T-E-L-E-P-O-R-T. Go! Leave me.
No way! Fin mouthed back. Not a chance!
Ender-Jess, still slick and tall and black in the pumpkin helmet that disguised her so well, rolled her purple eyes. While Kraj raged at the water buckets, she crept out from behind the gold stash in complete silence. Jess slipped into formation with the fifty-nine-strong squad waiting patiently for their commander to come to his senses. Fin tensed when he saw Jess was standing right behind Koneka, but if the fragment noticed, she didn’t give any sign. Fifty-nine was a lot of people. If you didn’t count, you’d never know there was one extra. Fin sighed with relief. Jess was awfully good at this.
Sound the alarms, Murrum, Kraj roared. Intruders! Endermen! With me! We will carve out the human menace!
The brain squad came to attention. They turned as one to march out of the armory and into the city again, where they could rejoin the assembled forces of the End. 2-3-4-Hup! In perfect time, they beat their path through the great door.
WAIT! The Lord of All Endermen’s booming thoughts sliced through the minds of everyone in the room. Kraj seemed bigger and taller than ever as he flowed over to the troops. Fee-fie-fo-fum, he fumed, I smell the blood of too many endermen!
Kraj’s dark hand fell upon Jess’s shoulder.
I do not know you, soldier, he thought coldly. What is your name? To what End do you belong?
Jess stared up miserably into those boiling purple eyes. She couldn’t understand him. She wasn’t telepathic. To her, there was nothing in the armory but silence and danger.
I SAID GIVE ME YOUR NAME, SOLDIER! bellowed the thoughts of Kraj. DO NOT DEFY YOUR LORD!
But poor Jess could no more hear his words than she could hear Jax snoring in the Overworld. And if she spoke, no pumpkin in the world could hide what she was. She tried to inch her hand toward her sword.
Kraj’s body flushed a deep, ugly red. His fury built and built until it was flashing and clanging inside him like a fire alarm. Fin couldn’t believe it. With so many endermen around, Kraj should have been in total control of himself. The mindless rage of the berserker enderman should have stayed a million miles away. But there it was, plain as the red on the commander’s face.
HOLD HER STILL! Kraj commanded. The ender squad obeyed without question. Koneka and another soldier seized her arms in a grip worse than any iron.
Sire! protested Murrum. It is only a fragment!
Are you really going to let her get caught right now? Fin asked himself. Really, Fin? She tried to save you, and you’re just going to watch him lose his mind on her? Move your feet, you coward. But Fin couldn’t. He wanted to. He really, really did. But his feet wouldn’t do what he told them to.
Commander Kraj raised his fist into the air. In one terrible blow, he threw Jess across the whole of the armory. She crashed through a jumble of pickaxes and smashed into the far wall. Jesster sank to the ground. She moaned. She put her hand up to the back of her head.
It came away covered in shattered pumpkin.
Slowly, horribly, the helmet cracked and fell forward. Kraj and Murrum and fifty-eight endermen itching for war stared in fascination at their first human invader.
The scream of triumph that came out of Kraj in that moment could have shattered every glass bottle in the room, had he screamed out loud and not directly into all their minds until they ached. It sounded like the devil’s nails down all the chalkboards in hell.
SEE? DO. YOU. SEE? I WAS RIGHT! AS RIGHT AS RAIN!
He went completely red and bent his head to charge Jess.
Fin’s feet still wouldn’t obey him. But that sound knocked the fear right out of him. Fine. If his legs wouldn’t work, his arms would have to do. In one fluid motion, Fin pulled up his crossbow, yanked back the firing mechanism, and shot the Lord of All Endermen directly between the shoulder blades.
“All hail the Great Chaos,” Fin whispered.
It happened so fast.
Kraj crumpled like an old umbrella. The red light of his anger went out. He hit the ground, but it hardly made a sound.
Oh no, Fin thought. What have I done? Poor old Kraj. All his long, boring stories. I killed him. And his stories. I killed an enderman in the End. In his own land. What a good human I turned out to be.
