Alexandra, Hela, Haddie, and Rathnail fell through the rift and tumbled to a hard, cracked plain dotted with rocks and ridges, cast in eternal gloom. Alexandra rose quickly to her feet.
"Stay alert," she said. "There are nasty rabbit-people who will attack us on sight. Actually, a lot of things down here will attack us on sight."
Haddie and Rathnail looked around apprehensively at the black and red rocks, while Hela clenched her wand in a tight fist.
Not far away, a familiar sight dominated the dusky landscape. "That way!" Alexandra said. "And hurry."
The Thorn Circle's lair looked ever more like a stronghold, with walls and towers and a dry moat around it. Alexandra expected to see the Lagaru, but nothing moved around the fortification. She kept her eyes on the rough landscape, full of crags and crevices and other hiding places, ready to deflect a rain of arrows and spears, but the entire plain was eerily quiet.
"Mortals aren't meant here!" said Haddie. "What doesn't your father dare, Thorn-girl? Madness afoot, unseen by Sun or Moon or even Stars Above!"
It required no Witch's Sight to see the charms cast on the ground outside the walls of the fortification. They glowed visibly, sending a universal message with dancing skulls and flames. Rathnail recoiled from them.
Alexandra and Hela both began casting counterspells. It wasn't terribly difficult—the wizards who'd cast these wards obviously had put them here to stop rabbits with stone weapons, not witches. But it slowed them down. The crackling and sparking made Rathnail wince, and could easily be seen from the walls of the stronghold, and by any observers watching them from the nearby rock formations.
When they finally reached the massive door through which Alexandra had exited last time, after conjuring planks to walk across the moat, she was weary and annoyed. She cast a Caedarus charm against the door, which didn't break it but made it shake with a resounding impact.
"Let me in!" she demanded.
After an interminable wait, eyes appeared in the door and rolled side to side to observe Alexandra and her companions.
"Open up," Alexandra said. "It is I, Alexandra Quick, Daughter of Abraham Thorn, and if I have to keep making speeches I'm going to lose patience quickly. Tell my father I have the key to his Doomguards!"
The eyes widened slightly as they peered at her.
"Is that you Oren?" Alexandra asked. "I swear to God, open up or if I have to get in the hard way—"
Hela and Rathnail were both watching Alexandra with consternation, edging away from her as if expecting lightning to strike her down. Haddie pulled at her hair and spun around, staring first in one direction, then another.
The door opened, and Oren stood there, with two other wizards Alexandra didn't recognize, both of them young and scruffy.
"Your father said you might return," Oren said. "Who are these people?"
"Hela, Rathnail, and Ma—Haddie," Alexandra said. "Where is my father? Is anyone else here?" The interior seemed emptier than last time. Her voice echoed, and she saw no elves dusting or polishing. "Quimley?"
"Most of the Thorn Circle and our growing cadre of allies are in Deseret or Texarkana or one of the Californias right now," Oren said. He looked around. "What was that elf's name? Quimley? I believe your father sent him on a particular errand."
"What particular errand?" Alexandra asked.
Oren turned his nose up. "That would be highly confidential."
"You don't know, do you?"
Oren deflated slightly. "My duties do not encompass a need to know operational details."
"Uh huh. Just as well. C'mon guys." Alexandra shoved past Oren. She walked across the open area beyond the door, and after casting a Light Spell, found the ranks of Doomguards exactly where they had been standing last time.
Rathnail, Hela, and Haddie all followed her, and stopped at the threshold of the chamber where the Doomguards were waiting. Rathnail looked across their ranks as if searching for something. Hela just stared at the armored figures, while Haddie clapped her hands to her face and shook her head violently. "No, no, no, years and years and years and years and years and years and years…."
She went on like this. Alexandra tried to ignore her, turning to Rathnail instead. "So, can you turn them on?"
"They are not devices," said Rathnail. "They do not have an on switch."
"So what activates them? My father was able to march them here, but then they just shut off… or became inert, whatever—and won't respond to any commands anymore."
"Of course not," Rathnail said. "They were not bound to his service."
