The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3) (40 page)

Ah, yes, he was feeling
much
more himself now.

“Dani!”
the blonde screamed.

“Stay out of my way, you little Irish barbarian.”

“Leave her alone!” the Keeper protested.

“I’m not interested in her, actually. Isabelle, isn’t it?”

She went still, eyeing him in cold distrust. “What do you want with me?”

“You must come with me, my dear. I have a friend you really have to meet.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. Let me go!”

“Garnock!”
a voice suddenly thundered as she struggled.

Garnock looked
over with a hiss as the Lightrider’s son appeared at the far edge of the clearing. He was red-faced with running, his chest heaving. Persistent, that one.

“Take your hands off my cousin,
” the young Lord Griffon commanded, angrily striding toward them.

But Garnock had no intention of complying.

With a sneer at the lad, he clutched the girl’s wrist harder, then uttered a one-word teleportation spell and vanished, taking the Keeper with him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

A Cruel Trade

“Isabelle!”

Dani’s
piercing scream rang in Jake’s ears, a sound of pure panic that echoed his own overwhelming horror.

Garnock
had simply vanished with his cousin in a puff of black smoke.

“Where did they go? They couldn’t just disappear!”

But they had.

Dani was becoming hysterical, running around the grove looking for her friend in wild disbel
ief, as if Garnock and Isabelle might be hiding with her somewhere here just under their noses.

Jake gra
bbed her arm to stop her and tried to calm her down. “Shh, it’s all right.”

“No, it isn’t!” Her green eyes welled with terrified tears. “Jake, he took her!” she choked out.

“We’re going to get her back.”

“How?”

He swallowed hard. “I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out. But you have to calm down. This isn’t helping.”

His firm tone helped her settle down slightly.
“Where’s Derek? Where are Red and Archie? Is everyone all right? How did Garnock get past you?”

“The Lightriders’ spell didn’t work. He had already figured out a defense.”

“I knew it!” she yelled, her cheeks flushing with a burst of anger to match her bewilderment. “I knew your stupid plan would never work! Oh, why do you always do this?”

“What?” he cried
, taken aback. “It isn’t my fault!”

“Yes, it is! You always have to rush headlong into everything. Why couldn’t
you just wait until your aunt wrote back and told you what to do?”

Jake’s first impulse was to defend himself, but he realized she was beside herself at the moment after seeing Isabelle abducted right before their eyes.

He strove to be patient. “I would’ve gladly waited if I had a choice. The headmaster ghost came and warned us that Garnock was going crazy feeding on the children.” He paused with a pang at the awful memory of how Old Sack had been devoured.

But he dared not mention it to Dani—let alone how Archie and Red had been miniaturized, and Derek had been frozen. “You should have seen the way we found the students at the school. They were practically comatose.”

“Well, what do we do now?”

He shook his head, at a loss, but before he could think of any possible answer, a welcome sound came from above, filling the skies.

“Caw!”

He looked up and saw Red soaring toward them at top speed. Even better, Archie was riding on the Gryphon’s back. “They’re all right,” he breathed.

“What do you mean?” Dani asked.

“Never mind.” Jake waved anxiously to Red. “We’re down here! Hurry!”

“Red, help us!” Dani yelled.

A moment later, Red and Archie landed in the grove.

Jake and Dani ran to them. Archie slid off Red’s back. “I’m so glad to see you two back to your normal selves!”

“What
are you talking about?” Dani asked.

Jake ignored her as Archie glanced around. “No worries
, coz. Where’s my sister?”

Jake winced and dropped his gaze, and Dani started crying.

“Where is she?” Archie demanded in sudden dread.

Dani let out a sob. “Oh, Archie—Garnock took her!”

Red roared in fury at this news, rearing up on his hind legs and slashing at the air with his front claws.

The boy genius
turned white. “What do you mean he took her?”

“I’m pretty sure he used a transport spell. Then they just…vanished.” Jake reached out and steadied his cousin as Archie began wobb
ling on his feet.

“We have to get her back!” her brother fairly screamed, which made Dani cry harder.

Jake gulped. “We will.” Their reactions really weren’t helping. “How’s Derek?”

“Madam Sylvia’s still working on him,” Archie said.

“What happened to Derek?” Dani cried in renewed horror.

“He got frozen. Don’t worry, Madam Sylvia
seemed to think that she can fix him. It’ll probably just take some time,” Jake assured her with far more conviction than he felt. “Where’s Miss Helena, by the way?”

Dani turned to him with a low gasp. “We haven’t seen her.”

They rushed off to look for her and soon found the frozen governess, immobilized by the same spell Garnock had used on Derek.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get Madam Sylvia up here to work on h
er next,” Jake told the younger two.

“Mother Mary, we’re all doomed,” Dani said.

Hearing the despair in her voice, Red got hold of his own wrath and came over to the kids to help calm them down. He spread his wings around the boys’ shoulders and gave Dani a comforting nuzzle with his feathered cheek.

It made them feel much better to be reminded that although their adult chaperones might be frozen, at
least they still had Claw the Courageous on their side.

“All right, it’s down to us now,” Jake said after a moment. “
We’ve got to work together if we’re going to rescue Isabelle.”

Dani took a shaky breath.
She nodded. “Just tell us what to do.”

