“What?” Louise couldn’t see anything.
Jillian dashed over to study the spell. “There! See!” She pointed to a bright knot within the largest cavern space. “That’s them.”
“How can you tell?” Louise peered closely at the point. There seemed too many motes of light shifting around to be just the children; if it was the nestlings, then they had several guards.
Jillian gave her a startled look. “They feel like Crow Boy.” She said it as if Louise should understand. “We all felt different when you triggered the spell. The ostriches. Us. Crow Boy. The elves. Even Tesla. What’s down there felt mostly like Crow Boy.”
Louise compared the gleaming three-dimensional maze to the map they’d downloaded from the caverns’ website. The paper-based version of the caves failed to indicate the slope; the deepest point was easily hundreds of feet underground. She estimated that the nestlings were nearly a hundred feet deep. “Mostly?”
Jillian considered the mysterious feeling. Slowly, she shrank inward and whispered, “There’s a bunch of elves with them.”
Louise steeled herself against the fear that went through her. They had the upper hand; the elves couldn’t possibly guess the nature of their attack. “Find the signal repeaters; we’ll need them first.”
Louise cancelled the spell. The heat of the spell had singed the paper slightly. As she disconnected the power leads, the brittle and browned sections crumbled. She whispered a curse; they had a limited number of printouts for each spell.
“Joy, no!” Jillian cried.
Louise turned to see Joy fling open the cage door on the livestock carrier.
“Cage bad!” Joy cried. “Be free!”
The big birds spilled out and headed toward the twins.
The ostriches suddenly seemed a lot bigger as they headed toward her. Dealing with the small heads on the slender necks was much different from being surrounded by tall muscular legs and wicked-looking feet. The big bodies were at shoulder height to the twins while the birds looked down at them from another foot up.
“Eep!” Jillian backed up until she was pressed against Louise’s right side.
“They are friendly, right?” Nikola pressed against Louise’s left side.
“Probably.” Louise wished she felt surer of that. She moved in front of Tesla. The ostriches were probably hand-raised and gentle with humans, but there was no telling how they’d react to the robotic dog. “I think they probably imprinted on the people that raised them. They’re looking for their ‘mother,’ and we’re the only humans in sight.”
“Or they might kick us to death,” Jillian grumbled. “We shouldn’t have taken them in the first place.”
“We’re sorry!” Nikola cried. “We didn’t think Joy would let them out!”
“It’s okay.” Louise hadn’t factored ostriches into her attack plans. They didn’t have time, though, to mess around with the giant birds. Crow Boy brushed past the big birds to shove the first hogtied elf into the livestock cage. “Let’s just ignore them, and hopefully they’ll wonder off to graze. Make sure Joy stays out of sight of them though: they’re omnivores. They will eat small lizards.”
“At this point in time,” Jillian growled, “I’d be happy to feed her to them.”
Louise didn’t agree with the sentiment but was glad that Jillian sounded more angry than scared. “We need to move quickly. If the elves call for reinforcements, we’ll be caught between two groups.” She took the case that Jillian handed her. “Chuck, start the mice toward the gift shop. Nikola, keep Tesla with me.”
The visitor center for the caverns was perched on the first ridge of the Allegheny Mountains. Louise had only been vaguely aware of that fact when they’d climbed the driveway. As she headed toward the gift shop, the reality of the landscape hit Louise hard. They were a thousand feet or more above the rest of southwestern Pennsylvania. The land rolled out to the horizon, fifty or sixty miles in the clear morning sunlight. The ironwood forest transplanted from Elfhome loomed far in the distance, the curving edge of the Rim and the quarantine zone encircling it. As the crow flies, it looked miles away. Ten? Twenty? Louise couldn’t judge. When they crossed over to Elfhome, the rolling farmland would be replaced by virgin forest. No roads. No bridges. Man-eating plants, spiders the size of lapdogs, wolves the size of ponies, and a distant cousin to the T. rex.
“Don’t think about it,” she whispered to herself. “All that will do is scare you. You’ve got to be the strong one.”
