Red

  “Gotcha!” he shouted.

  But it wasn’t a wolf. It was a skunk! It sprayed right in Horst’s face.

  Goldie and I covered our noses as the foul odor flooded the air.

  But Horst didn’t let go of the skunk. He stood stock-still as the skunk finished its business, and then he stomped away into the trees, still clutching the rodent in his fist.

  “He must be really hungry,” said Goldie.

  “At least he won’t be able to sneak up on us now,” I said. “We’ll be able to smell him for miles.”

  “I think we should go,” said Goldie. “I can’t stay here another minute with that smell.”

  “Yes, it would be safer if we left, especially with Horst nearby, though we’ll have to go slowly with Wolf’s hurt foot.”

  Wolf jumped up on three legs, growling and tearing at the clothing I had put on him.

  “I’m sorry I hurt your wolfish pride,” I said, “but at least you’re safe.”

  Monster, said Wolf.

  “He’s not a monster,” I said, “only a huntsman doing what huntsmen do. But I won’t let him hurt you, I promise.”

  Wolf growled a little more. I didn’t suppose a wolf and a huntsman could ever be friends.

  We started to walk at a slow pace. Wolf kept most of his weight on three legs, but I hoped he’d recover quickly. Who knew when Horst might appear again?

  “Where will we go now?” Goldie asked.

  “Home, I guess.”

  “But what about saving your granny? Are you going to give up?”

  “No!” I snapped, louder than I’d intended to. Goldie shrank back. I sighed. I had been away from Granny for too long already, but I didn’t want to go home empty-handed. I hadn’t even managed to get the tree-nymph wings.

  Wolf nosed my palm, a gesture of comfort. I rested my hands in his fur, drawing as much comfort as I could.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I finally admitted. “There are the other things the dwarf mentioned—The Red Roses and The Magic Hearts—but I’ve no idea where to find them.”

  Goldie slipped her hand into mine. “Then we’ll just keep going. You don’t always have to know where to look to find what you need.”

  I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I appreciated the sentiment anyway.

  We traveled upstream, keeping a watchful eye for traps. I found one snare skillfully hidden just beneath a berry bush, with the kind of berries a wolf might eat when there’s no meat around. Humans, too. We gathered the berries and left the trap, but eventually we came upon a trap that was not empty. A creature hung from a branch by its leg, struggling to get free. As we came closer, I heard it talking, cursing in a grouchy, grumbling voice.

  “Stupid humans! Filthy mongrels! Spawn of dirt!”

  “It’s a dwarf!” I cried. And not just any dwarf. The dwarf. The very one who had given me directions to the well. I was certain of it. This was luck indeed!

  “Oh, no, not you!” said the dwarf when he noticed us. “You set this trap, didn’t you? You little witch of an ugly girl!”

  Wolf growled and snapped his jaws at the dwarf.

  “And you brought your beast, eh? Your shadow demon.”

  “Is that any way to talk to your would-be rescuers? We could get you down, you know, or we can leave you for the huntsman.”

  “I don’t need you. I’ll get down myself.” He felt for his little ax at his side, but it wasn’t there. It had fallen to the ground, its blade wedged in a patch of grass.

  I picked it up and waved it for him to see. “Looking for this?” He tried to snatch it, but I kept it just beyond his reach.

  “I can give you this ax,” I said, “if you show me where The Red Roses are.”

  “Ha! I still don’t need you, ugly witch! I can chew my way through these ropes if need be.” He tried to bite the ropes, but his feet got tangled in the trap and he fell back, causing the trap to swing wildly.

  “Don’t worry, Dwarf. The huntsman will set you free eventually. But his eyes have quite gone, so he might mistake you for a pig and eat you.” I sighed dramatically. “Oh, well. Come on, Goldie, Wolf. This dwarf doesn’t need us.”

  We were beginning to walk away when the dwarf called after us. “Oh, all right! All right, ugly human! Get me down and I’ll show you to the roses.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yes, yes, now give me my ax.”

  I handed it to him, and with one swift movement he cut himself free and fell to the ground. Then, quicker than I expected, he started to run away, but Wolf must have seen it coming, because he pounced on the dwarf and pinned him to the ground.