“Did
Garnock say anything about why he was kidnapping her or where he might have gone?” Jake asked Dani. “Did you hear him say anything useful?”

She furrowed her brow. “Well, after he threw me in the leaf-pile, I heard him say he had a friend he wanted her to meet.”

Oh, no.

“Maybe he meant th
e Dark Druids,” Archie whispered.

Jake shook his head. The sick feeling returned to his stomach. H
e hoped with all his heart he was wrong, but he had a feeling…

“I don’t know
,” Jake lied, for he dared not tell them his suspicion, especially Archie, “but I’ll bet I know where he’s gone. I need to get back to the Tomb.”

“What, down in the coalmine?” Dani asked in confusion.

“Hang it! I almost forgot about the rockfall.”

“I can get y
ou in there. I just need to mix up some explosives,” Archie said at once.

“That sounds dangerous,
” said Dani.

The boy genius glanced at her.
“I’d do anything to save my sister.”

Jake clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit, coz. I’m sure Emrys will have whatever you
need—”

“I
already have it in my chemistry set,” Archie cut him off.

“You brought your chemistry set on holiday?” Dani muttered.

“Of course.” Archie turned to Jake. “But why would Garnock take my sister to the tomb?”

“Is
he going to kill her?” Dani whispered, wide-eyed.

“No.” Jake strove to find the most tactful way to put it, but he couldn’t bear to tell them his theory.

It was only logical.

Now that he was back among the living, the last thing Garnock would want was to have to keep looking over his shoulder and worrying about the devil on his tail.

What better way to make amends with the demon ally he had betrayed than to offer up another soul to take his place? There were probably few souls of higher value than the unusually pure type belonging to a Keeper of the Unicorns. If Garnock offered up Isabelle in his place, he’d be off the hook—free to enjoy his unnatural new life without worrying about the devil coming to collect on their bargain.

And if he succeeded, then p
oor Isabelle would be stuck in that horrible netherworld for all time, prisoner of the demons, unless Jake could save her.

“Are you
sure about this?” Archie was asking. “Because we can’t afford the time if you’re wrong.”

“Sure enough,” he replied,
dodging the need to explain. His suspicions about Garnock’s reason for taking Isabelle would only terrify them more. “Come on, then. Enough gab. Are we going to go and rescue her or what? Let’s go down to the cottage and get our supplies.”

“What about Miss Helena?” Dani asked as all four of them started running down the trail. “What if the tree goblins start sniffing around her? Don’t they bite?”

“We’ll send Snowdrop up to stand guard over her until Madam Sylvia can come and unfreeze her.”

It seemed to take forever to reach the cottage, but when they got there, they gave Snowdrop her instructions. She was appalled to h
ear how badly it all had gone, but sped out to the woods at once to watch over poor Miss Helena.

Archie immediately began collecting the needed items for the explosion. At least knowing he’d have the chance to blow somethi
ng up seemed to make him feel better. It was one of his favorite things.

Dani turned to Jake. “What can I do?”

“You need to get down to the Harris Mine School and tell Derek what’s happened as soon as he’s unfrozen. Nimbus can drive you. Once Madam Sylvia’s done with Derek, bring her back here to fix Miss Helena. Tell Derek to follow us down to Garnock’s lair. We may need his help once he’s back in action.”

“But that mine is huge. How’s he going to find it?”

“He’ll have to sing. When Red and I went down there, I left a trail of Illuminium behind us like breadcrumbs so we could find our way back out. All he has to do is sing and he should be able to follow the Illuminium trail just fine.”

“So you’re out of Illuminium,” Dani said, nodding.
“Here, take mine. It may come in handy down there in the dark.” She offered him her pouch of the powder. He accepted it with a grateful nod and tied it to his belt.

Then Jake hollered for Nimbus
to get the carriage ready for Dani.

“All set,
” Archie said, marching back up the hallway with the Vampire Monocle pushed up onto his head and a satchel full of explosives over his shoulder. “We’re in luck. I had a few sticks of dynamite left over from the Invention Convention. Some American railroad engineer gave them to me. If they can blast through the Rockies with this stuff, it should work for us.”

Jake and Dani took a wary step back from him at this announcement.

“So he just carries these sorts of things around with him?” she murmured.

Jake nodded. “I know. He’s a traveling laboratory.”

But it seemed the moment had arrived. Red prowled over into their midst, ready to carry the boys to the coalmine.

“Well, this is it, then,” Dani said. “Promise me you’ll both be careful.”

“We will,” they said.

“Don’t blow yourselves up. And Jake, bring Isabelle back to us. We need her.” Dani’s voice caught
on the threat of another sob as she spoke these plaintive words.

Jake couldn’t stand for her to start crying again, so he distracted her—shocked her was more like it—by giving her a quick hug. “Don’t you start that again, carrot-head,” he mumbled, and gave her a brotherly kiss on the head.

She pulled back and looked at him like he was a tree goblin.

Jake grinned. “Gotcha.”

Fortunately, his unexpected show of affection had the effect he’d hoped. She forgot all about crying.

Instead,
she backed away from him as if he had a disease, then turned and ran outside to the carriage.

Through the window, they saw her climb up onto the
driver’s box beside Nimbus Fingle. Then the brownie coachman slapped the reins over the horses’ rumps and they went tearing off for the Harris Mine School.