Two things happened at once. Corporal Murrum teleported in the direction of the crossbow bolt. And Jess leapt forward, flaming diamond sword in hand.
She mowed her way through the fifty-nine endermen bodyguards. Jess slashed left and right, slicing down and ripping up. It wasn’t even a contest. Her blade cut through them like they were nothing.
No, thought Kraj weakly. No, I need them! Jess spun around and hacked another soldier in two. Stop! I was right! Murrum! I was right! There she is! The human menace! Among us! I was right! The endermen warriors tried to fight back, but they were no match. Some of them broke and ran. They blinked out, teleporting away, abandoning their commander. Koneka looked directly into Fin’s eyes. One, two, three more went down.
By the Great Chaos, I believe I have journeyed too far and too swiftly, Koneka thought, just as she had that day they met out on the dunes above the Enderdome. But now her thoughts were the color of heartbreak and horror. She vanished in an instant, just as Jess’s sword sliced through the space where she’d stood.
Kraj howled. STOP! I need those soldiers! I need my End! I don’t want to go back! I am the wisest of all endermen! I am…I am the wise…The last of the squad sank to his knees and toppled forward. Jess panted in the middle of her carnage. The bodies were already disappearing, leaving their pearls behind.
Kraj’s mind dissolved into a mindless scream of blind and thoughtless rage. And then it was silent too, and all that was left was a withered greenish-grey gem with a dull, dark shine deep within it.
Corporal Murrum bore down on Fin. He was alone now. Nobody here but us humans, Fin thought in a panic. Murrum’s mind was a blank. All it wanted to do was kill. There was no one home behind those familiar purple eyes anymore. Murrum didn’t see Fin, he didn’t see anything. He just saw a target.
I had to, Fin thought, I had to do it. He closed his eyes, clutched the grindstone to his chest, and waited for the worst.
It didn’t come. Endermen flooded into the armory in a black wave. They followed the death cry of Kraj into the room. As soon as the mass of them drew near, the stack initiated, and intelligence returned to the corporal’s eyes. Intelligence, and cold hate.
Seize them immediately, Murrum ordered. Jess lifted her sword again but they rushed her too fast. She got one, two, and then they had her. Keep the human for questioning. The fragment known as Fin murdered our beloved commander. We will also ask him a question. That question will be: What method of execution would you prefer?
“Fin, just teleport away, don’t risk yourself!” Jess yelled. What was the point of staying quiet now?
“I’m not leaving you!” he yelled back without thinking.
“Well, that’s completely stupid!” Jess hollered.
Murrum staggered back, away from the sound of Fin’s human voice. Oh, Fin thought. Oh, I actually am an idiot. Endermen don’t talk.
Faster than Fin could regret his recent life choices, Corporal Murrum grabbed his head and slammed it into the wall. He felt the pumpkin crack and fall off. Fin turned a human face back to Murrum.
Fin? Murrum thought in total confusion. It is not possible. I have known you since you were a young fragment. It is not true. It cannot be. Kraj…Kraj knew. He always knew. He was truly the wisest of us!
I’m sorry, Murrum. And Fin was sorry. He really was. Do I still get to pick how I’m executed?
No, the corporal thought. The enderman turned to the crowd behind him. Take them both to the Cage!
Something big and hard and a lot like a fist hit Fin in the back of the head.
Lights out.
Fin woke up.
A cold, black wind hit him in the face.
He was lying on a hard floor. And the floor was moving.
He tried to open his eyes. His head throbbed. Everything was blurry.
“Morning, sunshine,” a voice said.
That’s Roary, Fin thought. Couldn’t be, though, because she’s safe back on the ship with Koal.
“Welcome back to the program already in progress,” another voice said wryly, a voice that unmistakably belonged to Koal.
Am I on the ship? Fin wondered. Seems unlikely.
Jesster’s voice cut through his grogginess. “About time you rejoined the land of the living.”
I thought they said they were taking us to the Cage, thought Fin blearily. Not the ship.
Look around, dummy. The cool, familiar thoughts of his sister flowed into Fin’s head and even though his eyes still burned, they flew open.