She forced herself to focus on the gift-shop entrance. Glass double doors, just like pictures on the Internet. Unlocked.
“Nikola, keep Tesla at the door with me. Girls, take in the mice and get me a feed of what’s inside the gift shop. Take down anyone inside, but don’t move down into the caves.”
“Roger!” the three white mice beside her right foot squeaked.
Louise cracked the right door wide enough for the mice to pour through it. Once the flood was past, she let the door close and pulled out her phone. The screen flickered dozens of confusing images. “Just pick one.” The image fixated on a closeup of a trilobite fossil. “No, of the whole room beyond the door!”
“It’s two hundred and fifty million years old!” Nikola said with awe.
The view changed to the dim interior of the gift shop. Light streamed in through windows on the far side of the long room. The contrast between the dark foreground and brilliant background made it difficult to see what was in the room, but there didn’t appear to be anyone inside.
Where were all the elves? She had counted forty-three individuals between those at the mansion and the others scattered worldwide. They had to be the tip of the iceberg, as she suspected the far-flung operations had more than one elf running each.
Crow Boy appeared beside her, making her jump.
“Nothing so far,” she whispered as she showed him the screen.
He nodded and ghosted silently inside. Jillian came down the walkway with a caravan of ostriches and luggage mules.
“I can’t get them to stop following me.” Jillian had obviously moved past fear of the birds and was now just annoyed. “And they keep—ow—pecking at my head.”
One of the birds had lowered its head to rap Jillian on her carrot-orange pixie-cut.
“Maybe they think you’re a something to eat.” Louise propped open the door. “Get inside with the luggage mules and I’ll try to keep them—no, no—oh geez.”
Something inside had caught the ostriches’ attention, and in they marched into the visitor center.
“Ugh!” Jillian flailed her arms in frustration.
“At least they’re not interested in you anymore.”
It was very odd to watch the pride of ostriches stalk through the gift shop, randomly eyeing items and then pecking at them.
“You know, I don’t think they’re actually ostriches,” Jillian muttered. “They don’t have wings. Don’t ostriches have wings?”
“What?” Louise stared hard at the birds. Jillian was right: they didn’t have wings.
“Maybe they’re emus,” Jillian said.
Louise was fairly sure that emus were a good deal smaller than ostriches, but it might be a matter of scale. Maybe all flightless birds would seem giant to the twins. “Emu. Ostrich. Whatever.” She took out one of the repeaters and set it down by the door. When one the birds stalked over to eye the signal booster, she tucked it under the edge of the counter.
“This leads down to the cave,” Crow Boy whispered from a doorway across the room.
Louise nodded, taking a deep breath. It felt like they were careening toward disaster. She couldn’t tell, though, if it was her magical knowing sense or just fear mixed with logic. They were three kids (seven if she counted the babies) going against heavily armed adults who wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.
Yet, if they were to be truly safe, they needed to get through the cave ahead of the elves.
Jillian had found a hardhat and strapped it onto her head. She held o
ut one to Louise. They would only need one if they went deep into the caves, past the normal tour areas, but obviously Jillian wanted a costume to hide behind.
And maybe some head protection from the ostriches.
Louise left the door propped open so the birds could get back out.
The hallway sloped steeply downhill; the walls seemed chiseled out of the stone hillside. Crystal chandeliers dimly lit the rough corridor. The air felt cold and damp and smelled of moist earth. Names and dates had been etched into the rock over centuries. One stated “1891 H. N. Mose” and another proclaimed “1953 R. D.” It was “2013 A. G. Bell” and an arrow pointing inward that caught Louise’s eye and made her heart leap. That was the year that Alexander had been born. Had Esme been here? Did the arrow pointing inward mean they were doing the right thing? She hurried forward down the ramp, sweeping her flashlight into the dark corners of the cave, searching for more clues.
The ramp became a series of steps down and then an elevated walkway with iron banisters to keep visitors from falling into the shadows below. The crystal chandeliers continued, a few feet apart, for as far as the eye could see, like a strand of Christmas lights. This was the Hall of the Mountain King, with the massive Dining Room at the far end. After that point, the caverns became a sprawling maze, much of it undeveloped. So far there was no sign of the tengu children or their captors. Had the elves taken the children through already?
