A Tale of Red Riding: Rise of the Alpha Huntress (The Alpha Huntress Series Book 1) (13 page)

Chapter 15

“We’ve gotta get out of here sooner than later, or we’re totally doomed,” Ash said.

Red, Ash, and Dote dashed down the long corridor leading away from Ice’s grand ballroom. The wounds Red had taken during the battle were starting to throb and ache. Her ribs were going to be sore for some time after the crushing they took at the hands of Ice’s vile spellcraft.

At the moment, her only concern was getting Ash and Dote safely out of the palace. She just could not endure the thought of something bad happening to them.

“Ash, didn’t I tell you to go home?” Red said.

“Consider yourself darn fortunate that I never listen to a thing you tell me, or you would never have gotten out of this mess.”

“So what happens now?” Dote asked.

“We make a break for the sewers and hope they don’t catch us before we get there,” Ash said.

“The sewers?”
Red and Dote said in unison.

“Yes, the sewers. Unless you know a better way,” Ash said.

For the next few minutes, Ash led Red and Dote through a series of hallways and doorways that only one totally familiar with the layout of the house could follow. Along the way, they snuck by several guard posts and even maneuvered around a couple of hidden ones.

“I can’t believe anybody could have such a massive house,” Red said.

“It’s over a half-mile from end to end and has hundreds of rooms,” Ash said.

“And from the look of it, enough priceless junk to fill a museum,” Dote said.

Ash led Red and Dote down a hidden staircase that the servants used to get in and out of the house. He explained, “The Seethers designed the palace so their servants can come and go without ever being seen. Not that many of them ever leave. In the basement there’s a huge living area. The estate even has a greenhouse and cattle stable to assure that outside food is never needed.”

“Ash, you sound like a tour guide,” Red said.

“You did say I should show you around sometime.”

“So what about Ice’s parents?” Dote asked.

“From what I hear, they’re always off traveling,” Ash said. “I don’t know anybody who has ever seen them. I’m not even sure what they look like.”

Ash led them to a huge metal door in the darkest corner of the servants’ area. He pulled and heaved with his scrawny arms, forcing the door open. The harsh stench that came from the darkness inside made Red and Dote recoil in disgust. Making it worse, the sound of a clanging bell erupted in the near distance.

“That’s a bad sound, right?” Red asked.

“Yep, opening this door sets off the alarm,” Ash said. “If they’re not already looking for us, they will be now.”

Red grabbed Ash by the shirt. “Are you trying to get us caught?”

“Trust me, Red. I’ve got it covered.”

Red let out a sigh of doubt and released Ash. “Just so you know, it would be good to avoid getting caught. I’m not exactly in shape for a fight at the moment.”

As they entered a pitch-dark stone chamber, Red could hear water flowing down below. One at a time, they carefully made their way across a creaky metal bridge.

At the far end, Ash opened the rusty cover over an air duct. “After you, ladies.”

Red and Dote exchanged reluctant shrugs. As soon as they were all inside, Ash slid the cover shut. The smell was worse than it was on the bridge, surely the result of clumps of wet mildew and roaches crawling around the inner walls.

“How is this helping us?” Red asked.

Ash gestured for Red and Dote to be silent. Seconds later, several guards entered through the metal doorway and dashed across the bridge. Red watched through the vent cover as they passed by and headed down a long staircase.

Ash whispered, “We have to wait a couple of minutes for the guards to search the basement. Once they’ve cleared it, we’ll be good to go.”

Red did her best not to look at the cockroaches scurrying around their feet. “I sure hope Wolfgang is okay.”

“In all my life, I would have never guessed he would come to our rescue," Dote said.

“Stop kidding yourselves,” Ash said. “Whatever reason that guy showed up, it had nothing to do with saving Red’s tail. Not unless doing it can help him get whatever it is he’s after.”

Red shrugged. “All I know is he covered our tails while we got away, so he’s got a friend in me.”

“I sure hope you don’t live to regret that,” Ash said. “Now quiet. They’ll be back any second.”

As soon as the words left Ash’s mouth, the guards raced back up the stairs. There was soon the sound of a metal door slamming shut. Ash slid the vent cover open and peered out to make sure it was clear. “Okay, let’s move.”