Mo sat directly across from him. Kan stood next to her.
Chaaaaains, groaned Loathsome silently, curled up between them. Jellied black fluid oozed between the links of the thick chains holding the zombie horse prisoner. She kicked out her hind legs. The chains clanked.
And next to Loathsome was a very large purple box.
Thump-thump, thump, thump-thump went the box.
I hate you, Grumpo thought from inside it. This is all your fault. I want to bite you so bad.
“Grumpo!” Fin yelled. “I missed you so much!”
I didn’t miss you at all because I hate you.
“WHO’S A GOOD BOY?” Fin asked in the voice you use to call a cuddly dog.
It is not me. I am a bad boy. Also not a boy.
“I hope you’re not too mad,” Fin said.
Grumpo thumped his box. I don’t judge. I hate you no matter what. I would hate you just the same even if you turned out to be a human with a pumpkin on your head. Oh. Wait.
Fin laughed a little. “This is pretty messed up, huh?” he said to all of them.
Everyone was there, and everyone was clearly going to stay there for a while. Mo, Kan, Loathsome, Jess, Roary, and Koal stood against the silver bars of a massive cage hanging in the air a couple of hundred feet above the ground. Each had one arm locked to a bar of the cage and one foot locked to the floor. The cell swayed in the wind. Darkness waited below them.
“What’s going on?” Fin said.
“Well, you’ve been out to lunch for ages,” Koal chuckled. “The rest of us have been catching up.”
Fin turned to his sister. “You came back!” He wished he’d said something cleverer, but his brain was having a rough go of it. “Where’s Jax?”
“That’s all you have to say?” Mo laughed. “I don’t know, probably stroking his hunting trophies. Kan brought me back.” The green-eyed enderman gave her a stern look. She’d promised. Mo rolled her eyes a little. “Kan rescued me. We teleported back to the ship and it was crawling with army boys yelling about Kraj and vengeance. So it sounds like you kept yourself pretty busy while I was gone.”
“We’ve been sentenced to death by ender dragon.” Roary sighed. “Good work, everyone.”
Fin looked a little more closely. He peered through the bars to what lay outside the Cage. Obsidian pillars. Crystal flames. Silver cages. The ender dragon’s island. Wonderful.
“Wait. Where is it? ED doesn’t like to wait.”
“It’s flown by a few times,” Mo said.
Flaaaaaaame, croaked Loathsome.
Mo patted her stiff, dirt-caked mane. Yes, yes, you’re very smart.
“They’re gonna hold a big ritual so everyone can see that Kraj was right and the human menace is real,” Jesster explained. “Murrum is feeling pretty cut up about the whole thing now that his boss is toast and unavailable to yell at him or smack him around, so he wants to make sure everyone knows what a saint the old guy was. Spoiler,” she said to Koal and Roary, who didn’t know Kraj from any other enderman, “he was not a saint.”
“None of you seem very worried.”
ED would not hurt me, Kan thought. I am an enderman. I have not done anything. You all are in big trouble, though.
Why don’t you just teleport away, Kan? Mo thought miserably. Leave us. Save yourself.
If I could take you all with me, I would. But I ran away too many times. I did not learn enough at the Enderdome. I am not strong or fast enough to take you all. So I will not leave. He took Mo’s hand, and she smiled. You are my End. You cannot leave your End.
Fin was pretty sure Mo didn’t think ED would burn her either. He was also pretty sure she was wrong. Fin had never liked the old beast as much as Mo did. It made him uneasy.
“These things tend to work themselves out one way or another.” Roary shrugged.
“That’s a very Chaotic thing to say,” Mo observed. “You should come to church with us sometime.”
Fin groaned and rubbed his head. It felt like he’d stuck it in a torch and let it slowly roast there.
“Never mind your head,” Mo said eagerly. “We’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
“Why?”
Roary pointed at Fin’s feet with a suggestive bounce of her eyebrows. Fin looked down.
He still had the grindstone.
