“Oh.” She tilted her head. “Do they have robots?”
“Kinda, but not really anything like what you’re thinking,” said Keith. “Mostly giant arms in factories and stuff or little boxes that drive around.”
For no particular reason, Tira whimpered.
“What?” asked Ashur.
She looked up, eyes wide. “I dunno. I just got really scared and I don’t know why.”
Shadows creeping across the streets within the Ruins of Gygax caught Keith’s eye. Something moved.
“Will the skeletons come out here?” Keith again raised his shield and took a few steps down the hill.
“I don’t know… They’re supposed to guard the access room to the catacombs underneath. I didn’t make a random encounter table for the ruins. They should stay right by the entrance to the dungeon maps. I don’t think they’ll leave the city.” Sarah bit her lip. “I hope.”
“Dude, we’re so far below their level, they’ll aggro from across the world,” said Elliot.
“No way, man.” Ashur shook his head. “This is a RPG, not a MMO. There’s no computer AI controlling the monsters.”
“Then what is?” asked Elliot.
“I’m not sure,” whispered Sarah.
“Yes!” Carlos cheered. “I think I can figure this out. I have no idea how I know this, but hang on. I’ve got all this ritual stuff showing up in my head. This thing feels like it’s gonna take a few minutes.”
“Cool. Get on with it ’Los.” Elliot hurried over, rubbing his hands together.
Carlos cracked his knuckles, held his arms out to the slab, and began chanting. Every few seconds, a spark of lightning—red, blue, green, or violet—leapt from his fingertips and struck the giant tablet with fizzling snaps. Rune by rune, the carvings lit up with matching color, holding the writhing sparks in place.
The shadow in the gate darkened, drawing closer.
“Something’s definitely coming for us.” Keith pulled his sword out and walked a few more steps to the left and down, putting himself between the long slope and the portal behind him.
More sparks flew from Carlos’ fingers to the tablet. A cloud of swirling purple energy appeared on the dais, spinning like a slow-motion hurricane.
Inky blackness welled up within the gate, obscuring the passage. The rapid whispering of multiple voices chattered over each other from within, loud enough to hear above the raging wind. Keith’s heart pounded in his chest.
“No!” yelled Sarah. “It’s going to destroy the gate and trap us here… to devour our souls.”
Elliot glanced at her, one eyebrow up. “Little melodramatic, babe.”
“Look!” she screamed, pointing. “And don’t call me ‘babe.’”
“Huh?” Elliot turned with an unimpressed smirk.
The bronze gates flew apart, smashing into the walls on either side with enough force to crack the stone. Everyone gasped and spun to look toward the sound, except Carlos, who remained absorbed in his ritual.
All the color drained from Elliot’s cheeks.
Billowing and black, the ten-foot-tall form of Yzil the Dark Wizard emerged from the shroud of shadows, bony hands stretched to either side. Its elongated face pitched forward, dark violet eyes glowing.
Sarah grabbed her hair in two fists. “The Devouring wasn’t a real module. It’s a curse! A curse meant to devour kids! That Codex… The book I found wasn’t a normal game book.”
Elliot blinked, mouth still hanging wide open. “Gee, ya think?”
She glared at him.
“I mean…” Elliot looked terrified, but shrugged at her. “I kinda figured out the whole ‘not normal’ thing when we got sucked bodily into a fantasy world, and met a girl who disappeared thirty years ago but is still a kid.”
“El, knock it off,” said Keith, an edge of anger in his voice.
Sarah shook her head. “I can’t let you guys get trapped in here. I’ve already lost my whole life. As soon as he opens it, go through. I’ll distract him.”
“No way.” Keith whirled and grabbed her hand. “You go. Get out of here. Go home to your grandmother. You’ve been here too long already.”
Ashur ran over and clapped a hand down on Keith’s shoulder. “Dude. Come on. She knows what she’s doing. Let her drag it off like she did before. Let’s go home.” His voice cracked with grief.
Keith clenched his jaw, about to bite the head off his best friend, but seeing tears on the boy’s face stalled him mute. He did have plenty to lose. His best friend, his parents, Elliot, Carlos… hell, even Tira—she’d been a lot cooler to hang out with than he ever expected. And of course, losing Sarah would hurt. He’d be apart from her, but at least she’d be safe. Perhaps he wasn’t so invisible after all.
