Minecraft Dungeons

by Matt Forbeck

  As the glow faded, Archie blinked away the spots before his eyes, and the statue inside the mold began to move. At first it struggled there like it was trapped, shaking from side to side. Then with a loud crack it broke free. A moment later, it sat up in the mold and gazed at Archie, recognizing its new master.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Archie left the new redstone golem at the Fiery Forge with orders to start preparing the raw materials for more of its own kind. To that end, it would need to carve out as much redstone as it could find and place it into the mold. As it found more, it would stack up the extra next to the mold for later use.

  Archie would have to return to imbue the new redstone golems with life. That was something only the Orb could manage.

  Perhaps you should stay here and oversee the operation.

  Archie knew all that was true, but it couldn’t be helped. He had to return to Highblock Keep before the Illagers arrived there. He didn’t trust them alone near the place—especially Thord. The last thing he needed was to get there and discover that someone else had stolen his seat at the top of the Obsidian Pinnacle.

  You mean your throne.

  Archie honestly hadn’t thought of the chair like that before. To him, it had only been a place to sit while he stared into the Orb of Dominance. Thrones were meant for rulers.

  You are a ruler.

  That felt wrong. Didn’t rulers have subjects? People they ruled over? Without those, how could anyone be a ruler? Just ruling over the redstone golems in Highblock Keep didn’t seem to qualify.

  Your subjects will arrive at your keep soon.

  Archie frowned at that. He wasn’t sure Walda would agree to make him the leader of the Illagers so easily. She hadn’t seen him since she’d banished him from the tribe.

  Once the story of how he saved the raiding party reached her, perhaps she would change her mind. It was a long way from admitting you were wrong about someone to handing over your entire tribe to him though.

  You don’t need her endorsement. The Illagers will follow you.

  Archie hoped the Orb of Dominance was right.

  He climbed back on top of the redstone golem that had brought them there and set off back toward home. When they returned to Highblock Keep, no one was waiting for them. However, Archie could see a large group of people marching toward them through the desert to the south. That had to be the Illagers, and from the look of them, they must have brought the entire tribe, exactly as he’d hoped.

  Archie lowered the drawbridge and entered the keep. He went down to the dungeons and retrieved the rest of the redstone golems. They joined him back at the drawbridge in plenty of time.

  Archie wanted to show the Illagers his strength—or some of it, at least—without actually hurting anyone. The redstone golems seemed like the best way to manage that. He was used to hanging around with them now, and they still impressed him. He knew how the Illagers would see them.

  It was late in the day when the Illagers finally arrived. Archie was bored of waiting for them by then, and he sat leaning up against one of the redstone golems until the tribe was in shouting distance. Then he pushed himself to his feet and held his staff—topped with the Orb of Dominance—before him.

  Walda walked at the fore, the entire tribe trailing in her wake. They carried everything they had with them, ready to put down stakes wherever they liked—or had to—for the night. They looked weary, but they generally did when they were traveling. They had probably crossed the entire desert to get there, after all.

  “Welcome to Highblock Keep!” Archie called out as they neared.

  A low cheer went up from the approaching Illagers. Archie noticed that neither Walda—nor Thord, who appeared from behind her—joined in that particular bit of fun. They seemed less relieved to have made it here than they were concerned. They both wore extremely serious looks, and Walda cut off the celebration with a harsh glance backward at the others.

  The Illagers remained silent until they reached the end of the drawbridge. At that point, most of them spread out in a semicircle around the entrance while Walda and Thord stepped forward to speak with Archie. They did not smile at him or embrace him.

  This was not a family reunion or the greeting of a prodigal son. This was business, and they did not seem happy about it at all.

  “Hello, Archie,” Walda said in a grim and proper tone. She met his eyes as if she meant for him to kneel to her. “I understand we have you to thank for the survival of our raiding party.”

  Archie tried to be magnanimous about this inarguable fact as he met her gaze. He stood up as straight and tall as he could manage. “They would have been wiped out for sure. I was happy to help.”

  “How fortunate that you happened to be in the area.” She said this in a way that implied it could not possibly have been a coincidence. The glare that Thord shot Archie from over her shoulder convinced him that Thord might have spent the last couple days pouring such poison in her ear.

  “I only wish I could have gotten there sooner. I spotted the trouble from my, ah, observation post on the top of the Obsidian Pinnacle.” He gestured behind himself to the very peak of the rear section of Highblock Keep. “It took me a while to reach the raiding party from there.”

  “So, this is supposed to be your home?” Thord said in sneering disbelief as he gazed up at the structure. He couldn’t help but marvel at it, but that only added to his belief that no one so far beneath him as Archie could possibly own such a place. As little as he wanted to be impressed by Archie, he still didn’t emerge from behind Walda, keeping her between himself and Archie at all times.

  “It is.” Archie wasn’t about to argue the point or dignify Thord’s doubts. If the Illager wanted to take Highblock Keep from Archie, he was welcome to try. Even if he could somehow manage to rally all of the Illagers behind him, he would fare no better.

