The Hunt for Snow Page 14

  “I’ll look forward to you trying,” she said.

  So I covered my ears and repeated, “Lalalalala,” until they both stared at me with impatience.

  I pulled my hands off my ears and nodded to everyone. “Let’s go see what the hell just happened.”

  The elevators were out of service, so we had to take several grueling flights of stairs to get to the bottom. Why in the world would Naomi send us back here? I didn’t dare think she’d done us a favor, so I didn’t think she’d heard us plotting about Rumpel. Although now with Giles compromised, it was a sure bet she’d find out soon. We needed to get to him ASAP before Naomi did.

  Once we reached the bottom of the steps we crossed over to the lobby and tried the front doors. Locked.

  Weird. I picked up one of the chairs from the front area and lobbed it at the glass window. It bounced off with a resounding bong and shattered on its way back to us. I was beginning to think the worst. I picked up another chair and lobbed it at another piece of the glass door.

  Same thing.

  I walked over to the bar area where there were windows galore and took out my Sig. I turned to everyone behind me. “Duck,” I said, and took up position behind the bar, just in case. I fired a single shot into the glass and the bullet melted into the glass. A red shimmer hit it, but it didn’t shatter.

  “Don’t bother.” Maleficent strode into the bar. “We’re trapped.”

  “Trapped?” I echoed.

  “You ever seen Doctor Who?”

  I looked at Robin. “Doctor what?” I asked. I shook my head. “What the hell, Robin? Who is that, and how can a doctor help us right now?”

  He shook his head in pity. “A philistine, of course. Someone with your unnatural attachment to weaponry is unlikely to watch the BBC.”

  Belle studied Robin like a scientist with a new discovery. “Since when do you watch the BBC?”

  Robin studied his nails, but a flush of pleasure was evident on his face. “I have my secrets, too.”

  “What does a TV show have to do with our current predicament?” I stared at the bullet locked in the glass like a fossil in amber. It was good we were back home. It was very bad we were locked inside our hotel.

  Maleficent glided forward to stare at the bullet. “The Doctor and a hospital of people get dumped on another planet.”

  I stared at her. “Et tu, Maleficent? Who are you people?”

  “She managed to figure out how to stream television into the Enchanted Forest. Since it’s too dangerous to go outside most days, we tend to gather in the pub and watch marathons.” Grumpy winked at me. “True story.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “All right. You win. How’d they get out?”

  “They didn’t.” Robin tapped the glass around the bullet, and then scratched at it looking for a weak spot.

  “A happy ending then,” I said with exasperation.

  “They didn’t get out because they got dumped on another planet, Snow,” Belle said, the words dripping with sarcasm, like duh.

  “Everyone died?” My voice rose in a high shriek.

  “Of course not,” Maleficent chided. “This is The Doctor we’re talking about. He managed to get the hospital back on Earth so everyone could get out.”

  “All right, suit up then, Maleficent. How are we getting out of this one?” I looked around the room searching for anything that might be able to break us out of here.

  She stood up from her kneeling position. “So far I don’t see any weak spots. We are effectively trapped for the time being until I can figure out the type of magic she used. It’s unfamiliar to me, which is surprising. Naomi doesn’t often stump me.”

  “Great,” I muttered and slumped against the edge of the bar.

  A sharp gasp of breath jerked my head up. Belle stood at the lobby doors, her face pressed against the glass. “I think we have a lot more to worry about than being trapped in here, guys. Naomi didn’t dump us exactly in the Enchanted Forest.”

  Robin moved beside Belle, his lean height a sharp contrast to Belle’s petite figure. “Bloody hell,” he murmured. “She dumped us in troll territory.”

  “If we can’t get out, can anyone get in?” I jogged up to look out the window and wished I hadn’t. Several trolls were headed straight for us, their clubs slung over their massive backs. Trees swayed in the wake of their massive height, and the ground rumbled beneath them. The bar glasses began to clink together, louder with every step. “For crying out loud,” I muttered. “Draw your weapons, we’re about to find out.”

