A gorefiend ducked under Lady Goodroom’s swinging crossbow and scrabbled across the floor. It stopped in front of Roger, who was frozen to the spot.
‘Peek-a-boo,’ said the gorefiend, grinning fiendishly. ‘I see you. Not playing?’
The gorefiend lunged with its horrible spear. Roger twisted to the side. The gorefiend’s spear went through the air and into the front of a chair. Roger, without thinking, raised the mallet and slammed it down on top of the creature’s head.
‘That was not very nice...’ said the gorefiend, sinking to the floor.
‘There’s too many,’ screamed Lady Goodroom, as she laid about her. ‘Tobias, shoot!’
The butler appeared next to Roger and worked the bolt on his rifle. He aimed at the snarling gorefiends in front of him, and then at the last moment turned – and shot Lord Goodroom in the back.
CHAPTER
Fifteen
The crack of the rifle made everyone stop fighting. Lord Goodroom gave a small shout, stumbled a few steps and fell face down on the floor.
‘Penrose!’ Lady Goodroom dropped her crossbow and knelt at her husband’s side. ‘Tobias! What have you done? You’ve shot Penrose by mistake!’
‘No mistake,’ said a voice from the patio.
A dwarf with a heavy cloak around his shoulders limped his way through the crowd of gorefiends. He had a battle-axe strapped to his back, and resting on his shoulder was a gleaming silver sword. Apart from his red eyes he looked remarkably like Moss. He stood over the body on the floor and stared at Lady Goodroom. ‘I have learned that you have in your possession the only artefact that could foil my plans,’ he said, then swung the Doomstone Sword from his shoulder and pointed it at Lord Goodroom’s neck. ‘Give me the hammer, if you want to save him. He might still be alive.’
‘B-but...’ stammered Lady Goodroom, looking at the dwarf. ‘I don’t understand. What—’
‘The hammer!’ yelled the dwarf, placing the tip of the sword against the back of Lord Goodroom’s neck. ‘Quick, or I’ll separate his head from his body.’
Lady Goodroom got to her feet, tears running down her face. She looked at the butler and shook her head. ‘Why?’
Tobias shrugged his massive shoulders. ‘Why? Why not? My master made generous offers to several of us, to report on the Watchers. Money, power, I’m going to be very rich now I have delivered his sworn enemy into my master’s hands.’
‘You dumpling-headed human,’ said Moss. ‘You believed promises from Leatherhead Barnstorm?’
‘I am a dwarf. I keep my promises,’ thundered Leatherhead. ‘He’ll be well rewarded, as will the others who watch the Watchers.’ He pointed at the butler. ‘But he will be my second in command for delivering you.’
‘You hear that, ladyship?’ said Tobias, closing the patio doors and turning the key. ‘I’ll have servants for a change.’
‘Slaves, more like,’ said Moss.
Tobias shrugged again. ‘Whatever. Slaves will be acceptable.’
‘Enough,’ screamed Leatherhead, still pointing the Doomstone Sword at the back of Penrose’s neck. ‘No more bluttering. Now, or he loses his head.’
‘All right! All right!’ Lady Goodroom moved through the gorefiends until she reached the picture of the duck.
‘Moss?’ hissed Roger, his eyes flitting from the gorefiends to Lady Goodroom.
There was no reply.
‘Moss!’ Roger looked at Moss.
The dwarf appeared to be holding his breath. His body was trembling and sweat was pouring down his face. As Roger watched, Moss tried to raise his sword. But his arm shook violently and his sword fell to the floor.
‘Moss!’ screamed Roger.
Moss blew out a huge puff of air. ‘I... can do... nothing,’ he gasped. His shoulders slumped and his arms flopped uselessly by his sides. ‘The Doomstone Sword is too powerful.’
Lady Goodroom swung the picture away from the wall and put her hand on the dial.
Tobias stepped forward and pressed the muzzle of the rifle to her head. ‘Be very careful or I’ll put a bullet through your brain.’
Lady Goodroom looked contemptuously at the butler as she turned the dial. She opened the safe, reached in and pulled out the hammer with the gold band.
Tobias snatched it from her. ‘Is it the one?’ he asked, passing the hammer to Leatherhead.
‘Yes,’ said Leatherhead, with a great sigh. He looked at Moss. ‘And now... for this poopnoddy, this trundletail, this mobard! I have waited a long time for this. My revenge shall be as sweet as tipsycake on the tongue.’
