Death's Academy

by Bast, Michael

  A distant crash awakes us from our stupor, and we dive behind a nearby desk. I peek through a crack in the wood. A handful of unicorns burst out of the far door. They’re moving fast and whooping and hollering in excitement. I recognize the unicorn leading the group by the long scar slicing down its face. It’s Raindrop, the same unicorn that killed Roger. I clench my fists and look around for something to use as a weapon. Brilliance grabs my hand, noticing my frantic search, and shakes her head.

  “There’s too many,” she whispers.

  Her warm hand calms me and I nod. I glare back at the unicorns.

  “What’s the leader holding in his hands?” Brilliance whispers into my ear.

  Raindrop is carrying something. I squint to get a better look. It’s a tall ebony staff with two handles sticking out from it at different intervals. Extending from its top is a swooping blade like a pelican’s beak.

  “Is it a scythe?” I ask.

  The unicorns are nearly on top of us. We duck farther down under the desk.

  There is a clatter behind us and another unicorn bursts from the tunnel. It’s the same one that Brilliance had leveled. All of his front teeth are missing and his right eye is swollen shut. He skids to a stop in front of the charging Raindrop and holds out his hands.

  “Sir! Someone’s here,” he slurs. “They ambushed me.”

  Raindrop comes to a stop in front of the wounded unicorn. They are less than ten feet from where we’re hiding.

  “You’re Sparkle-star, aren’t you?” Raindrop asks.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How many ambushed you?”

  “A dozen, maybe more. They’re here somewhere. We should find them and rip them limb from limb.”

  Raindrop shakes his head. “No. We’ve got what we’ve come for. It’s time to head back.”

  “But what about the hoodies we put in the dungeons?” Sparkle-star asks and bows his head lower.

  “They aren’t important. The scythe is what we came for.”

  Another unicorn, this one with a piece of its left ear missing, pushes forward. “This has gone even better than the Queen Suzanne!”

  Shocked, my head pops up from behind the desk. Brilliance yanks me back down and gives me a stern look. “Are you crazy?” she mouths.

  I peer back up at Raindrop. He bares his teeth in a sinister grin. “Our halo friend has come through for us again. We wouldn’t have gotten in here or the scythe without him.” His grin spreads even wider. “I’m not sure if he’ll appreciate the reward we have in store for him.”

  The other unicorns let out scraping chuckles and growling guffaws.

  “Let’s move!” Raindrop says.

  “But, sir, we have to find the hoodies that ambushed me. Look what they did!” Sparkle-stars says, motioning to his face.

  Raindrop smirks. “It’s an improvement.”

  The unicorns behind Raindrop laugh heartily. Sparkle-star’s face drops.

  “You have two minutes. There’s a sweet little girl locked in a cell down in the dungeon. Go exact your revenge on her if you wish.”

  I swallow a yelp before it can escape my lips. It’s got to be Mal.

  Sparkle-star brightens, and a crimson smile creases his face.

  “Thank you, sir,”

  “You have two minutes,” Raindrop calls out, and he and the others rush past Sparkle-star and into the tunnel.

  The clack, clack of the unicorns’ hooves diminish down the dark tunnel behind us. My eyes flick up to see Sparkle-star rubbing his damaged snout, a dangerous light growing in his eyes. He licks his lips and storms toward the dungeon’s entrance.

  “It’s Mal!” I whisper and grab Brilliance’s arm. “He’s going for Mal! Come on!”

  I speed after Sparkle-star, keeping my distance and running from overturned desk to overturned desk. My mind races between how to save Mal and what that unicorn said about the Queen Suzanne. The unicorns were a part of it, and a halo helped them? What does that mean?

  Sparkle-star doesn’t notice me trailing after him. He pushes through the doors into the dungeon and out of view.

  “Night! We need a plan. What are we going to do?” Brilliance calls out from behind me.

  I hold up my finger to my lips toward her and listen. The sound of Sparkle-star’s pounding hooves gradually softens.

  “No time,” I say and plunge through the doors after the unicorn.

