Finally, the band came to a stop. Castle Greystone loomed less than a hundred feet away, casting a shadow that made it seem like night had fallen early. Like the mountain Sarah had mistaken it for, the castle was ugly and marked with several deep crags. Years of driving rain and hard sleet had smoothed the outside walls, but also left deep scars on the castle’s face. A pair of stone doors that were easily fifteen feet tall marked the entrance. If Sarah squinted just right, those doors looked like a mouth, and the rest of the castle looked like a skull. It was an image that didn’t exactly make her feel comfortable.
“Bring our Emerald Enchantress here,” Baelan said. At the warlord’s command, a pair of beast-men grabbed Sarah, one by the shoulders and another by the legs. They carried her like she was a piece of furniture and then dropped her like garbage at the feet of their master.
“Where’s Kay?” Sarah whispered to the invisible dragon on her back. “He should have shown up by now if his spells are working.”
“Don’t worry,” Keeley said. “If we trust him, he and Dax will show up. They haven’t let us down before, have they?”
Sarah kept her mouth shut, deciding not to respond with a list of all the times Kay’s spells had caused more trouble than they were worth.
“And now here we are,” said Baelan, ignorant of the whispered conversation between Sarah and Keeley. “Those great stone gates have remained sealed shut for years. It takes the magic of a native of this world to open them. Magic that you possess, Sarah. You can either take this last chance to help me willingly, or I can break open your mind and use you as a tool.”
“You’re… wasting… your… time.” Sarah spoke slowly, hoping that each pause would buy Kay the extra second he needed to show up and launch a surprise attack. “I’m not even from this world. I’ve told you that already. Kay’s the native who can use magic. If you were going to kidnap anyone, it should have been him.”
“Phaw! That child can’t wield a spell to save his life. If it wasn’t for that book he carries, he wouldn’t even be able to get out of his own way. You, on the other hand, have used magic like a natural since you first arrived in this valley. You might not realize it, but you are definitely the one I’ve been looking for. Now… will you help me willingly, or will I have to use your blood as a sacrifice to open this gate?”
Sarah closed her eyes and stayed silent. Whether Kay came or not, she wasn’t about to let Baelan’s armies pour into the outside world.
“That’s the answer I expected,” Baelan said. He turned to one of his beast-men. “Bring me an ax.”
Sarah decided she had waited too long. As one horse-headed beast-man carried an ax to his master, Sarah grunted and strained against her already loosened bonds. They snapped easily, and she was free—or as free as she could get while weaponless and surrounded by soldiers. She raised her hands and prepared a spell, hoping she could remember something that would get her to safety.
Baelan, though, acted more bored than anything else. He gave her a frustrated look when she burst free, as though he were a babysitter dealing with a misbehaving child. Then he sprang forward, placing a firm hand over Sarah’s mouth, cutting off any magic words she was about to say. Sarah kicked and thrashed, but her feet hit the hard protection of the warlord’s armor. If he felt the blows at all, he didn’t show it.
“Such a nuisance,” the warlord breathed. “I should have just run you through in front of the dragons and taken my chances.”
“The dragons are still here!” Keeley shouted. The white dragon became visible as she leapt off Sarah’s shoulders and bit at Baelan. Although her tiny teeth failed to pierce his armor, Baelan let out a shout of frustration. He let go of Sarah to deal with the mouse-sized dragon that was now attached to his forearm.
Once again, Sarah prepared her words of power. But, once again, she was cut off. This time, though, she didn’t mind. With a burst of purple smoke and a familiar acrid smell, a pair of figures popped into view beside her.
“See? I told you I’d get it right this time,” Kay crowed.
“And you’ve landed us in the middle of an army,” Dax said with a sigh. He drew the perfectly-crafted sword that Adlin had given him and took a defensive stance, letting everyone who was near know that he wouldn’t be hitting them with the flat of the blade this time. “But I suppose we’ll do what we have to do, even if my back pays for it in the morning.”
