The Black Fortress

by E. G. Foley

  “Becaw,” Red said.

  “Yes, I noticed.”

  The whole group was, er, a little displeased.

  Derek was thundering threats to ground Jake till the end of time. Wolf-Henry was barking, practically howling at him, as if to say, Come back down here this instant, young man!

  Even Archie was shouting: “Have you gone insane?”

  Uncle Richard and Aunt Claire left the edge of the woods to peer up at him, aghast.

  As for Aunt Ramona, well, he didn’t even want to think about what her reaction might be. Forget grounding him; the Elder witch would turn him into a toad.

  But stealing a glance behind him, Jake saw that at least Janos was laughing. And when Tex lifted his fist and punched the air, Jake caught a distant “Yee-haw!”

  Ha. At least some of them knew not to treat him like a baby. He could do this. They’d see.

  In fact, he was already fifty feet in the air when it occurred to him that if he succeeded, the Order folk across the grounds below would see for themselves that he was no villain—that he was on their side, no matter what the Dark Druids’ foolish prophecy said. Anyone with lingering doubts would realize he was loyal to the Order, just like his famous parents.

  Determined to clear his name of their unfounded suspicions and protect his family’s reputation, Jake continued ascending on his Gryphon, his stare fixed on the airship.

  The Dream Wraith was still pounding Merlin Hall with fiery artillery strikes.

  But not for long, if he had anything to say about it. Jake clenched his jaw and rode on.

  Red seemed to sense his intentions; his scarlet wings beat powerfully as he climbed toward the moon.

  Well aware they’d be an easy target up here in the open, Jake kept an eye out for anyone taking aim at them from the ground.

  Ahead, black columns of smoke rose before him, clouding the night sky over the maze. Red wove among them, angling back and forth. Higher, partly hidden in the haze, Jake could see the dirigible lit by a series of dully glowing lanterns spaced out along the hull.

  He coughed as he held on tight to the Gryphon’s collar, his eyes watering, his lungs burning from the smoke. The smell of it singed his nostrils. Blinking rapidly to clear his vision, he glanced down at the sprawling maze below.

  What he saw appalled him.

  Noxu were running through its green corridors with torches, spreading ordinary blazes in addition to the Greek fire that Janos said Wyvern had started with the Atlantean cuff.

  And Isabelle was right. The Old Father Yew was burning. Thousands of years old and some seventy feet tall, the very symbol of the Order, its branches stretched out amid the writhing flames like a burning man’s arms.

  Scores of evil creatures danced before the flames consuming the Old Father Yew, throwing twisted goblin shadows across the trampled green.

  Fury filled Jake. It was bad enough the enemy had likely slain Master Balinor. But this?

  This was not just a crime; it was a violation, a sacrilege.

  Furious and hurt by the senseless destruction, Jake forced himself to focus on the task at hand. But the instant he lifted his gaze off the Hades-like inferno below and looked forward again, his eyes suddenly widened.

  The giant owl appeared right in front of him and Red, swooping out of the smoke bellows with an ear-splitting screech.

  The Gryphon roared, nearly colliding with the giant bird of prey. The owl swept down on them, angling its talons as if it meant to seize Jake right off Red’s back.

  Jake reacted without forethought. He was not a cruel person, and would never intentionally harm an animal, but pure training kicked in; his response was automatic. He hurled a bolt of energy at the monstrous bird, breaking its left wing.

  The owl screamed and plummeted, spiraling helplessly toward the ground.

  Jake stared, startled at what he’d just done, but the witches cheered as the giant owl landed in a furious puff of feathers.

  Uneasy with the pain he’d inflicted, Jake looked down anxiously and saw the owl still screeching and flapping its one good wing. It looked dazed.

  One of the wood elves moved in to shoot it with his bow, but when Dr. Plantagenet ran over and stopped him before he could release the arrow, Jake had to admit he was relieved. After all, maybe it wasn’t the owl’s fault.

  Maybe it was just an ordinary barn owl that Wyvern or the Dark Master had enchanted and could be saved. The important thing was that the fearsome bird was no longer guarding the dirigible.