"How do you do that?" Alexandra asked.
"That is a secret goblin craft." Rathnail surveyed the Doomguards, and frowned.
"You can do it with all of them?"
"I think so," Rathnail muttered.
"You think so?" Alexandra looked back at Hela and Haddie, and Oren and his companions, who were watching with apprehension.
"I'm a journeyman!" Rathnail snapped. "Your father killed the master smith." He unhooked a hammer from his belt. "I will ask all of you but Haddie to leave while I work."
"How is Haddie going to help you?" Alexandra asked.
"We shouldn't, mustn't, Rathnail, I hate these things!" said Haddie. "Stabby metal faceless feelingless automated monsters made of goblin ire and wizard rage they are so cold and sharp!"
"They're the reason we came," Alexandra said, losing patience with Maddie's ranting.
Haddie turned on her. "You felt its blade at your throat and boots behind you for mere weeks, stalked such a short time, spoiled girl who escaped. You don't know what it's like to have death dogging your steps for years!"
Alexandra bit back her retort, and just said, "Rathnail, you and Haddie do whatever, but if you want to go to Chicago, I want those Doomguards marching with me."
"They will not march a step until I see the gold I was promised," Rathnail said.
"You worry about the Doomguards, I'll worry about your gold." Alexandra turned her back on them and walked back out into the large circular chamber around which her father's "palace" was built. She approached Oren. "When are you expecting my father back?"
Oren shrugged. "Sometimes I don't see him for days."
Alexandra looked over the two young men with him, wondering what made them too useless to accompany the rest of the Thorn Circle. "So there's just like a skeleton crew here, keeping out the hellbats and Lagaru and things?"
"More or less," Oren said. "Why were you talking to that goblin and the madwoman about marching the Doomguards? You should wait here for your father and explain to him what you're up to."
"Uh huh," Alexandra said. "Where is the treasury?"
Oren frowned suspiciously. "Why are you asking?"
"I need to borrow some funds. My father gave me a bank book but, you know, it's kind of hard for me to just drop in at the local CBNW branch."
"Now wait a minute. You can't just take gold from the Thorn Circle's treasury! Is that what you're planning to pay the goblin with? And he's going to give you control of the Doomguards?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Alexandra directed her wand in a sweep around the gloomy interior. "Aurum Revelio!"
The Revealing Spell directed her wand upwards. It pointed up the stairs, to where the Thorn Circle's "prisoners of war" slept, and where Alexandra assumed Medea and her father slept as well.
"Hela, stand guard," she said. "If my father shows up, just tell him Oren wouldn't listen to me when I said I was doing his bidding."
"You are doing no such thing!" Oren exclaimed, but Alexandra was already across the room and heading up the stairs. She checked for curses this time, and cast counterspells as she went.
Her Revealing Spell led her to a short corridor in the opposite direction of the room where elves stood guard over the hostages. Trying not to think about all those children sleeping in a death-like trance, Alexandra approached an arched entrance melted through the same stone as the rest of the castle, but instead of a wood or stone door, there was a thick sheet of scaly leather hanging over it. Alexandra cast a Light Spell and studied the hide. It had come from some beast she couldn't identify, probably something large and dangerous.
Strangely, there were no curses or wards on the entrance itself. Very warily, Alexandra pushed aside the hide, and looked within.
She saw a large chamber. Much too large to match the narrow corridor she was stepping out of. It was lit by several lamps arranged around the room, sitting on wooden dressers and a thick black table that had clearly come from the world above. Dominating the room was a large four-poster bed, likewise something that obviously had not come from the Lands Below.
Was this her father's bedroom?
"Hello?" she called out. Free or not, she wouldn't be surprised if elves were keeping his living space tidy. Feeling very much like an intruder, she stepped inside. It was one thing to take what she needed and what she felt entitled to, but invading her father's private quarters made her feel a little dirty.
She expected more wards or charms to protect it, but perhaps fear of Abraham Thorn alone was enough to prevent anyone else from trespassing here. Her Revealing Spell directed her to a pile of chests stacked in a corner, next to a tall rack on which hung several cloaks, all of them dark and somber-hued.
