Joy nodded her head energetically. “Tengu belong to Providence.”
Perhaps Joy wouldn’t be so insistent if Crow Boy hadn’t grabbed Jillian. They couldn’t stand there endlessly debating with the little dragon.
Louise reached out to pet Joy on the head. “You can’t touch him, but can you move the cage?”
Joy stared at her with suspicion. “Move cage: free tengu.”
“He stays where he is,” Louise pointed out. “You leave him where you found him.”
“Please, Joy,” Jillian added, “I’ll get you candy!”
“Jawbreakers!” Joy cried.
“Whatever. Just phase the cage, please!”
“Okay.”
They swung the cage side to side on the heavy chain. When it was at its farthest point, Joy shifted it and the tengu was left in midair. He landed lightly and leapt forward to get out of the way of the swinging orb.
The twins backed nervously away from the tengu.
Crow Boy knelt down before them and bowed his head. “Thank you.”
“We’re not out of the doo-doo yet,” Jillian muttered darkly.
They found their way to an extensive wine cellar. Judging by the boxing supplies, the staff would be packing up the wine after the art. Yves was truly abandoning the mansion at full speed. They picked their way through the racks until they found the dimly lit spiral staircase leading up. Louise stopped at the bottom step. She could smell fried onions, cumin, and coriander. She thought she could hear voices.
She reached up to pet Nikola where he was riding her shoulder. He’d been quiet since they found Crow Boy. “Nikola, are there still people in the kitchen?”
“Yes. Nattie is cleaning up from dinner, and there are six others with her. They’re fighting about money; the mansion’s general operating fund is empty.”
On the house blueprints, it had been clear that this stairwell was the only way down into the sub-basements. It spiralled down two stories, past the basement level without connecting, from the large walk-in pantry off the kitchen. There had been no other way out. Obviously they would need a very large distraction somewhere else in the house to lure off the elves.
Louise started ticking through available resources when Crow Boy brushed past her. He’d picked up a long bar of steel from somewhere that he carried like a spear.
“Hide,” he whispered and ran silently up the stairs.
“What’s he doing?” Jillian whispered fiercely.
“Getting into a mess!” Louise ran after him. She couldn’t even shout after him to stop him; they were too close to the elves. What was he thinking? For them to hide and then sneak out when the elves dragged him back down into the basement? It wasn’t going to go that way. The elves were going to kill him, and they’d be trapped as the secret elves searched the basement. What could she do to stop the oncoming disaster? Have the babies call 911? No, the police wouldn’t be here in time to save Crow Boy. No one would get there in time. Turn off the lights? No, the mansion electrical system was still last century. Blow something up? Yes, that would work!
“Is Tesla still in the truck?” Louise cried to Nikola clinging to her collar.
“Yes. The Jawbreakers are with him.”
“Tell Chuck to get to the garage! We’re leaving now!”
“We are?”
“Yes!”
At the top of the steps, Louise nearly tripped over unconscious elves sprawled on the pantry floor. It was Celine with a big ring of keys and one of the males that acted as drivers. Were they the reason Crow Boy had run upstairs? Had he heard them coming and realized that the elves were about to check on the caged prisoners?
And this was the best plan he could come up with?
Granted he had mowed these two down easily enough, but her spider-sense was screaming “this will not end well.” Louise stepped over Celine and grabbed a large sack of flour from the pantry shelf. She had only seconds before everything toppled to complete disaster.
As if on cue, someone shouted, “We need help! The yamabushi is loose!”
Louise ran into the kitchen, carrying the bag of flour.
After the cave dark of the dank sub-basement, the kitchen was a sudden assault of light and smell. Every light was on, reflecting off the gleaming granite counters and stainless-steel appliances. The coppery scent of fresh blood mixed with hot spices and fried onions. Dirty pots and pans beside the sink with steaming water still running was proof that Crow Boy had taken the elves off guard. The fight had spilled to the other side of the kitchen, where he leaped and kicked and spun, fending off Nattie and three males armed with butcher knives. Shouts of “The yamabushi is loose” rang deeper within the house, and Louise could hear reinforcements racing toward the kitchen. Crow Boy was about to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Louise put the flour bag on the granite counter and quickly sketched a disperse spell onto the wrapper.
Nattie snatched up one of the kitchen chairs and swung it hard at Crow Boy. It caught him mid-leap and smashed him down to the floor. The elves leapt to pin the boy to the floor.
“Don’t kill him,” one of the males warned. “We need him breathing.”
“Breathing, yes.” Nattie stomped down on Crow Boy’s left leg, and there was a sickening crack. “In one piece, no. Give me that knife.”
Louise gave the flour bag a hard shove, sending it skidding across the polished stone. She shouted the trigger word. The bag exploded as all the particles blossomed in all directions like an instant dry blizzard.
In the whiteout, Nattie cursed loudly. “Oh, shit! The wood sprites!”
Flour was drifting down. When it settled it would be useless. Louise needed a spark to cause a dust explosion!
Jillian screamed as Celine suddenly caught her from behind.
“I’ve got one of them!” Celine cried. “The other one is here—”
“Let her go!” Louise snatched up a skillet from the sink and swung as hard as she could at the female’s knee. The elf screamed and lunged toward her. Louise backhanded her with the skillet like a tennis racket. There was a satisfying clang as the stainless-steel pan connected with Celine’s face.
Celine lost her grip on Jillian. Louise caught her twin by the wrist and dragged her away from the elf. Celine staggered backwards, glaring at Louise as blood seeped from her mouth.
“You little breeding bitch,” the elf snarled and picked up a meat cleaver. “We only need one of you.”
Joy reared up on Jillian’s shoulder. Her mane flared out, and the baby dragon breathed a blast of fire at Celine’s face.
Celine’s scream was drowned out by a massive fireball as the flour hazing the air exploded.
Louise felt the explosion quake the floor under her feet, but the flames rushed past, a swirl of orange and reds, not touching the twins.
“Mine, stupid poopy face, all mine!” Joy stood on Jillian’s shoulder, mane bristling, muttering in anger as the firestorm raged around them.
The entire kitchen was on fire. Flames crawled up the walls and raced across the ceiling. The stove erupted in a secondary blast.
“We have to get out of here!” Jillian cried.
Celine seemed dead, curled into a tight ball of burnt flesh. Her body, though, reminded Louise that Crow Boy was somewhere in the kitchen.
“We need to find Crow Boy first!”
They found him halfway across the room, crawling toward them instead of toward the blown-open door.
“I was afraid you would be trapped.” He coughed as they got him up. Using his wings and a hand on either of their shoulders, he managed to balance and then half-hop, half-fly toward the door.
“That was stupid!” Louise cried. “There were dozens of ways we could have gotten out of there without them even knowing we were free. Next time, wait until we tell you what to do.”