by Dean Lorey
Charlie’s mind flashed to the last time he’d seen the two Named. As a result of his trickery, the giant beasts fought furiously with each other in their lair underneath Krakatoa. They tore each other apart so completely that Charlie wasn’t even sure they could have survived.
“Who knows?” Rex continued. “Maybe one of those bad boys is already dead and our job’s done for us. Point is, we gotta make sure, and we gotta do it now while we still got the upper hand.” He turned to William. “You know I can’t stand you, Big Bill—but on this one, I’m with you.”
“Thank you, Banisher Henderson,” the General replied. “Ladies and gentlemen, prepare for combat.”
Just over an hour later, forty Banishers and Nethermancers were assembled on the barren plains of the 1st Ring of the Nether. Never before had there been such a collection of skill and ability focused on a single purpose. As William walked among them, surveying their preparations, he noticed Charlie, Violet, and Theodore.
“What are the children doing here? This is no place for them.”
“I asked Charlie to join us,” Rex said, walking up. “He’s portaled to the lair of the Named more than anyone else here, which means he’s got the best chance of portaling us back there cleanly.”
“Fine. But that doesn’t explain why the other two are here,” He nodded to Theodore and Violet. “The boy and the girl.”
The boy, Charlie thought wryly. Don’t you mean “my son”?
“Someone’s got to protect Charlie!” Theodore exclaimed. “And that someone is me! If Charlie goes, so do I—that’s TNN, Totally non-negotiable!”
“Really?” William allowed a hint of a smile to escape. “But you’re just a Nethermancer. Wouldn’t he be better off under the protection of a Banisher?”
“That’s why I’m here,” Violet said, stepping forward. “Theodore and I will keep Charlie safe while the rest of you fight.”
“I see. The Three Musketeers, is it?”
Charlie, Violet, and Theodore nodded.
“So be it.” William turned to Rex. “You’ve had some experience with Barakkas and Verminion before. What do you expect we’ll find when Charlie opens the portal?”
“Well, I can’t tell you which Named is gonna be closest, but if we’re facing off against Verminion, I’d say go for the neck—you’ll never get through his shell. If we’re looking at Barakkas, aim for the heart and, for the love of God, watch those horns of his unless you feel like bein’ a shish kebab.”
There was a smattering of grim laughter.
“Whoever we tackle,” Rex continued, “we gotta do it hard and we gotta do it fast before the whole dang army of the Nether comes down on top of us.”
“Thank you,” William said. “I’ll take over now, if you don’t mind.” He turned from Rex and addressed the crowd. “Nethermancers, I will want a portal barricade around the Banishers to catch the reinforcements as new monsters swarm in from the tunnels. And Nethermancer Greenstreet—”
William glanced over at Tabitha. She seemed surprised to have been singled out.
“Yes?”
“If it looks like a wipe, you’re in charge of the wetwash.”
“Will do.”
Portal barricade? Wetwash? Charlie had no idea what William was talking about. He felt desperately out of his league.
“All right then,” William said. “Banishers, check your gear.”
There was a tremendous sound of clanging steel as the many Banishers inspected their weaponry. Shiny axes, gleaming maces, and a dozen varieties of swords glowed fiery blue in the vast wasteland of the Nether.
“Everyone good?”
There were nods of assent.
“Then let’s do this. Charlie?”
“Yes, sir,” Charlie replied.
“Open the portal.”
Charlie nodded. He was so nervous that his mouth had gone as dry as sandpaper.
“Hey, kid,” Rex whispered, “if you get in trouble, you just give a shout and I’ll come runnin’, got me?”
“Will do,” Charlie said. He closed his eyes and opened a portal to Verminion’s lair underneath Krakatoa.
The elite Banishers and Nethermancers of the Nightmare Division rushed through the portal into the gargantuan cavern with a furious battle cry. Heat washed over Charlie and his friends like a tidal wave, emanating from the many glowing pools of bubbling lava that cast hazy, uncertain light across the twisted rock formations that had formed in the vast emptiness over centuries.
