Curse of the Spider King (47 page)

She did, without hesitation.

A Gwar's axe
whooshed
through the space above her head. The axe stroke was meant to decapitate the Sentinel. It took one of the Drefid's clawed hands off at the wrist instead. The white-haired warrior shrieked in terror, holding the stump of his mangled limb with luminous, purple blood streaming from the wound.

Miss Finney thanked the axe-swinging Gwar by driving her short sword into the foe's stomach up to the hilt. As the enemy fell away, she wrested the Gwar's broadsword from its hand and plunged it into the one-handed Drefid in a single fluid motion.

It was over in moments.

“Thank you, Jimmy,” she said. “That's the second time your gift has bailed me out.”

“Are yu kidding?” Jimmy asked. “Yu're the one doin' it all! I can't believe yu can fight like that. All this time, I thought yu were just a teacher.”

“Ah, Jimmy,” she said, ushering him along. “What I wouldn't give to go back to that simple, lovely life of reading and sipping cups of tea.”

“No time for conversation,” said Regis, now free of her Scottish speech. “We're far from out of this scrape.”

Jimmy couldn't help but grin at Regis. He still couldn't believe his luck of being near her.

Miss Finney scanned the castle grounds, what had now become an otherworldly battlefield. Fire. Smoke. Blood. And the enemy seemed to have no end to its reinforcements. “I . . . I don't see how—”

“Just wait!” said Jimmy. “I've seen it.”

“What?” Regis and Miss Finney turned to their young lord.

Jimmy smiled. “Kiri Lee's coming,” he said.

“How long can you stay up?” asked Edward, pulling weapons from the green satchels they'd retrieved from the castle. The two Elves were hidden for the moment by a scruffy berm on the edge of the battle.

“I . . . I'm not sure,” Kiri Lee replied. “The day the other Sentinels saw me playing behind the castle, I think I walked the air for a minute, maybe more. I have to keep moving, or I'll sink.”

“You've felt how heavy these satchels are,” he said. “These swords and axes, especially the maces, will likely affect your ability to stay aloft. You will have to make your leaps very strategically, so that you come down in safety each time. When you're empty, you come back behind this hill to reload, do you understand?”

She nodded.

“Okay, how does this feel?”

Kiri Lee hefted the satchel. “I've got it,” she said. “I'll make shorter leaps until I've given out enough weapons to lighten the load.”

“Very well,” he said, admiring Kiri Lee's determination. “Our people need the help that only you can give. Be careful, and watch for enemy bowmen.”

“I will, but . . . where are you going?”

“I'm going to look after the humans. I fear too many have seen too much here to deny it. Tonight's events will likely shatter the humans' illusion that their world is all there is.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” asked Kiri Lee.

Edward was silent a moment. “That, my dear, remains to be seen. Endurance and Victory!”

“What?” asked Kiri Lee.

“Never mind,” said Edward. “You'll learn. Now, go!”

Tommy and Kat raced to the aid of a Sentinel who had been cornered by a pair of Drefids. It was Ril! She was wearing an evening gown and had no weapon to defend herself.

“I don't know!” Kat yelled as they ran.

“What?” Tommy scowled.

“In your mind, you kept asking, ‘What are we going to do? What are we going to do?' Well, I don't know, either!”

“Would you get out of my head?!” Tommy growled.

They came up behind the two Drefids, and they could see that Ril was a bloody mess. She'd been gouged and cut, especially her forearms, her only defense against their slashes.

I'll get the one on the left,
Tommy thought. Kat looked over at him and nodded. They gathered what speed they could and attacked.

Tommy took his short sword in both hands and went to drive it into the Drefid's back below the shoulder, but the blade did not pierce the armor there. It slid down the plate metal, and Tommy fell. But he recovered enough to plunge the blade into the Drefid's lower leg.

The Drefid released a low moan, swung around, and backhanded Tommy. In all his life, Tommy had never been struck like that. Not even when he'd lost control of his bike and ran into a pole.

Tommy landed on his back several feet away. His shoulder felt like someone had branded him with a hot iron. He looked and saw three streaks of blood beginning to spread, his shirt torn.

Kat fared little better. She had one of Mr. Charlie's swords, so it was plenty sharp. But she stumbled, throwing off her aim. Her blade sliced the Drefid's side rather than piercing it. Kat, too, fell.

The Drefid slammed down its clawed fist, stabbing six inches into the turf . . . but Kat had rolled away.

“Friend of Berinfell,” came a voice from high above. “Catch!”

All turned and looked up in the sky. Someone, a young lady with dark hair, was running across the sky twenty feet above them. Thinking he was seeing things, Tommy shook his head. But still, there she was.

Wait, that's Kiri Lee! She can fly!

Kat replied aloud, “It looks like it.”

Kiri Lee dropped two weapons to the Sentinel: a spear and a mace. She caught them, ducked a fierce swipe from one Drefid, and slammed the mace against the enemy's side. Ribs obliterated by the blow, the Drefid crumpled to one knee.

But the other circled behind the Sentinel to get a better angle.

