by Hondo Jinx
Those assholes? Dan thought. But that meant…
“Griselda is the Mother of Darkness,” Holly said.
“Yes,” Kord said. The dwarven priest’s voice was deep. “That is why we’re here. To stop Griselda and defend the light.”
“We could not tell you earlier,” Broadus said to Dan. “Too much risk, yes? The crystal heart showed us this time, this place. What if we told the barbarian, and he told the world? Then Griselda would not come. She would cast her spell some other place, some other time. And maybe the Legion of Light would know nothing until it was too late, and darkness had already destroyed the light.”
Holly stepped forward. “I will help you.”
Dan stepped up beside her. “Me too.”
Nadia glanced longingly at the glowing chest and the stairway to glory. Then she stepped up alongside Dan and Holly, her green eyes hard as emeralds. “If they’re in, I’m in.”
Everyone turned then to Zeke.
The old wizard scratched his beard for a second, then shrugged his shoulders. “Griselda sounds like a real bitch. I’m in.”
Broadus smiled grimly. “Very good, my friends. We can use all the help that we can get.”
The dwarven priest spoke up for the first time. His voice was deep as a war horn. “I must warn you all. For as powerful and evil as Griselda was in life, death has only made her more powerful and more diabolical. We must coordinate our attacks to have any chance at defeating her.”
They quickly laid out a battle plan based on the addition of the Noobs.
As soon as Griselda appeared on the football field, they would make their move. Talia, the black-haired sorceress, would make them all invisible, and she would cast a circle of silence around her to muffle their approach.
The wizards would attack Griselda, doing their best to keep her on the defensive.
Maurelio, Nadia, and Holly would surround the wizards, protecting them from the Acolytes of Eternal Darkness.
“You and I will fight alongside Broadus,” Kord the priest told Dan. “We will battle our way to the stage, where Broadus will finish the necromancer.”
Broadus nodded and unsheathed a shining dagger.
Dan shielded his eyes, then squinted at the weapon, which appeared to be made not of metal but of liquid fire.
“The Blade of Light,” Broadus said, his voice thick with reverence. “I will plunge it into her dark heart and return her to dust and memory.”
“Sounds good,” Holly said. “That bitch killed my grandmother.”
“The necromancer is waiting for the trumpets to blast,” Talia the black-haired sorceress said. “She and her acolytes will rise up at that point.”
“We need every advantage we can get,” Maurelio said. “When Griselda is distracted by her big moment, we will attack. Not from the champions’ exit but from behind.”
“In the meantime,” Talia said, holding out her crystal heart and motioning for the Noobs, “gather around and behold the future… and in it, our enemy, the Mother of Darkness.”
Dan stared down into the crystal.
Within the sparkling heart, he could see the football field above them. He watched with clenched fists as dozens of acolytes in dark blue cloaks marched onto the field.
At their center, several huge acolytes bore a black palanquin upon their shoulders. Whoever rode within the litter was hidden behind black curtains. But what really rattled Dan was the size of the bearers. They had to be nine feet tall!
The acolytes marched onto the victors’ stage, much to the confusion of Campus Quest officials waiting there.
Then the crystal blurred out of focus.
When the streaming images returned, those confused officials lay dead upon the stage. Acolytes surrounded a sacrificial altar of black stone, atop which was strapped a struggling elven woman, naked and incredibly beautiful, with silver hair and amber eyes.
A grey elf, Dan realized, and then rage rose in him, replacing the simple determination he’d been feeling. That’s why the Acolytes of Eternal Darkness tried so hard to kidnap Holly.
They had wanted her as a sacrifice.
Crom, he prayed, let me kill every last one of them–twice!
Beside the altar, a small figure stood hidden in a hooded robe so black that it looked like a hole in the universe.
It’s her, Dan thought. It’s the necromancer, Griselda.
Griselda thrust her skeletal arms held overhead, holding a wicked, black dagger aloft.
