~~~~~
The banquet hall had grown dark and chill, the massive fireplaces containing only embers. Katherine sat up slowly, rubbing the stiffness from her neck. Jackie, Biki, and Baldo all still lay sleeping, but Ammy stood far to the side looking out a small window. The sun had set, the waxing gibbous moon risen; the river far below shimmered like a thousand silver streamers on a breezy day.
“Oh, Ammy, this is beautiful,” Katherine said as she joined the girl.
“Yeah, I like it here.” Ammy turned, her chin still resting on her fists. “Can you stay?”
“Do you mean — stay? Like live here?”
Ammy nodded. “I really like my friends, but …” she shrugged. “It’s not like talking to people.”
“I suppose not. But I can’t stay here. I have my own house.”
“So? I had a house too. Just move out.”
“I can’t. What would I do with all my stuff? And what would I tell my boss, ‘Send my paycheck to the secret cave’?”
“Quit your job.”
“You just have all the answers, don’t you?” she laughed. But really, what was holding her back? (Well, beside the fact she was hallucinating.) It’s not like she was performing an essential public service, spending her nights and weekends serving burgers and beer to the summer cabin crowd. She barely spoke to her family, didn’t have any real friends to speak of. Would it be so bad if she were to just disappear for a while?
She turned to say something to that effect, but stopped. Ammy was staring, wide-eyed and frightened, at the darkness near the entrance to the banquet hall. Katherine saw shadows moving and the slight glint of moonlight on metal. A dozen Tin Soldiers holding snares, ropes, cudgels, and blades emerged. Ten moved toward the sleepers, and the other two approached Ammy.
“Amethyst Rebecca Camden, by the authority of the Gatekeeper, I hereby place you under arrest for the crime of high treason.” The voice behind the mask was muffled, hollow.
The two Soldiers lunged forward. One snatched the screaming Ammy and ran for the door, the other grabbed Katherine by the front of her shirt and forced a rough canvas hood onto her head. She screamed and struggled, but the creature pinned and twisted her arms. She heard shouts and roars from other parts of the room, wet sloppy sounds like saturated towels slapping against a tile floor, and above all, the terrified shrieks of a child.
The Soldier shouted for Katherine to get up, walk. But she couldn’t. It twisted harder, and her vision flashed red, then white. The white faded, and she was out of the banquet hall being dragged by her wrists across a rough floor. White. She was thrown down and the hood removed. She saw bars in the near-darkness, heard the squeal of rusty hinges. This time, she barely saw the black that surrounded her vision and closed in.
Katherine felt someone wiping her face with a damp, scratchy cloth. It smelled funny, like a dishrag that’s been thrown under the sink and forgotten. There was something else too, an odor like wet dog, smoke, body odor, and rotten meat. She brought up her hands to wave off whoever it was and contacted solid flesh under fur.
She screamed, a stab of panic bringing her body to full alertness. By the time her mind caught up and identified the thing as Jackie, Katherine had crab-walked backward into the barred door and raised a lump on her already fuzzy head.
“Oh! I’m so sorry, Katherine. I didn’t mean to alarm you.”
“No, it’s … oh my word. It’s fine. It’s fine.”
“Are you badly hurt?”
Katherine checked herself over. “I think I’m okay. My shoulders hurt a little, and I think my back’s scraped up. Probably bruised my knees pretty good too. Otherwise I’m fine. Nothing serious, anyway.”
“Good. The creatures that brought us, though … they paid a heavy price.” The matronly bear’s tone changed, turned into something fierce. “I laid claim to an arm and a head before they could subdue me. Baldo tore one in half while three more threw nets over him and felled him. Biki … he cut down both of his. I don’t know where he is now, but it’s not one of these cells.”
“They said something about a gatekeeper. Who is that?”
Jackie spat. “Corbin. That snake. He’s claimed Gatekeeper as his title, appointed himself the protector of Ammyland, vowed to keep it safe from outsiders. Thing is, there never was any danger. But once Farman died, he convinced Ammy there was. Farman was a stag, you see, the second of Ammy’s friends. I was first, then Farman, Baldo, Biki, and Corbin. At first I thought you were the sixth, but …” She shook her head. “Ammy and Farman used to walk in the woods together. Then one day, Farman disappeared. Biki went out in search of him and found his body lodged in the crook of a tree, horribly mangled. He told Corbin, and Corbin immediately blamed ‘the outsiders’ and asked Ammy for the power to protect Ammyland. Well, Ammy is a sweet, but foolish child. She only knew of one type of power, the one that she created this place with. So she gave Corbin her amulet. Since then, there have been no new friends. Only Soldiers. Corbin is a simple-minded, unimaginative beast, you see, only able to create things that are like to himself.”
