Kay accepted the tome with thanks and a smile. He struggled to sit up in the snow and looked down over the valley from their vantage point in the mountains. A stiff breeze drifted through the thin air, reminding everyone of how cold and wet they were right now. Behind them, the sun began rising over the mountains, casting everything in the valley in a red and gold light.
“How did we get here?” Kay asked. “I don’t remember the battle at all.”
Sarah bit her lip and then smiled. “You cast a spell that got us to safety, of course. Even with Aries charging you, you saved us all.”
Kay’s face brightened a bit. “I did?”
“Excuse me, Sarah, but Keeley saw the whole thing,” the dragon said, flying out of the snow and circling Sarah’s head. “The one who cast the spell was—”
“Keeley, look. There’s a snow bank you haven’t been in yet!”
At Sarah’s words, the dragon’s eyes darted toward an unspoiled section of snow. With a cry of glee, she leapt into the bank, forgetting what she was about to say.
“Like I was saying,” Sarah continued, “you saved us all with your spells. Your dad would be very proud.”
Kay folded his arms and beamed with pride. His smile seemed to shine even brighter than the sun’s morning rays. “Well, I guess I’m getting the hang of this wizarding thing after all.”
Dax sighed heavily from nearby. “Not to put a damper on such a good mood, but even though the sun’s coming out, we’re likely to freeze to death if we don’t get a fire and some shelter soon. And while I know you were under the fey’s sleep spell for a while, the rest of us could use a few hours’ sleep. I need my beauty rest, you know.” He sighed again and added ruefully, “Not that I have much beauty to rest these days.”
“Don’t worry,” said Kay, who had cheered up considerably despite his wounds. “I’ll just cast a spell that will take us out of here and to a safe place—”
“No!” Sarah cried. “I mean… no need to trouble yourself. Up here is one of the few places where even Aries will have trouble finding us. We should find a place to shelter here—a cave, maybe, if we can find one. Then we’ll rest, and when we’re refreshed, healed, and ready, we can look through the spellbook and see if we can find our way to Castle Greystone.”
“So you can find your way home?” Kay asked.
“Partly. Also, maybe we can find something there that can help us. If we can take care of Baelan and Aries once and for all, we’ll be heroes, won’t we?”
Finding a cave was easy enough. The hard part was finding one that was deep enough to keep them safe from the cold mountain winds, not to mention the sleet and snow. There were worse things than the weather to worry about, too. Twice, the companions nearly walked into a bear’s lair or a mountain lion’s home by accident.
Eventually, they decided to send Keeley in first as a scout, figuring that even if any animals did see her, they’d decide the tiny dragon wasn’t big enough to make a decent meal. Of course, sending the dragon in on her own meant putting up with her long disappearances as she explored the wonders of the high mountains. She seemed to view the rocky environment as a playground and often forgot about her friends, who were still waiting out in the cold.
Eventually, Keeley found a cave for them that was warm, somewhat dry, and safe. No animals were inside at all—not even tiny creatures like rats or moles. The tired companions followed the cave deep into the mountains until the light of the opening was nothing more than a pinprick in the distance. When they had finally reached the back of it, they threw themselves down in exhaustion. To Sarah, the cold rocks that formed the cave’s floors might as well have been a bed with feather pillows. She took a deep breath and flopped down.
“Don’t go to sleep yet,” Dax warned. The old warrior had already gathered a bundle of kindling and was setting up a campfire. “If we don’t get any warmth, you’ll freeze to death by morning. Of course, on this hard ground, we’ll be wishing we had frozen to death when we wake up with aching muscles and wrenched backs. Naturally, I’ll have the worst of it, since I’m the oldest one here. Old age is nothing but a nuisance, if you ask me.”
While Dax continued on with his grumbling, Keeley took a snort in and spat out a small fire. The kindling caught immediately, and the companions quickly gathered around the welcome warmth.
