The Hunter Page 0,35

Audrey held out one hand and slowly unclenched the fingers. On her palm were the combs from her French twist. "At least I still have these," she said calmly.

All three of them burst into hysterical laughter. They laughed and laughed in a violent release of emotion.

"I guess that counts as winning: getting out of your nightmare alive with your combs intact," Dee gasped finally.

Audrey raised her eyebrows, and then her lips curled again in a smile. She and Dee were smiling at each other.

An unseen clock struck twelve.

"Midnight," Jenny said. It came out softly, almost a whisper. Every time they won, that clock chimed to remind them that time was passing-passing fast. Where was it, anyway? The sound seemed to pervade the entire house.

"Six hours until dawn," Dee was saying to Audrey. "And only five nightmares to go. We're fine. We'll make it, easy."

"Easy? I don't think so," Audrey said.

"Look," Jenny said quietly, bending to pick up a scrap of paper.

Chapter 9

It was an abstract rendition of a forest, very heavy on green swirling lines.

"All right, so I did draw a forest," Audrey said. "I've always had nightmares about them, but I never knew why. I didn't even know what forest I was scared of."

"He picks up on our subconscious," said Dee.

"So what happened to you two after we got separated?" Jenny asked.

"Not much," Dee said. "They put us in that room, only there wasn't any door at first. Then we saw the door-and at that exact instant those corpses appeared and Audrey started screaming. What about you? Did you see the Erlking?"

Jenny looked away. "Sort of. It was Julian, playing the part." She hesitated, then blurted, "You do know that it's because of me you're suffering, don't you? It's me he wants. He told me that he'd stop hurting you if I-if I let him-"

"Don't you dare," Dee said, sloe eyes flashing.

"Don't even think about it," said Audrey with equal heat.

Jenny nodded, feeling warmth in her eyes. To cover it up she watched Audrey. While they were talking, Audrey had efficiently put her hair back up, fished a quilted pouch out of her jacket pocket, and deftly restored her cherry lipstick. Audrey had always seemed so cosmopolitan, so invulnerable-but now Jenny had seen beneath the facade.

"It must have been hard, living in all those different countries," she said slowly and glanced over at Dee.

Audrey paused a moment in the midst of fluffing her bangs. She snapped her compact shut with a click.

"Frankly, it was awful," she said. "You can't imagine the culture shock. The dislocation-the insecurity-and you never know when you're going to move again. Even now that Daddy's retired I still feel-"

"Like it's hard to make real friends?"

Audrey nodded. "I feel as if we might be picking up and going again any minute."

"You're not, though," Jenny said. "You're staying here with us." She glanced at Dee again. "Right?"

"Oh, naturally," Dee said, but there was no rancor in her voice, and she laid a slender dark hand on Audrey's back.

"You know, I don't understand," Jenny said suddenly. "Those guys in the forest seemed nice-so why did they do it? Why did they hand us over?"

"Well-elves are supposed to do people favors. Answer questions, do work for you. But they always

want something in return, and if you call them up and try to trap them, they sometimes trap you. Take you to their world. I guess those guys figured we were more expendable than they were."

Jenny nodded. "One more thing-"

"Always one more thing!" said Dee.

"-which of you did the door? I know I didn't put it there because I've never seen a door like that."

"I did, I suppose," said Audrey. "I saw doors like that in Germany-but I didn't put it there. It just appeared."

"You can't change things here by using your mind," Dee said. "You have to deal with everything here as if it's real."

"But where is here?" Audrey said bleakly.

"Good question," said Jenny. "It's nowhere on Earth; I know that from what I saw out the window."

"The Shadow World," Dee said. "Remember the instructions? A world that's like ours but different, that exists alongside ours, but never touches it."

" 'Some people call it the world of dreams, but it is as real as anything else....'" Jenny quoted. "Well, it touched our world tonight, anyway. What's wrong now, Audrey?"

"It just occurred to me. You know, in Norse and German legends there are supposed to be nine worlds-our world's just the one in the middle."

"Nine?" said Jenny.

"Nine. There's Asgard,