Babysitting Nightmares_The Shadow Hand Page 8

  As the girls jogged quietly behind the limping creature, Rebecca listened for Maggie and Tanya. She thought she heard brush crashing somewhere nearby, but she couldn’t be sure.

  Just ahead of them, the changeling stopped near a patch of brightly colored mushrooms. It plucked several and scarfed them down greedily.

  “What’s it doing? Aren’t those poisonous?” Rebecca whispered.

  “I don’t think anything’s poisonous for that. I mean, it’s half fungus or something already anyway.”

  After stuffing several more mushrooms into its mouth, the changeling stretched up to its full two-foot height and began hopping up and down. Rebecca groaned inwardly and braced herself to run. Seconds later, the changeling took off like a shot.

  “What just happened?!” Clio asked.

  “I think it just powered up!” Rebecca said.

  She took off in a dead sprint with Clio at her heels, but after a few minutes they could no longer see the creature in front of them. Rebecca finally slowed to a stop and bent forward at the waist, struggling to catch her breath. “Dang it; it’s no use now. It’s gone.”

  Clio collapsed on the damp ground next to her, panting. “Don’t worry; we still have our backup plan.”

  “Assuming they can actually find us.”

  “This is Tanya we’re talking about, remember? They’ll find us.”

  Rebecca pulled a flashlight out of her pocket and waved it around over her head. “Hopefully this will help,” she said. The crashing grew louder, and she caught a glimpse of a purplish light twinkling between the trees. “Over here, you guys! Hurry!”

  Every second waiting felt like an eternity to Rebecca. She tried not to think about what would happen if the changeling got so far ahead of them that they couldn’t find it. Without the changeling, they would never be able to find Kyle. That won’t happen, she told herself. I won’t let that happen.

  The light grew brighter, and soon Rebecca could hear Tanya’s and Maggie’s voices as they grew closer, treading carefully through the underbrush. Rebecca clapped her hands impatiently. “Come on! Let’s go! It’s getting away!”

  “We’re coming!” Maggie called. “And by the way, you’re welcome for us finding you and everything. We only just tracked you for, like, ever through these dark woods that are probably filled with snakes and bears or whatever. Oh, right, and monsters and stuff. You know, no big deal!”

  Rebecca bounced on the balls of her feet. “I promise you when this is all over I will write you all very long thank-you notes and give you medals, but for right now, can we please get moving? Who knows where that thing could be by now?”

  “I vote for brownies instead of medals. No wait—carrot cake,” Tanya said, testing the switch on a purplish light she held in her hand.

  “Carrot cake? Why would you…? You know what, I can’t even. Seriously, only you would say that,” Maggie said.

  Clio laughed. “I love carrot cake, too!”

  “Don’t encourage her,” Maggie said.

  Rebecca threw up her hands.

  Maggie grinned. “Now if everyone’s ready, let’s get going before Becks here explodes or something.”

  “Thank you! You good to go, Tanya?”

  Tanya held up the purplish light. “Let’s do this! Now, where did you last see that little beastie?” Rebecca pointed. Tanya shone the light over the spot, illuminating a glowing splotch with a set of birdlike footprints leading away from it.

  “No way!” Clio said, and the girls rushed forward to follow the footprints. “It’s like following a trail of bread crumbs! How did you build it?”

  Tanya held the light out in front of them as the girls jogged along. “This is just a black light. I remembered that last summer, when my dad was growing tomatoes, we used one to find tomato hornworms. You can’t really see them normally, but they totally glow under UV light! There’s a whole list of things that do that, including rotten stuff and mold. Presto!”

  “Rotten stuff and mold … yup, sounds like a changeling, all right!” Maggie said.

  “Don’t forget teeth!” Clio added.

  “There’s always something rotten in a changeling, especially if it’s been charmed for a while,” Tanya explained. “They’re not really made to stay in human form that long, so they start to decay.”

  “That’s sad,” Rebecca said. “Their human life is over before it’s even really begun.”

  Maggie rolled her eyes. “Don’t go feeling sorry for it, Becks. We’ve been running through the woods for miles after this stupid thing. This is worse than gym class!”

