For the first time, I sensed that the magical auras that I’d noted earlier—the ogre and his mysterious buddy—were on the move. Heading this way. Where I was wrapped up like a present under a Christmas tree.
Snarling, I maneuvered my sword until the tip pressed against one of the gaps and slid it between the rays of the sunburst. Since I couldn’t swing it, I sawed the blade back and forth against the bars.
“Thorvald?” came a whisper from below and behind me.
Willard had made it in and stood with her rifle at the mouth of a hall that likely led to the front doors. Having her find me in this predicament was almost as bad as being found by the bad guys.
“Yeah,” I reluctantly said. “Don’t inhale the fog if you see it.”
That fog had dissipated since I’d been captured, so she probably wasn’t in danger.
“And don’t hang around,” I added. “An ogre is coming along with someone else. And…” I grimaced as, for the first time, I sensed an aura similar to that of the cub. Similar to but much stronger and more powerful. Why hadn’t I sensed it earlier? “I think the tiger we’ve been hearing.”
Willard walked forward, alternately eyeing the hall entrances and my cage. It was too high off the floor for her to jump and reach the bottom. I kept sawing with my sword, silently apologizing to Chopper for using it as a file.
“They know we’re here, right?” Willard stopped a few paces away and looked up to the chain holding my cage.
“They know I’m here. Did you knock and show your warrant to one of the wolves?”
“Nobody answered. I had to force the door open.”
“How’d you manage?” I sensed the ogre, tiger, and other being getting closer and sawed harder. Nothing dulled Chopper’s magical blade, and I was making progress, but I feared it wouldn’t be fast enough. “That looked like a stout door.”
“Three side kicks, and the bolt snapped. I wasn’t going to resort to that, but then I heard an explosion and figured the door breaking wouldn’t faze anyone.”
“That was me.”
“I figured.” Willard lifted her rifle and aimed above my cage.
“What are you—”
She fired, her bullet striking the chain. A shudder went through the cage, but it didn’t drop to the ground. She fired again and hit the chain dead on.
“There’s magic reinforcing it. Here, try mine.” I unholstered Fezzik and was about to try to fit it between the bars when I sensed the tiger. Before, it had been walking at the side of the other castle denizens, but now it was coming fast. “Never mind. The tiger’s coming. Get out of here.”
“I cracked it.” Willard fired again, a third bullet striking the chain.
My cage lurched but didn’t fall.
The huge silver tiger that was everything I’d feared it would be came into view, powerful legs propelling it into the grand hall. It glowed slightly, the same as the cub. It—he?—had to weigh a thousand pounds. A thousand pounds of pure muscle.
His green eyes locked not on me but on Willard. She lowered her rifle and opened fire on it.
Those bullets wouldn’t hurt it; I knew that even before they landed, striking the glowing tiger and deflecting away.
Still stuck on my knees in the cage, I aimed Fezzik through the bars, hoping my enhanced bullets would do more.
But instead of firing, I shouted, “The cub is in the tower!”
Could he understand? Did he care? Were the cub and this large tiger related or completely unrelated?
Those green eyes glanced up at me, but he kept barreling down on Willard. She backed toward the front hallway, firing as she went, but she didn’t have time to escape. With no other choice, I opened fire.
My magical bullets bit into his silver hide, and for the first time, he reacted with a flinch and a roar. It reverberated from the walls and made my cage shudder as much as Willard’s bullets had.
It seemed a crime to hurt such a magnificent creature, but he was almost under my cage, and I wouldn’t be able to target him through the bottom of it. I couldn’t let him get to Willard.
My rounds struck his shoulder and flank, and he veered off before he reached her. He rushed into the side hallway I’d originally come from—a hallway with the walls charred and half tumbled in and the ceiling collapsed. Seeing that made me fear for the cub. When I’d thrown that grenade, I had only been thinking of taking out the wolves, not that I might damage the structure of the castle or collapse her tower.
As the tiger disappeared over the rubble and up the stairwell, I crossed my fingers that the tower was still intact. And that the cub was still in there and safe—assuming the tiger had understood and was going up to check on her. He might simply be fleeing my bullets.
Another fear replaced the last. What if the cub, who had been weaker and weaker as the hours progressed, perished, and the tiger walked in and found her dead? If she meant something to him, he might come back down here and risk my magic bullets to tear out my throat.
