“It’s the gullin and the Mouthpiece,” Jamie breathed. “Try not to make a sound.”
I obeyed, remaining completely motionless while we stared intently at the portal. The open doorway gave off a faint blue glow with an opaque sheen to it, casting rainbows and holograms on the grass. The passageway was framed with bones. Shorter than human bones and fatter. The frame was solid and thick, and I wondered how many dwarves had been sacrificed to construct it. I counted nine femurs.
Tor the Mighty raised the rake like an axe and blasted the left side, dislodging and scattering a whole mess of bones.
Then it happened. The blue light mutated, and red light shot out of the glassy doorway. Tor swung again, toppling the bones on the right side in one fell swoop, ending the portal for the dwarves.
Jamie gripped us both and bolted for the mountain, running just slow enough for Tor and me to barely keep up with our much shorter legs.
From out of nowhere (I mean, I know they came from somewhere, but they were behind me, so I couldn’t see where they burst out from), golden boars the size of a car charged for the broken portal, snorting malevolently. They were the same ones that lit the ballroom, only they hadn’t been statues; they were animated and terrifying.
I bit back a scream and ran my heart out, certain the organ was audible as it banged around in my chest.
Henry Mancini’s bark was to be expected, but I cringed at the location giveaway.
“There!” cried a man who looked like he belonged to Foss’s country. He was dark-skinned, tall and built like a WWE wrestler. His wild eyes and furious scowl aimed themselves in our direction. “Attack for your freedom!” the man yelled to the dwarf soldiers. I guessed correctly that he was the Mouthpiece, a body offered up by its owner for Pesta’s indwelling.
Good choice. I mean, if I could be in anyone’s body, I’d probably choose the biggest and baddest, too.
Several dozen dwarves in armor turned in our direction and let out a series of commands. The boars charged us, and I knew there was no hope. I wanted to tell Jamie to just go on without me, but what little sense I still possessed reminded me that if I was torn to bits, Jamie was a dead man, too.
I knew nothing about boars of this magnitude. Even if we made it to the mountain, which was half a mile away still, could they scale it?
Before I could reason this out, a loud explosion blasted from the direction in which we’d come. Then a second one boomed to our left. Henry Mancini barked and cried in my grip while Jamie charged faster yet. I felt a swoosh of wind tear past us, and then heard one of the boars squeal like a piglet in pain. There was a thud on the grass, and then another. I dared not look back, but I no longer felt them bearing down on us.
We ran until we reached the mountain, but the path was a ways to our right. Instead of running toward it, Jamie hefted me up over his head to a small outpost and did the same to Tor. “Get behind that rock!” he ordered. The second he let go of Tor and me, we were visible to the world. Henry Mancini and I scrambled behind the rock next to Tor, who was piqued with adrenaline. “That was Jens,” Jamie breathed, invisible to my eyes. “He’s out there fighting off the gullin, but he can’t take on that many by himself and still get out of there. I need to help him.”
“Then go!” I urged.
“It’s going to hurt us, but I’ll try to get him out quickly.”
“Go!” I shouted, preparing for the worst. I hugged Henry Mancini, who licked my face over and over as I attempted to clear my mind. I knew that the further away we got from each other, our heads would start aching. Jamie needed to concentrate, so I did my best to meditate and think of nothing, so as not to add my errant thoughts to his workload.
Yeah, like that was possible.
The headache began at the base of my skull and slowly crept around my cranium until the whole thing throbbed like a vice around my temples. “Yer okay, yer okay,” Tor said, patting my shoulder as I tried not to whimper. I lay down and spooned Henry Mancini so neither of us fell off the four-meter-high precipice. Tor muttered over and over in fearful and reverent tones about the bad omen it was that the Mouthpiece was set against us so soon in our quest.
Jens would be fine. He was built for this kind of thing. Jamie would be back in a minute. What was one minute of your head hurting?
Jamie’s thoughts banged around in my brain as if they were my own. Stop being foolish, Jens! Run! Ah!
Pain out of nowhere ripped into my arm. I watched in terror as blood spontaneously began spurting out of my freshly ripped flesh. Tor cried out in surprise, snatching up my arm to examine the gouge. Ribbons of red streaked down my elbow and pooled on the rock.
“Keep calm, Lucy. The more ya panic, the more Jamie can feel that. He needs ta focus on getting Jens outta there.”
I tried to keep my thoughts of alarm muted so as not to distract Jamie, but the combination of fear and pain was impossible to avoid. I cowered with my dog on the rock while Tor watched over me, waiting for other body parts to spontaneously start gushing blood.