Below her, the bound elf screamed in terror.
Griselda threw back her head with laughter, and her black hood fell away to reveal a skeletal face, a large pair of black sunglasses, and a crown of bright white hair.
Dan gasped. “That’s my professor, Dr. Lynch!”
53
Dr. Lich
“Dr. Lich is more like it!” Zeke said, pointing as the hideous necromancer removed her sunglasses, revealing not eyes but yawning sockets filled with red fire.
Maurelio turned abruptly, staring across the room at a heavy door. His pointed ears twitched the way Holly’s did when she was listening hard. “The gnolls are approaching,” he announced.
Everyone spread out to either side of the door, weapons at the ready.
The door swung open, and the three surviving gnolls burst into the room, bloodied and battered. They yipped and snarled, pointing at the dead hydra.
Then froze, as blades appeared beneath their throats.
Dan was pleased to find himself holding the edge of the crappy goblin sword to the jugular of none other than his lifelong tormentor, Grady.
Broadus and the Legion of Light explained the situation much as they had for the Noobs.
“You will help us, yes?” Broadus finished.
“What happens if we say no?” Grady asked. “You cut our throats?”
Broadus frowned. “No. You are free. But we need your help. All of those people out there? They need your help. The world needs your help.”
The gnolls burst into keening laughter, pushing the blades from their throats.
“Screw the world,” Grady said. “Boys,” he said, pointing at the Chest of Champions, “grab the treasure.”
The gnolls jogged away, laughing nastily, grabbed the golden chest, and started up the stairs.
At the last second, Grady turned around, made eye contact with Dan, and shouted. “So long, suckers!”
I should’ve slit his throat! Dan thought, and was just getting ready to yell after him when Nadia tugged at his hand. The Sell-Swords and Noobs were moving the tapestry aside and disappearing into a secret corridor.
As Dan followed them into the hallway, sounds of the stadium echoed behind him. He heard trumpets and thunderous applause, the wild cheering of 80,000 spectators, and the booming voice of the announcer declaring, “The champions of this year’s Campus Quest, Alpha Alpha Alpha!”
Dan growled, hurrying through the dim corridor at the back of the pack, thinking, There goes my shot at gold and glory… and my hopes for staying in school.
They emerged into a large corridor, where Dr. Lynch and the acolytes had apparently been waiting.
Dan and his friends hustled up the ramp toward the field. They couldn’t attack yet, however. They had to wait until the powerful necromancer and her forces were completely distracted.
The Campus Quest announcer laughed. “And now, coming onto the field,” he said, speaking choppily, clearly confused. “Some kind of surprise, I think. By the looks of this procession, I’d say we’re in for a treat, ladies and gentlemen. A special guest is making his or her way across the field in a royal palanquin.”
The crowd buzzed with excitement.
Holly wrapped her arms around Dan, squeezing hard, then gave him a kiss. “Take care of yourself, husband. I love you.”
“And I love you, my wife. Let’s kill this evil bitch.”
Then he took Nadia in his arms.
He was surprised to find that Nadia was quivering with fear.
“
Be safe,” he said. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Nadia said, and Dan could hear that his tough thief was close to tears. “No matter what happens, no matter what I do, even if you can’t love me afterward, even if you hate me, know that I loved you and will love you forever.”
Dan drew back to stare at her, confused.
Now Nadia was wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.
“What are you talking about?” Dan asked. “I love you. No matter what.”
“All right,” Broadus said. “It is time. Preserve the light.”
“Preserve the light,” the Legionnaires echoed.
Talia cast her spells. Dan and the others faded into invisibility, and although he could still hear everyone, he knew that the entire party was encased within a sphere of silence that would block their sound from anyone beyond the area of effect.
They jogged up the ramp.
On the towering jumbotron, Dan could see that the acolytes had already reached the stage. The small, dark figure of Dr. Lynch floated from the palanquin, settled upon the stage, and lowered the microphone to the dark hood that obscured her face.