She had avoided looking at the bed, not wanting to think about her father and Medea sharing it. It was piled high with blankets and furs, but as she began moving through the room, someone on the bed sat up. Alexandra jumped, then backed away as a woman with brown skin and wild black hair leaped to the floor to face her.
The woman wore a doeskin dress that clung to her body, riding high on her thighs and low around her bust. Her eyes were unnaturally large and round, but it was her legs that drew Alexandra's attention. Starting at the thigh, they became thick and furry, and from the knees down, they were those of a deer. Her hooves were large and sharp.
Alexandra pointed her wand at the woman. "Bewi!"
The deer woman's eyes widened. Her lips pursed in a frown. "Little Sister has returned."
Alexandra and Maximilian had encountered Bewi during their trip to the Lands Below. Bewi had tried to seduce Maximilian, and then almost killed him with a kick from those deadly hooves, which she'd concealed beneath a longer dress. Now the deer woman wasn't hiding her deer legs, and she sniffed at Alexandra with disdain.
"I was expecting to find elves guarding the gold," Alexandra said. "What are you doing here?"
"Guarding the gold," Bewi said. "Your father is employing the Little People elsewhere. They can leave the Lands Below." Her voice was bitter.
"And you… are you like…. his lover?" Alexandra asked incredulously.
"What is it to you, Little Sister?" Bewi sauntered forward with measured, languid steps, elegant even with her unnatural deer's gait.
Alexandra flicked the tip of her wand, throwing sparks. "Stop sauntering."
Bewi stopped and glared at her.
"You're some kind of an evil succubus. What are you doing with my father?" Alexandra demanded.
Bewi's expression darkened. "I don't know that word, but it sounds like an insult."
"How can my father be with you?" Alexandra repeated. "You…" She looked Bewi up and down. "You're not even…"
"Human?" Bewi smiled mockingly. "Indeed, I am not. Yet am I not a comely maiden?"
Alexandra shook her head. "My father knows what you are?"
"Of course he does." Bewi's large doe eyes might have looked alluring and vulnerable to someone entranced by her charms, but Alexandra saw something baleful and malicious in their depths. "Why are you here, Little Sister?"
"I need to borrow some gold," Alexandra said. "My father said I'm good for it."
"I don't think you are good," Bewi said. "I think you are a little thief. I should trample you."
"You can try." Alexandra traced fire in the air with her wand.
"You threaten me?" Bewi's lips curled back. Clenched together, her large, flat teeth looked sinister. "I am not mortal like you."
Alexandra raised the tip of her wand until it pointed at Bewi's face, and met the deer woman's gaze without blinking. "Do you bleed?"
Bewi's face twisted in anger. "I will break your back."
"I don't think my father would want you to do that."
"I don't think your father would want you to take his gold. He told me nothing about allowing his daughter to steal from him."
Alexandra had been expecting to negotiate with elves. Bewi was another matter. She might be able to strike the deer woman down, but if she and her father had a relationship…
"I don't understand. I thought you're a homicidal psycho," she said.
Bewi's teeth stayed clenched together. "You keep calling me names I don't understand."
"What about Medea?" Alexandra asked. Did Medea know about Bewi? Was she… okay with this?
Bewi shrugged. "That one is not my concern."
Alexandra glanced around, still keeping her wand pointed at Bewi. She saw a throw rug of some sort, a long strip of unfinished woven cloth, and a lot of beadwork and small bowls of dye on the floor, as if Bewi had taken a nap while in the midst of some sort of project. What Alexandra did not see was signs of another woman's presence—no robes, or makeup or mirrors on the dressers.
Alexandra focused her attention back on Bewi, whose gaze was calculating, as if measuring the distance between them. Alexandra knew how fast and deadly those deer legs were.
Alexandra licked her lips. "You aren't here… unwillingly, are you?"
Bewi blinked slowly, and for the first time, her expression showed something other than malice.
"Your father does not own me," she said.
"You can leave if you want?"
Bewi stared at her a moment.
