Strongheart and Inaros guided David, Floren, Alden, Oren, and the elves safely to the Bailiff’s Courtyard. Mickey O’Mac stayed off to the side most of the way where he could keep an eye out for possible intruders or obstacles, but they found the way easy going and saw no sign of activity.

“Too easy,” Mickey decided. “We dare not let down our guard.”

“Most of the Castle under the Sea has been emptied,” Strongheart said. “And with the air bubble in place, the mermaids and water sprites seldom visit. Most of what is here is up on the castle walls looking for you on the outside.”

“And here we are on the inside,” Inaros said with a big elf grin. “I take it the women are in the deepest rooms.”

“Yes,” Strongheart nodded. “The fourth floor down, in a small room off the area that is one wide open, room but for the basement column supports. It is the room where they keep the forgotten things. There is bedrock beneath them so they can’t dig out and the bedrock is enchanted so the dark elves like Lady Goldenvein can’t go to ground and escape.”

“Go to ground?” David wondered.

“Dark elves, trolls and such avoid the light,” Floren explained quietly in David’s ear. “The sun can even turn some to stone, so when the sun comes up, they sink into the ground and they can move through the dirt and rocks until they find a cave, or maybe a basement, or anyway a place where they can rest until nightfall.”

“How can they make their flesh move through solid matter?” David’s scientific curiosity started acting up.

Floren scrunched up her face. There were all sorts of possible answers. Magic was a good one, but one David would never accept on face value. In the end, Floren told him, “Let us just say the flesh of the little ones is more flexible in one way or another than the mud and dust flesh of normal mortal humans.”

“Boy.” Inaros spoke and David looked up. “We have to go now and rescue your mother.”

“Is my father here?” David asked. He presently thought of his father and had in that moment the slightest glimpse of what it might be like to have responsibility for all these little ones, as Floren called them. He thought, no wonder his father lived so many lifetimes. One life could not possibly handle them all.

“Your father is somewhere, I am sure, but ladies first.” Inaros kept one hand on his cane and held his other hand out so David could step up beside him. David imagined the old man would need help with the stairs, assuming there were stairs.

“Floren.” Strongheart also spoke, but to his daughter. “You need to keep Oren and Alden here. You should be safe if you stay quiet in the courtyard.”

“Quiet? Oren and Alden? Father, by myself?” Floren certainly sounded like a teenager.

“I’ll stay and help,” Micky decided.

“Two of my soldiers will stay with you, so you boys better behave until we come and get you.” Strongheart gave them a stern look before he turned with Inaros, David, and a dozen elf warriors and went into the tower. David heard Floren behind him until the door closed.

“Sit! Stay!”

Mrs. Copperpot said Warthead had to stay outside the gate and not come into the courtyard. “All the halls in the castle have an enchantment that stretches them to accommodate to the big ones, like ogres,” she explained for James. “But Warthead is too young. Picker, Poker, and Grubby, you too. Stay here.”

“Hey!” Grubby protested.

“Will four of my men be enough?” Lord Noen asked.

“I’ll stay and help,” Pug volunteered. “My world is full of forest and grasslands. You know I am not much for buildings and underground positively gives me the creeps.”

“Thank you,” Mrs. Copperpot thanked the gnome before she turned to the boys with the kind of fire in her eyes that caused the big ogre to look at his feet and caused Picker and Poker to look away. “Four guards had better be enough.” Grubby also looked away, but he whistled softly as if to say he was not listening. “Now, come along James.” Mrs. Copperpot held out her hand for him.

James moved under the old dwarf’s protective wing, but he could not help the words that came out in his softest voice. “I’m too young for this, too.”

When Lord Noen led them in they saw the light from the torches in the hall reflected off good steel and heard the voice of Strongheart. “Friend or foe? Whom do you serve?”

Lord Noen signaled his dwarfs to put down their weapons. “We serve the Kairos. Strongheart?”

“Noen?” Strongheart stepped out from the shadows down the hall. “It is good to see you free of that wicked one’s domination.”

“More like damnation,” Noen said with a ruddy grin that sprang up beneath his full beard. “I must say, I am glad to see you. I can use the help setting the women free. No telling what is down there or what kind of guards she may have in this place.”

Strongheart returned the smile and gave the shorter man a hearty slap on the back. He did not say anything, but he looked like he would not mind having a band of dwarfs at his back.

“James!” David noticed first and shouted.

“Quiet,” Inaros scolded, and David nodded, but nothing would keep him from his brother. He hugged James and James, not the touching type, nevertheless hugged him back.

“You won’t believe what happened to me,” David began, still too loud.

“Quiet,” Mrs. Copperpot repeated the word. “You will just have to tell him later. Right now, we need to be quiet.” She hushed David and David quieted.

“Later,” David whispered.

“Me too,” James agreed. At least, unlike Davey, James always seemed to whisper.

They came to the stairs, and it would be four long flights down. They stopped on each floor and looked around but found nothing and no one. David at least hoped that was a good sign, but Inaros and Mrs. Copperpot looked more worried at each stop. At the bottom of the stairs, they came to a wide room with pillars spaced equally in every direction. The pillars made it impossible to tell how big the room really was, but James and David got a good idea from the echo, especially when Inaros placed his hand over David’s mouth.

Strongheart signaled with his hands. He placed several elves to guard the stairs and along the path without a word. Noen mirrored him with his dwarfs. The last two elves and two dwarfs they told to guard the door and then tried to figure the lock. Strongheart risked a whisper.

“They are in here?”

Inaros put his hand to the door as if feeling for what might be inside. He nodded while Noen took a great whiff of air with his bulbous dwarf nose and whispered, “Yes, and I smell something else, too. We best hurry.”

Mrs. Copperpot grabbed Inaros’ hand, and Strongheart and Noen added what they had as well so the old dwarf woman could use her cooking spoon to the greatest effect. Nothing happened at first and Inaros gritted his teeth and leaned into it. Then the lock popped with a great sound that echoed everywhere. The door opened but squeaked, loudly every inch of the way. Whatever might be in that big basement room certainly knew they were there, and where they were, too.

The women all sat around a table, playing Rook, and sipping tea. It seemed a small room, but there were mats, pillows, and blankets on the floor, and a bathroom behind a back door. There also appeared to be a sink and stove in the corner with clean dishes in the drain. In all, the women made it work.

David saw his mama quietly watching the game. She sat between the goblin and the bearded dwarf wife. David felt amazed his mother was not totally freaking out, but she stood so he could run to her, and hug his mama, and cry a little. Noen went straight to his wife, Lady Biggles. Strongheart also caught Lady Lisel in a big hug and added a brief kiss. Lady Goldenvein, the dark elf stayed seated, but Ivy, the Fairy Queen stood and dropped Seabass the cat from her lap.

“Oak?” Ivy asked.

“No sign of him yet,” Inaros said. “But Beth is with him, and Chris is with Deepdigger.”

Seabass went straight to James and let out a “meow.” He had always been a verbal cat, and James picked him right up and heard him softy purr.

“We must go,” Lord Noen said to everyone, even as they heard a word shouted from the distant stairs.

“Ghouls!”

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MONDAY

David and James with the women need to escape the ghouls and get to a place of safety. But the place of safety turns out to not be so safe. Until Monday, Happy Reading

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