  With that, Jake swallowed hard and set his mind once more on his purpose: robbing Wyvern of his air support.

  The witches swerved out of Jake’s way on their brooms as he approached, but, thankfully, did not try to stop him. They merely looked on with curious stares as he and Red flew by.

  “Be careful of those nets!” one called after him. “Don’t get tangled up in them, or you’ll never escape.”

  Jake waved his thanks for the helpful tip and urged Red on toward The Dream Wraith. As they approached, they duly took care to steer clear of the long fishing nets trailing out behind the dirigible.

  The nets were secured by ropes all around the ship but floated out behind it on the night breeze. They seemed as gauzy and fine as butterfly nets, but he did not intend to test the witches’ puzzling claim that there was no escape from them.

  What the nets were for, Jake had no idea, but that scarcely mattered at the moment, for the sky pirates now saw him coming.

  The grubby crewmen quickly loaded another lead ball the size of a grapefruit into the small, swivel-mounted cannon affixed to the back corner of the ship’s deck.

  What a clamor the odd vessel made as Red and he approached! Its noisy, chugging engines belched steam. Its whirring propellers generated a wind that ruffled Jake’s hair and Red’s feathers, and its huge wooden rudder creaked left and right, guiding it through the dark sky.

  “What do you think you’re doing, lad?” one of the pirates shouted down at him with a mocking grin, his gold tooth flashing. He wore a black bandana knotted around his head; its long ends blew in the breeze. “Hope you’re ready to die!”

  Jake didn’t reply. Instead, he leaned lower over the Gryphon’s neck. “Prepare for evasive maneuvers, Red.”

  “Caw!”

  Jake gulped but held on tight as the sky pirates aimed the muzzle right at them. You better make it a good shot, you mumpers, because it’s the last one you’re gonna get.

  He narrowed his eyes, flying on fearlessly, headlong into danger—for Balinor. For the Old Father Yew. For Dani and everyone here.

  The gold tooth pirate lit the fuse…

  BOOM!

  The cannonball exploded out of the muzzle and came screaming straight at him and Red, trailing sparks and plumes of smoke. Jake stared at a cannonball nearly the size of his head speeding toward him.

  Then Red dove, banking to the right.

  The ball flew by just inches above them. The witches scattered as it careened through the air to slam down in an empty field on the far side of the Naiads’ stream.

  Still holding on to Red’s collar for dear life, Jake had leaned all the way forward, jockey-like, fully committed to the Gryphon’s steep, nose-down angle.

  But as Red evened out, Jake glanced back and saw the gun crew peering over the rails, trying to figure out where he and the Gryphon were headed next.

  “That was close,” Jake said with a shudder. “Now it’s our turn, boy. What do you say to a counterstrike?”

  Red let out a particularly bellicose “Caw!”

  Jake smiled grimly, the wind whipping through his hair. “Ready when you are.”

  Red pumped his wings, then glided underneath the vessel on a diagonal. They passed between the huge wooden rudder near the back and the landing gear in the middle.

  Maneuvering deftly in between the ropes securing the fishing nets, the Gryphon spun in a corkscrew motion, briefly flying upside down. Jake’s stomach heaved, but he was clutching Red’s collar with
a death grip and holding on tight with his legs. The moment they cleared the tangle of fishing lines, the Gryphon swooped back upward on a graceful arc, banking to the right again, zooming Jake toward the stern.

  Heart pounding, Jake let go of the collar with his right hand, his fingers already tingling as he summoned up the full force of his telekinesis.

  Those sky pirates obviously didn’t know who they were dealing with.

  Several rude, swarthy, and tattooed fellows jeered at him from the rails as he sped past. By the dull glow of the ship’s lanterns, Jake could see the gun crew swiveling the cannon around, waiting for him to fly back into range.

  They took aim at him and his Gryphon, but Jake did not give them time to fire.

  Zeroing in on his target, he hurled a handful of concentrated telekinetic force from his right palm across the stern deck at the cannon, knocking the swivel gun clean off its metal base. Wood cracked and splintered as the cannon tore free of the deck and toppled overboard, taking out a section of the wooden railing as it fell.

