by Matt Forbeck
Karl glanced around, unsure what he should say. He wanted to claim he’d beaten every last one of them, but he didn’t want to get caught in another blatant lie. The others would only put up with so many of those in a row before they called him out on it.
“I don’t know,” he said with a carefree shrug, as if the question itself was beneath him. “Do you see any of them walking around here anymore? That’s all that matters to me. I mean, it’s not like I’m keeping score, right?”
The other heroes chuckled at that. They knew that Karl often did keep score, and that fact had become a running joke among them.
“We spotted a line of Undead mobs marching away from here as we entered the village,” Stache said. “But not any Illagers.”
“I think some of them left earlier, after the husks and skeletons showed up. They must have just run off in a different direction.”
“Kind of odd to see Undead moving in a line like that,” Scarface said. “They had a floating skeleton of some sort leading them away. They were all following it.”
That news sent a shiver down Karl’s spine. He might not have been the smartest hero around, but the idea that someone was controlling Undead mobs couldn’t be good news. Sure, that meant they’d retreated after he’d emerged to thrash them, but it also meant they could be much smarter about attacking him if they ever met up again.
“I must have had them running scared!” Karl said with as much bravado as he could muster—which was plenty for anyone, really.
“They seemed like they were carrying someone with them,” Red said. “Is anyone missing from the village?”
Karl shrugged. “Seriously? You think I know every last person here in the village? Any dozen of them could go missing, and I would never know the difference.”
Pinky sighed. “Whoever that was, I hope they’re going to be okay.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Archie woke up and found himself bound hand and foot to a skeleton. The creature seemed to no longer be Undead but entirely unliving and unaffected by any motivating enchantment, as it didn’t move to object when Archie began to struggle against his bonds.
Frustrated by his failure to be able to sit up, Archie glanced all around and saw that he was moving, even as he was strapped down. Someone had taken the skeleton and tied it to a couple of long sticks to make a battlefield litter out of it, and then they’d thrown Archie’s unconscious form on top of that and carried him off.
He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious. He could only tell that it was night—either still or once again. The stars swirled overhead until Archie realized they were doing that because his head was still swimming from his injuries. He gave up his struggles and froze, and with a great deal of effort he finally managed to make the sky stop moving around too.
He tried to assess the situation he was in, but it beggared belief. The last thing he remembered was being shot in the back by a bunch of skeletons that had ambushed him—along with the rest of the people in the village. He’d thought he was dead for sure, but apparently someone had taken the time to at least bind his wounds. He actually felt pretty decent, all things considered.
I told you I would preserve you.
The Orb of Dominance! Archie felt around for his staff but it wasn’t in his grasp. It must have been taken from him while he was unconscious, but if he could still hear it in his head, then it couldn’t be too far away.
Or could it? He wasn’t sure how its magic worked. Maybe it could communicate with him from across an entire land. He had no idea.
I am here with you.
The Orb pulsed, glowing brighter for a moment, and Archie realized it was floating somewhere above his head, just out of his eyeline. If he’d been able to sit up and turn around, he would probably have been able to see it.
They laid me down next to you on the stretcher.
Archie breathed a sigh of relief at that. If the Orb was still around, then maybe he still had a chance to get out of this situation alive.
The Orb’s pulse seemed to have drawn the attention of the Undead, and Archie could understand why. If he could get control of it, he might be able to use it to turn them all to ash. He struggled against his bonds once again, but he couldn’t muster the strength to break free.
The necromancer swam into Archie’s view then and floated closer as Archie wrestled with the straps that kept him tightly in place. The creature gazed down at him with the empty eye sockets in its bare skull, and Archie wondered if it would speak to him. If so, how?
Magic, he supposed. Magic always explained everything strange in his life.
Before Archie could say anything to the necromancer, though, it smacked him across the head with its own staff, and darkness took him once again.
Archie awakened an untold amount of time later. This time, he was lying on a cold stone floor, but he was free. Or at least nothing was tying him down.
At least he was alive.
He looked around and found himself in a windowless room. The Orb of Dominance stood on its staff, leaning in a corner. Its glow provided the place’s only illumination, and by that, Archie could see that the place was bare but for himself and the staff.
Once again, he was surprised to not be dead. He would have bet anything that the only way he’d have avoided being immobile forever was by being transformed into a husk or a skeleton himself. He was amazed to have escaped that fate—so far.
We are in the Desert Temple.
Archie almost died of fright from that simple statement. If the necromancer had brought him all the way from the village to the mysterious structure that rose out of the middle of the desert, he might have been better off dead. What kind of fate could the creatures who lived in this place have in mind for him that they would have dragged him here?
We are about to find out.
The door to the room opened, and a necromancer floated in, its feet hanging above the rough stone floor. It didn’t say a word to Archie. It simply nodded at him and then gestured for the little Illager to follow as it turned around and left.
