The knights bound their hands tightly with rope and tied them together. When that was done, the knights mounted their horses, and the thickly bearded knight glared at the four teens, then turned his horse, kicked his heels, and trotted away. The rest of the knights followed, one of them holding a rope that all four teens were tied to.

Lucas was first in line, followed by the girls, with Michael bringing up the rear. They had to trot to keep up with the riding knight and were all breathing heavily soon.

Michael was still wearing his backpack, and Lucas could hear him mumbling and grumbling but not saying anything so loudly the knights could hear. Lucas had left his backpack back at the entrance to the cave, not that it would have done him any good since all it had in it were some books and some gym clothes anyway. Before leaving the river, they’d eaten all the snacks Sarah Beth had brought to the swimming hole.

Lucas thought about how he could sure use some of those snacks now. But they didn’t even have a bottle of water.

Lucas was terrified. He knew they all were. Sarah Beth and Harper both kept looking at him, expecting him to fix this somehow, both of their eyes bright red and full of tears.

The knights marched them back to the battlefield. It was horrible.

Dead men and goblins lay everywhere, red and green blood soaking the ground, so much that it was soggy, and when they walked, the thick liquid, now mixed and black, clung to their shoes.

The knights stacked their dead into rows, and then a small group, led by the knight with the thick, dark beard, put the four of them on horses, and they all rode away.

Lucas felt panic overtake him. How were they going to get back home? That was the main question… But others raced through his mind as well. Where were they? What was this place? What were these knights even going to do with them? Were they going to be killed?

Lucas had no idea, but for now, the main goal was to stay alive at any cost.

The knights led their horses away and towards a broad road that ran away from the battle. They rode fast and hard, all of their butts and backs getting sorer and stiffer with each passing mile. None of them had ever ridden a horse before, so Lucas tried to tell each of his friends just to hold on when he got the chance.

After what seemed like hours of hard riding, a city appeared on the horizon.

It was magnificent, Lucas thought, and definitely not something that was in his world.

There was a tall tower in the center, white and glinting in the sun, that looked like some new-age skyscraper with parapets and points all over it.

Around the tower was a city, a medieval-looking city, Lucas thought, with stone buildings and houses, none more than three or four stories high, dwarfed by the incredible tower.

The city was surrounded by a large stone wall at least twenty feet high and bordered by small villages made of log cabins, each with roads made of brick cutting through them.

The knights rode them all through a massive gate in the wall, then down more city streets. They passed gaping onlookers dressed in everything from the plain clothes of workers to the elegant gowns and suits of people with apparent wealth.

They rode to the tower and, at the base of it, at a large entrance, the knights dismounted. Two knights helped the girls off their horses so they wouldn’t fall, while two others practically dragged Lucas and Michael from theirs. Then, they all followed the bearded knight into the tower, pulling their prisoners along behind them.

Inside, Lucas didn’t have time to be amazed by everything as the knights dragged them through the main hall, a cavernous beast of an opening that must have had fifty-foot-tall ceilings. The inside of the tower was marble and ivory and shone and twinkled. Statues of men and women, obviously kings and queens from the past, with their ornate crowns on their heads, were carved into almost everything.

The knights pushed them through the great room as onlookers, men, and women dressed in fancy but very medieval-looking clothes hardly seemed unsettled to see four young people being shoved along.

Lucas didn’t like what that meant. This wasn’t an unusual sight.

They were taken to a smaller room, but still, it was enormous. It was as large as a church and similarly decorated, with a central aisle cutting through rows of pews towards a grand throne standing on one end. The throne had a high back that fanned out and was covered in what looked like jewels. Rubies and emeralds, and diamonds sparkled from the golden throne.

People were sitting in the pews and standing in front of the throne.

On the throne sat a girl, one about their age Lucas thought. She wore a blue dress with diamonds embossed on the sleeves and around the neckline. Her hair was so blonde it looked white, and she had skin so light it was almost translucent. Her large, blue eyes narrowed when she saw the knights pushing the four teens down the aisle toward her.

People were sitting in chairs beside the girl. A woman, maybe ten or fifteen years older than the girl, sat on the left in a beautiful chair, but nothing like the throne.

The older woman was dressed in a maroon gown that hugged her figure, leaving nothing to the imagination. She had black hair hanging beautifully around her pretty, flawless face and over her shoulders.

Standing behind the woman with black hair was an enormous man dressed in thick black armor that had spikes on the shoulders sticking up almost a foot. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, so Lucas could see that he was extremely ugly, with a thick scar running down the right side of his face, the eye on that side milky white.

To the girl's right was an older man, sitting in a plane wooden chair that looked like it had been dragged over as an afterthought once the preceding’s that were obviously taking place had begun.

The knights dragged the four teens to the front and pushed them in front of the girl sitting on the golden throne.

