The skeleton clamped Dan tight, but Dan kept mumbling.
"Wait," said Sir Thedeus. "Let him speak."
Decapitated Dan howled. "Oh ho ho! Now you want to hear ol' Dan out! Not so mad now, am I?"
Sir Thedeus flew to Mister Bones's shoulder. "Yer a lunatic, lad. But ye've a point."
"I always have a point, though it's not always a point many would like to understand."
"Why would ye encourage us to fight?" asked Sir Thedeus. "I thought ye wanted the Door opened?"
"Oh, indeed I did." Decapitated Dan whistled. "But the advantage of lunacy is that I can change my mind whenever I bloody well feel like it. And now that ol' Dan's had some time to think on it, I'm not so sure I want the world to end today. So many interesting turns this day. Piqued my curiosity, it has. Brought to me a new perspective."
"And that's it?" asked Echo.
"Well, ol' Dan's a little bored as well. Should be worth a chuckle or two to watch you throw your lives away in a hopeless cause. Always enjoyed a hopeless cause, myself. And a massacre all the more."
"He's right," said Echo. "What chance do we have?"
"None." Sir Thedeus raised his tiny body high. "We've none a'tall. But we fight. And if we die, we do so with honor and courage."
Dan cackled. "And they call me mad."
The Blue Paladin jumped to his feet with a clatter. A swirl of colors settled onto Nessy's body and for a moment she was so bright it was painful to look at.
"Oh damn," said Dan. "I was hoping she'd be gone just a wee bit longer."
The glow faded, and she sat up and frowned at the spear buried in her heart. "Would you mind terribly . . .?" she asked the Paladin.
He pulled the spear from her chest. The wound closed, and she drew in a deep breath. "Much better, thank you."
The nurgax howled with delight. It danced about Nessy on its two stumpy legs, singing an off-key warble as it licked her. She endured its joy a few moments before calming it with a stroke on the snout.
" 'Tis a miracle!" Sir Thedeus flew to her side and scrambled across her shoulders to confirm what his senses told him.
"No miracle. Just magic."
Her ears raised, stirred by a fresh tingle in the air. Something new was happening. She knew the castle's will now, its desires. This had been so for a long time. But now, the castle knew her will as well. It was a delicate connection. The castle's darkest desires lumbered like a terrific, crackling beast, whereas her will was a subtle thing astride the monster's shoulders, attempting to direct these desires to more positive ends. Or, at the very least, less dangerous ones.
It would be a difficult task, but she could manage it, for she was the castle's mistress. Her methods were far different from Margle's. But she would learn. And so would the castle.
The pillar chamber rumbled with the beating of a thousand tiny wings. The doors flew open, and a swarm of demonic fireflies flooded the room. They swirled about, laughing but not attacking yet. One insect with a flaming blue tail settled on Nessy's nose. It spoke, barely audible above the thundering noise.
"Hello, Nessy. I'd heard you'd been killed." The swarm chuckled, repeating the last word over and over again. "I'm pleased to see you weren't. How else could I collect your soul?"
"I don't have time for this." She brushed the firefly away.
The demon's tail turned bright orange. "Nessy, you've changed. There's something different about you. I'm not sure I like it."
"Off with ye," said Sir Thedeus. "We've got a witch to deal with."
The fireflies landed. They crawled across the floor like a living carpet. "I'm insulted. I'm far more dangerous than a meager witch."
"Not this witch."
The swarm spun around in a tornado of fiery rage. "I am queen of the underworld! This castle and all within it are mine to destroy; their souls shall sate my unholy appetites!"
"No one is dying today," said Nessy.
The demon laughed. "And what makes you think you can stop me?"
Nessy smiled. "Because I know your true name."
The fireflies buzzed angrily. "You're lying."
"Possibly, but I've always been a terrible liar."
A contingent of insects broke away and scrutinized Nessy's face. She stared back into the dozens of tiny red eyes, and she didn't blink.
"My dear little Nessy, I wonder, have you learned the art of deception? Is this what's become of your beautiful soul?" The demon mulled this over, whispering to herselves. "And, supposing that this is true, where did you learn this information which no living mortal knows?"