Baelan had finally managed to shake Keeley off. He swatted at her with his gauntlet, but the white dragon darted away faster than the eye could follow. She perched on the ground, hissed, and took a deep breath in, preparing to spout flame at the enemies that surrounded her.
“You’ve got to admit,” Kay said, winking at Sarah, “it was a pretty good plan. We didn’t trust Baelan for a second, and while you were talking to him, we figured out how to track you all the way to Castle Greystone itself.”
Despite the fact that she was glad to have friends by her side, Sarah felt less than thrilled. Maybe it had something to do with the few hundred troops or so that were around them.
Baelan, sick of the frustration the group had caused, glowered at the companions. He sighed and gave one command to Aries: “Just kill them all.”
Sarah took a deep breath and finally prepared her spell. Next to her, Kay was doing the same thing. Dax leapt forward with his sword, and Keeley spat a mouthful of fire at the enemies that were descending upon them. The battle for Castle Greystone had begun.
Twenty-Four
Four people stood against an entire army. Sarah had read about the same situation in dozens of books. She didn’t feel nearly as confident as those fairy-tale heroes seemed to, though.
As soon as Baelan’s ranks realized what was happening, they attacked. A column of beast-men charged one side of the group, while men on the other side notched arrows in their bows in case the companions somehow managed to break away and run for freedom.
Keeley shot a burst of fire at the charging soldiers. She seemed like a miniature flamethrower, spouting forth far more fire than such a little body should have been able to contain. Most of the troops pulled up short and dodged out of the way of the house-sized fireball. Those who didn’t stop in time got the full brunt of the fiery blast. They dropped their weapons and started rolling on the ground, desperate to put out the flames.
With Keeley’s fiery breath leading the charge, Dax rushed in afterward, his sword flashing dangerously. His face held the same grim expression it always had. It didn’t matter if he was dealing with one man or a thousand—he never looked like he was expecting to make it out alive.
The companions weren’t dealing with a small group of soldiers this time, though. They were surrounded by an entire army—one that wouldn’t be intimidated by a group that consisted of two children, one old man, and a dragon the size of a mouse. The sword-wielding soldiers quickly surrounded Dax, while the bowmen took aim at Sarah and Kay.
Sarah shouted magical words, hoping that she could remember the few spells she had looked over back in the dragon caves. The arrows flew, but Sarah’s magic did the trick. A gale of wind rushed forward, forming a stormy wall between the archers and their targets. Sarah and Kay breathed a sigh of relief as the arrows fell harmlessly away, blown aside by hurricane-level winds. The relief didn’t last long, though. Both the children realized that they hadn’t done much more than buy themselves a few more seconds.
“Kay!” Sarah shouted. “You’ve got to get us out of here! Use the reverse of the spell that brought you to me. Bring us back to Adlin!”
But, as usual, and yet at the worst possible time, Kay wasn’t listening. He shook his head and flung open his book, finding an entirely different spell. Sarah wondered if he had marked the pages in advance, or if he was just hurling magic at random. “If we take out the leader, the rest will crumble,” he said. Without listening to any other warnings, he started rattling off magical syllables.
Kay pointed his wand at Baelan as he finished the spell. Sarah had learned from
looking through her spellbook that the wand helped focus a wizard’s mind, thus making his magic stronger. She hoped that all Kay needed was a bit more focus. The last thing she needed right now was for him to turn them all into fish or something.
A spark of fire emerged from Kay’s wand, and a strange golden ray shot forward. Baelan tensed to dodge to the side, but at the last second, Aries rushed forward, knocking Baelan out of the way and taking the brunt of Kay’s magic himself.
The golden ray struck Aries in the chest. The ram-man bellowed in pain. His body looked like it had just been struck by lightning—Sarah even saw his bones, lit up from the inside out like he was going through an x-ray machine. So distracted was she by the effects of Kay’s magic that she forgot to pay attention to the rest of the battle. Only when she heard Dax’s cry for help did she start to turn around, and by then a pair of smelly horse-headed men had grabbed her by the arms and lifted her off her feet.
