Snared: Voyage on the Eversteel Sea

by Adam Jay Epstein

  “Head for the prisonaut,” Wily called out to the Recluself. “We need to rescue Lumina and Valor.”

  Moshul directed the Recluself to steer the ship to the east along the trail they had taken many days earlier. With a turn of the wheel, the rolling ship changed direction once more and charged for the distant horizon.

  “I knew it would go fast,” the Recluself said with pride. “But not this fast.”

  The ship was traveling roughly five times the speed of a horse, far faster than it had traveled on the ocean. Driving across the plain, they passed travelers on stallions and other riding beasts as if they were standing still. Crossing through the desert, Wily looked out to see the spot where the spider tent had stood a week earlier. Now only a few postholes and some broken pots marked the spot on which it had once stood.

  Farther still, they came across a town. Or at least what was left of a town. Rubble and snagglecart tracks littered the dusty ground. In one destroyed house, blocks and dolls could be seen scattered among the wooden beams and clay roof tiles. While the ship rolled past quickly, Wily’s thoughts lingered on what he was seeing. This is what all of Panthasos will look like if I don’t defeat Stalag. And I don’t have a lair beast to help me save the day this time. I have a different kind of beast. He looked over at his father. One that is trying very hard to earn my trust.

  The ship continued to follow the rough path to the east. As the afternoon sun warmed the land, the prisonaut at the foot of Mount Neb came into view.

  “There are new guards marching along the walls of the prisonaut,” Roveeka said, peering out with her keen night vision. “And they aren’t Knights of the Golden Sun. They look like bone soldiers and boarcus.”

  Getting closer, Wily could see the flabby-lipped soldiers outside the gate, picking food off their tusks. The living skeletons standing along the outside of the wall held their rigid poses with mindless perseverance.

  “Your mom and Valor are being kept somewhere inside there,” Pryvyd said, eyeing the prisonaut.

  “Perhaps in the very same cottage where I was imprisoned,” Kestrel nodded.

  “We need to get them out,” Wily said.

  “Could we batter our way through?” Odette asked.

  “The prisonaut is made of steel,” Kestrel said. “This ship is just wood. It wouldn’t be strong enough to make anything other than a dent.”

  “Unless…” Wily eyed the repaired prisonaut. The spot that had been blasted through by Stalag’s spell had been patched with bolts and scraps of metal. “Unless we struck the same spot where Stalag destroyed it to free Kestrel in the first place.”

  “And then use the Master Suit to take out the bone soldiers,” Kestrel suggested.

  “I can run with Odette and Moshul for the inside,” Wily said.

  “That sounds like a plan to me,” Odette said.

  “Lower the ramp as soon as we come to a stop,” Pryvyd added, gesturing to a large plank waiting at the back of the ship. “I’ll get the gearfolk ready.” With that, Wily’s father ran into the hull of the ship, where the sixty-five suits of armor were standing in wait.

  Wily pointed to the spot in the wall for the Recluself to hit the prisonaut. The ship was moving toward it now with tremendous speed. “Okay,” Wily said. “Everybody hold on tight. We are going to be hitting that wall awfully hard.” He could see the guards on the tops of the walls clutching their swords as they braced for impact.

  “That’s the biggest snagglecart I’ve ever seen,” one of the frightened boarcus shouted as the ship advanced.

  The bow of the boat struck the weak portion of the prisonaut. Moshul was jolted so hard he was sent tumbling to the deck. The moss golem shielded his little hugtopus companion with his large mud hand as he rolled into the mast. The ship successfully broke the steel replacement piece on the prisonaut, making an opening in the wall.

  On the high wall of the prisonaut, Wily saw two familiar, yet unpleasant faces looking down upon them. One belonged to Sceely and the other to Agorop.

  “Yoosh are supposed to be dead,” Agorop hissed through rows of sharpened teeth.

  “Well, it don’t matter what they supposed to be,” Sceely said, elbowing Agorop. “They’re not.”

  “Make sure they be non-living soon,” Agorop called out to the bone soldiers below.

  Jayrus turned to Wily. “As an oglodyte, I am deeply embarrassed to be related to these villains.”

