The Grimm Chronicles, Vol. 2 (13 page)

Chapter 11

I woke in a cold sweat, blinking fiercely.

“It saw me,” I whispered. “It saw me.”

Briar, asleep on the floor beside the window, sat up and licked his chops. “What now? What’s going on?”

I looked around. It was still dark. My alarm clock read 11:45. Was it really that early?

“We need to go now,” I said. “The lizard saw me.”

“Lizard …” He blinked a few more times. Then it hit him. He hopped up, his fur poofing out. “Lizard?!”

“They’re going to burn down the house,” I said. “The stepmother and her daughter will move on and they’ll transport the lizard but first they’ll burn the kids. That’s what they do.”

Briar rubbed his chin. “They’re using the children for their own nefarious purposes. Diabolical, to say the least. All right, so how do we get out of here without walking past your parents’ room?”

I went over to my closet, grabbing my pair of fighting shoes and putting on a tight black t-shirt and jeans. “There’s no time to worry about that.”

“But what will they do if they
catch
you?” Briar asked, tapping his paws nervously together. “Unless you’re willing to abandon this life and embrace your role as the hero, I fear you must be careful not to incur their wrath.”

“We need to save those kids,” I whispered harshly.

A thump at the window caused both of us to jump. Briar ducked low, pressing himself against the wall beside my desk. I leaned down, fully ready to draw a razor-sharp saber in the wall.

But then how would I explain
that
to my parents? A sword-shaped hole is just the kind of thing my dad would consider “property damage.”

“Best to surprise him,” Briar whispered. “But don’t stab too quick. It might that wonderful Seth fellow.”

I gripped the pen like a knife, pressing myself against the wall and staring up at the window. Someone was climbing up the house. I took a breath and held it. The window opened slowly. OK. Maybe it was Seth. It would be incredibly weird, but the last thing I wanted to do was accidentally stab him. After all, I’d already hit him half a dozen times.

Still … best to be ready. I crouched closer, holding the pen low so that I could stab upward the moment I was sure. No second-guessing. Whatever it was could be just as dangerous as the lizard in my dreams. And what about the stepmother? She had walked as if something had carried her forward at an incredible speed. What other tricks did they have up their sleeves?

“I see something,” Briar whispered. “Oh dear.”

A head popped through the window. The nerves running through my body almost sent my hand upward, but the muscles in my arm clenched, preventing it.

“Ted?!” I whispered. “What are you doing here?”

He crawled through the window and plucked a wet leaf from his red shirt. “I heard from—”

I pressed a finger to my lips.

He lowered his voice. “Sorry. I heard from Chase that you were grounded. I thought I’d stop by and make a booty call.”

There came a distinct scoff from the direction of my desk. Ted turned. “Did you hear that?”

“It’s just the family cat,” I said. “
Booty
call?”

“Yeah.” He got up and sat at my desk, powering up my laptop. The room was bathed in a soft blue glow. “We’ll just make out and stuff. Is this your friends list?”

“It is.” I turned toward the door, wary. It was locked. My parents were on the other end of the hall. They weren’t exactly light sleepers, but Mom got up to pee pretty much every hour on the hour. If I was on the first floor, tossing Ted out would definitely have been an option.

“Yeah, so your Trish friend is totally crazy,” he said in a low voice. He was pointing and clicking, going through my Facebook page. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that at all. And I definitely didn’t like him saying stuff about Trish.

“OK. Got it. Listen, I really need to get some sleep. It’s a school night, after all, and …”

He shook his head. “Um, are you aware how many guy friends you have on here? It’s kinda unsettling.”

“
Unsettling
?” I repeated. I realized I was still clutching the fountain pen like a knife and put it in my pocket. Not without some hesitation, though.

Ted sighed, spinning in the chair to face me. In the darkness, with just the glow of the computer screen, he looked a lot older. “Look, if we’re going to date, I’d really appreciate it if you defriended some of these guys. You can keep Seth, ‘cause he’s your best friend. But this Briar guy? I mean, he looks thirty years old!”

I didn’t get it at first. Then I peered over his shoulder and saw the profile picture of “Briar.” It really was a thirty-year-old guy. With his shirt off. Looking like a total beefcake rock star. I had to suppress a laugh—Ted was jealous of a rabbit.

“I’m not defriending him,” I said in a low voice, standing up. “He’s my friend.”

Ted shrugged. “Then I don’t think we should see each other.”

“OK.”

He stared at me a moment, then flinched as if I’d thrown something at him in the darkness. “But we’ll break up.”

“Fine.”

“Huh.” He pursed his lips. “That usually works.”

