Welcome to the Darklands

by Richard Ashley Hamilton

  “Um, that works,” Jim said of the chain reaction he had accidentally started.

  Looking into the fortress’s inner ward, Jim spotted Skarlagk. She fought off a bunch of Gunmar’s soldiers with one hand while keeping Rob in a chokehold with the other. His flames flickered as he started to pass out.

  “I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” Jim moaned to himself.

  He wrapped one of his whips around a nearby parapet, then used it like a rope to rappel down the fortress wall. Reaching the ward, Jim unfastened his whip, only to be nearly devoured by a lunging Helheeti.

  The large fire-cat dug its blazing claws into the turf and spun around for another attack. One of Skarlagk’s rebels foolishly tried to stab the Helheeti with his long ax, but only succeeded in splitting it into two separate beasts.

  “No!” cried Jim. “The only way to defeat a Helheeti is to put out its flames!”

  But his warning came too late, as the pair of Helheetis pounced on the Gumm-Gumm. Jim turned away from the grisly scene and surveyed the area. He spotted a bunch of those stone bowls the rebels used to boil Nyarlagroth eggs—right under a sturdy trough filled with water.

  The Helheetis licked their burning chops as they pawed closer to Jim. He wanted to lead them closer to the trough, but how? Jim looked down and remembered the whips in his hands.

  “I really hope this works,” Jim said as more explosions and shouts sounded behind him.

  He flicked his whip at one of the Helheetis, and the neon line cinched around the fire-cat as if it were solid.

  “Now that’s crispy!” Jim shouted before whipping the second Helheeti.

  The flaming felines struggled to break free of their new leashes, but Jim didn’t let go. Pulling as hard as he could, the Trollhunter dragged the fire-cats over to the trough and kicked it over. The water splashed over the Helheetis and converted them to steam.

  “No!” Rob wheezed under Skarlagk’s chokehold. “That Helheeti was my momma!”

  Jim rolled his eyes and broke into a sprint toward Skarlagk. Several more of her armed rebels tried to stop Jim. He just whipped them away, never breaking his stride.

  Skarlagk single-handedly flattened another phalanx of Gunmar’s soldiers before she heard a loud CRACK in the air. Skarlagk turned and saw the Trollhunter behind her, readying his emerald whips for another swing.

  “That first one was a warning, Skarlagk,” Jim said. “Believe me, I don’t like Rob either. But if you don’t let go of him now, my next whip won’t miss.”

  Skarlagk released Rob, who collapsed to the ground, unconscious. She and Jim then began circling each other, weapons at the ready. Their bodies reflected on a massive chunk of obsidian beside them, which had fallen from the shattered rampart above them.

  “We don’t have to do this,” Jim pleaded. “We can still team up and stop Gunmar without hurting any innocents.”

  “There are no innocents in the Darklands,” Skarlagk said before she thrust her spears.

  Jim dodged, spun around, and swiped with his whips. They noosed around Skarlagk, pinning her arms to her sides. She strained to reach her quiver of spears. But the whips sizzled with a fluorescent charge of electricity, stunning Skarlagk.

  “Please,” Jim said. “I don’t want to fight you.”

  Jim let his whips go slack, and Skarlagk shrugged them off. She fixed an angry glare at the Trollhunter.

  “I know you hate Gunmar,” said Jim. “I hate him too. But if you destroy the nursery, how does that make you any better than him?”

  Skarlagk’s eyes softened as Jim’s words hit her. She looked at the war around them. Her rebels clashed against Gumm-Gumm soldiers. Nets fired from the parapets and downed more Stalklings. Helheetis multiplied into greater and greater numbers and burned everything they touched. Skarlagk had spent most of her life preparing for this confrontation, yet she felt no satisfaction.

  “Where does it stop?” Jim asked. “With your own destruction? Because Gunmar definitely had a hand in making you the Troll you are today, whether you admit it or not.”

  “I . . . I don’t . . . ,” Skarlagk began to say, before the weakened wall behind her detonated. Fire and debris rained down on the ward, and the impact knocked over Skarlagk, sending her spears flying out of their quiver. The entire fortress ground to a shuddering halt as the Nyarlagroth queen stopped moving altogether.

  Jim and Skarlagk coughed, until they saw something else start to move in the smoke. Two Antramonstrum probed into the breech like a pair of living clouds. They passed over fallen rebels and Gumm-Gumms alike, reducing the bodies to skeletons under their acidic touch.