  Moshul slid the ramp over the side of ship. Before it even hit the ground, Pryvyd, wearing the Master Suit, began marching the metallic soldiers down the ramp. Righteous flew at Pryvyd’s side in the final piece of the Master Suit. At once, bone soldiers came rushing toward them. Wily watched as Pryvyd pulled his sword from his sheath. Every other suit of armor followed, drawing their own blades. As the first wave of bone soldiers attacked, Pryvyd swung his sword, not to attack himself, for there was no skeleton standing before him, but to signal the other ubergearfolk to swing their swords.

  Wily watched in awe as six bone soldiers were dispatched with a single coordinated swing. Bone soldiers attacked with their own swords, but they struck the eversteel armor, damaging nothing.

  “This is working,” Pryvyd called out in triumph.

  Righteous gave a big thumbs-up to signal his approval too. As he did so, all the ubergearfolk copied his signal and raised their thumbs as well.

  There was no fear or hesitation in the mechanical men. They had no feelings or thoughts; all they could do was follow commands. Pryvyd scanned the line of identical warriors, swinging and parrying against the blows coming down. Wily was awed by the sheer destructive power of these new ubergearfolk. They were even more impressive than the rolling machines that Kestrel had created. And, Wily thought, also more terrifying.

  “Let’s go,” Odette said, pulling Wily out of his temporary stupor, “while we have the chance.”

  She was correct. If Valor and Lumina were imprisoned inside, there was no time to waste.

  Moshul scooped up Wily and Odette, one in each hand, and lifted them over the chaos of the bone soldiers and mechanical men doing battle, putting them down at the foot of the broken wall of the prisonaut.

  Odette did a double flip up and through the gap in the wall, then reached for Wily, who was slower to climb his way inside. Just on the other side of the wall a pair of boarcus stood, wielding an ax and shield.

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” one of the two boarcus said as he swung his ax.

  “Wrong,” Odette said. “You’re the one who’s in the wrong place.”

  Odette did a handspring, leaping over the boarcus and tearing his shield from his fingers as she did. Before he could even turn, she spun the shield in a circle overhead and knocked him in the side of the snout. The tusk-faced guard collapsed to the ground.

  His boarcus partner raised his hands in the air, dropping his weapons.

  “I hate this job anyway,” he said. “I just want to be a farmer. Raise some chickens. That’s all.”

  “Is Lumina Arbus here?” Wily asked as behind him the battle between Pryvyd’s ubergearfolk and the bone soldiers continued.

  “All the folk from the palace are in the cottages right past the main square,” the boarcus replied.

  “Hand over the keys,” Odette demanded.

  The boarcus quickly complied. With the ring of keys in hand, Wily and Odette ran down the cobblestone courtyard, past the fountain, to the cottages. Wily unlocked the doors and swung them wide open.

  “Mom?” he shouted. He was surprised by how fast his heart was beating.

  “Wily?” his mother’s voice called out. “Is that you?”

  Out from the darkness of the cottage, Lumina came rushing toward the door. She had shackles on her hands and wrists. As soon as she saw him, tears welled up in her eyes. “I thought I had lost you for good this time. Stalag said he had thrown you into the ocean.”

  “He did,” Wily replied. “I very nearly drowned.”

  “Odette,” Lumina said,
giving her a hug too. “I’m so glad you are safe. Is Pryvyd … okay?”

  Wily could hear her get choked up as she asked.

  “Yes,” Wily said, to which she gave a big sigh of relief. “Moshul, Roveeka, and Righteous too. We’re all fine. Tired, itchy, and a bit sun-scorched but fine nonetheless.”

  Valor came up next with the two ferrets, Impish and Gremlin, waddling behind (with their four paws bound in chains, it made it very difficult for the little pair to walk). Wily used the keys to unlock the chains and shackles from his loved ones.

  “I had a feeling that the old cavern mage wouldn’t be able to get rid of you for good,” Valor said with a gentle fist bump to the shoulder.

  “But how did you get back here?” Lumina asked.

  “It’s not a short story,” Wily said. “I will tell you everything on the way to the palace.”