Charlie’s heart thudded crazily in his chest as they all raced through the lair, expecting to be attacked by hundreds of monsters at any second. Charlie looked around frantically for signs of Verminion…or Barakkas…or anything.
But the cavern was empty.
The two Named, along with their army, were gone.
“You’re kidding me,” Rex said, glancing around at the vacant chamber that surrounded them.
“They were here,” Charlie said, staring in amazement. “I opened a portal to the right place, honest.”
“We know, kid,” Rex replied. “But it looks like they’ve moved on. They’re already one step ahead of us.”
Just then, a clatter of falling stone came from behind them. They spun to see a Class-4 Netherstalker scuttling into the cavern on its eight spider legs, seemingly unaware of the massive intrusion.
“Get it!” William yelled, and the horde of Banishers raced toward the lone creature.
It tried to escape, but the squad quickly subdued it. William drew his two-handed sword and held the brightly burning blade against the writhing creature’s neck. It sizzled.
“Where have they gone?” he demanded.
The Netherstalker hissed at him, and William leaned on the blade hard enough to cut through its carapace and draw a line of flowing black ichor. “You tell me, monster, or you’ll experience pain you can’t imagine.”
“Wait!” Charlie yelled. The adults turned to him. “Don’t hurt it. There’s a better way.”
Charlie led Professor Xixclix into the volcanic lair through a new portal.
“Greetings,” the friendly Netherstalker said to the raid party, cleaning a spiderlike foreleg with his bristly tongue. “Charlie tells me you’ve found another of my kind.”
“He’s right over there,” Charlie said, pointing to the captured Netherstalker. “Can you talk to him? We need to find out where Verminion and Barakkas went.”
“Shouldn’t be too difficult,” Xix replied. “He’s only a Class 4. Having just acquired Class-5 status myself, I shouldn’t have much trouble getting him to crack.”
Charlie was amused to discover a hint of pride in the beast’s voice.
Xix scuttled over to the kidnapped Netherstalker and began to speak to him in their own tongue: hisses and clicks and the occasional spitting sound. It was the first time Charlie had seen Xix among his own kind. He had grown so used to seeing the creature in his normal role as the Academy’s Beastmaster that he’d almost forgotten he wasn’t human—although it was hard to look at the large, spiderlike beast with the barbed hairs on his spindly legs and the streaked violet pattern on his shiny black back and think he was anything other than a monster.
“So…you been okay?” William asked Theodore as the creatures conversed. Charlie was surprised by the question—nothing about William’s previous attitude suggested he was even remotely interested in his son.
“Great!” Theodore answered, clearly as shocked by the question as Charlie. “I really love the Academy!”
“He’s one of the best Nethermancers there,” Violet added.
“Definitely,” Charlie said.
William glanced at the three of them, then turned to Theodore. “It was a good thing you did, insisting on coming here to help your friend. I like that.”
Theodore looked utterly astonished. “Well…thanks!” He broke out in a wide, crooked grin.
Just then, Xix stepped nimbly over to them, having finished talking to the captured creature.
“Well?” William asked.
“He doesn’t know much,” Xix replied. “But he does know that they’ve relocated the lair to the ‘Frozen Wastes,’ wherever that is. His job was to stay behind and flood the old lair with lava to erase all evidence of their ever having been here.”
“Sounds like he drew the short straw,” Rex said.
“So what do they want?” Charlie asked. “Barakkas and Verminion, I mean? What are they trying to do?”
But before Xix could ask the captured creature, it answered on its own—
“Kill…everyone…”
The assembled Banishers and Nethermancers glanced uneasily at one another.
“We gotta find ’em,” Rex said. “Wherever they are, we gotta hunt down those Named and kill one of ’em, and we can’t stop until we do.”