"I can leave this place," she said. "I cannot leave the Lands Below. Your father promised… when his wizard war is done, we will all be free to leave. The old paths will be opened once more. I don't believe him." Her voice turned angry. "I tried to follow him once, with one of his death coins, but I could not."
"Death coin? You mean an obol? How did you get one?"
Bewi shrugged, with a sly smile.
"You want to leave the Lands Below," Alexandra said.
"Colonial wizards trapped me here," Bewi said. "Do you think I was born for this place?"
"I have no idea. But do you still have an obol?"
"The death coin? I put it back so your father would not know I took it."
Not likely, Alexandra thought. "Are there… more?"
Bewi said nothing.
"How would you like to leave the Lands Below with me?" Alexandra asked. "Today?"
Alexandra left the bedroom chamber with a sack of gold slung over her shoulders, followed by Bewi, who carried a small box. Bewi sauntered along behind Alexandra down the stairs. Her eyes darted right and left.
Hela, waiting at the bottom of the stairs, stared wide-eyed at Bewi. "That… that is a—" she said something in her language.
Bewi grimaced at her. "Again, little witch sisters call me names. I will kick her to death."
"No you won't," Alexandra said. "Hela, this is Bewi. She's going to help us."
"She is an evil spirit!" Hela said. "Don't you know a man-slaying demon when you see one?"
Oren and his sidekicks were hustling over to see what the commotion was, and stopped and stared at Bewi, entranced.
"No kicking," Alexandra said to Bewi. "Or stomping or trampling or seducing. I promised I would take you with us—"
"You did what?" Hela exclaimed.
"—but the deal's off if you don't keep your hooves to yourself."
Bewi tossed her hair, and stared down Oren and the other two men.
Alexandra dropped the gold on the ground. It made a heavy sound. She said to Bewi, "Stand guard over the gold. We'll be back. Hela, come on, we're going to do something while Rathnail is working."
"What?" Hela said, leaving a wary, bemused Bewi behind.
Alexandra began walking back upstairs. Hela hesitated, then followed her. Oren mumbled something, while the two younger men just stared at Bewi.
Alexandra found the tall doors Quimley had taken her to last time. There was still a pair of elves standing guard in front of them. They weren't the same elves Alexandra had seen last time. They straightened up as she approached.
"Hello," Alexandra said. "I'm Alexandra Octavia Quick, daughter of Abraham Thorn. What are your names?"
"Meenie," said one.
"Miney," said the other.
"Seriously?" Alexandra said.
They looked back at her very seriously.
"Sorry." Alexandra cleared her throat. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Meenie and Miney. So, like I said, I'm Abraham Thorn's daughter. I'm sure you've heard of me."
She could only imagine what they might have heard of her, but she was encouraged when they both nodded, duly impressed. She smiled. "Great. So, I'm here to take the children home."
She turned to glare at Hela, who had clapped a hand to her mouth.
The two elves looked at each other, and back at Alexandra. They were both male, but even tinier than the girl-elf who'd been one of the guards last time. Alexandra had a hard time judging the age of elves, but it seemed to her that these two might be very young.
"Master Thorn did not say anything about this," said Meenie.
"It's an unexpected change in his plans," Alexandra said. "But when you explain it to him, he'll agree that this was totally what he'd expect me to do."
Hela made a choking sound.
"We is not sure about this," said Meenie.
"Master Thorn was very clear that nobody gets in unless he says so," said Miney. "Not even Mister Oren or Missus Medea."
"Really? How interesting," Alexandra said. "But he didn't say not even his daughter, did he?"
The two elves' faces screwed up in concern and confusion, and Alexandra recognized the tortured expression that house-elves got when they were contemplating disobedience.
"Meenie, Miney, you are… free elves, aren't you?" she asked.
"Oh yes!" They both nodded vigorously. "We is proud to be free elves in service to Master Thorn!"
"Right." Alexandra glanced at Hela, who had composed her expression again and just gave her a dour look in return. She turned back to the elves.
"I'm sure my father didn't intend to put you in a difficult position," she said. "He definitely wouldn't want you to be worrying about whether or not his instructions were clear."