  “We can’t go there,” Lumina replied. “Stalag’s army is too powerful. We need time to prepare and get reinforcements.”

  “We have reinforcements. Mechanical ones. We built soldiers with the help of the Eversteel Forge. Led by Pryvyd, they can take back the palace from Stalag.”

  “This sounds like something I have to see,” his mother replied with amazement.

  Just then her eyes went wide. She pushed Wily out of the way, knocking him to the ground in her rush to face the adversary behind him on her own.

  “I won’t let you take him,” his mother said with a fierce growl in her voice. “Not again. Not ever.”

  Wily turned to see that Kestrel was standing in the doorway.

  “It’s nice to see you too, Lumina.”

  Lumina picked up the chain that had only moments before been binding her and swung it in circles before her.

  “Put that down,” Kestrel said. “You could hurt someone.”

  “I will hurt someone. You, to be precise.”

  “I’m on your side now,” Kestrel said.

  “Very funny,” she said without smiling.

  “Mom,” Wily said. “He helped build the machines. Stalag threw him into the ocean too.”

  “I don’t believe it,” she said with her arms crossed.

  “I didn’t either,” Odette said. “Still don’t really.”

  “The palace belongs to Wily,” Kestrel said. “I am here to make sure it is his once more.”

  Lumina looked to Wily.

  “We wouldn’t be here without him,” Wily said.

  His mother appeared lost in thought for a moment, but then she seemed to come to a decision. She reached out a hand to Wily and lifted him off the floor. “Every minute we wait, Stalag has more time to transform the palace into one of his dungeons.”

  And with that, she wrapped her arm around her son and walked him out the door, right past Kestrel.

  “We’re not the only ones from the palace in here,” Valor said. “Every cottage in the prisonaut is filled with people who want to see Stalag removed from the throne. We may not need to go far to get the rest of our army.”

  19

  SWORD AND GEARS

  As the doors to the prison cottages were swung open, Wily saw old friends pour out. A dozen Knights of the Golden Sun that had aided them during their search for the famed lair beast Palojax saluted the young prince upon their release. A whole kitchen’s worth of hobgoblet chefs walked into the night air with their warty fists held high. Even the giant slug from Carrion Tomb slithered out of one of the cottages, lowering her eyestalks as she exited the door.

  “I am going to need all of your help,” Wily shouted to the crowd that was gathering in the courtyard of the prisonaut.

  “As always, our loyalty lies with you,” Spraved, the Knight of the Golden Sun and commander of Halberd Keep, said with a salute.

  “And I’ll shake and slime anyone you ask me to,” the giant slug added.

  “I may be the prince,” Wily continued. “But I am not your ruler. It is your choice if you want to march on the royal palace.”

  “If you are trying to dissuade us from joining you,” Valor shouted, “you’re doing a bad job.”

  “We want to see Stalag get justice as much as you do,” a familiar voice cackled out from behind the hobgoblets.

  Wily turned to see the Skull of Many Riddles floating in the air, surrounded by green flames. “What’s satisfying and sweet but you can’t put in your mouth to eat?” Then it answered its own riddle: “Revenge.” The skull let out a laugh. “I like riddles that aren’t funny so much better!”

  “We stand with you, Wily,” Spraved shouted. “You have earned our trust.”

  A chorus of cheers echoed through the prisonaut’s courtyard. Wily smiled, encouraged by their belief in him.

  “Just be aware,” Wily said, “that we will be joined by an unexpected ally. The Infernal King.”

  The entire gathering of prisoners murmured with confusion as Kestrel stepped into the open before them. Wily wondered if their trust had just vanished.

  “Are you crazy?” a knight called out. “That tyrant will never be a friend to us.”

  “I’m a changed man,” Kestrel called out, setting off more murmurs.

  “If I can stand beside him,” Wily said, “you should be able to as well.”

  “He’s your father,” someone else yelled from the crowd. “Of course you forgave him.”

  “Which is why it was all the harder.”

  There was more muttering and grumbling from the crowd.

  “I said it once,” Spraved said, “and I will say it again, we trust you.”

  “Everyone should board the ship,” Lumina said in her most commanding voice. “There is an imposter in the royal palace. Our first priority is removing him. Then we will deal with the Infernal King. And deal with him we will.”