  Skarlagk’s eyes widened as she saw the Antramonstrum drift in her direction. She crawled under a pile of Gumm-Gumms she had beaten, but Jim had nowhere to run. He backed into the chunk of obsidian behind him and tried to climb it, but his hands found nothing to grasp on the smooth black surface. Jim was cornered.

  And the Antramonstrum surged closer, dissolving everything in their paths.

  CHAPTER 15

  A HOLE MESS OF TROUBLE

  If Toby and Claire had ever questioned why Draal was called “the Deadly,” he answered that in less than thirty seconds. That’s how long it took him to take out every single Volcanic Troll surrounding them.

  First, Draal tucked his body into a ball and rolled smack into the front line of Volcanic Trolls, toppling them like tenpins. In one swift motion, the son of Kanjigar then flipped into the air and caught two of the many weapons those Volcanic Trolls had just lost. When he landed, Draal held a double ax in his mechanical hand and a short sword in his other.

  “These’ll do,” Draal smirked before launching back into the fray.

  Swinging his blades with the skill that comes from a lifetime of training in the Hero’s Forge, Draal shred his way through the Volcanic Trolls. He struck blow after blow against them, denting their metal helmets, snapping their weapons in two, and slamming their bodies to the ground. And Draal did all this with a smile, laughing maniacally the whole time.

  “Ha-HA!” Draal boomed as he punched out the last Volcanic Troll. “How’d I do?”

  “Great Gronka Morka,” said Blinky, Toby, Claire, and NotEnrique in unison.

  They all stared at Draal—sorta impressed and sorta freaked out—before gazing down at the beaten Volcanic Trolls littering the gullet in his wake. Blinky then shook the stunned look from his face and answered, “Twenty-eight-point-five seconds, Draal. A new personal best!”

  But a subtle movement in the periphery caught Claire’s attention. The groggy Volcanic Troll with her stolen Shadow Staff got up and stumbled down a passageway.

  “Hey!” Claire called out to her teammates, getting their attention. “There goes our only way outta here!”

  To make matters worse, a second wave of Volcanic Trolls started filing into the chamber.

  “Draal cleared us a path,” Toby said as he hefted his Warhammer. “Now let’s use it!”

  Toby swung his enchanted mallet into the onslaught of Volcanic Trolls, sending them flying in all directions. With his arms full of Glamour Masks, Blinky kicked at a few more of their enemy. And Claire bolted in the direction of the one holding her Shadow Staff.

  But a large brute of a Volcanic Troll intercepted her midway, grabbing Claire by the wrists and lifting her off the ground.

  “Well,” Claire said. “This’s the last mistake you’ll ever make.”

  The brute looked down as Claire’s Graven Garb unzipped down the middle, and NotEnrique’s yellow eyes peeked out at him.

  “Surprise!” yelled NotEnrique before he jumped out of Claire’s suit and onto the Volcanic Troll’s face. The brute immediately released Claire and tried to pull NotEnrique away.

  “Go, Nuñez!” the little Changeling shouted at Claire while clawing at the Volcanic Troll.

  “Gracias, NotEnrique!” Claire called over her shoulder as she took off again.

  Claire dove past Draal as he took on another squad of Volcanic Trolls, the
n clambered into the Kelpestrum’s next chamber. To cover Claire’s escape, Toby stood in front of the passage and twirled the Warhammer in front of him like a propeller.

  “Back off, you lame-o lava losers!” Toby said heroically to the Volcanic Trolls. “Unless you want to taste the sweet smack of justice from my Warham—”

  Toby’s spinning Warhammer got wedged between the passageway’s two rocky walls. He pulled on it with all his might, but the weapon remained stuck in place. The Volcanic Trolls cocked their heads in confusion.

  “Um, hold on a sec,” Toby grunted as he yanked on the Warhammer. “You know what would be cool? If this thing would shrink down like Claire’s Shadow Staff!”

  “I’ll get right on that!” Blinky yelled as he kicked away more Volcanic Trolls. “Provided we survive this experience!”

  Inside the passage, the narrow walls throbbed with the Kelpestrum’s heartbeat as Claire slid between them. Spotting the Volcanic Troll with her Shadow Staff dead ahead, she poured on the speed. Claire pushed her legs as fast as they could go, jumped, and tackled the Volcanic Troll. They both tumbled into a new section of the Kelpestrum, where slimy mucus dripped from the stalactites above them. As Claire got to her feet, NotEnrique, Blinky, Toby, and Draal rushed up behind her.

