A Hole in the World Read Online Free PDF Page B

at Bianca with big, wide blue-green eyes and reaching for the bars.
    ‘I could ask you the same!’ Bianca exclaims, as she deftly works the lock. She turns her face away, feeling rather than looking, and works at it gently. She’s pleased to notice the chains wrapped around the blonde’s body are looped through the padlock. Release that, release all of her bindings.
    ‘Why are you here?’ the girl enquires.
    ‘To rescue you, it seems,’ Bianca replies, after a moment, as the lock clicks and gives way.
    ‘Are you Prince Charming?’ the girl asks, hesitantly.
    Bianca stares at her. ‘What? No.’ She pulls the chains from the released lock and quickly helps the girl shed the ones wrapped around her.  ‘No,’ she repeats, as she slips the bobby pin back into her hair. ‘I’m Bianca.’ She reaches out and grabs the girl’s hand, squeezing it tightly. ‘And I’m going to get you out of here.’

Five
    Bianca pulls the blonde girl to her feet by the hand and when she wobbles for a moment she places her other hand on her arm, steadying her. ‘What is this place?’ she asks, cautiously.
    ‘It is the Grand Enchantress’ Prison,’ the girl says, as though it’s obvious. ‘You know not what this place is and yet you have come to rescue me! You are truly a remarkable Prince!’
    Bianca shoots her an irritated sideways glance. ‘Look,’ she says, as she pulls the girl towards the exit, ‘let me make one thing perfectly clear: I’m not a Prince. I’m not a Princess either. I’m just a girl. A normal girl.’ She glances down at their hands, fingers linked together, and switches her grip to the girl’s wrist, deciding that hand-holding doesn’t help the not-your-prince defence.
    ‘But, your clothes! So strange for a Princess such as yourself to be adorned in such masculine attire!’ The girl gestures down at Bianca’s pyjamas; a dark blue, short sleeved shirt thrown over the top of long, black pyjama trousers. With trainers. Classy .
    ‘I’m not a Princess! They’re pyjamas ,’ Bianca says, with a glare. ‘To sleep in?’
    ‘Py-jamas?’ the girl says, carefully.
    ‘Oh, Jesus Christ,’ Bianca says, the palm not attached to the girl’s wrist finding its way to her own forehead.  ‘We really shouldn’t be discussing this now ...’
    ‘Why not?’ the girl asks, shuffling nervously closer to her saviour.
    ‘Because I’m busy having a nervous breakdown and should be on my way to a-’ Bianca breaks off, eyes widening as her eyes land on the doorway in the far wall of the chamber. Just inside it is the shadow of a guard fast approaching and, if Bianca is right, carrying a large hammer in his hands. ‘ And because any second now, we’re both going to be dead!’ She gestures towards the shadow.
    ‘Barka!’ the girl exclaims. ‘He is the one who captured me and locked me up in this godforsaken place at the Enchantress’ behest! If he finds me to have escaped, he will punish us both for sure!’
    ‘In that case, come on.’ Bianca tightens her grip on the girl’s wrist. ‘We need to go before he catches us.’
    ‘Oh, you are for sure my Prince Charming!’ the girl exclaims, in Bianca’s opinion only one step short of dancing with glee .
    ‘I am no one’s Prince Charming,’ Bianca snaps. ‘My name is Bianca Western and, for one thing, I’m female . Now, come on!’ She pulls on the girl’s wrist and drags her towards the corridor she entered from, just as the owner of the shadow steps into the light of the cavern.
    Barka, Bianca discovers, as she looks back, is eight foot tall. But that’s not the horrific part. The horrific part is what he is.
    ‘Oh, my god!’ Bianca hisses. ‘He’s a troll !’
    ‘Barka!’ the girl exclaims, as though she’d told her that. ‘Barka!’
    ‘You didn’t think to mention he was a troll ?’ Bianca demands, in a suspiciously high voice.
    ‘Barka!’ the girl repeats.
    Bianca gives up and, instead of tackling the Barka/troll issue some