  Caught, said Wolf. He looked up at me and wagged his tail, very pleased with himself.

  “Thank you, Wolf.”

  The dwarf wriggled helplessly beneath Wolf’s weight, muttering curses and insults. “Evil beast, I’ll get you for this! I’ll have your teeth and tail!”

  I reached for the dwarf, and took him by his pointy black beard. He flailed and twisted and kicked, but I held fast.

  “It wouldn’t have come to this if you had kept your promise.”

  “Dwarves don’t make promises to humans. You’re dirt, filth, putrid giant fleas!”

  “I want to get to The Red Roses in the enchanted castle. I request that you take me there yourself.” I dropped him, and he immediately ran away, but he didn’t go far. He was bound to keep his promise. What a nasty little brute!

  Goldie, Wolf, and I followed as the dwarf led us away from the river, down into a little valley, and then up a grassy hill studded with boulders. He slipped behind a boulder and disappeared. Wolf went after him and a moment later stuck his head out, his tongue lolling like an excited pup’s. He must have sensed adventure.

  We had to climb a few rocks before we reached the crevice where Wolf and the dwarf stood. “Your friend can’t come,” the dwarf said, glaring at Goldie.

  “What about Wolf?” I asked.

  “I can’t stop him from coming in, since he’s your shadow demon, but I’m only bound to take one ugly girl!”

  “We can fix that,” I said, snatching the dwarf by the beard once again. I shoved the beard into Goldie’s hand. “Goldie, tell him you want him to take you to the enchanted castle.”

  “Oh, I don’t think—”

  “Tell him, Goldie, or you’ll be left all alone!”

  Goldie squeaked, “I want you to take me to the enchanted castle!” and then she dropped the dwarf. “Oh, I’m sorry! Are you hurt?”

  The dwarf had gone from radish red to beet purple. He spat at Goldie’s feet. “Empty-headed, ghoulish girl!”

  “Well, that’s not very nice, is it? Further, I don’t think it’s even truthful. Mummy always said I was witty and pretty as posies.”

  “And I’m a handsome prince,” mumbled the dwarf as he stepped down into the crevice. It looked dark and deep and rather sinister.

  “I don’t think we should go down there,” said Goldie.

  I silently agreed. “Isn’t there a way to go aboveground?” I asked.

  “I’m sure there is,” said the dwarf, “but if you want a guide, then this is the only way. Take it or leave it, and I’d suggest you leave it. There are all manner of deadly dangers down here. Bottomless pits, rivers of fire…”

  Goldie squeaked, “Oh, please, Red! I don’t want to go in there!”

  I studied the dwarf. He smiled maliciously. He was probably just trying to throw us off so he wouldn’t have to guide us. But he was bound to do it, and I was not that easily frightened. Nor was Wolf.

  “Of course we’ll go into the tunnel,” I said. “I’m not afraid.”

  The dwarf’s smile melted to a sneer. He grumbled insults as he slipped down into the crevice and disappeared. Wolf followed after him.

  “Come on.” I took Goldie’s trembling hand and together we entered the dark cavern.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Dwarf Caverns

  The tunnel smelled of stale earth and mold. Within five
steps, we were submerged in pitch black. The only thing to guide us was the dwarf’s insults echoing from the stone walls. It sounded like there were several dwarves speaking instead of one. I heard the words “ugly,” “stupid,” “vile,” “putrid,” “half-wit,” and “witch” over and over.

  Goldie held tight to my hand, and Wolf walked closely on my other side. His calm gave me reassurance, though the darkness was unsettling. Each step felt treacherous.

  “This place is creepy,” said Goldie. “Do you think he’s trying to get us lost? Or killed?”

  “No, he can’t.” I feigned confidence. “He’s bound to take us where we tell— Agh!” I tripped on a loose stone. I caught myself on Wolf, but yanked Goldie down with me, so we tumbled into a heap.

  Goldie let loose an earsplitting scream, made ten times louder by the cave. “Help! The cave’s collapsing! We’re dying!”

  “Quiet, Goldie! I only tripped.”