He threw his right arm around Sarah’s back, pulling her close, forehead to forehead.
She sniffled and wept as her fingers dug into his sides. “It’s all right. Go with your friends. Thank you for trying. I’ll never forget you.”
“No,” whispered Keith.
“Hey, Romeo and Juliet,” yelled Elliot, “Hurry it up. Tall, dark, and smoky is almost here.”
Keith stared into Sarah’s eyes. “I said I’d get you out of here, and I meant it.”
She swallowed. Her mouth opened, but she tripped over words.
With seconds to spare, Keith leaned in and kissed her full on the lips. Far faster than he wanted to, he pulled away. “Go. Your grandmother needs you. If you don’t get out of here right now, you’ll never see her again.” He spun, pushing her toward the tablet.
The center of the large stone slab held a pool of liquid light that expanded outward, giving off an electrical hum as it swirled. Its center pulled inward, a sideways tornado of color.
He’s almost got it. I only have to stall Yzil a couple rounds. Uhh, a minute or two.
Sarah stumbled from the force with which he shoved her toward the portal. She caught her balance, shaking her head at him as the wind wrapped her hair around her face. “What are you doing?! No! He’ll kill you!”
It didn’t matter if he died or wound up stuck in here for another thirty years. Keith narrowed his eyes at the approaching wraith. Sarah needed to go home. His friends didn’t deserve to be trapped. He talked them all into playing with a cursed book. For an instant, he pictured his parents growing old like Mrs. Norris, never knowing what happened to him. He closed his eyes, holding back tears. His friends were in danger because of him. Sorry Mom. Sorry Dad. I have to do this for my friends… for Sarah.
Keith opened his eyes and drew his sword. “You guys go. I got this.”
33
Farewell
“Keith, no!” screamed Ashur.
His knuckles whitening from his death grip on the sword, Keith stomped down the hill at the massive, shadowy form of the Dark Wizard. He’d read the stats and knew what this thing could do. He had no expectation whatsoever of walking away alive. As long as he delayed it enough for Carlos to open the portal, he would accept the outcome. Assuming, of course, he didn’t crap his pants the second he got close enough to feel its aura of radiant fear.
Wait. I’m a paladin. I wonder if whoever made my character put any development points into magic? “Hæm, guard me from fear.”
Faint gold light washed over him, flared, and vanished. For at least the next twenty minutes, Yzil’s radiant terror couldn’t affect him.
Guess they did…
“Keith, please!” Sarah’s voice warped with emotion. “Go with your friends. Don’t do it.”
A long, shrill scream rang out behind him. For a few seconds, Tira Shadow had gone back to being ‘just Tira.’
With a little distance left between him and Yzil, Keith afforded two seconds to close his eyes and savor the feeling that Sarah cared. The grief in her shout tore his heart in half at the same time it bolstered it. Nothing emboldened him more than the proof she loved him back. Or at least, liked him a whole lot. True, it had only been a few days, but several near-death experien
ces in a row tended to nudge people closer in a hurry. And they’d been inside each other’s minds… somehow. He felt as though he’d known her for years already.
Keith opened his eyes. The continuous rip of an eerie, wailing wind surrounded the Dark Wizard, like a magical vacuum for souls. Crackling and sparking buzzes came from the portal, and a brilliant flare of whitish light threw his shadow long across the grass in front of him.
It’s almost open.
Ashur, Sarah, and Elliot shouting for him to come back blurred into meaningless sound.
“Go home, guys!” Keith raised his sword, let out a battle cry, and charged the Dark Wizard.
The insubstantial form of Yzil jerked backward at the chest, allowing the sword to pass by without contact while raking at him. Keith raised his shield to deflect the bony claws, and slashed again. The tip of his blade nipped a scrap of smoke away from the wraith.
Again and again, Keith ducked the specter’s reaching talons or managed to lift his shield in time to block. Unlike the troll, Yzil had little physical mass, so the strikes against his shield didn’t rattle his bones or send him flying. Tira could’ve probably hit harder if she swung a broom. He had no doubt that letting those claws touch his body would not end well, despite their lack of effect on metal and wood.