The Sentinel raised the mace and blocked the Drefid's high attack that she heard whistling down from behind. With the other hand, she blindly swung her spear around her back and up under the Drefid's chin. In a devastating move, she pushed up with all her might. Lightning quick, she pulled the spear out, rotated it around, and rammed it into the chest of the first Drefid who sprawled backward. Both enemies lay side-by-side, dead.

Tommy looked at Kat. “I need to learn how to do that.”

Ril ran to Tommy. “You're hurt,” she said.

“Barely,” Tommy blurted out, looking at the nasty gashes the Sentinel had sustained. She helped Tommy to his feet.

“Hey, what about me?” Kat asked. “I think I scraped my knee!”

All three of them laughed, but both Tommy's and Kat's expressions changed quickly to anguish. Suddenly, the fears and hurts of all the recent events came spilling out. Kat put her head in her hands. Tommy's tears streamed down his cheeks.

“I know it is a hard thing,” said Ril. “Come, there will be time to mourn later, but never in the midst of battle. We must find Galdarro!”

Having fought their way through the teeming combatants, Mrs. Galdarro, Mr. Spero, and several Dreadnaughts and Sentinels found a momentary reprieve, as well as a decent vantage point, on a modest hill near the castle parking lot. Mrs. Galdarro had been looking desperately for Tommy and Kat, but found herself entranced, watching Kiri Lee crisscross the battlefield through the air, dropping weapons to the Sentinels. “Surely the pure blood of lords flows in her veins,” she whispered.

“That it does,” said Mr. Spero.

“Elle!” Mr. Charlie and Jett were cresting the hill. “We've found them. They were with Ril.”

Mrs. Galdarro turned and saw Tommy and Kat run up, Ril close behind. “Don't you ever run off like that!” Mrs. Galdarro scolded them.

“You sound like my mom,” said Tommy. He was smiling, but his chin trembled. Kat's eyes looked distant and haunted.

“Oh, you poor dears,” said Mrs. Galdarro, and she embraced them, one under each arm. Mr. Wallace and Anna joined the embrace.

“Ril Taniel,” Mrs. Galdarro said, looking to the Sentinel. “It was by Ellos' hand that you found them.”

“By Ellos's hand, yes,” said Ril. “But they found me. In fact, if they had not intervened, I would be dead.”

“Elle!” Mr. Charlie called.

Mrs. Galdarro didn't respond. She was listening to Tommy and Kat's account of what had just transpired.

“Elle!” Mr. Charlie's voice was high and urgent. “We've got trouble.”

Mrs. Galdarro released the young Elves at last. She turned. The wall of Cragons they'd run into when they fled for the portal had finally crossed the field of battle and caught up to them. Around the tree creatures' trunklike legs, Warspiders teemed. Drefids and Gwar soldiers prowled in packs after them. It was a massive wave of enemies, but they did not yet attack.

Instead, their lines marched forward and curled around the hill. The Elves found themselves outnumbered ten to one and surrounded. And at the head of the pack, leading the charge, was a face the Sentinels and Dreadnaughts knew all too well.

“Mobius!” Mrs. Galdarro spat out the name. “I might have known.”

The Drefid commander's words spilled out from his pale, cracked lips in a venomous hiss. “Galdarro . . . so you've come out to play?”

She stepped in front of the lords and said, “You won't take them this time.”

“We don't want to take them,” he seethed. “No curse restrains us now—not from the prophecies, nor from the Spider King. We have come for blood.”

44

The Ruins

NEITHER THE Elves nor the enemy noticed the headlights winding through the woods and up the road leading to Dalhousie Castle. When the driver saw the fires, the destruction, and the bodies, he brought the cab to a screeching halt. Nelly, Johnny, and Autumn stared from the backseat. For several agonizing moments, no one spoke.

“Driver,” Nelly said at last. “Call the police. Call for ambulances and help. And then . . . get away from here as fast as you can.”

“What're yu doin', then?”

“We're getting out.”

“What're yu crazy? Yu can't get out here in this mess!”

Nelly said nothing more to the driver. She led the Brianmans out of the cab and across the road. The driver wasted no time in leaving them behind, peeling out and shooting back down the driveway.

“What's happening?” asked Johnny.

“Ah, Galdarro,” she said, “why didn't you listen to me?”

“What?” asked Autumn.

“I'm sorry,” said Nelly. “This is not the way it was supposed to happen. Somehow, the enemy has found us out.” She led Johnny and Autumn up and over several knolls, and they came to a taller hill that overlooked the field of battle.

“The trees!” said Johnny. “They're moving!”

“Those are Cragons,” said Nelly. “Dark-souled creatures from our world. And none too few.”

“Warspiders!” said Autumn.

“Gwar and Drefids as well,” said Nelly. “I see also our people there. Galdarro and others. They are surrounded.” Then her Elven eyes narrowed. “And Mobius leads the enemy. Fitting.” She glanced back to the children. “Listen, my young lords, there are weapons scattered all over the field. I am going to find a blade or two and play my part in this battle. I want you to remain here.”