Archie wasn’t sure what he should do, but getting out of the cell seemed like a much better idea than remaining inside it. He snatched up his staff—with the Orb of Dominance still securely hovering atop it—and pattered after the necromancer.
As he emerged from the room, he found himself in a long hallway that trailed off into darkness in both directions. Other rooms lined the way, their doors all closed. No lights shined through the bars fixed into each of the small windows cut high into each of those doors, and no sounds emerged from them either. As far as Archie could tell, he was utterly alone, with the exception of the necromancer, who steadily floated farther away on his left.
Not wanting to delve deeper into the dungeons beneath the Desert Temple without any sort of guide, Archie followed the necromancer. He figured if he saw a path to freedom along the way—as unlikely as that might be—he could make a break for it. Until then, he could only keep his eyes open and be ready if the chance presented itself.
For a moment he considered using the Orb to destroy the necromancer, and finding the way out of the temple entirely on his own. He wondered if this necromancer was the same one from the village. The same one that had knocked him out when he’d been stretched out across that skeleton.
He decided it didn’t matter. If whoever was in charge here wanted him alive and had gone to all the trouble to bring him here that way, he wanted to meet them. Even if his head hurt from the treatment he’d gotten, it was still on his shoulders. They’d piqued his curiosity enough that he at least wanted to hear them out.
You are getting wiser.
Archie took some heart at that compliment as he followed the necromancer in a winding path through the Desert Temple. They passed all sorts of coffins, catacombs, and sarcophagi.
Many of them stood open and empt
y, their occupants having either been dragged away or wandered off on their own. Others sat closed, and Archie realized his curiosity didn’t extend to figuring out if they were empty too or still remained occupied.
They eventually emerged into a long, high-ceilinged chamber lined with tall statues on either side. At the far end hovered a gray-skinned figure dressed in a blue-and-green outfit that covered its shoulders and legs but left its chest bare. It wore a large, ornate crown with an enormous emerald set in the middle of it, and it bore a staff that resembled Archie’s, except that it had a black shaft with an emerald orb hovering atop it.
“Welcome, stranger,” the creature said as it moved forward, off a large dais on which sat a throne just as ornate as its crown. “I am known as the Nameless One.”
Archie declined to give his name. It didn’t seem nearly as dramatic and important as the Nameless One, and in the end he didn’t suppose it mattered.
“Why did you bring me here?” Archie asked. He wasn’t in the mood to trade pleasantries with someone who had kidnapped him to drag him into a conversation. As he spoke, the Orb pulsed just a bit brighter, which Archie hoped would be taken as the implied threat he meant it to be.
The Nameless One’s emerald pulsed in reply, and Archie wondered just what powers it might have. What would happen if the two of them faced off against each other? Would one of them prevail? Or would they wind up killing each other instead?
Archie wasn’t eager to find out.
“I have waited for your rise, as was long foretold,” the Nameless One said in its deep and hollow voice. “I have been patient for countless lifetimes, but it has paid off. You are finally here.”
Your destiny precedes you.
Archie thought he detected a note of pride in the Orb’s voice. As if it had been right in choosing him and the Nameless One’s interest in him had proven that.
“I haven’t heard a thing about you,” Archie said, wondering if the Nameless One would take that as an insult.
“I had no reason to reveal myself until everything was ready. That moment has come.” The Nameless One floated closer to Archie. It took an act of will on his part to stand his ground and keep his staff from trembling.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Archie said in as steady a voice as he could manage. “Why did you bring me here?”
“I would think that would be obvious to one with your ambition.” The Nameless One stopped several feet from Archie and gazed at him with its vacant eye sockets. “People with power like ours are fated to rule the land, and by forging an alliance with each other, we can guarantee our destinies.”
Archie narrowed his eyes at that, concerned. He didn’t want to upset the Nameless One, so he chose his next words with care. “If we’re both supposed to rule the land, wouldn’t that make us rivals rather than allies?”
The Nameless One laughed at that, a dark and horrifying noise that seemed to echo from countless coffins at once. “There is enough of the land for us to share it, each according to our natures.” It gestured at Archie’s staff and then at its own. “You will rule the day. I will rule the night.”
Archie glanced around the gigantic room. He spotted husks and skeletons waiting in the wings, stuffed between the statues that lined the length of the place. Given the size of the entire complex, the Nameless One could have had hundreds if not thousands more creatures stashed inside the place, ready to do his bidding at a moment’s notice.
An important question sprang into Archie’s head. He hesitated to ask it because it seemed like doing so might weaken his position, but he felt sure the Nameless One had already considered it. He licked his lips and then said, “If you’re so powerful, what do you need me for?”
The Nameless One shook a bony finger at Archie. “You are just as sharp as I suspected you would be. That’s an excellent question.”
It pointed at the Orb of Dominance. “Are you aware of the full potential of the artifact you carry with you?”