  By then, hundreds of people had filed into the bar. Everyone looked a little shell-shocked, but so far I hadn’t seen a single civilian. I’m not sure what Naomi had done with the other guests, but I was erring on the hopeful side. A quick memory spell and she could have sent everyone home with no worries. On the other hand, if she’d done something else with them, we would all probably be in a world of hurt once we got back to Earth. I’m sure the police wouldn’t take too kindly to a hotel disappearing into thin air and the absence of at least a few hundred citizens. I wasn’t going to think about it right now.

  I’d never fought a troll before—never had to, actually. What I did know about them was minimal. Magic wasn’t all that effective on them. Neither was fire or lightning. Ice slowed them down a little bit, but ice melted. Brute force was going to be necessary. We had about two hundred villagers on our side—almost every single one inexperienced. Five trolls could decimate a village and every single person in it.

  “All right, everyone grab something you can defend yourself with. Anything. Chairs, paintings, knives, someone you hate. Kidding. If they’re able to get in here, it wouldn’t necessary be a bad thing. That means we can get out.” The villagers looked scared but determined. In a mad scramble, people were picking up anything in the vicinity, and some were pulling scabbards out and drawing their swords. Okay, then. There were lots more armed people than I expected. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside.

  I drew both my Sig and my backup gun and watched the inevitable. When the trolls reached us, they didn’t waste any time. Blows rained down on the building, making me cringe, but also making me hopeful they’d be able to break us out of here. “Hold,” I shouted to everyone.

  Maleficent came up beside me. “As long as they keep trying to get in here, I can use my magic to weaken the threads of Naomi’s. I’m still not sure what she did, but even the strongest sorcery can’t withstand an onslaught of brute force like that.” She studied the trolls outside. “It depends on how bad they want us. If they keep it up, I might be able to break the bindings. So,” she grinned brilliantly at me. “Do you what you do best. Antagonize them.”

  “Hey!” I frowned at her. If she could weaken the magic, we could bust out of here, get Rumpel and get the hell out of Dodge. “Fine,” I grumbled. I started screaming as loudly as I could and banging against the glass. Noticing the curious stares, I motioned everyone over.

  “Find a window, a door, anything where they can see or hear you. Do everything you can to piss them off. Insult their mothers, their fathers, their offspring, anything.” I picked up one of the broken chairs and started swing the leg against the glass. One troll leaned down, its eyeball as big as my entire head. It roared in outrage when I gave it a savage grin and the middle finger.

  I could hear Robin, Belle and Cyndi screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs. From my peripheral vision, I could see the familiar purple of Maleficent’s magic pouring through the room. “Keep it up,” she said in a strained voice.

  The building shook, glasses flew off their display cases, and bottle after bottle shattered. Outside, the trolls continued to bang against the walls of the hotel, trying their damnedest to get in. If they managed to make it in before we got out, we were completely screwed.

  “Maleficent,” I said in a wavering voice.

  “What?” she managed to say with great effort.

  “What’s the plan once the binding breaks?”

&n
bsp; “Why does there always have to be a plan?” she gritted out.

  “Umm,” I said. “So we don’t die?”

  “How about you just run like hell?”

  “Sold,” I said.

  The first inkling that the binding was weakening was the bullet I’d left in the glass. It began to move through it like slow motion television. Naomi’s magic wavered, and the glass began to crack, its fissures like a spider’s web spreading through the glass.

  “Get back,” I choked out, but it wasn’t loud enough. “Get back!” I screamed again. People bailed in all directions as the bullet finished the job it had initially started. Glass shattered, deadly bits of shrapnel flew through the air like an ice storm. Screams of pain rang out, but I was only focused on one thing—trolls.

  So far they hadn’t noticed the breach. Now, how the hell were we going to get everyone out and avoid the notice of the big beasts currently beating the hell out of the building in their valiant effort to eat us? I beat the rest of the glass out of the door with a chair leg. Lucky for us, trolls weren’t too smart, and they were incredibly loud, so I could speak without being overheard. I shouted for everyone to gather around.

