“What?” My stomach twisted in horror and disgust. I dropped to my knees in front of one of the other cages, where a woman with a blood-stained bandage wrapped around her head lay prone. Her face was deathly pale, her skin icy to the touch, and she was barely breathing. “How are they stillalive?”
“He didn’t take it all,” Shota said, circling the room so he could study the prisoners. “These shamans have all been left with just enough to stay alive. I imagine that Kai is waiting for them to regain their strength so he can take more power from them. That is why he kept themalive.”
“That asshole.” Anger burned hot in my veins as I shot to my feet. “We have to get them out of here. Where is my mother?” I whirled around, scanning all the cages, but I didn’t see her. “Mom, are you inhere?”
“Kai must be keeping her somewhere else,” Raiden said, his voice brimming with frustration as he glanced through the other cages. “And there are no key holes on any of these cages for us to pick. I don’t know how to get them out without accidentally hurting the peopleinside.”
“If you let me down, I can free them,” the badger said in a sing-song tone. We glanced up to see him swinging back and forth gaily from his rope. “I know how to get the humans out of theircages.”
Raiden crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. Then why don’t you tell us how to do it? If it works, we’ll releaseyou.”
The badger shook his head. “It’s not something a human like you can do,” he scoffed. “I have to do it myself. You have to let me down.” His whiskers twitched, and he gave me the most adorable puppy dog look. “Please. My ankles are in so muchpain!”
“I can tell you’re lying,” Raiden growled, glancing from the badger to the cages and back again. “But I’m going to trust you anyway. If you fail me, I will cut out your liver and feed it to a seadragon.”
“He’ll do it. My friend is crazy that way,” Shota added, drawing his thumb over his throat and making askkrtnoise.
“That’s just a myth. Sea dragons don’t eat livers,” the badger replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he hung there. “Now let me down. I’ll do a great job, you’ll see. You’ll be so impressed with my work you won’t know what to do. Greatly impressed. I’m a really great badger, you’llsee.”
“Amazing,” Raiden muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re like apolitician.”
“I guess we need to try,” I said, glancing at Raiden. “But if he does anything silly, gut him like afish.”
“Works for me,” Raiden said as he lifted the dragon blade. He swung it, slicing through the rope in one smooth motion. The badger plummeted to the ground, striking the dungeon floor with a thwack. He lay there dazed for a moment before hopping to his feet andscowling.
“Well, that was quite rude!” the badger snapped, shrugging out of the ropes and moving forward. “Still, because I have promised to help you, I won’t smite you from the face of the Earth. Instead, I will perform a great feat of magnificence the likes of which you have never seen before.” He clapped his paws together as he sauntered toward the nearest cage. “Prepare to beamazed.”
He flicked the cage with hispaw.
Nothinghappened.
The badger triedagain.
Still, nothinghappened.
“I’m starting to think you don’t know how to open the cages,” Raiden said, taking a step forward. The badger scurried backward and threw his paws up inresponse.
“You don’t understand. That should have worked.” The badger nodded furiously before hopping from foot to foot anxiously. Then he smacked himself on the head. “Oh, I know. I forgot the magic words… It was, um… orangutan? No… orange?” He shook hishead.
“Don’t tell me you forgot the magic word,” I said, unable to keep the exasperation out of my voice. It was hard to believe this was really our onlyhope.
“I didn’t!” the badger cried, touching his tongue with one hand. “It’s right here, right on the tip of my tongue. Ipromise.”
“Well, we don’t have all day—” Raidenstarted.
“Akeru!” the badger shouted. Scintillating magic surrounded the cages, making them flare like the sun, and for a moment, I thought they were going to burst open. But after a moment, the glow faded, and the cages remained stubbornly closed, as if nothing hadhappened.
“That was supposed to work!” the badger cried, wringing his paws anxiously. His big eyes darted back and forth between Raiden and thetengu, and I couldn’t blame him—they both looked like they wanted to murderhim.
“It doesn’t seem like it did,” I said, shaking my head. Part of me wondered if I was going to just have to give up and try to melt the cages away. I was betting thekyuubicould do it, but I didn’t want to risk barbecuing everyone inside. Much as I hated to admit it, the badger was our bestbet.
“I think we just kill the badger and be done with it,” thetengusaid, nodding furiously. “He’ll taste great in asoup.”
“Iagree—”
“That’s it!” the badger said, cutting off Raiden. “I know the magic words.” His lips settled into a mischievous smile. “You should count yourselveslucky.”
“Is this where you betray us?” Raiden asked, gripping his sword. “Because if itis…”
