Iona lowered her rifle. His speech rang true, heartfelt, not a hint of deception. “If you know all of this, then why are you here? I mean, if you’re all for the gift of life and against Alex’s witchy ways, it sounds like you’re a religious man. Why were you condemned to hell?”

  He continued staring at the portraits. “My crime was the worst of all. Like you said, I knew all of this. Nevertheless, I ignored the truth to gain power for myself.” He turned toward her. “But if you’re going to find your friend, you shouldn’t focus on me. In fact, I advise you to douse your light and hide.”

  Footsteps tromped above. Iona shone her light on a stairway at the rear of the chamber. It climbed to a balcony railing that ran along all four sides of the room, like a barrier for those above to safely observe the first floor.

  As the footsteps grew louder, Iona swept her light to a door under one of the portraits. She hurried to the door, opened it, and aimed her light inside. It appeared to be an empty closet. After flicking the light off, she entered, closed the door partway, and looked out through the gap. Since the closet was so shallow, aiming a long gun from inside was impossible. Keeping the rifle clutched in one hand, she withdrew the Toger with the other and pushed the barrel through the gap, whispering, “Don’t fail me now.”

  In the dim glow coming from the drawbridge opening, Bart stood facing the stairway, his hands folded in front. The tromping from above drew closer and closer, but he held his ground, waiting quietly.

  Soon, two beasts stomped down the stairs with Ben, each holding a clawed hand around an arm as they dragged him—shirtless, his head low, and his boots sliding while blood made a trail behind him. The beasts, bearing horns on their heads, drooling mouths with protruding fangs, and naked bodies except for hair covering their loins and legs, looked like storybook trolls.

  As they passed, Iona seethed. The urge to burst out and slaughter the monsters nearly erupted, but Ben might get hurt in the onslaught. It would be more sensible to bide her time and see if they would lead her to Alex.

  The trolls halted in front of Bart and listened as he spoke to them too softly for Iona to hear. Was he in league with them? Would he give away her hiding place?

  Hang sensible. Now was her chance. She threw the door open and emptied the Toger into the trolls, blasting them with multiple bullets to the head. They fell, dropping Ben facedown to the floor between them. Iona holstered the Toger, looped the rifle’s strap over her shoulder, and ran to him. Crouching at his side, she touched his back, scarred by earlier burns but not otherwise harmed. Using both hands, she heaved him over to his back. Angry welts crossed his chest, dripping along crooked red lines that ran into his camo pants.

  “Ben,” she whispered sharply, “can you hear me?”

  His eyelids fluttered open. “Iona?”

  “Yes.” She pulled his hands and set his arms around her neck. “Can you hold on to me while I lift you?”

  “I think so.” His muscles flexed. “Ready.”

  Pushing with her legs, she rose while lugging him upward, pressing her body against his bloody chest as she strained with all her might. When he managed to set his feet down and take on some of his own weight, the pressure eased. Although he wobbled terribly, he stayed upright.

  Iona glared at Bart as he stood watching with his hands folded. “Are you going to help me or just stand there gawking?”

  Bart smirked. “You appear to be doing fine.”

  “Whatever.” Keeping an arm tight around Ben’s waist, she shifted to his side, his arm draped over her shoulders. “Walk with me. Lean on me if you need to.”

  As they shuffled together toward the drawbridge, Bart walked at her side. “I talked to Alexandria’s minions. They lashed him more than twenty times with a whip, but he wouldn’t divulge any helpful information. So they drugged him with a truth serum and were taking him to Alexandria for interrogation.”

  “That means they know you.” Iona grunted as she helped Ben onto the drawbridge. “You’re in league with Alex.”

  He let out a derisive huff. “She thinks I am, which gives me a certain amount of freedom whenever I come here. Actually, we know each other quite well. I don’t trust her, and she doesn’t trust me, which is a good arrangement for us both.”

  “Well, pardon me for joining the club that doesn’t trust you.” New stomping noises erupted from the castle. She picked up her pace, pulling harder as she half dragged Ben across the drawbridge’s creaking wood. “If you want to prove yourself, you’ll get those trolls off my tail.”

