by Dean Lorey
Charlie stopped and stood directly between them, utterly exposed but appearing completely confident.
“You would do that?” Barakkas asked. “Set yourself against your own race? Become a traitor?”
“They all hate me anyway,” Charlie said quietly.
“That’s right!” Brooke shouted.
“See? I’m just a freak to them, even to the other kids who have the Gift. They’re all afraid of me now.” He looked up at the two monsters on either side of him and stared defiantly. “I want to give them a reason.”
The bracer shone brilliantly this close to its mate. Barakkas was entranced by it, by the delicious nearness of it….
“Let my parents go,” Charlie said. “And I’ll stay.”
In the small, dirty alcove where Charlie’s parents were being held, Violet used her dagger to slice through the tough Netherstalker silk that bound them. It was like slicing through thick rope.
“How’s it coming?” Theodore asked nervously.
“It’s coming,” she replied, finally managing to cut through most of the first cocoon. “Here, help me. Pull.”
She and Theodore got on either side of the cocoon and pulled, ripping it in two, exposing Charlie’s mother, Olga. She was thin and weak and limp, like a balloon that had lost its air. Her eyelids fluttered open and she licked her dry lips.
“Where am I?” she asked, her voice raspy.
“You’re safe,” Violet said. “We’re here to rescue you. Charlie is close by.”
“Charlie?” Olga asked, her eyes widening. “Is my boy here? Is he okay?”
“Sure is,” Theodore replied. “I should know. I’m his best friend.” He glanced at Violet. “Well, I guess we both are.”
“That’s good,” Olga replied with a dreamy little smile. “He needs friends. He never had many, you know.”
“Just rest,” Violet said, and began cutting open the cocoon that encased Charlie’s father. “We’ll get you out of here in just a minute.”
Back in the cavern, the two Named talked privately.
“The boy is lying,” Verminion said.
“Just because you are deceitful doesn’t mean everyone else is,” Barakkas countered. “He is just a boy—an angry, distrustful little boy, just like the one who portaled you through all those years ago. Imagine how useful he could be in helping us bring over the remaining two.”
“But he won’t,” Verminion replied. “He means to hurt us. I don’t know how, exactly, but I can smell it on him.”
“He brought the bracer. That shows his true intentions.”
“You are blind in your desire for that Artifact of the Nether! You would let your devotion to its return cloud your judgment!”
“That doesn’t make me wrong,” Barakkas said. “If you think the boy is lying about his desire to join us, prove it.”
“I will,” Verminion snapped, and with a startling clack of his claws, he called for his servants.
While Verminion put his plan into action, Charlie whispered to Brooke. “Don’t worry, I’m not betraying you,” he said. “I just need them to think I want to join them, so they’ll let Theodore portal my parents out safely. After they’re gone, I’ll portal us away.”
“I wonder which one is the lie,” Brooke replied. “What you’re telling them or what you’re telling me?”
“Just trust me,” Charlie said. “Please.”
Suddenly, a Netherstalker approached them, holding something in its forelegs. The thing twisted and wriggled. Charlie strained to see what it was, until his view was obscured by the gruesome gargoylelike face of Verminion. The giant beast smelled like rotten fish that had been left out too long on a hot day.
“My partner and I are having a…disagreement over your true intentions,” he said. Charlie found the stink of his breath nearly unbearable. “He believes you. I do not. If you are telling the truth, then we will let your friends and your parents go and embrace you as a true partner. But if you are lying, we will slaughter all of you. Slowly. With pain.”
“How can I prove my loyalty to you?” Charlie asked.
“With this,” Verminion said, and gestured to the Netherstalker, which quickly handed Charlie the small, wriggling thing it held tightly in its forelegs.
It was a Snark.
Small and soft and cute, it seemed impossibly out of place in this dark, cruel pit. It purred and cooed in Charlie’s hands.
