Castle Kidnapped Read Online Free PDF

rock and sat down to wait for his irises to contract.
    Presently they did, just in time for him to watch the portal disappear with a pop.
    â€œSo much for life at Castle Perilous,” he said dully.
    The portal could reappear, but more than likely he was stuck here. Forever.
    He decided not to wait around in the hope that the doorway would rematerialize. The presence of the bush informed him that there was life here, and where there was life there was danger. This position was too exposed and vulnerable.
    As he gained the lip of the gully, he saw the city, a fanciful grouping of domes, spires, and free-form shapes sitting on the plain. The buildings were of a single color, a faded blue-green. That it was a ruined city was not so much apparent as sensed. Silence sat on the plain, an ancient, empty silence.
    He regarded the city for a long moment.
    â€œThe cover of Astounding Stories , circa 1932,” he said. “Maybe a little Thrilling Wonder thrown in. Could be an Edmund Hamilton piece."
    He checked to the right, then to the left. Nothing else in sight.
    He struck out across the plain.
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    Castle
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    Jeremy was not quite sure when the dream had begun. Call it an extended hallucination. Was it when he had heard the police? Had the wild delusions started then? Or had he actually jumped off the roof? Maybe it was like that story he read (Jeremy had not read much fiction beyond comic books, but what he had read he remembered), the one by Ambrose Bierce—“Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Yeah, that was it. Maybe he was hallucinating this whole thing in one flash as he plummeted.
    If he was in the middle of falling to his death, he sure was taking his good old time about it. His best guess was that he had been in the castle at least two days.
    He knew it was a castle, because it looked like one on the inside, and also because he had seen bits and pieces of the outside through a few of the windows. Through other windows ... well, he wasn't quite sure what he had seen. Alien worlds, maybe. Crazy stuff. But not the craziest. The real nutty stuff happened when a window or doorway would pop up anywhere, right in front of you, maybe, and you found yourself about to step into a primeval swamp, or a jungle, or a spooky city, or any number of other curious locales.
    But that wasn't all that was insane about this place. There were creatures here. Something purple and multi-armed had chased him yesterday—halfheartedly, he suspected, because the thing could move fast, and probably could have caught him if it had wanted to. Maybe the thing was as lost as he was and wanted company. Jeremy had got that feeling, but had been too scared to stop running. Maybe today. If he saw the thing again today, maybe he would stop and try to communicate.
    But maybe not. Jeremy was still scared, scared even of the humans. The humans had spoken to him, asking him to come with them. Something about meeting the “other Guests."
    â€œYeah, right, lady!” he had yelled over his shoulder as he sprinted away. They weren't going to throw him into any dungeon. “Guests,” his butt.
    But maybe he shouldn't have run. Maybe they really had been trying to help him. They looked harmless enough—if you believed that people running around in funny costumes could be harmless.
    But it was possible. After all, who had put the food outside the door of the strange room he had slept in last night? He had assumed the tray had been left there by mistake, but now he wasn't sure. The food had been great, although he would have eaten a dead skunk by then.
    He had to do something sooner or later; soonest, if he wanted to preserve his sanity. He had given a great deal of thought to turning himself in. It made him laugh. Turning himself in. He was wanted in Fantasyland, too. Mickey Mouse had a warrant for his arrest. No, he hadn't seen any Disney characters—yet—but there was no telling in this place.
    He was