Dan and his invisible friends charged onto the field.
The handful of Campus Quest officials upon the stage clucked with consternation.
Then they fell to the stage, dead.
The crowd gasped.
The AAA gnolls sprinted past, fleeing center field and heading for the nearest exit. Grady’s eyes were huge with terror.
Pussy, Dan thought, charging in the other direction.
“Greetings, vermin,” Dr. Lynch’s voice hissed over the speakers. “I am Griselda, the Mother of Darkness.”
Then her face disappeared on the jumbotron, replaced by a screen of purple static.
“Whoa!” Broadus shouted.
A wall of sizzling purple electricity had leapt up before them.
Dan slammed to a stop mere inches from the wall. All around him, others cursed and clanked, slamming to a stop.
The crackling wall stretched up and up, arching across the field in a massive dome-shaped shield of purple energy. Center field, the stage, and the acolytes had disappeared, hidden behind the buzzing dome.
All across the stands, spectators shielded their eyes, muttering with confusion.
“Don’t touch it,” Talia’s voice said. “Griselda has erected some kind of force field.”
Campus security and vigilante spectators attacked. Numerous arrows, javelins, fireballs, and lightning bolts impacted the dome and vaporized like so many moths against a bug zapper.
“Behold the coming darkness!” Dr. Lynch’s voice screeched over the speakers.
80,000 spectators cried out. Overhead, a second sun had appeared in the sky.
A black sun, like a hole in the sky. As Dan watched, the sun grew larger.
“That evil bitch has opened a gate to the Plane of Ever-Shade,” Zeke said. “She’s trying to flood our world with pure darkness.”
“We have to get inside,” Broadus said.
Dan knew that the Legionnaire was right. Only Broadus and the Blade of Light could vanquish Dr. Lynch. But how could they possibly breach the deadly dome?
54
Mayhem and Darkness
Overhead, the black sphere in the sky swelled, losing shape. Its edges flared, going ragged in a lion’s mane of darkness.
“I will tunnel underneath the shield,” Talia said. “The acolytes might not notice the hole on this side, but they will probably notice when the tunnel opens on the other side.”
“We will move quickly,” Broadus said.
“Yes,” Talia said, and though Dan couldn’t see her face, he could hear the concern in her voice. “I will burrow as quickly as I can.”
Then the invisible sorceress began mumbling incantations.
“We don’t have much time!” Zeke said. “Look at the sky.”
Particles of granular darkness flowed from the black hole and spread across the sky like a plague of locusts, buzzing back and forth, dimming the light of day, bringing dusk to noon.
80,000 fans murmured with confusion and burgeoning fear. People jammed the exits, everyone trying to leave at once.
At Dan’s feet, a large, circular section of turf twisted and wrenched away from the ground. Grassy chunks tumbled aside, revealing topsoil. This raw earth began to churn, coming apart and spinning as if an invisible auger were drilling into it.
The circle became a hole. Loosened soil piled up around the rim.
“Spectators!” Dr. Lynch’s voice boomed out of the speakers. “Don’t just sit there. This is an interactive event, and you must all get involved,” Dr. Lynch said. “Where is your school spirit?”
Several acolytes jogged out of the crackling purple shield and onto the football field, carrying torches overhead. The torches burned an odd green color and smoked heavily, sending plumes of green fog into the air.
One of the running torchbearers slammed into an invisible wall, dropped his torch, and flew into the air, obviously under attack by someone in the crowd. The acolyte tumbled up and away through the air, hit the crackling purple dome, and…
Zap!
The acolyte popped in a flash of light, incinerated against the shield. His boots spun away from the explosion and fell like dead birds to the turf, where they lay smoking.
So, Dan thought, the shield allows safe exit but no reentry.
The torch that the incinerated acolyte had dropped also lay on the turf, gushing heavy plumes of strange green smoke.