Keith thrust again, but the wraith flowed around his sword and reformed once he pulled back. A scrap of green appeared near his wrist, grass showing through. He gawked at his arm having become faintly transparent.
“Your soul is mine, boy,” whispered an old-man’s voice in the back of his mind. “It is too late for you. How noble to make yourself a willing sacrifice, but your gesture is futile. I shall consume them all.”
A loud, cracking barrage like a ripple of firecrackers went off behind him in time with the light growing brighter. Waves of warm energy passed over him. The shrieking wind kept throwing his hair in his eyes, though it didn’t affect the vaporous Dark Wizard.
Just a few more seconds and they’re out. Keith growled, hurling himself into a fury of slashes and stabs. Yzil glided side to side, losing bits and pieces of shadowy substance each time the blade passed close to its roiling form. Step after step, Keith forced Yzil down, away from the gate, and away from his friends.
“Get out of my way, boy,” rasped the voice in his head.
Yzil raised one great skeletal hand and flicked its fingers out to full length with a sharp gesture. A blast of frigid magic hit him full on, chilling him from head to toe. His bones felt like they’d been turned to ice within his body, so cold they burned like fire. Agony drew forth a horrible scream of pain. His limbs stiffened to the point that moving at all became a chore. He staggered to the right, about to fall, when a scrap of Sarah’s desperate screaming filtered into his brain.
Have… to… protect them.
Tears streamed out of his eyes, an involuntary reaction to so much icy hurt. Growling past gritted teeth, Keith forced himself to stay upright and lurched in front of the Dark Wizard, before it could go around him.
A tremendous bang went off from the portal, shaking the ground and sending an expanding ring of bright violet racing outward. The ripple of energy tingled when it passed by, and mashed Yzil’s form into a blur.
In the few seconds the Dark Wizard remained dispersed, Keith glanced over his shoulder. The former stone slab had become a rectangular hole in reality that peered into his bedroom. Carlos, arms raised high over his head, stood nearest the portal. The others clustered around him, except Sarah who’d crept closer to him, about halfway between his back and the first step of the dais.
“Go!” shouted Keith.
A hissing rush drew his attention around front. He brought his shield up in time to deflect Yzil’s claws, but the left hand raked its talons down his sword arm. No cuts or damage marked his tunic or metal bracer, but the sensation of four icy blades slicing his flesh ran down to his fingertips.
He almost dropped his sword as the arm went numb. Again, Keith screamed past clenched teeth, staggering to the side. Involuntary tears leaked from his eyes, it hurt so much. Paladin or not, he remained a thirteen-year-old. He shuddered from the effort to fight the pain and fear telling him to run. This was no haunted house. He had no Daddy to cling to and beg to be taken home. For his friends, for Sarah, he needed to become that protector.
His friends would make it. He had to buy them only a few seconds more. With a defiant roar, he twisted his entire body to make his limp right arm swing the sword.
Yzil drifted back, avoiding his feeble strike with ease. The old-man voice in his mind laughed, a slow, rolling crunch of a chuckle.
“You lost!” yelled Keith. “She’s free! You can’t have her! You can’t have any of my friends!”
“Foolish boy,” rasped Yzil. He swatted Keith’s shield arm aside and grasped him by the throat. “You are so willing to be devoured? Then so be it.”
Glowing white vapor leaked from the tip of the Dark Wizard’s elongated, pointy face. Its mouth sat at the lowest point of a skull so distorted it appeared more of a mask.
Keith twisted side to side, grabbing with his left hand at fingers as thick as his wrist. Icy chill spread into his neck. He kicked and grunted, too weak to escape, but strong enough to frustrate and slow the Dark Wizard. His friends would be escaping into the portal at that very moment; he only needed to fight a little longer.
From behind came a soft fluttering roar, fast getting louder. A fire bolt went over Keith’s right shoulder, boring into Yzil’s chest. Before the blast of flames could fade, a white-shafted arrow struck the bony face with a loud clack, embedding halfway in.
The trail of glowing vapor at the creature’s mouth sucked back past tiny needle teeth, disappearing. Bone fingers released Keith’s throat and the Dark Wizard billowed taller, raising both hands for a devastating rake. He tried to lift his shield, but neither arm wanted to move.