  “I know this isn’t how we wanted to get back home, but it is what it is and now we have to figure out how to get out of this alive. And my plan, what little there is of one, is to just get us all out of here with minimal casualties.”

  At the murmurs of my audience, I realized the word casualty might not have been the best choice of word, but it was true. I hesitated. “Look, have faith in me. We will get out of here. Now, I want you to keep your weapons with you at all times, and once you get outside you need to scatter in all directions. Going in one direction is a sure-fire way to get you killed. Scatter like ants. Everyone clear?”

  Terrified, dirty faces nodded. “What about you?” Someone spoke up from the back.

  “I’m a survivor,” I said. “I’ll be fine. Now go.” I motioned people out one by one, praying the trolls were so intent on the building’s destruction that they wouldn’t notice the tiny delicious humans running around their feet. We were about seventy people down when the blows raining against the building suddenly fell silent.

  “Shit,” I muttered. I halted the line filing outside. Maleficent still held firm on the steady stream of magic. “Are there other weak spots in the building?”

  She shrugged. “Possibly. I can feel the bindings weakening, but I still have some ways to go.”

  “We’ve attracted the notice of the trolls,” I said. “Going out the same way is suicide.”

  Maleficent cursed under her breath and closed her eyes for a moment. Sweat broke out on her brow. “The kitchen,” she said. “There’s a spot close to the back where the dry goods are. Go there. Dividing their attention will make it easier to get away.” She gave me a strained look. “Once you have everyone else out, I’m going to have to drop my magic, otherwise I won’t be good for anything else for the rest of the day.”

  I nodded and called Belle, Red and Grumpy over to me. “Take this group of people through the kitchen and get them out of here.” I explained where the weak spot was and asked Belle to send me a signal once she was able to get her half of the people out. Belle nodded and gathered half to take with her. By now, there were hundreds of people milling through the bar area and out in the hall, no doubt looking for a leader to get them out of this mess. Unfortunately, they got me, but I was doing the best with what I had.

  I explained to everyone what was happening. No one was happy about it, but they understood we had no other options. Just a few minutes later, the lights began to flicker on and off. Belle.

  I screamed at the rest of the people to mill out and scatter. The trolls by then were insistently beating on the windows above the doors, and glass was shattering all around us. The gods were on our side because they were too big to make it into the hotel and the majority of the bindings were still holding. But, they weren’t too big to notice dozens of villagers scrambling around them trying to get the hell away. Although the trolls were now divided, some by the kitchen and some by our door, it was still bad odds. The screams of my people rang out as the trolls scooped some up, chomping down on their bodies like M&Ms.

  “Robin,” I barked. He materialized by my side immediately. “Do you have my back?”

  “Always, milady.” He bowed, and for once it wasn’t mocking.

  “Cover me then.”

  His face registered surprise and he opened his mouth to speak, but I was out the door before he had the chance to argue with me.

  The first thing I noticed was the stench. Trolls smelled. Bad. I tucked that away into my brain for future use. Smell was a sense many people failed to rely on, but to me it was one of the more important ones. Cologne, body odor, shampoo or perfume—these were all things that could be used to identify someone before you could see them. But trolls. Ugh. You could smell those things coming a mile away.

  Once I was out the door and I realized the true expanse of just how big those things were, I had to swallow a big lump of regret and get my thoughts in order. I was a petite fiveish-foot woman. Trolls were about fifteen feet tall, give a take a couple of feet. And they were angry. I craned my neck up as far as I could and started screaming to try and get their attention. I had one hand behind my back waving it frantically to let everyone know to get out.

  People were everywhere, screaming, crying, running in every single direction. I’d be lucky if the trolls could hear anything over that cacophony. So I did the next best thing. I started firing rounds off at the closest troll to me.

  Let me tell you. That got its attention. Its wide blocky head swerved around trying to find me. I jumped up and down, wishing to God I had more weapons, and insulted its mother. The troll raised one massive beefy fist in the air and without so much as a how do you do brought it crashing down in the place I was standing. I lurched out of the way, stumbling, and fired off a couple of rounds. The bullets struck the troll in the chest and plinked off harmlessly.