  The girls laughed, but Tanya shushed them. They stood in the middle of a large clearing lit by silvery moonlight. “Hang on. It’s stopped.”

  “What do you mean?” Clio asked.

  “Look! The trail ends here.”

  Rebecca searched the ground. “But it can’t just end! Everyone spread out and start looking. We have to be close.”

  Clio checked her watch. “Only three hours until the Dunmores get home.”

  “This just keeps getting better and better!” Maggie said. Then she noticed Rebecca’s drawn face, and her voice lowered. “Don’t worry, Becks. We’ll get him back.”

  Rebecca walked toward a small brook burbling at the edge of the clearing. She could see the distorted reflection of the full moon on the water’s surface. Following the brook upstream, she searched for footprints or tracks, but she found none. As she crept along, Rebecca noticed that the brook grew narrower, until the water seemed to disappear into the ground.

  Surprised, Rebecca looked closer. The brook seemed to spring from the base of a massive yew tree. The tree was ancient and twisted, with roots extending like rough tentacles. Its long branches stretched far overhead, thick with leaves that shrouded the forest floor in darkness. Rebecca ran her hands over the rough bark and along the opening where the stream bubbled out. It felt almost as large as a small cave. Or a doorway.

  “You guys! Over here!” Rebecca called. The girls hurried to the tree, and Rebecca pointed to the hollow. “Tanya, can you shine the black light into the opening?”

  Tanya held up the light, and the changeling’s distinctive tracks smeared the edges of the hollow. Tanya reached forward. Her hand touched only air. “There’s no back wall,” she said. “It’s not a hollow; it’s a portal.”

  “It’s the portal.” Clio grinned. “We found the entrance to the Nightmare Realm.” Her smile faded. “Once we go through, there’s no turning back. If anyone wants to change their mind, now is the time to do it. No harm, no foul.”

  Rebecca looked carefully at the other girls’ faces, waiting. She saw fear there, but no one spoke. “Thank you,” she whispered, looking at each of her friends. “I won’t let you down. I promise.”

  The girls stripped off their shoes and socks and stepped into the water. Rebecca gasped; it was as cold as fresh snowmelt. Tanya extinguished her light and tucked it back in her pack.

  Picking carefully between the slippery stones, the girls stepped one by one into the velvety black opening and disappeared from view.

  CHAPTER

  16

  IT WAS INKY black inside the tunnel. Treading slowly along the stream’s rocky bottom, Rebecca trailed her right hand across the wall of the passage and waved the left in front of her to feel for obstacles. Clio’s fingers rested lightly on her left shoulder. The only sound was the splash of their footsteps over the gentle babbling of the water.

  Silent with concentration, the girls pushed against the current and moved slowly downward. Tanya let out a small exclamation of surprise.

  “What is it?” Rebecca asked.

  “The water. It’s flowing uphill. That’s just … wrong.”

  “Welcome to the Nightmare Realm,” Maggie said softly.

  The rough wood of the wall gradually changed to something slippery and wet that seemed to squirm beneath Rebecca’s fingertips. She snatched her hand away. Soon, a sickly yellow light suffused the passage in front of them,
and the rocky stream bottom gave way to warm, wet slime that sucked at their feet. As they drew closer to the light, she noticed twisted figures carved into the slick walls: skeletal men with panther heads, an eyeless child with black wings. She pointed and heard Clio grunt behind her.

  “Lusus naturae,” Clio whispered. Maggie moaned faintly behind her.

  At the edge of her hearing, Rebecca could just make out a faint, pulsating sound that throbbed like a heartbeat. It curled through the passage and pulled her forward. Drums.

  As they reached the end of the tunnel, the drumming grew louder, until Rebecca and Clio stepped into the shadows at the edge of a moonlit clearing. Rebecca looked behind her and saw the same yew tree behind them, but now the trunk was scarred and black, its leafless limbs twisting like the arms of some giant, ancient monster. The clearing looked exactly like the spot they had left, only everything was dark and diseased, the rocks covered in slimy black moss, the brook choked with foamy scum.

  She scanned the clearing, searching for Kyle.

