A thin pine yawned over the warlocks' wrinkled roof and when the boys reached the house, they skimmed up to a branch beside the peephole window.
Peering into the room, they saw a round table with a tall candle in the center. The flames guttered in a draft that blew down the chimney, and strange shadows danced across the walls. Now the boys could see the warlocks; their hoods were down and their long hair straggled on their bony shoulders (except the fat one). Their faces were gray, their eyes were green and they wore dreadful glinting, sharp-toothed smiles. The warlocks reeled around the room, and as they did so, their features began to change and the dark flying shapes were pierced with glittering eyes, flashing teeth and knife-edged silver claws.
All at once and with a deafening shriek the dancing ended. The warlocks seemed to have vanished, and in their place three black wolves paced around the room. They polished their whiskers and sharpened their claws, then snapping at shadows, they ran out of the door.
"We must follow, hayai!" Shinichi whispered.
"At a distance," Heiji said. "If they see us, we will never solve this mystery."
Silent and skillful, Shinichi and Heiji climbed out of the tree. The three black wolves were heading toward the forest on the other side of the hill. Even the men from Kaisen Mura seldom hunted there, for it was literally wolves' and bears' territory and a dark and dangerous place. Not only that, there were even rumours about the mythical kurama lurking around to trick and bait people into their trap. But the two boys, thinking only of Ran and Kazuha, moved soundlessly after the warlocks.
As they drew near to the forest, sweet music issued from the trees and the two boys began to falter. They sat back on their haunches, their heads spinning and looked at each other in dismay.
"The Choir Kids," Heiji breathed. "We are lost, Conan. I am falling asleep."
Frosty moonlight spilled onto the hill and the cobwebs that festooned the bracken glittered like strands of diamonds. Shinichi glanced drowsily at Heiji and sweeping at the cobwebs, he thrust a handful deep into each ear. Without a word Heiji did the same. Deaf now to the bewitching song, they sped down the hill, anxious not to lose sight of the warlocks. When they reached the trees, however, the three black wolves had vanished.
"Now where the heck can they be?" Shinichi muttered, forgetting the fact that Heiji couldn't hear him. He stared at Heiji who was scouting the area to see where they could've possibly gone to and couldn't help feeling a heartthrob beating through his chest. He had never felt like this towards Heiji before. It felt…different. It felt almost like the way he crushed on Ran, but slightly deeper. It was like…as if…as if he was…
'Baka! That couldn't be it!' Shinichi denied. 'I can't be in love with Heiji! He's my best friend! Besides, I like Ran-sama! My heart is for Ran-sama, not for…I'm a straight person now…am I?'
Heiji realized that he was being stared at and turned to Shinichi, which Shinichi quickly looked away, blushing red. Finally, deciding to trust in their sixth sense, Shinichi and Heiji entered the forest. Ancient trees grinned and threatened, tangled roots caught and tripped their feet; and branches cut through their already healed skin, but the proud boys pressed on until they found themselves on the fringe of a glade lit by flames. The three black wolves were circling a fire, and their smiles were so wild and wicked that Shinichi and Heiji almost turned back at the sight of them. But as their eyes became accustomed to the fierce light, they saw small figures dressed in white moving beneath the trees, and they knew they had found the Choir Kids.
Shinichi and Heiji leapt into a tree just as the black wolves ceased their wild walk. They faced the crowd of little children, and one of the wolves, the one with a streak of golden brown across his head, stepped forward.
The children stared up at her fearfully, and Shinichi and Heiji swept the cobwebs out of their ears. They couldn't believe their eyes: the Choir Kids were literally children no older than 7, and they were all dressed in white clothes from head to toe, with a pair of silver fairy-like wings that glittered under the fire. All of them had strawberry-blonde hair and matching blue eyes and looked like little angels standing before three huge demons. The glade was silent; a warlock was about to speak.
"Children," he said. "You have pleased us. You have punished the blacksmith and the carpenter, but it is not enough. Today the weaver refused me. He has a baby. You must sing it to sleep and club it. If you do not, you know what will happen!" And he raised a paw that glittered with razor-sharp claws.
Out of the crowd crept three children. Two of them were slightly different than the rest of the crowd. They have silver blonde hair and silver eyes, with wings of gold and glittered more magnificent than the other Choir Kids and they had tiny crowns above their heads. The third person was chubby, with no wings and holding a club, and looked just like the rest of the Choir Kids. Shinichi and Heiji assumed that they were the King and Queen and the Guardian of the Choir Kids.
"We have decided not to harm any more children," the King said. "Our power of songs is supposed to be used to calm travelers and people who get lost in the woods and guide people who search for them to find those poor lost souls, and the power of our Guardian Genta's club is to punish those who do not cherish and try to destroy our natural homes. We're not supposed to use them on young teens and kids to make them sleep forever! This is not our way!"
"You will do as we say, King Mitsuhiko," the wolves snarled, "or we will kill every one of you!"
"We have made our decision," the Queen piped up. "We will not bite children! Hurting little kids for your own satisfaction was not part of the bargain!"
"Foolish Queen Ayumi!" the warlocks shrieked, and they pounced upon the little kids and struck them with their terrible claws.
The two royal children rolled over and lay still.
"You'll pay for this!" Genta yelled as he raised his club to hit the warlocks, but in vain. He, too, suffered the same fate as one of the warlocks smashed him onto the tree Shinichi and Heiji were hiding, making him bleed from head to toe, much to the horrified Choir Kids.
"We must finish those warlocks, once and for all," Shinichi whispered, and together he and Heiji leapt from their tree onto the three black wolves.
The warlock-wolves had claws that burned, teeth that sank into the very bone and the strength of a hundred dogs. But Shinichi and Heiji clung on until even their eyes began to fail. Shinichi, armed with an iron mallet, and Heiji, armed with a chisel and a hammer, attacked the wolves again and again without even stopping for breath. Using whatever weapons they've obtained from their masters' workshop, they were bent on the kill and were slightly deafened by the shrill howls and shrieks made by the wolves as they pound them over and over. They could hear the cries and screams of the Choir Kids as they ran for cover. They thought they must be fighting in their sleep and that when they woke, they would find themselves in the barn.
But when Shinichi and Heiji opened their eyes at last, they were in the forest and the taste of blood told them they had not been dreaming. Beside them were three motionless, bloodied forms and around them were their work tools used as weapons, drenched entirely in blood.
"Dead!" Heiji said. "And look, there are the King and Queen of the Choir Kids."
Shinichi and Heiji limped over towards the body of King Mitsuhiko and Queen Ayumi. They lay their motionless, stained in blood with a wound fatal by the warlocks' blow. The fascinating thing was their blood was not red, but silver-blue in colour.
"Well, at least we didn't have to kill them," Shinichi said. "The warlocks did it for us. Kuso, my body hurts worse than before!"
"To think that Shounen Kid went through loads of trouble and herbs trying to cure our wounds," Heiji sighed helplessly. "Come on, let's take these kids to our masters. Boy, what a painful way to die."
With but one thought the two boys picked up a tiny body, and carrying them gently in their arms, they crept out of the glade.
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