Neverquest – Part 128

Characters: Michelle, Cara, Siarra, Kim, Mack, Jeff, Roy, Queen Isabella, Gena, Roxanne, Lucilla

Location: The bell tower

Time: Day 5 – Dawn

Shadows hid from the torchlight as they made their way up the narrow stairwell, hugging the granite walls. Cara led the way, nervously clutching her steel blade as it scuffed the rocky surface like a fingernail against chalk. Every now and then, a piece was missing from one of the rocks and they could see into the dark, warped belly of the bell chamber, which was so dark and gloomy that they almost couldn’t see the snakelike fiber dangling down its throat, wriggling into nothing. They turned their faces away. As they made their way to the top, rays of light began to pour through the chamber like wine into a dark glass, and they could hear wings flapping within the inner workings of the bell tower.

Cara glanced over her shoulder, once, as if she couldn’t trust the bodies behind her. But Michelle looked up at her and smiled and Cara turned back, a little more comforted. The little Men on her shoulder put her at ease.

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder where they got their information from… If she should trust them… If Bella’s life was really in danger…

But there was no going back. She stood now before the door at the top of the stairwell, holding her breath. Her cheeks swelled, glittering with the red streaks of dawn. Cold sweat blanketed her like dew.

Then she reached out, taking the doorknob between her fingers, and slowly turned it. It creaked—but only slightly—and she carefully pressed her palm against the flat of the door and opened it just enough to peek inside.

Raining hair blocked the guys’ view. They tried to peel the strands apart like curtains, but Cara’s hair was stiff and quickly curled back into place.

“What do you see?” Mack asked.

“You were right,” she whispered. “Queen Isabella is in there…tied to the bell.”

“What about Gena?”

“Her, too.”

“Is she alone?”

Cara quietly shut the door. “No… She’s with that Black Knight… Roxanne.”

Siarra’s eyes went cold. She gazed down at her wrists, still bound by ropes to Cara. “Let me go in first. I have a few things to say to Gena.”

“Absolutely not. I don’t even know if I trust you yet.”

“Then what do you have to lose!? If she only sees me, she’ll expect that I’m alone. That gives you a chance to catch her off guard.”

Cara shook her head. “We already have the element of surprise. I’m not going to risk losing that.”

“…She might have a point,” Michelle said. “It’s good to have the element of surprise, but it’s even better if your enemy is distracted when you make your move. If we send Siarra in, she can lure Gena’s attention away from the door.”

“So, you want to use her as bait.”

“Basically.”

“Hold on one cotton-pickin’ second,” Jeff said. “If anybody is going to be bait around here, it’s going to be me. I’m the Bear Baiter, after all, and I’m damn good at it.”

Cara looked at him. “…Um, okay. Jeff has volunteered to be the bait. Any objections?”

Everybody shook their head.

“Hotdog!” he cheered as Cara plucked him from her shoulder. He shot a mocking grin to Roy and Mack. “Looks like I’m going to be the hero this time, fellas. You two can watch from the sidelines.”

Cara set him on the floor. “This will be very dangerous… We’ll only have a few seconds to act between the time Gena sees you and the time she smashes you into a gooey paste. Are you sure you’re up to it?”

“W-wait…” Jeff stuttered. “You mean I gotta go in there…alone…with the girls?”

“That…is the plan, yes.”

“…Can we have a change of plans?”

“We don’t have time for this!” Michelle snapped. “Get in there—now.”

Jeff turned his back. “Pfft… See if I’m ever bait for you again.”

Reaching up, Cara opened the door for him. She looked down at him with a worried smile, but he held his chest high and marched through the doorway. It wasn’t until he was inside and the door clicked shut behind him that he wet his pants.

“Okay, okay… You can do this, Jeff. You’re going to be a hero. And all the ladies are going to love you.”

He looked around. There was the Queen, in nothing but a bathrobe, dangling inches away from the giant cavity in the center of the room. And there was some other Paladin lying on her side against the wall… He had no idea who she was.

Oh, and there were Gena and Roxanne, staring down at him.

Somehow, he had managed to walk right into them.

“Um…hello,” he said.

“Good morning.”

“How are you?”

He scratched the back of his neck. “Oh, I’m doing alright. …Yeah. See, uh, I was wondering if you could give me some, you know, directions. Like, I’m looking for the…uh…mess hall, yeah…and I think I took a wrong turn somewhere back in Albuquerque…”

“Albuquerque, huh?” Gena grinned.

“Yeah, you know the place?”

“Albuquerque is a city. In New Mexico.”

“Ahh, of course, of course.”

“New Mexico is in the real world.”

“Right, right.”