  That last comment got a cheer from the crowd. The crowd of freed prisoners moved past the bound boarcus, who were seated back-to-back in the courtyard of the prisonaut, and toward the great armored ship jutting through the outer wall.

  Agorop and Sceely were also tied up and being led by Jayrus to the ship.

  “Let us stay here in the prison,” Agorop pleaded. “There be no needing to take us anywhere.”

  “No one is listening to your begging, you web-footed fool,” Sceely snapped at him as Moshul pushed them ahead.

  “And no one should,” Jayrus said, tugging them along. “You two are incredibly rude and inconsiderate. I need to teach you both some manners.”

  As Wily walked along the cobblestoned ground he spied Pryvyd standing with Lumina. They were embracing each other tenderly.

  “I was so worried about you,” Lumina said.

  “I should have told you months ago how I felt,” Pryvyd said. “I shouldn’t have waited until it was too late.”

  “Pryvyd,” Lumina said, “now is not the time.”

  “No, it is exactly the time. Before battle. Before danger. Before I may never get the chance to say it again.”

  Pryvyd gathered up enough courage and spoke.

  “I care deeply about you,” the Knight of the Golden Sun said, “and I am not just saying that because the man you were once married to is standing a hundred yards away. When I was stuck on those islands, I kept thinking that if you had been there I would never have needed to leave. Although maybe not the one with the giant mosquitoes. Even if you were there it would have been pretty awful. I’m rambling now.”

  Lumina gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. “I had a hunch that’s how you felt about me. But it is nice to hear it nonetheless.”

  Wily smiled at the thought of Pryvyd and his mother together. They loved each other and he loved them both as well. It was like a tight family growing even tighter.

  Valor came up behind Wily and stood alongside him. “I don’t know how much more mushy stuff I can take,” she said. Then she took Wily’s hand. “Perhaps a little more.”

  This caught Wily completely off guard. He looked down at her fingers touching his. Was this some mistake? Perhaps. Because as soon as she saw him
staring down at her fingers she pulled them away. Wily watched as Valor continued along, heading to the boat. Odette, Moshul, and Roveeka moved up behind Wily.

  “There’s a lot of kissing and hand-holding,” Roveeka said from her perch on Moshul’s shoulders. “But I’m not seeing a lot of hugging. I think I can change that.”

  Roveeka wrapped her arms tightly around the big mud golem. He gently patted her bald head with his hand. The hugtopus moved over and got in on the action too. Moshul signed: Thanks. I needed that. Odette put a hand on Wily’s shoulder. “Mortal danger seems to make love grow stronger. Between friends and between people who are more than friends.”

  “What are we, then?” Wily asked.

  “Family,” Odette said with a smile. “One big family.”

  Wily felt like giving Odette a big hug. So he did. His nose was filled with the smell of slightly spoiled yams, a sticky-sweet aroma he found delightful.

  “Can you believe we are still wearing pajamas?” Odette said. “I’m really looking forward to changing into a fresh pair of pants. And, by Glothmurk, you could use a clean shirt.”

  Wily looked down at the tattered nightshirt he was wearing, which sent the two into a fit of giggles.

  “Glad both of you are in good spirits,” Pryvyd said as he and Lumina came up beside them. “We’ll need all the strength of spirit we can muster.” Lumina was staring through the hole in the prisonaut wall. Then she scratched her head in confusion.

  “Is that a sailing ship? On land? With wheels?”

  “That’s another long story,” Wily said. “We can tell you on the way to the royal palace.”

  * * *

  AFTER AN HOUR of traveling the crooked road known as Trumpet Pass, the Recluself’s ship came to a stop just outside the orchards. Wily could see that Stalag’s gearfolk and snagglecarts were stationed in a line to defend the wall of the royal palace from intruders. It was an intimidating sight. Black smoke drifted off the gearfolks’ ax blades. Spears of crackling energy had been mounted on the sides of the snagglecarts, as if the machines themselves hadn’t been scary enough without them. On the high tower’s balcony, Stalag stood like a lone twig growing out from the stone.