The Darker Lord

by Jack Heckel

  “What do you mean ‘gone’?” I asked.

  “They’re calling it a ‘gas explosion’; basically, the store has been leveled.”

  “Gods!” I took a deep breath. “Does your leaving Mysterium mean—”

  “I don’t know,” he answered before I had to ask about his feelings toward Sam and Ariella. “What I do know is that it isn’t safe to be a friend of Avery Stewart in Mysterium. Dawn and I are on the run.”

  “Sorry.”

  I could hear the shrug on the other end of the line. “We went by your townhome by the way. Nice place. The real crime in all this is that you had us living in a crap apartment for seven months.”

  I laughed, because being gently abused by Eldrin felt so good right now. “My thoughts exactly.”

  Ariella had been incredibly patient, but at this, she cleared her throat. “Eldrin, sorry to interrupt, but we were trying to figure out when Avery might be able to come get us out of this place.”

  “What?” he asked. “Oh, right. I should get off this line anyway. The longer I’m on, the better the odds that they’ll trace the connection. It’s subtle magic, but as you can see, not impenetrable. Anyway, the reason I took the risk is to warn you not to return to the university. The Administration is claiming you went on a rampage and murdered the dean of Subworld Studies, his assistant, a guard in Student Records, and a young Gorgon woman.”

  “I didn’t!” I shouted.

  “I know,” he said. “But the Administration has produced a lot of compelling evidence of your guilt, and the pictures they are circulating are fairly . . . graphic. You are basically public enemy number one. Don’t trust anyone from Mysterium.”

  The little room in the tavern swam sickeningly and I collapsed into a chair as my mind conjured images from the darkest parts of my imagination. “Thanks for the warning,” was all I could manage, and that was a struggle.

  “I’m sorry, Avery,” he said.

  “Me too,” I said, and then I gathered all my courage together. “If you and Dawn are in trouble we could meet you somewhere. You could join us.”

  There was a long silence, and then he said, “You know that would be a terrible idea, Avery.”

  “I know, but I needed to say it.”

  “I know.”

  It was the softness of the voice that hurt most. I could picture him sitting, hunched in his chair, his long hair draped over his face, staring into the surface of the coin, trying to counsel me from across the multiverse as he had done so many times in the past. Only, this time he was utterly unreachable. Neither of us could risk traveling to the other. Maybe ever.

  We lingered together a little while longer without saying anything, and then I heard Dawn’s voice in the distance saying something I could not hear clearly. He said, “I’ve got to go. It really isn’t safe to have a line of communication open between us for long. Also, don’t try to reconnect on this pattern. I’ll make a new one, and contact you as soon as I can. In the meantime, stay safe, Avery.”

  “You too, Eldrin.”

  The connection went dead. There was a long pause, and then Ariella’s voice came back. “I’m sorry, Avery.”

  “It’s not your fault, Ariella,” I said dully.

  “It kind of is,” she answered.

  No, it wasn’t. This wasn’t her fault or Eldrin’s fault or even Moregoth’s fault. This was on Vivian and me, trying to play gods with other people’s lives. Maybe she was right, and everything that had happened since was some sort of universal karmic payback. Whatever it was, it was time to isolate the virus. I jumped to my feet and began pacing back and forth, thinking. It only took a second for me to realize the solution was actually quite simple.

  I turned to the gathered group. “Sam and Ariella are safe for the moment, but we need to get to them.”

  “Which brings us back to the question of the key, doesn’t it,” Valdara said sharply.

  She was right, it did raise the question, but it didn’t answer the question. I took a deep breath. “Yes, Valdara, we still need to figure out how to get back to the Discovery, but—”

  “Why is that a problem?” Ariella asked.

  “There are a few complications,” I answered enigmatically.

  “Complications?” she said, and then I heard her turn away. “Sam, hold this for a second. Make sure to keep the connection with Avery open.”