  “Consider it done.” Bart reversed course and strode back into the castle.

  Ben, now balancing himself, walked gingerly at Iona’s side. When they reached the end of the drawbridge and sloshed through the shallow water, she guided him to the bridge that spanned the soul-filled gorge. “This path leads to a thick, thorny hedge. I got through it. I know you can, too. On the other side, we’ll have to face some kind of wild beasts, but we’ll manage. Somehow. At least we’ll probably be out of Alex’s range.”

  An arrow zipped past Iona’s face, missing her nose by inches. She whirled toward the source.

  At least fifty trolls tromped across the drawbridge, carrying bows, spears, and clubs. They would be on her side of the swamp in seconds.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Trudy blew on the pile of scorched sticks at the mouth of the cave. The embers brightened. As she begged them to grow, Jack looked on, rubbing his hands together, a portable ham radio sitting next to his hip. “Last chance, Sis. If it doesn’t catch this time, we have to bug out.”

  A flame sprouted, then ebbed. “No, no, no.” Trudy added shavings she had whittled from a broken board. “Come on, little fire, you can do it.”

  “Sis, we can’t stay. We have to find higher ground and contact Kat or Ben.”

  “Higher ground won’t help. Kat and Ben probably think we’re still using our phones. Those stupid giants can’t figure out how to answer a call, so Ben and Kat will think we’re just not answering.”

  “At least the stupid giants had this radio in the tower’s outpost cabin. Anyway, there’s that other reason we have to stay on the move.”

  “What’s that?”

  Jack gritted his teeth. “We’re about to freeze our butts off!”

  She blew once more, then looked at him. “I can’t help it that giants are so flammable. I picked through every coat. They were all practically ashes.”

  “As you already told me five other times.”

  “Because you won’t listen.” The flame grew and crawled along the shavings. She pumped a fist. “Yes!”

  As the fire took hold and ignited larger pieces of wood, Jack set his hands close. “Score one for my persistent sister.”

  She added a few more wood splinters. “If we’re keeping track, I’m ahead by three.”

  “Two. My Russian saved our butts, and I was right about coming to this hill. I knew I saw a cave. That makes you ahead by only one.”

  “It’s not a cave.” Trudy touched the rocky ceiling only inches above her head. “It’s barely a cleft in the hillside. And I already counted the Russian thing, even though my Russian helped, too.”

  Jack sighed. “Okay. You win. We’ll stay here awhile. Let’s say two hours.”

  “Why set a limit? We have plenty of wood. And the mission’s a success. No tower. No more sending souls into oblivion. And no locking Earth in a force field or whatever it is. For once, we accomplished a mission without botching it.”

  Jack picked up a burning stick. “We destroyed the angel hive without botching it.”

  “Unless you count the cannonball door that nearly broke your hip and the fire that burned HQ to the ground so we couldn’t use its resources anymore.” Trudy waved a hand. “No, no. That’s not botching the mission. Not at all.”

  Jack tossed the stick into the fire. “Well, don’t jinx this one. We’re still a long way from home.”

  “No worries. When Kat decides to call on the ham frequencies, she’ll figure out a way to get us some cold-weather gear or maybe even send a passenger drone when the wind lets up.”

  “Let’s hope it’s soon.” As the fire continued growing, Jack and Trudy set their hands close, ears tuned to the radio. Cold air swirled, threatening to snuff the flames at times, but it always battled back well enough to keep them from freezing.

  The radio crackled. “Hello,” someone with a deep voice said. “Can anyone hear me?”

  Trudy lifted her brow. “Is that Leo?”

  “Sounds like him.” Jack picked up the handset and spoke into it. “Leo? It’s Jack. How’s life on the other side of the Arctic Circle?”

  “I’m not there. We’ve run into …” Static garbled his voice.

  Trudy slid closer. “What was that?”

  “Leo, repeat what you just said. Reception’s bad.”

  “We’ve run into a catastrophe. Ben, Iona, and I were transported through the Oculus Gate to another world.”

  While Leo told the story as quickly as he could, Trudy and Jack stared at each other with their mouths hanging open. When Leo finished, Jack gnashed his teeth. “Ben’s in hell? Like, the real hell?”

