Where the hell could Joy have gone? Last Louise had seen, the baby dragon was in their bedroom. Joy had been trying to pack the cans of freeze-dried food and complaining that she was hungry.
“Oh! Oh! I bet she went to the kitchen. Did Chuck look there?”
“There are people in the kitchen!”
Louise felt a flare of panic at the idea of the babies trying to search the big gleaming kitchen. It was so brightly lit and sparsely decorated that the moving mice would stand out. “Tell her to stay away from the kitchen. We’re almost out of this and we’ll…we’ll get the gossamer call. Joy will answer it.”
Behind her, Jillian hissed out a swear word. “Oh, I’m so stupid! I have the gossamer call! Joy can get us out of here.”
Jillian took the small whistle out of her shoe and blew it. Most of the sound it produced was inaudible to humans, but the lowest frequency notes echoed through the caves.
“Jilly!” Louise cried. She thought she heard something rustle in response to the sound but it was gone before she could identify it.
“Sorry! Sorry! I forgot that it isn’t totally ultrasonic.”
“What’s this?” Joy appeared beside Nikola with a big tub of ice cream that she could barely carry. Her face and both front paws were smeared with white cream and little blots of chocolate. Joy held the nearly empty container out for inspection. The label stated “Stracciatella Gelato.” It explained why the babies couldn’t find Joy; she’d been sealed in the massive walk-in freezer. It also confirmed that the monster call traveled on a magical wavelength beyond normal sound. “What is it? What is yummy cold stuff?”
Louise rubbed her face to stop the scream of frustration and anger from coming out. Joy was a baby and didn’t understand the danger they were in.
Jillian, though, didn’t muffle her scream. “It’s ice cream, you greedy little…”
Louise slapped her hand over her twin’s mouth. “Shhh, shhh, we don’t want anyone to hear!”
Jillian continued for another minute, muttering angrily against Louise’s hand.
Louise ignored her sister. “Joy, can you get us out of this spell?”
Joy eyed the gleaming cage of power. “Ooooh. Nasty cage spell. No.”
Jillian mumbled, “Mmm mmm mmmmm mmm.”
Louise translated. “Can you at least try?”
“There is no try.” Joy pointed at the shimmering bars with a crème-covered paw.
Jillian growled with frustration and pulled Louise’s hand from her mouth. “I’m done with the shield. What about you?”
Louise eyed the spell nervously. It looked right. “Yes, let’s do this.” She waved at Nikola. “Get back. We’re going to try blasting our way out.”
Nikola scurried back into the shadows. Joy waddled away, carrying her tub of gelato. Jillian spoke the command word and then “oohhh” in surprise.
“What?”
“I can see it. It’s like…black glow…all around us.”
“Good.” Louise took a deep breath. She spoke the command word.
With a loud crack, the spell activated and arrowed force along the directional arrow drawn in the runes. It plowed through the glyphs of the cage spell, instantly reducing part of the floor into rubble. The sudden trench continued to plow forward, into the distant casting room. The cage vanished as if it never existed and they were plunged into darkness. Dust and pieces of the ceiling rained down around them, the sekasha shield protecting the twins.
“Whoo hoo!” Jillian shouted and cancelled the shield.
They did the dance of joy, jumping up and down, screaming with excitement until Louise remember that they might be heard.
“Shhh!” Louise smacked her twin.
“If they didn’t hear that, they’re not going to hear me!” Jillian cried. “And how did you hit me? I can’t see anything.”
“I could hear you!” Louise took the spell light out of her pocket and panned it across the room. First thing she spotted was the now empty gelato container lying abandoned on the ground. Then she spotlighted Joy licking her fingers. There was no sign of the little white mouse. “Where’s Nikola?”
Joy looked around and then shrugged.
“Nikola?” Louise called as Jillian picked up Joy, muttering darkly about the baby dragon’s eating habits.
Louise thought she heard a distant squeak. She caught hold of Jillian’s hand and headed toward the noise. How far could Nikola have gotten? She didn’t think a mouse could run so far in such a short distance. Was he hurt by the explosion? There didn’t seem to be any rubble in the direction of his voice, but had she really heard him? “Nikola?”