Into The Mist (Land of Elyon) (7 page)

67

mottled sound of Finch and Madame Vickers cursing and screaming. Then Thomas grabbed the bag and we started running toward the city of Ainsworth.

"They won't give up so easily," I said as we ran.

"You're probably right," offered Thomas. "Which is why we should keep running until we get to the city. If we can make it there ahead of Max and the Mooch, I think we can lose them in the winding streets."

Going back to Ainsworth worried me. It would be best if we could pass through quickly - selling some of our treasure of trash for food and water -and be away before morning.

68

***

CHAPTER 8

A Dark Night in Gaul's Ward

The sound of the dogs grew nearer as the night wore on, for though Thomas and I were fast on our feet, we were no match for a much older boy being ruthlessly pulled along by Max and the Mooch. The city of Ainsworth was an hour away at a dead run, which we couldn't keep up without resting every five minutes or so. We would be lucky to make it all the way in an hour and a half, and Finch was gaining on us as the distant lights of Ainsworth came into view.

We stopped short of the city itself, trying to catch our breath, knowing full well that we would have to sneak in without being seen. It was likely Madame Vickers had already visited while we had waited under the stump on the hill, telling the authorities to be on the watch for two young boys who'd escaped her grasp. They would be looking for us from the very direction we were coming.

"I'm not sure how we'll get in without being seen," said Thomas. It struck me then that he had no idea how we were to proceed. He had thought

69

only of getting us out of Madame Vickers's clutches, not of the difficult tasks that lay ahead.

"There's one place we could probably get in," I said. "And it's probably the best place to trade what we have for the things we'll need if we're to make it all the way to the Western Kingdom."

To be fair, we had no idea where the Western Kingdom was. We only knew it was a long way off and to the west, through places hardly anyone had ever been, and that without at least some supplies we had no hope of making it.

The dogs were closing in, and we could see Finch's torch dancing over his head.

"I see you! I see you! Get back here or I'll let loose the dogs!" Finch was yelling at the top of his lungs, and we realized we'd let him get too close. If he did let the dogs go, they might overtake us before we could reach the edge of Ainsworth and get in.

"Follow me!" I said, and we were off toward the edge of the city at a full sprint. When we came near enough to see the buildings and the streets of the city, we veered quickly to the left and ran along the outer edge in the dark. No one could see us in the night, and no one would expect us to enter at the place I'd chosen. We ran with everything we had in us, as Finch's voice boomed, "Go get 'em! Go get 'em!"

70

He had let Max and the Mooch off their leashes.

"Here, Thomas!" I pointed toward Ainsworth and turned sharply in the direction of dim lights.

"You're crazy!" he said, but we both kept running.

"There's no other way in without being seen!"

The Mooch advanced within a few yards of us. He'd moved out past Max and was closing in on me, growling as though he'd come within range of a victim he could devour. He needed only to charge a few more feet to do it.

Thomas reached the surrounding fence before me, scampering up the side. He looked back, and by the dim light of the streetlamps I saw in his expression that the Mooch was about to take hold of me by the leg. With a final burst of effort, my lungs stinging with pain, I leaped into the air and seized the top of the fence, kicking to reach the top. The Mooch stood up on his back legs and clamped his mighty teeth into my new black boot.

"Not this time! That boot belongs to me," I said. Turning my body in midair, I kicked the Mooch square in the ear with my free foot. He yelped in pain as Max came alongside him, and the two dogs barked angrily at the base of the fence. Reaching the top, I pushed Thomas over the edge and jumped

71

down beside him, where we lay in a heap on the ground.

And so it was that we entered Ainsworth by a very dangerous way, a way not intended for children. And worse, the sound of the dogs had alerted someone. We were not alone on the other side of the fence.

"Well," came a slippery voice over the sound of the dogs, "what have we here?"

