The Hollow Kingdom (11 page)

"This is it, Em, I know it," she said urgently. "This is my last chance, and we have to make it work. We haven't tried to escape on foot. We might make it."

Emily thought about this for a second. Then she sighed, thinking of her soft bed.

"All right. Where are we going to go?" she asked gloomily.

Kate shot her a swift look of gratitude. "I don't know yet. We'll just go as far away as we can. Maybe we can get off goblin land in one day if we start early."

Emily looked extremely skeptical. "We can't even walk as far as Hollow Lake in one day," she pointed out, "and the goblin King said he stole his wife by the lakeshore."

Kate shivered at the thought of the poor mad bride. "We'll go the other direction, away from the Hill, and we won't bring anything but a picnic basket so we can avoid attracting attention. Go tidy up, Em, and put on a clean dress. We can't walk down a country road with blood and dirt all down our fronts. But don't light a candle, or Seylin will call the others. And don't wake up Aunt Prim!"

Emily slipped out, and Kate changed quickly, wadding up the old dress and stuffing it under her bed. Then she put on clean stockings and picked out another pair of shoes. She remembered losing one of her favorite pair in the woods. This was the second dress in a week, too, that she had destroyed in midnight scrambles. She surveyed the meager choices left in her wardrobe and sent bitter thoughts in Marak's direction. Then she splashed water into her washbowl and combed the blood out of her hair. By the light of the setting moon, she surveyed her uninjured forehead in the mirror. Try as she might, she could find no sign of the large wound Emily had described.

Emily tiptoed back in, carrying her shoes. She made a face when she saw Kate.

"Why are you wearing that nasty blue thing?" she wanted to know. "It's all faded, and the sash makes you look five years old."

Kate felt that this was just the sort of comment calculated to undo her resolve. "I have far more serious things to consider than the
condition of my dress," she declared a little tragically. "I'm really beyond those sorts of petty concerns right now."

"That's good," said Emily. Then she brightened. "I know. If the goblin King sees you looking like that, maybe he'll change his mind." Kate didn't see any reason to honor this with a reply. She grabbed her shoes and headed down to the kitchen. She pulled out a small wicker basket and piled some provisions into it.

"Let's go," she whispered. "It's already dawn. We'll leave by the front door. If Seylin's still where he said he would be, we can keep the house between us."

In a few minutes, they were hurrying down the gravel track through a rustling, dewy meadow, the forested hills to their backs now and the fields before them. Somewhere on these fields, Kate remembered with a sinking heart, the goblins had kept watch around their bonfire. She wondered just how far their magical kingdom extended.

The exhausted girls stumbled along the pebbly track, stepping on their long shadows as the red sun rose over the Hill behind them. Kate's shoes were cracked at the toes, and her feet began to ache. She tried to turn over the events of the night in her mind, but it all began to run together and change. She was arguing with Marak. She was yelling at him, and he was laughing. Agatha came and looked at her palm, telling Kate to be careful. "I see danger in this hand," she said, her black eyes huge, "from someone very close to you."

Someone very close. Kate came out of her doze with a start. She heard the clopping of horses' hooves coming along fast behind them. Swiftly she grabbed the sagging Emily by the arm and glanced around for cover. There was none to be had. They were in the middle of a mowed field with not so much as a rock wall in reach. Kate's heart pounded as she whirled to face her enemy. What right, she thought furiously, did he have to be out during the day?

The dogcart bowled into sight over a slight ridge. The old mare stopped a few feet from them and dropped her head, blowing heavily. Hugh Roberts climbed down from the seat, his wig askew and his round face brick red with anger.

"Miss Winslow," he remarked heatedly, "you are quite beyond our ability to handle."

He drove the girls to the Hall in silence. Emily fell asleep on the way.

"Come with me, Miss Winslow," he ordered, leaving the cart at the door. Kate climbed down and looked back at her sleeping sister, a lump in her throat. I've lost my last chance to escape, she thought. I won't see Em again, and now I can't even say good-bye.