  “Please, Ariella, Valdara and the rest of us need to discuss how to get back to you. We don’t have time for . . .” A circle of blue energy appeared on the floor a few paces away and Ariella materialized inside it. “It worked!” She smiled brightly.

  Valdara and Drake shouted, “Ariella!” and leapt to embrace her.

  “Ariella?” I said in stunned disbelief. “How?”

  “I followed the signal from the Coin of Farspeaking. It was easy!” she said, while stilling hugging Drake.

  “Could you duplicate what you did to get back to Sam?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Sure. As long as the connection between the coins is open, it acts as a kind of beacon.”

  Something about that bothered me, but there was little time to think. “Let’s do some magic!” Drake boomed happily.

  Vivian pulled me aside. “What about me? Won’t I still be under my original spell? What if it keeps me here—trapped?”

  I looked into her eyes and smiled. “It won’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because this is part of your spell’s plan. It sent us here because it knew Sam and Ariella would get in touch with us. It sent us to the exact place we needed to be.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “I promise you will not be left behind, not this time.”

  The doubt remained on her face. What she could not see was the light in her eyes was getting brighter by the second. The spell knew, even if she did not, that another jump was coming—the last one.

  Chapter 28

  The Return of the Company of the Fellowship

  Ariella sorted out the link with Sam. We joined hands, and a few seconds later were standing in the relaxation lounge and spa of the Discovery. Unlike the observation bridge where we first entered the spaceship, or timeship as I had begun to think of it, all the walls and ceilings glowed with a soothing white light. I knew it was meant to be soothing, because the word was faintly projected on every surface, and music filtering down from hidden speakers had melodious voices softly singing the words soothe or soothing behind the instrumentals.

  Yes, it was as annoying as it sounds.

  Robots of every shape and size surrounded Sam. Short-wheeled robots were doing something with his feet. A taller robot with dozens of arms was massaging his shoulders, face, and head, while a trio of robots with trays of snacks and drinks kept circling about him. From his expression, and the way he kept trying to shoo them away, I would say that, despite what most hotel chains would claim, hospitality does have its limits.

  “Please stop,” Sam pleaded. “I am part halfling. I take pride in my foot hair.”

  “I told you not to let them touch your feet,” Ariella said as she waved the robots that came swarming toward her aside like gnats. “Now you’re going to be scratching for weeks.”

  “You must choose what type of tea you want, Mistress Ariella,” one of the tray robots ordered. “I will read you the list again. orange pekoe, green tea, oolong, Earl Grey, white tea, Shoumei tea, mint ginger lemon tea—”

  “I don’t want tea!”

  “You’ve put a crinkle in your face. I’m going to give you a full facial,” said a tall, many-armed robot, looming over Ariella’s head.

  Another robot shaped like a motorized bookcase rolled in. “What about a book? Remember, reading is FUNdamental.”

  “Enough!” shouted Rook. All the robots froze for a second and then lined themselves in a row in front of the dwarf. Rook folded his arms behind him and marched up and down the row, like a drill sergeant performing an inspection. “Dismissed!”

  At Rook’s command, the room emptied o
f robots. Sam gave a sigh of relief. “How did you manage that?”

  The dwarf rolled his eyes. “No big thing. They’re programmed to obey all Mysterians.”

  “Well, however you did it, I’m glad to see all of you!” Sam said with a whoop of joy.

  “Same here, kid,” said Drake in his warmest growl. “Looks like you’ve been doin’ all right.”

  “You would think that, but . . .” Sam launched into a long series of complaints. Ultimately, it came down to the fact that the robots had nearly driven Sam and Ariella mad with their need to serve.

  A pink light filled the lounge, coming from every tile. “You were never in danger. I was with you the whole time,” said EDIE.

  “As was I,” announced ED as blue lights flashed.

  “Yes, you were both, indeed, everywhere,” Ariella said.

  “Even in the bathroom when I was . . . naked?” Sam whispered.

