No response.
“Answer me!”
“Yes,” Blake rasped.
“Good.” Dagonblud waved his hand, changing the snake back into a rope that fell to the deck.
Blake doubled over, coughing and wheezing violently.
“Oh, don’t die yet. The fun has just begun.”
“Why won’t you leave us alone?” Erica cried.
The evil ruler examined his nails. “As you wish.”
A sickening loud moan shattered the eerie calm. Blake pivoted. A badly burned man wearing filthy, ragged clothes lay curled in a ball near the main hatch.
Dagonblud approached the groaning man and yanked back a fistful of dark, matted hair, uncovering his maimed face. Oozing sores disfigured the brutalized sailor, and his scruffy beard was encrusted with blood. “Remember him?”
Blake gasped. He knew those eyes--the same green eyes that haunted his dreams. “Dad?”
Dagonblud dropped Michael Wyatt’s head and stepped back.
“Dad?” Blake whispered.
“Blakemore,” his voice strained.
Blake sprang toward him.
“No . . .” His father held up a scarred hand.
Blake stopped midstride.
“Don’t touch me! My skin will burn you.”
“I don’t care.” Blake felt his heart snap in half as a huge knot formed in his throat.
“Please, no, your skin will boil and blister, like mine. The pain is unbearable.” He turned to Erica, tears welling in his eyes. “As beautiful as your mother,” he rasped, and lowered his head to the deck.
“How charming,” Dagonblud jeered.
“Dad, I thought, I mean, we thought you were--”
“Dead?” Dagonblud chimed in. “Almost. Take a good look, young Wyatts. This is the picture of defiance.”
“He doesn’t scare me, Dad,” Blake lied.
Dagonblud huffed.
“You don’t understand, Blakemore,” Michael Wyatt said through a grimace.
“I know my mission. I saw my name in the chronicle!”
His father shook his head. “My mission. Not yours. But I failed.”
“You got me this far, Dad. I’ll take over from here.” Blake felt his ringed finger tingle more intensely than before.
His father’s fragile voice washed through his head. Can you hear me, Blakemore?
Yeah. What’s happening to me? He replied through his thoughts.
The ring. It connects all Wyatts. Now listen carefully. Dagonblud needs our powers.
Is that why he’s keeping us alive?
The only reason. I have a lot to tell you and not much time. Did Columbus show you his medallion?
Yeah, it had a church with my name on it.
Good. That’s the Priory of Blakemore. Beneath it, Dagonblud ripped through the membrane of the Rellium, allowing his evil to infiltrate our world. Your uncle warned me that Dagonblud learned of my plan to close his portal. I had to find a way for you to continue this mission. Columbus would never have trusted a boy appearing in his cabin without some higher guidance.
That’s why Mr. Columbus thought I was a saint.
Exactly. The chronicle told me the admiral would soon be visiting a monastery in Spain. With no time to spare, I gave the medallion to Friar Bokenam with specific instructions to present it to the Genovese mariner when he arrived at La Rábida.
Columbus freaked me out when he knew my name.
Minutes after the friar and I spoke, Dagonblud ambushed me at the priory and confined me to his dungeon. So now it’s up to you. Yes. You need to do the impossible. Dagonblud already opened the black diamond. That’s how he stopped time. You must extinguish the weapon’s power so Columbus can continue his journey to the New World.
Blake nodded, then realized he should have hidden his reaction.
“Enough!” Dagonblud demanded. “You Wyatts think you’re so cunning. Yet another painful mistake--for you and your children.”
Michael Wyatt tried to push himself to his knees. “Please leave them--”
Dagonblud swept his hand across the pleading face, entombing him into a wooden sculpture. “I hate beggars.”
“Dad!” Erica wailed.
Blake felt an inferno rage inside him. “You’ll get nothing out of us, no matter what you do!”
“Is that so?” Dagonblud glanced at Erica. “Perhaps the young lady can be convinced to share the source of this Wyatt power.”
Blake leapt in front of his sister. “Don’t touch her!”
“I don’t have to.” Dagonblud flicked his wrist.
