Alistair Grim's Odditorium (27 page)

“Avenge me, Ikari,” Kiyoko whispered, and then quickly sheathed the sword and tied the scabbard to her back. “You are full of surprises, Grubb. If not for you, I might never
have found Ikari.”

“Your sword, it isn’t much to look at when compared to the fancier swords here. But Mr. Grim says the most powerful Odditoria are usually those things that, on the surface at least,
appear ordinary.”

“You are wise beyond your years, Grubb,” Kiyoko said, rising. “And so I shall be forever in your debt for helping me find Ikari.”

Kiyoko bowed her head in gratitude, and I felt my cheeks go hot. Then she began removing other objects from the rack—black darts and knives and spikes and strange-looking star-shaped disks
that she inserted into hidden sleeves throughout her garment.

“Begging your pardon, miss,” I said. “But are Ikari and all those other weapons magical?”

“No,” Kiyoko said as she slipped on a pair of black open-fingered gloves. “But in the hands of a shinobi, such weapons are the next best thing.”

From inside her robe, Kiyoko produced a black stocking and slipped it over her head. Then she donned her hood and tied it off under her chin. She was now covered completely from head to toe in
black, save for a narrow opening through which her piercing eyes gleamed back at me.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t want to fight you, that’s for certain. Which reminds me, miss: shouldn’t I have a sword too?”

“Have you ever used one?”

“I’m afraid not, miss.”

“Then the answer is no.”

“But miss, what if we run into more of Nightshade’s minions?”

“Then you stay close to me or keep running. You’ll know what to do when it’s time. Either way, you’ll fare better by using your wits instead of a sword.”

“Yes, but—”

“The first weapon a shinobi learns to use is the mind,” Kiyoko said with a hand on my shoulder. “Master that first, Grubb, and you have my word that someday I’ll teach
you how to use a sword.”

Kiyoko winked, and despite my disappointment, I smiled back.

And with that we were off, the two of us dashing back through the maze of weapons the way we had come. Upon reaching the armory door, Kiyoko cracked it open ever so slightly and listened.

“There is movement,” she said after a moment. “Breathing in the castle’s old receiving chamber just outside the Great Hall gates.”

“But that’s on the other side of the hall, miss,” I said, listening too. “How could you possibly hear anything that far away?”

“The second weapon a shinobi learns to use is the senses,” Kiyoko said, her eyes smiling, and then we slipped through the door and dashed across the Great Hall to its tall wooden
gates.

“Breathing, yes,” Kiyoko whispered with her ear upon the gates. “They’re still sleeping, but we’ll have to be quiet as mice to make it past them.”

“Who are you talking about, miss?”

“The Red Dragons,” Kiyoko said, and I gasped. “Remember, stay close, Grubb. But if you feel the need to run, then by all means do so and don’t look back.”

Kiyoko cracked open the gates, reached back over her shoulder and gripped her sword, and slipped into the next room. She just stood there listening for a moment and then motioned for me to
follow. With my heart hammering, I obeyed.

The receiving chamber was not nearly as large as the Great Hall, but just as high. And in the red light from the ceiling grates, I could see the sleeping dragons hanging by their tails from the
rafters—their scaly wings wrapped tightly around their bodies, giving them the appearance of a cluster of crimson caterpillar cocoons.

Without a sound, Kiyoko headed for the doors at the far end of the chamber. I followed close behind, shadowing her every step—when suddenly I felt a rumbling in my chummy coat.

“Not now, Mack!” I whispered.

“Ssh!”
Kiyoko said with a finger to her lips, but Mack would not cease shaking. Indeed, he was shaking so violently that I thought at any moment he might leap from my coat and
fall on the floor.

Without thinking, I quickly snatched him from my pocket and tapped him on his XII before he had time to speak. Sighing with relief, I was about to slip him back inside my coat when, much to my
surprise, Mack began to shake again!

“No!” I cried, bobbling him between my hands.

Mack tumbled to the floor with a loud, echoing
clack!