Kay was also absorbed in the sight of the spell he had woven. Once he noticed that Sarah was under attack, though, he leapt at the beast-men, kicking them and gouging at their eyes. That skirmish didn’t last much longer. In a matter of seconds, the earth shook and knocked all the combatants—soldiers and adventurers alike—off their feet.
Sarah was among the first to get up. Even as she did, the ground started shaking again. It didn’t stop. The source of the earthquake was easy enough to spot—and it made her anything but happy to see.
Aries, still glowing from the effects of Kay’s spell, was getting bigger. He was already nearly twenty feet tall, and he was still growing. He growled, spit, and snarled as he continued transforming into a giant. His hoofed feet stomped the ground, creating craters wherever they landed. Even Baelan had been knocked over, and he was now scrambling out of the way of his monstrous general.
The eyes of the once-clever Aries grew dim with anger and stupidity. He seemed to try to say something but couldn’t figure out how to use words anymore. In frustration, he doubled his fists together and swung downward, nearly flattening some of Baelan’s own troops. They only barely managed to avoid the giant’s swing.
“Kay, what spell did you cast?” Sarah asked. Both of the allies rushed to Dax, whose sword was still stuck between the plates on a soldier’s armor. The fighting had stopped altogether now—no one was taking their eyes off Aries. By the time the ram-man stopped growing, he was as tall as Castle Greystone itself.
“I… I thought it was a stupidity spell. I figured if Baelan couldn’t think, he couldn’t lead an army.”
Aries tried to speak again, and the fact that he couldn’t remember any words seemed to enrage him to no end. He kicked out, nearly knocking himself off balance. Although his attack was clumsy, it managed to scatter a whole column of very confused soldiers.
“Although…” Kay said, his voice trailing off in a disturbing manner, “I think maybe I made a small mistake.”
“It looks like a pretty large mistake, unfortunately for us,” Dax said.
“Well, what I mean is, I think the spell worked, but I might not have read all of it. I think I made him stupid by making his body outgrow his brain.”
Aries threw back his head and let out another unintelligible yell. The companions clapped their hands to their ears. Even after it was over, Sarah’s ears still rang. On the bright side, the sight of their now-gigantic general was enough to cause the soldiers to scramble. They dropped their weapons and fled, oblivious to the small group of people they were supposed to capture. Even Baelan seemed to have disappeared, although Sarah couldn’t tell if he had run away or if he was just hiding somewhere.
“It’s OK,” Kay said cheerfully. He flung open his book again. “I’m sure there’s a spell in here that can reverse it.”
Sarah slammed the book shut before Kay could find it. “Forget about it! Your spells have caused enough trouble for now. Even if you do find the right magic, we’ll be squashed flat by then.”
“And something as big and powerful as Aries will be able to stomp Greystone Valley flat in a minute,” Dax said. “Even the dragons will have trouble with someone of that size.”
“Well, then, what should we do?” Kay asked.
“Duck!” Sarah shouted. She threw herself flat, and Dax grabbed Kay and pulled the two of them down against the ground at the same time. Aries had pulled an entire pine tree out of the ground and was now swinging it around like a baseball bat. He didn’t seem to be directly aiming for the companions, but he got close enough to scatter them with pine needles and sap from one wild swing.
Aries continued swatting at what looked like empty air, as though a particularly annoying bug was stinging him. Sarah almost wondered aloud what was vexing him so, but then she realized she should have known. Keeley was darting around the giant’s horns. Just when it looked like Aries was about to finally connect with a swing, she hiccoughed fire that singed the tree trunk and caused the monster to stumble.
“I can fix this. I’m sure I can,” Kay insisted, oblivious to Keeley’s heroics.
“Never mind that,” Sarah said. “Keeley has the right idea.”
“What idea?” Dax asked. “A suicide run?”
“It’s not suicide. Aries is big and strong, but he’s also stupid and slow right now. We might get an advantage if we keep him off balance. We need to charge straight for him. Target his legs and ankles. Maybe we can stop him that way.”
“That’s insane,” Dax said.
