I went running after Mahira, who loped toward the platform. She jumped with a great lunge and shifted into a large brown wolf in midair, only feet from where Mr. Chain Whips and Daniel fought.
“Hey,” I shouted at her. I scooped a baseball-sized rock up and flung it with all my might at the back of the brown wolf’s head.
She turned on me, growling.
“Come and get me!” I cried.
I waited half a second to make sure she’d taken the bait, and then I went running toward the barn, following the strategy we’d laid out beforehand—to draw the other challengers as far away from Daniel as possible.
I made it inside the structure just as the wolf nipped at my heels. I spun around and smashed the side of my broadsword against the side of her head. She growled and flew at me with her great, clawed paws. I used my sword to bat them away, but suffered a nasty tear in my swinging arm in the process. As a wolf, she was stronger than I was, especially since I had to be careful as ever not even to want to kill her.
She came at me again, jaws protruding from her lips. I changed sword hands, and with a measured blow, slashed into one of her front legs, spilling blood onto her fur.
She howled with pain and anger. I scrambled away and climbed the ladder up to the hayloft, thinking it would give me a moment’s reprieve to heal the pulsating gash in my arm.
The brown wolf passed under the ladder. I wondered if she were contemplating changing back into human form in order to climb up after me. But I should have known better.
The wolf took ten paces back and then jumped up into the hayloft, landing only a few feet from where I sat. I clambered to my feet and ran, heading for the far end of the hayloft. The rotten floorboards creaked and cracked under my pounding feet, and I remembered that this was the area where that kid had fallen through the floor last month, forcing Frightmare Farms to be shut down. I jumped over a hole in the floor and ran for the window that overlooked the barnyard. Maybe I could make the jump?
The wolf growled. I glanced over my shoulder and saw her rearing back to leap at me again, claws extended. In a moment of either panic or brilliance, I threw my sword at the small metal box that protruded from the haunted barn’s wall. It swung blade over hilt and slammed into the large red button on the box. The same button Brent had shown me earlier as a trick. The wolf lunged into the air, and I ducked as a thick, bicycle-sized faux battle-ax came swinging out from a metal contraption in the ceiling. I knew the ax wasn’t sharp, but it caught the brown wolf midair and sent her flying backward. She hit the rotten floorboards with such force, they crumpled under her and she went crashing through the floor of the hayloft. I heard her whine as she fell, and then a sickening sound that made me flinch. I moved quickly and carefully over the cracking boards and gazed down through the hole she left behind.
What I saw made a shudder of nausea rip through me: the body of the brown wolf, skewered through her belly by a broken pole below.
The wolf whimpered and writhed and then fell silent and limp, hanging like a piece of bloody meat on the end of a kabob. I knew she wasn’t dead. The pole was iron not silver, and it hadn’t decapitated her, but she was most likely in terrible pain. The blood loss would keep her out of commission for quite some time.
A horrible shiver overtook my body as I looked down on her.
Close, child. Close, whispered my inner wolf. I could feel its glee over my near kill. Its anticipation of the next.
I am so close to being freed. Finish her off.
I cupped my hands against my ears to feel the calming warmth of the moonstone earrings, shaking my head. no, I told the wolf. I have no intention of killing her. I don’t want her dead.
I backed away to the window in the hayloft and sucked in gulps of fresh air, trying to clear the wolf out of my head. However, the scene outside the window was anything but calming. I could see Daniel below, locked in battle both with Mr. Chain Whips and Anton Oberot. Daniel’s adeptness with his sword kept Anton at arm’s length, and his agility to spin and flip out of the way of the swinging chain whips seemed to frustrate his other opponent to no end. But Daniel was definitely on the defensive, trying to fend off both attackers at the same time.
Then in a move I didn’t expect, and neither did Daniel, Mr. Chain Whips sent a lashing strike of one whip at Anton. It caught the Russian Urbat around the neck, and Mr. Chain Whips jerked his arm back, flipping Anton into the air and then slamming back down again. Anton clutched at the chain that was wrapped around his neck. I’m sure the silver was burning into his flesh. Even from the barn I heard Mr. Chain Whips laugh as he pulled his other whip back, ready to send it lashing into Anton’s face. But as the whip went flying, so did Daniel. He reached out in front of Anton, catching the brunt of the whip’s blow with his arm. The chain wrapped around his wrist, and before anyone could react, Daniel yanked the whip with all his might and sent Mr. Chain Whips flying over his head. He hit the ground several feet away and rolled over onto his back.
Daniel reached out and helped Anton to his feet.
To my surprise, the Russian made a small bow toward Daniel and then jogged out of the challenging ring. I assumed he’d withdrawn his challenge out of respect for what Daniel had done for him.
I was just thinking that not all of these challengers were bad people when Mr. Chain Whips scrambled to his feet and went flying after Daniel again.
I didn’t see what happened next, as a commotion below me caught my attention. Lisa Jordan, going spear to spear, had driven Marrock into the barn. Talbot and one of Marrock’s lieutenants entered behind them, fighting sword versus spear. It was only a matter of seconds before Talbot sent a slashing cut into the lieutenant’s throat with the blade of his steel sword. Not a killing blow for an Urbat, but the man clutched at his spurting artery and dropped his silver-tipped spear.
Lisa and Marrock went at each other with their spears—spinning, jumping, and ducking out of the range of each other’s thrusts in a way that reminded me of a kung fu movie. But Lisa shouted as Marrock sent a kick into her belly. She flew backward into a tower of hay bales.
“Watch out!” I shouted as Marrock raised his spear to stab her.
Talbot heard my call and snatched the fallen lieutenant’s spear and sent it sailing into Marrock’s back. Lisa rolled out of the way as Marrock fell forward into the hay, the spear still protruding from underneath his right shoulder blade. Talbot rushed at him and grabbed the end of the spear—I thought at first for the purpose of pulling it out, but instead Talbot twisted it with hard, cranking motions. Marrock screamed and screamed, and I knew the silver-tipped spear was not only slicing his insides, but also burning them at the same.