Fire Storm (23 page)

* * *

The troll market was busy at 9:00 a.m. the following morning, teeming with bridge trolls, the squat creatures that resembled hairless dwarves, and intermingled with an occasional tree troll, their much larger cousins. The tree trolls were seven foot plus, pushing three-hundred-fifty pounds, with square chests and long elephant-like legs. Lilith had been alarmed when she first saw the huge creatures.

“I hope they don’t mind us being here. They wouldn’t need weapons to squash us like bugs.” Lilith balked at leaving her guns in the car, but Gerhard had warned them that weapons weren’t allowed in the market. Ari locked them in the glove compartment and added her Walther with equal reluctance. She was getting rather fond of the pistol.

“So far no one’s paid much attention to us.”

Colorful vendor stands of bright yellows, oranges, and green formed a large circle with a small hub at the center, which included a grog tent. Considering the singing from the tent’s patrons, the traditional water and rum drink must be heavy on the rum-side. Contrary to the hands-off treatment they were given by most of the trolls, the tent’s occupants encouraged Ari and Lilith to join the fun. Ari smiled but shook her head. A little too early for alcohol, but the smell of freshly baked bread lured her to another tent, where she bartered with the handful of coins in her pockets.

Munching on two ample hunks of the pretzel-like bread, they strolled around the rest of the circle, examining the merchandise and asking about a troll named Grogan. No one admitted to having heard the name. Although they weren’t making any progress in their inquiry, the market was interesting. The stands sold everything from jellies to blankets to tree troll shoes made of flat boards that looked very uncomfortable. Ari noticed most of the trolls were barefoot.

“I don’t think they’re going to tell us anything.” Lilith sounded resigned. They’d almost reached the spot where they’d entered the market. “Shall we visit the grog tent? Loose lips and all that.”

“It’s worth a try, but I’m not really going to drink that stuff.”

“Well, I plan to sample my share. Why not?”

Ari chuckled. “I can think—” She whipped around at the scream. “What’s that?”

“It sounded like a child.”

A second scream, then a third. They ran toward the sounds, mingling with the trolls who had also responded. A short path led them to edge of a crumbling cliff edge. A large chunk of the mountain had eroded at some point in the distant past, leaving a slope of loose shale leading to a ledge protruding over the forest below. A young troll—Ari couldn’t tell whether it was a boy or girl since both wore baggy leather outfits similar to coveralls—had fallen over the edge and onto a second ledge fifteen feet below. The child clung to a straggly bush and looked up at them in mute fear. Other children still on top of the cliff had done all the screaming.

The bridge trolls were too small and the tree trolls too heavy to attempt a rescue without ropes or ladders. Runners were quickly sent to bring equipment. But the child’s situation was too precarious to wait. Ari thought she was light enough to get down there. She was figuring out how she could get the child back up, when Lilith bounded past her in her furry form.

The lioness landed lightly on the ledge next to the child, grabbed the back of the coveralls in her massive jaws, and leaped for the top. Her jump was short. She’d miscalculated the added weight of the troll child, and she scrambled for leverage. The loose shale shifted under Lilith’s feet, and she began to slide. The watching crowd alternately gasped and cheered as the lioness struggled. Using whipcord muscles, she bounded over the unstable surface, finally bringing her bundle to safety. Setting the child at Ari’s feet, Lilith loped into the forest to shift back into her human self. Unlike the wolves, lions came back fully clothed in whatever they’d been wearing, but the process was still unpleasant to watch.

“Are you OK?” Ari crouched to comfort the frightened child.

Before the young girl could answer, three adult tree trolls pushed through the crowd. The two in the lead swept up their daughter, exclaiming in big, rumbling voices over her scraped knees, her recklessness, and their delight in seeing her. They thanked Ari several times, and when Lilith reappeared they turned their gratitude upon her. The mother even drew Lilith into a crushing embrace.

Eventually, the family and the congratulatory crowd began to migrate toward the market area. The third adult tree toll, who’d arrived with the parents, stayed behind.

“Thank you for helping my niece. Peyta is precious to us.” His heavily accented voice was deep with a slight echo, as if he spoke from the bottom of a barrel. “You asked for me. My name is Grogan.”

