by Jack Heckel
The room shook as three successive crashes of thunder echoed through the fortress. Valdara’s hand went to her sword and I saw it clench and unclench on its hilt. I tensed in the expectation that I would feel the bite of its blade between my ribs. I might have welcomed it at that point, but nothing happened. I exhaled in relief.
There was a sudden blur of movement on my right and something hard slammed into my jaw. I fell back and sprawled to the ground, tasting blood. A series of hard blows struck my body. Drake was standing over me kicking and screaming.
“You bastard!” he shouted over and over again as his boot connected with my ribs.
Rook finally dragged him off me. I think the others would have gladly let him continue. Sam and Seamus were staring at me with utter hatred. Luke and Ariella just looked lost. I lay, curled in a ball at the foot of Vivian’s throne, panting for air and groaning in pain.
Drake was still struggling and cursing. “Let me go! He’s the Dark Lord! He must die. Valdara!”
His cry woke the dormant fury in her. In a flash, Valdara was standing above me her blade pointing at my heart. “This time, Dark Lord,” she spit, “I won’t use a piece of glass atop a fake staff.”
Her eyes shone with such a hatred as I had never seen before. I understood the fear her foes must have felt before they died. Desperately, I tried to form the recall spell, but my head was still spinning from Drake’s beating and there was no time. I closed my eyes as her arm drew back.
“Stop!” Vivian shouted.
Everything stopped.
I looked about, the entire company, except for me, was frozen in place. Valdara, her face twisted in a tormented combination of anger and sadness, was tensed to strike. Drake and Rook were locked together as they struggled—Rook’s body still wobbling a bit in the awkward position he was trapped in. Luke, Sam, Seamus, and Ariella were all standing, wide-eyed with shock, a silent scream trapped on Ariella’s lips, as they watched Valdara’s attack from across the room. They all still breathed, and their eyes still blinked and looked about, but they could not move.
Vivian laughed cruelly. In her hand, she was holding the key, and it was blazing with white-hot intensity. A malicious smile crossed her face as she sprawled back onto her throne, putting one of her legs over one arm of the chair and leaning on her elbow on the other arm. Her eyes twinkled with mischief.
I stood painfully, grabbing at my battered ribs. “What are you doing, Vivian?”
“I am saving your life, Avery,” she said with a giggle. “No thanks are required.”
“You know what I mean,” I said, gesturing at the throne of skulls and my frozen companions. “I know this isn’t why you came to Trelari.”
She frowned at this. “You’ve been talking to Griswald, haven’t you? And worse, he’s been talking to you. Naughty boys.”
I couldn’t understand why she was doing this, but I could hear the storm outside. It was intensifying far more quickly and violently than the last one had. If I did not get the key soon we might all be killed. “Yes, we have been talking, Vivian. He told me you came here to make life in the subworlds better, but what you’re doing now isn’t right. Give me the key—this can all be fixed.”
“Fixed?” she said, tapping the key to her chin and puzzling over the word. “But I don’t think I want this to be fixed. In fact, I’m sure I don’t.” She stood and ran her hands over the black dress and touched the iron crown. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Avery, I’m the Dark Queen.”
“Yes, like I was the . . . Dark Lord,” I said, the confession coming no easier the second time. “But that isn’t who we are, Vivian. Those are roles we play to give the Heroes of Trelari—” I gestured at Valdara and Drake and the others “—something to defeat. They need an evil to unite and inspire them, but that’s not who we are. Try to remember, you’re from Mysterium.”
“No!” She stood, her whole body shaking with anger. “I am not! You may be from Mysterium, Griswald and all the other busybodies in the Sanctum may be from Mysterium, but I’m not. I came from a subworld not unlike this one. A subworld that was studied by magi and ruled by magi and ultimately destroyed by magi when they’d done with it. I am the Dark Queen, and I will bring peace and stability to Trelari or all will perish!”