The ogre that had been taking his time reaching the grand hall ambled out, a wizard’s staff the size of a small tree in his large hand. Unlike most ogres, who favored simple fur or hide vests and trousers, he wore a blue robe sewn with sigils that emanated magic. I’d heard of ogre wizards but had never met one. Until now.
He looked around, his broad face faintly puzzled. On a chain around his neck, he wore a single charm that also emanated magic. A cat-shaped charm.
“If you’re looking for your tiger,” I said, wanting to make sure he focused on me instead of Willard, “he fled after I perforated his hide.”
The ogre did indeed focus on me, but instead of leveling that staff in my direction and casting some spell, he stepped to the side to make room for several wolves to enter, along with one more person. The blond elf male with pointed ears wasn’t the monstrous figure I expected, but I realized two things right away: he was a vampire, and he was holding Michael by the throat and forcing him to walk out first.
17
This time, Michael’s eyes were open and pained as they locked onto mine. Bands of invisible but tangible power wrapped around his body like massive cuffs, and he could barely shuffle forward.
I shifted my position in the cramped cage so I could find a gap that I could aim Fezzik through. The cowardly vampire was almost fully behind Michael, but I trusted my aim and knew I could peg him in the forehead if I could find the right angle. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t destroy a vampire—it would take a stake to the heart or cleaving his head fully off to do that—but maybe it would jar him into letting Michael go.
This was the real Michael this time, I had no doubt. He struggled against the invisible bonds holding him and shook his head with anger and distress when he saw me.
“Do not,” the vampire said in accented English, his voice ringing with power as he lifted a hand. “Do not, Ruin Bringer.”
The same power that restrained Michael wrapped around me. I’d let Chopper rest on the bottom of the cage while I fired, but now I gripped the hilt and willed the sword to help me repel the attack. The magical grip seemed to lessen, but I could still feel the vampire’s hold on me.
The ogre pointed his staff at me, as if it were a bazooka, and loosed a bolt of fiery energy. An instant before it struck the cage, I ducked low.
The metal bars partially deflected the blow, though the cage creaked and rocked ominously, but I caught some of the power. It knocked me against the back of the cage and rattled every tooth in my jaw.
“Do not fight,” the vampire repeated. “There is nothing you can do. You were foolish to come with so few allies.”
“I tried to round up more people who would be excited to come to your creepy-ass log castle, but the list of interested parties was short.”
I glanced out the back of the cage, hoping Willard hadn’t been hit by that blow, but she was gone. Good. She would get pulped by these guys. Unfortunately, if I couldn’t get out of here, I was in danger of the same.
“Michael, are you all right?”
His jaw was clenched, but it looked like magic held it in place, not his own desire. With effort twisting his face, he wrenched his mouth open to shout, “I’m sorry, Val!”
“Silence.” The vampire’s hand tightened around his throat, and Michael dropped to his knees.
Fiery rage made me want to tear my cage apart with my bare hands. I fought the power weighing on me and brought Fezzik up to a gap to try to target the bastard without hitting Michael.
“What do you want him for?” I demanded, sweat slithering down the side of my face. I needed the vampire to move a couple of inches…
“I don’t want him at all. It’s you that I’ve been trying to lure up here with all manner of bait.” The vampire’s lip twitched, his elven face handsome even though he was paler than talc. How had an elf been turned into a vampire? Their kind were so long-lived that he couldn’t have volunteered because he sought immortality.
“What do you want me for? I’m willing to trade myself for him.”
“How noble, but it’s not you I particularly care about, though Vroth here has heard of you and would like to kill you.”
The ogre smiled and said something in his own language. I was too busy trying to find a way to target the vampire’s forehead to worry about going for my translation charm.
“It’s your sword that I want,” the vampire said.
“My sword? You set all this up for my sword? Kidnapping Michael? Sending your tiger out to kill and maim people?”
“Had you scurried up here when Vroth’s tiger first started killing people, as we expected, your lover need not have been captured.”
I hadn’t even known about the slayings up here. If Hobbs had still been stationed in Seattle, he would have told me. He would have sent me instead of some other agent.
“But it has given Vroth here time to prove his loyalty and his utility. His tiger even brought me living humans so I could have fresh blood. Human blood is inferior to elven blood, but when you’re driven out of your home world, you make do. And you find those who prove themselves useful to you.” He reached up to put a hand on the ogre’s shoulder. “I have promised to make him a vampire and give him immortality once my goal is achieved.”