“What time is it?” he cried as his case sprang open.

I scooped him up immediately, tapped him on his XII, and thrust him back inside my pocket. The receiving chamber was painted black like the rest of Nightshade’s castle, so I wasn’t
worried about the doom dogs. However, when I saw the look in Kiyoko’s eyes as she gazed up at the rafters, I knew that something just as terrifying was about to come for us.

“The doors!” Kiyoko cried, unsheathing Ikari. “Run for the doors!”

But I just stood there gazing upward, my legs frozen in terror, as one of the dragons unfurled its monstrous wings to reveal a hideous serpent’s snout and pair of glowing red eyes.

“Shinobi!” the dragon hissed. The creature arched its long neck and growled, and then the other dragons spread open their wings and began growling too—their forked tongues
lashing out like whips from between their sharp teeth.

“Run, Grubb!” Kiyoko shouted, and thankfully this time my legs obeyed.

The dragons took flight from the rafters. And as I ran for the door, the chamber became a bedlam of howling and rushing wind from the creatures’ wings. Certain that one of the dragons
would swoop down upon me at any moment, I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Kiyoko jump up into the air.

“EEEEYYAAA!”
she cried, her sword flashing like lightning, and two of the dragons exploded in a burst of blinding red light, their bodies instantly vaporized.

Kiyoko flipped over and landed on her feet, but immediately another dragon was upon her. She slashed at it with Ikari, but the creature dodged her and, with a swipe of its great tail, sent her
flying across the room.

“Kiyoko!” I cried, and she scrambled to her feet.

“Run, Grubb! I can handle them!”

I whirled around. The doors were only a few yards away from me now—yes, I was almost there—but then a dragon landed in front of me and blocked my path.

The monster hissed and gnashed its teeth, and it was then that I got my first good look at the beast. True to Kiyoko’s tale, the Red Dragons retained some of their human characteristics.
They had the upper body of a man and two muscular arms, at the ends of which was a pair of three-toed talons that the creatures used to drag along their fronded serpent’s tails.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the dragon hissed.

I spun on my heels and made to run in the other direction, but another dragon swooped down and blocked my path too. It swiped at me with its talons, missing my face by inches, and then Kiyoko
leaped between us.

“EEEEYYAA!”
she cried, and before the two dragons even realized she was there, the shinobi vaporized them in a whirl of flashing steel.

“Thank you, miss!” I said.

Kiyoko’s eyes met mine for an instant, when another dragon swooped down from the rafters and tackled her.

In one moment I saw Ikari go skidding across the floor; in the next, I saw the dragon wrap its tail around Kiyoko’s neck—her legs kicking helplessly as the creature lifted her into
the air.

“No!” I cried, and before I could think twice about it, I picked up Kiyoko’s sword and buried the blade deep within the dragon’s side.

The creature yelped in pain and swiped at me with its talons, but I jumped back, and the monster caught the side of my coat, shredding it to bits. The dragon swiped at me again, but this time I
dove forward, slicing Kiyoko’s sword entirely by accident along the monster’s foreleg as I tumbled past.

The Red Dragon flung Kiyoko across the room like a rag doll and made to charge me—when I felt the fiery hot breath of another dragon swooping down and snatching me up in its talons.

For a brief moment I could see Kiyoko scrambling on the floor below. But then the dragon knocked Ikari from my hand, tossed me up toward the rafters, and, catching me by the collar, spun me
around to face its snarling muzzle.

“Bottoms up!”
the dragon growled, its forked serpent’s tongue lashing at my face. There was something familiar in its expression—relishing and cruel, like how Mr.
Smears often looked when he knocked me down. I cried out in horror, but just as the dragon opened its jaws to eat me, Ikari sailed through the air and pierced the creature’s head.

The dragon exploded instantly in a burst of brilliant red light.

And then I was falling.

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the impact on the hard stone floor. But just before I hit, Kiyoko caught me in her arms.