Kay, on the other hand, warmed up to the idea immediately. Without waiting for anyone else to join him, he grabbed a branch left behind by Aries’s makeshift club and charged the giant, shouting at the top of his lungs. With a brilliant combination of bravery and stupidity, he swung the branch like a baseball bat against Aries’s giant hoof.
The branch broke without the giant even feeling it.
Kay himself lost his footing and fell down right in the path of the monster’s next footfall.
He closed his eyes and flung up his arms in feeble self-defense.
Sarah didn’t wait for the boy to be crushed. She shouted out the words to the first spell she could think of and flung her arms wide. A bright white shield formed between Kay and the monster’s hoof. Even though it shattered, it was enough to turn the blow aside. It was also enough to give Dax an opening. He charged in and sank his sword hilt-deep into the monster’s other foot. The dragon-treated metal was sharp enough to cut steel—Aries didn’t even have a chance.
The beast-giant wailed in pain as the steely thorn cut through his hoof. He stumbled backward and fell against the wall of Castle Greystone itself. The earth shook, and the walls of the great castle buckled with the giant’s weight. With an eardrum-shattering crack, the drawbridge of Castle Greystone fell open. The front hall looked as black and ominous as any mountain cavern that Sarah had seen in the valley. And from that darkness came a voice—loud, angry, and somehow familiar. “The seal has been broken, but not by one who was chosen. There must be punishment.”
In an instant, the sky clouded over. Red and blue lightning arced across the suddenly dark sky. Then a bolt struck down toward Aries. Sarah threw her arms up to cover her eyes against the sudden brightness. She heard a single scream—a bellowing, gigantic shriek that came from Aries. Then the clouds faded, and everything became quiet again.
Aries remained a giant, but he was motionless—frozen forever, with his arms thrown up to the sky in panic. His skin and fur had become dark gray. Baelan’s general had been turned to stone and was now just another mountain on Greystone Valley’s horizon.
And the gateway to Castle Greystone, Sarah’s only way home, still lay open.
Twenty-Five
“What do we do now?” Keeley squeaked as she landed on Sarah’s shoulder.
Sarah looked at the gaping black opening of Castle Greystone for a long time without speaking. Her journey was over now. She wasn’t entirely sure, though, whether she should feel happy or sad.
“I guess… I guess I go in,” she finally sa
id.
Keeley nodded and purred quietly. “Then Keeley needs to say goodbye,” she said sadly. “Dragons must never enter the castle. It would break the Oath otherwise.”
Sarah picked up the little dragon and held her like a butterfly in her cupped hands. “Thank you for coming with me this far,” she whispered. “Even the biggest dragons wouldn’t have protected me the way you did.”
Keeley’s scales turned a little pinkish as she blushed. “Yes,” she said happily. “Keeley can be very brave.” She almost said something else, but her nose twitched as a cold breeze whipped across the mountains. She sneezed, and Sarah had to jump backward to avoid the sudden spark of fire that flew at her face. Nonetheless, the companions shared a chuckle.
“I’ll go with you,” Kay said. “You’ll need my spellbook to open up the castle’s magic.” He turned to Dax. “Do you want to come, too? It’s your chance to finally get out of this dreary valley and go back to wherever you call home.”
The sky was clouding over, but there was still a glint of light in Dax’s eye. He shook his head gingerly. The bones in his neck made painful popping sounds, and his grimace remained as heavy as ever. “No sense in wasting another spell on an old man like me,” he said. “Besides, someone will need to take little Keeley back to Dragonhome. As much as I’d love to finally be free of this place, duty calls.”
“That’s OK, Dax,” Keeley said, looking happy to help. “Keeley knows the mountains well enough. She can find her own way home.”
“No, no,” the old warrior added hastily, his face suddenly a bit paler. “No, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if an owl decided to make a meal out of you. It’s best if I bring you back myself… just for your own good, of course.”
“I wouldn’t want you to be miserable,” Sarah said. “I’m sure I can just teleport Keeley home using Kay’s spellbook. After all, didn’t you say your home was a wonderful place with sunshine and elfin maidens?”
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