She looked at the bearded knight who was in charge of bringing them here but said nothing.

He glanced around the room, and some unspoken understanding passed between them.

Then the girl said, “Leave us. Today’s court is over.”

The people in the seats and around the room murmured, then, with grunts of displeasure, began to get up and head for the doors.

“My lady,” the older woman in the maroon dress said. “This is most unusual and is embarrassing you. You have a duty to your people. You can’t just end court because…” she waved a hand at the bearded knight, “he brings in some common criminals.”

The girl snapped a vicious look her way. “I know what my duty is, Zayne. I am tired of court today.”

The woman, Zayne, looked away in embarrassment at being scolded, her cheeks turning red.

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Everyone waited while the people filed out. Finally, when the last one left, the thick doors closed with a bang behind them.

Lucas felt alone. They were at these people’s mercy. He pushed closer to Sara Beth, and she pressed herself into him.

“Now, Sir Bram,” the girl on the throne said. “Please tell me what this is all about.”

The bearded knight, who had brought them here, Sir Bram, took two steps forward and stood in front of the girl, who Lucas was now taking as some kind of queen.

“My Queen. We found these four on the Glowing Grasslands. We’d chased some goblins down who were raiding your subjects’ farms, and after dealing with the goblins, we found them.” He looked at the four of them. “They say they were dropped here.”

The Queen nodded. “I see.”

Zayne, the older woman, spoke again. “Dropped here? By a rift? Dear gods, man, did you close it? We must execute them and then get our army prepared. There may be more on the way.”

Lucas’s stomach twisted into a knot, and his knees went weak. Execute them? What in the hell was going on here?

The queen snapped her fingers and rudely pointed at Zayne. “Calm down, Zayne. We need to assess the situation first.”

Zayne bit back a snarl aimed at the younger woman. “Yes, my queen.”

The old man sitting on the other side of the queen spoke. “She is right. The Eth must be notified. We must turn these…” he looked the four teens over. “Well, they look human enough. We must turn these humans over to the Eth.”

The queen turned to Sir Bram. “Did you see the rift?”

He shook his head. “I did not. So… I have no idea if they really are rift jumpers.”

The queen nodded slowly. “Take them to the tower and lock them away. Then, I will decide what to do with them.” She glared at Zayne. “If they are rift jumpers, then we will give them to the Eth. But we must be certain. The Eth will move down from the mountains if another rift has opened up…” She hesitated, thinking. “We need to be certain it was a rift.”

Sir Bram nodded and took hold of the rope that held Lucas’s hands. He didn’t like the sound of any of this. This was all so insane. He wanted to wake up from whatever lousy dream he was having. Lucas wanted to shout and scream, but he knew it would do no good.

“Wait,” Michael said. “We’re from Earth. We, like, fell out here. We just went through a hole and landed here. We just want to go home! How do we go home? You can’t kill us! We haven’t done anything wrong.”

Sir Bram punched him in the stomach hard, and he doubled over.

Zayne jumped from her chair. “See, they admit it. They fell here. Through a rift. Guards! Steg, arrest them!”

The big knight who had been standing behind Zayne came from behind her chair towards them. He drew a long, black sword from a scabbard on his belt. Some of the other guards left in the room also moved to grab the four teens. Sir Bram and the men who had taken them from the fields and brought them here drew their swords.

Lucas’s mouth fell open. It looked like there would be a battle here and now over who would be able to kill them.

“Halt,” the queen commanded, loudly and firmly, but without screaming. All of the men stopped. “I give the commands in my kingdom.” Zayne’s mouth twisted in rage, but she waved her hand, and the enormous knight and the other guards who’d been going to take them backed off. “I will decide what to do with them. I am the Queen. Not you.”

The Queen looked at Sir Bram, who nodded to his men and pulled the teens toward a side door.

Lucas looked over his shoulder and saw the queen staring down at the older woman, Zayne.

“You do not give commands in my court. Mother.” There was so much anger on the last word that Zayne flinched like she’d been slapped. The queen looked at the woman with so much rage that Lucas thought her head would explode. Then the young queen stormed off in the other direction with the man who had been sitting beside her limping along behind.

#

The knights brought them out of the great room and took them down a hall lined with white tile and white walls. Lucas looked back when he heard what sounded like an elephant following them.

It was the huge knight with black armor. Steg, the woman, had called him. He stomped after them.

“Oh crap,” Lucas said.

“He’s not the one you need to worry about,” Bram said, dragging Lucas along.

Lucas didn’t like the sound of that. If he didn’t need to worry about the angry, scared-up man hulking behind them, then who did he need to worry about?

As they walked, they passed another massive door open to reveal another massive room behind it. Inside were very short green men with pointy ears, all carrying buckets of gold to desks where other short green men were counting it.