Moss stared back at Leatherhead. ‘I am not afraid. Do your worst, you whiteliver. You are lunar mad, I can see it in your eyes.’
‘Please, master,’ said one of the gorefiends. ‘May we kill them now in a slow and disgustingly painful way?’
Leatherhead nodded. ‘Yes, we’ll kill all of them. But MacFearsome must die slowly, and by my hand – in great agony.’ He pointed the Doomstone Sword at Roger. ‘For wounding me, the whifling dies first. Kill him now.’
The gorefiends lifted their spears and shuffled forward.
Roger looked at Moss. The dwarf was standing with his head lowered.
Roger bent down and snatched up a gorefiend’s spear lying at his feet. ‘Moss!’ he screamed. ‘Help!’
Moss looked up. His face was twisted with pain. ‘No!’ His clenched fists shook. ‘I cannot... fight... against the holder... of the...’
Roger crouched. He waved the spear from side to side as the gorefiends closed in. But it trembled in his grasp.
Suddenly there was a loud roaring noise from outside. A large shadow hurtled across the patio and the doors exploded as a gigantic claw with curved talons smashed into the room. Glass and splinters of wood sprayed over the packed gorefiends. A huge red shape, roaring and belching smoke, followed the claw.
Roger, torn between relief and terror, tried to make sense of what he was seeing. The red shape was a tractor and the claw was a large scoop-bucket fixed on the front. Sitting in the driver’s seat of the tractor was Maddie! She was steering one-handed and bellowing through a megaphone:
‘All aboard the gorefiend express!
‘Have your tickets ready!
‘Next stop – Splatterville!’
The tractor tore around the library, chasing down gorefiends and crushing furniture. The bucket on the front of the tractor was scooping up squealing gorefiends and then thumping down, mashing them flat. Tobias Undercut threw himself to one side as the machine thundered towards him.
Leatherhead Barnstorm, screaming with rage, dodged around the careering tractor and, swinging the Doomstone Sword from side to side, cut his way through the scurrying gorefiends. He reached the broken doors, stumbled through the wreckage and ran across the patio. Tobias Undercut lumbered after him.
The tractor spun round in a tight circle, narrowly missing Lord Goodroom, and turned to head after the fleeing butler. Lady Goodroom, ignoring the carnage around her, went to her husband and knelt down at his side. The scoop-bucket on the tractor then clipped a bookcase and demolished an ornately decorated table. Maddie tried to follow the fleeing Leatherhead Barnstorm, but missed the wrecked doors and punched a hole through the side of the library wall instead. The tractor juddered to a halt, half in and half out of the room. The surviving gorefiends scrambled over the rubble and fled squealing out of the doors.
Maddie jumped from the driver’s seat, threw down the megaphone, and ran to Lord Goodroom, shouting, ‘Uncle Pen! Are you OK?’
Roger started after Maddie, then stopped dead as he heard an ominous creaking followed by a loud groaning. He glanced up to see that the wall above the tractor was cracking. The crack zigzagged up the wall and across the ceiling. There was a loud rumble as a large chunk caved in, flattening the last of the gorefiends and smothering the tractor. The ceiling began to bulge.
With the Doomstone Sword gone, Moss was finally released from its
power. He shoved Roger out of the way just as the ceiling collapsed. Plaster poured down in a curtain of dust. A chunk of masonry hit Moss on the side of the head and he fell. He was immediately covered in the wreckage pouring down from the room above.
Roger tried to go to Moss, but a cast-iron bath bounced on the floor in front of him. He almost exploded with fright. A hand basin landed beside the bath and smashed in pieces across the floor. Water began to spray through the hole in the ceiling.
Roger could no longer see Mossbelly MacFearsome.
CHAPTER
Sixteen
Roger stood, shoulders hunched, hardly daring to move. He could see Lady Goodroom and Maddie were still kneeling beside the body of Lord Goodroom. They were untouched, apart from bits of plaster clinging to their hair and shoulders.
‘Moss!’ Roger pulled a set of bathroom scales from the top of the rubble and then tugged at a half-buried chair. It wouldn’t budge. He dug his hands into the wreckage and tried to free the chair.