“When Ammy brought me here, she said she made this place.”
“That’s exactly true.”
“That’s … how is that possible?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, child. It has to do with the amulet, to be sure, but beyond that, I’m sure I don’t know. It’s… odd, pondering one’s own creation and existence. I must admit, I don’t like thinking about it. For example, would I cease to exist if she died? Would these caverns close, turn back into hills? I don’t know. The only comfort I can glean from those thoughts is that Corbin probably harbors the same questions. He’ll keep the girl alive long enough to find an answer.”
“So this is all … real.”
“Yes,” Jackie said. She then turned away to examine her long, dagger claws.
Katherine felt more afraid than she ever had before.
Time passed, though with only Jackie’s increasingly surly growls and the drip-drip, drip-dripping of moisture somewhere in the back of the cell by way of timepiece, Katherine had no idea how much time. Hours, at the least.
Finally, when Katherine had almost resigned herself to sleep, she saw torchlight flickering in the corridor. Two Soldiers turned in from the main passageway bearing a loaf of bread wrapped in cloth and a bucket of water. “Step away from the bars,” the one with the bread said, jabbing at them with a stone-tipped spear.
Jackie narrowed her eyes as she slowly stepped back. The Soldier with the bread tossed it through the bars then stuck the spear through the bars at the prisoners as the other Soldier slid the bucket through the bars. Suddenly, a shout and clamber came from the main passageway. The Soldiers turned, and Jackie fell upon them. She slapped the spear aside then tore open the Soldier with its arm in the cell from shoulder to hip. The second leapt back, but not quick enough to avoid a swipe from Jackie’s claws that left its arm tattered and useless. Thick, black fluid like used motor oil sprayed the walls and floor as the survivor hobbled away. The dead Soldier at the bars seemed to be deflating, what looked like hundreds of giant leeches spilled from the gaping wound and writhed on the floor.
“Get back here, coward!” Jackie bellowed. “I only used one arm, that just makes us even!” She snorted and dragged the body closer to the bars. She rooted around in flaps and pockets. “Agh. I was hoping he’d have the keys. But we may not have to wait much longer.”
The cacophony had grown louder, closer. Shouting and clangs of metal were giving way to screams and sounds of blunt impacts. Katherine watched one screaming Soldier fly through the air, smash into the ceiling at a shallow angle, and disintegrate into a hundred splattering bits.
And she heard Biki’s voice over the crescendoed tumult: “Hah! You metal-faced weaklings! Come again! Hah! Baldo, take a turn!” This was followed by a cackle, a bellow, and another disintegrating soldier. Biki’s head poked around the corner. “Ah, Jackie, Lady Katherine, there you are. We accidentally stormed a
guard house just then,” he saw the dead Soldier, “though I see you’ve had a bit of luck yourselves.”
Baldo, dripping with the Soldiers’ oily blood, but otherwise unscathed, guarded the mouth of the side corridor as Biki revealed a large key ring and opened the cell door.
Jackie bounded out. “Do you know where she is?”
Biki nodded. “I think so. Corbin’s barricaded the door to his chamber. Though it may be more accurate to call it a compound now. He’s clearly been making his own additions to Ammyland as of late,” he said, looking around at the cell and corridors.
“She’s alive, I’m sure of it, but I don’t know how much longer Corbin will keep her.”
Biki nodded. “Lady Katherine, you may want to find a safe place to hide while the fighting persists.”
“No,” she said, stooping for a fist-sized stone on the edge of the corridor.
“Child,” said Jackie, “I have to agree. It’s not safe for you.”
Katherine wound up and pitched the rock underhand at the dead Soldier’s mask, denting it heavily and sending it skittering across the floor. “I played fast-pitch softball.” She dumped the water from the bucket and filled it with stones. “Which way?” She marched off toward the intersection Baldo guarded.