My blood ran cold as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. Vivian was from a subworld. Eldrin and Dawn and I had been so focused on finding Death Slasher that we had failed to see the importance of this revelation, but it explained everything that had happened since Vivian’s arrival in Trelari. Whereas a magus from Mysterium could stand outside the effect of my spell as an observer, she could not. From the moment she’d arrived on-world, the spell had been weaving her into its pattern. Vivian really was the Dark Queen. That meant that she was not in control, and everything—the citadel of darkness, the blood orcs, her madness—all of it was my responsibility. I had to get that key.
I took a step toward the throne, holding my hands before me in a gesture of peace. “Vivian, you aren’t yourself. Give me the key. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Hurt me?” She giggled again. “How could you hurt me, Avery?”
At my side Justice Cleaver quivered, and I put my hand on the battle-axe to quiet it. Vivian saw the movement and her eyes narrowed.
“I do not want to have to do anything to your friends,” she advised. “But if you force me . . .” She gestured at Sam and I saw his body began to bend slowly backward. If she kept going his back would snap. “A girl must do what a girl must do after all.”
My hands leapt away from my side and the shaft of Justice Cleaver. “Please stop hurting him.”
“Good,” she said, and Sam’s body straightened again. “Because I have a better idea. Join me, Avery. Become the Dark Lord again and we can rule this world together.”
Maybe, if I can keep her talking, I thought, I can grab the key from her hand.
There was a double blast of thunder that made me stumble and the throne shake. Dust and small bits of stone fell from the ceiling. I ignored it and took a few more steps forward. “How would that work? What about the key?” I had a foot on the lowest stair now.
“What about it?” she asked, and lowered her hand with the key to her lap.
I mounted a few more stairs so that I was closer. “Well, we can’t both use it at the same time.”
She cocked her head to one side and glanced down, considering. I saw my moment and I lunged. Just then the room gave a shake as though it had been struck by a mighty force. I fell off balance. Time seemed to slow. Vivian’s eyes grew wide as she realized that she had been tricked. My hand stretched out. There was a bang and a terrible flash of white light issued from the key, and I felt myself thrown backward. I hit the ground hard and all the air went out of me.
Looking down from her high throne, Vivian sneered. “Liar! You lie to everyone, don’t you? You lied to your ‘friends’ about who you are. You lied to me about why you came here. You were never interested in helping this world. You only wanted to feel what it was like to have absolute power. Now feel what it’s like to have none.”
She rose and pointed the key at me. A ragged whiplash of energy issued from its end and struck me. Blinding pain coursed through my body. I screamed and the lash fell again and again and again. How long she tormented me I’m not sure, but at the end my throat was raw and my body burned all over.
When I finally caught my breath, I gasped, “I swear, Vivian, it wasn’t meant to be like this. You are caught in the spell’s weave. Give me the key and I can free you from this madness.”
She threw back her head and laughed dreadfully. “I think not, Magus. If this is madness, then I will take it over your Mysterium version of sanity.” She sat again on the throne. “As I see you have no intention of listening to reason, I have no wish to speak to you further.”
“Cravock, summon your men,” she commanded. She looked at me and her eyes flashed and her smile twisted cruelly. “The Dark Lord and his companions have overstay
ed their welcome. See to it that they never see the light of another dawn.”
Cravock bowed in hissing supplication, and stepped outside. Through the open door I could hear the roar of the winds and the crash of the thunder, which was almost constant at this point. I had to try and bring Vivian to her senses, even if that meant risking her wrath again.
“It . . . it is time to put an end to this, Vivian,” I said with a grunt of pain as I rolled onto my knees. “Being in this place has twisted your mind. Give me the key and we can return to Mysterium . . .”
“Where they will lock me away as a deviant?” she thundered. “Maybe if I’m lucky they will banish me to an outer subworld to live out what remains of my life.” She sneered at the thought. “No, those fates are reserved for my betters. For me, a mere subworlder, they will put me in a stasis pattern and study me like a curiosity, and when they’ve learned all they want they’ll unravel my reality one strand at a time.”