Erica shrieked.
Blake spun around. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t move!”
He looked down. Bark formed around her ankles.
Erica sobbed. “I don’t want to die, Blake.”
“You’re not gonna die. He needs us alive to get our powers.”
“So that’s what your father told you?” Dagonblud snarled, moving closer to Erica. He traced his finger gently along her cheek. “Such a lovely face. Just like your mother’s, eh? A perfect addition to my collection.”
Blake tried to swat Dagonblud’s hand away. “Leave her alone!”
“I’ve got a better idea. Tell me the source of your power, and Miss Wyatt gets to keep her legs.”
“Don’t tell him anything, Blake!” Erica cried out.
Dagonblud extended an open palm in her direction and curled his fingers.
“My stomach!”
“We don’t know anything!” Blake insisted.
Dagonblud grabbed Erica’s arm and twisted it. “This tiny limb is going to snap.”
“Blake!” she shrieked.
“Honestly! We don’t know!” Erica’s painful blare ripped through his heart. “Please!” He glanced at his father, hoping for advice. But smoke rose beneath his wooden body, and flames licked at his face.
“No-o-o!” Blake grabbed the corner of a folded sail and dragged the heavy canvas to his father. He tried to smother the flames, but the material ignited instantly.
“Blake!” his sister wailed. “Make him stop!”
His gut tightened, and his mind zinged into hyper-speed. “Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you!”
Dagonblud released his grip on Erica’s arm and calmly blew out the fire. “Much better.”
CHAPTER 26
TIERRA! TIERRA!
His eyes stinging from smoke, Blake bolted to Erica’s side. “You okay?”
“I guess.” Her eyes riveted on her father. “I can feel my feet again.”
“At least something’s goin’ right,” he said hesitantly.
“But what about Dad? Should we. . . .”
“Time to pay your debt, Blakemore Wyatt,” Dagonblud growled. “A deal is a deal.”
Blake bristled at the sound of the Tolucan’s voice. He turned and stared in horror as the wooden sculpture of his father smoldered.
Feeling Dagonblud’s glare, he tried to swallow spit down his constricted throat. How was he going to get out of this? He knew nothing about this power. Maybe he could fool him and make up something. Talking about motorcycles always worked on the girls. Think. Think!
“The source of our power is actually very simple,” he said to the Tolucan. “I’m surprised a smart guy like you hadn’t figured this out a long time ago. You see. . . .”
“Get on with it!”
“All right, all right--”
“Now!”
Blake took a deep breath. “It all starts when enormous amounts of gas and air are mixed in a giant cylinder. The whole thing’s under incredible pressure, and that causes this super-strong vacuum.”
Dagonblud’s eye’s narrowed.
“Then huge sparks explode the mixture, and that gives us our awesome power. If you turbocharge--”
“How dare you insult my intelligence with your prattle about a primitive engine!”
The Tolucan looked up when lightning flashed across the sky. The bolt knocked Blake to the deck. Dagonb
lud snapped him up by the jaw and dragged him toward the mast.
“Perhaps a demonstration of how I extract Wyatt powers will stimulate your memory.” The tyrant yanked out the knife that he had flung into the pole. “Rat won’t be in need of this anymore.”
Blake gulped, wriggling in his tight grip.
Dagonblud half carried him to his father’s wooden body and then slashed the leg of the statue. Yellowish-brown sap, mixed with blood, trickled from the gash. He dabbed the gunk and touched it to his lips. Tilting back his head, the monster waited. Suddenly two lightning bolts converged on the mast, and a thunderous crack rocked the ship. “Power never disappoints.”
Trembling, Blake looked at the scorched, oozing wooden statue of his father. A fissure opened on the forehead and then split the length of the figure. It blew apart, blasting wood shrapnel in all directions.
The Tolucan raised his brow. “The oldest of the Wyatt tricks. Exhausting your power to avoid lignifying your body to the core.”
Michael Wyatt shook off the splintered remnants. Gasping, he sat up.
Dagonblud laughed. “Shameful to waste the last of your strength on that juvenile outburst. Now nothing’s left for me.”
