Elf Defence (Adventures in Aguillon #2) - Lisa Henry Page 0,32

coming from the pits of hell itself. And Benji didn’t even believe in hell usually.

“That’s officially creepier than the curtain woman and all the blond children,” Benji whispered, and Calarian nodded.

“Oh, you saw her?” Lars looked worried and bit his lip.

“Maybe she’s the monster,” Calarian suggested.

“No, she’s a nun,” Lars replied. He wrinkled his nose and made an ambivalent face, like a dog who’d tasted something unpleasant but didn’t want to spit it out on a matter of principle. “Or rather, she was training to be, but it didn’t stick. Um, I think the convent sold her or traded her to the widowed captain as a housekeeper or something? And now she drags his children all around the place, enforcing harmony and cheerfulness and dressing them in, well… you’ve seen.”

“Why doesn’t someone do something about her? She’s terrifying,” Benji admitted. “Scarier than Gretchen, even.”

Lars wrinkled his nose. “She's, um, well, she’s a problem nobody could figure out how to solve, so we just kind of ignore her and let her roam the hills. We hope that one day she’ll roam far enough away that she doesn’t come back.”

“Maybe she’ll fall into a troll cave or something,” Benji said encouragingly

“Maybe.” Anything else Lars was going to say was drowned out by another earth-shaking roar from the monster.

Followed by—Benji cocked his head—a tiny, tinny clink. He squinted at Calarian. “Did you hear that?”

Calarian rolled his eyes. “Everybody heard that, Benji. The crazy nun probably heard that. Tournel probably heard that.”

There was another low, echoing moan, and there it was again, that metallic sound. For some reason it conjured visions of lying in bed at Tournel castle with Calarian.

“Not that,” Benji said, waving his hands to indicate the monstrous roar, “that.” He held his fingers close together. “Listen carefully. There’s another sound and I can’t quite place it.” He cupped his batlike ears to hear better.

Calarian’s eyes widened in understanding. He cupped his hands behind his own ears in imitation of Benji, and they waited.

And waited.

“Stupid thing’s gone quiet now,” Benji sighed after a few minutes.

“Maybe it heard us?” Lars suggested. As soon as he spoke, the monster let out a long, low sound that vibrated the very ground they were laying on, followed by a muffled clink.

Lars’s mouth dropped open and he was on his feet and running for the mouth of the cave before Benji or Calarian had a chance to stop him, shouting, “I’m coming! I’m coming!”

If that was Lars coming, sex with him was going to be a wild ride. Benji certainly hoped so, anyway.

Calarian stood and held out a hand to help Benji up. Benji stared at him. “What?”

“Come on, we have to go rescue him.” Calarian threw his hair over his shoulders dramatically. “It’s our duty.”

“Is it?” Benji asked. He didn’t remember agreeing to run headfirst into danger. And even if he had, he’d changed his mind.

Calarian huffed and tapped a foot impatiently. “We can’t fuck him if he’s dead,” he said, and dammit, he had a point.

“Fine, I’m coming,” Benji grumbled, and let Calarian pull him up. They shared a doubtful look before turning and heading down the track. There was no sign of Lars, but there also wasn’t a bloody, duke-shaped smear spread across the cave entrance, so that was something at least.

As they got closer, Calarian tilted his head, listening, and impossibly, a smile spread across his face and he started to jog down the incline. Benji scurried to keep up. “What? What is it?” he demanded. Calarian didn’t answer, just kept jogging downhill in his stupid lederhosen, being all infuriatingly attractive and mysterious, and Benji had no choice but to follow him.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the mouth of the cave, and by the time they got there Benji could hear that maddeningly familiar sound more clearly. It was a cowbell, and that’s why it reminded him of being in bed with Calarian—they’d listened to it outside their window every evening. The next thing he heard was Lars exclaiming, “You are a silly thing, aren't you Maisy? Look at you, poor girl, how did you get stuck down here?”

They rounded the corner of the cave’s entrance and followed the sound of Lars’s voice towards the depths of the cave, where they found, half hidden in the darkness, a smallish channel that led downwards. They eyed each other for a moment, and then Calarian shrugged and then slid feet first into the tunnel. He let go of the top edge and