Red, Ash, and Dote crawled out of the vent and headed down the metal staircase into the darkness below. The further down they went, the worse the smell got.

Red shuddered at the sounds of what she assumed were rodents scurrying all around them. “This place is a major creep show.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve been down here a hundred times,” Ash said.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the sound of flowing water became thundering loud.

Red pressed a hand over her nose. “When you said sewers, I had no idea you meant this.”

“How about a little less complaining and a lot more
thanks for saving our lives
?” Ash reached into a gap in a cracked brick wall and pulled out a small lantern. A few hard shakes caused it to illuminate.

Red took a closer look at the lantern. Inside a glass sphere, dozens of tiny glowing creatures were flying around. They were quite furious over being disturbed. “Whoa, are those fire flies?”

“More like teeny tiny fire fairies,” Ash said.

“Just hope you never encounter their people-sized cousins,” Dote said. “They’ll burn down your house if you get on their bad side.”

“These little ones are mostly harmless,” Ash said. “You just have to remember to feed them every so often, and they’ll pretty much live forever.”

Red looked at the fairies banging against the glass. “They don’t look harmless to me.”

“They are as long as they don’t get out.” Ash approached a rusty metal gate and shined the light through the bars, illuminating a brick waterway on the other side. “This is our way out.”

Dote whimpered. “Are you sure this is the only way? It stinks like something died down there.”

“Lots of things die down there,” Ash said. “Unless you want to be one of them, we’d better get moving.”

“Just open it up already,” Red said.

The gate’s rusty hinges squeaked and screeched as Ash pulled it open. Red and Dote cringed, both sure that the noise would alert the guards.

“Don’t worry,” Ash said. “I’ve done this a hundred times. The guards won’t give the noise a second thought.”

On the final push, one of the rusty hinges sheared in half under the gate’s weight. The entire thing crashed down, causing a metallic banging and screeching. It was so loud, Red, Ash and Dote had to press their hands over their ears.

The three friends exchanged nervous looks.

“Oops.” Ash said.

“Let’s move. You can’t tell me they didn’t hear
that
,” Red said.

Ash was quick to squeeze through the jagged metal debris left in the wake of the fallen gate. Once he got into the waterway he reached back to help Dote as she fumbled to get through. From the top of the stairs came the sound of a door opening, followed by the shuffling of booted feet dashing down the steps.

“They’re coming,” Red whispered. “We’ve gotta hurry.”

“Distract them for a few seconds. Dote’s foot is stuck on something,” Ash said.

“Sorry,” Dote said with a whimper.

“What am I supposed to do?” Red asked.

“You’re the Alpha. Come up with something,” Ash said.

The guards emerged at the bottom of the stairs and stopped cold when they saw Red.

The lead guard pulled his sword and pointed it at her. “Hold it right there, little girl!”

“Little girl? I’ll have you know, I’m the Alpha Huntress.”

The guards began to advance. Having no energy to fight, Red did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed Ash’s lantern and flung it at their feet.

The glass sphere shattered to bits, freeing the fire fairies inside. An ear-piercing buzz erupted as the tiny creatures swarmed all around. The guards broke into a panic of swatting and swinging their swords at the attacking fairies.

“Red, we actually needed that,” Ash said.

“You said to improvise.” As Red squeezed through the jagged debris, she heard fabric shredding. A glance down revealed a shard of metal had ripped her dress down the side. “I have
soo
had enough of my clothes getting trashed.”

“I’ll buy you a new one,” Ash said.

Red hopped into the waterway and landed in ankle-deep water. She glanced back to see the guards were advancing and several more were emerging at the bottom of the stairs.

“Ash, don’t let us down now,” Red said.

“I sure hope I can find the way in the dark.”

The three friends began a long trek down the slippery tunnel. Dote and Red pressed their hands over their noses to block out the foul stench. Red couldn’t believe that the odor wasn’t bothering Ash in the least. She wondered if it was because he was just used to it, or if it had something to do with his being a boy.

From behind, sounds of metallic screeching erupted.

“The guards are coming,” Dote said.

“We need to move faster,” Red said.