“No!” shouted Elliot, as he body-checked Keith to the side. “Get away from—”
As Keith crashed to the grass on his shoulders, Yzil slashed down with both hands over Elliot’s chest, covering him with permafrost.
“—my friend,” whispered Elliot, before falling over backward.
Another fire bolt cruised down the hill, billowing bright and orange, but Yzil darted to the side.
“El!” shouted Keith. He looked back in disbelief at his friends running toward him, away from the open portal.
Sarah snarled, firing arrow after arrow while approaching in a slow walk. She looked angrier than Mrs. Pomeroy that time Robby had taken all the screws out of her chair and it fell apart when she sat on it. A ripple of bright green light peeled away from her bow, a spiral of nature energy coiling like a serpent around each arrow.
The pelting drove Yzil back, zigzagging side to side in a futile effort to avoid her shots. Every time the faint hiss went over his head, another glowing arrow landed somewhere on the Dark Wizard’s body.
Elliot wheezed. A wisp of icy fog leaked from his mouth. Wide-eyed, he gazed vacantly at the stormy clouds overhead.
Keith rolled to a crawl, hurrying to his friend’s side. Overwhelmed with guilt, he couldn’t think, he could only stare. Elliot had knocked him out of the way and taken the death strike. A dark blue tint from unnatural ice spread across his face, freezing him solid. I’m not a healer… El… No, El. You should’ve let it hit me. Keith cried. Even with the bullies back at school, Elliot would run in and tackle them when they ganged up on Keith, never once concerned for how much of a beating he might receive for his efforts.
“El…” Keith fell to one knee and took his friend’s lifeless hand.
Hand… I’m a paladin. Crap!
Keith moved up to kneel and placed his hands on Elliot’s chest as if to do CPR before shouting, “Elliot Gardner, receive Hæm’s light!”
A bright flash of golden energy flew from Keith’s body and ran down his arms.
The blue tint faded from Elliot’s skin. Fire bolts and arrows kept going overhead.
He blinked, shifted his gaze to Keith, and grinned. “Nice. Lay hands. Clutch move.”
“What are you doing?” gasped Keith, sniffling. “You almost died.”
“We decided not to let you be a glory hound. Either we all kill this thing, or we all die.” Elliot raised his arm. “Gimme a hand, bro?”
“I don’t have a high enough strength stat,” said Keith, chuckling and crying at the same time.
Elliot pounded him on the thigh. “Ass.”
Grunting, Keith hauled Elliot upright.
Sarah shrieked.
He whipped around. She lay on the ground screaming, a glowing three-foot-long icicle impaled through her chest. It hadn’t left a bloody hole, being pure cold energy, but it looked like it had done a lot of damage.
“I got it.” Elliot pushed Keith toward Yzil. “Keep that thing off her.”
As much as he wanted to run to her side, he forced himself not to. Elliot would heal her.
While Elliot ran to Sarah, Keith bellowed a war cry and charged at Yzil. The wraith danced around and around Ashur’s twin blades. Fortunately, whatever dice fate rolled for the warrior at this point liked him more than the plastic ones. Ashur shaved off piece after piece of shadowy mass. The same way his friend went all rabid wolverine on the bullies, he’d turned into a blur of flashing steel. His attack proved so chaotic that it completely occupied the Dark Wizard defending itself.
The inevitable critical fumble happened. Ashur slipped in a muddy patch, swinging wild over the wraith’s head and nearly falling over. Yzil laughed and reared back, arms poised to give Ashur the double-claw death strike. Roaring, Keith charged in and flung himself shield-first into Yzil’s chest, knocking it back and away from his friend. Painful cold chilled his arm, shoulder, and half his face, but claws swiped at empty air.
Ashur, white-faced, blinked. “Whoa. Thanks. Close one.”
“Yeah.” Keith rushed three steps forward, staying in Yzil’s face. He kept his shield out front, concentrating on defense. Hissing in anger, the wraith attacked, but its claws glanced off his shield and sword. After every strike, Yzil tried to dart around him, but Keith refused to let it past him. A nature-infused arrow struck the middle of the wraith’s chest. Yzil shuddered in agony and growled.
The Cursed Codex Page 27