  “Uh, more enemy reinforcements right behind us!” Toby said in a panic. “It’s like the Kelpestrum filled up at an all-you-can-eat Volcanic-Troll buffet!”

  Claire held out an open hand toward the Volcanic Troll who was holding her staff. There was no other way out of this segment of the Kelpestrum other than the passageway behind her and her friends. The sounds of the third, fourth, and possibly fifth waves of Volcanic Trolls grew closer.

  “Hand it over,” Claire demanded. “Now.”

  Trapped, the Volcanic Troll started to return the Shadow Staff, when the soft, marshy floor below all of them suddenly trembled. A loud gurgling noise soon followed, reverberating off the snot-plastered walls. Warm water sloshed around their ankles.

  “Uhhh.” Toby grimaced. “That sounds a lot like the sounds we heard inside Gatto. Before we, uh, evacuated his Keep, if you catch my drift.”

  “I’m afraid you’re only half right, Tobias,” Blinky said over another gurgle. “In our foot chase through the Kelpestrum, we’ve inadvertently arrived next to a far different part of its anatomy!”

  As three of his arms clutched tightly to the Glamour Masks, a fourth pointed straight up at the high ceiling. Between the dripping stalactites, a ring of muscle relaxed and opened.

  “A blowhole!” Blinky shouted before the loudest gurgle yet drowned out his voice.

  NotEnrique had just enough time to leap back into Claire’s Graven Garb and zip it shut. With a sudden jolt, the chamber around them contracted, and a forceful rush of air jettisoned them, Blinky, Toby, Draal, and the Volcanic Troll out of the Kelpestrum’s blowhole.

  Their bodies plunged into the ocean’s cold, murky depths. The tide yanked the Glamour Masks from Blinky’s arms, while water started pouring into everyone’s suits once again.

  “We don’t have much time!” said Blinky as he fumbled for the sinking masks. “In a few seconds, we won’t be any better off than that Volcanic Troll!”

  Without a Graven Garb of his own, the Volcanic Troll immediately went limp outside of the relative safety of the Kelpestrum. His body sank away from the others—just as the Shadow Staff fell out of his fingers.

  “No!” Claire shouted before diving after her staff.

  Blinky, Draal, and Toby tried to swim after her, but their crystal helmets started to splinter under the pressure.

  “Perhaps I shall join you soon enough, Father,” Draal said as another long fracture formed across his helmet’s visor. “I only wish we had not failed our current Trollhunter.”

  “We haven’t yet!” Claire responded as she kicked after her Shadow Staff. Ignoring the cobweb of cracks spreading across her own helmet, she reached for the staff, but it was just out of her grasp.

  “Can’t reach!” she strained. “The water in the suit—it’s slowing me down!”

  “No kiddin’!” NotEnrique said, trying to keep his head above the water pooling into her boot. “C’mon, Nuñez! Think of something! We can’t go out like this! I can’t go out like this!”

  “I don’t know what to do!” Claire yelled, thinking of Jim locking her out of the vault, wondering if that would truly be the last time she saw him. “My arm’s just not long enough!”

  NotEnrique spit out saltwater and said, “On it!”

  The soaked Changeling squirmed up Claire’s leg, past her ribs, and along her outstretched arm. Standing on her palm, NotEnrique extended his body, and the baggy Graven Garb sleeve elongated. His little green hands filled two of the four finger slots of Claire’s glove—and snagged the Shadow Staff.

  “Yes!” Claire cheered. “You did it, NotEnrique! And here I thought you were afraid of the water.”

  “What?! Don’t be ridiculous, I ain’t afraid of no water,” NotEnrique groused before he lowered his voice so Claire couldn’t hear. “Just of swimmin’ in it. . . .”

  Now in command of her Shadow Staff once again, Claire opened a black hole in the middle of the ocean and swam through it. A new portal opened up under Blinky, Draal, and Toby, whose suits were collapsing around them.

  Back inside the undersea volcano, a third, much larger shadow portal opened, dumping Claire, NotEnrique, Toby, Blinky, and Draal next to the gyre—along with hundreds of gallons of seawater. The deluge hit the magma, creating tremendous billows of steam.