  Now you’re getting it.

  Archie chuckled to himself as he surveyed the other Illagers. They seemed overawed at the very sight of Highblock Keep, the redstone golem guards, the Orb-headed staff, and even—maybe especially—Archie himself. None of them would question his authority.

  If there was one thing that Illagers respected, it was strength, and Archie had plenty of it on display. The regular Illagers instinctively gravitated toward that. If they had come here on their own, they would already be pledging their loyalty to Archie.

  The only things stopping them were Walda and Thord. They wore their defiance in their posture. They were proud Illagers, unwilling to bend for anyone.

  Well, at least Thord was, but he’d always been a bully and a fool. No one had ever successfully stood up to him, and because of his magic and the reputation he cultivated, few had even tried. They were just happy to watch him pick on someone like Archie rather than them.

  Thord had climbed up the ranks of the tribe’s hierarchy by carefully choosing his battles. He hit the people above him when they were at their weakest.

  It would only be a matter of time before he came for Walda. Everyone knew it, including her. But now Archie had leapfrogged ahead of them all.

  Even if Thord was an idiot, Walda was smart enough to know when she was beat. She favored Archie with the edge of a smile. “I would like to thank you for your good deeds and—as I understand it—your offer of hospitality.”

  “It was no trouble at all.” Archie didn’t mention how dismayed he’d been at losing some of his redstone golems in the battle. With the Fiery Forge up and running, he hoped to recover from that setback soon enough.

  He decided to press ahead. “I’d like to invite you and the rest of my fellow Illagers to join me in Highblock Keep. Those who do, I promise to keep housed and fed and as safe as these walls can make them.”

  That, he realized as the words left his mouth, wasn’t enough. The Illagers were a proud people, and they didn’t care nearly as m
uch for comfort as they did for power. If he was to lead them, he would have to show them not that he could care for them but that he could bring them to the greatest glories they had ever seen.

  He would have to promise them the world.

  “Together, we can destroy any who would oppose us. We can grind the Villagers down and put them in their places. We can gather all of this land’s riches for ourselves. Together, we can conquer the whole of the land.”

  Archie repressed a gasp of surprise as he made this pronouncement. The idea that the Illagers would be able to take over the Overworld from sea to sea was radical enough, but that he would be the one to lead them?

  They cannot do it without you.

  Archie allowed himself a knowing smile, and he let Walda and Thord bathe in it.

  “If you follow me, I can promise you the greatness for which our people have always been destined, but that has escaped us so far. The days of our losses at the hands of even the most powerful of heroes are over. We will crush our foes and drive them before us. We will claim their riches as our own.”

  He paused for a moment to let his words sink in. “Under my leadership, no one will stand before us ever again.”

  The assembled Illagers raised their voices and pumped their fists in a resounding cheer. This was exactly the sort of thing they wanted to hear, and they didn’t care whose mouth the words fell from.

  Walda pursed her lips as she considered this, impressed. She had to have known that something like this offer had been coming, but perhaps she wasn’t quite convinced she should take it yet. In any case, she wanted to let her reactions play out for the other Illagers to see.

  Thord, on the other hand, wasn’t quite cunning enough to see there was even the remotest chance of Archie’s triumph. He assumed that—like himself—Walda would never give up power unless it was taken from her. He snickered at Archie in anticipation of Walda laughing in the smaller Illager’s face.

  “The changing of the leadership of our tribe is not some trifle to be handled lightly,” Walda said carefully. “The fate of all our people is bound to that of our leader, and it has been my honor to carry the tribe’s compass as we’ve navigated our way through this world on our own terms.”

  Thord glanced about, ready to crow in delight at the smackdown he saw coming Archie’s way. Walda heard him fidgeting over her shoulder and silenced him with an ice-cold glance. He stared at her in abject horror as he realized that he had make a terrible mistake in his judgment.

  “You have clearly risen fast in this world and come to possess an amazing power all your own,” Walda said to Archie. “I do not wish to question your good fortune, especially when you have been kind enough to offer to let your people share in it. That’s especially generous of you given your banishment.”

  The smiles grew on the rest of the Illagers’ faces as they realized that Walda had judged the direction of the tribe’s temper properly. Several of them began shouting in savage delight.

  “We accept your offer,” Walda said with as little resentment as she could manage. “Where you go, we shall follow.”

  Thord actually fell to his knees in despair and seemed about to start wailing and complaining about the unfairness of it all. The rest of the Illagers, though, saw him and thought he was bending the knee to their new ruler. Taking their cue from his apparent display of humility, they fell on their knees next to him.

  This all happened in back of Walda, who stood at the front of the Illager tribe. She had ignored Thord when he collapsed, not wanting to reward his theatrics by giving him any attention, but when she heard the rest of the tribe fall to their knees, she let out a little gasp of surprise.

  Walda glanced behind her on both sides and saw that she remained the only Illager still standing before Archie. In spite of that, she stayed standing, spreading her arms wide as if she were presenting the other Illagers to Archie.

