“Out! Now!” cried Lee, jumping to her feet and grabbing the broom and bag.

Outside the carriage all lights were out. Lee kicked open the door and Karl and Cintia followed her into the passage. The darkened corridor was silent, but then the train began to move again. They could feel it picking up speed.

Karl felt the freezing cold of the night air assail him as they entered a bare wooden carriage, piled high with trunks. The wind whistled through the planks.

“The baggage car?” snorted Cintia. “Not exactly royal treatment.”

The train was picking up speed, rushing into the darkness.

“We’re going too fast,” murmured Lee. “I’m going to check on the driver.”

They made their way across the baggage car, into a grimy, narrow truck with open crates and the pungent reek of gunpowder.

There was a clanking noise and the train seemed to pick up speed. “What was that?” said Cintia, frowning.

“It sounded like the baggage car uncoupled itself from the passenger cars and now we’re stuck with the speeding train,” said Lee, her green face solemn. “It was no accident. It must be one of Steel’s spooks.”

There was a hissing around them … and then it seemed to come from the gloom ahead. Then out of the darkness, Karl saw a deeper shadow. It had the form of a man with a helm and black cloak. The shadow gripped another man, a living man, and the visor of its helm swung open.

There was a chilling voice of a man. It had the same hollow resonance as the voices of the ghouls in the palace. “Gaze into the face of Fear!”

“No!” cried Lee, running forward.

“Careful, Karl,” Cintia cautioned. “Stay back.” She began to rummage through one of the crates.

The shadow relinquished his grip on the soot encrusted man who slumped to the floor and reared up, seeming to grow in height. Karl felt a chill as the evil spirit grabbed his mother’s broad shoulders and there was a creak as the black visor swung aside. “Gaze into the face of Fear!”

Lee stood for an instant, still as a statue, but then she cried in her piercing voice; “Gaze into my fist!” She punched the evil spirit hard through the helmet, her green fist bursting out the other side. The evil one staggered backwards and Lee swiped at him with Twiggy the broom, whose twigs began to glow with an ethereal light once again.

Cintia ran forward. She was brandishing a sparkling and hissing stick of dynamite. “Perhaps it’ll work on this beauty?”

Lee nodded, her red hair rippling and bouncing. She took the dynamite and shoved it into the darkness behind the ghoul’s visor and then lifted him bodily and flung him out of the rushing train. There was an explosion some way away from the rails.

Lee breathed hard, her breast rising and falling and then knelt beside the sooty man. She bit her grey bottom lip, and her brows drew together at the sight of him. His face was frozen in a look of abject terror. Karl looked away.

“No pulse,” said Lee. “He’s dead. Poor thing. Frightened to death by the visions of Fear behind that ghoul’s visor.”

“Perhaps he had a weak heart?” suggested Cintia.

“W- what did you see behind the visor, Mum?” asked Karl.

“I hope you never have to find out,” said Lee, gently touching his shoulder. She sighed. “We’re going too fast. I’ve got to check on the driver, although I fear he is also dead.”

The car they were in was coupled to the train itself. Lee laid Twiggy down and then leapt up, scrambling onto the train. If Karl had not known her so well, he would have marvelled at how a lady of her size could move with such agility. Then she was out of sight.

“The excitement isn’t over, I fancy,” said Cintia, a small smile playing around her soft, pink lips.

“Where did you learn to use dynamite?” asked Karl.

Cintia shrugged. “You’re lucky I had the presence of mind to do something. When that Fear creep made himself solid, he could be blown up.”

It was not lost on Karl that she had not answered the question.

Lee leapt back into the car, landing crouched on all fours, her long red hair in disarray around her. She got to her feet. Karl could tell from her face that the news was bad. “No one’s driving this train. And the chain that links this car to the train has fused solid. It’s like the metal has rotted. Fear could not have done this. He wasn’t that powerful. There is another evil spirit on the loose and it may well manifest soon.”

Cintia raised her pale eyebrows. “Manifest?”

“Take physical form.”

“Lucky you’ve got me really, isn’t it?” said Cintia. “We need to uncouple the train, so what about some dynamite?”

Lee nodded. “That’s a good idea Cintia. If you’re sure…”

“Of course I’m sure, haven’t you already seen me do it?” Cintia sounded irritable that Lee doubted her expertise in explosives. Soon she had another fizzing stick of dynamite and had thrust it between the links of the chain. The three of them crouched in the far corner of the car, Lee’s strong, cold arms around Karl and Cintia. There was a small explosion that rocked the car and then the train shot forward, leaving them behind.

