Light splashed from above. Leandro hauled us out and slammed the hatch back down, turning the handle tight. The guards banged on it, yelling.
“Run!” Leandro pulled us toward the waiting kernitians.
“Finn?” Charlie clutched me.
“No! Just run!”
The cover to the tunnel shook with angry thumps. Muffled voices protested below. We leapt onto the kernitians and galloped into the air.
Higher. Higher.
The meat spread a greasy stain on my apron. Up to the trees we raced, and once we reached the tops, the kernitians slowed to a trot. The heat of the bakehouse left me as a soft breeze tickled my skin, and I breathed cold, soothing air.
Sam ripped off a piece of bread, threw it at Charlie, and dug into the pie. “Finn wasn’t there, but we got food!”
Leandro laughed. “By the gods! Good thinking, boys.”
About time this meat was mine. I pulled off a chunk and threw it to Leandro. We tore into the food like a Thanksgiving feast and forgot about scary creatures attacking us and guards vaporizing us with snake heads. There was only good food going down into our empty stomachs. Poor Lo Chez couldn’t eat any of it.
“The best agrius beast there is,” Sam mumbled, his mouth full of food, pointing at the mystery meat.
Whatever agrius beast was, it sure tasted good. Better than gurgle soup. We ate until it was all gone, passing food back and forth in the sky. Charlie let out a huge burp that startled his kernitian, and it kicked its legs up. We all laughed, and even Leandro chuckled with his deep rumble. With our stomachs full, we glided along as if on a summer afternoon bike ride, except there was no yellow sun here to warm us, only a blue, frosted one.
“So, where to next?” I said to Sam.
“The castle. And the greenhouse is on its grounds. It’s not far, but our most dangerous stop. The Lost Realm guards have been training extra slaves to guard the king, and Finn might be one of those. The king has been paranoid about a takeover, and if that were to happen, my days would be numbered here, which is why I needed to escape now.”
“Then the rumors are true,” Leandro said.
“What rumors?” Charlie said.
“Hekate’s plan to overthrow King Apollo. And the people of the Lost Realm are ready for change.”
“Even an evil one?” I shook my head.
“The Lost Realm is cursed, first by Zeus and now Hekate, and could soon be plummeted into the darkest of ages again,” Leandro said, spreading a hand out across the treetops. “You can already feel the chill in the air and inside folks.”
“Even my father is afraid,” Sam said. “It’s why he’s had me working at the power mill and sending back reports. He was once a reasonable man, but now I fear him as much as I do Hekate.”
“Because she’s an immortal evil?” Leandro said.
“How do you know that?” Sam said.
“As a prison guard, I heard things.”
“It’s true,” Sam said softly.
“Those old cave drawings looked like her,” I said. “But how can you know for sure?”
“I watched her,” Sam said. “One night, I snuck outside her sleeping quarters and spied her through the keyhole. She removed her beauty and there was the ugly, old hag beneath.” He shuddered as if haunted by that vision. “I knew then, if I wanted to live, I had to do whatever she told me.”
We were all silent for a long moment. The memory of her fingertips silencing Lo Chez with blue fire filled my head. “She doesn’t need a vape, does she? She is a vape.”
Sam nodded solemnly. “The most deadly vape of all.”
My kernitian suddenly dove down, and cold air rushed over me as it zoomed toward the ground. “What’s happening?”
The others dove as well. Leandro wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “I’m not asking them to do this.”
We landed on the forest floor and dismounted as whinnying came from far beyond the trees.
Leandro translated for everyone. “They’ve signaled danger among themselves and are calling all to return to home.”
My kernitian took off like a racehorse into the air with the others. Within seconds, they were gone from view. We stood, fog rolling around our feet in a blanket that offered no comfort.
Leandro pulled out his knife. It shone in the mist. “We’ve got to get under cover inside the castle to find Finn. Quickly.”
Sam shook his head. “There’s no way in except through the castle gate, which is nearby at the edge of the woods. All the underground tunnels have been blocked off, except the other bakehouse one that leads directly into the castle.”
“You already got chased out of there,” Charlie said.
“Then let’s take the road.” I pointed through the trees at the path that wound through the woods in the distance. We’d come upon it earlier and kept it in sight to maintain direction, watchful for unfriendly riders on it.
“We’ll be caught for sure,” Sam said.
“I have to agree,” Leandro said. “Too risky. We must find a way in through the castle’s bowels.”
“They wouldn’t be expecting us on the road though,” I said.
Charlie waved his hands in the air. “Zut Alors! So what do you suggest we do, Joshua? March on up, give a good knock, and say ‘Allo! We need to rescue a kid in there. Send him out so we can escape. And by the way, sorry about stealing your breakfast.’”
Something dawned on me, and I nodded. “That’s exactly what we do.”
Sam, Charlie, and Leandro looked at each other, and their faces told me I was crazy.
“Leandro, you pretend you’re a Child Collector delivering some Reekers to the king as slaves,” I said, speaking faster with excitement, knowing this would work, would have to work. “You have a belt and gate key that proves it.”
He thought about it, and then a half-smile crossed his face and he shot a finger at me. “Good thinking, Joshua! You boys will be my captives.”
“What if something goes wrong? We need the gate key to get to Earth,” Sam said.
“And we will,” Leandro said.
We stood there, no one speaking, and finally I said to Sam, “We have to trust each other.”
“Oui, Prince-man. Trust. It’s all we got,” Charlie said with a serious look on his face.
At last, Sam nodded and Leandro took charge. “Once we get in the castle, we’ll find Finn, get the gate codes, use the orb to blast our way out, and with the element of surprise, run like the wind to the Lightning Gate. I know the way.”
“Me too, but I can’t go in the castle,” Sam said. “Everyone knows me. But I can tell you where the codes are.”
“Wait in the woods for us then,” I said.
A rush of anticipated success filled me with the bigger picture of our mission. “What about the others?” I looked at Leandro. Charlie and Sam both appeared puzzled. I explained. “Rescuing all the kids stuck here.”
“First we must get your friend, young Joshua.” Leandro said. “There’s no time to waste.”
He was right. We ran after him. This time, we had energy to burn. And it wasn’t far. We ran around rocks, over water holes with scaly things flopping in their murky depths, and under the drooping wizard trees. They looked tired and sad to me now, bearing witness to our adventure unfolding. Then we stopped. We could go no further.
A raging creek roared across our path and there was no way around it. We had to cross. Tusks poked up through the churning waters.
Hydriads.