  Rook glowered at the blue and pink lights. “What have I told the two of you about spyin’ on people in the bathroom?”

  ED’s blue light flashed first. “Your precise words were, ‘If I catch you @#$%&$& pocket calculators spyin’ on me one more time, I’ll scrap you and turn you both into $*&^*#$ toaster ovens.’”

  “If you review your memory banks,” EDIE said with a superior pink flash, “you will find he called us ‘*&&^%$# pocket calculators.’”

  I whispered in Rook’s ear. “Did you really say, star ampersand ampersand caret percent dollar sign number?”

  Rook rubbed his face in frustration. “No, lad. But the bloody computers were programmed to have a PG rating, so they won’t use swear words.”

  “This is a family friendly starship!” boomed ED. “Besides, what he said was at sign number dollar sign percent ampersand dollar sign ampersand.”

  “No, he didn’t,” the pink light flashed.

  “Yes, he did,” the blue light flashed in reply.

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  The two lights swirled faster and faster forming a purplish blur. Their words sped up, merged, and swelled until it was a horrible electronic buzz. I watched a flush of red creep up Rook’s neck as his anger rose. He tugged on his beard and muttered a few somethings that would never have made it past the PG filter.

  “Silence!” he roared. “I’ve been away hundreds of years, and you two can still irritate me in a matter of seconds.” He turned to me and muttered, “I think the problem is that they’ve been programmed with personalities.”

  I nodded. “You’re probably right. Professor Adams wrote extensively about the dangers of ‘feeling’ machines.”

  “He has a point, but the problem with nonfeelin’ machines on long missions like this is that they have no outlet for stress. By this point, we would have two completely mad computers on our hands. Or, more likely, they would have jettisoned everyone out into space a couple million years ago.” The dwarf shook his head at the dilemma. “The real problem isn’t that they have emotions, but that some yahoo thought it would be clever to program them as a married couple.”

  The computers had begun to argue again. Rook put a finger to his lips and pulled us out of the room and into a side hall so we could talk in peace. Sam was the first one to ask a question, and of course he managed to pick the most awkward topic possible. “So, Rook, you’re not Trelarian?”

  The dwarf went a little pale. He licked his lips and said, “No, lad. I was born on Mysterium.”

  Sam seemed troubled by this, but then as usual asked a not-so-obvious follow-up question that made me wonder exactly how his brain worked. “Is your real name Rook? And do dwarves really settle arguments using chess?”

  “Yes and yes!” Rook said emphatically. “Well, I go by Rook as well as Fergus, but I prefer Rook, truth be told. And you should know by now that it’s ‘dwarfs’ not ‘dwarves.’ Anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional.”

  “Right, I’ll remember that, Mr. Rook,” Sam said, clearly satisfied.

  Valdara stepped in front of the dwarf. “I don’t want to interrupt this important conversation about how to pluralize the word dwarf, but I would like to know where we go from here. Now that we’re reunited, I’d like to get back to Trelari. I do have a kingdom to run.”

  “Agreed,” Drake interjected. “Let’s get Sam and Ariella the hell out of here.”

  “We can’t abandon Avery and Rook,” Sam said.

  “And what about all my classes?” Ariella complained, and pulled out a sheet of paper that stretched from her hand to the floor.

  “There is no way you are going back to that school.” Valdara folded her arms across her chest. “It is way too dangerous.”

  “You can’t stop me . . .” Ariella said.

  “Your parents could,” Drake interjected.

  Vivian laughed. “Ariella doesn’t need to get permission from her parents to go to Mysterium. Anyone can attend no matter what their family thinks of the decision.”

  I nodded my agreement. “She’s right. My parents would have moved heaven and earth to stop me from dropping out of Oxford. Thankfully, they have no discernible magical talent.”

  Drake sighed. “Ariella is a little embarrassed to say it, but, technically, she hasn’t reached the age of majority yet.”

  I looked back and forth between them, half-convinced that this was a setup for some joke. “I don’t understand.”