Chapter Eleven

Ari looked up. And up. Grogan was tall. Probably pushing seven and a half feet.

“What do witch and lion want with troll?” he asked.

Ari was just as direct. “I need to get into Castle Verdammung. I was told you might know about a tunnel.”

The giant troll laughed; his voice boomed. “Ha. Ha. Good joke. No one goes to Verdammung, except friends of vampires or those who wish to die. Which are you?”

“Neither. They’re holding our friend, and we intend to free him.”

The troll regarded her with serious eyes. “Your friend is doomed. How do you think fortress got its name? Too bad. Lion friend has done a kindness today, but would not be right to take you place where you die.”

“Then there is such a tunnel?” Ari barely contained her excitement.

“Shaft, high in mountains go to tunnel. Old. Before vampires. Not used now. Not for long, long time.”

“But it still exists. Have you been inside?”

“Ja. But I am troll. Not safe for strangers. Parts are blocked, collapsed.”

“What if you took us?” Lilith cocked her head, and her coaxing tone seemed to be a subtle reminder of his debt to her.

Grogan let out a heartfelt sigh that rumbled from his big chest and stirred the air around him. “Come. We will talk.”

An hour and a half later, Ari and Lilith had been watching Grogan smoke his enormous full bent pipe for at least twenty minutes. He had led them to the rear of the grog tent on the market square, entering a separate section that was sealed off from the public sales area by a solid wood partition. He sat on a grass mat on the floor and demanded to hear everything from beginning to end. After Ari and Lilith chose their own grassy pads, Ari tried to keep her story brief, but Grogan asked numerous questions and the telling took quite a while.

She’d tried to gauge his reaction. “If I have a way into the castle, I know I can come up with a rescue plan. Just show me the entrance to the tunnel. I’ll make a quick trip inside and come back later with additional help.”

Grogan had murmured, “Strange story,” picked up his pipe, and lit it. After five minutes of watching him puff, Ari ventured to ask what he’d decided. He’d replied, “I am thinking.” They hadn’t heard a word since.

During the long wait, Ari’s mind had begun to wander, envisioning what things might be like inside the fortress. It was barren and foreboding from the outside. Was it the same within or had the vampires built in modern conveniences? Was Andreas being held in a dungeon? A picture formed in her head of a long hallway lighted with torches, then the image was gone. She straightened. It was as if…but she hadn’t felt a magical surge, and Andreas would be in his sleep cycle. Just her imagination filling in the blanks. Wasn’t it?

“Do you think we’re supposed to just sit here?” Lilith suddenly whispered in her ear. “I’m getting hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.”

“Food in bin.” Startled, Ari and Lilith turned to stare at the troll. He pointed to a covered basket. “Eat. I will have answer soon.”

Deciding there was no way to hurry him, Ari did as he suggested. Opening the basket they found more of the delicious bread they’d eaten earlier, which appeared to be a staple for the trolls. They shared a large chunk and were discussing the possibility of finding something to drink, when Grogan stood and set his pipe aside.

“I show you tunnel now. Come. You must remember path for your return. I will not help attack the damned ones.” Following this pronouncement, Grogan strode out of the tent and headed toward a path into the woods. Ari and Lilith raced to keep up with him. For all his bulk, the tree troll was fast on his feet.

The trio wound higher up the mountain. He finally stopped at a pile of huge boulders, put his massive arms around the largest, and grunted a little while lifting it several feet to the right. His efforts exposed a sizable dark hole. Reaching inside, Grogan produced a lantern, switched it on, and led the way through the opening. Although Grogan ducked to enter, the tunnel immediately became high enough to accommodate his extra inches. He retrieved two flashlights from a wooden crate set against the wall and handed them to Ari and Lilith.

Clearly the tunnel was used more often than Grogan had suggested. The flashlights and lantern were giveaways that someone came here regularly. The tunnel itself was unlike anything Ari had seen before. The earth-packed walls were tall like the trolls and had no visible supports. What was keeping them from falling?

The narrowness of the path forced them to walk single file, and Ari was glad to have her own light. She played it warily over the earthen walls, looking for cracks, then kept it on the path at her feet. The walls loomed closer, and her hands turned clammy, her breathing shallow. An image flashed through her head of walls moving inward, the ceiling lowering. She stopped, wiped sweat from her face with her sleeve. Claustrophobia. She hadn’t had an attack since childhood, but she’d never been this deep in the earth without solid rock or wooden beams around her. She took a deep breath, shook off the feeling, and kept moving. Her breathing finally steadied.

