Wood Sprites(202)
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They stopped short of the Dining Hall. The area was full of shadows and primary-color lights shining on the sandstone, as if the tour operators thought people would find the caves boring without added color.
They gathered together, a thousand brown mice in the lead and the ostriches somewhere in the back.
“Ten guards,” Crow Boy whispered.
Louise’s heart leapt at the number. Three or four would have been difficult. Ten? She nodded despite her fear. It was going to be up to the mice. She wanted to protect the babies, but her only choice was to use them as weapons. As long as Tesla stayed out of the fray, the babies would be safe.
“Girls, on my signal, take all the mice and rush them. Chuck, take the four to the right. Jawbreakers. Green, take the three to the left. Red, take the middle three. Try not to taser the nestlings. Okay?”
“Roger!” the three girls squeaked.
“What’s the signal?” Chuck asked.
“She’ll say ‘on your mark, set, go!’” Red stated.
“No, that’s for races,” Green disagreed. “I think she’ll hoot like an owl.”
“Sh! When I tell you, you’ll know.” She held out her hand to Crow Boy. “Give me some zip ties.”
“What?” Alarm filled his face.
“You can’t do all ten before they recover from being tasered.” She held out her hand.
He didn’t like the idea; it showed on his face. He handed her a dozen. “You don’t have the strength to move their arms behind their back, so just bind them the way you find them.”
She nodded. “Nikola, keep watch on the gift shop and warn us if anyone else enters the cave. Jillian try and keep the ostriches out of this mess.”
“Like I can actually control them!” Jillian whispered fiercely.
Louise waved her to be quiet. She took a deep breath. Fear jangled through her. She took another deep breath, trying to steel herself against the feeling of its tingling through her like electricity. “Ready?”
“Um, is that the signal?” Green asked.
“Go!” She waved them toward the elves. “Go!”
“That’s the signal!” Chuck cried. “Charge!”
The swarm of mice flooded away. Crow Boy bounded after them.
Louise followed.
The narrow Mountain King’s Hall opened into the huge Dining Room cavern. The rocks were highlighted with colored spotlights as if the cavern operators didn’t think the sandstone formations were interesting enough. Most of the cave, however, was cloaked in darkness, its true size hidden. The tengu children were all bound, hands and feet, in a long line. Boxes of gear sat in stacks, evidence that the elves were planning a well-stocked, orderly retreat. The brown robotic mice scurried forward with a rustle that sounded like running water.
“What is that sound?” one of the elves said.
“What are those?” another cried as she spotted the mice and pointed.
“Look out!” a third shouted.
They went down, stomping and flailing, under the wave of mice.
Crow Boy leapt on the nearest elf. He flipped the male onto his face and jerked the elf’s arms around behind his back.
“Get that one!” Crow Boy indicated a female elf twitching a few feet from him.
Louise hesitated, clutching tight the zip tie in her hand. She hadn’t actually thought about the fact she’d have to touch the elves to bind them. She’d never hit anyone in her life. Movement caught her eyes and she saw one of the older tengu girls trying to wriggle her way toward one of the fallen elves. The girl knew that they had to win this battle and, helpless as she was, was trying to fight.
Louise swallowed down her fear and caught hold of the elf’s wrists. She fumbled through pushing the rigid limbs through the wire loops and pulling the plastic ties tight. The female elf groaned, obviously trying to struggle, as the mice kept her pinned with repeated shocks. She glared at Louise with hate-filled eyes and lips curled back in a snarl.
“You started this!” Louise shouted at her. “We’re just children! You should never have treated us this way!”
“Louise!” Crow Boy called to her. “She’s thousands of years old. Nothing you say will change her mind. We’re nothing but tools to push her own agenda.”
The second elf was easier to bind. Louise was securing the fourth when Crow Boy pushed a wire clipper into her hands.
“Free the nestlings. I’ll get the last one.”
The elves had used zip ties to bind the children identical to the ones that the twins had bought at Home Depot. They had blackened eyes, broken noses, bruises and cuts on their arms. They’d obviously been sitting tied up for hours wearing nothing but T-shirts and blue jeans; they were shivering from the cold fifty-two-degree cave. When she cut them free, they scrambled fearfully away from her and snatched up anything that could be used as a weapon. Even the kindergartener Lai Yee found a small knife. The elves had tortured two of the older children by drenching them in water; they lay in a hyperthermia-induced stupor.