  In the center of the clearing, misshapen creatures grouped around the crackling flames of a bonfire. Some of them danced, their skeletal limbs twisting above their heads, weaving around one another like snakes. Peeling skin fluttered in the shifting light. One’s eyeless face was streaked with black mildew. Another turned, and as the firelight caught its features, Rebecca saw only a seamless patch of skin where the mouth should be.

  Then she saw him, a bright little bundle cuddled in a cradle of twisted branches. Kyle. Was he all right? Several lusus cooed over him, rocking the cradle gently. Long, slender fingers, white as bleached bone, reached in and stroked his cheek. Rebecca hurried forward, but Clio grabbed her arm.

  “Hold up. Take a breath. He’s safe. We need to stick to our plan.”

  Tanya and Maggie crept out of the tunnel to join them, and the girls huddled together. “Remember what we know about the Night Queen,” Tanya said. “The lusus hate to lose, and they never play fair. The only way we’ll get Kyle back is if we outsmart her.”

  “Don’t worry,” Maggie said, her voice shaking. She touched Rebecca’s shoulder. “They can’t be that smart. Who would want to just sit on a bunch of rocks listening to some lame drum circle?” She let out a hollow laugh, her eyes wide with fear. “I mean, duh! Haven’t they ever heard of the internet? They could have a way better setup out here.”

  Rebecca squeezed Maggie’s hand, and the girls stepped into the moonlight. Immediately the drumming stopped. The lusus dropped their arms and stared at the intruders with a cold, hostile curiosity.

  The crowd parted as the girls approached the bonfire, making the narrowest of paths for them to walk through. Rebecca had to force herself not to shrink back when she accidentally brushed against a scaly arm.

  The cluster opened up to reveal a dais framed with maple trees, their tired, bent trunks crusted with scallops of yellow fungus. Heavy with foliage, their intertwined, drooping branches created a crimson arbor draped with cobwebs. The stone floor of the dais below was carpeted with fallen red leaves.

  There, in the center of the dais, the Night Queen sat on a throne of broken marble tombstones, the carvings barely visible beneath the moss that streaked its pitted surface. The queen’s skin was a deep twilight blue, sprinkled with tiny twinkling stars. Brittle, jointed tendrils spilled from her head. They chittered as she moved, scrabbling at her shoulders, and Rebecca felt Maggie sag against her. “Oh, God, her hair. What is it?”

  Tanya squeezed in closer. “It’s … it looks like spiders’ legs.”

  “Just try not to think about it,” Clio whispered.

  The jointed legs of the queen’s hair reached up to adjust a crown of curving, silver ram’s horns tipped with jet-black stones. Beneath her mantle of dusty owl feathers, her long gown glowed sallowly in the firelight, the sour yellow-white of stained teeth. Animal bones studded the bodice and skirt, and the heavy hem was trimmed with matted fur that had faded to a dull, greasy gray. The changeling huddled brokenly at her feet.

  The four girls joined hands and stepped forward. Remembering the formal speech from the books, Rebecca allowed her voice to ring throughout the clearing. “We have come to claim the babe.” An agitated whispering rose up around them.

  “Silence!” the Night Queen commanded, her teeth gleaming in the moonlight like black pearls. The whispering stopped. The queen stared down at the girls; her golden eyes filled with disdain. “What makes you believe you have the right to be here?”

  The other lusus tittered. Rebecca saw a hot flush forming on Maggie’s cheeks. Her friend stood taller, eyes narrowing.

  “Mean girl,” Maggie said under her breath.

  “Huh?” Rebecca whispered back. Maggie simply grunted in response.

  The queen raised her arms, palms upward, and faced the crowd. “Have they come with gifts for us? Have they carried payment?” The crowd behind the girls pushed forward to see what the girls had brought.

  Clio took another step forward. “No payment,” she said firmly. “No gifts. The babe is ours by right.”

  The Night Queen stood, her face twisted in a mocking smile. The changeling clung to her skirts, and she casually kicked it away. “These worthless girls come to claim our property. They bring us no payment. They offer no gifts. And yet they speak to us of rights.”

