The Fourfold Key

Chapter Twenty-One: Showdown

The pulley stopped immediately.

Ruth opened her eyes and looked around, confused. There was no way she had stopped that on her own. Ruth tugged on the rope and realized that not only had it stopped, but it was cold. Ice cold. In fact, it had frozen solid.

"Hurry!" came a voice. "The freezing charm won't last long in this heat!"

Ruth looked up and saw the last person she had expected to see there.

Lemonjello smiled, amber wings fluttering as she hovered off the ground. She extended her hand to Ruth. "Come on. Let's go!"

"What—How?" Ruth sputtered as she allowed Lemonjello to drag her toward the exit.

"Never mind that right now," the fairy whispered. "They can't see us but they can hear us if we're too loud."

Ruth fell silent, letting her questions swirl in her head until she felt her head would burst from it all.

____________

The two girls huddled at the edge of the forest, watching the entrance like it was the only thing in the world.

Lemonjello had already explained why she was here. Apparently, she was the thing that Ruth and Tom had kept hearing after they left her house - and the person Ramere had said was following them. She was the one that had made the guards in the Gnome King's Dungeons go into their trances, and she had also made Tom, Ruth and Ramere invisible. When they had triggered the trap in the Whirlpool she had sped up the water, making them reach air sooner so she could get to them, since she had been watching from outside the whole time. She had then dragged them to shore and made sure the Keys were there; apparently one had been missing, but she found it and returned it to Tom's pockets. During Tom and Ruth's argument in Troll Swamps, Lemonjello had sent a wave of emotions at them, then set north in Tom's mind, so he knew where to go. She had also aided them in countless other small ways throughout their trip.

Ruth didn't know if she should be angry at the energetic fairy for following them after they told her not to, or relieved that she had done it anyway, saving her and Tom who knew how many times.

"So, what happened in there?" Lemonjello asked quietly. Ruth had already told her everything about their adventure up until entering the Mines.

"We snuck in, and the guard at the entrance was suspicious. He got a band of dwarves together and chased us. Tom wanted to run and hide in the tunnel somewhere, but I convinced him it was too risky.

"We turned around and we were going to get on the pulley you found me on, but I couldn't stop and ran right into the first dwarf. Tom pushed him over the edge and pushed me onto the pulley right before they caught him." Ruth wiped a tear from her cheek.

"Is there any chance we could sneak back in? To get them? We could use my magic."

"No. I mean, maybe. But not for a while. All the dwarves are on alert now, looking for me."

"Well, we could—Oh!" Lemonjello thrust Ruth's head under the bushes and ducked behind it herself.

"What?" Ruth hissed, trying to peek over Lemonjello's hand.

"There's a big group of dwarves coming out of the tunnel. Phooey! There's the Sorceress! And Tom! And, um, another guy next to Tom. He looks like you!"

Lemonjello lifted her hand off her head and Ruth peeked over the bushes excitedly. Sure enough, there was her father! He looked tired and washed out, but he was still the same man she had loved years before.

"Dad," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

Tom walked next to her dad, giving him the occasional curious glance. Collen's eyes were closed tightly—he'd been underground for years—and he stumbled with every step. His thin face and ragged beard looked much dirtier than it had in her vision. In fact, everything about him looked worse than he had last she had seen him.