She was probably right. Mysterium magi have little patience for subworlds, much less subworlders that threatened them. Of course, I wasn’t going to tell her that. “It doesn’t have to be like that,” I said as with a grimace I rose, shaking, to my feet. “There is still time to set things right, but not much.”
Cravock returned and bowed low. “The army asssembles, Dark Queen.”
Vivian gave no indication that she’d heard him. “Your problem, Avery, is that you were never committed to the cause of darkness. Take poor Cravock there. When I found him, he was a pathetic wretch. Useless.” I saw the lizardman’s body tense like he’d been struck. Vivian did not appear to notice, but continued. “You had instilled no discipline in him, no drive. But with some training and a free hand with the lash, I have been able to bend him to my will and reshape him into what you see today: my loyal pet You have no idea what is possible if you let go of the constraints of Mysterium’s rules and give yourself over to the multiverse.”
From beyond the closed doors there was a rushing sound and a groan of metal as though the storm was battering at the gates of the fortress itself. I decided to try one last attempt. I fell to my knees I supplication. “Dark Queen, I do not care what becomes of me. Lock me in your dungeons. Execute me if you wish. But I beg you, before it’s too late, use the key and summon Death Slasher. Trelari will soon reach the innerworlds—you must feel that, you must feel reality beginning to solidify around you. What do you think the Mysterium mages will do then? They will pull this world to pieces around you. Save this world even if only for your own dark purposes.”
Her body shook with hideous laughter. “Do you think I care if this world comes apart around me? I am eternal!”
There was a hissing intake of breath from Cravock, and I saw in his expression a reflection of my own thought. She really is mad.
“But, Vivian . . .” I began to say when she gave a sudden shout of surprise.
I looked up from where I was kneeling and saw that somehow Rook had broken free from his paralysis. In the confusion, he had slipped unnoticed behind the throne, and now he and Vivian were struggling for control of the key. They both had one hand on the key, which was flashing and strobing like a thing possessed. With their unoccupied hands they tore and clawed at one another. While the dwarf was stronger, Vivian had the advantage of height and was bending him backward so that he teetered on the brink of the stairs.
I sprang to my feet and rushed at them. From across the room Cravock did the same, his reptilian body crouched low to the ground so that he was running on all fours. I was halfway to them when Rook gave a mighty shout and twisted Vivian’s hand downward so that it slammed against the arm of the throne. The blow jarred the key from their grasp and it went clattering down the stair and skittering across the stone floor of the chamber. Vivian fell back into the seat with a cry as Rook tumbled off the side of the dais.
In an instant, the paralysis lifted from the group. Valdara lunged at the thin air as Luke stretched out his hand toward the emptiness where I had lain. Ariella screamed, Sam and Seamus shouted. Drake toppled to the ground in a confusion of limbs. Only Cravock and I were in any position to reach the key. Cravock was faster.
With a hiss of victory, he snatched the key up. I lie at his feet. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
“Cravock!” Vivian commanded. “Bring that to your queen.”
“You know she’s mad, Cravock,” I whispered.
Cravock gave a barely perceptible nod of his head. His fork tongue extended and he hissed softly. “Before, were you ssspeaking of Death Ssslasssher, the weapon of Morgarr?” I nodded. “And all you need to sssummon it isss thisss key?” he hissed. I nodded again.
“Cravock!” Vivian shouted again, a little more desperately. “I command that you obey me.”
Cravock flicked his tongue in thought. Then I saw a light come into his eyes, a devious and greedy light, and I knew that I had made a terrible mistake. I started to rise to my feet but Cravock’s tail lashed out and struck me in the face, sending me, once more, crashing to the ground.
“No, missstress!” he shouted in his sibilant reptilian voice. “Now, I have the power!”
Too late the others sensed what was coming. They rushed him, but he held the key aloft and roared, “Death Ssslassher, I sssummon thee!”
There was a great cracking and the stone of the ceiling was swept away. Above us a storm of flashing lightning ten times the size of the one that carried us from the Tomb of Terrors swirled and crackled. For a moment only, the center of the maelstrom seemed to open into a long passage. Something black swirled down that passage toward us and then the opening drew closed.
