Is it that time again already?
What? Mo thought, reeling from the force of the great reptile’s mind.
It brings me pleasure to see the face of this primate uncovered. I did not expect you so soon. ED’s Jurassic laughter banged around their skulls again. Well done, child of the sun. Very quick. And the other one? He is likewise…revealed?
Fin? I left him back at the ship. He’s fine. He’s safe.
So you knew? Kan spluttered. You knew they were human all along?
The ender dragon chortled. It sounded like thunder broken across the knee of the world. Its massive eyes slid shut. I am the infinite lightning night-lizard at the end of the universe. I am the master of time and death. The fire of creation is my youngest brother. In my stomach, galaxies churn in cosmic acid and are digested into meaninglessness. ED opened one vast violet eye. You can’t fool me with a pumpkin, dummy.
Then you must remember! You must remember when they arrived.
ED flapped lazily around their pillar. I do.
Kan’s excitement made the purple particles floating around his body glow like fireflies. You must know what happened to them. You know why they do not remember anything.
ED rolled onto its back midair and thrashed its mighty tail. I do.
Tell us! Tell her! Kan cried out in the space between their minds.
The ender dragon flexed its claws. Nah, it thought.
Why not? Mo pleaded. I need to know. Who am I? Who is Fin? What should we do? Just leave and never come back?
I would seriously consider it, if I were you, the dragon mused.
But this is our home. Up there…the way Jax talks about it…it’s hard and lonely and everything wants to kill you. You have to know so much. No one helps you or tells you the right thing to do. There’s an Order to everything, but you have to figure out what it is while creatures try to eat you alive. You’re just…on your own. By yourself. Without an End. Mo’s cheeks burned. Her thoughts went very quiet. If we just found another couple of pumpkins, everything could go back to the way it was.
You have come to the infinite lightning night-lizard for advice, ED thought as it dipped down and up again in a graceful loop the loop.
Yes!
I have never been asked for advice before. It is…annoying. Will it make you go away?
Yes, Kan thought. We promise it will.
Very well. Heed my words, mortal children! Life is very difficult and complex above and below. In the End and in the Beginning. You must make your own decisions, and not rely on the world to tell you what to do so that you do not have to think. Nevertheless, there is a path, and you are always on it. Your choices created it. Your actions move it beneath your feet. You have crafted it as surely as any iron sword. The future is uncertain—up to a point. Then it is very certain. And inescapable. You are nearing that point now. And ultimately, the easiest, most correct, and wisest choice is to let me eat you.
Mo threw up her hands. Oh, fine, if that’s all the help you’re going to be.
ED shrugged its scaly shoulders. You wanted my advice. I am selfish. As the universe is selfish. And hungry. The ender dragon turned and flew straight at them. Then it stopped—and hovered. Not flying, simply existing without gravity. I have known you a long time, Ultimo. It’s really best if you let me eat you. The dragon pouted. You never let me eat you. You’re no fun at all.
Kan’s mouth hung open in his sleek black face. Ultimo? Who is Ultimo?
But ED ignored him. Do you know? It asked Mo.
Know what?
ED sighed. What a pity.
You do not make any sense! Kan thought. Frustration burned in his green eyes.
The universe makes no sense, fragment. So I fit right in. Now get out. You promised. Leave me alone. I have much to prepare.
Wait, Mo thought. She trembled a little. ED was so big, so impossibly big. It could destroy her without even noticing. I have to ask you something else. One last question. She winced, then stuck her hand into her pocket and fished around. Jax had done it before, but she hadn’t wanted to explore it herself. She had no idea what an empty block of space-time would feel like. She’d thought it would be creepy and unpleasant, and it was. Cold, dry, vast. It felt grey, if grey could be a feeling. Mo didn’t like it. She felt her hand brush by many things she didn’t recognize or understand by touch—and then her fingers fell on the thing she wanted.
Mo pulled the dragon’s egg out of her pocket. She showed it to the ender dragon.
