Rosencrantz stepped up to the men with shovels and spoke quickly to them in a language Twist had never heard. The men seemed startled by what he said, and then one of them seemed to ask a question.
“I told them that we would free them if they help us,” Rosencrantz said quickly to Jonas.
“Great,” Jonas said with a smile.
“They want to know who we are,” Rosencrantz said.
“Tell them we are their master’s enemies,” Jonas answered.
When Rosencrantz turned to translate for the workers, they all smiled broadly. One of them held out a hand to Rosencrantz, who accepted the handshake with a smile.
“We’re all friends now,” he said to Jonas.
He and the workers continued to speak together, gesturing to the blackened metal above their heads. In one corner, however, Twist noticed another hatch in the ceiling, above a short metal ladder bolted into the wall. Looking again, he now saw a multitude of crude controls—valve wheels and levers, mostly—to one side of the gaping mouth of the boiler.
“Say,” Jonas said, tapping Rosencrantz on the arm to get his attention. “Ask them if we just killed the navigator,” he asked, glancing back to the headless body that Twist was desperately trying not to look at.
As Twist watched despite himself, Luca, Zayle, and Guildenstern picked up the lifeless form and carried it to the fire. He looked away as he heard them toss it in like nothing more than another pile of coal.
Rosencrantz spoke to the workers again, and they answered. “No, they steer from above,” he said to Jonas. “We only killed a slave driver.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Jonas said, looking relieved.
“We didn’t have time to ask the monster’s profession,” Skye said bitterly, handing the murder weapon to Guildenstern. He took the shortsword with a grateful nod and wiped off the blood on a cloth before putting into the scabbard strapped to his hip. “It could have sent up an alarm or something,” Skye went on, looking at Jonas.
“Yeah, I know…” he said with a sigh. “That was just damned fast.”
“Everything we just did was damned fast,” Luca said, looking to Twist. “How the hell did you know how to even get the door open?”
“My Sight,” Twist said with a shrug.
“Did we lose anybody?” Skye asked, looking around at the assembled group in the relatively small space of the engine room. Twist started counting quietly and found the appropriate number present.
“Well, isn’t this exciting?” Myra said with weak mirth, suddenly standing beside him again.
Twist jerked at the sound of her voice and looked to her. She was looking at the small puddle of blood where the headless body had fallen.
“For the record,” Twist said gently, reaching out to place a comforting hand on her back, “I didn’t want you to come.” Myra looked to him unhappily. “But I’m very glad you did,” he added quickly. “You’ve already helped us.” Myra’s face took on a brave smile as she nodded.
“Who is he talking to?” Luca muttered, not all that softly, to Jonas.
“Myra’s spirit,” Jonas answered with a smile. “He and I can see her, but only he can hear her, unless she gets angry.”
“You people are all very odd,” Guildenstern said, shaking his head.
Once everything had settled down somewhat in the engine room of the giant steam-powered elephant, Twist and the others began to consider their next step. As a show of good faith to the workers, Guildenstern, Luca, and Zayle all pitched in to help keep the fire fed with coal. The three workers sat down with clear relief. Twist looked out through the thin slats along the side of the room and saw the dark forests outside streaming by at an amazing pace. The city was far behind now, as the elephant galloped headlong through the wilderness.
“How much longer is it, before we arrive?” he asked.
Apparently accepting his role as translator, Rosencrantz spoke to the workers in their language. Wiping at his sooty face with an even sootier cloth, the worker who spoke more easily than the other two looked up at him and seemed to ask a question.
“Have we crossed the mountain?” Rosencrantz asked Twist.
“I just see trees out there,” Twist answered.
Rosencrantz translated again and waited for a response. “Then we have a little while,” he said with a sigh. “It seems we are going to cover quite a distance.”
“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Skye asked, now leaning against the opposite wall with her arms crossed.
“The longer we can stay hidden, the better,” Jonas said, his goggles now in place over his eyes as he stood, swaying easily on his feet while the elephant continued to gallop through the forest. “What usually happens when this thing gets home?” he asked, looking toward the workers.