More sorcery, Dan knew. No natural torch could produce that much smoke.
Across the field, acolytes dropped, struck down by spells and arrows, but their torches likewise burned on, emitting heavy clouds of eerie green fog. These clouds billowed, swirled into the air, and broke into waves of green mist that drifted into the panicking crowd.
When the green fog misted across the stands, the stadium filled with the terrible sound of tens of thousands of people screaming in excruciating pain.
Dan gasped, seeing a wall of green fog drifting in his direction.
But Zeke’s voice whispered nearby, and a light wind kicked up out of thin air, stopping the fog and pushing it away from where they stood, waiting for the tunnel to open.
The tunnel was deep now. An incredible amount of dirt and rocks had piled up to either side of it.
By some miracle, the acolytes hadn’t spotted the soil piling up. Maybe the sphere obscured their vision. More likely, the evil bastards were too caught up in their big moment to notice.
All at once, the spectators stopped screaming… and started laughing.
Horrorstruck, Dan watched as the laughing spectators started to dance. They jerked and twisted, hopped and shook, leapt and spun, waving their arms crazily and laughing, laughing, laughing.
“Beautiful,” Dr. Lynch said. “And now, all of you watching at home, you see what lies in store for all of you. Mayhem and darkness!”
“Darkness eternal!” chanted the acolytes. “Eternal darkness!”
Then the cackling spectators turned on each other, pushing and shoving, kicking and punching, drawing blades and plunging them, still squealing with laughter, into their neighbors.
Dan stared in horrified disbelief.
Then Talia announced that she had successfully burrowed to the other side.
Dan and the others charged into the tunnel, which Talia had carved through turf, soil, and bedrock. The passage opened on the other side of the shield.
Broadus crawled out first. Dan couldn’t see him, of course, but he could see dirt kicking away beneath the Legionnaire’s efforts and, since they were within the same sphere of silence, he could hear Broadus pulling himself up.
“All right, barbarian,” Broadus whispered. “Lift Kord up to me. Kord, find my hand, and I will pull you up, my friend.”
After a few awkward seconds, Dan found the invisible dwarven priest and hoisted him up.
One by one, Dan hoisted the others up
through the hole. He moved quickly, knowing that at any second, the forces of darkness might notice the strange hole that had just appeared inside their defensive shield.
Despite their invisibility, Dan could identify each person whom he helped through the hole.
Maurelio scampered up, light as a feather, needing very little help at all. Holly, he knew instantly, because her touch was so familiar to him. The same was true for Nadia.
From one end of the tunnel came sounds of insane laughter and mass murder. From the other end came the chanting of the acolytes.
“Darkness eternal… Eternal darkness! Darkness eternal… Eternal Darkness!”
Finally, Broadus helped Dan scramble to the surface. From within the dome, Dan could see Dr. Lynch and her acolytes upon the stage and could see beyond the shield to where the stadium boiled with insane violence.
Luckily, Dr. Lynch and her acolytes were so focused on the swelling black sphere and the mass psychosis caused by the green fog that they hadn’t noticed the invisible adventurers climbing up out of the tunnel.
“Everyone ready?” Broadus asked.
“Change of plans,” Zeke’s voice responded. “Talia, you’ll have to attack Griselda on your own. I have to concentrate on closing that gate, or we’re all dead.”
Dan heard the rustling of the old wizard’s robes. Zeke uttered a burst of gurgling nonsense.
At least the words sounded like nonsense to Dan, but an instant later, a beam of silver light leapt away from where the invisible wizard had spoken them. The silver beam passed without resistance through the force field and shot directly into the black sun, which seemed to flinch on impact.
Dr. Lynch screeched and turned in their direction, following the beam of light back to its invisible source.
“Now!” Broadus shouted within their sphere of silence. “Griselda knows we’re here. Attack!”
55
The Necromancer’s Fury
“Meddlers,” Dr. Lynch said, and her red eyes flared. “Death to you!”