I have this, she thought nervously. I have this and the human boy said…he said…
Something hotter than the core of a planet ignited deep in ED’s eyes. White ultraviolet flame popped in its pupils. Its breath quickened. The big, shiny black-and-purple egg was reflected in the dragon’s eyes.
ED, Mo thought. She didn’t know how it could be possible. But she had to ask. Did I…did I kill you?
With a scream of pure rage, the ender dragon reared back and vomited a thick, boiling stream of white-purple lavafire toward their pathetic little pillar.
Just before the flame reached them, Kan and Mo blinked out of existence.
The pillar erupted in a tornado of violet fire. It burned for a long time after they’d gone.
It was quiet in the city.
Fin felt like himself again. Tall, dark, and strong. Magenta eyes and a square jaw. Jess looked magnificent as an enderman. But all endermen looked magnificent. Fin had always thought they were clearly the most beautiful species, if you wanted to be objective about it.
“Just walk casual,” Fin whispered. “And don’t talk. You’re supposed to be telepathic.”
They stood on the edge of the city center. Black figures moved silently back and forth on the streets. Behind them, Fin and Jess could just see the shape of their ship floating off the island shore. He repeated the plan to himself. In and out. In and out and back to the ship with the grindstone. Koal and Roary will meet us there. No problem.
Jesster cocked her head to one side. “I’m not, though.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Fin said, distracted.
“That’s very odd, don’t you think?”
“No? You’re human.”
“So are you, Fin. But you communicate telepathically with Mo and Kan and I presume all the other endermen down here. I’m no different than you were when we met now. A human with a pumpkin on her head, which makes her look like an enderman. But I’m not an enderman. The pumpkin doesn’t give me mind-reading powers. But you have them. Why? What’s different?”
Fin rubbed his eyes, exasperated. “Knock me dead if I know, Jess. Yesterday I wanted to kill all humans. Today I am one. It’s a lot. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Can you read my thoughts? Even if I can’t read yours. Might be useful.”
Fin tried. Nothing. He looked hard into Jess’s mind. He searched for that image that always greeted a telepath when they tried to read a new person. Mo’s ship, his open books, Kan’s music, Koneka’s family. In Jesster’s head, he saw a perfectly-built cathedral. Beautiful, soaring, intricate, each stone in its place, the architecture precise and perfect. And the door was shut. She was human. She didn’t know how to let her thoughts out or let others in. It was no use.
“No,” he said.
“Too bad,” answered Jess.
“Yeah.”
“Where’s the armory?”
Fin pointed to one of the fattest, tallest pagoda towers. Its purple roof forked up at the ends like the branches of chorus trees. All the buildings in the End looked alike, but not identical. Whoever built them liked things just so. The buildings matched the trees and the land. It all went together. Fin imagined that appealed to Jess the builder quite a bit.
“On the third level. Where the courtyard looks like a big mushroom. There’s a door and a couple of shulkers ther
e.”
“Like your shulker?”
“No,” Fin laughed. “Grumpo talks about biting me a lot. These actually will.”
Jesster patted her hip. She wore a long diamond sword with a Fire Aspect enchantment on it. It was easily the most fantastic weapon Fin had ever seen. It would have looked so good hanging over Grumpo’s box. Really tie the whole room together. Oh, well. He squeezed the handle of Koal’s crossbow. The boy had lent it to him. Kraj had left them with so little to protect themselves.
“Hold on to me and I’ll teleport us both right in,” Fin said, holding out his hand. The ender pearl in his infinite human pocket was still good. He didn’t know about it yet, because he hadn’t had a moment to think about why he could teleport when he was just a human boy. But it lay there in his pocket anyway, putting out the last dregs of its energy for him to use.
Jess took his hand and the next thing either of them knew, they were standing inside the Telosian armory.