We were in the worst part of Ainsworth, the slum of all slums, and there was a big man with greasy hair and a tangled beard standing before us. He took us both by the backs of our shirts and hauled us up on our feet, forcing us down a darkened alley with hands so big I thought they couldn't be real.

"Word's on the street about you two," he muttered. "I'm pleased you've come my way."

He laughed thunderously, as though he couldn't have cared less who knew he was dragging two innocent boys down a dirty street. I tripped and started to fall, and the man's big hands lifted me clear off the ground by my shirt and set me to walking again. In that moment I glanced back and saw Finch staring over the fence with a look of amusement on his face. He knew, as I did, that Thomas and I were in the biggest trouble of our young lives.

72

We had come upon Gaul's Ward with only an hour of night remaining. A cool mist hovered in the alleyway and a strong smell of rotting vegetables stung my nose as I tried to catch my breath. There was trash strewn everywhere on the cobbled streets as we walked past crisscrossing alleyways and broken-down houses. Gaul's Ward was the place you went if you had no money and no prospects, and it was not a place you ventured into alone or at night. It was sheer madness to come here if you were a child, for children were known to disappear into Gaul's Ward all the time, never to be seen or heard from again.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Thomas, usually the bolder of the two of us in times such as these.

"Where Madame Vickers won't find you," the man growled. We couldn't be sure if he wanted to hide us so that we could become his slaves or because he truly did want to protect us from being found.

"How far is it?" Thomas continued with the questions, which clearly annoyed the man who had us in his grasp.

"Keep quiet!" he answered with a firm and booming voice.

The more we walked, the fewer lamps there

73

were, the darker the alley became, and the more rats I saw darting back and forth before my feet in the shadows and mist. We came to a set of stairs that led down into the darkness. Only the first three steps could be seen; the rest were shrouded in mist and deathly quiet.

I craned my neck to the side so I could look back down the alley from which we'd come. Through the swirling mist I saw the inhuman strides of Madame Vickers and heard the clomp of each boot on the grimy cobblestones before her. She looked positively wicked in the dim light, like a monster coming through the haze to catch us and take us back for some terrible, lengthy punishment. The sound of those big boots and the quickness of their approach were made worse by Finch's cackle from behind as he tried to keep control of the dogs.

"Mister Clawson," cried Madame Vickers. She was still twenty paces away, but her voice echoed through the darkness of early morning. Her arm raised up and a bony white finger pointed down the alley. "Those two belong to me. You would do well to give them back."

The hand on my neck clenched tighter, and the man knelt down beside us. There was a single lit streetlamp glowing dim over our heads and the sound of squeaking rats darting back and forth.

"I want you to go down these stairs," said Mister

74

Clawson. "And when you get to the bottom, I want you to open the door and go inside. Understood?"

"Understood." There was a surprising resolve in Thomas's voice, as though he knew instinctively that we should go down the stairs and open the door. I was not at all sure this was the best choice before us. Going back with Madame Vickers would be terrible, but going down there?

"Mister Clawson!" Madame Vickers was closing in on us. "I might remind you of your obligations."

It was clear the two of them knew each other and had established an arrangement neither Thomas nor I understood.

"Down the steps if you value your life!" yelled Mister Clawson, pushing the both of us and releasing us from his grip. He turned to the alley and crossed his massive arms over his chest, waiting for Madame Vickers to arrive. Thomas and I crept slowly into a swirling fog that hung thick and heavy over the stairs.

"Get on with it!" cried Mister Clawson. "You must go all the way into the mist, to the very bottom."

Faint light seeped around. Looking down, I saw the fog on the stairs had covered my legs. I stared at Thomas and he seemed like half a boy, the haze splitting him in two and leaving nothing below his shirtsleeves.

75

Into the mist. You must go all the way into the mist, to the very bottom.

Something about those words rang true, though I had no idea why. It was as though I'd heard them before, in a dream or a fractured memory.

Thomas and I continued down together, listening for the rats we could not see, wondering if we might step on a long, hairless tail and send one scratching and clawing up a pant leg.

