Chapter 13 - The Vengeful Queen of Purgatorio
“You shouldn’t have approached the boy,” scolded Ariel. “It was all a trap.”
“You know what?” said Max, growing exasperated. “I’d rather help someone who wasn’t really needy and be tricked than pass on helping the truly needy.”
“Fine,” said Ariel. “I guess that’s just the way you are. But now, you have been poisoned. And the poison is strong. The strength of a poison in Purgatorio is in direct proportion to how strong the emotion is in the poisoner. And unfortunately, it was quite strong in that poltergeist. You see, like a deadly viper, the bite of a poltergeist injects venom into the veins of its victims.”
“Poltergeist?” said Max.
“Yes,” said Ariel. “I recognize him now. That was an the Poltergeist. That particular poltergeist hates all humanity, due to his own misfortune. Apparently, he won $30 million in the 649 lottery. When he found out, he was so overjoyed that he had a heart attack, keeled over and then died. He was 30 years old. His spirit was so angry with his bad luck that he refused to go on to the afterlife.”
“So where’s the antidote?” asked Max, watching his skin turn as purple as an eggplant.
“I don’t know....” said Ariel apologetically.
“What?” said Max, alarmed. “You don’t know?”
“You have one hour until the poison takes over...and then....”
“And then what?” asked Max.
“And then you die,” said Ariel with a tone of finality, refusing to look Max in the eyes. “We should head back to the Imperial Capital. Maybe they have an antidote there.”
Max considered with horror and dread the kind of predicament he was in. So he was going to die.
Maybe it was the note from Jessica, or having seen his mother, or all the advice from the archbishop, but Max was no longer the insecure wimp he might have been before.
The experience of discovering that he was from the Supernatural World and then actually going to Occultoria City and then entering treacherous Purgatorio - the whole experience had changed him.
He was no longer a boy. He was becoming a man.
And he knew that a man was strong and confident, no matter what. A man would never leave until the job was done.
I’m not going down without a fight, vowed Max. If I have to die, then I’m at least going to persuade the Queen to rejoin the Empire before I do. I’m going to do my job.
“You know what?” said Max, his voice firm. “I have a job to do and I’m not resting until I complete my mission. Let’s find the queen.”
“That’s really brave of you, sire,” said Eddie, changing back into human form.
“That’s suicide,” said Ariel.
“I’m sure the Queen knows a cure,” said Max.
He knew that time was running out. If he didn’t force the Queen to submit to him, then more and more ghosts will flood the Natural World, destroying it. He didn’t have much sentimental connection to the Natural World - he had always known that he didn’t belong there - but Jessica was still there.
He decided she was more important that he was. His cure would have to wait.
Eddie raised a hand. “I salute you, my lord prince.” And then he got down on his knees. Tears were beginning to cloud his eyes. “The Occultorian Empire is very lucky to have a ruler like you.”
Max approached his friend. “Get up, Eddie. We don’t have much time left.”
Eddie rose, tears in his eyes.
In a show of bravado, Max drew himself up to full height. Eddie and Ariel, his subjects, were counting on him to be brave and to lead them to victory. He tried not to think of the venom running through his veins now. He tried not to think of his impending death. He decided he wasn’t going to think of anything else except the current mission.
The three of them returned to the hallway and continued on their way.
Soon, they came to huge room. At the very center was a daisy-shaped throne, which was lit up by the candles that surrounded it.
Max assumed this must have been the throne room of the Queen of Purgatorio.
But where was the Queen?
Max inspected the room thoroughly.
On the walls hung very beautiful artwork. It was portrait after portrait of the Queen herself. She was posing in her portraits, in a very queenly manner. Several gargoyles also sat against the walls.
And then, suddenly, something caught his attention in the corner of his vision.
Max scanned the brown walls.
Something was moving in the far corner.
At first, he almost couldn’t see it, because it was the same brown color as the walls. It managed to camouflage itself very well against its surroundings.
Walking like a spider, the Queen of Purgatorio scurried across the wall, its roots standing in for legs.
With a look of awe, Max looked at the Queen.
He had seen portraits and even a statue of her, but seeing her in person was even more intimidating.
Her torso was a tree trunk. Her arms and legs were tree roots. Her skin was a decaying brown. She had a purifying crown on her head. At the very top of the crown was what looked like a miniature black cherry tree.
She had creepy red eyes, a huge nose and an even bigger mouth. It looked like her face was melting. Her hair was a pile of yellowish-brown roots. A poisonous green gas was seeping out of her pores.