  Awesome.

  I could hear Robin’s hysterical laughter from somewhere behind me and saw massive amounts of flaming arrows launching into the air. The two trolls next to us swatted at them like gnats, but it didn’t stop him. We kept it up, annoying the shit out of the trolls for as long as we could until everyone on our side made it to somewhat relative safety.

  Unfortunately, the sheer amount of chaos Robin and I managed to cause attracted the attention of the other trolls from the kitchen side. Thundering steps rumbled around the side of the building, but out of the door from our side came a much welcomed sight. Maleficent stepped out, strained and weakened, but holding a perfectly formed fireball in her hand.

  “Duck!” she screeched as she lobbed it in the air in the direction of the one reaching down to pluck me up like a mid-afternoon snack. I tripped over an exposed root and landed flat on my back. Same effect as ducking, I guess. I watched in glee as it hit him right between his brows, causing him to stumble and flail to keep his balance. Maleficent kept lobbing those balls at the trolls gunning for me and Robin and the others coming around the corner, her aim perfect. It probably helped that trolls were slow and lumbering. And huge. Hard to miss them.

  “Fall, fall, fall,” I chanted. It was like watching one of those cartoons where you know what’s going to happen, but it goes in serious slo-mo. I scrambled to get up before I became a troll pancake and started running as fast as I could into the forest. Several bodies littered the ground, but I couldn’t stop to think about that right now. My breath came in great gasps from the adrenaline and exertion, and just as I thought I was in the clear, I felt myself plucked in the air and face-to-face with a very angry troll.

  I swung to and fro trying to loosen my shirt from the meaty grip of the monster. Shouts from below reached my ears, but I was too intent on not being eaten to listen. The troll stared at me, its dead eyes unblinking. I figured if I fell fifteen feet I wouldn’t die, maybe just break some bones. Better than
the alternative. I grabbed a clip from my waistband, loaded it into the Sig and fired off several rounds into its eye. The troll lurched, its roar of outrage deafening me, but its grip didn’t loosen.

  I was going down. Hard. As the beast tried to keep its balance, I swung wildly around.

  “Hold on!” The scream from below made me snort. I wasn’t really holding on to anything, as I was dangling from the fingertips of a monster. On our downward descent, I scrunched my face in concentration and prayed Cyndi and Belle would forgive me when they had to bury their best friend. I gritted my teeth and relaxed my muscles, hoping against all the odds that I’d somehow survive this.

  After a moment, I was still alive so I cracked open one eye and saw the troll and I encased in a bubble of Maleficent’s magic. I breathed in relief as its fingers loosened and I was able to slide out of its grip. Its death knell rattled me to my core, but I and my friends were safe. For now. There was still the matter of the other trolls struggling to get back up after being struck by Maleficent’s fireballs, but we had some time to scramble out of here.

  Once she lowered us to the ground, I holstered my weapons. There was no sign of Red or Grumpy, but the rest of the party was here. Those two could take care of themselves. I’d seen both of them in action before. “Ready to get the hell out of here?”

  I didn’t wait to hear any answers as I took off into the cover of the forest.

  * * * *

  Even in daylight a forest can be creepy. The sounds of things slithering through the underbrush, the unfamiliar call of insects and the inevitable walking through of spider webs all combined to give me one major case of the heebie jeebies. Cyndi grumbled the entire trip, gasping every time a branch nudged her or some brave insect dared cross her path. Belle and Robin hung back, engaged in quiet, sometimes angry, conversation. Maleficent walked beside me, her staff puncturing the ground with authority every time she took a step.

  “That was intense,” I finally said after I was sure we were far, far away from any more trolls. We still weren’t completely out of the woods (ha) yet, because we were still in their territory, but it wasn’t like a massive building had come plummeting down again. We were merely a few traipsing as quiet as we could through their forest. Trolls’ hearing was notoriously bad, so unless we decided to throw a party, I was pretty confident we were in the clear.