“Kill me, but my children will never reveal the source!”
Blake broke free, falling to the deck. “Dad! No!”
His father slowly stood. Pressing his wrists together, he opened his palms and aimed them skyward. A laser beam shot from his hands, piercing the black clouds. White light peeked through. “The membrane’s open, Blake.” He shook uncontrollably. “I can’t help anymore, but you--” He collapsed, drenched in sweat.
“Still useful, I see.” Seemingly unfazed, Dagonblud stood over the spent body and rested his foot on Michael Wyatt’s back.
“Don’t hurt him!” Erica cried.
“That’s entirely up to your brother.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Blake demanded.
“I’m going to collect the remaining power from your father or your sister. You decide.”
“Go to hell!”
“Not until I’m finished with you.”
Erica wept into her sleeve. “Pick me, Blake. Dad can’t take any more.”
“I’m not picking anyone.”
“Then I will. Since the young lady insists . . .” Dagonblud strode toward Erica. “Imagine the pain when the wood strangles your heart as it creeps up your spine and then to your brain.”
Blake wrapped his arms around his sobbing sister and glowered at the demented monster. “You’re real tough, picking on a little girl and a guy so banged up he can barely stand. It’s me you really want, isn’t it?”
Blake felt Dagonblud’s cold eyes settle on him.
“I always get what I want.”
Blake fought back the thought of spending eternity on a shelf in this lunatic’s museum. He hoped Dagonblud would take what he wanted from him and leave Erica and his father alone. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, preparing for the worst.
“You’ll show well in Parana pine, young Blakemore--attractive but dense, with a tendency to be knotty.”
Blake opened his eyes and looked up when he heard squawking and screeching above him.
Nura burst through the bright rift in the clouds created by his father and jetted for Dagonblud’s head. The half bird, half lion raked the monster’s face with her talons, struck him again and again with her wings, and then clamped onto his head. “Quickly, Blake, get the black diamond.”
“What?” Blake asked, his head swimming.
Dagonblud tried to pry her claws away. “You’ll regret this!”
“Where is it?” Blake shouted.
“In his pocket. Hurry!”
Blake rushed Dagonblud. Ducking beneath the melee, he shoved his hand in the jacket’s front pocket and snatched the diamond. “Got it!” He jumped back, dodging Dagonblud’s swipe. “This thing’s freezing, and it stinks!”
“You need both halves!”
“Where’s the other--?”
“Inside his jacket! Do it! Now!”
Blake tried to reach under the jacket but was kneed, then elbowed across the deck. He crashed into a water barrel. Shaking off the pain, he charged back. How was he going to get past the super-ninja?
“Follow my lead, Blake.” Nura retracted her talons.
Dagonblud clutched her legs.
She let out a horrible screech and then chomped his hand with her sharp lion fangs.
“Ah-h!” Dagonblud fumbled for her neck.
“Now, Blake!” Nura stabbed at his other hand while pulling away.
Blake shoved his hand inside and felt for the remaining half of the diamond. A sharp edge sliced his fingers. Eluding a kick, he ripped out the gem. “Yee-ow!” He jumped back, juggling the scorching diamond.
“The temperature will neutralize when the black diamond is put together, and time will start again,” Nura shouted.
Fighting through the pain, Blake moved the hot and cold sides closer to each other.
“No! Not yet!” She flapped harder. “You must first force the dark energy back in the diamond, or it will remain in our universe.”
“How do I do that?”
“Put your hand into the one that’s glowing. Your Wyatt powers from the Rellium will drive the dark energy inside.”
Blake whipped around. “Hold this, Rick.” He handed her the cold half and then plunged his hand into the red, fiery sap of the other side. “Ow!” he screamed, scalding lava running down his arm. The sky flashed brighter and then darkened again. Recoiling from the stench of his burning flesh, he staggered back.
“The Rellium’s too weak to trap the darkness!” Nura struggled in Dagonblud’s grasp, flogging him with her wings. “You were our last hope, Blake.”
