I wanted him back.
“Tom!”
Hoisting the Iron Hammer with both hands, I stepped out of the woods. The hammer must have known I needed courage more than ever before, because the rubies flared a blinding crimson red, while the pale iron caught the moonlight. I heard the Swords step out behind me, Allison muttering something, and the marching line of monsters stopped, looking uncertain. I saw them buckle as the others marched into their backs and confused shouts flooded through the army. I just stood there, trying to be brave as my knees wobbled and shook and threatened to buckle. My hands trembled. My stomach felt like it was going to jump out of me and make a break for it. But my knees didn’t buckle, and my grip remained strong, and the hammer grew brighter.
“Laura!” Tom shouted. “Get help!”
“It’s here!” I called back.
I heard a commotion in the monster’s army, and I saw Dungan pushing his way forward. When he was about halfway through, he saw me and abruptly stopped. I saw the moonlight hit his jagged teeth as he smiled and lifted my brother high into the air, as if reminding me that he had him. Tom shouted and tried to wriggle free, but it was useless.
“Destroy them!” Dungan boomed, so loudly that the monsters around him flinched.
Lowering their rusted black spears, the army of monsters turned toward us, their feet thundering on the grass. Then they started to march.
“Do we have a plan?” Eldon asked tightly.
“Only one,” I said, knowing that if I failed, everyone here would die.
I stepped forward, lifting the hammer up like a torch.
“Dungan!” I shouted. “Are you too afraid to fight a little girl yourself?”
“What are you doing?” Eldon asked quietly.
“Challenging Dungan to a one-on-one fight,” I murmured.
He grimaced. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
But the challenge didn’t work.
The monsters closed in. I saw mammoth ogres approaching from the back, and imps taking flight and darting across the night sky. We would be swept away in moments. Dungan just smiled cruelly at me from the middle of it all. I tried again.
“Some king you are!” I shouted. “Letting your minions do the work. But I guess that makes sense. I’ve heard that all trolls are cowards.”
Yep, that did it.
I saw Dungan’s eyes flash, and then he suddenly lowered Tom to the ground.
“Stop!” he ordered, his booming voice cutting over the noise.
The marching army of monsters instantly stopped and then split in either direction, forming a clear path to Dungan. Uncle Laine had said I didn’t want to meet Dungan. I think he was right.
Dungan was bigger than any monster I had ever seen—double the size of the tallest man and as broad as a pickup truck. His arms were long and lined with iron-hard muscle, protruding from a rusted black chest plate that matched his gauntlets and leg protectors. Only his massive feet were bare—disgusting boogie board–sized feet that were covered with moss and marred further by twisted yellow nails. A shock of straw-like black hair contrasted sharply with his distorted green features, while his nose was mashed in like an overripe peach, his right cheek was bulging and lumpy, and he had disturbingly large fangs that protruded from his mouth and gnashed together as he stared at me.
“Are you challenging me, girl?” he asked quietly.
I met his eyes. “Yep. Unless you’re too afraid, of course. I would understand.”
“I think he gets it,” Eldon muttered.
Dungan laughed, shaking the earth. “Bring me my hammer.”
A goblin hurried forward and grabbed Tom, pulling him backward with a crooked knife to his throat. Behind Dungan, the army parted as well, and four goblins emerged, holding something enormous between them. They could barely lift it. Dungan reached down with one massive hand and picked it up. I felt my stomach sink.
The black hammer was bigger than my entire body. The handle itself was nearly as tall as I was, while the top was the size of my desk. It must have weighed half a ton. Dungan slowly walked forward, letting the top of his hammer drag along the ground behind him, digging into the soil. He smiled cruelly.
“I had my own hammer made,” he said. “Just to crush that puny one you are holding.”
I shifted, looking back at Eldon. For the first time since I’d met him, he looked afraid. I watched as Dungan’s disgusting green feet crunched into the grass, and I saw the muscles in his right arm shifting as he raised the hammer up onto his shoulder.
“I’m going to crush you too, girl,” he said quietly. “You’ve caused me a lot of trouble. More than that fool Laine predicted. Your brother is still of some use to me, of course. He’s going to win me the Under Earth. And when he does, I’ll crush him too.”
I narrowed my eyes, staring up at the massive troll.
“You better focus on killing me first.”
He laughed again. “That will be the easy part.”
Without warning, he swung the hammer up over his shoulder and brought it hurtling toward me like a meteor. I jumped out of the way, and the hammer hit the grass and imbedded itself into the soil with a tremendous thump. The ground shook with the impact. I backed away, thinking frantically about how I was going to beat such a monster. It seemed impossible. Dungan hoisted the hammer up again, still smiling.
“You can’t dodge them all,” he said.
I saw Tom standing with the crooked knife pressed against his throat.
“It’s all right, Tom,” I shouted, “I’ll get you home soon.”
Dungan attacked again, sweeping the hammer horizontally with two hands toward my waist this time. Between the hammer and his enormous arms, his reach was well over two metres. I dropped flat to the ground, letting the black hammer sweep over my head.
When I jumped back up, preparing to charge, I