Archie suppressed a shudder. He’d foolishly hoped the Nameless One didn’t understand the power of the Orb, which was why it had let him keep hold of it. If the Undead leader knew all about the Orb, then the fact that Archie still had it under his control was an even bigger mystery.
“I take it by your silence you are still coming to terms with it. In many ways, your staff is a twin to my own.” The Nameless One waved his emerald-topped staff gently about. “The power of mine stems from the night of this world. Your Orb’s power, however, comes from somewhere far beyond.”
Archie didn’t understand what that meant, but an important realization dawned on him. “So you need my power to help with your plans.”
“Precisely. You are a quick study.”
Archie held his staff out before him and looked up at the Orb hovering above it. He wondered what would happen to the Nameless One if he unleashed the Orb’s power here inside the Desert Temple. Would the creature be destroyed? Or would its emerald orb make it immune?
Archie suspected the Nameless One hadn’t gotten to be so ancient by exposing itself to needless danger. He also guessed that if he fired up the Orb to attack the ancient Undead, he would be made to regret it.
He might have been able to fight his way out of the place. He might even have made it back to Highblock Keep alive. But he would have been making a powerful enemy if he left like that.
“What do you need from me?” he asked.
The Nameless One floated forward until it was just out of reach of Archie’s staff. “The Orb of Dominance has the power to make my minions—all of them—immune to the ravages of sunlight.”
Now Archie really understood. “With that, your forces won’t have to hide when the sun is out. You can travel throughout the land at any time of day and let your mobs range as far as you want.”
“Precisely.”
It’s too much. You can’t let the Nameless One have everything.
Archie considered that assessment. The Orb was right. “And what do I get in exchange for this?”
“Other than an escort to bring you home safe and sound to Highblock Keep?”
Archie gave the Nameless One a grim nod. “By itself, that would hardly seem enough. You need me.”
The Nameless One hovered a little higher and gazed down at Archie from above. The emerald atop his staff glowed darker, if that was possible. “I believe you treasure life far more than I do.”
Archie knew that the Nameless One meant to intimidate him, but all it made him do was laugh. “If you could have taken the power for yourself, you would have done it by now, and I’d be lying dead in the village.”
The Nameless One lowered itself closer to the ground. “Or perhaps you’d be the latest husk recruit in my Undead army.”
“Too true.” Archie swallowed an urge to vomit at the idea of being one of this creature’s eternal slaves. “So, what is it worth to you?”
The Nameless One focused its empty eye sockets on Archie, and he could feel it trying to size him up. “What do you require?”
Archie allowed himself a wry smile. “Well, I do need a proper army…”
CHAPTER TWENTY
When Archie strode back to the entrance of Highblock Keep, Walda stood there waiting to greet him. He peered past her and checked out his fortress. It seemed to be in particularly good shape. Maybe better than ever.
“You got the drawbridge down, and you’ve been fixing things up,” he said to her. “I’m impressed.”
Walda motioned nervously toward the army of husks and skeletons that had followed Archie home. He glanced behind himself to see them fidgeting about in the broad daylight, unsure of how to handle themselves in a world in which everyone could always see them coming. “You brought an Undead army with you. I’m the one who’s impressed.”
Archie shrugged as if he’d forgotten the mobs had been behind him. H
e’d had plenty of time to get used to the idea of leading an Undead fighting force, he supposed, although he didn’t think he’d ever become jaded about hanging out with creatures that would try to eat him given even half a chance.
“We thought you were dead,” Walda said, not taking her eyes off the Undead. “We held a wake in your honor.”
“That was kind of you, but premature.”
“Clearly.”
Archie craned his neck and tried to take in the whole of the Obsidian Pinnacle from where he stood. “And you took charge in my absence?”
Walda shrugged as if that would clearly have been how he wanted it. Despite her casual air, she glanced at him to size up his reaction, just in case. “It seemed like the wisest course of action. We’ve had a number of other tribes join us to rally here under your banner. If I hadn’t taken over, one of their leaders certainly would have—and don’t think they didn’t try.”
Archie snickered at that. “I assume Thord tried to contest your authority too.”
“Of course.”
“And where is he now?” A part of Archie hoped that Walda had thrown the bully into the sea from the keep’s highest tower.
“Looking after the redstone golems in the dungeons.”
“That doesn’t sound like a terrible enough job for someone who directly challenged the leader’s authority.”
Walda grunted, understanding Archie’s disappointment in her. “Despite what he thinks—and perhaps you do too—leadership doesn’t work particularly well if you simply punish everyone who challenges you.”
Anger welled up inside of Archie. “Then why did you banish me?”
Walda wobbled back and forth a bit on the end of the wide-open drawbridge, clearly unsure how she should answer. Eventually she seemed to come to a decision and let out a nervous sigh before she spoke. “Honestly, I didn’t want to. Given a choice, getting rid of Thord would have been far wiser. If we were Villagers, that’s what I would have done.”