Bright light warred with the swirling dark clouds. Thunder pounded, mushrooming to a loud roar.
“Look!” Erica squealed. “Dad’s moving!”
Blake glanced at his father. Wyatts don’t give up. Not this time . . . not any time, he thought. He turned to his sister. “I got an idea! You still have those rocks from the dungeon?”
“Yeah.” Light streaked through her fingers as she pulled a stone from her pocket.
“Give me your half of the diamond. We’re gonna put our powers together.”
Erica handed over the cold side.
“Now hang on to me!”
She reached for his arm.
“No!” He pulled away. “This stuff’ll burn you. Grab my waist.”
She took hold of him. Blazing red and orange particles arced between them, swelling into a raging, howling black vortex, shaking him and his sister violently.
“Hold on tight!” he shouted.
“I can’t!”
“You have to!”
She wrapped her arm around his waist.
The swirling mass spun faster and blared louder, rising above them, sucking in the evil darkness.
Blake watched the last of the soot whirl into the black diamond as the skies brightened. “Ricki! Look! It’s working.”
“Close the diamond!” Nura screeched as Dagonblud latched on to one of her wings. “Quickly! I can’t fight him much longer.”
Blake tried to press the sides together, but an incredible force repelled them. “It won’t . . . shut!”
“Try harder!” She gnawed Dagonblud’s hand and beat his eyes with her free wing.
Blake strained through clenched jaws. His arms throbbed, and his body spasmed. “I’m not strong enough! I . . . can’t . . . do it.”
“But we can.” Michael Wyatt slowly reached up with a quivering hand.
“Dad!” Erica cried out.
“Don’t let go of me!” Blake commanded his sister. “Or you’ll break the circuit, and we’re done for.”
“But I--”
“Grab Dad’s hand. It’s going to hurt like crazy.”
“I don’t care,” Erica yelled, stretching out to her father. “Just a little more, Dad,” she urged.<
br />
He seemed to gather all his remaining strength and then lunged toward her.
Erica grabbed his hand. She shrieked above the deafening roar.
The red and orange particles engulfed the three of them, throttling the vortex into a hyper-velocity spin.
Harnessing the powers from his father and sister, Blake crammed the two sides together, coercing the last of the darkness back into the black diamond.
Then, suddenly, all was quiet.
Blake looked around, amazed. The sailors returned. The ship’s normal hubbub resumed. A wave splashed the deck.
“It worked! It freakin’ worked! We started time again.”
Columbus’s crew circulated about the deck, engrossed in their chores as if nothing had happened.
“Can I let go of you now?” Erica asked meekly.
“What? Oh, yeah.”
“Blakemore,” his father whispered, still holding his daughter’s hand. “I’m proud of you. The black diamond is sealed. Dagonblud’s dark energy is safely contained.” He coughed and dropped her hand. “For now.”
Erica sank to the deck and whimpered, “You’ll get better, Daddy.”
Diego and some of the crew started to gather around Erica and her father. “This sailor’s badly injured,” the pudgy man said. “Bring cotton cloths and honey for the wounds.”
Michael Wyatt looked up at his son. “Promise me you’ll get these men to the New World. You’re the Rellium’s last hope.” He slumped over.
Blake dropped to one knee. “Dad!”
“Do something!” Erica cried.
“I don’t know what--”
Nura let out a ghastly screech.
Blake turned and jumped up.
Her wings stopped flapping, and her head fell.
Dagonblud whipped the lifeless creature across the deck.
“Sorcerer!” Pero pointed a musket at Dagonblud’s back.
The Tolucan pivoted and glared at Columbus’s pilot. The barrel of his gun slowly melted, leaving only the wooden stock.
Pero dropped the weapon and fled.
The crew stepped back.
Dagonblud turned to Blake and snatched the diamond. “And as for you, hero-boy, Parana pine--starting with your mouth so I don’t have to listen to--”
“Shut up already! You’re such a royal loser! You couldn’t get my father’s power, and you can’t get mine, either.”
The Wicked Passage (A Blake Wyatt Adventure) Page 18