“We’ll take the prisoners into the holding room with the other one,” the man in the lead said.
Bo didn’t speak but dutifully followed him down a hall off the main sanctuary. The man in the lead halted in front of a door. He turned the knob to the makeshift holding room where the group believed Thomas was being held when a guard arriving at the rear placed a hand on Bo’s shoulder.
Stopping him and moving around Bo, the guard said, “Rankstine wants a word with,” he stopped as he noticed Bo’s shadowed face hidden deep within the hood. “Wait a second,” he said loudly. All of the guards halted, their attention turning to Bo.
Before any of them could react, Bo shouted, “Now!” and slammed his fist into the man standing with his hand on his shoulder. His punch landed squarely on his chin, knocking him to the floor. Bo pushed their bound guard to the floor and drew the blade lashed to his belt as Kirsten, Max and Britt pushed their captors away, threw off their loose ties, and jumped each one.
Knocking them to the floor, they wrestled the men for their swords. Bo engaged the remaining guard who stood by the doorway in combat. Raising his blade, Bo suddenly felt his body tighten. He became stiff and rigid. Frozen in place, Bo found he could only move his eyes. He looked to the floor where the others had been. They too were locked in place, gripping the guards’ swords, pulled halfway from their belts.
A door suddenly swung open, candlelight pouring into the shadowed hallway. Rankstine stood in the doorway, his hand gripping something that hung from his neck, bright blue light emanating between his fingers. Straining their eyes, they knew instantly what kept them from moving. The crystal. Rankstine used the powerful crystal to hold them in place, frozen, while his guards regained their composure.
Kirsten and Bo had experienced this feeling once before, when Merglan forced them off the ship at his fortress, but this was different. They could still look around. When Merglan had held them in place, they had been forced to look straight ahead. She strained against the hold Rankstine had on them and to her surprise, she began to move. The movements were languid, so slow it would have taken her an hour to move her foot one step, but she could move.
This magic isn’t as strong, she thought.
“Well, well, well,” Rankstine began, stepping out into the hallway, his hand still holding his crystal out around his neck. “Thought you could trick me, did you?”
As he stepped closer, Kirsten noticed a large pinkish-red stone clasped against his collar. Her mother’s necklace, Rankstine was wearing it as though it was his own. As hard as she tried to move faster, she could still only move at a hauntingly slow pace.
He walked right up to her and said, “I know you were here with your brother earlier today.” He bent down over her as she crouched on the floor attempting to move. He grabbed the pink sapphire necklace with his free hand and showed it to her, “You left something behind.” Examining it with his dark eyes, Rankstine said, “I quite like it. I think I’ll keep it.” He straightened. “Take them into the holding room,” he commanded his guards. They grabbed them by the armpits and drug each of them into the room where they’d been initially headed.
Once all four of them were locked inside the room, the spell controlling their movement was released; they could move freely again. Thomas was already in the room. He rushed to his sister the moment the guards closed the door.
“Kirsten,” Thomas said. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
Kirsten held her brother in a tight embrace, “We came to rescue you.”
“Nice job,” he said sarcastically.
“Our plan would’ve worked if Rankstine hadn’t come out waving that crystal and freezing us in place,” she said.
“Like Merglan did on the ship?” Thomas asked.
“Kind of,” Bo chimed in. “But this time I could move my eyes.”
“Yeah, and I was able to move against it, just slightly. Not fast enough to do anything productive though,” Kirsten said.
“What do we do now?” Max asked irritated.
“We need to break out of here,” Britt said, beginning to search the room for a way out.
“I’ve been looking all night and haven’t found anything,” Thomas said.
“What happened to you after we left you?” Kirsten asked.
“I went over to the north side of the farm and was searching for anything unusual,” Thomas began. “I heard a group of men approaching. Their whispers were growing louder so I tried to hide. There wasn’t much cover over there, unfortunately, and they found me straight away. I tried to run but they tackled me and hauled me off. Next thing I knew, I was thrown in here. What about you guys?”
“Bo and I found one of the guards in the woods and knocked him out. After we met up and you didn’t show, we went looking for you. We found signs of the scuffle in the dirt and figured you’d been taken. We tied the guard up in the barn and questioned him.”
“It was amazing,” Bo added. “She tricked that dummy into telling us almost everything,” he laughed.
“I got him to tell us Rankstine’s plans,” Kirsten said.
“What are they?” Thomas asked.
“He’s trying to turn Grandwood into a fortress, a stronghold for Merglan’s forces. They plan to conduct operations from here as a northern base.”
“That’s why the kurr were arriving,” Thomas snapped his fingers.
“We also found out a little more about the orb and Rankstine’s ability to use magic. The guard let it slip that other guards were also at our farm, confirming our suspicion that you’d been captured,” she said.
“What about the force field surrounding the area? Did he tell you how to escape?” Thomas asked.
Kirsten shook her head, “Unfortunately he caught onto us and didn’t tell us how it works.”
Kirsten turned to face the door when she heard shouts coming from the guards. “Did you hear that?” she asked the others.
All of them remained silent. The screams were coming from the men inside the church. Max, Thomas and Kirsten began pounding on the door shouting, “Let us out of here! Hey! Let us out!” A moment later Kirsten saw the door handle jiggle. She looked down and watched as the doorknob turned partway. A loud bang sounded as the person attempting to open the door was slammed violently into it. Unable to turn the knob entirely, the door barricaded them from entry. Kirsten heard the terrible sounds of gnawing and biting, as though some creature was feasting on whoever had tried to open the door.
They all stood back from the door, listening in horror to someone being eaten alive. Suddenly the chewing stopped and claws scratched at the door. The knob twisted slightly once more. Britt ran to the door and pressed against it with her body waving the others over to help. They piled against the door. With some fumbling, the creature on the other side of the door managed to turn the knob and began pushing, trying to get into the room. The door opened as the creature pushed but slammed shut each time they rallied against it.
Kirsten’s eyes widened as she saw a set of long claw-like nails pry their way into the crack of the door. “What the heck is that thing?” she cried out. Shortly after she shouted, she could hear the thing on the other side sniffing along the crack that its claws held open. “Eeew!” She shouted and pressed harder against the door trying to close it once more. Kirsten thought she’d rather be locked in the safety of the room than face whatever was killing off the guards outside.
With a heave, the creature forced its body against the door. Despite the combined force of the five of them, the creature opened the door slightly. Kirsten watched in disbelief as a single leg and arm worked their way through the opening. The creature shrieked shrilly as they heaved the door against its limbs, pushing harder now out of fear. The gray textured skin and thin wiry hairs covering the limbs helped them identify their attacker at last.
“Goblin!” Max said, realizing what the arm and leg were attached to.
“Where did they come from?” Kirsten shouted through grunts as she pressed firmly against the door.