"Margle wrote it in a book, and I looked it up. Just in case I might need it."
"Am I to believe that Margle would leave such cherished information merely lying about?"
"It wasn't just sitting out for the world to find, but I know this castle very well." She shrugged. "In any case, it's your choice what to believe."
"You do know that any mortal that dares even whisper my true name shall perish beside me upon uttering the wicked syllable."
Nessy nodded. "I've already died once today, so death isn't that frightening a fate."
"She's lying," said a bug.
"Dare I take that chance?" asked a second.
"But I can't go back to my purple prison."
The swarm roared in unison. "I won't! I'd rather writhe in the pit forever and ever than spend another minute locked in that room by myself."
"Perhaps another arrangement could be made."
"Do you wish to bargain with me?" The swarm's flames flashed a rainbow of colors. "Only arrogant fools barter with demons."
"This isn't a bargain," said Nessy, never once dropping her smile. "This is a compromise."
The demon's thousand faces snarled. "There is no fouler word. I'd be the laughingstock of the underworld. No, Nessy. No, I call your bluff. Send me back to hell, but don't ask me to commit that blasphemy."
"If you insist." The kobold cleared her throat.
"Wait!" roared the demon. Her beating wings fell to a whisper. "You would, wouldn't you?"
"She would," said a fly buzzing in Nessy's ear.
"Without hesitation," added another bug crawling atop her head.
"Then this is the question that I must face. If you are not lying"—she paused to study the kobold up and down for nearly a minute—"if you are not lying, then I must either die or compro—" The word caught in her throats. "Do that thing which demons despise doing. Allow me a moment to discuss it amongst myselves."
"Certainly, but only a moment," agreed Nessy. "I haven't got all night."
The swarm flew to a corner and chattered in hushed tones. Everyone waited quietly. They dared not speak. Sir Thedeus paced Nessy's shoulders, and Echo whistled as she sometimes did when she was especially nervous.
A single firefly broke away and landed on the kobold's nose. "I've changed my mind, Nessy." Her tail shimmered soft red. "I think I like this new you after all. I like it very much."
The demon laughed a faint, chilling chuckle that sent shudders through everyone in the room, including Dan and the Paladin. Everyone but Nessy, who stood unflinching, her soft smile never dropping from her lips.
TWENTY-TWO
Gareth the gargoyle stood watch over The Door At The End Of The Hall. It'd appeared at its proper place not long ago. Now it waited. Gareth, who'd spent years studying the Door, sensed impatience from it. It clanked its handle with steady rhythm, and the runed parchments swayed back and forth. Every so often, it creaked in a way that was not at all dissimilar to an irritated sigh. It was clearly waiting for something, and Gareth didn't want to imagine what that might be. But, as the mind is wont to do, he found himself guessing. They were all, without exception, terrible guesses. That is to say, the guesses in themselves weren't terrible, but every one was a horrifying possibility. Each more horrifying than the last. Until Gareth, having worked himself into a state of quiet panic, wished he could close his eyes and pretend he saw nothing. But Margle had denied hi
m stony eyelids. So when Nessy arrived, all by herself, without even the nurgax at her side, he couldn't help but notice.
"What's going on around here?" he asked. "I thought you were done for. Where's Tiama?"
Nessy said nothing. She strolled quietly down the hall to stand a few feet from the Door. It growled at her, spitting steam from its edges.
"Are you feeling well, Nessy?" asked Gareth. The torches were inexplicably dim, and he couldn't quite make the kobold out in detail. She seemed somehow different.
"I'm fine," she replied, but there was something odd about her voice.
Before he could pursue the point, a cold wind blasted down the hallways. Dark shapes dripped from the cracks in the walls and dribbled into a large puddle behind Nessy. He was about to warn her when she turned around on her own, and watched, without a hint of emotion, as the blackness rose and congealed into a vague, womanish shape. Tiama the Scarred had never been more than passably human.
"Hello, Nessy. I know what you're doing. It won't work."
"Won't it?" asked Nessy. "There is a door which must never be opened and a thing on the wrong side of that door. How do you get it back where it belongs?"