Jackie led the way, followed by Biki, then Katherine, then Baldo. The handful of Soldiers they encountered on the way to Corbin’s chamber either fled or died according to their individual levels of cowardice or foolhardiness. Even Katherine scored one kill when a Soldier tried to flank Jackie and fell with a stone embedded in his mask.
They left the prison corridor and found themselves near the ballroom, in the leftmost hallway. At the far end, a door identical to the banquet hall’s was blocked with furniture, rubble, and fallen branches. Jackie and Baldo exchanged a grin and made short work of the barricade — and the four Soldiers who’d been hiding near it. Baldo wrenched the door open, splintering the frame and nearly tore it completely from its hinges. Jackie ran into the chamber with Baldo only a half step behind.
Katherine gaped when she saw inside. This Gatekeeper, Corbin, had set up a throne room. Rows of thick, gray pillars flanked the wide central aisle leading to the dais on which sat a single, blocky throne. Black and gray banners bearing the device of a snake intertwined in a Medieval castle’s trellis hung from the ceiling. And dozens of unmoving Soldiers lined the walls in the shadowed areas behind the pillars.
“I see door. Jackie, you see door?” Baldo pointed toward the throne. Indeed, a flat lintel was visible just over the top of it.
“Yes, Baldo, I do. I also see at least a hundred Soldiers on either side of us.”
“Good,” Biki strode to the center of the room, “it’ll finally be something like a fair fight.”
“Katherine,” Jackie said as they walked to join Biki, “Baldo and I will hold the Soldiers here. You and Biki get through that door and find the child.”
As one, the Soldiers converged.
“I heard that, you canny old fish-breath! Steal all the fun, will you? Well, at least I shall be able to cut my way there. Hah!” Biki dashed to the door, hamstringing one Soldier on the way. More closed in. He leapt, buried his daggers in the collarbone of one, then pushing off its chest he back-flipped over another, removing its head with a swipe-swipe! Katherine floored two with stones to the head, and then they were through. She turned back to see Jackie slashing and tearing Soldiers to pieces and Baldo pounding them to the floor and flinging them around like dolls. But for every four or five they downed, another had a blade or cudgel digging into their hides.
“Come on!” Biki grabbed Katherine’s arm and dragged her through the door. The passage beyond was dark, rough but afforded no cover for additional Soldiers.
They advanced. The passage sloped downward, and soon Katherine lost sight of the throne room, though the tumult still echoed. Biki stopped. “Agh!”
“What? What is it?”
The passage came to a T-junction. Biki crouched and ran his hands over the floor, sniffed in both directions, paused. “This way,” he said, going left.
This passage was twisty, forcing them to slow. Each new turn could hold an ambush, but none came. A hundred yards and a dozen turns in, Katherine saw light, flickering and red. Biki peered around the bend, then let out a cry, “Princess! Princess, are you harmed?” Ammy, cowered in a barred-off nook in the cavern wall. Biki dropped his daggers and rushed over.
Ammy’s eyes were wide. “Biki! Katherine! You have to leave! You have to leave before Corbin comes back!”
“He’s here?” Katherine whispered.
“Yes, he is,” a voice rumbled from behind.
They turned. Corbin stood eight feet tall, and was thickly muscled. He wore a breastplate similar to the Soldiers’ armor, but no mask. His eyes glinted in the torchlight as he stepped forward.
“Dog!” Biki spat as he snatched up a dagger and leapt between Corbin and Katherine.
“Katherine,” Ammy hissed. “His necklace!”
She looked up. Around Corbin’s neck was a simple string of beads with a seashell dangling just above his collarbone. “What about it?”
“That’s his power. My power. Get it back and I can fix everything.”
Biki glanced at the amulet as well. “Lady Katherine, be prepared to retrieve any fallen objects.”
“Daring little fool, you are,” said Corbin. “Come, dwarf, I’ve long desired to break your bones.”
Corbin’s fist snapped toward Biki, so quick that Katherine hardly saw it move. Biki dodged, barely. The fist slammed into the stone wall where it sent dust and chips of granite flying. Biki lashed out with his dagger, but Corbin pulled away before contact. Dart, dodge, slash, miss. A flurry of blows from each side, none landed. Then, the sound of metal slicing flesh — syyyict! Biki jumped back with a wicked grin. Corbin stood to his full height, looked at the long laceration on his forearm. It wasn’t bleeding. Rather, it lengthened and spread. Slick, black, scaly skin glistened underneath. He grinned, and his mouth grew impossibly large as his entire body twisted and he tore every inch of skin away. In place of an eight-foot tall warrior stood a twelve-foot long reptile that looked something between a snake and a rhinoceros. It still wore the necklace.
