The mauled gremlin let out a shriek of terror as Mister’s claws began to rake, and I went into action, whirling the coil of leather cord at Scar Eye’s face. The leather cord hit him in his only good eye and sent him flinching back and away from Lacuna—who suddenly produced a small, sharp blade from I know not where and struck it cleanly through her own braid, freeing her from Scar Eye’s grasp.
I hurtled at Scar Eye and slammed my shoulder into his chest, driving him off the table’s edge, across the kitchen, and into the Bane-made doors of the pizza freezer.
Behind me, I caught a glimpse of Mister raking and shaking a second gremlin while Lacuna deflected a thrust spear with a kung-fu hand and flung her little knife at a third.
Scar Eye howled as his back touched the Bane and seized me with terrified strength. His arms fouled my wings and we both crashed to the floor. He bounced to his feet like rubber, took uphis hatchet, and smashed it down at me. I rolled clear as he struck thrice more in a single breath, the mortal hatchet raising sparks from the concrete floor and sending chips of poured stone flying.
Tick tick tickwent the boom.
I caught the gremlin leader’s wrists as he brought the hatchet up for a blow and we struggled for control of the weapon, bodies straining.
“Your lord will fall,” the gremlin’s buzzing voice murmured. “His house will be laid waste. It is only a matter of time. One night, one day.”
“But notthisnight!” I snarled, and then I surged with the full strength of my body and whirled with Scar Eye, driving the mortal hatchet’s edge into the thin steel of the refrigerator doors. The hatchet sank into it to the eye and stuck there.
Scar Eye stared at the weapon, his eye wide, then whirled to me.
Lacuna’s wings buzzed as she came down beside me, her reclaimed sword dripping with gremlin blood. There was a thump, and a gremlin corpse fell to the floor from the Bane-made table. The form of the big tomcat appeared at the table’s edge, bright green eyes on Scar Eye.
The gremlin made a fatal mistake.
He panicked.
Scar Eye darted to one side with the agility of his kind and streaked for the door.
Mister lifted one paw, judged the speed of his target, and made a single lazy bound down from the table.
Which solved the gremlin problem.
“The pizza!” Lacuna hissed.
“Right!” I said. We buzzed over to the boom. The ticking thingwenttick tick tickand was round and had a lot of little hash lines on it.
The blue light buzzed in and said, “Dresden will be here in forty seconds... Oh, crap, only thirty-six left.”
The round thing my lord had set out earlier wentbingand all three of us jumped and let out a little shriek.
“Wait!” Lacuna said. “That’s it!” She strode determinedly toward the boom.
“Whoa, there!” Bob the Castle said. “Do you know what you’re doin— You know what, thirty seconds, screw it.”
Lacuna knelt down by the boom, seized the plastic dial—and turned it mightily. It rotated up until a red hashmark was by a number that said30.
“There,” Lacuna said firmly. “Now you have thirty minutes to save the pizza.”
The blue light wobbled for a second and then said, “Oh. Yeah. Guess this wasn’t exactly a Spetsnaz team or anything. Good work, Tiny Tish.”
Lacuna narrowed her eyes at the blue light as heavy biggun footsteps plodded closer, and my lord and Sir William came charging into the kitchens. My lord slid to a stop, breathing hard, his dark eyes wide, and surveyed the place.
“Is that agremlin?” he said a second later. “Bob, what the hell did you do with my cat!?”
An hour later, we were all on the roof of the Castle, looking at the stars and eating pizza.
“How are the Guard, Major General?” my lord asked.
“Several injuries, one severe, none mortal,” I said. “We were fortunate, my lord. We drove the enemy forth.”
“Next time try to take one alive,” he said. “It’d be nice to know who sent them.”