Jillian whispered loudly, “There’s magic here.”
“Really?”
“It’s not as strong here as at the mansion, but I can feel it.”
“Strong enough to do spells?”
Jillian shrugged. “I guess. Maybe.”
Louise placed a signal repeater on the edge of the walkway and then hurried on. Crow Boy had disappeared into the darkness ahead of her. She was afraid that despite his promise, he’d try to take on all the guards by himself.
“Girls, stay with Crow Boy,” Louise whispered.
“They are,” Nikola said. “The rock is making it difficult. The signal between Tesla and the mice keeps dropping. At least a hundred have gone rogue.”
“Running on their AI alone?” Louise asked to clarify.
“Yes,” Nikola said.
Louise double-checked her “friendly” transponder. “Get them back if you can. We don’t want them tasering the nestlings.”
“Roger!” Nikola saluted with his right paw. While she wasn’t paying attention, he’d put on a private airman’s cap. She had no idea where he’d gotten it. It made her feel completely out of control of the situation. Careening.
* * *
They stopped short of the Dining Hall. The area was full of shadows and primary-color lights shining on the sandstone, as if the tour operators had thought people would find the caves boring without added color.
They gathered together, a thousand brown mice in the lead and the ostriches somewhere in the back.
“Ten guards,” Crow Boy whispered.
Louise’s heart leapt at the number. Three or four would have been difficult. Ten? She nodded despite her fear. It was going to be up to the mice. She wanted to protect the babies, but her only choice was to use them as weapons. As long as Tesla stayed out of the fray, the babies would be safe.
“Girls, on my signal, take all the mice and rush them. Chuck, take the four elves to the right. Jawbreakers. Green, take the three to the left. Red, take the middle three. Try not to taser the nestlings. Okay?”
“Roger!” the three girls squeaked.
“What’s the signal?” Chuck asked.
“She’ll say ‘On your mark, set, go!’” Red stated.
“No, that’s for races,” Green disagreed. “I think she’ll hoot like an owl.”
“Shh! When I tell you, you’ll know.” She held out her hand to Crow Boy. “Give me some zip ties.”
“What?” Alarm filled his face.
“You can’t do all ten before they recover from being tasered.” She held out her hand.
He didn’t like the idea; it showed on his face. He handed her a dozen. “You don’t have the strength to move their arms behind their back, so just bind them the way you find them.”
She nodded. “Nikola, keep watch on the gift shop and warn us if anyone else enters the cave. Jillian, try and keep the ostriches out of this mess.”
“Like I can actually control them!” Jillian whispered fiercely.
Louise waved her to be quiet. She took a deep breath. Fear jangled through her. She took another deep breath, trying to steel herself against the feeling of its tingling through her like electricity. “Ready?”
“Um, is that the signal?” Green asked.
“Go!” She waved them toward the elves. “Go!”
“That’s the signal!” Chuck cried. “Charge!”
The swarm of mice flooded away. Crow Boy bounded after them.
Louise followed.
The narrow Mountain King’s Hall opened into the huge Dining Room cavern. The rocks were highlighted with colored spotlights. Most of the cave, however, was cloaked in darkness, its true size hidden. The tengu children were all bound, hands and feet, in a long line. Boxes of gear sat in stacks, evidence that the elves were planning a well-stocked, orderly retreat. The brown robotic mice scurried forward with a rustle that sounded like running water.
“What is that sound?” one of the elves said.
“What are those?” another cried as she spotted the mice and pointed.
“Look out!” a third shouted.
They went down, stomping and flailing, under the wave of mice.
Crow Boy leapt on the nearest elf. He flipped the male onto his face and jerked the elf’s arms around behind his back.
“Get that one!” Crow Boy indicated a female elf twitching a few feet from him.
