Cogling (39 page)

Harrison pointed to the left. “We came in this way.”

“I could’ve sworn we came from the right.”

“Yeah.” He paused. “Does the dragon know?”

“Silver didn’t come from there. He was outside.” She gnawed her lower lip. “We can’t wait forever.”

“We’ll ask someone.” Harrison headed toward another cell.

“We can’t trust other people. We’ll go this way.” With Silver clasped to her bosom, she darted down the left hallway. Harrison followed a few steps behind. They splashed through shallow puddles and crunched over moldy straw. Prisoners rattled their bars and called for help, but Edna didn’t look. “We have to escape before the ruckus brings attention.” The hallway split into four different directions. She chose the right. The air grew colder as they ran. Their shoes pounded against the stone floor, footfalls echoing off the damp walls.

“Are we going down?” Harrison panted.

“This is fine.” A stitch formed in her side, but she kept going. Her lungs burned. She hadn’t eaten in so long. Her limbs were too weak. Her mind whirled, vision dancing, the evil surging.

Rounding the corner, she crashed into a troll. Her body jolted, but the thick beast remained still. Fear became an acidic taste in her mouth. Edna screamed as a thick hand clamped around her shoulder. The troll shoved her against the wall and roared. Saliva struck her cheek.

“Let her go!” Harrison punched the troll’s back.

A surge of pride rushed to Edna’s head. “Harry-boy, run!” Edna tried to squirm free, but the troll only roared again. He lowered his mouth of needle teeth toward her throat. Terror darkened the corners of her vision.

Silver ripped free from her grasp. The dragon flew at the troll’s face, ripping the large nose with his talons. Blood splattered across Edna, burning her skin. Droplets slithered down her face and neck, soaking into her dress. Harrison seized her arm and yanked. Her sleeve tore beneath the armpit as she fell free of the troll onto the floor, then she rolled away from the stomping beast.

The troll swatted at Silver while the dragon beat his wings and bit off one of the troll’s grayish-green fingers. The troll roared, the sound making Edna’s ears ring, and stepped back against the wall, flailing his arms. With a piercing hiss, the dragon closed his mouth over the troll’s throat and ripped. Blood streamed onto Silver as the troll crumpled to the floor.

Another roar reverberated from the side. Harrison yanked Edna to her feet and they both whirled to look at another troll. Two women and a man stood with the beast.

The second troll charged the dragon, waving his meaty fists and roaring. Silver attacked in a fury of scales and wings. Talons tore through leathery flesh until the dragon managed to rip out the second troll’s throat as well.

“I guess you don’t need saving after all,” one of the women said. If she wasn’t in a cell, she might be a warden or police officer.

Edna pushed Harrison behind her and backed away from the fallen beasts. “What do you want?”

The young man jumped over the body to catch Edna in his arms. “You got any idea how I thought I’d find you, all chained up in a cell?”

“Ike?” Relief exploded within her bosom, shoving back the evil. It had stopped being timid around Harrison, but Ike could still keep it at bay. “Odds bobs, it’s you! What’re you doin’ down here? You snuck into jail for us. Oh no, were you arrested too?”

“Saving you,” the other woman said.

Edna frowned. “Rachel? You really came to save us?”

Ike caught Edna’s chin and kissed her. She gasped, and his tongue touched hers. She knew she should push him away—they had to get out—but she slid her arms around his neck to pull him closer. Safety settled over her shoulders. “Ike,” she moaned against his lips.

Another woman coughed. “We must go.”

Edna glanced at her, cheeks flaming. “Hilda?”

“This way.” Hilda marched deeper into the tunnel. “There’s an entrance we’ll use to get out of here. Maybe later I’ll ask about the dragon, but right now we mustn’t dawdle. There will be other trolls afoot.”

Harrison hung back against the wall, his head turning as he watched the hallway. Edna scooped up Silver to follow Hilda, but Ike clasped her hand. Harrison glaced at the joined hands and a flush crept over Edna’s cheeks.

“How did Silver get here?” Ike asked.

“He came through the window.” Harrison blinked, as though Silver’s deed was a casual occurrence.

Her brother stepped back, as if wary of Ike. Edna gulped and rubbed her hand over her mouth. Having Ike around so much had to seem weird, especially with Edna relying on him. After everything was settled, she could help them develop a friendship.

They hurried down more corridors, each longer than the last, until Hilda stopped in front of a metal circle on the floor. She fitted her fingers into it and lifted.

“This leads to the sewer,” she said. “We’ll go through here ‘till we get to the river, then circle back into the city. It isn’t far.”

“It smells.” Rachel wrinkled her nose. “Can’t we go back the way we came?”

“Not with Edna and her brother.” Hilda chuckled. “Not to forget the dragon.”

