Willard stood up, but I held out a hand to stop her. “Are you really thinking of knocking?”
“And showing them the warrant, yes. Even if I’m skeptical that the owners of this place are property-tax-paying citizens, I have to proceed legally and professionally. There are rules and procedures.” Willard gave me a flat look, as if to say she doubted I paid attention to such things.
She wasn’t wrong. A part of me wanted to set up my phone to film what would likely be a ludicrous encounter, but a larger part of me knew a stealthy incursion would be better. Though maybe it was silly to believe we could enter stealthily. We’d killed their wolves and made a lot of noise doing it. Whoever lived here knew we were coming.
Unfortunately, even though I could sense the magic of the structure itself, I couldn’t detect anything or anyone inside. The walls blocked my senses as well as my eyesight. Inside, there could be one dangerous guy… or a hundred. The log castle was large enough to hold an army.
“Why don’t you do that,” I suggested, “while I climb up a tower and sneak in through a window?”
“While you’ve got that charm activated?”
“Yes.”
“Would you be able to skulk around inside without leaving mud and puddles on the floor?”
“I’ll wipe my boots on the crenellations before I go in.”
Willard shrugged. “You don’t work for me, so I can’t tell you what to do. But I’ll assume you want me to keep them distracted for as long as possible.”
“I’d appreciate that. Also, don’t get shot. Or eaten by a tiger.”
“I had no idea you cared.”
“I don’t, but I’d feel obligated to carry you out over my shoulder, and you look heavier than this cub.”
“I’m barely one-fifty. If you can’t do a fireman carry on me, I’m going to send a personal trainer to your door after this.”
“Better than the trolls and orcs who usually show up.” I grimaced, memories of the time Michael had been shot by trolls fresh in my mind. Shaking my head, I pulled out my phone. “Give me your number in case I need to text you.”
I had one bar of reception. Hopefully that would be enough.
“Here.” Willard pulled out her own phone and sent me a text without asking for my number.
“You already put me in your contacts list? We’re destined to be besties. Maybe we should start practicing our fist bumps.”
“Or maybe we should deal with the people in that castle.” Willard waved at me and stepped back out onto the path.
“Wait.” I gave her two of the grenades I’d gotten from Nin. “Just in case they don’t want to talk to you.”
Willard considered them, nodded with approval, then slipped them into an outer pocket of her pack. “Thanks.”
I would win her over yet.
As I tapped my cloaking charm and hopefully disappeared from the senses of the castle owner, Willard pulled a folded stack of papers out from another pocket. She truly did have a warrant. I would have laughed, but I was too busy sneaking away.
Assuming the drawbridge had alarms or traps, I thought about swimming or trying to run and jump across the moat. A pair of alligators swam past, beady eyes and the tips of their snouts visible above the water, and I ditched that idea. My charm would keep them from seeing or smelling me, but it didn’t stifle sound, and it would be hard to swim without making noise.
A hint of magic came from harnesses around their torsos, probably some compulsion that kept them from fleeing the chilly northwest and going south to a climate more appropriate for them.
There were iron bands around the logs of the drawbridge, and I also sensed magic radiating from them. Alarms? Instead of investigating further, I stepped over them. The portcullis was raised halfway, as if in invitation.
Willard could accept that invitation. I skirted the castle wall and jogged along the one-foot-wide grassy ledge between it and the moat. Another set of alligators swam past, and the cub offered a questioning, “Merow?”
“Shh,” I breathed.
Their beady black eyes turned in my direction. I ran faster, going as quickly as I could without making noise.
When I was around the corner of the castle and out of sight of the main entrance, I picked a spot to climb up the wall. Having extra furry weight on my back made it more difficult than usual, but I found sufficient hand- and footholds among the bumpy logs and made it the fifteen feet to the top.
A true castle would have had a courtyard to go along with the parapet and towers, but the interior of the structure was covered with a metal roof. Not seeing any doors or access panels, I headed toward the nearest tower, which also had the nearest window large enough to enter through. I climbed again, found the window locked, and rested my hand on it while willing my lock-picking charm to work.
An interior latch clicked faintly. The circular, wood-paneled room inside was empty, the only motion coming from the dancing flames of a kerosene lantern mounted on a wall. I opened the window carefully, staying to the side in case someone was hiding. These looked like guard towers, so it was hard not to imagine brutes with firearms waiting to maim intruders.