Louise hesitated, clutching tight the zip tie in her hand. She hadn’t actually thought about the fact that she’d have to touch the elves to bind them. She’d never hit anyone in her life. Movement caught her eyes and she saw one of the older tengu girls trying to wriggle her way toward one of the fallen elves. The girl knew that they had to win this battle and, helpless as she was, was trying to fight.
Louise swallowed down her fear and caught hold of the elf’s wrists. She fumbled through pushing the rigid limbs through the wire loops and pulling the plastic ties tight. The female elf groaned, obviously trying to struggle, as the mice kept her pinned with repeated shocks. She glared at Louise with hate-filled eyes and lips curled back in a snarl.
“You started this!” Louise shouted at her. “We’re just children! You should never have treated us this way!”
“Louise!” Crow Boy called to her. “She’s thousands of years old. Nothing you say will change her mind. We’re nothing but tools to push her own agenda.”
The second elf was easier to bind. Louise was securing the fourth when Crow Boy pushed a wire clipper into her hands.
“Free the nestlings. I’ll get the others.”
To bind the children, the elves had used zip ties identical to the ones that the twins had bought at Home Depot. The kids had blackened eyes, broken noses, bruises and cuts on their arms. They’d obviously been sitting tied up for hours wearing nothing but T-shirts and blue jeans; they were shivering from the cold fifty-two-degree cave. When she cut them free, they scrambled fearfully away from her and snatched up anything that could be used as a weapon. Even the kindergartener Lai Yee found a small knife. The elves had tortured two of the older children by drenching them in water; they lay on the ground in a hypothermia-induced stupor.
They weren’t going to be able to force-march these kids through virgin forest twenty miles to the edge of Pittsburgh where they might find safe shelter.
“Jillian! We need the mules in here!” Louise called to her twin.
“Stupid birds!” Jillian grumbled, earning hard looks from the nestlings. She waved toward the ostriches, which trooped in behind her, inspecting everything as they slowly followed the luggage mules.
“Them! Them!”
The hostility turned to confusion and slight fear as the huge birds strutted over to eye the nestlings closely.
“I sent some mice out to the gift shop to keep watch!” Nikola reported and saluted.
“Good work.” Louise indicated the two unresponsive nestlings. “We need dry clothes and blankets for them, and see if you can find a healing spell that might help.”
Jillian’s eyes widened, and she saluted, too. “Yes, Commander.”
Louise returned the salute. If that was what Jillian needed to keep it together, then that’s what she’d get.
Crow Boy moved to freeing the last of the nestlings. It was the English-speaking girl, Arisu, who had tried to buy the snow globe for a fellow nestling. Once freed, Arisu hugged him tightly.
“I knew you’d get free and save us!” Arisu cried. “I knew you’d come!”
Crow Boy glanced to Louise, guilt on his face. He obviously felt that the twins should be given credit for the rescue. All of the nestlings, though, were cringing away from the twins—and the mice and ostriches and the big robotic dog wearing a hat. Not that Louise blamed them; it was a bit much even for her.
He pulled free of Arisu to fumble with his belt pack. “I have candy,” he announced loudly.
Instantly Joy, who had been God knows where, appeared on his shoulder. “Oh, candy! Gimme!”
The nestlings went wide-eyed and still with amazement.
Crow Boy gave the baby dragon a large jawbreaker. “This is Joy,” he said in Mandarin. “And these two girls are her Chosen. They are as clever and wise as Wong Jin. You’re to listen to them closely and do what they say.”
The nestlings eyed the twins with awe and curiosity, but at least not now with fear.
Louise swallowed down on the automatic desire to hide from strangers’ gazes. Now was not the time to be shy. “We took out three guards outside,” Louise said in Mandarin, earning a surprised look from Crow Boy. “Are there more? Where are they?”
The nestlings eyed the hogtied prisoners and counted on their fingers.
“That should be all that have been guarding us since we were captured.” Arisu kicked two of the bound male elves. “Those two went through the pathway earlier and set up a shield spell on the Elfhome side. Nothing to keep a determined force out, but something strong enough to deter a stray saurus or black willow.”