“The Snark will tell us whether or not you are afraid—and your fear will tell us whether or not you are lying. If you’re telling the truth, you have nothing to fear. You can stand there with confidence, knowing the Snark can’t possibly betray you, because you have nothing to hide. But if you are lying,” Verminion said, his claws clacking uncontrollably now, “your fear will grow because you know the Snark will expose you with its transformation…and, when it does, you and your friends and your parents will pay the ultimate price.”
Charlie’s heart began to race. He thought he had done an extraordinarily good job of making a case for wanting to join them. It had gone just as he had rehearsed it, and yet…
And yet one of them didn’t believe him.
That hadn’t been part of the plan.
The fear that had always been lurking in the back of his mind began to grow, and as it did, the Snark started to transform. Charlie watched in horror as it quickly doubled in size, shedding its soft, fluffy hair as its beak was replaced by a fanged snout. A spiky tail slithered out of its back. The more it changed, the more fearful Charlie became that his hidden intentions, his true plans, were going to be exposed, and that fear only increased the speed of the Snark’s transformation.
It was a vicious cycle.
Verminion smiled, vindicated. “It seems you have been exposed,” he said.
“No,” Charlie replied, backing away. “I’m not afraid of being caught; I’m afraid of you. Face it, you’re a pretty scary guy. That’s the fear that transformed the Snark.”
Barakkas stepped forward. “That is possible, Verminion. Don’t be so quick to destroy such a potentially useful boy.”
“If he is right and I am wrong, then he must prove his loyalty to us beyond any doubt,” Verminion said, and snatched Brooke up in a massive claw. He turned to Charlie. “Give me the word, boy, and I will cut her in half. After all, if you join us, she will be only the first of many humans you will help destroy.”
“No…” Brooke moaned. “Charlie?”
Charlie’s mouth went as dry as cotton. He couldn’t speak.
“Charlie?” she repeated, her voice now a whisper.
“Make your decision,” Verminion said, leaning down to within a foot of Charlie’s face. “What will it be?”
Charlie closed his eyes. “Let her go,” he said finally.
Verminion grinned. “Just as I thought. The boy was playing us all along. You’re a fool, Barakkas. You always have been.”
Barakkas grimaced as Verminion laughed then—[ ]long and loud—and Charlie could feel the hot, fetid stink of the creature’s breath on his face.
“If he’s a fool, then so are you,” Charlie said, and suddenly he threw the bracer down Verminion’s wide-open throat.
There was a moment of stunned silence as Barakkas watched the glow of one of the four Artifacts of the Nether travel down Verminion’s gullet until it finally lodged deep inside in his innards, lighting up the transluscent shell from within.
“What…what have you done?” Barakkas gasped.
“You want your bracer so much,” Charlie replied, “go and get it!” He turned to the tunnel that led to the alcove where his parents were being held and shouted, “TAKE THEM! PORTAL OUT, NOW!”
Violet had just finished cutting Charlie’s father out of the Netherstalker cocoon when Charlie’s shouts echoed down the hallway.
“What’s happening?” Olga asked.
“Something’s gone wrong,” Theodore said. “We have to go.”
He started trying to open a portal as two Netherstalkers raced
down the hallway and scuttled into the alcove, jaws snapping, webbing spinnerets raised.
“What about Charlie?” Barrington asked, his voice scratchy from disuse. “I heard my boy….”
“He’ll have to take care of himself,” Violet said, raising her dagger. “We have our own problems.” She turned to Theodore. “I’ll keep them off you as long as I can, but get that portal opened fast.”
“I’m trying!” he replied. “But it doesn’t help when you yell at me.”
“All right,” she said, slashing at the nearest creature. “Dear Theodore, would you mind, pretty please, opening a portal when you get the chance?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “Much better.”
Back in the cavern, Barakkas turned to Verminion, eyes wild with anger. “Give me what’s mine,” he said.
“Are you insane?” Verminion shot back. “It’s inside me, you idiot. How am I supposed to get it out?”
“I’ll show you,” Barakkas growled, and advanced on Verminion, his one giant fist raised menacingly, his hooves spraying fire behind him as they sparked off the volcanic rock.