Gena’s smile turned into a frown. “…That means you’re from the real world. And that means I don’t like you.”

“…Does that mean you’re not going to point me in the right direction?”

“Aw, we wouldn’t want to leave you lost. Isn’t that right, Roxy?”

“That’s right, Gena,” she said, raising her foot. “Why don’t you just look—up!”

Jeff burst out laughing.

The girls stared down at him. Roxanne’s foot remained suspended in the air.

“What’s so funny?” she demanded.

“You don’t know that at any moment, the rest of my team is going to come charging through that door and pin you against the wall so fast that you won’t even have a chance to step on me.”

Gena quietly stepped over to the door and opened it with her stumped wrists. Cara tumbled out, taking Siarra and Kim with her as they were still tied to her waist, as did Mack and Roy, who spilled across the floorboards.

Roxanne’s foot came down on Jeff and popped him like a tiny balloon. “That was dumb.”

But Gena’s interests were elsewhere.

“Well, well, well…” she said, looking down at the pile of bodies. “Is that you, Siarra?” She kicked over the body and then rested her knee against it, slowly pushing all her weight against Siarra’s chest. “Why, it is you. I didn’t recognize you with all those dried tears across your cheek. Have you been crying, you little baby?”

“I want my brother back,” she growled.

“Oh, I’m sorry. He’s much happier with me now.”

“Shut up! No, he’s not.”

Gena lifted her knee for a moment and then slammed it down on Siarra’s gut. “Yes, he is. And you know what? I think I like him better as my brother, too. But I guess when I get tired of him, he’d make a good toothpick, don’t you think? Fit him right between my teeth and run him back and forth until all his skin is peeled away. And he’ll be so busy trusting me that he won’t even know he’s dying. How sad.”

“You bitch, Gena! I know you’re lying.”

She shrugged. “We’ll see. But I won’t be picking my own teeth without hands.”

“Excuse me,” Isabella said, twisting herself around. “Who are all these people and why are they in my tower? I don’t remember inviting any of you.”

Cara pulled herself up. “We came to save you, Your Highness…”

“My heroes!” she said with fake enthusiasm. “I’m glad I’m the only princess in history who ever got locked in a tower and saved by a bunch of incompetent fools. But, oh, wait—you haven’t put the ‘saving me’ part of your plan into effect yet, have you?”

“You really do need better protection, princess,” Roxanne said. She slid her foot across the floor, leaving a trail of Jeff everywhere. “I didn’t know you would stoop to having Men save you.”

Isabella narrowed her eyebrows. “I’d rather die.”

“You will, princess,” Gena assured her. “You will. I think I can hear the footsteps of your courier below.”

Cara turned to her. “Courier…? What does Miss Fallon have to do with this?”

“She has everything to do with this. In a few minutes, she’s going to pull the rope that will end the reign of our dear princess. And then it’s me you’ll be bowing to. So I’d just stay on my knees if I were you.”

Cara looked up at her and then her eyes caught sight of a body in the corner. For a brief moment, she was taken back, horrified, seeing the face through the blood. She knew that face.

“Lucilla!” she screamed, crawling over to the fallen captain. Gena just laughed as Siarra and Kim were dragged along behind her.

“She’s not dead,” Gena said. “I wanted her to wake in a world without her mistress. I thought it would be good for her to be freed from Bella’s chains of tyranny.”

“Y-you’re a monster…” Cara cried, embracing her captain. Blood trickled down her armor, but she didn’t care. Using her gloves, she gently wiped Lucilla’s face clean and cried again.

Roxanne walked over. “Hey, she said we didn’t kill her. We’re not monsters.”

Cara’s eyes flared and her hair curled back like a snake ready to strike. “Yes, you are! You’re both monsters!” Her words were shaky and began to crumble apart. “You kill without feeling… You’re demons without heart… You whores… You filthy, godless whores…”

“Hey! Only once, and I did it for the money.”

“…You’re dead.”

“What?”

“I said you’re dead, whore!” Cara cried out, grabbing her sword. She swung at Roxanne, catching her in the arm.

Roxanne laughed as her sword came down again, this time nicking her kneecap. “Maybe you could use this chick’s sword as your toothpick, Gena.”

“Shut up and die!”

Roxanne caught the blade between her hands. “Not today, bitch.” Squeezing her palms together, she broke the sword in half. Then she pushed against the hilt of the sword and hurled Cara against the wall. “So much for your rescue attempt, hero.”

Cara fell back, swinging her arms in slow motion, and felt the blood across her forehead as she hit the wall. It was so cold. She felt empty, lifeless. Then she sank next to her captain and the world went black.