Grizelda (20 page)

“Goblins?” Jamin raised an eyebrow.

“They sold it to them. Promontory tried to
close the old tunnels all off, but they’re still there. The place
is full of them, like an anthill. And I have some guides who can
help us.”

Grizelda looked over at the pile of crates
behind Solander. That was the signal. From an inaccessible crack
between the boxes and the wall, the three ratriders came riding out
onto the floor. Laricia swooped down from her hidden place in the
rafters. Several of the kids cried out, overturning their seats in
an attempt to get away from the rats. Laricia, clearly enjoying
this, made a few deliberate passes at people’s heads.

“It’s all right, everyone!” Grizelda called.
“They’re friends. Laricia!”

Laricia let off and landed on top of a pile.
She watched the aftermath of the chaos, arms akimbo.

Jamin lowered his hands from his head.
“Fairies on rats, Grizelda?”

“We’re pixies!” Kricker gave him a warning
poke with his lantern-stick.

“Ouch!” Jamin pulled away from him.

“They’re ratriders,” Grizelda explained.
“Their names are Kricker, Tunya, and Geddy, and that one up there
is Laricia. They helped me escape from Promontory when I got
targeted. I’m sorry they scared you.”

She hoped it had been a good idea to ask the
ratriders for help with this breakout. What if it was all just a
game to them, like breaking the goblins’ machines was?

“Um, hi.” Jamin got up and brushed himself
off. Meanwhile, the other Undergrounders were doing the same. “I
mean, I’m not quite sure how to shake your hands…” He held his hand
out tentatively. The three ratriders each gave one of his fingers a
quick clasp. Then he did the same for Laricia.

“Pixies, those aren’t magic, are they?” Toby
said suspiciously.

“They’re the good kind of magic,” said
Grizelda.

“But are you sure that you can trust–”

“They saved my life! They’ve never had
anything to do with the Auks.”

“Misery acquaints a man with strange
bedfellows,” said Geddy.

There was a silent faceoff between her and
Toby for several seconds. Katarin gave Geddy a sideways look.

“You read–”

“Yes. I do,” said Geddy.

Finally Jamin stepped in.

“I think they’re great,” he said. “So, what’s
your plan, Grizelda?”

Inwardly Grizelda breathed a sigh of relief
that the situation was defused. She gestured at the ratriders. “I
think it would be more fair to ask them.”

Laricia nodded. “We’re going to be running
reconnaissance with the bats. To be honest, they’re quicker and
more maneuverable than any of you are. When you’re spread out in
the goblin territory, we can keep you in communication and raise
the alarm if anyone sights a gendarme. In the tunnels we’ll help
guide you out of the city. Are you okay with all that?”

“How many of you are there?” Jamin said, a
little overwhelmed.

“More than you would like to know.”

“Um, okay.” He looked to the other
Undergrounders, then looked back. “Where do you think we should
start?”

“There’s an opening on the river side seven
levels down that would work. Used to be a mine tunnel. It’s pretty
large and it’s not guarded.”

On a sudden idea, Grizelda leaned
forward.

“Laricia, is there any way you could go in
there and find a particular prisoner?”

“Yes, I could.”

“There’s somebody in there named Mr. Dunnag.
He’s an old man, and he probably looks a little bit like Toby. He
was sent there very recently.”

Laricia looked Toby up and down. “I could do
that,” she said. “I’ll go right now.”

She hopped onto her bat and gave it a good
kick in the sides. It sprang into the air, fluttering circles
around the room until Mitchell opened the door and it shot out. For
a moment after they were gone, the basement was quiet.

“Why did you do that?” said Toby.

Grizelda looked at him, angry. Why wouldn’t
he even give the ratriders a
chance?
Just because they were
magic, he was convinced they were Auk-lovers!

“Because maybe it’ll help,” she said. “Not
all the magic is evil, Toby.”

“We were talking about the breakout fund,
weren’t we?” said Jamin. “How is that going?”

Katarin had her figures written on a sheet of
paper, which she gave to him. “These prisoners, when we get them
out, they’re going to have
nothing
. If we’re going to do a
proper job of this, that means there’s a lot of supplies we’re
going to have to buy. Warm coats and food. Train tickets are going
to be the worst. I don’t even know how we’re going to get them all
without making the stationmaster suspicious. Go down and buy them
in shifts or something.” She sighed. “With our fund, we’ve got
enough for … twenty people.”