  You cannot allow such defiance.

  Archie’s eyes flashed with anger. He understood that Walda was a proud Illager—one who’d led the tribe for as long as he could remember—but if she wanted to remain in his good graces, she would eventually have to bend the knee.

  Maybe he should have struck her down then to make his point, but Archie was too stunned at the obeisance of the others to let his temper overtake him. A huge grin threatened to spread itself across his face, but he bit his cheek to prevent it from taking over. This was a solemn moment, not a time for gloating, and he needed to take this transfer of power seriously if he wanted the other Illagers to do so as well.

  No matter. She will come around. Give the rest of them some time on their knees to absorb the import of this day.

  Archie took a full minute to relish the moment. In his wildest fantasies, he’d never imagined anything as incredible as this. To become the leader of the entire tribe? To have that power handed over to him willingly? It blew his mind.

  It had been wild enough to come across the Orb of Dominance and the redstone golems inside the hollow mountain—and then from there to construct Highblock Keep—but that had been a lonely triumph with no one to witness it. To have the bulk of his tribe on their knees, acknowledging his ascendancy? That was priceless.

  You still think this was all an accident? Random chance played no part in it.

  Archie wasn’t sure what he thought of that. It was easier to believe that he’d just gotten lucky. That way meant there were no real expectations of him—from himself or anyone else. If it all fell apart the next day, he could say that he had an amazing ride and was only sorry that it inevitably had to end.

  But if he was truly destined for greatness, he had a responsibility to rise to that challenge. It wouldn’t be enough to simply move his tribe into Highblock Keep just so they could live like peasants in his palace. He had to develop goals—lofty, ambitious goals—and drive them all to it.

  Yes. That’s perfect.

  Archie allowed himself a self-satisfied smirk—only for a fleeting moment—and then raised his staff before himself so that his people could bear witness to it as the symbol (at least) of his power. “Rise!” he told them. “With you at my back, there is nothing I cannot do. There is no prize we cannot have. This entire land—and everything in it—will be ours!”

  The Illagers shot to their feet, roars of approval erupting from their lips. Only Thord and Walda were less than full-throated in their approval, but even they managed to join in.

  Walda stood there, unmoving, until the last echoes of the roar had died down. Then she walked toward him to offer him her hands. As he took them, she towered over Archie, but she suddenly seemed much smaller than he.

  “As you say, so shall it be,” she uttered to him in the most formal tone he’d ever heard from her lips. “You need only point us in the right direction, and we shall fight whatever stands in our way.”

  You know where you need to lead them.

  It took Archie only a moment to ponder the Orb’s words, and the answer to that mystery popped straight into his head.

  “Enter Highblock Keep,” he said as he stepped aside and swept his arms toward the far end of the drawbridge and what stretched beyond it. “Rest and heal! Drink and dine! And prepare yourselves for our greatest battle yet!”

  He allowed a vicious smile of triumph to play over his face for all to see. “For soon we will conquer the village, and all the people in it!”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Archie wanted to let the Illagers get comfortable in their new surroundings, but the Orb of Dominance counseled him against that. In its opinion, allowing people to get too used to the idea of having him in charge and taking care of them—rather than demanding things of them—would only guarantee that Thord or even Walda would make a move against him. To maintain his power over them and the rest of the tribe, he needed to keep his potential rivals off balance, and he needed to deliver to the rest of the Illag
ers what they wanted.

  Archie wasn’t a typical Illager. Most of his life, all he’d wanted was to survive. If the bullying would have ended on its own, that would have been all he really needed—or so he told himself.

  Illagers in general, though, were raiders. They made their living by stealing from others. Mostly this involved robbing the few Villagers who were foolish enough to travel the land on their own. Sometimes it meant taking down a foolish hero who let down their guard at the wrong moment. Either way, it was about fighting and taking, and even though they were now safe and sound in Highblock Keep with plenty of food, drink, and shelter, that’s what the Illagers still wanted. What they ached for.

  And Archie had to give it to them.

  There was only one target that would satisfy them, and he’d already announced his intention to take it: the village. The best part was that he would finally get his revenge on Salah and the rest of the people who’d run him out of the place in the middle of the night with torches and pitchforks.

  The only trouble with his plan to raze the village to the ground was Yumi. He didn’t want to hurt her at all. He only hoped that she would show enough sense to get out of the way once he and his forces arrived.

  Despite his misgivings, he headed out for the Fiery Forge the next morning, and he took a vanguard of the best Illager warriors with him. He left Walda behind and put her in charge of Highblock Keep while he was gone, but he insisted that Thord come with him. He didn’t want the two of them plotting against him together. Besides which, he wanted to impress upon Thord how absolutely futile it would be to try to resist his rule.

  This time, Archie brought all of the remaining redstone golems with him as well. He required them to help with completing the construction of the Fiery Forge far more than he needed them back at the keep. He hoped Walda would see it both as a sign of the trust he had in her—and as a sign that he was so strong and confident that she had no chance to turn his people against him.