Exciti

Chapter 6 (Adam)

Dr. Little touched a charm bracelet on his wrist as he raced to face Eiserne, placing Adam and Lucy behind him. The charm grew in a blink into a long, grey wooden cane he now held in his hand. Its upper end split into four branches that parted, twisted and came together again to form a cage around a clay horse that rattled within. Lucy, on the other hand, proceeded to drop the sword and spread her hands in front of her, palms down.

Adam blinked, his jaw on the roof. So many things were wrong with that picture!

Lucy wrinkled her nose. "What is he?" she asked and jerked her hand, making the doll jolt up in response and pick the sword.

Adam stared at the doll. a puppet?

"And where is the other one?" said the doctor. Adam looked around in a panic, he didn't want to be ambushed from behind by the thin guy.

Eiserne smiled, revealing a set of black pointy teeth, and opened his arms. "Aw, he went to look for you somewhere else, Lucky me! I got the roof. But tell me, Adam, is this how you greet your visitors? You should come and say hello!" his voice grew hollower, as if he was talking from deeper still in the metallic armor.

A strange wave of relaxation invaded Adam's body. Why am I running away? For some reason, he wanted to give that nice man a hug and say hello. He stood up to go to him, even Lucy lowered her hands.

"Enough!" yelled the doctor. He shook the staff, and the horse rattled with a jingle against its cage. The ringing sound vibrated through Adam's bones and shook him out of the bizarre need to go to Eiserne. Lucy lifted her doll again, looking pale.

The doctor looked at Eiserne now with fascination. "An iron maiden!" he murmured as if to himself. Lucy gasped and about gave herself whiplash looking between the doctor and Eiserne.

Eiserne's face scrunched in an ugly scowl. His foot clanged as he stomped it on the floor. "A maiden? A maiden? Do I look like a girl?!"

Dr. Little raised his eyebrows. "Fascinating, I have never heard of an iron maiden with a complex before."

"I am...no... maiden!" yelled Eiserne before he dropped his cloak, revealing a rough iron armor covered with black holes, far too deep for how thick the armor should have been. Adam opened his mouth in a silent scream when the holes sprouted dozens of very sharp, foot-long metallic spikes with a loud shlink. It made Eiserne look like the world's most lethal hedgehog.

"Duck!" yelled Dr. Little and shoved Lucy and Adam behind one of the big silver ducts that snaked the roof. Lucy swore when two spikes that shot out like bullets sailed a few inches above their heads.

"Doctor, I think he hates heavy metal," squeaked Adam.

The doctor shook his head and gripped his staff. "I'm referring to iron maidens, the torturing contraptions, not the band!"

"The what now?" Adam croaked then flinched when a spike penetrated the duct and shot out an inch from his arm.

"They are things that shish-kebab their victims, can we get back to our little situation now? This duct is too thin to protect us," Lucy snapped, moving her arm and situating the doll behind them like a goalie.

Eiserne started talking again, "If you had come to me, boy, you could have prevented a lot of collateral damage. But, Alas, I have to skewer you from where I stand, unless you give me the boy, tracker."

A silent conversation passed between Dr. Little and Lucy. She nodded and grabbed a chain around her neck.

The doctor straightened up from his hiding place and raised his staff, "The thing is, I don't want to give him to you. And you know what? For someone who hates being called a maiden, you sure look like one!"

Adam rather disagreed.

The doctor smirked when Eiserne's face swelled up in anger, then many things happened at once: Eiserne bellowed, the spikes on his body bursting out in every direction and impaling everything around them: the exit door, the walls, the floor, one even whizzed past Adam's hair, making him slide even lower.

He was hyperventilating by now, "Why are you making him angry? Can't you see he has anger issues!" Adam's yell was lost in all the chaos.

A few clangs above him made him peer up to see that the doll had climbed on the duct and was zipping the sword around in an astonishing speed. The blade blurred in a silver circle, dotted with sparks in places where the sword made contact with the spikes, knocking them off their course. He looked at Lucy, her face was red with the effort of puppeteering their defense. She nodded to the doctor and he doctor jumped from behind the duct and swung his staff upward, making the horse jingle again.

A sudden thundering noise shook the roof beneath them. Adam shut his eyes and flattened himself against the roof. It felt as if the whole building was being torn apart.

We are going to die.

Then, as abruptly as it all started, all went quiet... except for Adam's heart hammering against his ribs.

"Those tricks won't save you for long, Antiquarian," yelled Eiserne.

Tricks? Adam opened his eyes, expecting to see the sky, only to find the roof's floor, arching over his head and blocking his view. He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked around, it looked like half the roof's floor had twisted up and arched over their heads like the top of a half-opened soup can, blocking Eiserne from their view and shielding them. He stood up, unable to believe what he was looking at.

"Give me the boy!" roared Eiserne as the second wave of spikes thudded against their shield, making it shudder. Cracks started to spread along it like veins.

"Now!" commanded the doctor.

Lucy grabbed Adam's hand with hers then sprinted to the roof's door. He felt like he had reached his quota of comprehension when she managed to insert the bulky old key in the thin modern keyhole and turn it. She yanked the door open just as the floor/shield fell down in a shower of debris.

Lucy dropped Adam's hand and the three of them soared through the door. Adam slammed it in the face of the next incoming volley of spikes then turned and sprinted in the direction of the stairs. The stairwell was very dark, but he navigated his way by memory, praying that the door would withstand Eiserne's full attention long enough for them to escape.

Two steps into his sprint, something solid hit Adam's shins. His momentum tipped his body forward, and he fell on a soft surface with a surprised yell. Quick steps shuffled nearby before the lights came back on.

Adam shot up to face whoever it was, ready for a fight, only to be stunned motionless. In front of him was his very startled mother with her hand on the light switch.

He was in his bedroom.