“We’ll need to keep a watch,” Kay said. “We don’t know the terrain, and we don’t know what kind of creature might make this place their home.”
“Oo! Oo!” cried the dragon in a high-pitched squeak. “Keeley will keep watch! She has keen eyes that can see in the dark, and she can fly to warn everyone else of any dangers she sees!”
Sarah shot Keeley a skeptical look. “I’m sure your eyes are sharp and all, but how do we know you won’t run off and play in the snow somewhere? You’ve been a handful ever since we landed up here.”
Keeley’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head so fast that Sarah thought it might fall off. “Oh, no, no, no, no! Keeley will be good and pay attention! She will… well… maybe it would be better to have someone watch Keeley while she’s on watch?”
Sarah smiled. “That’s what I thought. We’ll divide the watch between Kay, Dax, and me.”
“I suppose I’ll take first watch, then,” Dax said with a groan.
“You don’t have to,” Sarah replied. “Why don’t you get some sleep first?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t get any sleep up here anyway. At least back in my jail cell, I had a flea-ridden blanket. No, you all get some sleep, and I’ll toil through the night. No sense in letting yourselves get all worn out. Enjoy your youth while you have it. Pretty soon, you’ll be old and withered like me.” Before anyone could protest, Dax picked up his sword and wandered away from the fire, preparing for his watch.
“Let him go, I say,” Kay said, watching the old warrior as he left. “When he’s miserable like this, he seems almost happy.”
Once again, Sarah found herself reluctant to go to sleep for fear of waking up at home. This time, she wasn’t worried about her adventure ending, but rather what might happen to her friends if she didn’t see things through to the end. But she did eventually fall asleep, and then she drifted into and out of dreams.
Whatever events went on behind her closed eyes seemed to roll together into one confusing mass. In her dreams, she recounted the adventures she had experienced so far in Greystone Valley, but she never got a clear picture of who she was talking to. Whenever she tried to look at their faces, they were always blurred out. And when she looked at herself, she couldn’t see any features besides a bright green robe that she wore. The robe was tailored perfectly to her size, but she had never seen it before.
She woke up to someone shaking her violently. When she opened her eyes, she saw Dax grabbing her by the shoulders. The old man’s face didn’t have its usual melancholy look on it. Instead, his lips were drawn tight in a line, and his eyes were wide with a look of fright. “Wake up!” he whispered. “We have to get out of here!”
“What? What’s happened?”
“Scatter dirt on the fire. We can’t afford to let anybody see us.” Without waiting for a response, the old man turned toward Kay and shook him awake. Keeley was already up, staring wide-eyed at the entrance of the cave. From the corners of her tiny mouth, she let out a low growl.
“What’s the matter?” Sarah asked, springing into action. “Has Baelan found us already?”
“No, not Baelan,” Dax replied after Sarah had spread dirt over the fire. The cavern became choked with smoke that burned their noses and made their eyes water. “Something worse is coming. Can’t you hear it?”
Still half-asleep, Sarah hadn’t noticed the noise until just now, but the beating of drums echoed through the mountains, growing closer and closer. Along with the drums came a scraping noise, like someone was dragging a body across a stone floor. The noise came from all directions, even from inside the cavern walls itself. As it drew nearer, the mountains
themselves seemed to shake. Kay jumped up with a start and grabbed the spellbook immediately. Keeley’s growl became a worried whine, and she flew to perch on Sarah’s shoulder.
Dax led them to the mouth of the cave, clutching his sword tightly all the while. A light snow had started falling in the mountains. It would have been quite a beautiful scene, had it not been for the other creatures about.
The monsters in the hills were huge—at least twice as tall as Dax and ten times as heavy. They had long arms that almost scraped the ground when they walked and gray skin that blended in well with the night. Their eyes were beady and red and tusks grew from the corners of their jaws. The creatures were wearing long, ratty furs that hung about their bodies in rags. Sarah guessed that the furs on most of them had once been white, but they were stained with sweat, grime, and what might have been blood.