‘Need help—’ Roger looked around, coughing as the dust caught the back of his throat. He stood up and took a few stumbling steps towards the others. He put out a hand and touched Maddie on the shoulder. ‘Is Lord Goodroom... all right?’ he asked.
Maddie pushed him away, crying.
‘Stop that, dear,’ said Lady Goodroom, squeezing Maddie’s arm. ‘That’s not doing any good. Help us, Roger. Help us turn him over. Just a little! I need to see if the bullet went straight through.’
Roger bent down. Carefully and gently they moved Lord Goodroom on to his side.
Lord Goodroom’s eyes fluttered open. He looked up at his wife. ‘Hello, old gal. What happened? Feel as though a mule kicked me. Did we lose? You’re looking a wee bit... dusty.’
‘You were shot, dear,’ said Lady Goodroom, wobbling furiously and dripping tears. ‘Our butler shot you. The man you befriended and gave a job to shot you in the back!’
‘By jingo,’ said Lord Goodroom. ‘The blackguard. Is it bad?’
‘Don’t know yet,’ said Lady Goodroom, gently pulling at the clothing around the wound. ‘I’ll know in a moment.’ She glanced at Roger. ‘Is Moss all right?’
‘I don’t think so,’ answered Roger, his voice choking. ‘He got hit really hard by a big lump of stone. I think he’s... gone!’
Just as Roger spoke, the pile of rubble moved. The chair was shoved away, then two hands emerged and started pushing the debris aside. A grey face and body appeared. It was Moss. He moaned and put his head in his hands.
‘Moss! You’re all right!’ Roger stumbled over to the dwarf. ‘Moss, are you... ? Can you... ?’
‘I am a little turngiddy,’ said Moss, taking his hands away and opening his eyes. ‘I am trying to take control of my brain – it departed from my head for a period of time.’
‘You were hit hard,’ said Roger. ‘You’ve got an awful lump. It looks terrible, like an egg.’
‘Dwarves have thick bone heads,’ said Moss, slowly getting to his feet with help from Roger. ‘And I’ve got better bone thickness than most.’ He took a few staggering steps towards Lady Goodroom. ‘How’s lordship?’
‘The bullet went straight through his right side just above his hip,’ said Lady Goodroom, without turning round. ‘It’s a flesh wound, and it’s bleeding. I’m going to put a coagulating spell on it – I’ve got the right herbs and potions in the kitchen. We’ll take him there.’
‘Can I assist?’ asked Moss, walking unsteadily over to where Lord Goodroom lay.
‘Help me lift him, if you can,’ said Lady Goodroom. ‘Please.’
Moss bent down, slid his forearms under Lord Goodroom and lifted him off the floor. With Lady Goodroom and Maddie hovering close by, Moss carried the wounded man out of the room.
Roger stood alone. He looked around at the devastation, sighed deeply and began to follow the others. He had only taken a few steps when a large piece of floorboard with a toilet pan and cistern attached to it dropped on the spot where he had just been standing. Roger looked up at the hole in the ceiling, and then down at the smashed porcelain strewn across the floor. He sighed again and followed them out.
CHAPTER
Seventeen
Roger found himself being shaken out of sleep. Someone was calling his name.
‘What?’ Roger opened his eyes. He was leaning on the kitchen table, his head resting on his arms. He looked up to see the faces of Lady Goodroom, Maddie and Mossbelly MacFearsome staring back. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to, I just fell asleep.’
‘It’s all right,’ said Lady Goodroom, sitting on a chair and pulling Maddie close to her. ‘It’s the tension of the whole thing.’
‘You will become accustomed,’ said Moss, also sitting. ‘More fights you have, stronger you become.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Maddie. ‘I’m not sleepy.’ She stifled a yawn. ‘Well, maybe a little. But I proved that I can fight, didn’t I?’
‘You were very brave,’ said Lady Goodroom, hugging Maddie. ‘Very, very brave, but also very foolish. You could have killed yourself.’
‘No I couldn’t,’ said Maddie. ‘I know how to drive a tractor. Bet you can’t drive one, Rog!’
‘How’s Lord Goodroom?’ asked Roger, ignoring what Maddie had just said.
‘He’s upstairs,’ said Lady Goodroom. ‘I’ve treated him and given him a potion so that he will sleep. It’s a rather nasty flesh wound...’ Her voice tailed off and she began to cry softly. ‘When I think that just a tiny bit more to the left and he would be...’