  “And Iona?” Trudy said.

  “That’s what I have been told. I can’t verify it, of course.”

  “What are you going to do?” Jack asked. “And what do you want us to do? It’s not like we can join you. We disabled one of the towers. No more transports through the Gate.”

  “I suspected as much.” Leo’s voice seemed to break but not because of static. “I’m not sure what my options are yet, but you have a couple. If you want to help me rescue Ben and Iona, you can repair the tower and figure out how to come here. Caligar said he would watch for you.”

  “Caligar,” Trudy repeated. “You said he’s the giant who threw Ben into hell. We’re supposed to trust him?”

  “He is being quite helpful now that the queen of hell can no longer hear him.”

  “The queen of hell?” Jack whistled. “This is getting weirder by the second.”

  “Trust me. There’s much more. But it’s not important at the moment.”

  “If we repair the tower,” Trudy said, “we’ll put our planet in danger.”

  “I’m afraid I’ll have to leave that dilemma to you. I can’t spend any more time thinking about it. I have to save Iona. And Ben, of course.”

  Jack waved a hand, as if Leo were there. “Then go. Do whatever you have to do. We’ll figure it out.”

  “I will. Goodbye, my friends. I hope to see you again.”

  The radio fell silent.

  Jack and Trudy stared at each other again for a long moment, the fire now blazing hot. Trudy broke the silence. “So much for not botching the mission.”

  “Yeah.” Jack’s shoulders sagged. “Our record’s intact.”

  “Bad record or not, we still have to go after Ben and Iona.” Trudy picked up a stick and snapped it in two. “We can’t abandon them.”

  “Leo will track them down. You know he will, and he mentioned that Dr. Harrid guy coming to earth with the giant’s kid. That means Leo and the others have a way to get here, too.”

  “Only if Leo can rescue them. He might need us. I mean, we’re talking about hell and some queen who’s powerful enough to get people in other worlds to do her bidding.”

  “Are you saying Leo can’t handle it?”

  She slung the broken stick into the fire. “No, but I’m wondering why you’re arguing against us helping him.”

  Jack waved in the tower’s direction. “Because we might wipe out the entire planet!”

  Trudy sighed. “Good point. I forgot about that for a second.”

  Jack gestured with his hands as he spoke. “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll work our collective tails off fixing the tower, but we won’t fire it up unless we can contact Kat and get an update on Earth’s stability. If she gives us a green light, maybe we can set a timer to shut the network down after it zaps us through the Gate.”

  Trudy lifted a burning stick and stared at its flaming end, imagining it as the operational tower. “That’s a big if. We don’t have a timer.”

  “I can rig something up. Maybe. At least I can try.”

  She showed him the stick. “Okay, but we also have to rig up a tiki torch on top of the tower so we can warm our hands. Frozen fingers don’t get much work done.”

  “I’ll leave that to you. Three extra points if you can get it done. For now, I’m going to higher ground to try to call Kat.” He grabbed the radio and spoke into the handset as he rose and walked out of their shelter. “Kat. It’s Jack. Can you hear me?”

  “Get low!”

  While Ben dropped, Iona whipped the rifle off her shoulder and fired into the horde. Several trolls fell off the drawbridge into the mire. As they splashed, the water roiled with shining serpents that coiled around their victims. Flames erupted. Trolls squealed, the water sizzling around them. The other trolls, still at least thirty strong, marched on, the lead row now at her end of the drawbridge.

  The rifle clicked. Iona ejected the empty magazine and grabbed another from her belt. It slipped from her blood-slickened hand and fell to the ground. As she lurched for it, the closest troll lunged at her with a club.

  Just as she grabbed the magazine and ducked, a shot rang out. The troll fell on top of her. She shoved it off, its body limp.

  More shots fired. Troll after troll dropped. With no time to look for the reason, Iona slapped the magazine into the rifle, and joined in the volley. She held the trigger and mowed the trolls down, making a growing pile of ugly corpses.