Her guardian led her down the hall to one of the bedrooms. "I'm leaving you in here," he told her. "Ring if you need anything." Kate stared aghast at the elegant bedroom. It was on the ground floor, facing the dense forest of the Hill, and it opened out onto the shaded terrace via a pair of pretty double doors. Almost the whole wall by the terrace was window, covered with lacy curtains.

"How long will I be staying here?" she demanded anxiously. Her guardian paused in the doorway.

"I don't exactly know," he said ponderously. "I feel you are now a danger to yourself and to your sister. You'll have to stay in here until we can decide what to do about you. Prim and Celia cannot deal with you at the Lodge."

Kate could just imagine a whole coterie of monsters assembling in the woods outside those double doors. At twilight they would come bursting in and haul her away, their weird goblin chieftain in the lead.

"Mr. Roberts," she begged, "please don't leave me in this room! At least put me on the second floor or in a room that doesn't face the forest. There must be bedrooms that are safer than this."

"Safer from goblins?" Hugh Roberts asked sardonically, and Kate knew that the argument was over. She heard him lock the door as he left.

Exhausted and frustrated, Kate flung herself down on the bed to think. Ever since she had asked for her guardian's help, things had gotten worse and worse. He had practically accused her of insanity in front of her aunts, he had instructed them to throw her out of the house after dark, and now he had locked her up in a room perfect for goblin attack. Short of delivering her tied up to the goblins' front door, Kate couldn't think of anything worse he could do. Of course, she concluded miserably, he would say that he just wanted her to face her fears. She was pretty sure that was exactly what she would be doing once twilight came again.

Kate devoted some time to escaping, but the large, opulent room thwarted her attempts. She could find no way to pry open either windows or doors. The windows were nailed shut, and they held many small diamonds of glass cemented together by lead strips. She wasn't sure she could batter her way out with a chair even if she could risk the noise. The doors onto the terrace fastened together with a heavy bolt that slid between them, and the key was gone from the lock. Yet she knew that her solid prison posed not the least problem for the goblin King. Even his magical cat knew how to open locked doors.

The day passed very slowly. Kate tried hard not to think about what twilight would bring. Restless and lonely, she wandered about and studied the various diversions the room had to offer. Outside was a beautiful day. She stood for a long time at the window, watching the sun dapple the terrace. It's my last chance to see sunlight, she thought miserably. My very last chance.

When her guardian brought lunch, Kate refused to speak to him. She was finished giving him ideas on how to make her face her
fears. If he was too well educated to believe in goblins, she wasn't going to change his mind. Tired out from worry and all the late nights, she lay down on the bed and fell into a doze. When she awoke, the room was filled with the shadows of twilight. Kate jumped up in a panic. What was it she had said to Agatha? Handed over like a sack of potatoes. She couldn't bear it. She had to do something, she just had to!

How would the goblins attack her? They wouldn't hesitate to invade the house if they could do so undetected. They would doubtless make sure that she was unable to raise an alarm, and the easiest way to do that was to make sure that she was asleep. The goblin King controlled sleep with a magical ease. Kate doubted she would even wake up until she was underground.

How could she raise an alarm if she were asleep? Kate looked about for inspiration. A large crystal lamp stood on a table by the hall door. If she could pull the lamp down as she was being taken out, it would make a substantial crash.

Kate quickly went to work. Her light was going fast, and the shadows beneath the trees were getting thicker and blacker. She hastily ripped from her dress the sash that had so offended Emily's taste. It made a cloth rope about six feet long. She tied one end tightly around the base of the crystal lamp, then dropped the sash over the side of the table and pulled it underneath. She brought a pillow from the bed and lay down next to the hall door. Then she tied the other end of her makeshift rope to her ankle. Now if she moved away from her spot by her end of the table, the lamp would be tugged off its resting place and crash to the floor a few feet away.

Kate pushed her dress hem down to hide the knot and huddled in a furious pitch of suspense for the attack. She was as far as she could be from those ominous double doors, and she felt well rested
and alert. Maybe she could raise the alarm before the doors were even open. When they came, she thought excitedly, they would find her ready to meet them.

