The Realm of the Drells

by Kenneth Zeigler

  “Don’t look into his eyes, not for an instant,” warned Sybil.

  “So, you have sought the help of someone schooled in the craft of the wise,” observed the avenger, a smile on his face. “This battle is none of your concern, witch, you have my leave to depart.”

  “I don’t think so,” replied Sybil, walking to the edge of the circle to face the drell. “This is my nephew and his friend, their fight is my fight.”

  “So it shall be,” replied the avenger. “Know who it is you’re dealing with. I’m not some disembodied spirit, who will be turned by your incantations.”

  “Oh I know who I’m dealing with,” replied Sybil, taking the oak staff in hand. “I’m dealing with a parasite, a leach on humanity, and I will treat you as such.”

  The smile vanished from Lex Ton’s face as he fought to control his explosive temper. “I assure you, you’ll live to regret that insult, but you won’t live long. I’ll take particular pleasure in destroying you.”

  “You’re all talk,” retorted Sybil, pounding her staff on the floor, causing a flurry of glistening light to course through its length, even as bolts of blue electricity surged about its rounded end. “You’re not dealing with a bunch of helpless children now. You’re facing a real challenge. I don’t think you’ve ever faced an adversary who’s your equal. Well, I am.”

  The drell’s eyes seemed luminescent, reflecting his growing anger. “Boast witch, but remember, you’re the one who needs to hide within a magical circle for protection. Look into my eyes if you dare.”

  Much to Ron’s horror Sybil did just that, did the thing she’d warned Ron and Connie never to do. Her gaze met that of the drell’s. Their stare down lasted for the better part of a minute. It was the drell who broke it off.

  “What magic is this?” he roared. “I can’t see into your mind. Your very soul is invisible to me. How can that be?”

  “Because you underestimate me, drell,” retorted Sybil, her voice amazingly calm. “You are overconfident and that overconfidence will be your downfall.” Sybil turned away from the drell and walking back toward her nephew. “You aren’t even worth my time. My time would be better spent on purging this house of cockroaches.”

  In a fit of rage, Lex Ton changed, grew. His cloak dissolved, his skin turned to scales, his body expanded and transfigured. Where there had been a drell, a fiery crimson dragon stood on two powerful legs. Its spiked tail swung from side to side, it clawed at the air with long sharp talons. Its three hideous heads, attached to long writhing necks, snarled viciously.

  “Sybil, look out!” cried Ron.

  Sybil turned to view the menacing scaly beast that stood crouched at the door, not the trace of fear in her eyes. “It’s only an illusion,” she retorted, turning quickly to Ron and Connie who trembled in fear. “Put your fear aside, he’s feeding upon it.” She turned once more to the avenger. “Is that all the better you can do, illusions to frighten small children?” She pointed her staff at the beast, releasing a flurry of sparks that left a hooded figure where the great dragon once stood. “I’ll make a pact with you, if you truly wish to confront me on the field of mystical combat.”

  The avenger stared at Sybil with a look of amazement. “You must surely be more foolish than I had thought. Speak your pact, I am listening.”

  “I’ll face you outside of my magical circle at the hour of midnight tomorrow, at the Martin Neurological Institute, within the room they call the FENS laboratory. It will be a battle to the death. That is assuming you have the stomach for it.”

  “Such foolishness,” laughed the drell.

  “All I hear is talk,” retorted Sybil. “Do we have a pact or not?”

  “It shall be as you have said, witch,” acknowledged Lex Ton. “I agree to your terms.”

  “The pact is sealed by our words,” proclaimed Sybil. “So as it is said, so let it be done.”

  “So as it is said, so let it be done,” rejoined Lex Ton, fading from the room.

  Sybil turned toward Ron and Connie and smiled, “You’ll not be bothered by him anymore tonight.”

  “You really intend to do battle with that monster?” asked Ron.

  “Of course, I gave my word.”

  “You’re trying to lure him into the magnetic trap I told you about,” gasped Connie. “Sybil, I’m not even sure I can be ready by then. Even if I am, there’s no guarantee that it would work. You could be throwing your life away.”