  The creatures hissed and moved closer to the girls, encircling them. The queen reached into Kyle’s cradle and lifted him into her arms. “Only a fool would advise a mortal to come to us offering nothing but arrogant demands.” She studied Clio’s face for a long moment. “We are bored with you. Begone,” she called dismissively. The creatures laughed and began prodding the girls away from the fire, back toward the yew tree. The queen turned back to her throne.

  “Hey!” Maggie said, slapping at the furry hand that pinched her arm. “We’re not finished yet!” She shoved her way toward the dais, the other girls following close behind her. One of the lusus cackled and yanked Rebecca’s hair. She gritted her teeth and pulled it out of the creature’s grasp.

  “Wait! We do have something to offer!” Rebecca called to the retreating queen’s back. The queen stopped.

  “We are listening,” she said.

  “A game,” Tanya said.

  The queen turned around. “A game?” she asked. Her hair moved restlessly. “We like games.”

  “It’s simple,” Clio said. “You give us three challenges. If we defeat you in all three challenges, we take Kyle and go. And if we don’t…” Her voice faltered.

  “If we don’t,” Rebecca continued, “the babe stays.”

  The queen handed Kyle to her attendants and sat back on her throne. “We like this game,” she said, “but the babe is not enough.” Her eyes glittered with greed and another expression that Rebecca couldn’t identify. “If our challenges are not met, we also keep the girls.” She looked down at her sleeve and brushed a spider off its cuff. “We are in need of more servants; they keep dying.” She gestured, and an attendant brought forward a large silver mirror and held it up. The queen studied her reflection and plucked at the bones on her bodice. “Do our guests accept?”

  The girls formed a tight huddle. “Whoa, I don’t like this at all. This is not what we talked about,” Maggie said. “Did you see that look on her face? There’s no way she’s going to let us walk out of here.”

  “We have no choice,” Rebecca said. “I’m not leaving without Kyle.”

  “Yeah, but being her prisoners? Death?” Maggie asked. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”

  “Yeah, well, no plan is perfect,” Tanya said.

  “Yours are! They’re always perfect! So why all of a sudden does this one particular plan have to be the one with the flaw? Seriously, couldn’t we save that for something that doesn’t end our lives forever?”

  “Hey, most of our plans don’t involve supernatural beings, so cut us a little slack,” Tanya said. “We knew something like this could happen.”

  “Look, let’s take
a vote,” Clio suggested. “All in favor of accepting her terms?” Rebecca raised her hand. Tanya and Clio followed.

  Maggie folded her arms, then slowly raised her hand. “If I come back without you guys, I’ll be dead anyway. But I’m telling you, we can’t trust her.”

  Rebecca nodded to the other girls and turned to face the queen. “We accept.”

  CHAPTER

  17

  “IT’S GOING TO be a riddle. The first one is always a riddle,” Clio whispered.

  The queen rose and addressed the crowd. “The first challenge shall be a riddle.”

  Clio pumped her fist. “Yessss! I knew it!” She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet and loosened her shoulders like a boxer, flexing her fingers.

  “Wow, someone’s pretty confident,” Maggie said.

  “Shhh!” Tanya said. The queen moved forward on the dais and stood over the girls, looking down on them like a hawk over its prey. The stars on her skin glittered.

  “Window of night

  Wolves’ delight

  Harvest’s bride

  I beckon the tide

  Who am I?”

  The girls put their heads together. “Could it be a sheep?” Maggie asked.

  “A sheep? Why would it be a sheep?” Tanya said.

  “She said ‘wolves’ delight.’ Wolves love sheep!”

  “Yeah, but what about the rest of the riddle?”

  “Well, maybe the night part is like you count sheep at night to help you sleep. And the harvest could be, like, a feast or something. People ate sheep in olden times a lot, didn’t they?”

  “People still eat sheep, Mags. It’s called lamb,” Tanya said.

  “See, so that makes even more sense. It’s got to be sheep!”

  Rebecca folded her arms. “But wait, sheep have nothing to do with the tides. I don’t think that’s right.”

  “But maybe the sheep is, like, playing on the beach or something. You know, chasing the water like a dog does.”