Free Rachel Golden and the Retriever of Sin by Oliver Jackson Page A

time.
    ‘Can I see it?’ A different voice, higher pitched and weaselly. Possibly the guy that looked like a rat.
    ‘Sure. Just be careful,’ came the unseen reply. There was a snuffling noise, and then the unmistakable ding of her pocket watch. ‘Why does it keep doing that? It’s annoying me now. Pig-face. Go see if the girl’s conscious. I want to know what this Retriever thing does.’
    Rachel let her head fall down again, pretending to be out cold, but had a feeling the act wouldn’t last long. She heard her unicorn neigh, and the grunting of Pig-face as he led it by the tether around to Toby and the rat.
    ‘Oh look, she’s sleeping,’ Toby said. ‘I would hate to wake her.’ Sarcasm. ‘Ratboy, do me a favor stick your claw in that hole in her back, would you? I think that might wake her up.’
    ‘I’M AWAKE!’ Rachel snapped her head up. ‘I’m awake. No need for any claws to go in any holes. And before you ask, I don’t know what that thing does. It was only given to me a couple of days ago. And as far as I know the guy who gave it to me didn’t know what it does either. It just dings sometimes.’
    Toby frowned, letting the pocket watch spin back and forth on its chain in the late afternoon sun. ‘So you don’t, for example, know how it’s used to open portals then?’
    Rachel was genuinely surprised. ‘It does that? Wow.’ Then she tried to rally. ‘I mean, yes, of course it does that. If you untie me I’ll show you how.’ She mentally kicked herself at how stupid she was being, but you try losing a couple of pints of blood and see how cunning you are.
    Toby laughed. ‘Aw. How sweet, your little lies. Don’t worry, Rachel. We’ll camp tonight, and should have you at the castle by late tomorrow. You can explain to El all about how it works.’ He winked at Ratboy, who snickered, then winced in pain. He licked at the space where his tooth used to be and gave Rachel a look of pure hatred.
    ‘Smash it open,’ Pig-face grunted. ‘Wanna know how it works; smash it.’
    ‘Yesss… this is why you aren’t in charge, Pig-face. But do feel free to join in. How’s the Safeguarder, by the way? Not dead is he? I don’t care—we have the girl and the watch—but if he’s dead we can dump him, and I can ride the unicorn.’
    ‘Breathing,’ was all Pig-face replied, and Rachel took that to be a good sign.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    ‘Oh, no. No no no. Why aren’t they stopping? It’s getting dark . What if they don’t camp, and just keep going through the night? We might lose them!’ Ros was understandably nervous and fretting. Things couldn’t be going more wrong, and on his test mission of all times.
    ‘Calm down, you fraidy-dog.’ Assorted Colors was taking it a little better than his companion. ‘No one travels through the night here. You know that. I don’t care who they are. There are worse things than unicorns that come out at night. They’ll stop and light a fire soon enough.’
    ‘That’s easy for you to say. It’s not your license that’s at stake. And you saw what happened back there. Rachel got gored, and Kel might be dead for all we know! Did you see when that unicorn hit him?’
    Assorted Colors rolled his eyes. Yes, he saw what happened. He’d been there too. He chewed on his lip thoughtfully. It had been a pretty nasty blow… But this was Altworld. He knew that Heroes’ and Safeguarders’ powers were greater in the Altworld. They were stronger and faster and much more resilient. Though unfortunately, so were the bad guys.
    Ros stopped and sniffed at the air. ‘Smoke!’ he cried with relief. ‘They must have stopped!’ Since the fight in the clearing, Ros and AC had been tailing the kidnappers about half a mile behind them. Which was luckily downwind. They had been relying on Ros’s extraordinary inter-dimensional nose to track their quarry.
    ‘Good. Stop here,’ AC said, and slid down off the dog’s back.
    ‘What now?’ Ros asked, exasperated.
    ‘Time