“All right, so what do we cut?” Jamin looked
around at them. “Skip the train tickets? We could make it stretch
farther that way. People can try and sneak over to Salinaca on
foot.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” said
Geddy.

They looked at him.

Geddy hesitated, toeing the ground. “Well,
ratriders … we’re the sock stealers. You know how you wake up in
the morning and you can never find your sock’s match? That’s us.
We’re pretty good at it.”

“Geddy, why are you telling them this?” said
Tunya. “Don’t you know what they might do?”

“What I mean is,” Geddy continued, “You can
afford to get ambitious. Those government supply caravans.”

“No way!” said Stevry.

Geddy turned to Kricker. “Don’t you think we
could take one of those down?”

Kricker shrugged. “Sure.”

“If the humans find out we steal their stuff,
they could wipe us out!” Tunya insisted.

But Geddy ignored her. “All you would have to
do is sit back and watch. You’ll have all the supplies you could
need, and you can save your money for tickets.”

Stevry was about to say something when a dog
started barking up on the street. There came a frantic scratching
at the door. Solander got up and opened it, and a slightly
disheveled Laricia zoomed inside. She landed on the top of a crate
pile and dismounted shakily.

“I found Mr. Dunnag.”

The Undergrounders crowded around to listen,
but Grizelda was more concerned about Laricia’s condition.

“Are you all right?”

“Hmm?” It took Laricia a moment to realize
Grizelda was referring to her. “Oh, I’m fine. Just had a run-in
with a dog on my way back.”

She gripped the side of the box and lowered
herself to a seat. “He’s not well, but he’s alive, Toby. He’s your
grandfather, isn’t he?”

Toby nodded, stunned.

“That’s what he said when I spoke to him. I
don’t think he really believed I was there. Thought the cave air
was making him go crazy. But I’ve told him about our plan to come
and get him out. He’ll be ready.”

It took Toby almost half a minute to decide
what to say. “That was amazing. Thank you.”

Grizelda said, “I don’t think I can explain
what it is you’ve done for us. That was–”

Laricia waved it away. “If you keep this up,
I might just go through with this.”

“We’re going to try and raid one of those
supply caravans,” said Jamin. “Geddy said we could do it.”

Laricia raised an eyebrow. “That’s something
else, isn’t it? I’m in.”

Chapter 20

Kricker sat on a little metal cliff up at the
top of a machine skeleton, his legs dangling out into a sickeningly
empty space. He’d long since decided this flying lesson was taking
place way too high up. Why did they have to hold it at the very
top
of one of those piles of scrap metal, anyway? Laricia
had made him and the other ratriders who volunteered climb up here,
and on the way, he had seen plenty of good bat perches that were at
far more reasonable altitudes.

The crazy bat lady was in full riding dress
already, in heavy boots, gloves, and goggles pushed back to the top
of her head. He bet she slept with them on. She strode back and
forth on another spar of metal, lecturing them all on bat safety
tips.

“You’ve got to treat a bat with respect,” she
was saying. “Otherwise, you’ll be lucky if all you lose are a
couple of fingers.”

Great.

He was finding it hard to pay attention. How
could he, when the ground was swaying slightly way below them? The
other ratriders sitting next to him didn’t seem to notice, damn
them. Geddy and Tunya were hanging on her every word.

Tunya. Beautiful Tunya. That was another
reason he was distracted.

“I’ve already bridled your bats up so we can
get started. These are some of my best behaved: Hoarfrost,
Snapdragon, Peregrine.” She pointed at each bat as she named them.
Kricker forgot the names as quickly as she pointed.

When Tunya was really focusing on something
her eyes sort of–

“Right! Let’s suit up!”

Crazy Bat Lady doled out the boots, gloves,
and goggles they were all supposed to wear, then stood back to see
if anyone needed help. The boots she’d given him were too small. He
had to struggle to yank them up over his ankles. He was a little
gratified to see that his neighbor, Willis, was having trouble,
too.

