by Matt Forbeck
Off in the distance, Thord was methodically whaling on a large vein of diamond that he’d unearthed near the edge of the lava lake. As he worked, the traitor glanced over his shoulder in a nervous way and spotted Archie and his redstone golem coming toward him.
Shocked, Thord cursed in horror and then sprinted over to where Archie’s missing golem stood watching over him. Clearly not in the mood to talk, he produced a bow and arrow from somewhere behind the creature’s legs, nocked an arrow to his bow, and dipped the tip of it into a nearby pool of lava. The arrow burst into flames, and Thord turned, aimed at Archie, and let the missile fly.
The arrow fell well short of Archie and his golem as they approached. It skittered toward them but snuffed itself out long before it came anywhere near them. Before Archie could even laugh at the futile shot, Thord had already nocked another arrow and was setting it ablaze as well.
“Stand down!” Archie shouted at the evoker.
“I knew it!” Thord said as he let his next arrow fly. “I knew you weren’t dead! I knew it couldn’t be that easy!”
This arrow landed closer to Archie but still fell well shy of him. He sneered at the pathetic attempt.
“You turned against me the moment I fell!” Archie said.
“Against you?” Thord barked out a bitter laugh. “I was never for you! Just because a loser like you lucks into finding something as powerful as that Orb doesn’t make you a leader!”
“Being a bully didn’t make you one either!”
Archie held his staff out in front of him like it was a shield. Thord’s next arrow sailed into the night sky, carving a flaming arc of fury, but a ray from the Orb struck out and disintegrated it. Only its ashes reached Archie, splashing across his chest.
Thord threw down his bow with a frustrated snarl. Archie thought he might go for his sword, but Thord reached out and grabbed the redstone golem next to him by the leg instead. “Get him!” he growled at the golem. “Kill him!”
The redstone golem turned and regarded Archie as if seeing him there for the first time—which Archie supposed was true. Golems weren’t particularly observant, after all. Would it follow Thord’s orders without question? Or could the Orb change its mind?
Thord’s redstone golem strode straight toward Archie like it was going to trample him. Archie kept his staff before him and walked out to meet the creature. His own golem followed right behind him.
“You think you can stand up against me?” Thord shouted as he drew his sword. “Let the golems beat each other up. While they’re busy, I’ll take you down!”
Do not fear.
Archie allowed a confident smile to creep across his face. Out of everyone and everything in the world, he trusted the Orb of Dominance most. If it told him not to fear, then he wouldn’t. It would either save him from the oncoming golem, or he would die.
“Yes!” Thord shouted, as he started marching toward Archie, swinging his blade around to get the balance of it once again. “Take down that little runt! Grind him into paste!”
The way Archie figured it, if the Orb was going to kill him, it had a dozen other ways to pull that off. If it was going to betray him, it could have done that countless times already—including taking up with the Nameless One over him. And if it suddenly changed its mind and went with Thord right now? Then Archie was better off with a quick death.
When Thord’s redstone golem reached him, rather than attacking Archie it veered to its right and walked past him. Then it spun about and fell into step behind him. The other golem made room for the new one, and the two settled in next to each other.
Thord gaped in astonishment at his golem’s betrayal. He’d bet everything on the creature following his orders, and to see it turn against him with not even a word from Archie crushed his hopes as if they’d fallen from the top of the Obsidian Pinnacle and smashed into the ground. He turned on his heel and fled in the other direction.
Unfortunately, the diamond vein Thord had been working sat at the end of a peninsula that stabbed out into a lake of lava. If Thord had gone in another direction he might have had a chance to get away. It would have been a slim one, perhaps only delaying the inevitable, but a tiny chance would have been better than none.
Archie really hoped that Thord wouldn’t rob him of his vengeance. Not like that.
He got his wish.
Thord ran all the way to the end of the peninsula and saw that there was no escape from there. He spun to the left and then to the right, seeing much the same thing: a wide expanse of molten rock that would surely incinerate him with a touch. He turned back around then and saw Archie and the two redstone golems marching right for him.
Thord paled at the sight, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet. He threw up his arms, ready to start casting spells, and shouted, “Come on, Archie! You’re not going to hide behind those things forever. Prove to me you’re a real Illager! Step on out from behind them and take me on yourself!”
Archie laughed at Thord’s transparent attempt to trick him into risking his life in an open battle with the evoker. He would have loved to personally return all of the beatings he’d taken at Thord’s hands over the years, but it wasn’t worth it to get within reach of the fangs or the vexes the evoker could summon.
That sort of wisdom is why I chose you in the first place.
Archie stopped where he was and motioned for the redstone golems to come around and stand in front of him. They did so to either side, forming the equivalent of a redstone wall between him and the stricken Thord.
The bully stared up at the creatures and tried to put on a brave face. He failed, though, and the facade quickly cracked. “Hey!” he tried to shout around the massive creatures. “You don’t need to do this. We can come to some sort of arrangement, right? We can make a deal!”