“There, see, perfectly safe. Get off me.” Cintia scrambled to her feet and peered out of the car at the track ahead. Lee helped Karl up and they both followed her to peer out. There were snowy plains and trees in the distance on either side of the track. In the distance, there was a great, stone bridge. The railway track continued across. The train sped far ahead. Their car was slowing down, but it was not stopping yet.

“The river of Sleep is nearby,” said Lee. “Those with power can reach the Giant realm.”

“Mm,” said Cintia, still peering ahead. “Wait! What’s that?”

Lee’s blue eyes widened. Her green face looked stricken. Cintia’s freckled face looked equally stricken. Karl couldn’t quite see what the matter was, but then he saw a gleam of white in the moonlight ahead. A skull… no a grotesque shape crouched on the bridge ahead. What was it? As the car rolled forward Karl saw more clearly. It looked like a huge, rat skeleton in rusty armour, crouching on the bridge. And the bridge was cracking, crumbling… A section of it gave way! The train rushed on and fell off the bridge, landing with a terrible crash into the ravine below.

“Move! Now!” cried Lee. She pulled open her bag and took out the old harness she had used to tether Karl to herself when he was little and they were flying. She lifted him bodily and strapped the harness around them tight, so that her breasts were mashed into his back. She tied the bag to the broom and straddled it, at the same time, grabbing Cintia by the arm.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Don’t argue!” snapped Lee. “Get on now.”

Cintia grumbled and straddled the broom behind Lee who ran forwards, Karl still strapped tight to her so that he could not move and his feet could not touch the floor of the car. Lee took a running leap out of the car and Karl’s heart leapt as they seemed to glide in a circle through the chill night air and then land in a snow bank. The car rolled on along the track and then followed the train into the ravine.

Karl’s head was spinning. Lee’s voice seemed to come from some distance away. “Oh darling, this has all been too much. Come… On my back. It’ll be just like I’m giving you horsy rides again.” That had always been a fun game. Lee giving Karl piggy back rides when he was little, although she had called them “horsy rides.”

“Horsy rides? Is that a game where a prince has an alien horse?” said Cintia. Cheeky of her. She was suggesting that his mother looked like an alien horse because of her green skin and long face. Karl wanted to snap at her, but found himself to tired to speak.

Lee answered angrily though. “I don’t know why you think it’s a joke. The most dangerous ghoul yet is after us. You saw how he burned that bridge.”

“Rotted it more like. It’s like he rotted the stone at a touch. Would be cool if he wasn’t out to kill us.”

Lee had managed to strap Karl to her back and he clung to her, hands on her shoulders. Her red hair tickled his cheek. Probably Cintia might think he looked ridiculous like this. Oh well… He really didn’t feel well enough to impress her.

“We’ve got to move Cintia. Fast,” said Lee, her voice terse.

They ran crashing through the woods. Lee was weighed down with Karl and the luggage, but even so, Karl knew she was holding back a lot so that Cintia could keep up.

“Where are we going?” Cintia panted.

“I have a plan. If we can get to the near edge of the River Sleep…”

“You want to get back to Giant land? Aren’t there giants and creatures who are actually scary? Not like you.”

“Yes there are, but it’s our only chance.”

There was a hissing sound through the trees. Karl felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. A terrible voice hissed: “Think you can run children? Mortis will rot you alive with a single touch. For my fetid touch brings decay!”

There was a crashing. A tree was falling down. Lee changed direction and the trees began to thin. They were out of the woods on a snow covered plain. In the moonlight, Karl could see a river… although the shining waters were not flowing. Lee beckoned to Cintia. “Come. Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not. I’ll go anywhere you dare to go.”

Lee strode into the shallows of the river. The water had a curious silvery sheen of its own.

Then Mortis emerged from the woods. A rat skeleton in rusty armour that lurched forward with twitching, jerky movements. He touched a pine tree and the bark blackened and rotted immediately and the tree began to fall. “You can’t hide, children… wait, what’s this green alien creature doing here? No matter, you will all decay here… your bones will rot.”

Lee grabbed Cintia who squawked in protest, and carried both her and Karl as she strode through the shallow waters of the river and over to the far bank.