  “A risk,” observed Sybil. “We’ve got to know if your theory holds water. Personally I think you may well be right. Well, here’s your chance to make history.”

  Despite the late hours they’d kept the night before and only a few hours of sleep Connie, Ron, and Sybil were in the FENS lab at first light. At first the work was proceeding ahead of schedule. But it wasn’t long before Connie began to run into difficulties. Even Dr. Wilson got involved in the work. But as morning turned to afternoon and then to early evening the task began to weigh heavily upon Connie.

  “I can’t get the field projectors to align!” cried Connie, throwing her pen to the side. She spun around in the chair, away from the main computer console. She glanced up at the clock, “Almost seven!”

  “Easy child,” whispered Sybil, rubbing Connie’s temples with her forefingers. “Calm, allow your mind to focus. Allow your soul to settle.” Sybil seemed to be uttering some sort of incantation over her though her words were unfamiliar, another language.

  “It’s your life,” she cried, “I’ve got to figure this out!”

  “Not right this minute,” insisted Sybil, dropping to her knees and hugging the distraught engineer. “Let your fears flow from you, I shall cast them away.”

  Ron watched in concern. There was nothing more that he would have liked to have done that join the two in their embrace but he refrained.

  It was several minutes before Connie and Sybil separated once more, and less than an hour before Connie had optimized the electromagnetic field parameters. They were ready.

  All day they had planned the confrontation that would take place at the stroke of midnight, yet as the hour approached, all were filled with doubt.

  “Seven minutes till midnight,” noted Ron, as he rechecked the liquid nitrogen flow valve in the FENS instrument room. He looked toward his aunt, even as Connie and Dr. Wilson watched through the windows of the control room. “I wonder if the drells are punctual.”

  “I guess we’ll find out,” she replied, removing a large iridium pentacle from her bag and placed it about her neck.

  “So many things could go wrong with this plan,” warned Connie, who had been listening to their conversation on the intercom. She glanced nervously at the status display menu on the computer screen and then through the control room window. Her eyes met Sybil’s. “You’re staking your life on my theory about the drells. I could just as easily be wrong.”

  “You were sure about it yesterday,” said Ron.

  “A woman has the right to change her mind,” scolded Sybil, donning her black cloak, whose pockets were filled with a variety of mysterious items. “Still, I think this is the best plan, it’s certainly the boldest. That drell was right about one thing, my bag of tricks is likely to be no match for his otherworldly power. I will pray that the Spirit endows me with even greater power and wisdom.”

  “Bag of tricks?” asked Ron. “What do you mean bag of tricks? I saw some pretty amazing things last night.”

  Sybil laughed. “Let us hope that I fooled the drell as well.” She held up her staff. “Pretty neat toy, isn’t it? That enormous capacitor and high voltage power supply within it can put on a pretty incredible light show. At least for a dozen seconds or so. Then there is the fine iridium shot propelled by the high pressure carbon dioxide canister. It was more effective than I’d dared to hope. That staff can do a few more tricks too. I hope I don’t have to use them tonight.”

  “But it couldn’t read your mind,” said Connie.

  “No, it couldn’t,” said Sybil, pullin
g back her hood to reveal a fine mesh of wires running through her hair. “RF shielding. It scattered and dispersed the field projected by his mind. I could feel the effects alright but they were greatly weakened.”

  “So it was all smoke and mirrors,” gasped Connie.

  Sybil pulled her hood back over her head. “Pretty much. But don’t underestimate the powers of the Spirit. The Spirit is with me and He will strengthen me. Still if Connie’s theory fails, this confrontation might well be one of the shortest contests of mystical prowess in history. This drell is way stronger than anything I’ve ever faced before.”

  “Even if the theory is sound, we could still be in trouble,” said Connie. “I didn’t have time to make the magnetic field projectors steerable. Sybil, you’re going to have to lure the drell to the focus point.”

  Sybil gazed toward Connie. There was no fear to be found in her eyes nor heard in her voice. “My dear, we’ve gone over all of this before, I know what I’m doing. Please don’t worry.”

