Morgain's Revenge - Laura Anne Gilman [60]
“Uh-oh.”
“Grrrooooowwwlllp?”
The door at the end of the hallway slowly opened, and something poked its way through.
A giant bird, was Gerard’s first thought. But what was a bird doing in there? Then more of the body came through—a long, pelted, sinewy neck, coated in a thick shag of hair, followed by massive paws and shoulders.
“By all that’s holy!” Newt yelped. “A griffin!”
Trust Newt to recognize a creature, no matter how magical.
“Should we run?” Gerard asked.
“Where?” Newt replied, staring in delighted fascination at the creature coming toward them in an oddly cat-like, belly-to-the-ground crawl. “Back down the hall? It will be on us in an instant. Into one of the rooms? And wait there for how long?”
“So we sit and get eaten here?”
“Pity you lost your sword during our swim, isn’t it?” Newt sounded oddly calm for someone about to be eaten alive.
Gerard took some comfort from that. Newt was generally pretty much against being eaten, or otherwise made dead.
“Grrrllll?”
“Hello there,” Newt said, staying perfectly still.
“Is it…like the dragon? Is it intelligent?”
“About the same level as a dog,” Newt said, then paused. “At least, I think.”
“You think?” Gerard responded in a harsh whisper. “You think?”
“I’ve never actually seen one before. Just heard stories. I think…I think this one’s still a kitten.”
Since the kitten was the size of a large horse, Gerard did not feel at all relieved by that news.
“And what do we do if momma’s still around?”
“Not much,” Newt said. “Hey, boy. Hey there. Aren’t you a good boy, yes you are.”
He was keeping his voice even, conversational, and the griffin seemed to be responding well, rising up off his belly a little and tracking him with his gaze.
But maybe, Gerard thought uneasily, he was just getting ready to spring.
“Grrrrlll?”
“That’s an odd meow,” Gerard said, then reconsidered. How else could a bird-headed cat meow, except oddly?
“I…” Newt seemed suddenly hesitant. “I don’t think he’s meowing, exactly.”
“Exactly?”
“Ailis,” Newt said.
Gerard looked around to see who Newt was speaking to, then his head swung back around like it was on a swivel when the creature responded: “Grrrrll?”
“Yes, girl,” Newt said. “Can you take us to the girl?”
The griffin seemed to consider that for a moment, then turned in the narrow space, and headed back out the door he came in through, turning his head back once as though to say, “Well? After all that, aren’t you coming?”
“Holy…” Gerard breathed deeply, but followed Newt when he went after the griffin down the hall and through a pair of swinging doors.
“Sir Tawny! Where have you been?” Ailis’s voice was coming from a room down the hallway. The griffin bounded forward, still uttering its plaintive call. The boys exchanged glances and hurried after, impatient to get to Ailis and get out of this place. It had taken them seemingly forever to reach this hallway, and yet it was just a hallway down from the hallway they had started in. Or so it seemed.
“Magic,” Newt had muttered more than once. “I’m trapped in an entire building made of magic.”
They caught up with the griffin outside a door. Clearly it was unable to go into the room itself, but stuck its head in to receive scratches on its head. Unfortunately, that meant that there was no way for Newt or Gerard to enter, or be seen by anyone inside the room.
“Ailis?”
“Gerard?” There was total, absolute astonishment in her voice, and then a “mrowr” of protest from Sir Tawny as he was eased back out into the hallway.
The three of them stared at each other for a moment, then Ailis was hugging them both, hard, and babbling about how she didn’t think anyone knew where she was, how did they know where she was, how did they find her?
“I saw Morgain steal you,” Gerard finally managed to say. “Merlin sent us here. And ‘Sir Tawny’ led us to you. We’ve come to take you home.”
Ailis blinked at them, one hand reaching out to scratch again at Sir Tawny’s feathers as he snuck his head back in through the doorway. “Home? But…I’m not ready to go.