Rosencrantz spoke with them for a moment. “They say that they take the elephant back to a barn,” he answered Jonas.
“Does anyone else come to take them out of here?” Jonas asked.
“No,” Rosencrantz said, having apparently already asked. “The one we killed usually takes them back to the dungeon himself. No one helps him.”
“Well, that’s fantastically convenient,” Skye said brightly. “We’re going to need a quick getaway, you know.”
“You want to use this thing?” Luca asked, pausing in his shoveling to look at her.
“Why not?” Skye replied with a shrug. “It’s fast.”
“Can the workers wait safely for us while we rescue Philippe?” Twist asked.
Rosencrantz spoke to them again and then frowned as they spoke. “It seems that we can’t run this elephant without a navigator up top.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Twist said easily.
“Cocky,” Skye muttered, smirking at him.
Jonas nearly spoke but then stopped himself.
“Problem, honey?” Skye asked him.
Jonas shook his head, and the buzzing at Twist’s neck went suddenly colder. Twist followed Jonas’s train of thought all too easily. If Twist died during the mission, there would be no one to work out how the elephant was piloted.
“Well,” Skye went on, noticing none of Jonas’s well-concealed depression, “that sounds like half a plan. But now that we’ve got our Trojan elephant, how do we use it to save Philippe?”
“Well, they’re going to take Aazzi to him, aren’t they?” Twist asked. “Myra, dear, can you follow Aazzi without any of the vampires noticing you?”
“I think so,” she said. “They haven’t seen me yet.” Twist relayed the information to the others for her.
“All right,” Skye said, nodding. “So, they take Aazzi to Philippe, Myra follows beside her, and we wait. The moment Aazzi lays eyes on Philippe, Myra rushes back to us to lead us to her. We fight our way in, while Aazzi fights her way out, we meet in the middle, join forces, and get the hell out.”
Rosencrantz looked at Skye with great concern. “You’re American, aren’t you?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Skye asked back, while Jonas snickered lightly under his breath.
“Only an American would be that bold and reckless on purpose.”
Skye’s eyes narrowed at the Frenchman. “Well what do you want to do? Knock on the door and ask them nicely to give up all their evil plans? We've got to be bold here!”
“Damn it,” Jonas grumbled darkly while Rosencrantz pulled himself up to his full height, clearly rising to match her aggressive tone. “All right, all right, everyone calm down,” Jonas said, moving between them.
“I’m not just taking an insult—” Skye began angrily. Jonas pushed his own voice louder than hers as he followed her next few words in perfect unison: “—from a cheese-eating little frog!”
Skye paused, startled by his flawless echo.
“Very colorful,” Jonas muttered. “Save it for the vampires, Skye. And you,” he said, turning to Rosencrantz, “don’t tease the American. She’ll tear you a new one.”
Rosencrantz stared back at him wi
th silent but obvious confusion.
“What just happened?” Skye asked, turning to Twist with a new quiet to her voice.
“Nothing,” Jonas answered. Twist saw the discomfort in his face and knew instantly that he’d already seen this moment. Nothing but a future vision would disturb him so suddenly. Glancing at the others, he saw a curious confusion on their faces, watching Jonas.
“Well,” Twist said, drawing attention to himself, “Skye’s given us one plan. Does anyone have another idea?”
“I think her idea is pretty good,” Zayle said, turning to lean on his shovel as he looked away from the fire. “It’s certainly got the element of surprise.”
“Sure, who would do something that crazy?” Guildenstern asked with a smile.
“Watch it, sugar,” Skye snapped at him.
“No, I agree with you,” he responded with a light smile. “They’ll never know what hit them. They might not even be able to mount a solid defense.”
Skye’s face washed over with an impressed shade. “Now, that’s better,” she said with brightness to her voice now. “Sorry about the frog thing.”
“No offense taken, mademoiselle,” Guildenstern said with a genteel air.
Rosencrantz rolled his eyes.