  The sudden loss of several hundred pounds of iron on one side unbalanced the vessel and made the deck lurch, pitching all three members of the gun crew overboard.

  Jake gasped; the other pirates standing around shouted; the witches cheered and zoomed in to press the fight.

  While the Gryphon carried him clear of the fray with a victorious eagle’s cry, Jake stared down, stricken, as the men fell, following the cannon, which had just now landed on the grass below. One slipped sternward and instantly got tangled up in the fishing nets, struggling like a fly trapped in a spiderweb.

  The second somersaulted end over end toward the lawn, screaming all the way down. Lucky for him, a quick-thinking Order mage stopped the pirate’s fall before he splatted on the battlefield. Suspended a few feet off the ground, he was quickly captured and taken into custody.

  But the third…the third, Jake knew, would haunt his dreams.

  The very man who had fired the cannonball. Jake recognized him by his black bandana.

  For a hair-raising moment, the pirate dangled over the edge of the broken deck, feet kicking. He held on for a heartbeat, then dropped. His mates screamed, but, tough as he was, the pirate somehow managed to catch hold of one of the trailing ropes.

  He swung wildly back and forth.

  Jake considered going to his aid with his telekinesis, but, at once, the man’s crewmates grabbed hold of the rope and started pulling him up.

  Since it seemed like they had the situation under control, Jake shook it off and went on about his business of disabling the ship.

  The Dream Wraith had continued drifting on a northwesterly course over the grounds of Merlin Hall. It was now directly over the maze. The smoke grew thicker, and the cold October sky actually felt a few degrees warmer above the inferno.

  All of a sudden, Jake heard a bloodcurdling scream. From the corner of his eye, he saw it happen.

  The pirate lost his grip on the rope and fell, dropping like a stone into the fiery heart of the maze before Jake could even react.

  In the blink of an eye, the man was simply gone, and in one spot, the inferno blazed up, incinerating him.

  The crew wailed.

  “Blast it, where did that brat on the Gryphon go?” one bellowed. “I’ll kill him!”

  “Red! Quick, get under the ship!” Jake said. “They’re going to start shooting any minute now. We need to get out of range.”

  “Becaw!”

  Thanks to the witches, who were now zooming all around the airship on their brooms, hectoring the crewmen, Jake was able to get close to the vessel again, urging Red lower.

  He noticed that his Gryphon did not seem at all bothered by the gunner’s fate, but for his part, Jake felt ill.

  As Red swooped, gliding under the ship for cover, thoughts of the prophecy returned with a vengeance.

  He could barely wrap his wits around the fact that he was responsible for a man’s death. Killing anyone had not been his intention! He had only wanted to make them stop firing on the people below.

  Pulse pounding, Jake swallowed hard and strove to refocus his mind as Red hovered under the dirigible. Because the fact was, he wasn’t done yet.

  For the moment, the pirates were still in chaos, dealing with the unbalanced weight on the stern and taking care not to fall through the broken section of the slanted deck themselves. But it wouldn’t be long before they regrouped.

  Jake knew he’d have to act quickly. Steeling his resolve, he turned his attention to the giant rudder on the back part of the dirigible’s underbelly.

  He dared not try to crush one of the propellers with his telekinesis. The last thing he wanted to do was bring the airship crashing down in a fiery heap on the lawn with all those people down there.

  But during their Italian beach holiday, Jake had spent enough time tooling around with Maddox on the little sailboat that came with the villa to understand that cracking the rudder would strip The Dream Wraith of its ability to steer.

  While the propellers powered the ship forward, the rudder controlled its direction. If he could damage that, the ship would have no choice but to keep on drifting forward in a straight line until the captain figured out where and how to land.

  Suddenly, a burst of dazzling brightness on the lawn below drew Jake’s eye.

  She did it!

  “Well done, carrot,” he whispered.

  The portal was open at last, shiny and waiting. The sight of it helped to clear his head.

  Better hurry.

  Time was ticking.

  Thanks to the witches, who were now zooming all around the airship on their brooms, Jake was able to get close to the massive rudder, urging Red toward the back end of the airship.