Archie pointed his staff at the bully, and the pair of redstone golems took their cue from that. They surged forward, pressing Thord between themselves and the molten lava.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
After the business with Thord was over, Archie returned to the cavern to see about executing his latest idea. To his delight, he discovered that the Illagers he’d left there had kept busy in his absence. They’d amassed a tremendous amount of diamond and redstone, even more than he actually needed.
Originally, Archie had thought to use the diamond to create more molds for redstone golems so that he could make many of them at once. While that had been a fine notion, he realized now that he’d been thinking too small. Using the Orb, Archie took the pile of diamond and arranged it into a massive mold near another section of lava. If the mold for the redstone golem had been large, this one was gigantic.
While Archie had modeled the redstone golems on the iron golems found in the village, he took some liberties with his new design. He wanted it not only larger but stronger, meaner, and uglier than ever. He wanted the very sight of it to be able to strike terror in the heart of anyone who witnessed it.
When he was done, he realized he had drawn a crowd of Illagers who were curious about what he was up to. He immediately put them to work filling the mold with redstone while he watched. It took them a long while, but Archie discovered he needed the rest. It turned out he didn’t mind watching Illagers work for him, and as he relaxed, he dreamed about forcing Villagers—especially the ones who had chased him off with torches and pitchforks—to handle such chores instead.
Once it was all ready, Archie used the Orb to cut a channel into the ground and guide the lava from the lake to the edge of the new mold. The heat from the lava lake melted the redstone into one large glowing pool that filled the entirety of the massive mold he’d built from top to bottom. It took forever to cool, but when it was ready, Archie held the Orb high once again and willed it to bring his new creation to some semblance of life.
The mold had been so large and complicated that Archie wondered if he’
d ever be able to build something like it again. He could only hope that all of his efforts would pay off.
As he waited, something inside the mold shuddered, and a crack appeared in its diamond shell. A moment later, the shell began to crack. It calved away from its center, one large chunk at a time, each diamond piece shattering as it smashed into the ground.
Soon Archie’s latest and most incredible creation towered before him, a redstone creature that dwarfed even the two golems at Archie’s side. The other Illagers trembled before it in blood-freezing fear, and Archie couldn’t help but throw back his head and laugh.
Archie dubbed it the Redstone Monstrosity. One look at it was all anyone would need to see why.
The monstrosity stood half again as tall as a golem and half again as wide. That would have been enough for it to strike terror into anything facing it, but the vicious horns that topped its skull transformed its already horrifying visage into something far worse. Nothing Archie had ever seen could hope to stand before it.
It was perfect.
Without delay, Archie headed back toward home. This time he had the Redstone Monstrosity carry him atop its massive head. He was exhausted enough to want to sleep the entire way, but too excited to close his eyes for an instant.
When he reached Highblock Keep, the Undead mobs stood milling about the front gate, but the drawbridge had been pulled up, keeping them from moving inside. The sea of creatures parted for him as he had the monstrosity lower him to the ground. He strode through them, the golems and the monstrosity trundling in his wake. When he reached the drawbridge, he raised his staff, and the chains that held up the giant slab of wood rolled out, lowering the bridge into place.
The Undead wanted to surge forward into the keep, but Archie turned around and raised his staff before them, holding them at bay. They recoiled to a safe distance and watched—the husks groaning with hunger—as Archie strolled into the keep.
He brought the golems with him, but he left the monstrosity behind to stand guard at the end of the drawbridge. It was less that he didn’t trust the Undead to stay out of the keep than that he wasn’t sure the bridge could hold the massive monstrosity’s weight.
Walda met him at the other side of the bridge. She was so busy gaping at the Redstone Monstrosity that he had to snap his fingers at her to get her attention.
“What happened?” Archie demanded. “Why was the drawbridge up?”
Walda winced as she answered. “You were gone for so long the Undead became restless. They started to attack some of our people.”
Archie nodded, understanding. “And you thought it would be better to separate them rather than fall into an all-out battle with our supposed allies.”
Walda tensed, thinking that Archie might be trying to lead her into a verbal trap here. She hesitated for a moment before she owned up to what she’d done with a stiff nod.
“Smart move,” he said. “This is why I have decided to not execute you yet.”
Walda relaxed with his first words and then went straight back into a panic as he ended his sentence. “Yet? But why would you want to do that?”
Archie fixed her with a withering glare. “You knew where Thord went. You knew what he was doing, and why. And you never breathed a word of that to me.”
Walda opened her mouth to respond, but Archie cut her off. “You thought he might kill me. And you hoped that if he failed you could just deny everything. Well, he did, but you can’t.”
He raised his staff before her and let the glow of the Orb of Dominance wash over her. “I know it all.”
She flinched in fear and threw her hands up before her to protect herself from his fury. Archie had rarely had the pleasure of having someone grovel before him, but he discovered that he enjoyed it.