Nothing happened.
A faint knock drifted up to my ears as I pulled myself in. Willard at the front door with her warrant in hand.
I understood why she, an official government representative, felt compelled to obey the law, but I was used to doing things my way and much preferred sneaking in and figuring out what I was dealing with before announcing myself. But if whoever owned the castle focused on her and that kept them from looking for me, all the better. I only hoped Willard didn’t get hurt because she was out in the open and an easy target. Based on our brief time together, I had no problem accepting that she was a capable warrior, but she didn’t have my array of magical tools and weapons, so that put her at a disadvantage here.
Once I was inside the castle, I could sense the magic that I hadn’t been able to detect through the outer wall. And I grimaced at the amount of it. Mostly artifacts—it was hard to tell what they did, but I suspected many were for defending this place—but also beings. At least one ogre and someone else I couldn’t quite identify. Someone powerful. I could usually tell someone’s species by their aura, but not this time. He or she vaguely reminded me of the nature-tinted auras that I’d been told represented elves, but that wasn’t quite right. The aura was darker and more ominous than that. Malevolent.
There were also magical creatures prowling the hallways and rooms of the castle. More of the wolves. Since we’d defeated four of them, I should have been bolstered, but there were a lot of them in here. Even with magical weapons, I could only fight so many at a time. I would have to be careful not to be caught out in the open.
Since Michael didn’t have magical blood, I couldn’t sense if he was here or not. Surprisingly, I didn’t sense anything like a grown-up version of the cub either. We’d heard those great feline roars outside but so far hadn’t seen or sensed the source of them. Maybe it was a mundane tiger that had been trained to kill, not needing any magical enhancement for the job, and that was why I couldn’t detect it.
“Merow?” came a tentative sound from the cub.
I winced. There was no way I could convey to her that we needed to be quiet. Nor could I see a way forward that wouldn’t put her at risk.
“I think you better stay here, kid.” I eased the pack off my shoulders and pulled the cub out. She sat and looked up at me, green eyes liquid and wan. “I have a feeling I’m going to end up in another fight—or lots of them. I don’t want you to get taken out. This is a nice room. Look, there’s a weapons rack you can nibble on.”
She stood and nibbled on my bootlaces instead.
“Funny.” I stroked her back a few times, then plopped her down by the weapons rack. I held my hands up as if I could command her like a dog to stay.
Her sad eyes tracked me as I backed away, and she didn’t try to follow me to the door.
“Stay here,” I whispered, my throat tight with emotion. “I’ll come back for you.”
I hoped it wasn’t a lie.
As soon as I shut her in the room, my sense of urgency propelled me across a landing and down a set of steps. The ogre and the mysterious being were on the ground floor near the back of the castle, but the hallways all directed me toward the front of the building. It looked like I wouldn’t be able to sneak around and come at them from behind.
When I reached the ground floor and peeked out of the stairway, I spotted the first of the roving creatures. Four of the big red-eyed wolves trotted down a hallway, a faded gray carpet keeping their claws from clacking on the wooden floor underneath.
I padded silently back up the stairs several steps and waited for them to pass. As long as I didn’t make a noise, they shouldn’t sense me through my camouflage charm, but if their route took them up the stairs toward me, they would get close enough to see through the protective magic.
I waited with Chopper in hand. This time, I wouldn’t use Fezzik unless I had to, though that might be inevitable if I had to battle four at once. I touched the ammo pouches that held Nin’s grenades, half checking to make sure they were still there and half contemplating ways I might throw one to take out the maximum number of enemies.
Two of the wolves trotted past without glancing up, the hulking black forms taking up most of the hallway. The second two paused at the base of the stairs. One looked straight at me, its eyes glowing crimson in halls dimly lit by the wall lanterns. One wolf’s nose quivered as it tested the air. I waited with my sword poised.
A faint gray mist curled around the wolves’ legs, as if the outside was seeping into the castle. It seemed strange, but I was too focused on the creatures to do more than note it. Long seconds slipped past as the wolf kept sniffing, kept looking in my direction. The one beside him also turned to look up the stairs.
Just as I was certain they knew I was there and would race toward me, both wolves’ heads swung back the way they had come. I hadn’t heard anything, but all four of the creatures reversed direction and trotted off toward what I guessed was the front door of the place.