“What are they?” she whispered. “Do they work for Baelan?”
Dax shook his head. “No… they’re mountain trolls. They don’t work for anybody or anything, except maybe their stomachs. Those creatures are one of the reasons nobody comes up here to the mountains. They aren’t exactly the most hospitable of folk.”
“What do we do? Do we fight them?”
“We wouldn’t last ten seconds against one of them,” the old warrior replied, shaking his head. “Their arms are as thick as tree trunks, and they’ve got such a long reach that I’d never be able to get close with my sword. I expect the old blade will break soon, anyway, considering how much use it’s gotten between me and its beast-man owner.”
“Are you being serious, or are you just exaggerating how bad off we are, like usual?”
Sarah didn’t get an answer to her question. One of the creatures had been climbing the rocks just above the cave entrance, and he dropped down in front of the companions. Sarah felt a small tremor in the earth as the creature landed. She wrinkled her nose at the troll’s foul smell. It was like a wet dog had decided to go rolling in a batch of rotten eggs. The troll looked at the companions with yellow eyes. Slowly, a cruel smile formed on its tusked mouth. It raised its arms above its head and howled. Abruptly, the drums in the distance stopped beating. The other trolls returned the howl, and the ground began to shake as a horde of filthy monsters scrambled toward the fresh meat in the cave.
“Oh, dear,” Dax said. He began backpedaling and drew his sword. “Run!”
“But there’s no other way out!” Even as she protested, Sarah followed Kay deeper into the cave. The troll’s large body almost filled the opening to the cavern, so that even trying to squeeze by him meant being crushed against the rocks. Dax lashed out with his sword, but came nowhere near actually hitting the monster. As he had said, the creature had the advantage of reach. Its arms were at least as long as a grown man’s entire body.
“Where do we go from here?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know,” Dax said, retreating toward the rest of the group as he vainly tried to fight off the creature. “But there are at least ten more of these things on their way, looking for a meal. If you’ve got anything in that spellbook, now’s the time to use it. I’m sure something dreadful will happen, but I think I’d much prefer turning into a tree or being tossed into a river over ending up as a troll’s evening snack.”
Kay opened the book and started searching for a spell. Sarah gasped when the troll looked at the young wizard. The creature, which had seemed so dumb and bloodthirsty before, seemed to recognize the book from somewhere. It turned its attention away from Dax, allowing the old warrior to cut into its side with his blade. If the troll noticed the wound, it didn’t show it. Instead, it stomped its foot hard against the ground. The earth shook. In the distance, the beating of the drums started up again.
The troll stomped again. The drums grew louder. Sarah lost her footing and nearly fell headlong into the remains of the campfire. It was Keeley who kept her from getting a face full of hot ash. The tiny dragon gripped Sarah’s shoulder with her talons and beat her wings furiously, giving just enough pull to give Sarah a chance to regain her balance.
Kay wasn’t so lucky. The spellbook tumbled out of his hands, landing on an open page. Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah read the spell. It wasn’t anything that could help them right now.
The troll stomped again, and the cave began to crumble. Small pieces of rubble broke off from the ceiling, falling into Sarah’s face and nearly blinding her with grit and dust. She looked at Kay one more time and shouted in panic.
While the walls were still intact and the ceiling had only crumbled a little bit, the troll’s stomping had opened up a fissure in the ground. Kay and Sarah both watched in horror as the book slipped into the widening crack, plunging into the darkness deep within the mountain. Kay scrambled after it and started squeezing into the fissure himself. Sarah shouted his name, trying to keep him from doing something so stupid, but she should have known by now that Kay wasn’t about to listen.
“Don’t worry,” the wizard called. “I’ll get the book and save the day… just like I did against Aries.”
Then Kay dropped out of sight, plunging into the dark chasm that went all the way to the bottom of the mountain, for all anyone knew. Sarah didn’t even get to tell him the truth about what had happened against Aries before he vanished entirely.