“This would be a lot easier if you hadn’t trashed my lantern,” Ash said.

They pressed on through the darkness for another hundred yards or so.

“Red, is it just me, or is it odd that Ash knows his way around these tunnels so well?” Dote asked.

“It is a little weird. I’m strongly considering having a talk with him when we get to granny’s house,” Red said.

“How about you two stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Ash said.

“Ash, you have to admit it is a little weird,” Red said.

“Can we just focus on staying alive?” Ash said. “Even if we escape the palace, we’ve got a long journey across Wayward ahead of us.”

“Sorry.”
Red and Dote said in unison.

They came to a point where the waterway forked off into two different directions.

“Which way now?” Red asked.

Ash looked to one tunnel and then to the other. “Left. No. I mean right.”

The sound of the guard’s shuffling boots could be heard not far behind them.

“Are you
totally
certain?” Dote asked.

“Remember? Smashed lantern? I’m going on instinct here,” Ash said.

“Ash, you have to make a choice right now,” Red said.

Ash closed his eyes and thought for a few seconds. “It’s right. I’m sure of it.”

“That’s good enough for me.” Red ripped some fabric off her dress. She hooked it onto a shard of metal sticking out of the wall of the waterway that forked to the left.

“Red, that’s a clever idea,” Dote said.

“Let’s just hope they buy it,” Red said.

The three friends forked off to the right and headed deeper into the darkness of the waterway. The ground was so slippery that they had to hold each other’s hands to keep their balance.

Red could hear the guards approaching from behind. What was truly strange is that she could smell their sweat, and the fragrance told her that they were growing angrier by the minute.

“Which way did they go?” a guard’s voice echoed out.

“Look sir, it’s a piece of the girl’s dress.” another guard said.

“We have them now.”

The sound of the guard’s voices soon faded away.

“It worked, Red. You’re a genius,” Dote said.

They continued for another minute or two, taking several turns along the way and hopping down a few drop-off points. They rounded a corner and could see the moonlight illuminating the open end of the tunnel.

“You did it, Ash. We’re home free,” Dote said.

Ash took a nervous gulp. “Yeah. We made it somewhere.”

The three friends dashed the final twenty yards to the end of the tunnel. Peering over the edge, they all gasped at an alarming sight. The waterway was on the side of a cliff, with a drop off a hundred feet straight down.

“This was your big escape plan?” Red asked.

Ash whimpered. “I guess we were supposed to go left.”

Dote began twitching in a panic. “We can’t go back. They’ll find us for sure.”

“You’re right. We can’t.” Red looked over the edge and saw a small lake below, though it was impossible to know how deep it was. With no other choice, she nodded her head in a calm resolve. “We have to make a jump for it.”

Dote took a frantic step backward. “No way. We’ll go major splatter.”

Ash shook his head in outright refusal. “We have to double back and hope they don’t find us.”

Red looked to Ash and Dote with fearless eyes. “There’s no time to debate it. Now take my hands.”

Dote took Red’s hand and squeezed it. Ash trembled as he took her other hand. Red feared their chances of surviving the drop weren’t great, but it was still better than risking a fight with the guards in her weakened state.

“We go on my count,” Red said.

“I so wish I had said left,” Ash muttered.

Red took a deep breath.
“1 … 2 … 3 …”

Hand in hand, the three friends jumped from the ledge and began free-falling toward the water below. In that brief instant, Red thought of her life before she came to Wayward.

She recalled the countless nights lying in bed, feeling sad and alone, wondering if she would ever have a family to love and call her own—or friends that would stand by her side through thick and thin—or if her life would ever have a true purpose.

As the surface of the water rushed closer, Red realized that in just two days, all of these things had come to pass. “I’m not afraid.”

Red’s mind went blank when they hit the icy cold water. The darkness that surrounded her brought a feeling of tranquility that she would have never thought possible. For the first time, she was truly free from a lifetime of cares and concerns. The moment was so perfect that she wished it would never end.

“Wake up, Red Riding.”

A woman’s hand reached down into the dark abyss and locked on to Red’s arm. Red somehow knew the voice belonged to the Alpha Huntress who came before her.