  When the last one fell, she turned toward the source of the other gunfire. Leo stood with his rifle at his shoulder, his face scratched and bleeding. He lowered his weapon and smiled. “Be glad you’re wounded. Easier to follow your scent that way.”

  “Leo!” She strapped the rifle to her shoulder, leaped up, and embraced him, her head against his chest. “I’m so glad to see you!” She pulled back. “And not so glad. I mean, after all, this is hell.”

  “Did you think I wouldn’t follow you? Even to hell?” He nodded toward Ben. “Good to see you alive and breathing. It looks like it’s mission accomplished for our little spitfire.”

  Ben climbed slowly to his feet. “She’s amazing. Really. Maybe the best I’ve ever seen.”

  Warmth spread to Iona’s ears as she smiled. “He’s drugged, but I’ll take the compliment anyway.”

  “Drugged or not,” Leo said, “it’s my duty to provide him with an update. Caligar was able to establish a communications link to Earth through the Oculus Gate. I know trusting him isn’t exactly the perfect plan, but I had to make a quick decision, and it worked. I used the link to contact Jack and Trudy to let them know what’s going on, then I leaped into the portal. Caligar chose to stay and try to call Winella to get word about Bazrah. Although he tried to hide it, he’s worried, as you might expect.”

  “Right. Who wouldn’t be? He’s already lost his daughter, and Dr. Horrid has plans for Bazrah. Evil plans. You can count on that.”

  “Speaking of count.” Leo looked at the castle. “Any more of those unholy gremlins inside?”

  Iona gazed at it as well. After Ben’s rescue and Leo’s arrival, it didn’t seem as ominous as before, more like a stage prop from a Halloween horror movie. “It’s a big castle, so maybe. You can bet Alex knows we’re out here. I met a two-faced soul named Bart who pretended to help me. I think he probably clued her in.”

  Leo pointed. “Speak of the devil?”

  A woman emerged from the castle onto the drawbridge, blonde hair draping the shoulders of an ankle-length gown of black silk. Her head erect and her pace slow, her stunning appearance demanded attention. Yet, the gnarled trees seemed to bend and twist even further, as if hiding from her piercing gaze.

  When Iona caught her notice, the two locked stares. Iona refused to blink, though the woman’s silvery eyes penetrated like a superheated drill. After a few seconds in the visual lock, the woman flashed a barely perceptible smile before disengaging from the contest.

  She strode to the end of the bridge and halted behind the waist-high pile of trollish carnage. After scanning the corpses for a moment, she looked at the trio, her expression and voice completely calm. “I am Alexandria, queen of this realm. Who are you?”

  Leo cleared his throat. “Passersby. No one of consequence.”

  “Passersby?” Alex spread a hand toward the dead trolls. “Did you kill my pets?”

  “Pets?” Iona scowled. “They attacked me.”

  Alex’s brow rose. “Oh? Did you enter my house uninvited?”

  “Only to rescue my friend.” Iona nodded toward Ben. “He was a prisoner in the castle.”

  “Ah! You’re a friend to another intruder. That explains everything. My pets took your friend captive because he entered my domain without permission. And I have been told that a young woman who matches your description shot two of them without provocation. It’s no wonder they retaliated.”

  “You’ve been told?” Iona set a fist on her hip. “By Bart?”

  “Bart?” She tapped a finger on her chin. “Oh, you probably mean Bartholomew. I haven’t seen him in quite some time.”

  Leo sidled close to Iona. “She’s stalling. Something’s baking in the witch’s oven, if you get my meaning.”

  “Sure do.” Iona curled her arm around Ben’s and called, “I’ll take this intruder with me. We won’t cause you any more trouble.”

  Alex swept an arm across the carcasses. “After killing these beautiful creatures, do you think you can simply leave without consequences? And where do you think you will go? You cannot escape hell without my help. Also, night approaches, and you will face far worse evils than what I have in store.”

  Leo took a step closer to Alex. “And exactly what evils do you have in store?”

  She stood her ground without a flinch. “Nothing more than an interview, though my questions might cause you discomfort. Visitors from the world above are unusual, and in the past they have always caused trouble. As queen, it is my responsibility to protect my domain.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31