  Goldie stopped screaming, but she continued to whimper and breathe in short, erratic gasps. “I want to get out of here. I don’t like this dark.”

  “Calm down. As long as we follow the dwarf, we’ll be fine.”

  As soon as I said this, I realized I could no longer hear the dwarf. He had stopped talking. I listened for footsteps but didn’t hear any of those, either.

  “Dwarf?” I called. “Are you there?”

  Goldie clutched my arm. “He left us here to rot!”

  “He can’t leave us here to rot,” I said, but my heart sped up. “Maybe he made a turn and we missed it?”

  Follow me, said Wolf, and he pressed on without me.

  “Wolf, wait!”

  Come, said Wolf. Don’t be afraid. Then his presence faded from me and I instantly felt exposed and alone. The darkness was so complete I almost felt like I didn’t exist, except that Goldie’s hand was crushing mine.

  “Ouch! Goldie, not so tight!”

  “I don’t want to die!”

  “We’re not going to die. We just need to find the wall, and then we should be able to feel our way along the sides of the cave. You take the right side. I’ll take the left.”

  Goldie reluctantly let go of me, and we walked our way along the cave’s opposite walls, feeling for any curve or corner that would lead to another tunnel where the dwarf and Wolf might have gone, but we felt nothing.

  “I think we should go back. I do not think this is a good ide—aaaaagh!” Goldie’s scream quickly faded in a way that didn’t seem natural, as if she had been swallowed.

  “Goldie?” My heartbeat thumped so loudly now it was echoing off the walls. I took another tentative step. Suddenly there was nothing beneath my feet. Cold, dank air whooshed in my ears. I was plummeting down into a deep, dark hole.

  Down, down, down, I went, my thoughts and memories rushing up as I descended. And then, in the darkness, I saw the faintest glow and—

  Flump!

  I landed in a pile of something like sawdust. Lantern light spilled over my surroundings, and I found I had to shield my eyes. Not too far away from me was Goldie, coughing and covered in the black filth of whatever we had landed in. It looked like ashes and soot.

  Wolf was at the bottom of the pile, wagging his tail. He was getting around surprisingly well with his injury, only limping slightly. It must not have been as serious as it had seemed back by the river.

  The dwarf stood in an entryway, holding a lantern. “Took you long enough,” he groused.

  “Why didn’t you warn us about the fall?” I said, still trying to calm my pounding heart.

  “You didn’t ask,” said the dwarf with a wicked smile.

  “It was very rude not to warn us,” said Goldie.

  “Don’t tell me about rudeness,” he hissed. “You invoked a curse most abominable to dwarves.”

  I felt a little stab of guilt for invoking a charm that the dwarf thought of as a curse. Of course it was a curse to him. We forced him to help us when he didn’t want to. I should have known better. I’d seen people bound by magic before, and it’s no happy thing.

  “It’s always little girls that take our beards and make us do their bidding,” the dwarf continued. “Nasty little witches.”

  “But what about Snow White?” said Goldie. “The Seven Dwarves were happy to help her!”

  The dwarf muttered something like “spoiled brat,” and I was suddenly curious how the famous tale of Snow White might be told from a dwarf’s point of view. Granny said there were always at least two sides to any story, if not a dozen, and clearly the heroine in the tale was not as beloved by dwarves as we thought. Not by this dwarf anyway. “Let’s get moving. I haven’t got all day,” said the dwarf.

  “Wait,” I said.

  The dwarf turned to glare at me. “Yes, master?”

  I winced at his words. I couldn’t undo what I’d done, but maybe I could try to make things better.

  “What’s your name?” The question spilled out of me without thought, but I immediately felt it was the right thing to say. I wasn’t sure how meaningful a name was to dwarves, but I had the feeling that calling him “Dwarf” wasn’t an endearment.

  The dwarf raised his eyebrows. “My name is Borlen.”

  “I wouldn’t have guessed that,” said Goldie. “I thought for certain your name was Grumpy.”

  “That’s not a name, you nitwit! It’s a putrid human dwarf-insult!”

  “Well, if the name fits the destiny…” said Goldie.

  “Then you’d be called Dopey!” said Borlen.