I crossed my arms, glaring at him. I had to fight the urge to raise my voice. “You think you can threaten me to get rid of my friends? Are you insane?”

“Look, it’s just weird for you to have that many guy friends. Especially one this old who’s obviously a body-builder or something.”

“Lower your voice!” I whispered. Oh, I had such an urge to pull him off my chair. I didn’t want him near my computer anymore. I didn’t want him in my room, either. “And I’ll have you know that Briar is one of the nicest friends I’ve ever had.”

Ted shook his head. “OK. So we’re broken up.”

“Good. Great.” I jammed a finger in his direction. “I won’t change my life for you. I won’t change my friends for you. Even if you were Ryan
Freaking
Gosling, I wouldn’t ditch my friends just to satisfy your jealousy. Got it?”

He seemed taken aback. I guess his plan of propping a ladder against my window and sneaking in for a goodnight kiss wasn’t going all that well. Surprise, surprise.

“Um, this isn’t usually how girls react.”

“Then I pity your previous girlfriends,” I said in a wry tone. “Because no girl should have to ditch their friends just because her boyfriend says so. And I don’t even know if we were even dating, for crying out loud!” I was raising my voice. It was time for him to go. This night had enough complications without Ted. “Go home.”

He walked over to the window, glancing back at me. He looked confused, as if he wasn’t used to not getting his way.

“Go,” I said again. “And leave the ladder.”

He crawled awkwardly through the window, nearly losing his footing in the process.

When he was gone, Briar reappeared on the bed, his legs crossed. “Hmmm … that was the most uncomfortable moment I’ve been a part of in some time. Not since … oh, well, there was that time Juliette was propositioned by a male prostitute. Your boyfriend is a strange one indeed.”

“He’s
not
my boyfriend. We need to get down to that orphanage.” I paced back and forth beside the window. “Gawd! Ted came by and totally gave us a way out but we have no way to get downtown. I should have just defriended you and asked him to give us a ride.”

Briar’s whiskers twitched. “I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

We sat in silence for a moment, thinking.

“I could call Seth,” I offered. “But he hardly ever answers his cell phone.”

“Ah-ha!” Briar jumped over to the desk, running a paw over the laptop’s trackpad to turn it back on. “I have an even better idea.”

“What?”

He turned to me, just a hint of a smile on his face. “Let’s call a limo.”

Chapter 12

The limo arrived in just fifteen short minutes. An impossible task, given it came from downtown. But of course Sam Grayle wasn’t supposed to be possible in the first place.

“I hope you’re right about this,” I said to Briar, opening the back door. I immediately halted when I saw the figure sitting on the other side. As if on cue, the clouds along the horizon lit up in a bluish glow.

“Oh, I do
not
like lightning,” Briar murmured.

“Get in, get in,” Sam Grayle said. “You were quite clear that this was an urgent matter regarding my mansion.”

I hesitantly got in, setting my little bow and quiver of arrows on the seat between myself and Sam. For the first time, he wasn’t wearing a gray suit coat. Instead, his little body was covered by dark red silk pajamas with a button-down shirt. So human-looking, I thought.

He looked down at the bow, nodding approvingly. “I’m glad you came prepared.”

Briar squeezed in, bumping into me with his butt as the limo pulled out of the driveway. “Oh hello, Seth. Happy to see you!”

I turned. Seth was sitting on the opposite seat next to the little black fridge. I felt my body numb. My hand went for my pen. “What’s he doing here?”

“I thought you might need a little help,” Sam said with a snarling smile. “And given how
helpful
your little friend was when you invaded
my
home, it seems only reasonable that he could provide assistance again.”

“I was mad until I saw the fridge,” Seth said. He shrugged, popping open a green bottle.

“That,” said the dwarf, “is a very expensive bottle of imported sparkling water. I’d appreciate it if you limited yourself to one—”

Another pop. Sam turned to Briar, who had a bottle of the water squeezed deftly between his legs as his paws twisted off the cap. He looked at us. “I’m just so famished is all.”

Sam sighed. “Such a merry band of heroes. I do hope you have a plan.”

Briar snorted. “Fat chance of that.”

“Nice arrows,” Seth said, grabbing the leather quiver and pulling out one of the short arrows. “Where’d you get these?”

“I procured them,” said Briar, puffing his chest out. “Through trickery.”

Sam Grayle leaned back, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. I hated how comfortable he looked. He should have feared me. He should at the very least have had a guard or
something
. But he knew I wouldn’t harm him. Not with the threat of my family looming over the decision. He had all the power.

No. I had a little power. He really, really wanted that mansion. And once he got it, he would want something else. That was the corrupting power of greed. It was consuming him. I had to extract everything I could from this arrangement. Carefully.