Charlie’s stomach felt sour. Killing one of the Named was a nearly impossible task to begin with, but now they didn’t even know where Barakkas and Verminion were. Already they had suffered a serious defeat—and they hadn’t even begun to fight. In time, it was possible they could discover the location of the new lair, but was there enough time?
It’s all up to the Headmaster now, Charlie thought.
He hoped she’d found the Guardian alive.
He hoped she’d be able to keep it that way.
He hoped it wasn’t too late.
PART II
THE GUARDIAN
CHAPTER SIX
INTO THE DEPTHS
The Nightmare Academy was always a welcome sight—those massive wrecked ships sitting on the branches of the world’s most gigantic banyan tree never failed to leave Charlie awestruck—but this time he was so upset that he barely gave it a glance.
“What’s wrong, Charlie?” Violet asked as she finished the last of the mango she was having for lunch. “We haven’t even been back a whole day, and you look like an Ectobog swallowed your mother.”
“What’s wrong?” he snapped. “What’s not wrong! Rex and Tabitha are trying to find Verminion’s new lair on Earth; the Headmaster is in the Nether, trying to help the Guardian…”
“So?”
“So we’re stuck here doing nothing!”
“Aha!” Violet exclaimed. “You’re just angry that we’re out of the action. Relax. Our part in this is done. We’re just Noobs.”
“Addys,” Theodore quickly corrected her. “I don’t care what Pinch said. We still have to get a ruling from the Headmaster on that when she gets back.”
“Well, my point is that serious stuff is going on and it’s no longer our responsibility.”
“You’re right.” Charlie sighed. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t help in some way.”
Frustrated, he leaned against the railing of the pirate ship and stared out at the ocean beyond.
“Hey, guys.”
Charlie turned to see Brooke, with her blond hair and blue eyes, rise up through a veil of leaves like some kind of angel ascending. She stepped off the elevatorlike dinghy that carried her there and walked toward them with a flawless smile.
“Hey, Brooke!” Charlie and Theodore chirped at the same time.
Violet rolled her eyes. Yes, Brooke was older and taller and beautiful, but really!
“So what’s going on?” Brooke asked.
“Major, major stuff,” Theodore replied, “but Charlie’s mad because he’s not part of it.”
Charlie glared at him.
“I mean, we’re all mad about that,” Theodore quickly added. “Not just Charlie—I didn’t mean to single him out like he’s some kind of pouty preschooler or something.”
“That’s exactly what he is,” a familiar voice said.
Charlie glanced over to see Geoff—Brooke’s big, blond boyfriend—walking up behind her with a snide look. It pained Charlie that the boy only seemed to grow more handsome with age: He was sixteen but looked twenty.
“After all,” Geoff continued, “you’re all still just Noobs. Everyone knows you failed your final.”
“We did not fail it!” Theodore shot back. “The Headmaster hasn’t given us a ruling, so the jury’s still out.”
“That’s not the only thing that’s out. You’re out—of your mind!” Geoff snorted with laughter and looked to Brooke for approval.
“Why don’t you go and find something to do that doesn’t involve me?” she replied coolly.
Charlie wanted to cheer but tactfully looked away. Theodore, however, went ahead and cheered.
“Shut it!” Geoff roared, raising his fist.
Theodore raised his fist back at the much larger boy. Then, using his thumb and forefinger like a puppet mouth, he said “I love you!” in a squeaky falsetto and kissed Geoff’s fist with his own.
Geoff stared at him, dumbfounded, then turned to Brooke. “These are the people you wanna hang with?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, if you get tired of playing kindergarten, you come see me.” He stomped across the deck to a waiting dinghy and dropped quickly out of sight.
“Boys…,” Brooke said to Violet with a dramatic sigh as if they were both battle-hardened veterans of the dating game. “They follow you around like gum on your shoe and get so upset when you scrape them off.”
“I don’t chew gum,” Violet replied curtly.
“Meow!” Theodore exclaimed. “Kitty likes to scratch! Rawwwr!” He raked the air in front of Violet with a pretend claw.