  “Among elves, Ariella is still considered a child,” Drake explained.

  “I’m not a child,” Ariella said moodily. “I only have forty years until my four hundredth birthday.”

  Having lived with a Hylar, I knew the conversion. “You’re fifteen!” I spat. The realization that Ariella was still so young (among her race), and then the thought of all the danger I put her in, both in Trelari and here, made my stomach churn. “I can’t believe your parents let you go on that quest with us in Trelari. You could have been killed!”

  Now she was twisting her hands even more violently together. “They kind of sort of don’t know I did that.”

  “What?”

  “Please don’t tell them,” she said, her eyes going wide. “They would kill me!”

  I stared at Drake and Valdara accusingly, wondering how they could have let such a thing happen. Valdara shrugged. “You were the one who recruited her into the party. Elves are always hard to age, and you being an all-powerful wizard, Drake and I assumed you had a way of checking. We had no idea she was so young until the whole crisis was over, and by then it was a little late to be fussed about it. When the school option came up we all thought it was a great idea. Had I known how crazy and evil the leaders of your school are I would never have approved it.”

  “I . . . I need to sit down,” I said, and before the words were out a floating chair came zooming out of a panel in the wall. It was equipped with a cup holder in one arm and a video screen on the other. I was still so distracted by this newest revelation I sat without thinking.

  “I am here to serve,” the chair purred. “Would you like a beverage? How about a movie? I have a full range of entertainment options for your viewing pleasure.”

  The ship must have been monitoring us, because the success of the first chair in getting me to sit down led to another half dozen of the things launching out at us from various hidden compartments. Soon the group was surrounded by floating chairs all offering any number of delights.

  Rook was still trying to shoo them away when blue lights flashed. ED spoke in his most cheerful voice. “Glad to see you’re enjoying yourselves. Try the breakfast shakes. They are delicious, or so the machine that synthesizes the flavored protein strands they are made from tells me. By the way, a portal spell has been detected near the engine room. There is an enemy incursion in progress. Thought you might like to know.”

  With explosive hisses, two massive metal doors dropped into place on either end of the corridor. Pink lights flashed. EDIE’s voice rang out. “Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the inconvenience, but for your safety we are sh
utting the blast doors to this section. We want to assure you that our staff take your travel comfort seriously, and we will do everything in our power to remedy the situation.”

  “Beard biscuits!” snapped Rook. “The Administration must have found us!”

  “That’s impossible,” I said. “You said yourself this ship isn’t a place, it’s a time. How could they find it?”

  He turned the question back on me. “Well, how did you find it? ”

  I shrugged. “All I remember is thinking about Griswald, and trying to get to wherever his key led, and it brought us here.”

  Rook thought about it for a second. “If your new magic works the way I think it works, then that actually makes sense.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” I said, frustrated. “This isn’t Griswald’s world. It’s yours and the other Mysterians’.”

  “Well, about that . . .”

  “Oh gods!” I shouted. “Are you saying Griswald is here? And you never thought to tell me?”

  “It is kind of classified, lad,” he said in a conspiratorial growl.

  “You son of a—”

  “Not to interrupt this deep philosophical discussion,” Valdara said, “but how does any of this explain the fact that this impossible-to-trace ship . . . spell . . . thing has just been traced . . . again!”

  “It doesn’t!” I snapped, but a hideous thought stopped me short. “Unless . . .”

  “Unless Moregoth didn’t really die,” Rook barked, completing my thought. “If he survived, then he would have still been connected to the spell when we made the jump here. He could have followed us right in.”

  “But wouldn’t the spell have known?” Vivian asked.

  “Spells like that aren’t omniscient,” Rook said grimly. “It’s possible he used the kraken attack to play dead. Shieldin’ himself from the spell until we made our jump here. It’s also possible the spell was beginnin’ to fade and needed to get us here despite his presence.”

  “That’s all fine and dandy,” Drake said. “What do we do now?”