“All right, then,” Skye said. “Are there any other suggestions, or are we all agreed to follow my plan?”
There was a long pause as the others considered their answer. Eventually, a general nod of assent rippled among them. Twist then asked Myra to whisper the plan to Aazzi, up in the head of the elephant. The others took informal turns helping to keep the fires hot, while an air of quiet contemplation fell over the warm engine room. As the elephant began to cross a low mountain range, Jonas took a break from his turn at shoveling and met Twist where he stood looking out the slats.
“We’re almost there, aren’t we?” Jonas asked softly.
“I suppose,” Twist answered, keeping his voice low as well.
Glancing off, he saw that no one was paying them any attention at all. Jonas gave a thoughtful tone, the buzzing at Twist’s neck growing tight.
“Jonas, don’t worry about me,” Twist said, pushing confidence into his words as he laid a hand on his friend’s arm. Jonas didn’t look at him while the chilly fog of his touch billowed in Twist’s Sight—cold as ice now. “I’ll live through this. You’ll see.”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Jonas said, fear tingling at the edges of the fog in Twist’s Sight.
“Look at me,” Twist said softly.
“Damn it, Twist!” Jonas hissed angrily, not looking anywhere near him. “That’s the whole problem.”
Twist reached out quickly and caught Jonas’s jaw, turning his face toward himself. Jonas snapped his eyes closed, his anger growing stronger. Twist didn’t move his hand, holding Jonas’s blind gaze trained on his own eyes.
“You will need a clear mind if you’re going to survive this fight,” Twist said, very calmly.
“Let go of me.”
“Look at me.”
“Bugger off.”
Twist gave a sigh but let his hand fall away. Jonas turned away before he opened his eyes again, but he didn’t move away. Twist watched him thoughtfully.
“You can’t be afraid to look at me,” Twist said softly. “I’m going into that place even if it’s just to prove to you that you can’t see me die.”
Jonas put on a cruel smile, looking out through the slats. “You’re not really that stupid, are you?”
“Lucky for you, I might just be,” Twist snapped back, smiling too.
“Idiot.”
“Freak.”
Jonas almost smiled as he shook his head. “Stop it. This is already hard enough.”
Twist fell silent, wishing he knew what to say to chase away Jonas’s fear. But try as he might, Twist could think of nothing. Instead, he quietly took Jonas’s hand. Jonas didn’t complain at the gesture but simply watched out the slats as the dark countryside galloped by.
The elephant trotted to a stop in a wide-open dirt patch, just in front of a huge old castle that faced the sea. The castle struck Twist as Spanish in style, with a low and wide sprawling structure, rounded archways, and red tile roofs atop every room and wall. A long line of electric lights stood on the ramparts, bathing the palace in stark, false daylight. While there seemed to be only three floors inside the castle, Twist could see grated doors at the front that led down into what could be vast dungeons below.
The elephant stood before a wide, red-carpeted stairway that led up to the great entryway on the second-floor balcony. Twist craned his neck to see Aazzi and a number of other figures descend the rope ladder from the elephant’s mouth down to the ground. He saw Myra’s spirit appear beside her, apparently unnoticed by anyone.
Aazzi didn’t even glance back at the elephant as she and Badu walked stoically up the stairs to meet a pair of figures who stood waiting for them under the huge arch of the open main doorway. There were also a number of others standing guard, wearing colorful militaristic uniforms and holding spears the way that the royal guard held their rifles outside Buckingham Palace.
The elephant turned and walked slowly away before Twist could see Aazzi meet the two in the doorway. True to the workers’ words, the elephant was taken into a huge, wooden barn. The vampires in the elephant’s head descended the rope ladder and walked away, leaving the elephant unattended. No one inside the engine room spoke as they waited to find out if they would be discovered. Everyone held their weapons at the ready.