Sixteen
“He might have the right idea,” Dax said. “We all might be better off risking a hundred-foot fall instead of letting these creatures grind our bones into their bread.” His face fell a little bit as he pondered the last part of his statement. “Wait a minute… do trolls grind people’s bones into bread, or is that ogres? I think I’m thinking of ogres. Or maybe even giants. I never can keep those things straight in my head. Old age, you know.”
Whatever the truth was, the troll didn’t seem to care one way or the other. It lunged at Dax, coming so close to the warrior’s throat with its long claws as to almost take his head off his shoulders. Dax yelped and jumped back, opting to retreat a few paces rather than stay in range of the monster’s attacks. All the while, the drums from outside grew louder. They were almost at the cave’s mouth.
“It’s OK,” came a voice from deep inside the fissure. Sarah’s heart leapt when she realized that the voice belonged to Kay. “I’m OK, and I have the spellbook! I’ll take care of everything now.”
Sarah heard a few muffled words from inside the mountain and realized that Kay was speaking some magic words that he thought would save the day. She didn’t get her hopes up. By now, she already knew how Kay’s spells usually turned out. There was a flash of light from below, and thick gray smoke billowed out from the crack in the ground. Nothing else happened, except for a mutter from Kay: “Wait a minute… that’s not right.”
The troll smiled cruelly, realizing that he had a potential three-course meal trapped in front of him.
“Keeley has had enough,” came the voice in Sarah’s ear. She cocked her head to see the dragon beating her hummingbird-sized wings and taking to the air. “Her friends have been bullied and attacked everywhere. Now Keeley the dragon is saying ‘stop’!”
The tiny white dragon flew straight at the troll. The monster snapped at her, trying to swallow her whole as she flew by. But what Keeley lacked in size she made up for with speed. She wheeled away from the troll’s tusks, darting just out of its reach. When she got past the creature’s long pointed nose, she lashed out with her claws, scratching the monster right between the eyes. The attack didn’t seem to hurt the troll any more than a mosquito bite might sting a normal person, but it made it angry enough to forget the other two people in the cave. It swatted at Keeley, trying to catch her between its thick gray fingers and squash her like a bug.
Keeley flew to the top of the cave, just out of reach. “Enough is enough! Keeley is a dragon, and now she’s going to show it!” Taking a deep breath in, she held her breath until her face turned rosy pink. Then she spit a mouthful of flame at the troll. It wasn’t nearly as strong as the fire she had accidentally brea
thed at the circus—like Kay, Keeley didn’t seem to be entirely in control of her talents. Really, the fire created more smoke than actual flame, but it did seem to bother the troll. The creature roared and flailed around angrily, trying to catch the dragon. Again, though, Keeley was fast enough and nimble enough to stay out of reach.
Finally, the troll broke off its attack and tried a new tactic. Grabbing a corner of the cave wall, the creature pulled a massive chunk of stone out of it to throw. The cave, already weakened by the troll’s stomping, shuddered dangerously. More rubble fell from the ceiling. This time, it didn’t look like it was going to stop.
“We’d better head into the fissure with Kay,” Sarah shouted. “It doesn’t look like this place will hold much longer.”
“That’s all well and good,” Dax responded, “but what happens when we’re deep underground and covered by a few tons of rubble?” Nonetheless, the warrior moved toward the crack in the ground, preparing to slip after the wizard.
Neither Sarah nor Dax needed to get to the fissure, though. Another rumbling came from under the ground, greater even than the chaos caused by the mountain troll. The earth shook, and it knocked Sarah and Dax right off their feet. The crack in the ground grew into a chasm. Suddenly, instead of running toward it, Sarah found herself trying to get away from the widening gap. She grabbed stones and tried to pull herself along, but the crevice opened faster than she could move. The ground swallowed her up, and she felt herself falling.
She landed with a thump and a groan on a rocky ledge. The cavern around her was dark—too dark for her to see anything. She felt her way along the ground until she touched some robes.
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