This is as it should be.
Archie wasn’t entirely sure he agreed, but it was hard to argue with the Orb’s results. People who were afraid of him seemed much less likely to betray him. Thord hadn’t feared him in the slightest—much as he clearly should have—and that was what had made him so brazen about his treachery.
Archie had known that the Illagers respected his power—the power the Orb granted him—but that had ramped up when he’d returned to Highblock Keep after everyone had presumed him dead. The fact that he had gone into the wilderness and taken care of Thord—and returned with the Redstone Monstrosity in tow—certainly would burnish his reputation even further.
The way Walda cowered before him, he knew. No one would dare to betray him now.
“You—you don’t understand,” Walda finally said once she realized that Archie wasn’t going to turn her to ash on the spot. “Your people adore you. We know that you—and only you—are the one who can bring us all to the greatness that we’ve so long deserved.”
Archie didn’t bother to hide his disbelief. The other Illagers would never love him, but he would be satisfied if they feared him at least. He wondered if he should reconsider sparing Walda. A very public execution of her on the front steps of Highblock Keep would do a lot to let everyone else know exactly who was in charge around there.
You are supreme.
Archie smiled at that, and Walda mistakenly took that as him granting her permission to speak. “To that end, we’ve—ah—been planning a celebration for you. A ceremony!” The desperate words tumbled from her lips in spontaneous bursts.
That caught Archie’s attention. “A what?”
She straightened up, hope flickering in her eyes. “A ceremony to officially crown you as the greatest Illager leader ever to live.”
Archie blinked. He knew she was appealing to his vanity. He wasn’t foolish enough to ignore that. But the idea that others might recognize him as a great leader stunned him.
He had to admit, she had a point about how amazing he was, mostly because the bar for great Illager leader had been set staggeringly low. To be fair, Walda was the only Illager leader Archie had ever met, but he’d heard of others too. Walda was reported to be the best of the lot.
But Walda’s wildest ambitions had only involved keeping her people together and fed. They’d not tried to bring others into their fold. They’d not attempted to take any territory. At best, they’d only harassed any village they came across. At worst, they’d spent days if not weeks fleeing from heroes who’d decided to try to rid the land of them.
She’d never considered trying to conquer the entire land, but Archie—who’d only come into his true power a short time ago—already had his people on the precipice of actually managing just that. He could see why his people would want to lionize him. He had no doubt they’d be singing his praises for generations. Long after those who knew him in life had passed away, he would be a subject of myth and legend.
Why not enjoy a bit of that attention in the here and now?
“A crown, you say?”
Walda brightened. “Yes! To go along with your title! The perfect thing to symbolize the heights to which you have climbed. A tall crown, fashioned from gold and adorned with precious jewels.”
Archie pursed his lips, confused about this. None of the Illagers had the skills necessary to craft such a phenomenal piece of regal headwear. “Where did you find such a thing?”
It comes from the keep’s vault. I fashioned it for you myself.
Walda froze, unsure of how to reveal the answer to Archie. When she saw the angry look on his face, though, she instantly confessed. “While you were gone—when we thought you were dead—we took the opportunity to explore every bit of Highblock Keep. In the dungeons, we discovered a vault filled with the most amazing riches.”
It lies behind the room in which sits the throne.
Archie realized that he should have been mad about the fact that Walda explored the depths of Highblock Keep while he was gone. He didn’t recall making that room himself, but the construction of the place had been a blur.
Still, he was too intrigued by the appearance of a proper, glorious crown to be too worried about it at the moment.
How had the Orb come up with a crown for him? And a vault filled with treasure to go with it?
I peered into your heart and saw how best to fulfill your deepest desires.
The idea that the Orb could read into even his subconscious thoughts disturbed Archie, but not so much that he was going to fail to enjoy the results. He wondered what else the mysterious thing had seen and what it might do with that information…
“We were going to show it to you when you returned from the dead, but you took off so quickly to deal with Thord that we never had the chance,” Walda tried to explain.
Archie wasn’t at all sure he bought it, but he motioned for her to go on.
“While you were gone, we took the opportunity to plan your, ah, coronation. Now that you’re back, we can get it started right away.”
“When?”
Walda looked at him, unsure of what he meant and afraid to express that to him.
“When will the coronation take place?” he clarified.
“Oh!” she said. “Tonight, if that works for you. If you need to rest, we certainly understand and can postpone to another date—whenever you like, of course—but the people are excited about having an amazing ruler like you in place. They would do it right now if you were ready for it.”
Archie waved her off. He was tired from his journey back from the Fiery Forge and needed to clean up and change into clothes that would be fitting for a ruler of his stature. Looking down at himself, he realized he didn’t have any.
“I’ve already had your best people working on your wardrobe,” Walda said, correctly anticipating his concern. “You’ll find the perfect set of clothes waiting for you in your royal chambers.”