  “That’s not—”

  “Thank you, Borlen,” I said, cutting Goldie off. “We appreciate your help. It means the world to us.”

  Borlen turned his back on us and walked down the tunnel, still muttering insults, but more softly than before.

  The tunnel was narrow and dim, the only light coming from Borlen’s lantern. After a series of twists and turns, we entered a huge cavern. “Huge” was not a big enough word, actually, nor was “enormous,” “massive,” or “giant.” It was like a mountain, only inside out.

  The air was extremely warm, though I saw no fires except for the torches in sconces on the walls. Ledges and roads zigzagged all along the sides of the cavern, leading to other tunnels. And everywhere there were dwarves. Thousands of them. They bore wheelbarrows and pickaxes, and the cavern echoed with the thumps and pings of mining. It reminded me of the mines on The Mountain, only ten times as big, and the dwarves weren’t mining gold, but gems. The wheelbarrows were filled with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and crystals of all shades. There were tons of them, heaped up like harvested crops in a field. Some dwarves sorted the gems into bins by their different types and colors. Another team of dwarves poured the gems down chutes, where they were cut and polished and loaded into sacks labeled DEEP-EARTH EMERALDS, CRUSHED CRYSTAL, and FINGERLING SAPPHIRES.

  We walked by a pile of gems, and Borlen picked up a pale pink crystal and bit into it like a carrot. He crunched on it, swallowed, and gave a satisfied belch. “I like them raw, right out of the ground,” he said, and took another bite.

  Goldie and I stared at Borlen. “You eat the gems?” said Goldie.

  “Of course,” said Borlen. “Why else would we spend all our time digging them out of the rock? To wear them, like silly humans?”

  “But…but…they’re gems,” said Goldie. “They’re very valuable. You could trade them for anything you want!”

  “Why would we trade gems when gems are what we want? The only thing I’d trade for is rubies. Rubies are my favorite.” His eyes grew hungry.

  My hand instinctively flew to Granny’s ruby, making sure it was still hidden beneath my dress. I remembered what Granny said about how dwarves love rubies, but I’d had no idea they liked to eat them. How awful would it be if Borlen snatched the ruby ring from me and ate it right before my eyes?

  “Are there no rubies found here?” I asked, curious.

  “They are very rare and valuable to dwarves,” said Borlen. “We used to find a small crop
of them at least once a month, but their numbers have dwindled over time. It’s been years since I’ve seen a ruby. What I wouldn’t give for just one. They have the richest flavor.” Borlen closed his eyes, probably imagining a glittering ruby the way I might salivate over a juicy strawberry. Granny’s ring felt a little heavier around my neck.

  “Come on,” said Borlen, returning to his usual grouchiness, as though he’d been neglecting a task. “I could be searching for rubies right now instead of carrying on with you three.”

  We walked up a narrow ledge. Some of the dwarves stopped and stared, while others glared, clearly understanding the cruel thing we must have done to make Borlen lead us through their caverns. Borlen hung his head in shame as we passed. I felt another stab of guilt.

  Further and further we went along the ledge. It turned out there really were rivers of fire below us! From high up, we could see them snaking between pillars and bridges of stone, glowing orange and bubbling. No wonder it felt like an oven in here. I guess the dwarves didn’t mind the heat, but how could they live in a place like this?

  “Where do you sleep?” Goldie asked.

  “We have homes within the caves,” said Borlen.

  “With beds and baths and tables and things?”

  “Of course. What do you take us for? Gnomes?” Borlen grumbled.

  We wound in and out of tunnels for what felt like hours. Some tunnels were rough and dull, while others were smooth and shiny, polished by the rivulets of water that snaked down the walls. Some sparkled like millions of tiny gems stuck together, though Borlen told us that was simply an effect of the minerals in the stone. On many caverns, the ceilings and floors had huge stalactites and stalagmites. Sometimes they joined together, creating pillars that made the caves feel like a palace.

  “I never imagined the world would look like this underground,” said Goldie. “I always thought it would be just dirt and worms.”

  “It is beautiful,” I said.

  Borlen suppressed a smile, clearly pleased by our appreciation of his home. “We dwarves have been in these caves for thousands of years, before humans existed.”