  I am greeted by a wide stone staircase descending below. Waxy chandeliers hang suspended above us. There is another iron gate at the bottom of the stairs that has been twisted open. I glance back at Brilliance and can tell she is as apprehensive as I am.

  “What’s down there?” she asks.

  “Lots of iron bars and stone cells.”

  She bites her lip. “Is there anything else down here that we should be worried about?”

  “I don’t think so,” I say, speeding down the stairs two at a time.

  We pass through the gate and find a long stone corridor with dozens of prison doors thrown open down the length of it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash of white disappear around the corner at the far end. I signal to Brilliance and we move as light-footed as we can down the corridor. A faint cry escapes from deeper in the dungeon and my heart thunders.

  We whip around the corner, and I immediately recognize the cells. This is the area where they kept me. Several cells face each other with a wide walkway between them. I notice something move in a far cell, and I stand on my tiptoes to get a better view.

  “Someone is down there,” I whisper.

  “Where’s the unicorn?”

  I do a quick glance around, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

  I creep forward, my eyes swiveling back and forth for any sign of flashing white. We reach the far cell. A huddled mass is crammed into the corner shivering. I take a couple of careful steps into the edge of the torchlight.

  “Night?” a soft voice calls out.

  My heart leaps. I rush forward toward the familiar voice. “Mal!” I yell and reach though the bars toward her.

  She leaps from her spot and runs to my arms. I wrap my arms around her, and she lets out a sob. She buries her face through the cell bars into my chest. I squeeze her against me, a lump crawling up my throat.

  “I’m so sorry, Mal. I’m so sorry,” I say.

  She lets out another sob.

  “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

  She shakes her head. “Not badly. They … they used me … They used me to draw out the Sickles, and they ambushed them.”

  “I’m sorry, Mal. It’s my fault,” I say.

  “I tried. I tried to sound the hoodie alarm, but a little unicorn caught me … He grabbed me by my hair and …” Mal starts to cry again.

  I squeeze her even tighter. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

  “I hate to break up the love fest right now, but we’ve got to get going,” Brilliance calls out from behind me.

  Mal jumps back and wipes at her face. “Wha—what is she doing here?”

  “She saved my life and helped me break into here.”

  “But why? She’s a halo!” Mal says, her face screwed up in confusion.

  “Well, uh … she’s a Michaels and a Michaels plunges into frays with … danger … and no concern … safety … uh … She just wanted to help,” I stammer.

  “Unless you know where a key is, we won’t be busting your girlfriend out of here anytime soon,” Brilliance says and shakes the cell door a few times.

  Hearing Brilliance call Mal my girlfriend makes my face go hot, and I have a hard time thinking up a witty remark. I do manage to blink a couple of times.

  “My backpack,” Mal says and points over to the far wall behind me. “Open it.”

  I snatch up her backpack and unzip it.

  “Is the freezing spray still in there?” she asks.

  I shuffle though her gadgets and find the spray can we used earlier. I yank it out of the pack. “This is it, right?”

  “Yes, g
ive it to me.”

  “Way ahead of you,” I say and jog over to the cell door. I shake the can a couple of times and spray the hinges on the door. Ice forms around them. “Do you mind?” I point at Brilliance’s iron boot.

  “You’ll screw it up. Let me do it,” Brilliance says and straps the boot onto her foot. She rears back and springs forward, driving all of her force into the center of the cell door. There is a horrendous clang, and the door breaks free and crashes into the opposite wall.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I say, motioning for Mal to hurry.

  She sprints out of the cell and grabs my hand. My face goes hot again.

  Clap! Clap! Clap!

  We spin around to face the sound. Leaning against a cell’s bars is Sparkle-star.

  “All the rotten eggs in one basket. Today is my lucky day,” he says. “Two hoodies and a halo? What an unusual combination.”

  Sparkle-star’s eyes drift down to the iron boot still on Brilliance’s foot. He grimaces and clenches his claws. “You must be the one who did this,” he says, pointing to his face. “I’ll save you for last, little halo. I’ll let you watch as I use your bones to make me a new set of teeth.”