“I’ll go first.” Ike kissed Edna’s knuckles. “Is the drop far?”

“Not really.” Hilda shrugged. After Ike dropped through the opening, she held out her hand to Edna. “Give him the dragon and then you go. He’ll want out. This stench down here is probably bothering his nose.”

The scent of decaying fish and feces made Edna cringe, but if the sewer was the only way, then so be it. “Here I go.”

You called me a liar when what I said was truth.

ewage soaked through Edna’s shoes and stockings, and her skirts clung to her legs. She stumbled as the slick stones underfoot offered no purchase. Ike turned as she gasped, and caught her against him. Silver mewed from between them where he nestled in her arms.

“If we get stuck somewhere, the dragon can rip through some bars. He was strong enough to break a lock. It took him a few minutes, so bars might take a little longer. He’s still a baby,” Edna added.

“This is disgusting,” Rachel muttered for the twelfth time since they’d left the prison’s dungeon.

“Shh,” Hilda hissed. “Excessive noise won’t help us.”

The walls were coated in slime. Rats and soot demons scampered across pipes in the ceiling.

“They ain’t gonna bite us, are they?” Harrison asked.

A soot demon leapt off the ceiling to land on Rachel’s head. She screamed as it knocked off her hat and tangled in her chignon. Hilda snorted a laugh, but Ike rushed forward to yank it out.

“Get it,” Rachel shrieked.

Silver flew from Edna’s arms and grabbed the soot demon in his mouth. He tossed the squealing creature into the air and caught it before ripping off its head. Silver ate it, then flew back to Edna. She hesitated before holding out her wrist for him to perch on it. The dragon crawled up her arm to sit on her shoulder, talons digging through the material to prick her skin. She suppressed a shudder.

“That was quick,” Harrison said, “and disgustin’.”

Hilda chuckled. “At least we know we’re safe. Let’s keep goin’.”

Harrison coughed, and Edna squeezed his arm. Concern for him pumped through her heart. “We’re almost out, Harry-boy.”

“Then what?” He sloshed through the sewer water with a scowl, the muck reaching his shins. “We can’t go home.”

Pain seared her heart and the evil crept out toward her arms. “Not yet, but we will. Once the hags are gone.”

“Stopped,” Hilda ‘s voice echoed off the stone walls. “Once the hags are
stopped
.”

They continued in silence. After an hour, Hilda pointed to one of the pipes in the ceiling, where a dirty crimson ribbon hung.

“This is the spot.” Hilda steered them to the edge, where a rusty ladder led to a metal circle in the ceiling. She climbed up and used her power over air to move the circle aside before she disappeared into the world above. A beam of sunlight shot into the sewer.

“You go on next.” Ike held out his arms for Silver. “I’ll send your brother up after, then Rachel, and I’ll go last.”

Edna paused, wondering if Harrison should go first, but it would be better if she could keep a lookout above while he ascended. “Be careful.”

Ike nodded. “The moon smile upon your strength.”

She’d never heard that phrase before, but it made her muscles feel stronger. When she gripped the ladder, rust bit through her palms, and she gritted her teeth. Her soggy boots squished against the rungs as she ascended through the murky darkness. At the top, Hilda grabbed her under the arms and heaved her onto the cobblestones. Edna lay on her back for a minute, staring at the cloudy sky above, before the stones dug into her sore body. She sat up as Hilda lifted Harrison free. Her brother coughed, so she patted his back.

Rachel followed him, glaring. “That was the filthiest thing I’ve ever done.” She glanced at Edna and the glare slipped away. “I’m glad you’re both safe, though.”

“Thank you,” Edna whispered. Silver flew out and Hilda tossed her green shawl over him. “Gotta keep this fellow hidden before the police come after you.” She narrowed her eyes again.

Once Ike emerged, she added, “We’ll retire to my apartment now. I’ll fix you up,” she said to Edna and Harrison, “while Ike steals some new clothes. Then we’ll head to the King.”

The king of all the country.
Edna nodded, breathless.

After eating a meal of bread with honey, Edna and Harrison took turns bathing in Hilda’s porcelain tub, the water scented with lavender oil. Hilda gave them aloe ointment to rub on their cuts. When Edna gazed into the hag’s small, bathroom mirror, she smiled at the familiar face. She almost looked as she had before Harrison’s kidnapping, with bright hazel eyes and brown curls. Safety and cleanliness enfolded her as if the sensations were warm quilts.

Someone knocked at the door and Rachel called, “May I enter?”

“I’m decent.” Edna smoothed her hands across her new brown skirt. Wide, satin pantaloons stuck out from the slits up the side, and covered the tops of her ankle boots. The leather pinched her toes, but at least they weren’t wet or reeking.

Rachel entered and shut the door, a wicker basket slung over her arm. Her eyes widened. “You look wonderful.”