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“Chester,” I said, turning to the Centaur. “I need a phone! A PHONE!”
But the vague look was back on his face again.
“A lone? Sorry but I don’t lone money to clients,” he said, stamping his back hoof. “Bad policy to start that, don’t you know!”
Well, he probably didn’t have a phone anyway. Where would he keep it? After all, it wasn’t like Centaurs could wear trousers, so they didn’t have any pockets. Desperately I thought of anything else I could do.
Then I remembered something Goody Albright had said to me.
“All you need to do is call his name and I bet he’ll appear instantly,” she’d said, when talking to me about Malik.
I had no idea if she was right or not but there was nothing left to try.
Lifting my voice, I shouted as loudly as I could,
“Malik!Malik!”
Nothing happened and no one came, but I wasn’t giving up. Maybe he had to be summoned instead of just called.
“Malik, Incubus of Hell, I, Celia Hatch call on you now to come and fight for me!” I shouted.
Still nothing. I tried again.
“By the bloodline of my ancestress, Hester Hatch, I bid you to appear, Malik! Come to meNOW!”I bawled so loudly that my voice echoed through the entire cavernous room.
But still, no one came. Malik didn’t appear to save me like he had on the path behind my house. There was no sign of his muscular body or charming smile. There was just nothing…I was all alone with no one to stop the Ogre from eating me.
I was about to call again when Henkelman banged his gavel once more.
“That isenough. You’ve had three calls and your champion has not arrived. I order you to give yourself over to the party you injured so grievously for compensation,” he commanded importantly.
“Like Hell, I will!” I muttered.Iwas the one who was going to be grievously injured if Goremouth caught me! As the Ogrereached for me again, I dodged away and ran to the far corner of the big room.
This didn’t seem to bother Goremouth a bit. In fact, he was grinning from ear to ear as he came for me, his long hairy arms outstretched to catch me.
“Come now girly, time to eat. You’re going to be old Goremouth’s treat,” he grated, grinning that horrible toothy grin.
If only he wasn’t sobig, I thought desperately! He wasn’t very fast but even one of his strides was like three of mine. How could I possibly get away?
I caught a flash of green from the corner of my eye. The doors!
I skittered away from the Ogre’s grasp at the last minute, aiming for the closest glowing green door. But when I got to it, the handle wouldn’t turn. It just twisted back and forth in my sweaty palm and no matter how much I tugged, the door wouldn’t open. Even worse, Goremouth was only a few feet behind me!
Heart pounding with fear, I ran to the other door on the other side of the courtroom. To my surprise, the Ogre didn’t try to stop me this time. He just stood there grinning that evil, hungry grin.
“Go on girly, run—be free. We shall see what we shall see,” he growled.
Never taking my eyes from him, I twisted the knob. It nearly slipped in my sweaty palm but then—oh, thank God!—I felt it turn.
With a gasp, I shoved the door open and—not even looking where I was going—dashed through it and slammed it shut behind me.
Safe—I was safe!
Or so I thought.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The green door disappeared as soon as I was through it and I found myself in a strange, cavernous room. It was dimly lit and at first, I was afraid that I was back in the awful courtroom again. But after looking around, I realized that I was wrong. The room was big and dim, just like the courtroom had been, but it was definitely different.