Tiama chuckled. "You open that door. But you see, dearest Nessy, the moment you open that Door all the magic within will come flooding out. How do you intend to stop it?"
"By my will."
Tiama threw back her head and laughed, although it was nothing like a laugh, neither amused or malicious, but empty. Like an echo of a sound that never was.
"You've overestimated yourself, Nessy. The castle's soul will crush you beneath its venomous might. You can't expect to stand against that."
"I can." It didn't sound like a boast, yet it lacked any trace of confidence as well. "I only need to do it for a moment. Just long enough."
Tiama knelt. "And supposing that you are able. What's to prevent me from killing you the moment the Door is open? Your will is formidable, I'll admit, but it won't do you much good when you're dead. And all it will take is a single touch." She reached out with her hand. Then withdrew it. "Not yet. Not until you've done what you've come to do."
"You've forgotten one thing."
Tiama stood. "Have I? What might that be?"
"I'm mistress of the castle, and, for all your power, you are just a piece of its leviathan soul. You're under my dominion."
"Absurd."
"Is it?"
Tiama shook her head. "Have you gone mad? There's no escape left you. You've no choice but to open the Door or die."
"That's very true. But since we both know I want to open it, I think you're the one who's been maneuvered into a trap." The torches flared brighter, casting unforgiving light on the pallid, hairless complexion of a not-quite-finished kobold. "Amorphous."
The protean sludge dissolved into a yellow puddle.
Tiama whirled. At the other end of the hall, the real Nessy stood with Sir Thedeus perched on her shoulder, the nurgax, Mister Bones, and Decapitated Dan at her side, and the Blue Paladin behind her.
"You were right, Nessy." Echo whipped invisibly down the hall to her companions. "It worked."
The wizardess bared her teeth in a snarl that seemed quite genuine. "How?"
"You believed because I wanted you to believe." Nessy smiled. "Is my will so puny a thing now?"
Nessy raised her arms and spoke her levitation incantation. The bar across the Door slid aside and clattered to the floor. With a triumphant bellow, the dark portal swung wide and spewed forth a thousand hideous phantoms, all cackling and howling and screeching.
Nessy held her hands up. "Stop."
The command was spoken quietly, without force. Yet the tide ceased. The shadows, muttering and hissing, receded.
"Impressive, Nessy. I've underestimated you." Tiama's human form lost much of its shape, dripping and blending with the darkness swimming around it. "But it won't be enough." Her eyes blazed with flame. The deluge wailed and crept forward with the slow certainty of a river of molasses.
Nessy stood her ground. Her brow knit in a tight V, burying her eyes into blackened slits of determination. The darkness rolled to a stop at her feet. Claws and tentacles reached onto the bricks and struggled to pull themselves another inch so the evil might devour this last stubborn obstacle to its release. Hungry jaws snapped and clicked at Nessy's nose. The supernatural weight pushed against her, and she tried to push back. But the tide was inevitable, unstoppable. She'd never get it behind the Door again. She barely had the strength to hold it at bay, and that strength was fading all too quickly. But she didn't back down. Not one step.
An unexpected newfound strength patched up her crumbling willpower, and she realized that Tiama had been right. Nessy wasn't strong enough to stop the darkened castle's soul by herself. But she'd forgotten an essential truth of Margle's castle.
One was never really alone.
She mentally shoved the darkness while taking a step forward. The evil receded, just out of her reach.
"Ye did it, lass." Sir Thedeus clung fast to his perch on her shoulder. Though his body was tiny, his courage was boundless. And his stubbornness was a tower.
She smiled. "We did it."
She put her hand on the nurgax's horn. The purple creature cooed, offering her its strength as well. It hadn't the force of Sir Thedeus's, but it was enough to bring a pained roar from the writhing evil. Mister Bones put a hand on her shoulder, adding his own silent determination. Decapitated Dan, much to Nessy's surprise, cackled as he cast a few drops of his maddened tenacity to their side.
The castle roared loudly enough to nearly knock everyone off their feet.
