Noen and Strongheart got their men ready to form a wall with a fist of men at the front to punch their way up the stairs. The elves brought all their globes to eye level and prepared to flash the lights in the faces of the ghouls as they ran with the hope that it would keep the enemy off balance or at least interfere with their aim. Between ducking and returning fire from behind a dozen obstacles, it took considerable time to organize the effort.

David came out of his sad state with the words, “I want to go home.”

“Me too,” James admitted.

“And you will,” Inaros assured them both. “As soon as we can get you and the women out of range of the ghouls. “David, are you ready to run fast?” David nodded, and as he thought about it, he almost grinned.

“Are we ready?” Strongheart shouted up and down the line.

“Ready as ever,” Noen mumbled at Strongheart’s shoulder, but he paused when he heard sudden moans, groans, and shouts in the ghoul line. The ghouls blocking the stairs suddenly began to fall, and they all heard Beth and Chris shout from the staircase. “Angel said, do not be afraid!” A great light, the combined lights from all the fairies shot across the underground room. The elf lights flared in response and added to the brightness, thought the elf lights seemed small by comparison. No one waited. Strongheart did not even have to yell, “Go!”

“Come along James.” Mrs. Copperpot took James’ hand like they were still strolling in the woods, but they put up glamours to make themselves appear like piles of lost and forgotten things and walked a spritely pace, slightly bent over to make themselves even smaller than they were. Inaros and David simply ran like the wind, and it seemed to James that two rockets flew by him on route to the stairs.

All the Lords of the Dias hugged their wives, but briefly. “We have to rout out the ghouls,” Lord Noen explained.

“Go to the antechamber on 2B,” Strongheart suggested to his wife. “You should be safe there for the time being.”

“Ashtoreth must be mad letting ghouls inside the castle wall,” Deepdigger growled.

“Her madness was never in doubt,” Lord Oak said. “Are we ready?”

Inaros spoke before the others could answer. “One for all, and all for one.” The elf, goblin, fairy, and dwarf looked at one another, nodded and yelled the charge as they raced back down the stairs and around the corner.

“This way,” Mother was at the top of the stairs on the third-floor landing. She had hugged Chris and Beth but was anxious to get away from the fighting. The children all wondered how their mother had the least idea where she was going since she had such poor eyesight, especially in the dark. The widely spaced torches could not be helping her much. Yet she led the crew to the second floor and turned right at the top of the stair, like the antechamber on 2B was as familiar as the living room.

“Everybody in,” Lady Lisel encouraged the group. The room proved a long hall, with tables along the walls with vases of flowers and bowls of fruit ripe and ready for eating. There were oriental rugs here and there across the wood floor, and sections of chairs with plenty of coffee tables, end tables and reading lamps, looking haphazard, but clearly organized. One long wall looked full of books, with a door at each end and a grandfather clock in the middle of the wall to break the uniform bookshelves. The short walls on each end had tapestries, beautiful and intricate in detail. One detailed the untarnished forest and fields and the other showed the shore and the sea, with water that looked wet enough to flood the room. The other long wall had tall windows, and several glass doors that led out onto a brick balcony, though no one could say exactly where they let out in the castle since from another perspective, the room was still two stories underground.

“I don’t like the look of that sky,” Mrs. Copperpot mused, as she looked out those windows, and the elders agreed with her. The young people, meanwhile, thought to inform the various women on the disposition of their children and friends. Chris had a hard time talking about Silverstain. Mother stood right there to hold Lady Goldenvein’s hands and comfort her.

“I’m sure she will be all right,” Mother said.

“I don’t know,” Chris admitted his own serious concern, and Beth balked.

“We left them all in the courtyard,” she said. “We can’t just abandon them.”

“Who knows what might be attacking them even now,” Chris agreed.

“Worried about Silverstain?” Deathwalker asked Chris, gently.

Chris kept a straight face as he turned his eyes toward the others, and in particular Beth, in case she should get the notion he had a girlfriend. “And Redeyes and the others.”

“And Grubby,” James said.

“Oren, Alden, Floren and Mickey O’Mac,” David named them all.

“And Warthead,” James added.

“I am sure the ogre is just fine,” Mrs. Copperpot smiled for James.

“Still, the young people have a point. We might fetch them,” Mrs. Aster agreed.

“And we will be moving away from the fighting,” Deathwalker pointed out.

“But the children don’t have to go,” Mother said.

“Actually, the children are the ones who must go,” Mrs. Aster countered.

“The young people know the children and will follow them,” Deathwalker explained. “Where we might have fallen under the enchantment.”

“The young ones might not trust us, in case we are enchanted,” Mrs. Copperpot agreed.

They all looked at Inaros, and he spouted, “2B or not 2B …” Deathwalker and Mrs. Aster took him by the arm and dragged him out the door. The children and Mrs. Copperpot followed.

“We’ll be right back,” Beth assured her mother.

“Hey David.” Chris put on his frightening aspect complete with cat eyes, little horns, sharp teeth, claw-like hands, and serpent tongue. He tapped his brother on the shoulder. David turned and screamed, and then he hit his brother while Chris ducked and laughed.

James immediately put on a glamour of his lion and roared at Chris, but he just made David scream louder.

“Chris!” Beth interrupted them. She started glowing slightly against the darkness of the stairwell and floated over to get between them and shake her finger at them all. “Cut it out.”

“So much for the element of surprise,” Deathwalker said from the top of the stairs.

“If you are finished playing around, we have to try to be quiet,” Mrs. Aster added.

The boys all got quiet by then, staring at their sister. Beth nodded and floated to the top of the stairs. David turned and raced to the top in a second, so he could grin and say to his brothers, “What took you so long.”

“Hush now,” Mrs. Copperpot hushed them when they all arrived on the first floor and walked down the hall to the courtyard door. “Quietly,” Mrs. Copperpot added when they arrived. Deathwalker gave her a look that said he knew that much. He cracked the unlocked door and stuck his head out, Mrs. Aster floating over his shoulder where she could see for herself. Everyone sat there, quietly, on park benches or on the ground, now and then looking up at the overcast sky. The dome over the castle kept out the weather, but it looked to be pouring up there. In fact, it looked like the whole island might be tearing apart.