Maddie put her arms around her aunt. They held each other.
Moss stood up. ‘He’ll mend. Do not let a worryworm enter your head.’ His voice dropped. ‘Now we must plan.’
‘Plan what?’ asked Lady Goodroom. ‘There’s nothing we can do. They have the Doomstone Sword and the hammer.’
‘No,’ said Moss. ‘I, of course, have the true hammer.’ He put his right hand under his beard and pulled at the hammer strapped there.
‘But,’ said Lady Goodroom, ‘the one in the—’
‘A falsification!’ said Moss, waggling the hammer in his hand. ‘It was a red rabbit. We are not finished. We still have a chance to smash the Doomstone Sword.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Lady Goodroom, shaking her head.
‘This is the true hammer,’ said Moss. ‘The one they have is a false hammer with no power.’
‘You mean...’ Lady Goodroom hesitated. ‘You lied to us?’
‘Yes,’ said Moss, nodding. ‘You have the truth of it. A great cunning lie. Unfortunately my plan did not reach fruition, as I could not hand over the true hammer in time to do its work. They attacked too quickly.’
‘All that...’ spluttered Lady Goodroom, ‘stuff with me locking it up in the safe... lies?’
‘Of course,’ said Moss. ‘I did not become Captain of the Royal Guard by my skill in combat alone. I am a fox in cunning. I foresee eventualities and plan accordingly.’
‘Like when the gorefiends would attack us,’ muttered Roger, who was growing angrier by the minute.
Moss’s face darkened under the covering of dust.
Lady Goodroom held up a hand. ‘Explain please, Captain. Why you didn’t trust us, your friends?’
Moss glared at Roger for a moment before he continued. ‘If you had known about the hammer it would now be in the possession of Leatherhead Barnstorm. I hid the true hammer where everyone would have sight of it, and yet would never see it.’ He patted his beard and chest. ‘Only three were trusted with the real truth.’ He tapped the side of his nose, twice.
‘I trusted you!’ Roger shouted furiously, standing up. ‘You asked me to trust you!’
Moss stood. His face was like thunder. ‘What nonsense is this? You had the knowledge! As Destroyer you had to know the whereabouts of the true hammer. My Queen and you are the only ones who knew of the great cunning, apart from myself.’
‘What are you talking abou
t?’ screamed Roger. ‘How would I know about your great cunning? You’ve only just told us, just now!’
‘Have you left your brain in a wheelbarrow?’ Moss stepped closer to Roger and put his hand on his sword. ‘Or is this foul treachery?’
Roger moved closer to Moss and glared back at him. ‘You never told me about a false hammer.’
Moss thrust his face forward. His eyes were narrow slits. ‘I told you in the spinkie-den. We shared merry-go-down and laughed at my cunning in a most jocular manner.’
Roger leaned forward and looked down. ‘No – you – did – not.’
‘Yes – I – did.’ Moss’s face was almost touching Roger’s face. ‘I showed you the false hammer and gave you the two-nose tap, and let you into the great secret. I also gave you an eye-winker!’ Little flecks of spittle flew out of Moss’s mouth and landed on Roger. ‘You made a joke when I showed to you where the true hammer was hidden.’
‘What?’ Roger took a step backwards and waved a hand in front of his nose as the dwarf’s breath hit him in the face. ‘You didn’t tell me—’
‘Enough!’ Lady Goodroom placed herself in front of Moss. ‘Both of you! Remember why we are here and what is at stake. You’ve had problems communicating with each other. There are different ways of expressing things; it’s not always clear.’ She held up both hands. ‘But we are all on the same side. My husband is lying upstairs, gravely wounded.’ She stared hard at Moss for a moment. ‘We can discuss this later. Now sit down. Both. Sit!’
‘I’m sitting,’ yelled Maddie, pulling out a chair. ‘Look at me.’ She fussed about, wiping the chair in an exaggerated manner, then plumped herself down in a cloud of dust and looked around. ‘There, that’s what’s called sitting down – it’s dead easy. What are we going to do now? Anything sensible? Or are we just going to carry on doing crazy stuff? I don’t mind.’
There was silence for a few moments. Roger sat down. Moss also sat down, his nose barely peeping over the table.
Mossbelly MacFearsome and the Dwarves of Doom Page 8