Go to sleep, Kate
. And that was that. One minute she was wide awake, waiting for the first hint of trouble. The next minute she was locked in a profound slumber. The doors swung open to let in the quiet sounds of the deepening twilight, but Kate slept on, trapped in a dreamless darkness beyond any possibility of action.

A loud knocking sounded on the door right above her head.

"Miss Winslow," said Hugh Roberts through the door, "a visitor has just arrived and is anxious to meet you. I'll give you a few minutes, and then I'd like you to join us."

Kate opened her eyes and stared straight into the unmatched eyes of the goblin King. Marak crouched over her in the dusky gloom. He already had his arms around her, about to lift her from the floor, and his pale hair brushed her face. He froze, glancing toward the door as her guardian delivered his message. Kate tensed to scream, but Marak absently laid a finger across her lips, and she found herself unable to make a sound. As she twisted her head from side to side, trying to find her voice, she saw the goblin grin in amusement. Kate glared up at him frantically and jerked her foot as hard as she could, yanking the lamp to the floor just beyond them. It hit the stone with a terrific smash, spraying his back with crystal shards. He turned, startled, to locate the source of the sound.

"Miss Winslow, what are you doing?" Hugh Roberts called through the door. "What's happening in there?" But Kate was still unable to yell for help. Marak tightened his grip on her. This is when he drags me away, Kate thought feverishly. In another second, he'll have me unconscious, and I'll wake up underground. She struck at him as hard as she could, clawing and fighting to break free.

"Miss Winslow, answer me. What's going on?"

The goblin had a number of solutions at his disposal, but it is hard to think or work magic while under attack. Kate yanked his hair. When he peeled her hand loose, she twisted and got an elbow into his chest. She threw out an arm and banged the door. As he raised his six-fingered hand to touch her forehead, she sank her teeth as hard as she could into his thumb.

"That's it, Miss Winslow. I'm coming in there."

Marak pushed Kate away and sprang to his feet. She scrambled to sit up and banged into the door, throwing her head back to look at him. The goblin's face was twisted in a snarl of fury, his sharp teeth were bared, and his eyes blazed in the twilit room with an unnatural brightness. He raised his arms in front of him, the eleven fingers pointing out rigidly, dark drops clinging to his bleeding thumb. Kate ducked her head instinctively, bracing for the lightning, or worse, that would follow. She felt the hall door push against her, but she couldn't move for terror. The enraged goblin flicked out his hands, the fingers pointing away from her, and moved them apart in a slow, deliberate circle of the room. Pictures sprang from the walls. Knickknacks and vases leapt from the furniture. Bookshelves overturned. The washstand upended. The room was filled with the sound of smashing, splintering, and crashing, and the air was filled with flying debris. The goblin King glared down at Kate, his pallid face haughty, as she cringed and shielded her eyes from the exploding fragments. Then he spun on his heel and walked rapidly from the room. As he passed through the open doors, he made a casual gesture. The doors slammed shut behind him with an unearthly force, and the glass from the whole expanse of window fractured and fell in.

Kate staggered to her feet and watched him disappear into the shadow of the trees as the hall door swung open behind her. Dazed, she looked around at the wreckage. Twisted picture frames and powdered ceramic covered the floor. Books cascaded out of broken shelves, and bits of window glass spangled the Oriental rug.

"Extraordinary!" she heard a voice murmur behind her. Kate turned to find two men standing in the doorway, staring at the scene before them with open mouths. Her guardian, his plump face bloodless, clutched the door frame with both hands. As her gaze fell on them, he made an attempt to push himself upright.

"Miss Winslow," he said, his voice unsteady, "meet Dr. Stanley Thatcher, head of the Westcross Asylum."

Kate turned around again and looked out at the black forest, delighted and amazed. She had faced the goblin King alone and had beaten him! She had been set out like bait in a trap with no friends, no weapon, and no magic, and she was still standing free in the moonlight while he headed back to his horrible caves. She wanted to whoop and shriek, to yell insults into the darkening night. Instead, she demurely turned around and faced the two men.

"There's been some kind of explosion," she said, studying the doctor with cool curiosity. "Look, the windows blew in. Do the rooms next to this one have broken windows, too?"