They both nodded in agreement. Alexandra said, "So you can see how clearly, my purpose is totally legitimate, or I wouldn't be here."
The two elves blinked slowly.
"We—" said Meenie.
"It is… not clear," said Miney.
"Look," Alexandra said, and she opened her hand to show them a pair of obols. The two elves gasped and their pale little faces turned sickly gray. "How else would I have these?"
They were momentarily speechless, and Alexandra took the opportunity to cast a spell to open the doors and then, without waiting for the elves' permission, walked through. Hela let out a startled yelp when she tried to follow. Alexandra turned to see the other girl lying on her back.
"You is not a daughter of Thorn," said Miney firmly.
Hela rose to her feet clenching her wand with a murderous expression.
"She's with me," Alexandra said.
"We is not sure about Abraham Thorn's daughter," Miney said. "But certainly you may not bring who Master Thorn said not to let in."
Alexandra considered arguing or trying to persuade the elves, but the small, prideful creatures looked quite determined to stand their ground, despite the anxiety on their faces. She held up a hand to Hela and said, "Wait here."
Hela glowered at her. Alexandra stared her down, and Hela finally lowered her wand and glowered at the elves instead.
Alexandra walked into the chamber, which was still illuminated in ghostly blue light by small spheres floating near the ceiling. There had been eleven children last time, and she had taken two. Now there were thirteen, all lying beneath soft, thin blankets on their stone biers, comfortable in magical slumber.
It took some time for her to break the spells on all of them. As the children began waking up, Hela called from outside: "Alexandra, the goblin is calling for you."
A little girl who couldn't have been older than six began crying as she looked around in confusion, beneath the gloomy blue lights. One of the oldest, a chunky boy with curly hair and a broad nose, rose to his feet, clenching his fists and trying to look threatening despite the fact that he had apparently been abducted while wearing pajamas decorated with a pattern of lightning bolts and floppy wizard hats.
Another boy had come to his feet even more quickly, looking around with an alertness that belied his age. Alexandra recognized the picture Diana Grimm had showed her of Pendragon Carew.
"Pendragon," she said. The boy's head jerked around. "Can you help me with those two younger kids? You—what's your name?" she said to the bigger boy.
"Clark Griffin," he said.
Alexandra hesitated. "Do you know a Franklin Percival Brown?"
"Huh?" Clark said.
"Never mind. You're in charge too. We need to get everyone out of here in an orderly fashion. C'mon, kids, we're all going home, but you need to follow Pendragon and Clark here, and mind your step."
"I want Mommy!" cried the youngest girl. Pendragon looked at her uncertainly, but an older girl took her hand, then looked from Pendragon to Alexandra expectantly.
All thirteen children were now shuffling about in a state of confusion. Pendragon and Clark, no less confused, began shepherding them into line. A girl about Clark's age, almost Alexandra's height but much curvier despite being a couple of years younger, approached her and said, "Who are you?" in a haughty tone.
"Name?" Alexandra asked, as if she were taking role. She wiggled her wand.
The girl eyed Alexandra's wand, and ran her hands along the front and sides of her robe, as if to confirm that she did not have her own wand. "Lorelei Reiner," she said.
"I'm going to need you to help out as well," Alexandra said. "You want to go home, don't you?"
Lorelei opened her mouth, prepared to argue, but what came out was just a weak, "Yes."
Alexandra cast spells to create floating lights much brighter than the blue spheres hovering overhead. "Okay, everyone, follow me, and watch your step! Clark, Pendragon, and Lorelei are in charge, so listen to them. You three, listen to me." And with that, she led them out of the chamber. They followed with agog, confused expressions that became even more bewildered as they encountered the strangely-formed mineral walls of the stronghold around them, and the two small elves staring at them as they exited their erstwhile prison.
"What is Alexandra Quick doing?" exclaimed Meenie.
"I told you, I'm taking the children home," Alexandra said. "My father will explain everything." She looked down at the two elves. In a lower voice, she said, "They don't belong here. Whatever my father told you, you know this is right, don't you? As free elves, it's time for you to decide whether orders you don't understand are more important than doing the right thing. And I couldn't even have gotten this far if my father didn't really want me to do this."
