Chapter 27

Stalking a Wizard

 

 

Akandu and Musuka crouched behind a low wall across from the crystal door that led into the Evil Queen’s fortress. Akandu was on his hands and knees, but the gleaming steel helm covering his massive head still poked above the wall. The giant was not good at concealment. Musuka had no trouble. Hiding came naturally to him; he’d spent his life doing it.

The predawn air was thick with warm, misty rain. It wet their faces and their cloaks, but was not unpleasant. They heard the click-clack of her boots on the stone walkway before they saw her. Obscured by the dark and the mist, it took them a moment to be certain the hooded figure moving toward them was the wizard.

“She’s coming,” Akandu said, and even though he spoke softly, the words boomed in Musuka’s sensitive ears.

“I-I, s-s-see her,” Musuka said, ashamed by the fear and weakness in his voice.

Akandu pushed his legs out from under him and rested his back against the wall. The giant’s scuffling movements were loud and Musuka grimaced. “Shhh. Sh-sh-sh-she will hear you.”

Akandu curled his lips and placed his hand on Musuka’s head.

Musuka shook it off. “Stop,” he said, this time with strength and confidence, his stutter gone.

“Don’t be a mouse, and I won’t crush you like one,” Akandu growled.

“I am no longer a mouse.”

The giant chuckled. “Perhaps not. Not quite a man yet, but less mousy. Maybe a dog now. We will have to get you a new name after we kill this wizard.”

Musuka shook his head. “We can’t take her in the dream world. She’s too powerful there.”

Akandu grunted. “We need more magic.”

“Too risky. We will take her in this world, and she will disappear in yours.”

Akandu touched the necklace of ears Musuka wore around his neck, just six, unlike the hundreds that encircled his own. “You will get two more, but alas, I will not.”

“Stop complaining. You have plenty.”

Akandu fingered his own trophies. “No wizard ears, though.”

“Too risky,” Musuka repeated.

Akandu stood, his dark form towering over the wall like a newly sprouted tree. “I’m tired of this shameful hiding.”

“Get back down here,” Musuka said, and as he did, the hooded figure turned toward them. Damn, the witch must have heard them. He dropped below the wall. “She’ll see you,” he whispered.

“She can’t see me. It’s your cowardly whining that attracted her gaze.”

“What is she doing?”

“Going inside.”

Musuka took a long breath, then chanced a look. As Akandu had said, the hooded figure was no longer looking their way. She was at the fortress gate, working some magic with its lock. The crystal door opened, and she lingered on the threshold for a moment, as if listening. Then she glanced over her shoulder and disappeared inside.

“She’s gone,” Akandu said.

“Get back down here before someone sees you.”

The giant begrudgingly eased down beside him.

“We will take her when she sleeps, like the others,” Musuka said.

“No honor in such kills,” Akandu said. “Only rodents and snakes raid the nests of their sleeping prey.”

Musuka frowned at the rebuke. He had come so far, but Akandu was right. He still killed like the mouse he was.