“What is that?” Michael said, his eyes wide with surprise. “Is that gold?”

“Shut up,” Bram said as they hurried along.

Michael didn’t risk getting punched in the stomach again by saying anything else, but Lucas could see him crane his neck to get one last look at the gold in the room. Lucas shook his head. They needed to worry about things other than gold right now. Gold wouldn’t get them home.

The knights took them to a room that was furnished with elegantly decorated couches and chairs. They pushed them inside, with Steg lurking darkly behind them. When they were inside, without saying a word, Sir Bram cut the ropes that tied their hands. He didn’t look at the girls at all while cutting their ropes but gave both Lucas and Michael a hard stare while he sliced their bonds away. One that said don’t try anything.

“Stay here,” Bram said as he closed the door to their prison cell. Before the door closed, they could see two of the knights that had brought them here take up positions standing outside of the door.

They all looked around. The room was full of couches made for sitting and some obviously made for reclining. Lucas thought they were all ornate and plush, something you might find in an old antique store.

Sarah Beth ran to him and threw her arms around him. Harper threw herself onto a couch, put her head in her hands, and started crying.

Michael walked over to the windows, one whole side of the room was encased in glass, and looked down on the city below. They were high up in the tower now.

“What are we gonna do?” Sarah Beth moaned into Lucas’s chest. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” Lucas whispered. I just don’t know.

From the window, Michael said. “This place is… massive.” He stared out in awe. “There’s like a whole city down there. Did you see all that gold in that room? That must be like their treasury or something. I’m pretty sure I saw a diamond the size of my head. Man, if they weren’t going to kill us, this might be a cool place. I’d like to take some of that gold home.”

Harper looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “A cool place? You wanna rob them? Are you out of your fucking mind? There were like gobliny things, then we were taken prisoner, and they want to execute us, and you think this would be a cool place to live?” She shook her head at him. “You’re such a fucking idiot.”

“Fuck you, Harper,” Michael said.

Harper jumped from her seat. “Yeah, in your dreams, asshole. This is your fault. Us being here is your fault. You guys are the ones who wanted to go into the woods and into that cave thingy. And now we’re here. This is your fault!”

Michael started yelling at her. “You didn’t have to come. You got yourself into this. Don’t blame me.”

Harper balled up her fists. “Don’t blame you? You two wanted to come down here, and you mouthed off to those guys about being from America. Did it never cross your little pea brain that maybe… just maybe… shutting the fuck up was our best course of action?”

Michael turned red-faced. “You wanna see our best course of action? I’ll show you…” He’d been wearing his backpack the whole time, and no one had thought to relieve him of it. He unzipped the pocket and pulled out a black pistol.

“Oh god,” Harper said and turned away in disgust.

“Oh shit,” Lucas said. “Where the hell did you get that?”

Michael grinned stupidly. “I stole it from my mom’s boyfriend. I got two more clips for it, too.” He pulled out two fully loaded magazines. “Now, follow me. We shoot our way out of here and let these fuckers know whose boss. We could even take that little bitch queen hostage and demand they send us home. We could even take some of that gold with us!”

Lucas shook his head. “No way, man. That’ll never work. We just need to think. Maybe we can explain how we got here and that we just want to go home.”

“Yeah, it will,” Michael said.

Harper said, “You are such an idiot, Michael. All you’re going to do with that gun is get us killed.”

Michael waved it in her direction. “Wanna bet?”

“Yeah,” Harper said. “I do want to bet. And I hope if you get anyone killed, it’s just you.”

Michael started towards Harper like he might do more than yell at her.

“Enough!” Lucas said, tearing himself away from Sarah Beth and getting between them. He put his hands up to calm both of them. Then, he turned to Michael and said, “Put that away… for now.”

He turned to Harper. “Look, You’re right, ok. It’s our fault. Let’s just get out of here and figure out how to get home, and we can decide who gets the blame later, ok?”

Harper’s face was red, and her whole body was shaking. “And how are we going to do that, Lucas? Did you not hear what they said down there? They want to execute us. Or turn us over to something called the Eth… Whatever that is. How are we supposed to escape this tower, get out of this city… and, I’m totally guessing here… But then get to something called a rift, so we can… what… magically go home? How the fuck are we going to do that?” Harper put a hand on her hip and cocked her head, waiting for anybody to come up with something. “And don’t tell me you’re seriously considering this moron’s plan to capture that girl and demand they set us free.”

No one said anything to any of that. None of them had any idea how they were going to get out of there. They were just middle-class kids from Earth. They didn’t know how to fight or pick locks or have any skills that might be beneficial to escaping this place. Lucas knew Michael might have a gun, but he’d never shot one before.

They all turned when a voice said, “She’s right. Kidnapping me wouldn’t work.”