The path wound down for a long time, finally leveled, then gradually sloped upward. After what must have been two miles or more, Grogan halted before a heavy oak door, secured by a massive beam. He lifted the beam with ease and laid it aside. Ari opened the door and peeked inside. Stone stairs.

“Steps go to Verdammung. Second door. Lift beam. Cellar. More steps. Then kitchen.”

“You’ve actually been inside?” she asked. “You’ve seen this for yourself?”

“I was child. Vampires came. We run. Tunnel now off limits.”

“Then why the lanterns and flashlights at the entrance?” Lilith asked.

The troll’s mouth showed an abundance of teeth in a huge grin. “Me, I not like limits. Cool tunnels. Good storage. Need for grog.” He lifted his arm and pantomimed drinking.

Rum. They were hiding rum in the tunnels. Ari suppressed a laugh. She’d fallen in with a moonshiner.

“So is the door guarded on the other side?”

“Not long ago.”

“How long ago was that?” Ari peered up the stairs again.

The troll scratched his bare head. “I was ten, so one hundred eighty years or so.”

“Wow, you’re that old?” Lilith blurted. “Uh, I didn’t mean anything bad by that, just…you’re well preserved.”

Grogan’s throat rumbled in a chuckle. “We long-lived race. Three hundred is old.”

Ari ignored their idle conversation. She wanted to see the top for herself. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She started climbing.

In wasn’t far. The worst part was the cobwebs and spiders—maybe a hundred and eighty years worth. The door at the top was just as Grogan had described. She tried the beam, but it was too heavy for her to budge. She’d need to bring reinforcements and tools when she returned. After listened with her ear against the door and not hearing anything, she opened her senses and sent her magic looking for Andreas. This was the nearest she’d been to him in weeks. For a moment, she saw a dark room, then the image faded.

Somewhat startled, she frowned. This was the third or fourth time she’d seen vague images in the last couple of days. Always when Andreas was in his sleep cycle. Their magics had communicated once before when Andreas was sleeping. Almost two years ago. Was it happening again? Were the magics finding each other when Andreas wasn’t awake to block it?

She concentrated to see if she could do it again, but nothing happened. Maybe she was just being fanciful.

After one last listen at the door, she retraced her steps down the stairs. “Tell me again what’s on the other side? A storage room and kitchen? Did you see anything else?”

“We found kitchen, then they found us. We ran— Quiet!” The troll straightened to his full height, listening intently. “Do you hear?”

Debris began to fall on the stairs behind Ari, pouring dust into the tunnel. She jumped away as Grogan slammed the door and put the beam in place. A loud rumble came from the ceiling above them, and a large crack spread from side to side.

“Cave in!” Grogan bellowed. “Run!”

Ari and Lilith whirled and raced back down the passage. Dirt crumbled around them, and they ran faster. Lilith shifted into lion form for greater speed, and Ari began to fall behind. She pushed harder, but she couldn’t keep up. Realization finally hit. Her Guardian abilities had eroded, leaving her with only normal witch speed. Thank the Goddess she trained regularly, but it might not be enough.

The rumbling increased behind her, growing closer, and chunks started to fall in her path. She dodged over and among them, pushing herself until pain shot up her legs. She was losing the race, when a large hand snatched her from behind. Grogan tucked her under one arm as his long legs continued to cover the distance at a dizzying speed. He caught up with Lilith and passed her.

As the mountain shifted, cracks opened, threatening to swallow them. The tunnel filled with blinding, choking dust. Grogan ran on.

Ari clung to the troll’s arm, watching for falling debris and protrusions on the sides of the tunnel. It wouldn’t take much to knock her from her precarious perch. Dust filled her nose and mouth and eyes.

Finally he slowed and set her down. “Worst is over. Rest now.”

It didn’t sound like it was over. The mountain shook and groaned, as if it would come down on top of them. The ground under her feet vibrated. Ari coughed, forcing the thick dust out of her lungs and rubbed her eyes.