"Where do you think you're going?" I lurched around and saw the long, crooked shadow of Madame Vickers standing at the very top of the stairs. "You shall come back right now or Finchy will let loose the dogs. You don't want to be down there all alone with the two of them in the dark!"

Where had Mister Clawson gone off to? He'd left us for dead! My whole body shook with fear and indecision. He'd trapped us for Madame Vickers and left us! I was thinking this awful thought and turned to Thomas in order to convince him that we should give up and go back to the House on the Hill, but when I opened my mouth to speak he screamed, and before my very eyes he disappeared into the mist.

"No!" shrieked Madame Vickers. "The dogs -- send in the dogs!"

That was the last thing I remember hearing. Send in the dogs! The moment I heard those words someone -- or something -- grabbed me by the legs

76

and pulled me so hard it took me right off my feet. I remember the sound of a slamming door, the clanging of metal, and the distant bark of Max and the Mooch.

And then there was nothing but a still, cold darkness and the sound of my own breathing.

77

***

CHAPTER 9

The Iron Door

"It took some nerve to come by way of Gaul's Ward."

It was the voice of Mister Clawson, accompanied by a thin line of orange light.

"Thomas?" I murmured into the gloom all around me.

"I'm here," came his voice, and then he touched me on the arm and we huddled close.

"It's good to have a brother at a time like this," bellowed Mister Clawson. His voice was unmistakable and close, as though his overgrown beard could scratch against us at any moment. I heard him scuffle toward the line of light at the floor.

"We thought you'd left us for dead," I mumbled into the shadows.

"I nearly did just that. If you'd listened from the start, it would have been quicker, easier. We wouldn't have had to deal with her. Now I'll have some explaining to do."

There came a grating sound as a heavy door was opened and the line of light on the floor grew wider until we could see the space around us and

78

the room beyond the opening door. Where we were was perfectly square, and the only exit was the door that Mister Clawson had just opened and was passing through. When he was free of the room he pushed the door almost all the way shut with some effort. It was not closed all the way, leaving a long L of light seeping into the place where we sat. I touched the back of the wall we leaned on and found it was solid stone.

"How did we get in here?" asked Thomas. "There's no other door, only walls." He got up on his feet, tapping the three stone walls of the room. It was like the end of a short passageway with a tall ceiling. I could reach across and touch both sides. And there was simply no way out but the one door Mister Clawson had just opened. There ought to have been a door at our backs -- where we had been sitting. That would have been where the bottom of the stairs led into the mist from which we'd come. But there was only a wall of impenetrable stone.

We turned together to face the door at the end of the passage. I was sure Mister Clawson could not be trusted. He could have kidnapped us for so many reasons, all of which seemed terrible as we stood in the small stone room.

"We couldn't turn back, even if we wanted to,"

79

said Thomas. "There's no going back to the House on the Hill. We're stuck in Gaul's Ward, and that door is our only way out." He pointed to the open door and began walking toward it.

"We never should have let ourselves get into this mess," I said.

Thomas seemed unshaken. "We're not dead yet. Maybe it won't be as bad as we think."

We went the rest of the way together and stood at the L of light near the door. It was closed too far to see past into the room beyond, so we put our shoulders into the door and pushed with all our might. It creaked and seemed to shred the earthen floor beneath it, but it opened far enough for us to sidestep through. I moved Thomas aside and went in first, holding my brother by the shirtsleeve as I went. Mister Clawson sat across from us at a large table lined all the way across the front with dripping, lit candles. He was not alone.

"Come closer, boys," said Mister Clawson. "She won't harm you. Unless, of course, I ask her to -- in which case you'd be in a lot of trouble."

There was an animal sitting in front of the table -- a very large animal unlike anything I'd ever seen. It looked an awful lot like a cat, only it was bigger than I was. I began to wonder how long and sharp its claws were.