diversion to get them away from her and to keep them busy so we can get out.”
The tapestry flared and I ran to the next one. Within minutes, the four around us were engulfed in flames. We ran up the slope again, but before I took Alex to the sorceress’s chamber, I threw my shirt as hard as I could down another hallway. Alex followed suit and flung his hat after it. We sprinted up the stairs, relying on my memory of coming down after being captured. Heat radiated up from the lower room as the fire caught on other things. Tendrils of smoke crawled up the ceiling. They should smell it soon…
We were about twenty feet from the chamber when roars echoed down the stairs. We ducked into a side hall, scrambling down it to hide behind the curved wall. Werewolves raced down the hall we’d just stood in, snarling and swearing. I hoped they all ran into a backdraft. One at the end of the pack stopped near our hall, the others charging on without him. He inhaled long and hard. His eyes narrowed. He started to creep down our hall, sniffing amidst the smoke that now billowed up the stairwell. I suddenly shoved the fiery spoon at Alex and took the stay, reaching into a pocket to grab the pouch of lead filings. I grabbed a handful.
The werewolf came around the corner, and I flung the lead into his eyes. Before he could make a sound, Alex smashed the heavy spoon into his muzzle. His jaw cracked loudly and went slack. A second strike to his face dropped him onto the stone.
“Okay, let’s go,” Alex said, peering up into the empty stairway.
I stared down at the bloodied, broken jawed creature. A nasty inclination to set him on fire crawled over me.
“Caroline!”
I snapped out of my fiery reverie. I darted around Alex and continued leading him up the stairs to the main chamber. This whole building was big and confusing, but I remembered well enough we’d gone through her chamber when we came in. Escape had to be that way too.
“What is all this nonsense?” the sorceress yelled. I guessed we’d interrupted her during whatever ceremony she’d concocted for Marianne. I hoped we weren’t too late.
We peeked around the corner into the main chamber. The Mistress stood in front of her chair as before, with Marianne opposite her on the other side of the fire. Wolf stood off to the side, hands clasped behind his back, looking stern but unperturbed. His nostrils flared, and for a second I panicked. Could he smell me? Would he look this way and attack? But he did nothing.
“What do you mean, fire?” the Mistress snapped. Communicating through the ankle collars. “Then put it out!”
“What do we do?” Alex whispered in my ear.
“I don’t care how big it is!” the Mistress said.
My mind felt like it was running a million miles a minute. I didn’t have enough magic items to make any use of them that I knew of. I gazed at the tapestries. I didn’t know what this woman could do, but she certainly wasn’t rushing down to put out a fire that was going to engulf her entire fortress. The idea tickled the back of my mind. I glanced around and found a sharp point of stone jutting from the wall.
“Okay. I’m going to set these on fire like the other ones. Then I want you to get Marianne while I keep her busy. She said my blood was poisonous. One of the werewolves licked me and died.” I ignored Alex’s aghast look. “I’ll get as close as I can to her while you get Marianne. She can’t use any dangerous spells on someone in close proximity without damaging herself. Besides, she wants the two of us alive.” I hoped all the things I’d read in those books about magic were right.
“What about him?” Alex said, nodding at Wolf.
“Never mind him. Just get out. If I don’t get away, then just take Marianne back to our world. Find the pond. Get her out of here. They’re just going to keep following her. You can hide her better in our world.”
Alex shook his head. “This is crazy.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “I know.”
I edged the spoon forward. The flames were dying on it now, but they were still strong enough to do the job. I inched it behind one of the tapestries while the sorceress ranted at her werewolves and Wolf