Conflict was written across the elves' face. Alexandra pitied them, knowing what a bind she was putting them in, but she turned to Hela and said, "Help lead them downstairs." Hela's eyes were as wide as the elves'.
Pendragon and Lorelei both approached Alexandra. "Alexandra? Your name is Alexandra?" said Pendragon. "I know who you are!"
"Your father," Lorelei said. "Your father is the one who abducted us!" Her voice became shrill, causing some of the other children to look alarmed.
Alexandra turned to them. "I'm going to get you out of here," she said. "We don't have much time and I don't have much patience. So grow up, take charge, and do as I say, and I will take you home. I don't want to hex anyone, but we can leave you behind if we have to."
Pendragon gulped, and Lorelei turned pale.
"What do we do?" Pendragon asked.
"Like I said," Alexandra told him, "follow me."
Downstairs, Oren and his two flunkies grew increasingly alarmed as Alexandra and Hela led the thirteen children down the steps. Bewi watched the children as if she were contemplating kicking them one by one.
"What are you doing?" Oren exclaimed. "Your father absolutely did not send you to take the Doomguards and the prisoners of war out of here!"
"Prisoners of war?" said Pendragon.
"Does he mean us?" demanded Clark.
Alexandra said, "Incarcerous!" and bound Oren head to foot in magical ropes. She did the same to one of the other wizards. The third had his wand out, but seemed still to be deciding what to do with it when Hela cast a Stunning Charm that knocked him against a wall. He slid to the floor, unconscious. Some of the children shrieked in terror at the red burst of light. Alexandra looked at Hela, then at the kids, said, "Shh," and turned back to the chamber beyond.
"Daughter of Thorn," said Rathnail, walking out of that room, with Haddie beside him. "Do you have my payment?"
Alexandra picked up the sack of gold and handed it to Rathnail. The goblin looked surprised, as if he hadn't actually expected Alexandra to fulfill her end of the bargain. He opened the sack and looked inside. He reached in and withdrew a handful of gold Gringotts coins. His eyes glittered greedily. Then he nodded and dropped them back into the sack, and slung it over his shoulder. He faced Alexandra, and said solemnly, as if casting an enchantment of his own, "They are at your command, Alexandra Quick."
"Excellent," Alexandra said. She walked to the entrance, and looked upon the ranks of Doomguards. They still hadn't moved. They seemed as inert as before.
"Simon says, raise your right arm," she said.
As one, the many ranks of Doomguards raised their right arms, with a single echo of metal plates sliding together.
She turned around. "Hey, kids. We're going to have escorts out of here. I know they look scary, but they're bodyguards. They're going to protect us from anyone who'd stop us."
The children all stared back at her, sniffling and fearful. Even Pendragon and Lorelei looked on the verge of panicking.
"Pendragon!" Alexandra said sharply. "Lorelei! Clark! Keep them calm and in line."
The three oldest straightened up with a start. Clark had been staring at Bewi, who smiled back at him invitingly in a way that would have been frightening even if he weren't so young.
Clark tore his eyes away from the deer woman and nodded uncertainly.
Alexandra turned around and addressed the Doomguards again. "March."
They marched out of the castle, and across the reddish twilight of the Lands Below. Some of the children broke down and had to be carried. Lorelei was sobbing even as she tried to act the role Alexandra had assigned to her. Pendragon was calmer than either her or Clark, looking around at the landscape and the Doomguards marching ahead of and alongside them with a mixture of fear and awe.
Hela, Rathnail, and Haddie walked next to Alexandra. Bewi trailed along behind the procession. Hela and Alexandra were ready to cast Shield Spells against any hazards, but though at one point, Alexandra thought she saw a small, fuzzy figure hip-hopping along a ridge ahead of them, it disappeared quickly at the sight of four ranks of shiny black armored warriors marching in lockstep with swords in hand.
"You just lied to everyone," Hela said. "Shamelessly."
"Does that bother you?" Alexandra asked.