“Thank you again, miss,” I said, sighing with relief However, as Kiyoko set me down, I spied the dragon I’d wounded opening the gates to the Great Hall. I could also see a blue
light flashing between its talons.

“Look!” I cried. “The dragon’s escaping!”

Kiyoko snatched up Ikari from the floor and hurled it across the room. But the dragon was already too far gone, and just as the monster slipped inside the Great Hall, Kiyoko’s sword buried
itself in the wooden gates behind it.

“Come on!” I said. “We can’t let it get away!”

“There’s no time. We’re already too late.”

“What do you mean?”

Kiyoko pointed at my chummy coat. One of my pockets had been completely torn away. Instinctively I reached inside the other, but when I found it empty, I knew at once what had happened.

The blue light I’d seen flashing in the dragon’s talons—the monster had somehow snatched Mack from my pocket!

“Mack!” I cried.

“It’s no use, Grubb. The dragon must have stolen him during the battle.”

Kiyoko freed her sword from the gate and slipped it back inside the scabbard on her back.

“But we’ve got to find him!” I cried.

“The Black Fairy will be here any minute. There is only one chance for us now, but you have to trust me.”

My head was spinning—Cleona, Mack—what was I going to do?

“Grubb!” Kiyoko hissed. “It’s now or never!”

And then Kiyoko and I were running for the doors.

As we slipped out into the castle’s inner yard, I spied the outline of a tall tower against the early morning sky. Cleona was in there. I just knew it. But instead of heading for the
tower, Kiyoko made a beeline for a large, red-lit archway at the opposite side of the yard.

“But Cleona is over there!” I cried.

“There’s no time to explain!”

I followed Kiyoko through the archway and gasped when I realized where she’d led me. We were in the prince’s stables, and there in the stalls were the massive, red-eyed steeds that
had drawn the prince’s chariot when he attacked the Odditorium.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “These are the prince’s horses!”

“Would you rather ride one of those skeleton steeds instead?”

Kiyoko snatched a bridle from its hook and leaped up onto one of the stalls. The horse inside whinnied and shot smoke from its nostrils. There were four horses in all, each with its name
emblazoned above its stall. The steed Kiyoko had chosen was called Phantom.

“You’re going to steal one of the prince’s horses?” I asked in amazement.

Ignoring me, Kiyoko jumped onto Phantom’s back. The beast reared and shot fire from his mouth. I ducked for cover behind a post, but Kiyoko remained calm and quickly slipped the bridle
onto the horse’s great black head.

“There, there, Phantom,” Kiyoko said soothingly. “You remember me, don’t you? We’ve ridden together many times in the tournaments.”

And with that the horse settled down.

“But what about Cleona and Mack?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we find them first?”

“My fighting skills are useless against the Black Fairy,” Kiyoko said. She drew Ikari and with it deftly unlatched the door to Phantom’s stall. “We need to flee before he
comes after us.”

Phantom reared up on his hind legs and shot fire from his mouth. The door to his stall flew open, and the steed quickly trotted out under Kiyoko’s command.

“You mean you intend to leave without Mack and Cleona?”

“We have no choice, Grubb.”

“No!” I cried, backing away.

“Mack is powered by the animus, is he not?”

“Yes, but—”

“And you said he does not need to be recharged?”

“Yes, but—no, I—”

“Don’t you see, Grubb?” Kiyoko said, trotting toward me. “Now that Nightshade has the pocket watch, he has his source of animus. He won’t need Cleona anymore to
make his army of purple-eyed Shadesmen.”

“But I can’t leave Mack and Cleona behind!”

“Climb up, Grubb,” Kiyoko said, holding out her hand. “If we don’t leave now, the prince will kill us both!”

“No!” I cried. I ran for the stable door. Cleona! I had to rescue Cleona! But as soon as I stepped out into the yard, I spied a pair of empty white eyes staring down at me in the
dark.

“The Black Fairy!” I gasped, stopping dead in my tracks, and then there appeared the jagged, black-and-white crescent of the demon’s smile.