Snowbound

SIXTY

Rachael, Will, and Devlin were following Kalyn down the first-floor corridor.

“All right,” she said. “So here’s how I see it. What do they want?”

“To kill us.”

“No, you’re rushing ahead. Think of a more concrete motivation.”

“I don’t know.”

“First, they want to get inside this lodge. We want to keep them out, or at least know if they make it in and be ready to deal with that.”

“Okay.”

“So we start thinking about all the points of entry.”

“How many are there?”

“Right now? Probably more than forty.”

“How’s that possible?”

Kalyn stopped, opened the door of room 111, pointed to the window. “First priority is locking every room on every corridor.” She knocked on the wood. “These doors are thick, and the locks look damn near indestructible. That’s not to say they won’t be able to get through, but they’ll make a hell of a lot of noise doing it. You have a master key, Will?”

“Yes.”

“Give it to Devlin, let her go and do that right now.”

“I don’t feel comfortable with her running around by her—”

“I think we have some time to work with here.”

Will pulled one of the master keys out of his pocket, handed it to his daughter. “Go,” he said. “Be careful, and remember to check every door after you lock it.”

As Devlin took off back toward the lobby, they reached the alcove.

“Here’s our first trouble spot,” Kalyn said. “I’ll bet they try to come in through a window either here or at the north-wing alcove. Or both. We should station someone, maybe even two people, a little ways back in the corridor with shotguns.”

“Who? There’s just me, Rachael, and—”

“We’ll need help from Sean and Ken, maybe even some of the women. Come on.”

They jogged back down the corridor, emerging finally into the lobby.

Kalyn pointed to the entrance.

“I’m not terribly worried about those doors. We’ll lock them, but no one storms the castle through the front door. With those iron bolts, they’d literally need to blow it off the hinges. I’m not sure they’re going to announce their presence like that, since they won’t know what they’re facing.”

She led them through the passage, past the dining hall, to a door that opened onto the veranda. “We’ll need someone here.”

They backtracked into the lobby, now approaching the library.

Devlin was already to the end of the first floor of the south wing. Will could hear the doors slamming, locks turning.

They entered the library.

“No one can be in here, since they could pick us off through the windows. We’ll station someone in the lobby to watch this door and the front entrance and back up the corridors.” She opened the small door to the right of the fireplace. “This would be another great point of entry.”

They started down the spiral staircase, their footfalls echoing on the metal, causing it to vibrate, Will gliding his hand along the railing.

“Move very slowly,” he said.

“I’m not going anywhere, Will. Don’t know if you’ve realized, but we need each other.”

They reached the floor of the cellar. Peering just ahead, Will could see a door outlined by seams of light where the sun passed between the cracks.

Kalyn opened it. Light poured in. He saw the empty cages.

“They won’t all enter the same way, but this is where I’d come in.”

Kalyn’s eyes fell upon something that made her smile.

She approached a wall adorned with ancient tools—saddles, scythes, machetes. Kalyn tapped one of two enormous bear traps.

“This thing’s made to catch grizzlies,” she said. “Break a man’s leg like it was nothing.”

“You think they still work? Looks pretty rusted out to me.”

“We’ll see. Come on, let’s head back up. I want to take a look through the binoculars.”