She looked like an overgrown octopus.
She was even more ugly in person than in her portraits.
The Queen dropped onto the marble floor with a thud. “So you are the Crown Prince of Occultoria.”
She had a deep, raspy and authoritative kind of voice, perfect for royalty.
Ariel hopped onto Max’s shoulder. “Remind her that you are her liege lord. You will be the Emperor soon and she is just a queen. She is your vassal. Don’t forget: as the future Emperor, you outrank a mere queen.”
Max stuck his chest out. “Bow down below your liege lord.”
She smirked, as though she were a mother who was grinning because her child had done something cute but ineffective. “I am independent now. Fiercely and proudly.”
The cat said, “The Queen of Purgatorio is de jure, by law, a vassal of the Emperor of Occultoria.”
“Yeah,” agreed Eddie quickly.
The Queen dropped to the ground, tree sap coating the floor.
With her tentacle-like roots stretched out to her side, she began scuttling toward the group like a crab.
She came to a stop just in front of the young prince.
She was a tall figure, towering above Max.
“No,” she said, her voice defiant and steady. “No, I will not bow down. I will not bow down because you are a boy and I will not bow down because you are male and I will not bow down because I am now independent.”
“Yes,” said Max. “I heard about your man-hating ways.”
“No,” she said, her eyes flaring. “I will not bow down before a skinny little runt like you.”
Max had always been a bit self-conscious about his appearance. He had always been rather skinny and scrawny, but he had been thinking about starting to work out regularly.
Refusing to allow the Queen’s comment to bother him, Max brushed it off and changed the subject.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” he said, pointing an accusatory finger at her.
“What?” she said, narrowing her eyes and raising her eyebrows.
“You sent those Gremlins, didn’t you?” he accused.
She laughed. “Guilty.”
Max continued, “And that warning in the sky. And sealing the entrance to Demonia. And the assassination attempt.”
“I did all that except the assassination attempt,” admitted the Queen.
Max was taken aback. “What? If not you, then who?”
“Why knows?” said the Queen, smirking. “You will be the Emperor soon. You must have lots of enemies already.”
That eliminates
the Queen as a suspect, though Max. I wonder who else wants me dead.
“Enough talk,” said the Queen, interrupting his thoughts. “It’s time to settle this. You want me to rejoin the Empire and I refuse to rejoin. Where does that leave us then?”
She advanced on him, her tentacles waving every which way.
Max raised his glove, getting it ready.
The Queen took one look at it and threw her head back, laughing. “The Glove of Vulcan? That’s a child’s toy, Max. Couldn’t that wrinkly old archbishop give you something better?”
“Give me your piece of the Imperial Puzzle and we won’t have to get violent.”
She scoffed. “I’d prefer it if we got violent.”
She dashed toward him.
Max wanted to use words to resolve his differences with her, but she wasn’t giving him much of a choice.
Aiming at the Queen’s roots, Max shouted, “Flamma!”
Fire shot out of his glove and struck the roots, but very little damage had been done.
Max remembered that Ariel had said that the roots were the Queen’s weak spot. What had happened?
The Queen laughed maniacally. “Foolish little boy. Don’t you know how powerful I am? You’re just a puny little twerp who barely knows anything about the Supernatural World. I have had centuries of training to grow my power. Your fire was like an ant bite. I barely felt it.”
Beside him, Eddie and Ariel were on their guards.
Eddie began transforming into his dragon self, but one slap from the Queen’s roots sent him flying across the room. Soon, he was out cold.
Another slap from the Queen’s roots sent Ariel careening across the floor.
Then, the Queen of Purgatorio advanced on Max.
Sweating profusely, the young prince sent out fireball after fireball, but the Queen dodged each one skillfully.
Max realized that forcing the Queen to submit to his authority was going to be much harder than even in his wildest imagination.
He raised his hand and struck again.
This time, a fireball hit the Queen in the chest.
After being momentarily stunned, she retreated back into the walls, blending in with the colors. Soon, it was as though she had disappeared completely.
But Max knew better. He knew she was still there, but he couldn’t see her now. He squinted at the wall.
Quick as lightning, something whipped him on the right shoulder.
“Ow!” He let out a cry.
He turned around and raised his Glove of Vulcan. “Flamma!”
The fireball scorched a painting and turned it to cinders.
But still, no Queen.