  Dr. Wilson drew out the 38 special from his lab coat. “If worse comes to worse we always have this.”

  “No,” cautioned Sybil. “This is my fight. If I am defeated, you may need that to defend the others but don’t pull it out before then. That would be considered an infraction of the pact. We can’t have that. This must be a fair fight just me against him.”

  Ron walked to his aunt’s side, “Would you like me to stay here with you?”

  “By the Spirit, no, you’d only be in my way,” she objected, drawing her staff from its case. “The last thing I need is to be worrying about you too. I want you out of here right now and inside the magical circle in the control room with Connie and Dr. Wilson. If things don’t go well, they are going to need you.”

  Ron’s eyes were full of emotion as he planted a kiss on his aunt’s forehead. He was abandoning her, he knew it. “Be safe,” he said.

  “That awaits to be seen,” she replied, smiling ever so slightly. “Away with you.”

  The stroke of midnight found Ron, Connie, and Dr. Wilson within the magical circle, and Sybil in harm’s way.

  The instrument room turned cold as Lex Ton materialized a dozen feet before his adversary, and better than eight feet from the designated target zone.

  “He’s way out of position,” murmured Connie.

  “I was uncertain that you would honor your side of the pact,” observed Lex Ton. “Thou art more foolish than I had imagined.”

  Sybil stepped backward several paces, trying not display the fear that filled her heart. “I keep my vows.”

  “And I see that you’ve brought the others with you,” said Lex Ton. “How thoughtful. I can destroy all of them at once, after I’ve taken care of you.” Lex Ton looked over at Dr. Wilson who stood so stoic behind the control room window. “I have learned so much from your Claudia West. So full of fear she was. Now she labors with the other slaves within our realm. Still, I don’t think she shall survive long.”

  Wilson didn’t respond. He offered a silent prayer for Sybil. It was the first time he had prayed in a very long time.

  Lex Ton turned once more toward Sybil. “Well, let us be about it. I have so much to do and the night is already half gone.”

  For a moment, Lex Ton didn’t advance, then he approached his opponent. Sybil could feel the effects of the drell’s will, even though her shield, as he tried to conquer hers. Her surroundings began to grow dark as his power descended over her like a great black cloak. He tried to draw her toward him, yet she held firm, resisting his ancient will. Still it was pure agony. She sensed the terrible need to move toward him, to reduce the suffocating pain. She held her ground. A moment later her vision cleared.

  “Very good, witch,” he remarked, stepping still closer. “None of your kind has ever withstood that. Perhaps ye are a worthier opponent than I first considered.”

  Connie gasped as Lex Ton passed just a yard to the right of the focus point of the magnetic field projectors. “I should have tried to make the beam steerable,” she lamented. “God, if he doesn’t step into the target zone Sybil is done for.”

  Sybil moved to her right, in an attempt to lure her adversary into position.

  “I shall make you feel pain before I dispense with you,” boasted the drell, a smile on his face.

  “Your idol words will be the death of you,” replied Sybil, stepping backward one step.

  Lex Ton was already in the process of summoning the dark powers, powers that Sybil knew would overwhelm her. He raised his hands. A blue lightning bolt danced between his two palms. He stepped into the target zone.

  “Now,” whispered Connie, thrusting the large relay switch all the way forward.

  There was a dimming of the room lights and a momentary spark from the hastily erected projectors over the drell’s head as the polarity of the powerful magnetic field that pervaded the room reversed.

  The drell’s expression changed from one of assured confidence to one of abject horror. He did not so much as utter a word before a blinding flash and a terrible detonation consumed him. An ominous black rent, seemingly hanging in mid-air was all that remained of the hunter. A powerful gale roared into the void, drawing loose objects into a realm beyond this world. Sybil held on tightly to the FENS couch to prevent herself from being swept away.