  There, he dealt the giant wooden rudder several massive wallops with his telekinesis, hammering the base until it cracked off the tiller and hung as useless as a broken arm.

  As soon as this was accomplished, he headed Red back down to the ground. The portal was waiting; he left sky duty to the witches and hurried toward the light.

  As Red glided down from the dark sky, Jake was startled to notice people across the fire-lit grounds cheering for him and his Gryphon.

  He hadn’t heard their jubilation while he was up there. It seemed his success in thwarting The Dream Wraith had not only saved lives, but had stoked the Order’s flagging morale.

  Across the palace grounds, they fought with renewed vigor, pounding the Noxu.

  Jake was glad to see it. Still, when he swung off Red’s back and jogged over to the group, his legs felt wobbly beneath him.

  “Son, you’re somethin’ else!” Tex thumped him on the back as Jake returned to the fold, slipping past the ring of sweaty, bloodied Guardians.

  Janos sent him a wink, but Derek scowled, Henry barked, and Archie cried, “You’re a madman!”

  Dani just shook her head.

  The little Lightrider stood proudly by the portal she had opened, fists planted on her hips. “Finally! Come on, everybody. Let’s get out of here. Who wants to go first?”

  She didn’t notice that no one volunteered because she was glancing around, doing a quick head count. “Hold on—where’s Maddox?”

  “Never mind him, just go!” Janos exclaimed.

  “But we need a Guardian for our party! It’s protocol! Could you come?”

  “No!” the vampire retorted, though he sent her an apologetic look. “I’m needed here. Please, hurry. Isabelle can’t take much more of this.”

  While Dani searched the grounds, trying to spot Maddox, Jake looked at his cousin and gasped to see that her nose was bleeding.

  “Izzy!” He went over to her at once.

  Good Lord, that sort of thing only happened to him when he’d pressed his talents to maximum exertion. Archie had given her his handkerchief to manage the nosebleed, but Janos was right: their empath was in trouble with all the fury and hatred in the air.

  Jake turned to Dani. “Forget about a Guardian. I’ll prot
ect you,” he said, but she paid him no mind.

  “Oh, look!” She suddenly brightened. “There’s my friend Brian!”

  “Brian?” Jake echoed, following her gaze.

  “Brian!” She waved madly to a dark-haired boy in a short brown jacket who was running to and fro about the lawn, looking lost. “Brian, over here! Come with us!”

  “Brian!” Derek also beckoned to the bewildered-looking lad.

  The wide-eyed boy ran toward them. He looked a little younger than Jake—maybe eleven or twelve, closer to Dani’s age.

  He also looked half scared out of his wits. “Dani! Guardian Stone!”

  “Brian, what are you doing out here?” Derek exclaimed as the tousle-headed boy slipped past the ring of Guardians surrounding them.

  “I-I don’t know—I got separated from my class!” Though pale with fear, he recovered quickly once Derek laid a steadying hand on his shoulder. He gulped and glanced anxiously at the portal. “S-so, what are we doing, then?”

  “Leaving,” Dani said firmly. “Want to come?”

  “Gladly!” He gave her a wide-eyed nod.

  “Good.” Dani looked relieved. “We’ve got a Guardian. Now we can go.”

  Jake cocked a brow.

  That kid’s supposed to protect us? He sent a dubious glance up at the dirigible that was now drifting off course, unable to steer. Didn’t she just see me…?

  Oh, never mind.

  Izzy was weaving on her feet. “We can’t just leave Maddox behind,” she said weakly, but it was obvious the older boy had no intention of returning.

  “We have no choice.” Dani looked around at them. “Well, then? It’s time. Who wants to go first?”

  Archie and Nixie took a step backward; everyone looked at Jake.

  “Who, me?” he said, startled. “Naw, that’s all right.” He gestured politely to their great new protector to go ahead of him. “Be my guest.”

  Blimey, if anyone’s molecules were going to get scrambled from entering a portal opened by a baby Lightrider who may or may not know what she was doing, let it be the stranger, Jake thought. That seemed reasonable to him.

  But Brian shook his head and moved aside. “No, sir! I mean, unless you’re scared, then I could try—”