Clutching his injured shoulder, Max scanned the walls carefully.
Nothing.
He could see absolutely nothing.
Without warning, a root struck Max again, this time, on the other shoulder.
It seared a burning pain into him.
“Ouch!” he cried.
He felt slow and heavy. He could feel the effects of the poison running through his bloodstream, slowing him down. That was why his reaction had been so slow.
But he knew he had to fight the poison, if only for the next little while.
He had to focus.
An entire world was depending on him.
Scanning carefully, Max finally caught sight of the Queen’s flashy crown in the far corner.
He raised his Glove, but he was too slow.
Before he could send forth fire, the Queen sprayed something in his direction.
Max stepped aside just in time.
The putrid brown liquid looked like tree sap.
It soon burned a hole right through the marble floor.
Smoking rising in the air, the liquid smelled like dog barf.
Max held his nose as he scowled.
Determined to get the Queen, he raised his Glove again and took another shot.
He must have gotten lucky, because this time, the fireball struck one of the Queen’s many wiggling roots and seared it right off. It plunked down onto the floor, flipping around like crazy.
The Queen howled with pain. She sounded like she were being burned alive.
Max thought that root must have been the real weak spot.
He was able to smile a quick grin as he reveled in his mini victory over the much more powerful Queen of Purgatorio.
But his grin was quickly wiped off his face when he saw what was happening.
Like a gecko, the Queen was generating her injured root with rapid speed. Pretty soon, the root had completely regenerated, as though nothing had happened.
The Queen was like a squid with her powerful camouflage, sap-spraying ability and limb-regeneration ability.
Max stared in dumfounded disbelief.
Not only was he slowly dying of internal poison, the Queen was appeared invincible.
He was beginning to lose hope when he realized that perhaps he had been going at it all wrong. Maybe instead of physically fighting the Queen, he should use his words to persuade her to rejoin the Empire.
As the Queen approached him, he held up one hand. “Wait. Stop. Let’s talk about this.”
“What’s there to talk about? You’re just frightened because you’re losing.”
“Rejoin the Empire.”
“Why should I? I like my independence right now. I don’t have to answer to anyone. If I rejoin, then I’ll have to answer to a little boy like you.”
“But you’ll endanger both the Natural and Supernatural Worlds,” said Max. “Do you want all those innocent people and supernatural beings to die?”
“What do I care? You must know my story. I stayed behind on Earth instead of going to the afterlife because I wanted revenge on the men in the Natural World. They could all die for all I care.”
“Compassion is better than revenge,” said Max, pleading with her with his eyes.
For a moment, a softening look of reflection, nostalgia and tenderness flashed across the Queen’s face.
But only for a moment.
The look faded as quickly as it had come.
Max desperately racked his brain for what to say.
“You must have someone you loved once,” he said. “Remember how that felt?”
Her eyes glazed over in loving memory, but then she shouted, “No!”
Judging from the look of nostalgia and her eyes having glazed over, Max knew that the Queen must have had a soft heart, one capable of remembering love. He just had to bring it out in her and remind her of how that felt. But how?
He didn’t have much time to think, because the Queen was becoming aggressive again.
She lashed out with one root.
Max dodged it.
She lashed out again.
Max dodged it.
She lashed out a third time.
Max dodged again, but he knew he couldn’t dodge forever.
The poison was weakening him inside.
And so, he decided to see if his other ability had been recharged.
He imagined himself as light as the wind.
And, to his pleasant surprise, he began to fade, becoming slightly invisible.
And then, he felt light.
Soon, he found himself swirling around the Queen like an angry bee.
Confused, the Queen looked about her.
Max grabbed the Queen’s roots and wound them all over her, entangling her in a giant mess.
Soon, she was as tangled as a huge ball of yarn.
Max landed on his feet to inspect his handy work.
He had done a good job.
The Queen was struggling, but she could not undo the mess that Max had created. The more she struggled, the more entangled she was.
A smug, superior grin broke out on Max’s face.
“Count Wai Da!” the Queen barked out.
Immediately, Max felt alarmed.
Did the Queen have a secret weapon up her sleeves?
A man with glasses so thick h
is eyes couldn’t be seen stepped into the room.
In one hand, he held a squirming girl gruffly by the collar of her shirt.
Max cried out, “Jessica!”
The Count growled out, “Untangle the Queen or the girl dies.”
***
Book 1: The Crown Prince (The Kid Emperor of Occultoria) Page 29