“Wow! I can’t believe they didn’t take it off me!” He reached down with his unchained hand to make sure it wasn’t damaged. “But it’s no good without the books.”
Koal smiled the smile of someone with a really good surprise ready and waiting. “We’re way ahead of you, kid.”
Mo reached out for him across the cage. He reached too. They couldn’t touch. “Do you know what today is, Fin? So much has happened I forgot.”
Fin shook his head.
“Happy Endermas, Fin,” she said sweetly.
Oh. Oh wow. He just…hadn’t realized. It had been the furthest thing from Fin’s mind.
“They got us presents,” Mo grinned.
Roary and Koal dug deep in their pockets for a minute. Then, Roary pulled out a book and tossed it onto the floor of the cage. It slid and spun over the wood and landed against Fin’s big toe. The human girl reached in again and pulled out another one. And another. Koal already had five or six out. He pushed them toward Mo. Not all the books they’d had on the ship. But a lot of them. A respectable selection.
“Happy Weird Mysterious Murder Monster Day, guys,” Koal said.
Fin picked up the book in his hand. He turned it over a couple of times. He and Mo locked eyes. They hadn’t had a chance to talk about this. But they didn’t need telepathy to sort out what to do next. It was now or never.
“Come on!” Roary coaxed. “I’m dying here!”
Koal crossed his arms. “This is going to be such a huge bummer if that’s just a janky Bane of Arthropods spell.”
“You first,” Mo said.
Jess showed Fin how to use the grindstone. The book didn’t seem to respond for a minute. Then it quivered. It swelled up like it meant to heave out a huge belch. It shimmered.
And it popped open.
All five humans, one enderman, one zombie, and one shulker leaned forward.
“Luck of the Sea Enchantment Level One,” Fin read slowly. “The Luck of the Sea enchantment increases your chances of catching treasure rather than junk or fish. No way,” he said in disgust and disbelief.
“I told you!” crowed Koal. Roary kicked him. “Sorry, though, Fin. Sorry.”
Ha ha, Grumpo laughed in his box. It is funny when you fail.
Fin slumped down against the cage bars. “I can’t believe it. I really thought…I really thought we would find something in there. Some answers. Anything.” He threw the book onto the floor of their cage. “I’m gonna die and the only thing I know now that I didn’t know before we went and royally screwed everything up in Telos is that
you can add the Luck of the Sea enchantment to any fishing rod.”
“Fin,” Mo said softly.
“I’m really sorry, Mo. It all happened so fast. I didn’t mean to kill Kraj. You don’t know what he was planning, though. It’s probably not the worst thing for the End that he’s gone…”
“Fin,” Mo said again.
“But I know that doesn’t make it any better. I didn’t kill him because of what he was planning. I just killed him because he hurt Jess and I hated him for it.”
“Fin! Look!”
Mo pointed at the book. The stupid, useless Luck of the Sea Enchantment Level One book.
There was handwriting on the other side of the enchantment instructions.
Fin’s handwriting.
As if in a trance, he picked up the book. At long last, Fin was front and center, reading to the class. He followed the words with his fingers.
It is always night in the End. There is no sunrise. There is no sunset. There are no clocks ticking away.
But that does not mean there is no such thing as time. Or light. Ring after ring of pale yellow islands glow in the darkness, floating in the endless night. Violet trees and violet towers twist up out of the earth and into the blank sky. Trees full of fruit, towers full of rooms. White crystal rods stand like candles at the corners of the tower roofs and balconies, shining through the shadows. Sprawling, ancient, quiet cities full of these towers glitter all along the archipelago, purple and yellow like everything else in this place. Beside them float great ships with tall masts. Below them yawns a black and bottomless void.
It is a beautiful place. And it is not empty.
“What is this?” Fin asked his twin.
“I don’t know. Keep reading.”
We have always lived here. We cannot remember any other place. We grew up here. It is our home. No different from any of the hundreds of endermen you’d find on any island here in the archipelago. We live on an end ship crammed with junk we snatched up from anywhere we could find it.
Fin flipped through the pages.
The End: An Official Minecraft Novel Page 17