Tiama trembled ever so slightly. "It won't be enough. Even with every accursed soul behind you, nothing can stand against the monstrous storm that has been brewing. Its fury shall consume you."
Nessy closed her eyes. She felt the castle all around her. There was darkness, evil, and cruelty. But there were also little spots of gentle warmth. These were the residents of the castle. Some were warmer than others. But in each, even the most wicked, was a speck of something good. As mistress of the castle, she summoned forth those drops of willpower, those dollops of courage and compassion, pinches of unyielding obstinacy. Individually, they were nothing before the madness of the castle's twisted spirit, but together, they were a great, invisible army standing as surely by her side as were the nurgax, Sir Thedeus, and the Paladin.
The power flooded into her, and she sparkled with a brilliant golden nimbus. Cool, blue fire filled her eyes. The shrieking, howling phantoms retreated behind Tiama, clinging to her hair and robes.
"Get back where you belong," commanded Nessy.
The smoldering red flames in Tiama's eyes erupted, consuming her face. The skin melted away to reveal a shapeless thing, a skull made of ash and smoke. She spoke and gouts of multicolored fire exploded from her maw.
"Is that all you have?"
She laughed, but this hideous chuckle possessed a quality Nessy had yet to see from the wizardess: fear. And the shadows, the many horrid facets of the castle's malign soul, all wore the same ghastly terror upon their perverted countenances.
Nessy frowned. There was a time for patience and there was a time for discipline. She'd had enough. She bared her teeth in a snarl and growled. It was the exact growl, stern yet calm, that her mother had used with her as a disobedient pup.
"Get back."
The tide of phantoms ebbed. Some were more stubborn than others, but all slunk back into the welcoming blackness behind the Door's threshold. All but Tiama, the last and most resolute portion of the castle's evil. She took a single step forward. Her veil of humanity fell away. She was nothing but red sand, black smoke and white fire. She stretched a gnarled, crimson claw against Nessy's shining light. The fingers smoldered, but she pushed forward with an agonized howl.
One touch. That was all it would take. From behind the threshold, the phantoms encouraged her with a chorus of shrieks. Her inhuman body broke apart, reformed, and
broke apart again and again. But she pushed on, and when she was a mere inch from that fatal caress, a grin spread across her ashen visage.
A single demonic firefly rocketed from around the corner and hurled herself into the wizardess's hand. The claw disintegrated, and Tiama stumbled back. She clutched the burning stump. It reformed into warped talons.
Another firefly landed on Nessy's nose. "Remember your promise."
Nessy nodded, and the demon chuckled.
Her swarm poured down the corridor, hundreds of flaming insects launched into Tiama. Each blast tore away pieces of her skeletal body, but she reformed almost as quickly. Still, every blow pushed her back a little, and soon she was on the edge of the threshold. The flames in her eyes had all but died away, but she held onto the jamb with tight, knotted fingers.
The last firefly atop Nessy's nose shrugged her wings. "That's all I have."
If Tiama was to return, then all the pieces of the castle's soul must go with her. Even the good. The Blue Paladin strode forward. He paused, waved good-bye, took Tiama's wasted form in his two gauntlets and, as she wailed in protest, dragged her across the threshold.
Nessy and the others ran to the Door and tried to throw it shut. She almost succeeded, but her glow had faded. The shadows were still pushing back. The nurgax and Mister Bones added their muscle, but it still wasn't enough. The Door slid open half an inch. Slivers of shadow struggled to wedge it further.
Sir Thedeus jumped from Nessy's shoulders and braced his tiny body against further advance. "Come on, lads. Put yer backs into it!"
Nessy's aura was nearly gone, and without that, their might wasn't up to the task.
A shaggy beast lumbered around the corner. It was ten feet of coarse, green fur with a great toothy mouth, three gray eyes, and a strange hat atop its flat head. The creature snatched up the iron bar and shoved the Door closed with one hand. Its nostrils flared in a wet snort as it dropped the bar into place.
Instantly, all was quiet. Nessy sat on the floor, finding she was too exhausted to stand. The last of her glow faded from her hands, but a hint of azure light glinted in her eyes. It would never quite go away.
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