Fin and Mo’s collection surrounded them. Fin gawped. The twins hadn’t always kept their treasure organized and tidy, but at least they treated each item with care. Each thing was precious to them, even if it wasn’t necessarily sorted into categories and stacked neatly. Nobody seemed to care about their stuff here. The room was huge, and everything Fin and Mo owned was thrown into great sloppy piles for anyone to take whatever they wanted without cleaning up after themselves. Weapons, armor, food, ore, potions. All just tossed together into a teetering, tottering trash heap. It glittered in the torchlight.
Fin had never really realized just how much they’d collected. The endersoldiers must have dumped it all back here when the war failed to get with the warring. Ready to be passed out again at a moment’s notice. No wonder Kraj had commandeered it all. There was hardly anything in the enderman armory that didn’t belong to them. If not for Mo and Fin, it seemed as though the End would have had to defend itself with a couple of small sticks and a stern expression.
Jesster opened her mouth to say something. Fin held his finger up to his lips. Funny how quickly and easily he made that gesture. Endermen never had to. No quiet like the quiet in the End. You didn’t think with your mouth, so you wouldn’t shush with it anyway. He’d never even seen anyone do it before. That he could remember, anyway, which wasn’t saying much. Yet his finger flew up like he’d done it a thousand times. Instinct. Habit.
Jess pointed instead. She pointed to something dull and grey sticking out from under a small mountain of boots. The grindstone.
Fin glided across the room. He saw that Jess was impressed. His chest puffed out a little. Yeah, he could move like an enderman. Easy. Can’t you? It wasn’t really gliding. He just moved his feet in a certain quick way that looked like gliding. Instinct. Habit. Fin landed on the small mountain of boots. He reached down to wiggle the grindstone out of the trash heap as quietly as possible.
All hail the Great Chaos, Commander Kraj.
May the Great Chaos smile upon all your works and deeds, Corporal Murrum.
Fin’s head snapped up toward the door. He glanced quickly at Jess. She was standing out in the open in the middle of the armory, totally unprotected.
Hide! He thought. They’re coming! Kraj and Murrum are right outside!
Jess blinked. She spread her hands. What?
Of course, she couldn’t hear him. Ugh! Humans! Telepathy was just so much better than talking.
He tried to communicate with his eyes. Hard stare at Jess, hard stare at the door. Fin waved his hands as if pushing her back. Jess got the message. She ducked down behind a stack of water buckets and shovels just as the two grim, straight-backed soldiers walked into the armory. Fin was shocked to see one of them was Koneka, the juvenile enderman from the Enderdome. She looked…terrifyingly blank. Behind them more endermen followed. Kraj’s personal brain squad was no longer just fifteen but fifty-nine soldiers. Kraj spoke only to Murrum. The rest were just there to make the commander cleverer. Living, breathing buffs.
You may deliver your report, Corporal Murrum. Kraj clasped his hands behind his back. He looked younger than he ever had. Power made him feel feisty, Fin supposed.
The portal is gone, sir.
Kraj looked benevolently at his underling out of the corner of his purple eye. But beneath that benevolence Fin felt the threat of the old enderman’s anger.
Sire, Murrum. Not sir. It is sire, now.
Of course, sire, of course.
The Mouth of the Great Chaos blessed me with a royal title.
Corporal Murrum squinted and squirmed uncomfortably. I thought you decided you should have a title. After you threw Eresha off a cliff because she ordered everyone to disband the army and go back to their homes on account of there being no human invasion after all.
Commander Kraj’s eyes bored into Murrum’s. Where did you hear this utter slander? His thoughts thundered skull-to-skull.
S…s…some of the endersoldiers were talking after hours, that is all. Sire.
The Lord of All Endermen towered above the poor soldier. You are MISTAKEN. Eresha is completely fine and resting comfortably at her house. It was she who chose to honor me. I am the humblest of all endermen. You know that, Murrum.
I apologize deeply, my lord. The corporal shifted back and forth uncomfortably. Well. In any event. The portal is gone, sire.
Closed?
No, sire. Gone. Can you not feel it?
Of course I feel it! Do you think me a weak old enderman without his senses? Kraj exploded.
No, sire! Corporal Murrum cowered.
