.
“But you mentioned something about making introductions,” Wilbert suggested now that things had quieted down.
Todd turned, along with everyone else. Something was crashing its way toward them through the forest.
Nick ran into their midst, stumbling to a halt. “I saw Mary Lou!”
Her mother rushed forward. “Where is she?”
“Gone?” Nick managed, gasping for breath. “That is, they’ve taken her away. Those little bald creatures.”
He paused for a minute, holding his stomach.
Nick swallowed, and straightened back up. “When I didn’t see her around, I went out looking for her.”
“Nick!” his mother reprimanded.
“Hey, Mom!” Nick gave his mother a pained look. “I can protect myself if I have to.” One hand gripped the handle of the sword. “Obar gave me this thing. I’ve had to learn how to use it.”
God, Nick was sounding full of himself. So he could use a sword!
Todd wanted to shove that sword down his throat.
“But Mary Lou,” Mrs. Dafoe insisted. “What happened to her?”
“She was struggling,” Nick answered, “but there were so many of them. I was too far away to do any good. And I didn’t want to draw my sword because—well, I just couldn’t.”
He looked at the ground for a moment, his breathing finally regular. When he looked up again, he added, “There was something else strange. There was some guy with her that wasn’t really there.”
Some guy who wasn’t really there? Todd really couldn’t believe that one. This was the sort of crap you got from Nick. He was the kind of guy who ended up writing poetry for the yearbook.
“The prince,” Jason said.
“The prince?” Mrs. Dafoe asked, even more confused than before.
“He was—sort of a ghost,” Jason explained. “Sometimes you could see right through him. And he sort of came and went mysteriously. But Mary Lou really liked him. She said he’d saved her more than once.”
“Maybe that’s why I saw him,” Nick mused. “Maybe he’ll help her again.”
Todd wouldn’t trust anything he found around here. If anyone was going to save her, it would be someone from the neighborhood.
“And Mary Lou?” Mrs. Dafoe asked again.
“I saw them take her up into the trees,” Nick admitted. The Volunteers looked at each other.
“No time now for introductions,” Thomas murmured. “We’ve got to bring her back,” Maggie agreed. “Been too long without a fight, hey?” Stanley added.
“The Oomgosh can help you find them,” the tree man offered. “And Raven will scout ahead.”
“Ma’am,” Wilbert said to Mrs. Dafoe, “we’ll have your daughter back in no time.”
“I’m going, too,” Nick announced, his hand still on his sword. “To overcome those things, you’ll need everyone who can help.” Nick’s mother started to protest, but instead only gave her son a disappointed look as he walked over to join the others.
“Hey!” Todd said. He wasn’t going to be left behind, especially if some feeble lit type like Nick was going. “I’ve got a knife. And I know how to fight.”
“Well, you’re not going to leave me!” Jason objected. “Jason!” his mother began.
“I think we all must go,” the Oomgosh interrupted. “We are at our strongest when we are together. We will all do our part to regain Mary Lou. But we must do so now.”
“What are they going to do to my daughter?” Mrs. Dafoe asked, her voice edging on panic.
“We can only hope that we are in time,” was the Oomgosh’s only reply.
Forty-Three
Mary Lou couldn’t be quiet any longer.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she screamed.
The People answered with that mockery of her name, over and over and over again.
The People had surrounded her, great lines of the small creatures to either side, hundreds of hands carrying her into the trees. They pressed against her like a second skin, making it almost impossible to move. They tied one vine beneath her arms, a second around her waist. The People suddenly fell away from her sides as they swung her out from one tree toward another. She saw dozens of tiny grinning faces waiting for her, and twice as many grasping hands.
“Let go of me!” Mary Lou was starting to sob. The hands - grabbed her and pulled her along a new branch. Her name was chanted again, over and over. The People once again pressed against her, lifting her at a silent signal.
“I want to be left alone!” she screamed, trying to be heard over the rising chorus of Merrilu! Merrilu!
“Try to be quiet,” the prince said at her side. She could barely see him beyond the row of grinning People who transported her.
“Being this upset only makes it worse for you.” Somehow she could hear his voice perfectly well, despite the People’s chanting.
Mary Lou jerked her head free from the tiny hands that cradled her. “Why did you do this?” she asked the prince. “You helped me to get away. Why did you bring me back here?”
The prince gave her one of his sad smiles. That smile still made her ache, if only a little.
“I’ve begun to remember. There are certain things that ar
e very important. Unfortunately, Mary Lou, you’re part of one of the most important pieces of all. Even without my memory, I realized that.”
“I should hate you,” Mary Lou replied. She was glad that made him frown. “Why would you do this to me? You said I was very special, that you would protect me. You gave your word!”
“No,” the prince said curtly, “I never made that kind of promise.” He shook his head, letting his gaze wander past the People to the treetops and the sky. “Back before I remembered, I didn’t realize I had that kind of word to give.”
“I wish you could give me your word now.”
He looked directly at her, his mouth set in a grim little smile. “I wish I could, too.”
She realized then how serious he was about this Ceremony. And how little she knew about it.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
“I don’t know that much about the particulars of the Ceremony,” the Prince said all too lightly. “I only know that it has to be done.”
She felt as if he was avoiding something. She wondered what he was really thinking behind that smile.
She sighed, and asked the question. “Are they going to kill me?”
The prince looked away from her. “No,” he said too quickly. A moment later, he added: “I don’t know. I don’t think you’ll die. I don’t think any of us will die, actually, until the dragon wants us to.”
Mary Lou frowned. She felt as if something had suddenly changed. It took her a moment to realize that the People were chanting something now that wasn’t her name.
“Dagar! Dagar!” they cried, as agitated as they were in the moment before the attack by the red furs. “Dagar! Raven! Dagar!”
With that, a great black bird swooped from the sky. A black bird with great yellow claws that raked at the People as he flew by. The People screamed. Some tried to fight the claws, others scrambled out of the way, a couple lost their balance and fell, shrieking, to the ground far below.
“Mary Lou!” the bird called in a voice that sounded like tires scraping across gravel. “Raven is here!” He fluttered his wings, rising from sight.
Mary Lou realized that all but a few of the People had stepped away.
Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1) Page 30