  Sparkle-star surges forward, his claws outstretched. Mal screams, Brilliance jumps backward, and I do the only thing that comes to mind and chuck the spray can at the charging unicorn. It bounces harmlessly off his hulking shoulder. He is nearly on top of us when a cell door swings open and the edge of it connects solidly with the unicorn’s snout. Clang!

  Sparkle-star lets out a squeal and spins to the floor. Almost instantly a woman with a fishhook-shaped back leaps on top of the unicorn.

  “Pandora!” I yell.

  “Meatloaf-and-Corn!” she answers. Pandora reaches into a pouch on the unicorn’s back and pulls out a green-and-white swirled lollipop. She plunges the pointy end into the unicorn’s neck. Sparkle-star pushes himself up onto his back haunches, causing Pandora to tumble off onto the cobblestone floor. The unicorn sways for a moment, his eyes unfocused, and then crashes back down to the earth.

  “Waa! Haa! Haa!” Pandora yells, jumping up and down, clapping her hands together. “Got your own medicine, didn’t we, mean horsey? Got your own medicine!” She slaps the unicorn’s backside and claps again.

  Pandora glances up at the three of us and grins. “He’ll be sleepy-sleep for days. Oh yes, oh yes. That’s a tranquilizer lollipop. I do know. Oh yes, I do know.”

  “How did you find us?”

  “Wasn’t looking, nope, nope. Pandora was hiding, yes, hiding from them. Pandora doesn’t like the mean unicorns. Not one bit, nope. Who are Meatloaf-and-Corn’s friends? Who are they?”

  “Pandora, this is Mal, and this is Brilliance,” I say. “Thank you for saving us.”

  Pandora scurries forward and hugs Mal tightly. She releases her and then grabs Brilliance and squeezes her. Brilliance looks like she’s about to throw up.

  “You believe the Pandora now, don’t you Meatloaf-and-Corn? I say the unicorns, oh yes I did say,” Pandora chuckles and slaps Sparkle-star on the backside again.

  I nod. “Yes, you were right.”

  “Let’s get out of here before any more of them come back,” Brilliance says, kicking her iron boot off her foot.

  “I agree,” Mal says. She picks up her ice spray can and stuffs it back into her backpack.

  Brilliance leads the way out of the dungeons. We try to be as sneaky as we can to not announce our departure to any other wandering unicorns, but it’s all in vain. Pandora sings and laughs with every step we take.

  We are up the stairs and into the cavernous room with the stained-glass ceiling. The fire continues to leap and scorch above. Several of the stained-glass paintings are smearing with the heat like a paintbrush swirling against a wet canvas.

  Crash! Part of the ceiling shatters, vomiting shards of rainbow-colored glass below. We dodge the raining daggers and rush out of the room and into the tunnel leading to the garage.

  We reach the garage and creep up the ramp to the courtyard. The black night has begun to retreat and rays of crimson and gold streak across the sky. I motion for everyone to wait. I sprint to the outer wall and peek one way and then another. Not a unicorn can be seen.

  I signal to Brilliance, and she leads them to where I’m waiting. I tiptoe around the edge of the crumbling wall and gasp. A mass of bodies lies on the ground where the unicorns had corralled the Sickles and other hoodies in the street.

  “Come on,” I say and sprint to the crumpled bodies.

  I can feel Mal and Brilliance come up from behind me. At my feet, the massive guard Wolf lies facedown with his arms and legs splayed out like a Christmas star.

  “They killed them.”

  “No, no, Meatloaf-and-Corn, no, no.”

  I spin around, and Pandora scuttles forward, bent over and panting.

  “Lookie, look.” She points to Wolf and then to another Sickle not far from him. Different colored Lollipops stick out of their necks. “Taking long naps, nighty-night. Sleeping for days and days.”

  “They’re alive,” I say and relief creeps across my face. “The unicorns have left?”

  “Of course they’ve left, Meatloaf-and-Corn. Of course, of course.”

  I glance over at Pandora, who’s picking strands of hair out of her balding scalp. “Why have they left, Pandora?”

  “They got it, of course, of course.”

  “You mean that scythe?”

  Pandora rocks back and forth a couple of times and then her eyes seem to focus. She turns and looks into my eyes for the first time this evening. “Yes, oh yes! The Scythe of Grim.”