Fin’s knees ached, crouching on the mound of boots. They were so slippery. He tried to hold on with his toes. If he moved, Kraj and his goons would hear.
The commander collected himself. Humans are a clever, sneaky species. They specialize in deception the way spiders exercise the weaving of webs.
Certainly, Commander, Murrum thought miserably. Shall we start returning all this to the Endless fragments, then? Since the portal is gone and there is to be no war.
Kraj looked at his manservant incredulously. Return it? Whatever for? I need it. All of it. I cannot foresee a time when I will not need it. The human army would not just give up their ambitions, Murrum! No! The answer is simple. They are already here. Thousands of them. All around us, every moment. Why, they may be here in Telos already. In this very tower. In this very armory. We no longer feel the vibrations of the portal because they have shut it behind them. They do not intend to return home. No mercy, no surrender. What a cruel and heartless strategy from a cruel and heartless people.
The horror of the ruthless, calculating human heart settled down onto Corporal Murrum’s shoulders. How do you know, sire? Have you had word?
How do I know? Why, I have thought about it long and hard. I have imagined with the powers of my very good and fully stacked brain. And I have come to a logical conclusion. To me it is perfectly obvious that this is what has happened. I am the wisest enderman ever to live, after all. With my End—Kraj gestured at the squad behind him—no one can outthink me. No, Corporal Murrum, they are hiding their vast army among us. This cannot be denied.
What will you do, sire?
Fin’s legs screamed with the effort of holding still, keeping a grip on the grindstone, and not sliding down the pile of boots head over feet.
I will protect my people, of course. Do not fear. Pumpkins are just fruit, after all. And fruit can be…bruised. A dark smile showed itself between the words of Kraj’s thoughts. Everyone must be interrogated. One by one. I shall do this sad but necessary work. It is a sacrifice I am willing to make. We will uncover the saboteurs. We will punish them. But not as we usually do. That is too quick and merciful. We will make an example of them, so that every human ear in the Overworld hears what happens to invaders and plunderers in Kraj’s Kingdom. And finally, the End will return to its great peace once more.
And that’s when it happened. Fin couldn’t hold still any longer. If he just moved his right leg an inch or so, he’d be on flatter ground. He wouldn’t have to hold on so tight. It’d be fine. He could do it without making noise. Sweet relief was just an inch that way. Fin slowly worked his foot over.
A pair of boots, held in place by his heel, slipped and started to slide down the pile. The boots had hard metal soles. Fin watched it happening with horror. He remembered finding that boot. On the outer islands, with Mo, a million years ago. They had a middling-strength Blast Protection enchantment on them. Pretty good boots, all in all. They were gonna make such a loud clang when they hit the ground. But he couldn’t stop it. It was like it was happening to someone else. In slow motion. Fin was frozen.
Just then, a loud crash sounded from across the room. It totally swallowed up the sound of the old boot clattering onto the armory floor. Kraj, Murrum, and the fifty-eight soldiers behind them snapped to attention. The Lord of All Endermen shrieked like a teakettle devouring an air raid siren and shot across the room toward the water bucket skittering across the floor. The commander punched through the stack of water buckets with one black fist. Fin’s heart jumped into his throat. Jess was back there!
But she wasn’t.
Kraj kicked the other water buckets aside in a fit of rage.
Perhaps it was a stray endermite, sire. Murrum tried to calm his master.
Kraj shoved him aside. You fool! THEY. ARE. HERE.
How strange, Fin thought. Kraj was right. The humans were here. But he was so wrong, too. And Jess. She’d covered for him. Why? He wasn’t anything to her. Why would she risk Kraj’s wrath for him?
Fin suddenly saw a glint in the torchlight. Jess’s eyes, between a teetering pyramid of gold and a barrel of cocoa beans. Not using telepathy was garbage, Fin decided firmly. How could humans stand it? If Jess had been like him, she could have just shown him what she wanted him to do in an instant.
Jess mouthed something. Fin squinted in the dim light, trying to make it out.
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