“Stop it!” Verminion yelled. “This is what the boy wants, for us to turn on each other.”
“The boy will get everything he deserves,” Barakkas replied, “but you’ve always coveted my power and I will not let you diminish it. I will have my bracer, now.”
“No.”
Barakkas’s orange eyes suddenly glowed red with rage. “NEVER TELL ME NO!” he roared, and leaped at Verminion, landing only yards from him with the force of an earthquake. Flame exploded around them as his hooves slammed into the rock. He brought his one good fist down on the back of Verminion’s shell, cracking it open to expose the pink meat inside.
Brooke fell to the ground and scrambled away as Verminion wailed in pain before retaliating with a vicious attack to Barakkas’s left thigh, tearing open flesh in a spray of black blood. Both creatures howled and continued fighting as Charlie grabbed Brooke. “Come on,” he said, and turned to the tunnel that led to his parents.
It was blocked. Nethercreatures swarmed into the heart of the lair from all sides while their masters warred in the background.
“What do we do now?” Brooke whispered.
“Now…we fight,” Charlie said, drawing his rapier. It glowed a brilliant blue. “Get behind me.”
She scrambled behind Charlie then as hundreds of screaming, shrieking monsters raced toward them.
In the alcove, Violet was amazed to discover that she truly did have the skills of a born Banisher. She spun and slashed and parried the Netherstalker’s attacks with amazing agility, drawing from a well of power she didn’t even know she had. As good as she was, however, she was no match for the endless flood of creatures scuttling down the gloom of the tunnel toward them.
“We have maybe five more seconds,” she whispered harshly to Theodore. “Then it’s too late.”
The pressure was unbearable, and Theodore was crushed with the sudden realization that he wasn’t up to the task. He had failed everyone—his father, his friends, and even Charlie, abandoned in a cavern not thirty steps away, clearly outmatched by two of the most fearsome creatures the Nether had ever produced. Theodore had promised to protect him, his best friend, but he hadn’t protected him, and Charlie would pay for it with his life, pay for it without ever seeing the parents he had struggled so hard to rescue. As Theodore imagined Charlie’s horrible death and his own helplessness to prevent it, the fear of that failure welled up inside him with the force of a tsunami. It was a living thing, that fear, and it grew with startling speed.
Suddenly, Theodore opened a portal.
“Thank God,” Violet gasped as the monsters of the Nether overwhelmed them. With no time left to spare, she grabbed Charlie’s parents and leaped through.
“Come on!” she yelled back at Theodore.
“Sorry, buddy,” Theodore whispered, thinking of the friend he was about to abandon. “Good luck.” Then he jumped through the portal as well, leaving Charlie and Brooke behind to face their doom alone.
Verminion and Barakkas warred like ancient gods of myth. Verminion slashed open Barakkas’s shoulder with one gigantic claw. Barakkas roared, then grabbed the attacking claw at its root and snapped it off in a spray of ichor.
While Verminion howled in pain, Barakkas bent down and, using the two horns on the top of his head, flipped Verminion onto his back, exposing his underside. With one strong, swift motion, Barakkas used his good hand to drive Verminion’s severed claw toward the translucent armor of his belly, aiming at the glowing red light of the bracer, which illuminated him from somewhere deep within.
The claw cracked the armor on Verminion’s stomach with a sound like ice breaking underfoot, and as Verminion sliced Barakkas’s face with his one good claw, Barrakas drove his fist deep into Verminion’s innards, frantically fishing for the bracer he had lost.
Charlie, meanwhile, attacked the approaching Nethercreatures with desperate grace. His blazing blue rapier lopped off claws and eyes with astonishing precision. As he fought, one sharp realization suddenly pierced through his battle rage:
They were going to die.
He could kill for days and never get to the end of the infinity of creatures that were rushing through dark and gloomy hallways to deliver their death. If only he could open a portal, just a small one, to escape through. But, as the Headmaster had said, even a Double-Threat couldn’t open a portal and Banish at the same time, and if he stopped Banishing for even a second, they would eat him alive.