  Everyone removed their stressed helmets and watched them shatter in their hands.

  “I believe the appropriate human expression for a moment such as this would be: ‘Does anyone have a change of pants?’ ” said Blinky, still visibly shaken from the ordeal.

  “Good thing I came prepared,” NotEnrique said as he wiggled out of Claire’s Graven Garb and pointed at his diaper.

  “Nice save!” said Toby as he helped Claire into the gyre, her body too exhausted to move on its own. “You okay?”

  “No,” Claire admitted, her voice weak. “But if this helps Jim, it was worth it.”

  “Alas, all the Glamour Masks slipped from my hands as we passed through the Kelpestrum’s blowhole,” Blinky said, his head turned down in dismay.

  Everyone stared at him in shock, until he looked up with a smile. Blinky held up his four hands, which clutched a single Glamour Mask.

  “Except for this one,” Blinky added with a wink.

  “Awesomesauce!” said Toby. “Can I hold it?”

  “NO!” everyone else shouted at once.

  CHAPTER 16

  CONSUMED BY REVENGE

  Jim snapped his whips at the Antramonstrum. But the sparking green lines just passed ineffectively through the two clouds as they converged toward him. Now officially out of options, Jim raised his arms protectively. The shield automatically fanned out of his gauntlet, covering his face, and the flaring red lines that shot through his armor went completely dark.

  The Antramonstrum stopped mere inches in front of Jim. With his Eclipse Armor now all-black, Jim’s camouflaged body blended seamlessly into the obsidian behind him. To the mindless Antramonstrum, it was as if the Trollhunter had simply disappeared into thin air. The confused death clouds backed away from the sheer volcanic glass, passing over the pile of Gumm-Gumms. Jim lowered his shield and opened one eye. The Antramonstrum were gone.

  “This thing’s full of surprises today!” Jim marveled at his Eclipse Armor as the red lines piped through it once again.

  Jim was startled when Skarlagk, also unharmed, emerged from under what was now a pile of skeletons. The two survivors shared a silent nod before they heard a roar of voices build outside of the fortress. Just beyond the walls, Gumm-Gumms banged their war drums and repeated the same battle cry over and over again.

  “GUNMAR! GUNMAR! GUNMAR!”

  “He’s coming!” said Skarlagk while reaching for her spears.


  But her quiver was still empty, its spears lost within the rubble littering her ward. Skarlagk and Jim looked at each other as the Gumm-Gumm’s chant grew louder and closer.

  “The armory,” Skarlagk said to Jim. “Follow me!”

  She ran full-bore into her ruined fortress’s keep, and Jim trailed after her. Along the way, he passed Rob, who the Antramonstrum had ignored. Jim flicked his whip, snared Rob’s ankle, and dragged him into the fortress too.

  No sooner had they left the ward than the Gumm-Gumm army stormed into it. The vanguard of soldiers parted, allowing Gunmar the Warbringer into the castle he just conquered. Dictatious kept close behind his Dark Underlord, rubbing his four hands together in malice.

  “Search the premises!” Gunmar barked at his forces. “Look under every broken shield, if you must, but do not stop until you bring me Skarlagk’s head!”

  • • •

  Rob stirred and found Jim propping up his body with his armored shoulder as they hurried down a spiral staircase. The Trollhunter winced at the renewed heat coming off Rob, but still refused to leave him behind.

  “My hero,” Rob said dreamily to Jim. “If it’s all right with you, I’d like to now sing the ballad from our hit soundtrack—‘This Robot’s Heart (Is Programmed for Love).’ ”

  Jim threw Rob off his body and caught up with Skarlagk at the base of the steps. He tried to keep a mental map of their surroundings as they went and guessed that they were at the very bottom of the fortress.

  “In here,” Skarlagk beckoned as she flung open a reinforced door with a resounding clang. Jim and Rob followed Skarlagk inside, their eyes bugging at the racks upon racks of barbaric rebel weapons around them. Skarlagk slid a heavy bolt across the door, locking it.

  “Grab any weapon you like,” she said while picking up a mace and a saw-toothed sword.

  “Uh, I think I’m good,” Jim replied, looking down at the fluorescent whips looped in his hands. “But does it really matter? Those Gumm-Gumms out there must outnumber us a thousand to one! How are we supposed to fight all of them and take on Gunmar?”