After a long, tense silence and no word back from Myra, Luca suggested that everyone quietly climb back down the ladder inside the elephant’s leg. The barn appeared to be totally empty now, and the open doors faced away from the castle. Eventually, the others agreed. Stepping onto the solid dirt floor of the barn, Twist couldn’t see or hear any sign of a single vampire in the dark stillness around him. The mechanical elephant’s stomach seemed to gurgle with the still-smoldering steam engine, and steam continued to waft lightly out of its long trunk.
Twist peered out the small opening where the barn door met the wall and saw that the guards who had stood in front of the castle seemed to have disappeared. There was no motion of any kind in the wide-open space before the castle, nor on any of the long ramparts. Jonas said that he couldn’t see anyone outside either.
“Why wouldn’t they have any guards?” Skye asked in a whisper, frowning.
“They’re deadly monsters,” Luca responded just as quietly. “They don’t expect to be attacked.”
“Sure, only an idiot would attack them,” Jonas muttered.
Though a few of them shot him ungrateful looks, no one spoke up to correct Jonas. Everyone waited quietly, tense and alert, for what felt like ages to Twist. Suddenly, and without warning, Myra’s spirit appeared close beside him. Twist jerked and let out a startled sound.
“Sorry,” Myra said very quickly. “She’s found him. He’s alive.”
“Right,” Twist said, taking a solid grip of his walking stick. He turned to the others. “It’s time,” he said, already hurrying to the barn door.
The others followed close behind Twist as Myra led him across the open space, toward the castle. Twist felt his heart beat faster than he needed it to as he began to run in the quiet, still night air. No one met them as they climbed the stairs, but Twist was grateful to see his companions swarm in around him, their weapons held ready. They found no one in the long hallway that led into the castle.
Myra ran ahead of Twist, hurrying her pace. Struggling to keep up, he didn’t notice the vampire exiting through a doorway until he’d run into it. Twist’s Sight screamed as he collided with the vampire, and the two tumbled to the floor. A black wave of ugly images broke over him in a horrifying but confusing wave as the monster recovered from its shock and lunged for Twist’s throat.
Suddenly on his feet again, running forward, Twist screamed in fright and stumbled, falling to his knees. But his Sight was suddenly clear, and
the vampire was gone. It took an instant for Twist to realize what was happening. The others stopped moving, turning to look down at him in shock. Understanding struck him like a blow, and he looked up just in time to see the same vampire walk through the doorway again, pause to see him and the others, and then rush at Jonas, who stood closest.
“No!” Twist bellowed, just as the monster moved with amazing speed and grabbed Jonas around the neck.
Before Twist could move, the vampire had closed its mouth on Jonas’s neck. When Jonas gasped in pain, the vampire did as well, backing away and spitting on the floor. Jonas backed away, apparently not badly harmed. For a moment, Twist didn’t understand what had happened. Then he remembered the drop of dragon’s blood in Jonas’s system.
The vampire turned back with a wretched-looking, inhuman countenance and long, shining teeth held in a vicious snarl. When it lunged again at Jonas—who dodged away this time—Rosencrantz moved quickly and beheaded the monster with one swipe of his sword.
“How did you know that was going to happen?” Luca asked Twist.
“Thanks, Twist,” Jonas said, holding out a hand to help him back to his feet.
Twist took his help and then mastered his own courage once again. He looked to Jonas’s neck and found the wound inexplicably no longer bleeding. Jonas rubbed at his neck and turned to Myra, who stood ahead of them with a shocked expression.
“Come on,” Skye said to the others. “There’s no time to lose.”
“Right,” Myra said, continuing on.
Twist followed her farther into the castle. It was only a few more steps before Twist began to hear fighting in the distance ahead of them. Three vampires—one wearing a ruby ball gown and a white mink stole, and the other two in fashionable suits—hurried quickly out of a room down the hallway and caught sight of Twist and the others. Their faces flashed with rage, and they flew closer as quickly as if they’d been fired from a cannon. Jonas and the others didn’t slow as they continued forward and dealt with the vampires so quickly that they didn’t even seem to break their stride. Twist dodged the moving forms around him as best he could and tried to stay out of the fighting.
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