Biki took a breath and charged again. This time, Corbin lunged forward and swallowed him whole. He turned his eyes toward Katherine.
“Get away from her,” Jackie growled. She stood in the entrance to the chamber, teeth bared, reeking of gore, dripping blood, and keeping weight off of her left foreleg. Baldo loomed behind, fist closed around a jagged rock, and in similar shape as Jackie. He waited for Corbin to turn, then flung the rock at his head. Like a cannonball it struck the side of Corbin’s face, crunching bones and destroying an eyeball. He howled in rage and pain, and tore forward at Jackie. None of the subtlety and nimbleness of his fight with Biki were present now — he rained hammer strikes and desperate slashes. Every blow he landed, Jackie countered, tearing loose wide strips of flesh from Corbin’s forelimbs and pounding the damage from Baldo’s rock. Then, with a feint to the left and a blow to Jackie’s face from the right, Corbin sent her sprawling. Baldo leapt over Jackie’s slumped form and slammed his foot into Corbin’s foreleg, snapping it at the joint. This put Baldo off-balance, however, and Corbin head-butted him to the floor. He hobbled over and was about to tear into Baldo’s exposed abdomen when Katherine called out.
“Hey!” She stood, gripping Biki’s other dagger. “You’ve still got me to worry about.”
Katherine felt nothing, heard nothing — not the terror in her chest, not Ammy’s shrieks, not Corbin’s chuckles as he turned her way. She merely looked in his remaining eye and threw the dagger directly at it.
She missed.
“Poor little fool,” he hissed. He took a step, then arched his neck as a silvery spike grew from the center of his throat, just above the seashell. Then he stumbled. The spike slowly moved downward, opening the flesh and cutting the necklace as it went. Bl
ood spilled and beads scattered. Corbin fell to the floor, clutching at his throat. The spike made one more sudden lurch downward and Biki, dagger in hand, fell from the slit. He gasped, wiping Corbin’s black blood from his eyes. Corbin thrashed for a few more seconds, then stilled.
“Oh no,” said Ammy. “Oh no. My necklace!”
Biki looked at the scattered beads. “Lady Katherine,” he said quietly, “I must ask you to escort the princess to safety.”
“What? But she’s …” Katherine turned. The bars across the niche crumbled in Ammy’s hands, turning into piles of ashy dust.
“Oh no!” Ammy scrambled over to the necklace, clutched at the fallen beads. “I can’t fix it! I can’t fix it!”
Cracks began to appear in the walls, floor, ceiling.
“I insist that you hurry,” said Biki. He nodded toward Corbin’s body, which was rapidly growing gray and sagging, like a time lapse video of a cigarette burning.
Then Biki slumped to his knees, fell onto his side. He too began turning gray.
“No!” Ammy shrieked. She ran through Corbin’s body to Biki, who crumbled when she wrapped her arms around him.
Katherine saw that Jackie and Baldo were also in the process of turning to dust, and that the cracks were widening, sending rivulets of earth and pebbles into the chamber and corridor beyond. She prayed she could remember the way out.
She snatched up Ammy, who had gone catatonic, and ran. Along the length of the dark, twisting passageway, she stumbled countless times, slammed into walls dozens, and fell often. When she reached the throne room, ash Soldiers dotted the floor. Pillars had collapsed, others were on the verge. Katherine sprinted, made it to the door as a pillar on the far end toppled and shattered Corbin’s throne.
Just a little more, a little further.
The grand ballroom was in tatters. Chunks of stone and soil fell from the ceiling, smashing the ornate banisters and blocking off the side halls. Up the stairs, to the reinforced metal door. Katherine reached out to the latch, and the whole thing collapsed in a cloud of dust. She ran through the earthen tunnel, hearing stones close up the doorway behind her, then up the steep stairs and through the gap in the fallen trees.
In the cool, damp, predawn air, she set Ammy down. The girl’s eyes were glazed. Gray. Her hand opened and a single bead from the necklace dropped to the ground. Within a few seconds, Ammy turned to dust and was scattered by a puff of wind.