Chapter Twenty-Eight: Too Easy, Too Easy
Two-Bit's knees collided sharply with the floor of yet another dungeon. "Ow."
"Took you long enough," Carmen muttered from next to him.
"Sorry," Two-Bit mumbled distractedly, glancing around. It was nearly pitch black, void of any light except a thin stream flooding in from a single high-up window.
He squinted around. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a small altar on the opposite side of the room came into focus. "What's that?" he said.
Carmen shrugged. "I don't know," she said, taking a cautious step forwards. Two-Bit followed just behind her, switchblade drawn. They were both braced for whatever unpleasant surprise Mordred might have in store for them.
Because the room was cast in darkness, it wasn't until they were right by the altar that they realized that upon the altar rested the fresh bloody remains of a man brutally murdered.
Carmen screamed and staggered backwards. Two-Bit was paralyzed, numb at the sight. He'd seen dead bodies before—he had been at Johnny's and Dallas's funerals—but nothing like this. He found himself more concerned for Carmen than for himself. He was a greaser, a hood. He could handle it. At least he hoped. He was beginning to feel nauseous.
A rattling stirred him from his trance. He turned to see Carmen fumbling with a door handle.
"No!" he yelled, grabbing her hand. "Girl, you crazy? You don't know what he's got out there! I know you're scared and everything, but running out into a dragon's mouth or whatever ain't gonna solve nothing!"
Carmen's terrified expression had transformed into an annoyed one. "Well, do you see any other way out of here?"
"Well, no."
"Then how do you propose we get out of here?"
Two-Bit frowned. He was beginning to think she had tricked him somehow. "Just be careful," he said sharply.
"Okay," she said. She motioned for him to get behind her, and he did so. They stood aside from the door so that they could jump to the side if necessary. Carmen cautiously twisted the door handle. They held their breath, expecting the worst…
It was locked.
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Carmen exhaled exasperatedly. Two-Bit started laughing, apparently seeing the funny side of it, but quickly turned it into a coughing fit as Carmen gave him a nasty glare.
"What do we do now?" he asked.
"I don't know," Carmen said calmly. She had an idea of what they might have to do—she had enough experience with Mordred's plots to know the kind of stuff he would do—and she really, really didn't want to do it.
Two-Bit, meanwhile, was wandering around the dungeon, searching for clues but scrupulously avoiding the dead body.
This could take forever if I don't do something quick, Carmen thought. She took a deep breath and began walking towards the altar…
But just then the ground dropped from beneath their feet.
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"Too easy, too easy," Mordred chuckled, shaking his head at what Carmen had created. Russell didn't see what looked so easy; it looked like the pits of hell to him. And he knew what those looked like.
"My poor stupid apprentice…ex-apprentice," Mordred sighed. Once again Russell felt exposed as his mind was read. "All we have to do is walk through the gaps in her spell, this illusion she has created for us."
"What gaps?" Russell asked. There weren't any as far as he could see.
Mordred raised an arm, and the pits of hell before them distorted and reshaped, a tunneled chamber of free passage now.
"But…" Russell began.
"But what?" Mordred demanded.
Russell shook his head. But that's cheating, he had wanted to say, but he knew it would be lost on Mordred. Besides, the wizard was probably reading his mind anyway, so why say anything at all?
Mordred looked at him intently. "Wise decision," he said. "Come on, then. We haven't time to waste."
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They all landed simultaneously back in Mordred's chamber.
"What the hell?" Two-Bit said. "We didn't make it past the first room!"
"Too bad," Mordred said. "You lost."
"And you cheated," Russell said loudly.
"Shut up, worthless infidel," Mordred said scathingly, waving an arm carelessly. As he did so, Russell was flung across the dungeon, bounced off the wall and was booted out the door as if by an invisible bouncer.
Carmen was filled with a sickening dread that only worsened as Mordred turned to her, a triumphant smirk on his face.
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Hopefully it'll end at chapter thirty.