“Come and get us, if you dare, evildoer!” Cried Lee.

“Oh, dare Mortis does,” hissed the ghoul, splashing into the water. At that moment, there was a rumbling and then a rushing. Karl turned his head, and to his astonishment, he saw silvery waves of foam, white as snow surging in their direction, almost too fast for him to see. The waves rushed past the three of them as they stood on the far bank. Mortis was still splashing through the river…

The waters engulfed Mortis as he hissed and roared in rage… before he was swept away. The waters rose and Lee and Cintia stepped back.

“How did you do that?” said Cintia, her blue eyes wide.

“The river can detect the intrusion of great evil. It’s a defence mechanism. I did not do it. Come, we’ve got to find shelter.”

Karl could see the stars were brighter here and the Moon seemed closer somehow, just as it appeared from Lee’s mountain cave. In the distance there was a vast, black forest, with towering trees... But he didn’t want to admire the scenery. He just hoped Lee would find shelter soon. He rested his face against her shoulder and clung tighter, but he knew he could not sleep like this.

“Don’t worry, my love. I think I see shelter.”

“’bout time,” grumbled Cintia. Karl looked up. They seemed to be entering a strange hall with a low ceiling. Lee crouched down and unstrapped him and then took him by the hand as he slid to the floor.

“What sort of hall is this?” said Cintia, her face eerily pale in the moonlight. “There’s no back wall for a start.”

It was true. There was a missing wall. They had just marched right in. But there were no proper doorways.

Lee looked around. “It’s not very homely, but it’ll have to do… wait, I see a smaller room.”

There was a round doorway leading off the main hall. Lee had to stoop to go through it and it turned out that the room had a lower ceiling than the hall. Lee brought the pink safe cracking key out of her pocket. It gave off a rosy light that lit up their surroundings. They were in a tiny, windowless room with rounded walls and ceiling. A room shaped like a cylinder. A weird design. The walls were close together. Cintia lounged against the round wall opposite the entrance.

“Well this is cosier, said Lee plumping herself down. Karl was grateful when she took off her fur coat and wrapped it around him in his furs, so that he was in a perfect cocoon of furs, and then cuddled him to her. She smiled as he looked up into her green face and lightly brushed her cold lips against his forehead. “Rest now, my son.” He felt himself drift off to sleep.

00O00

Karl awakened from his slumber to the sound of female voices. His mother and Cintia. “Alright Cintia, but be careful.” Cintia was just leaving to go back into the hall, apparently. It was still dark, but then, there were no windows. Karl could only make out his mother’s lurid, green face above him and not much else. Lee smiled at seeing Karl awake and kissed his cheek. “She’s just getting some snow, dear. We’re out of water.”

Karl had been glad of his cocoon of furs when he fell asleep, but now he felt uncomfortably hot. Anyway, why complain? They were safe and his mother had seen off a pair of ghouls yet again. He remembered how Mortis was defeated. “Quite something, the river having a magic defence, wasn’t it?”

“The great ones, the first giants, they could do many amazing things, not least shaping the world. They were a different ilk, really… later giants, ogres and trolls were tiny fragments of the great ones. And the night-hags were spawned when a great one let loose his seed into the river of Dream…” Her grey lips twitched to form a wry smile. “Lovely to think about. And Aila wonders why I am an existentialist.”

Karl laughed. It just felt so good, being in her arms. He could forget all their troubles and the menace of Steel and his ghouls.

Cintia arrived. She had filled the canteens with snow. Lee brought out the dried meats and fruits from her bag. Karl was so hungry, the dry food nicked from the palace kitchen felt like a hearty meal.

“He felt quite recovered from his fatigue, and wanted to go for a little walk after breakfast. Holding his mother’s hand, he felt quite brave. Cintia said she wanted to stay in the room, but quickly changed her mind and wandered after them.

The day was bright outside and the main hall was lit up by the sun streaming through the gap left by the missing wall. All of a sudden, the ground seemed to shake. Lee instinctively put her arms around her son. Was it an Earth-quake?

“Don’t look and be afraid…” Lee began.

“What is it?” Cintia certainly sounded afraid.

“I should have realised. We found a giant’s mitten. We slept in the thumb compartment.”

“What! You didn’t realise we were in a giant mitten?”

“Well did you?”

The ground shook and a huge shape loomed over the landscape outside…