"Your father will be furious."
"Yeah," Alexandra said. She'd just absconded with his hostages, his army of Doomguads, ten pounds of gold, half his accumulated obols, and—she glanced back suspiciously at the deer woman—his mistress.
"How are we leaving above below beyond these lands, shameless father's wrathy daughter?" Haddie asked. "All these metal children marching we have no egress Powers lost these lands long ago it's elves and dark ungenerous ones, you've done such dark things your father will be angry and prideful raging wrath like a storm at the end of time you wait and see Troublesome…." Haddie's speech was ever more incoherent.
"How are we getting back?" Hela whispered.
"Remember when my father said costs must be paid? There used to be nothing stopping wizards from traveling back and forth to the Lands Below. Indian wizards didn't need elves or obols to make the journey." Alexandra looked ahead, where the rocky ridge they had hiked past on their way here now rose in front of them again. "They just knew where the cracks in the world were."
"The world cracked all the cracks such terrible things as above so below," said Haddie. "You crack the lands and wave worlds away elves are in the way."
Alexandra just nodded to Haddie's ramblings, until Hela jerked to a halt, and the children with them all gasped. The Doomguards kept marching, until Alexandra looked ahead and called, "Halt!"
There was an assembly of small, sinister little people ahead. Dozens of them, some standing directly in the procession's path in a semi-circle, and many more standing on the rocks and in the crevices behind them. They had reddish skins and wore resplendent and gaudy outfits of leather, feathers, polished stone, bits of metal, and trinkets of all kinds, some hand-fashioned and some from the world above.
Rathnail gripped his iron sword and said, "They don't look like escaped house-elves."
"Not escaped, never freed, these aren't your elves off the shelf. They've never stepped and fetched," Haddie said. She cackled as if her own wit was amusing her.
"Stay here." Alexandra made a hand gesture motioning them all back. She forced a smile at the children, who were all properly terrified. "Don't worry. I just need to talk to them."
"Those elves don't l-look friendly," Lorelei said, as if this were an entirely foreign concept to her.
Alexandra said to her raggedy following, "Whatever you do, do not accept any gifts from them." Then she walked ahead until she was between the leading rank of Doomguards and the assembled elves.
One of the elfin creatures walked forward to meet her, advancing past his circle of companions.
"Greetings, Daughter of Thorn," said Tiow, the leader of the Generous Ones. "Three years has it been since last we gifted you with our hospitality." His smile was solicitous, as if they were old friends, but behind him, his companions looked angry and sullen.
Alexandra held her wand at her side, making slow circles in the air.
"You gifted me nothing," she said. "And I'm not here to exchange gifts now. We will not sit and parley, and we will neither offer you hospitality nor accept yours. These children, and my companions, owe you nothing and I won't permit you to give them anything. We're leaving the Lands Below. Stand aside, or I'll kill as many of you as I can here and now, and order these Doomguards to hunt you everywhere, across the Lands Below, to the four corners of the earth, until the end of time."
Tiow's eyes widened. His smile vanished. "You have become an ugly, rude girl."
"Go to hell," she said. "If there's a hell lower than this." She pointed her wand. "I'm not messing around with you little bastards."
"Vile child," said Tiow, and this time his voice was a snarl. "We wish to parley with your father."
"Good luck with that," Alexandra said.
"He has driven us from our homes, broken our agreement, and threatens the Compact with the Confederation!"
"Good. No more child sacrifices for you."
"You do not understand," Tiow said tightly, "and neither does your father. Each time you pass from here to the world above and back, without the Compact, that way stays open! Your wizard-folk and Muggle-folk alike will be free to walk into the Lands Below…. and those who dwell here will be free to leave."
"If that was the price the Confederation paid every seven years, it was too high," Alexandra said. "They should never have made that bargain. My father understands perfectly well the cost of breaking it. Muggles will just have to deal."
Tiow completely lost any trace of agreeableness. His expression was now one of pure hatred. "These lands were never meant for mortals."
"And yet you were perfectly happy to take advantage of visitors," Alexandra said, her face just as angry.