Above me Cravock stood, the key in one hand, and Death Slasher in the other. For the first time I saw the lizardman’s real persona, not the subservient wretch he had been when he served me, nor the commander of armies that Vivian had created, but he himself. My soul shuddered.
He looked down at me through those reptilian eyes. “Don’t fear, massster. You will not have long to sssuffer. I’ll take your head and give the tasssk of bowing down before me to your lifelessss body.”
Through the doors behind him, the massed armies of the Dark Queen, now Cravock’s armies, entered.
Chapter 31
PURE CHAOS
Okay, let me start by saying that, purely from the standpoint of spectacle, the scene that was playing out before me was awe-inspiring. Vivian, the insane Dark Queen, was slumped in a sort of faint on the seat of her skull throne. Around the edges of the chamber, rank upon rank of hobgoblin axe-men and bloody orc swordsmen stood forming a rough circle around the Dark Queen and the rest of us. Above the roofless chamber a terrible storm of swirling reality and flashing lightning roiled and boiled. In the very center of the room stood the reptilian General Cravock. He held the key to Trelari’s reality in one hand and the dread battle-axe Death Slasher in the other.
Opposed against him and his army were arrayed the Heroes of Trelari: Sam, master of the mystical forces; Ariella, archer and sorceress scion of the fairy elves (also herbalist, rogue, rules lawyer, among other titles); Seamus and Rook, dwarf lords of the smithy clans; Drake, fallen priest of the Seven Gods; Valdara, legendary swordswoman of the fighting lands; and Luke, who was, um . . . Luke. Oh, and me, I suppose.
Like I said, pretty spectacular if you didn’t have to be there yourself. Unfortunately, I was there, and I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed here meaning scared to the point of paralysis. Fortunately, the other members of the company were made of sterner stuff.
Valdara, Drake, Luke, and the dwarfs all charged Cravock with simultaneous shouts of challenge. With lightning-fast speed, Ariella had a bow in her hand and an arrow on the string. Sam, meanwhile, had pulled his glass orb from his pouch and a pulsating blue light was building within it. None of them would reach me in time.
Cravock, still holding the reality key above his head, swung Death Slasher down at my neck. I tried to scuttle back like a crab, but there was no way to avoid the blow. I watched that evil eye glit
ter in anticipation of feasting on my soul. Then there was a rush of air and a blur, and Cravock screamed. His blow went wide and struck the stones beside me in a shower of sparks. Ariella’s arrow had struck him in the wrist of the hand that held the key, which went flying from his grasp and fell to the stones behind him.
The pain distracted Cravock long enough for me to roll away. I struggled to my feet, and did what anyone would do when facing a terrifying lizard monster with an artifact battle-axe. I screamed. After that, I shouted, “The key!”
The rest of the company closed in on Cravock. I was still rising as the dwarfs, Luke, Drake, and Valdara surrounded the lizardman and began to attack. By all rights, it should have been a short fight. The five warriors were experienced and deadly, but Cravock had Death Slasher, and with it he became a whirlwind of mayhem. With a backhand, he struck Rook and Seamus with the flat of the blade, sending them flying into Luke. Then he spun and parried Valdara’s sword thrust, and drove the butt of the battle-axe’s hilt into Drake’s chest, who fell onto his back with a grunt. Swirling and slashing, he pursued Valdara around the throne. No matter what she tried, Death Slasher forced her into the defense, and it was quickly clear that she was using every bit of her skill to keep from being cut in half.
Cravock pointed at Valdara and roared to his army, “I have her! Kill the ressst!”
They hobgoblins and orcs surged forward like a living wall of death. We put our backs to the throne and faced the advancing host. Ariella was a blur, sending spells flashing and arrows flying into the hordes in a futile effort to keep them at bay. I could not find Sam, but I did see his flashing blue orb as it bobbed and weaved amid the chaos.
“Why are we watching?” Justice Cleaver urged. “How many times do I have to remind you that I am the world’s greatest battle-axe? This is what I was made to do.”