The beasts descended on the two of them like a hurricane—an infestation of darkness Charlie could not hope to repel. Swinging his rapier with amazing speed, he realized that in his attempt to rescue his parents, he had doomed them. Everyone else had been right and he had been wrong. He was a fool on a fool’s errand and it had likely cost the lives of his only true friends and the parents who had always protected him. He didn’t know what had happened to them down that dark tunnel, but he couldn’t imagine they had survived the attack brought on by his incompetence. Surely they were dead now, dead because of him, and he was alone against the army of the Nether, an outcast in a world that hated him, with only a useless Facilitator by his side.
“I’m sorry,” Brooke whispered as Charlie fought to protect her. “I wish I could help. If I hadn’t lost the Gift, I could open a portal for us right now, but I can’t.” Tears of rage and helplessness poured down her cheeks. “I’ve never been any good,” she said, sobbing, as her deepest fear was realized. “I’m a phony and a failure. I’m useless and I always have been, and now we’re going to die because of it!”
Purple flame bloomed across her, and that’s when suddenly, amazingly, a portal snapped open in front of them.
Charlie’s eyes went wide. “Did you do that?” he gasped.
“I…I guess I did,” she said, astonished.
Far in the distance, Verminion howled in pain as Barakkas, wounded gravely, lifted his bracer from the stink of Verminion’s swampy innards. It splashed crazy red light across the cavern walls, growing rapidly in size to fit his wrist.
“It’s mine!” Barakkas yelled. “The bracer is mine once again!”
As the giant beast hooted in triumph, Charlie and Brooke leaped through the open gateway. The creatures of the Nether swarmed all over them then, but they were too late.
The portal—along with Charlie and the girl who had opened it—was gone.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
After a brief stopover in the Nether, Charlie and Brooke leaped into the Nethermancy room in the heart of the Nightmare Academy.
“You did it,” he said, turning to her.
“I guess I did,” she replied. A sunny smile spread across her face. It was so warm and inviting, that smile, that it made Charlie’s heart ache. “I thought I had lost the Gift forever, but I got it back.”
“Just in time,” Charlie said. “You were amazing.”
“Thank you. So were you.” She gave him a kiss then, quick and soft. It was his first one, and it was so sweet and perfect that Charlie wished it could go on forever.
“My boy…,” Olga said from somewhere behind him.
Charlie turned and saw his mother rushing toward him. She hugged him so tightly, he could barely breathe. Charlie was shocked to discover how light she felt. She had grown so weak and thin in her imprisonment that it felt as though she might blow away in a strong breeze.
“Are you okay, Mom?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” she answered. “Now that I’m back with my boy.” She licked her hand and began trying to wipe the volcanic soot from his face. “Look at you. You’re a mess,” she said. “An absolute fright.”
Charlie’s father joined them. “I thought we’d lost you, son,” he said, his voice cracking. “We couldn’t have abided it. It would have been…the end of me. Of both of us.”
“I’m fine, Dad,” Charlie said. “Really I am.”
“The Benjamin men have faced their fears!” Barrington exclaimed. “And come out winners!”
Charlie smiled. “I guess so. It’s so good to see you. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that you both had to suffer like this.”
“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” Barrington said. “And your mother and I are now both very, very strong.”
“And don’t you ever blame yourself!” Olga scolded. “You hear me?”
“I hear you, Mom,” Charlie said with a smile, then turned to Violet and Theodore. “How did you guys escape? I didn’t think you had a chance.”
“It’s all her,” Theodore said, pointing to Violet. “You should have seen her. She was sick in there with that dagger. Sick! Fighting Netherstalkers—whack, whack!” He demonstrated by slashing a hand through the air. “Truly unbelievable. Definitely outrageous.”
“And you should have seen the portal he made,” Violet said. “There were creatures everywhere and he came in like Jordan at the buzzer and snapped open a gateway like you wouldn’t believe.”