When he pulled down his goggles, he
staggered. They narrowed his vision down to two bright circles and
made his feet look like they were a million miles away. He froze,
unable to move.

“Come on,” Tunya said somewhere vaguely
behind him. “We’re getting started.”

He stood there, helpless.

“Look, Mr. I-belled-the-cat-single-handed,
you’re going to get left behind.”

Cursing, he peeked under the goggles enough
so he could watch his feet on the way to the bat launch place,
where the others were already gathered and waiting for him.

Laricia was kneeling by her bat, Apollo.
“When you mount your bats, you’ll have to be quick. First, you wake
him up.” She prodded the bat, and he stretched his wings lazily.
“Then the trick is to get yourself on before he takes off!”

She vaulted herself over the ledge and
disappeared. For a few heart-stopping seconds, Kricker waited for
the sound of a splat, but then she rose back into view, on the back
of Apollo.

“Your turn!” She swooped past low over their
heads and out into the cavern.

The other ratriders obediently launched
themselves over the edge of the cliff one by one, like lemmings.
Kricker hesitated. If he didn’t move soon, he was going to be the
last one left. And then Tunya would see him, looking like a doofus.
Already the first to jump were circling unsteadily over his head.
He gritted his teeth, slammed his goggles down, and took a leap of
faith.

He landed in a musky-smelling tangle of ropes
and fur. Before he could get a good grip on the harnesses or
anything, it launched itself into the air. He pressed himself flat
against the fur and clung on, while the bat swerved one direction
and his stomach went the other.

The bat went into a complex series of flying
maneuvers, rolling, bucking, doing its very best to throw him off.
There was no way of knowing how the others were doing; it was all
he could do to cling on for dear life.

“Use your reins!” came Laricia’s voice from
somewhere above and behind him. “Shift your weight the direction
you want to go!”

“Gee, thanks,” he muttered, but he did as she
told him. He felt around for a likely cord in the tangle crimped
below him and gave it a good pull. The bat went right. He tried
another one. The bat refused to respond, perversely shooting up to
the ceiling.

“Let him know who’s boss! Command him!”

Oh, it knows. And it’s not me,
he
thought.

“Take that, uh, Batface!” he yelled, pulling
a name out of the air. He yanked what he hoped was a rein and the
bat leaned into a curve, smooth and perfect. A flick to the right,
and the bat leveled out. He had it! He was flying! In spite of
himself, he whooped. Now, if only he could see what he was
doing…

He tore off his goggles and let the wind
catch them and send them tumbling away. A blast of air burned his
face. Very slowly, he squinted opened his eyes.

He was in empty space, the ground tilted
below him at a very unnatural angle. A wave of vertigo swept over
him and he froze. The bat looped out of control, again trying its
best to buck him.

“All right, that’s enough! Just land him!”
Laricia cried.

But Kricker couldn’t move. Not with the sight
of that ground rushing, swaying, tumbling, way too far below him.
He could only close his eyes and hope death would be swift.

Foo-weet!

Laricia whistled, high and shrill. The bat
abruptly changed direction, swooped downward, and jerked to a halt.
When Kricker finally dared open his eyes he found himself hanging
off the edge of the metal cliff, upside-down. With weak limbs he
crawled up the bat and poured himself onto the ledge.

“What happened out there?” Laricia landed
next to him and hopped off. “You were doing great until you had the
fool idea to take off your goggles.”

He muttered something about not being able to
see.

“So you took your goggles off and got
yourself blinded by the wind,” she said. “Great job.”

Meanwhile, behind her, the other ratriders
looked like they were having a wonderful time. Geddy and Tunya were
laughing and doing loop-de-loops around each other. Kricker fell
into a slouch. Flying lessons every day until the jailbreak. He
wasn’t sure he would survive that long.

Outside of the Lonnes train station, there
was a great field of empty land, covered in gravel, with rails laid
out on it in close parallel lines like rows of corn. This was the
place where freight cars that weren’t in use lay around singly or
hitched into chains, waiting to be loaded or repaired. Grizelda lay
on her belly under one of the cars next to Stevry. The other
Undergrounders were in various hiding places scattered around her,
far enough away from the main station not to get noticed by the
gendarmes, but close enough to get a good look at the supply train
when it came in.