“Are you tired?” Seth asked. He’d found the snack drawer and was fumbling with a bag of chocolate-frosted cookies. “Do you Corrupted dudes get tired?”

“I find sleep incredibly restful,” said the dwarf. “Sometimes I even have wonderful dreams where I’m swimming in a lake of gold coins.”

“Ha! Just like Scrooge McDuck!”

Briar snuck a cookie from the bag. “Who now?”

Sam ignored them. He opened his eyes and looked at me. “What about you, hero? What do dream about?”

“A stepmother,” I said. “And her guilt-ridden daughter. And one very big lizard.”

“Gross,” Seth said. “Count me out of this one.”

“Ah, mutations.” Sam smiled. “Just another gift from our creators. I wonder who this lizard started out as? No doubt it was a woman, given that the other two mistresses are of the female persuasion. Perhaps she was just a simple peasant girl, written into one of the Grimms’ stories as nothing more than a side-character. Perhaps she even found happiness for a time after her story was done. Settled down. Maybe even fell in love at some point.”

His eyes darkened as we reached the onramp for the freeway. With no streetlights along the ramp, only the soft track lighting above the limo doors illuminated his face. “Then her love grew old while she remained forever young. Or perhaps he ran away, seeing the first changes occur. Maybe it was just a few teeth at first. Maybe her tongue thinned out. Maybe a few scales here and there. Soon, she was no longer a maiden at all. She could only hide away, lost and alone.”

“That’s incredibly sad,” Seth said. “Is that real, Alice? Is that what happens?”

I had no answer. What was I supposed to say?

“All Corrupted turn evil,” Briar said. “It is, perhaps,
unfortunate
in some rare instances.”

Sam Grayle reached into the ice bucket by his feet, grabbing a bottle of red wine and pouring himself a glass with the kind of expert precision of someone who’s traveled in a limo for a long, long time. “Yes, perhaps the talking rabbit is right. No doubt the stepmother is quite evil. What is it she plans to do, dear hero?”

“Burn down the mansion.”

The glass of wine touched his lips, then stopped. “Now that
is
evil. Quite evil.”

“Arson?” Seth smiled, handing the bag of cookies over to Briar so he could wipe his hands on his shorts. “That seems tame compared with what we’ve been through.”

“They’re going to burn the children.”

“Oh holy crap!” Seth pounded on the dark window dividing the driver from us. “Faster, Jeeves! We got kids to save!”

“I wouldn’t do that,” said the dwarf, sipping his wine. “Our driver is … not all that happy to be awake at this ungodly hour.”

I pointed a finger at Seth. “You’re not helping.” When he smiled, I felt my blood boil. “I’m serious, Seth! This is going to be dangerous.”

“It’s just funny,” Seth said. “I’m in a limo with a horrible dwarf and a giant talking rabbit and you’re lecturing me on safety because of a giant lizard.”

“Easy with the insults,” Sam muttered.

My hand fell to the seat, brushing against the bow. I grabbed it and tossed it to him. He caught it with both hands and a “Woah,” nearly dropping it. “You want something to do? You’re going to make sure no one escapes. Got it?”

He looked at the bow. “So what should I do, just shoot an arrow? I don’t really know how to do it.”

“It’s really quite easy,” said the dwarf. “Aim the pointy end at someone. Then shoot.”

“The cretin sums it up well,” Briar said. “No doubt I would be quite the crack shot … if only I had more dexterous fingers.”

“It’s that, or sit in here with him.” I jabbed a finger at the dwarf. Please say OK, I thought. I didn’t want Seth sitting alone with the dwarf. It would put me at a negotiating disadvantage if I
did
manage to kill all three of the Corrupted …

Because the truth of it was I had no
intention of just tossing the orphans to the street.

“Alice? What are you thinking?” Briar asked. “We do have a plan, right?”

“Oh, sure.” I forced a smile. “We’re going to kick some butt and take some names and all that jazz.” I turned to Sam. “Do you have a smartphone, by chance?”

He sighed and leaned over, grabbing something much bigger from the sleeve on the door. “I have a datapad that I use for work. It has a satellite connection, if that helps.”

“Perfect.” I grabbed the datapad, sliding my finger across it to wake it up. I tapped on the little icon that took me to the Internet.

“What are you doing?” Seth asked.

“Studying,” I answered.

We reached the mansion’s gates ten minutes later. I took a breath, glancing at Sam. The dwarf looked anxious, unsettled. He had some stake in this too: the mansion. The kids burning alive?
That
I’m sure he wasn’t worried about.

“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing for the door. Briar put his bag of cookies and empty bottle of sparkling water in the little trash can beside the mini fridge. Seth followed with the bow and arrow quiver.