  A rolling metal cart was flung across the room and into the void. It tumbled into the blackness beyond, vanished from sight. Connie, Ron, and Dr. Wilson watched nervously as the window in the control room bulged ominously toward the hole, threatened to shatter. Had that glass not contained a layer of Plexiglas at its core it surely would have.

  Sybil’s ears pained her as the air pressure in the room plummeted. Then the wind began to dissipate. A second later the hole collapsed and a stillness ruled the room. Sybil was left dazed but unharmed.

  Ron rushed from the control room to his aunt’s side. “Are you okay?” he asked, hugging her.

  “I’m fine, dear,” she replied, “just a little shook up.”

  A few seconds later, a young orderly accompanied by Carlos, pistol in hand, burst into the room.

  “We heard an explosion!” remarked the orderly, gazing about in alarm at the chaos left by the gale.

  “Implosion,” corrected Ron, walking calmly toward the young man. He turned to the security guard. “It’s alright, Carlos, no one was hurt, an experiment just got a little out of hand.”

  “A little out of hand?” gasped the young security guard. “What kind of research are you involved in here?”

  “Nothing dangerous,” assured Ron. k'1`2

  The guard looked into the control room to see Dr. Wilson. The doctor only nodded.

  “Man, you probably woke up every patient in A Wing,” observed Carlos. “Some of them are pretty excitable, you know.”

  There was something Dr. Wilson hadn’t considered. “Please have the nurses check in on them, extend my apologies.”

  “Yes, doctor,” confirmed the orderly.

  “We can go ahead, dear,” whispered Sybil to her nephew.

  “Wait,” interjected Wilson, stepping from the control room into the FENS lab. “See that Nurse Claudia West is wheeled here as soon as possible, she’s in room 137.”

  “Now, doctor?” asked the intern, a puzzled expression on his face. “It’s past midnight.”

  “I’m aware of the time,” confirmed Wilson, his impatience growing. “I want her here within twenty minutes.”

  “Yes, doctor,” replied the orderly, rushing into the hallway.

  Connie peered into the instrument room, a broad smile on her face. “You were wonderful Sybil.”

  Sybil turned to Connie, barely discerning her form at the door, she smiled. “The miracle was yours, dear, not mine.”

  “How’d FENS weather the storm?” asked Wilson, turning to Connie.

  “Better than I’d dared hope, we can go ahead with the next step.”

  “You mean there could be another explosion?” asked Carlos, gazing about ne
rvously.

  “Not likely,” said Connie, walking over to inspect the cryogenic cooling unit. “Just see that no one disturbs us.”

  “Yes Miss Cox,” confirmed the officer, returning to the hallway. If there were to be another explosion, or implosion, this was the last place he wanted to be. He wasn’t sure from whom he was protecting them, but right now he was convinced that they were their own worst enemies.

  Ron and Dr. Wilson did their best to clear away the pandemonium left in the wake of the gale, while Connie checked the control valves leading from the cryogenic tank at the end of the FENS couch.

  “That was one for the physicists, a non-gravitationally induced rip in the space time continuum. That must have been what it was,” noted Connie, checking the digital readout. “No one has ever witnessed one before. I sort of wish we would have had more time to study it.”

  “It closed none too soon for my tastes,” replied Sybil, shutting her eyes in the hope that the drell shaped blind spot before her would fade more quickly. “You had to be on this side of the control room window to get the full effect. I didn’t much relish the prospects of being sucked into the ethereal plane.”

  “Maybe just part of you,” noted Ron, picking up a phone book that had been neatly sliced in two when the vortex had closed. “Someone on the other side has the phone numbers of half the families in York.”

  Ron’s observation brought an uneasy round of mirth from his three compatriots, who knew all too well how serious the situation might have become.

  Chapter 13

  The report of dozens of picks, rebounding from the gray stone walls in random fashion, echoed through the caverns. As best he could, David fought to keep rhythm with the other slaves, fought to stay the task drag’s whip from his back. Debbie looked over at him nervously as she carried a heavy rock to the waiting hopper.

  “How is he ever going to make the journey to the crystal cave,” she whispered, fighting back tears. “Oh Lord, I can’t lose him.”