“I think I’m done here,” Violet huffed, turning to go.
“Wait!” Brooke called after her.
Charlie knew that Violet had never much liked Brooke—couldn’t stand her, actually—because of the older girl’s supposed snottiness. But Charlie also knew from his time fighting beside Brooke in Verminion’s lair that her superior attitude was really hiding a terrible insecurity.
“You can’t leave yet,” Brooke continued. “I have a message for you from the Headmaster. For all of you, actually.”
“When did you see the Headmaster?” Violet asked, turning back, suddenly interested.
“Yesterday. She talked to me just before she headed into the Nether.”
Must have been right after she left us with the Hag Queen, Charlie realized. “What did she say?”
“She said that if she didn’t return by noon today, the four of us should go and meet her in the Nether.”
“But she was going to the Guardian,” Charlie exclaimed. “I don’t have a clue where in the Nether it is!”
Brooke shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, really. You can’t portal directly to the Guardian anyway. You can only portal near it into an area that’s superdangerous. The Headmaster can handle herself there, but it’s too tough for us. That’s why we have to use the Guardian boat.”
The three friends exchanged glances.
“What’s the Guardian boat?” Charlie asked.
The Guardian boat was hidden under the leaves of a banana tree in a rocky cove farther south on the island than Charlie and his friends had ever ventured.
“Look at this thing!” Theodore exclaimed as they climbed inside the small craft. About the size of a speedboat, it had six seats, each with a steel safety restraint. The bar came down over the shoulders and across the chest. Theodore enthusiastically latched himself in. “Check it out! It’s like the kind of thing you see on one of those upside-down rollercoasters.”
“That’s disturbing,” Violet remarked. “Why would it need that?”
While Theodore messed around with the restraint, Charlie inspected the captain’s chair. There were remarkably few controls on the dashboard in front of it: an ignition switch, a throttle for controlling the boat’s speed, a steering wheel, a simple compass for telling direction, and a red button with the words WARNING: USE ONLY DURING FREEFALL etched below it.
“Freefall?” Charlie said. “What’s that for?”
Brooke shrugged. “Don’t know. All I know is you’re supposed to head into the ocean and somehow the boat gets you there.”
“Somehow the boat ge
ts you there?” Violet asked dubiously. “You mean you just—poof!—magically end up near the Guardian?”
“Well, that’s what the Headmaster said,” Brooke replied, a little defensively. “Obviously, I’ve never done it.”
“Great,” Violet moaned. “That’s comforting. We have no idea how this thing is even supposed to work!”
“Aside from that red button and the weird seatbelts,” Charlie said, “it basically looks pretty much like a regular boat. We just need someone to steer it out of the cove and not smash us up on the rocks.”
“I’ll do it,” Theodore said. “I’m great at steering boats!”
“Really?” Charlie asked. “Have you ever steered one before?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know you’re great at it?”
“Have you even met me?” Theodore replied. “This is the kind of thing I’m just naturally good at—duh.” He unlatched the over-the-shoulder harness and stood up, but Violet pushed him back down.
“I’ll pilot it,” she said, sitting in the captain’s chair. “My family used to have a boat. Buckle up.”
Charlie, Brooke, and Theodore did as they were told. Violet turned on the ignition, moved the throttle forward, and gently guided the small craft through the rocks and out of the cove.
“Hey, you’re pretty good at this,” Charlie said, admiring her skill.
“A girl’s gotta be prepared.”
The day was warm, the air was clear, and in spite of the danger and uncertainty of their mission, Charlie felt his spirits rise as they left the island behind them and sailed out into the welcoming arms of the open ocean.
The catastrophe started out small.
Twenty miles offshore, their compass needle, which had been pointing them steadily, reliably north, suddenly spun to the south, then east, then back south again.
“Weird,” Violet said, watching it as it jittered uncertainly.
“Something wrong?” Charlie asked.