“Be careful with my house!” Sam called out after us.

“Yeah,” I murmured, shutting the door. “I’ll be sure to wipe my feet.”

“What will we do?” Briar asked.

I stepped up to the gate and pulled out the fountain pen. Carefully, I drew a horizontal cut across three steel bars. The bright gold line seemed to fade almost immediately.

“That’s strange.” I pulled one of the bars away before the glow disappeared.

“What is it?” Seth asked.

“My pen … I don’t know.” I drew another line, then quickly pulled on the bar. It didn’t budge. “It’s not working.”

Briar clicked his tongue. “A spell, no doubt. These two Corrupted are a dangerous lot. They expect trouble.” He leaned close as I drew another horizontal line. His ears perked up as the glow began to disappear. “Or perhaps they expected trouble a long time ago. This spell is old. It is expiring. Try again.”

I chose another spot on the gate, cutting at the bars and then pulling. This time the golden lines faded more slowly, and I managed to pull three bars away.

“Spells!” Seth exclaimed, following me through the hole in the gate. “What about security cameras?”

“Such technology is rarely employed by Corrupted,” Briar said, hopping beside us. “With the exception of the dwarfs, most Corrupted prefer to live as they did in their stories. No doubt an advantage we may exploit.”

Above us, the clouds lit up again. Long, growling thunder rolled across the sky.

Ahead, the mansion loomed on the top of a small hill, surrounded by maple trees and tall shrubs that stood in the yard. More tall, pillar-like shrubs lined the perimeter, partially hiding the brick wall from the outside.

Closer now, we stalked the last fifty feet to the front door. The house looked empty. There was a light on in only one of the many tall windows. The mansion looked old: it had four marble columns at the front propping up the stone pediment.

“Is the door locked?” Briar asked.

I nodded, examining the exterior. “Bars on the inside of the windows, too. All of them.” I used my pen draw a line on the door. The glow quickly disappeared.

“Ah, and so they are not quite as comfortable as we thought,” Briar said. “A much more powerful spell. I say, this isn’t exactly reassuring.”

I turned to Seth. “Go to that shrub and stay behind it. If any grown-ups come through this door, shoot them with the arrow.”

He looked down at his flimsy bow. “What if I miss?”

“Don’t miss.”

“What if it doesn’t kill them?” he asked. “Briar said you were the only one who could kill them.”

“This bow won’t kill them,” I said. “But it’ll stun them. Just like in the old Brothers Grimm story.”

His eyes widened. “I never read it! You told me about it, but I never read it! Oh crap, I should have just stayed in the limo.”

“OK, OK!” I waved my arms around frantically. We didn’t have time for this. “New plan. You just hide behind the bush and don’t do anything. Leave it all up to me.”

“Can do!” He got up and hurried behind the pair of egg-shaped shrubs sitting beside the driveway.

Briar was staring at the shrubs. “I might be of use there as well. That is, to protect him, you see …”

I gave him the stink eye. “Your abilities are needed.”

“Ah.” He tapped his paws together nervously. “Doomed by my usefulness once again. I acquiesce to your commands.”

“I don’t know what that means. Just put your foot here.” I locked my fingers together, creating a little step with my hands.

Briar looked down. “Um … what am I doing, exactly?”

“You’re jumping to the second floor,” I said simply. “There aren’t any bars on the windows on the second floor.”

“Are you sure?”

I smiled. “Yup. Remember when you were all like, ‘Look for the details in your dreams, Alice! Duh, we need details!’ Remember that?”

The rabbit’s fur stood on end. “I don’t recall using the word
duh
.”

“Hop up.”

He put one long foot on my hands. I nearly tossed him before he was ready, unprepared for the feeling of his soft padded sole, not to mention a handful of stray ankle hairs that tickled my wrists.

“One … two … three!” I pulled my arms upward as hard as I could and felt the rabbit jump off. He reached out with his paws for the second-floor pediment and grabbed on, deftly swinging himself onto the short stone ledge in front of the second-floor windows.

“Be careful!” I half-shouted, half-whispered.

And then he was gone. I heard the sound of a window being opened.

“That was crazy!” Seth whispered from the bushes.

I ignored him and bent down, drawing a saber in the concrete patio step. Here, at least, there was no magic spell preventing its use. I pulled the saber free, swinging it a few times to get a feel for it.

“Be careful!” Seth called out.

I smiled. Be careful? How do you do that in this instance? I was replaceable, after all … at some point, a new hero would emerge to take my place regardless. Somehow, she (or he) would get her (or his) hands on the fountain pen and Briar would begin the routine all over again.