"Your father has warred against us and killed many of our number! We are refugees in our own land!"
"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" Alexandra raised her wand, and Tiow flinched and stepped back. "You want me to speak for you? Release me from my Geas. Give me my life back! Do that, and maybe I can persuade my father to be more generous with you. You're lucky I haven't told him about our bargain, or he'd have ended you all!"
Tiow shook his head, with his face contorted in fury. "We could not if we wanted to, human child. Such pacts are not merely words that can be taken back when it so pleases. Even if we are gone, it will not change your fate."
"Yeah, I figured. No take-backs." Alexandra fought off the sinking feeling in her gut, as the brief hope that she might be able to escape her fate was swiftly quashed. "Then we have nothing to talk about. Begone."
Tiow drew himself up with all the dignity of his tiny stature, and gave her a haughty look of contempt. "Agreements were made, and broken. What you can't renege on by cunning, you Colonials seek to appropriate by force. I will see you in four years, Alexandra Quick, daughter of Abraham Thorn. I will watch as you follow your brother to the Lands Beyond."
Alexandra raised her wand high and split the ground where Tiow stood. Dust and dirt blasted high into the air, showering the Generous Ones and the front rank of Doomguards behind her. Tiow and the Generous Ones vanished, leaving behind no trace.
Alexandra breathed in and out rapidly, and waited until she was calm before she turned and gestured at the Doomguards. "March."
Out of sight of the Thorn Circle's walled edifice, on the other side of the ridge where the Generous Ones had assembled, she found the crack that she had used to return from the Lands Below with Philomena and Marcelius.
"Muggles will just have to deal," she said.
"What?" Hela asked, catching up to her.
Alexandra said, "Bewi, bring me the obols."
The deer woman strutted forward, past the line of youngsters, who all gawked at her. Alexandra didn't understand how someone with the hindquarters of a deer could walk like that, sensual and haughty and threatening all at once.
Bewi hesitated before handing over the box. "You will keep your promise," she said.
"She's madder than me," said Haddie, standing behind Rathnail as if he could shield her, though she towered over him. "What else will you set free?"
Alexandra and Bewi both ignored Haddie. Alexandra took the box of obols. "I keep my promises," she said. Even the ones I regret. "Take one." She let Bewi take an obol, then turned to Haddie and Rathnail. "You too."
She walked down the line of children, giving each of them a coin. "Don't lose it," she said. "This is your exit fare."
"Hexa fair?" asked the youngest girl.
"Make sure she holds onto that," Alexandra said to Lorelei, who was holding the little girl's hand.
"Do we have to put these under our tongues?" asked Pendragon.
"No. Wrong story. Just hold onto it, and follow me."
Alexandra led the procession through the cracks in the earth until they were ascending into daylight. They emerged in an open field, next to Old Larkin Pond.
The children looked around, blinking in the sunlight.
"I was never your father's lover," Bewi said, her voice a husky whisper in her ear.
Alexandra turned to Bewi, but the deer woman was already gone, as if on the wind.
"Pity the poor Muggles who have to deal with her," said Haddie. She plucked cattails from the stalks growing by the side of the pond. "It's cold and Muggly here and I'm not driving on the Automagicka. Rathnail, my rake, fancy a ride?"
Rathnail seemed to like the sun less than the humans did. He grimaced. "Where are we and where is Chicago?"
"Give me a minute." Alexandra stared at the hole in the ground that looked like a recent defile, but through which, if what Tiow said was true, any Muggle could descend to the Lands Below. She cast spells to collapse the earth around it, and recast the Muggle-Repelling Charms she'd used around the pond earlier, while the kids began talking impatiently, and the younger ones started crying. Some of them complained about being hungry.
Alexandra picked four Doomguards, and ordered them into the pond. The Doomguards lay down, disappearing beneath the surface of the water.
"Everyone else, follow me," she said.
"What are we doing?" Hela asked.
"Going to the Pruett School," Alexandra said. And she marched them away from Old Larkin Pond, under the overpass, and through Larkin Mills, with the Doomguards marching in two columns on either side of them.