  Mal lets out a yelp. The expression on Mal’s face scares me.

  “What does that mean, Pandora?” I ask.

  Twenty

  Pandora told them that’s what they wanted. Pandora told them and told them,” she says, pulling out a blue-and-pink lollipop from a Sickle’s neck. “They didn’t want to believe Pandora, nope. Locked Pandora in a dungeon. Locked her away, tight.”

  “But why do the unicorns want that thing?” I ask.

  “Because the Scythe of Grim holds all the powers on which death is governed,” Mal answers, clasping her arms around her shivering shoulders. “Grim was the first hoodie.”

  “Yeah, I know that. But what does the Scythe do? The first time I heard of it was from Pandora.”

  “My dad told me it’s what gives all you hoodies your powers,” Brilliance says. “Like how you know when it’s time to transition the humans.”

  “How does she know about it and I don’t?” I say, pointing at Brilliance.

  Mal shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe if you opened a book from time to time?”

  “I do.”

  “Books about famous skull ball players don’t count.”

  Sometimes it’s frustrating that Mal knows me as well as she does. “Okay, so powers come from it, but what does that mean exactly?”

  Pandora claps loudly and jumps up and down with her arm extended to the sky. “Let me tell, let me tell.” She stands on her tiptoes and reaches as high as she can. “Me! Me!”

  It’s a little weird to see a grown woman act like a four-year-old, but it’s Pandora, so I go with it. “Okay,” I say and point at her.

  “Yes!” she says and gives Brilliance and Mal a smug glance. “The old, old hoodie Grim, the first hoodie, took all of his abilities and powers. Every single one. He took them and put them into the Scythe thousands or more years ago. Without the Scythe, hoodies can’t do their job—oh no, oh no. No gazers, no car magnets, no powers over the shorties. Not one, nope. Hoodies cease to exist, all gone, go away. Shorties can’t go to the Heaven, stuck, stuck, stuck.”

  Mal unzips her backpack and pulls out her car magnet, gives it a shake, and taps it on the side. She looks up at me and shakes her head. “I read that the Scythe is stored in a special instrument that amplifies its powers to all the hoodies.”

  “Yes, smarty girl, yes. Rapture’
s Sheath, that’s what it’s called. The Scythe’s powers go up, up, huge,” Pandora says.

  I shake my head. “So when the Scythe is in this sheath—”

  “Rapture’s Sheath!” Pandora exclaims and claps.

  “So, when it’s put in Rapture’s Sheath, its powers are spread to all hoodies. Is that what you are saying?”

  “Yes,” Mal says and nods. “When it’s out of the sheath, we’re powerless.”

  “The unicorns knew what they were doing. They had information on how to cripple us. That unicorn said they had someone on the inside telling them what to do,” I say and glance over at Brilliance. “A halo.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Brilliance says, shaking her head. “No halo would help the unicorns. He must have been making that up.”

  “What’s this?” Mal asks.

  I quickly recount what we heard Raindrop and the other unicorns talking about inside the Lock.

  “I don’t know, Night. That’s a pretty tough pill to swallow. I’m not a big fan of the halos either, but I have a hard time believing that one of them would willingly help the unicorns do this. It just doesn’t make sense,” Mal says.

  “Yes, exactly. It doesn’t make sense,” Brilliance adds.

  “But what about what he was saying about the Queen Suzanne incident?” I say.

  “That doesn’t matter right now,” Brilliance blurts out. “Pandora, why do the unicorns want the Scythe?”

  Pandora leaps back like a frightened cat. “Speaking in my ear too loud, too loud. Scared Pandora, yes. Gave Pandora the jumpies.”

  Brilliance gives me a frustrated glance and apologizes. “Sorry, but why do the—”

  “Unicorns don’t like the shorties, nope, nope. Want to chop them up, chop hoodies, chop halos, chopsy. Halos and hoodies stop them. They say, no siree, can’t do that. But no Scythe of Grim, no powers. No powers, chop, choppie, chopper. Unicorns want to pay back, lots and lots.”