by Dean Lorey
He smiled confidently at Brooke.
“Wait a minute,” Violet said, glancing between them. “Are you saying we’ll do it because you want to impress her?”
Charlie flushed with embarrassment. “What? No! How can you even suggest that…”
“You are, aren’t you? You’re red as a beet!”
“Stop it!”
“Unbelievable. Seriously.”
Charlie wished he could find a deep hole and bury himself in it. How could Violet accuse him of such a thing? There was no way he was doing this just to impress a girl!
Was there?
“Do you accept the task?” the Headmaster asked.
“Yes,” Charlie said defiantly, then glanced at his friends. “Right?”
“You’re the boss,” Theodore replied quickly. “If you need me, I’m there, mon frère—that’s French for ‘my brother.’”
“Gotcha,” Charlie said, then turned to Brooke. “So, you in?”
She gave him a quick smile. “Sure.”
“Great!” He looked at Violet. “C’mon, Violet…please? I really need you. We all do.”
She stared at him for a moment, then nodded grudgingly. “Okay.”
“Good,” the Headmaster said. “I’ll walk you far enough away from the Anomaly so that you can portal out, and I’ll keep the monsters off you while you do.”
She strode away through the graveyard of wrecked ships. Charlie took one last look at the Guardian—so small, so fragile, so needy—then followed.
They walked in silence. The broken bodies of the ancient boats loomed around them like the ghosts of giants.
“There are likely more children stranded in the Nether,” the Headmaster said after a time. “Keep an eye out for them. Rescue them if you can.”
“We will,” Charlie replied.
“But, above all, fulfill your mission. Nothing is as important. Nothing. Or I wouldn’t have asked you to risk your lives.”
She seemed gravely serious.
Soon, they left the protection of the Guardian’s aura and headed toward the forest of razor-sharp, mustard-colored crystals that made up the rest of the 5th Ring. There was movement in them—shadowy things, dark and deadly.
“A few more yards, and you should be able to portal,” the Headmaster said. She glanced disdainfully at Charlie’s bent rapier and Violet’s pitted dagger. “When you get to the Academy, outfit yourselves with new equipment. Those are Noob weapons.”
“Does that mean we’re Addys now?” Violet asked expectantly.
“Of course you are. Do you really think I’d send mere Noobs on a mission this dangerous?”
“Yes!” Theodore shouted, then turned to Charlie and raised his hand for a high-five. “Don’t leave me hanging.”
“Never.” Charlie clapped him on the hand, all the while thinking that Pinch wasn’t going to like their promotion very much.
“By the way,” the Headmaster said, “would you please give a message from me to Mr. Pinch?” Charlie thought it was eerie how she almost seemed to read his mind.
“Sure.”
“Please tell him he’s no longer in charge of the Academy in my absence—that task now falls to Housemistress Rose. I want him to accompany you back to the Nether. I believe you’ll find his experience…invaluable.”
Charlie, Theodore, Brooke, and Violet glanced at one another unhappily.
“Yeah, right,” Theodore muttered.
The Headmaster pretended she didn’t hear.
Just then, a horrible shrieking filled the air, and Charlie clamped his hands over his ears—his eardrums felt like balloons filled to bursting. A hurricane-force wind blew down from the sky, and they all looked up to see a golden streak hurtling toward them from out of the swirling red pillar of the Inner Circle.
Charlie had seen that golden flash once before—in the crumbling manor of the Hags.
“Tyrannus,” he said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
TYRANNUS THE DEMENTED
The enormous golden bat plummeted from the sky with the force of a tornado and slammed into the ground hard enough to shatter the massive crystals beneath its scaly feet. Its wingspan was gigantic—the width of a jumbo jet—and the slightest flutter from one of those wings was enough to knock down an elephant. It stared at the group with its wild, red eyes as it picked the remains of an Acidspitter from between pointy teeth with a claw that protruded from its wings. Around the bony finger, Charlie could see a ring, glittering blackly, with many carved images that issued red firelight.
That’s one of the Artifacts of the Nether, he realized.
“GREETINGS and many great hellos!” the giant creature shrieked, bouncing up and down fifty yards from them, trampling several Nethercreatures that didn’t move away quickly enough. “Welcome to this humble spot in the Nether. I am Tyrannus and it’s a great pleasure to eat you!”
“Really?” the Headmaster shouted back. “If you’re interested in eating us, why don’t you come over here and do it?”
“Yum, yum—would be FUN!” Tyrannus said with a cackle. “But it’s just so hard. The distance may be short, but the pain is loooong.”
“Oh, you must mean from the Guardian’s aura?” the Headmaster replied. “I forgot how horribly it affects you. I just hate that you can’t go everywhere in the Nether that you’d like.”
“Soon!” the great beast shouted cheerfully. “Soon the Guardian will be DEAD and I’ll paint the ground RED with blood from…”
The Named creature suddenly stopped and cocked its head to the side, thinking.
“Your head?” Theodore offered. “That would rhyme. Paint the ground red with blood from your head? How about that?”
Charlie turned to him. “Are you crazy? Let the monster figure out its own rhymes, will ya?”
“Right,” Theodore said, quickly nodding. “Sometimes I get a little caught up.”
“I couldn’t quite HEAR that,” Tyrannus roared. “Could you come a little closer, child, and whisper your rhyme in my ear…just so we’re clear?”
“I think I’ll pass,” Theodore shouted back. “Or you’ll knock me on my—”
“Mr. Dagget!” the Headmaster thundered, cutting him off. “Will you please let me handle this?”
“Right,” Theodore said. “Definitely.”
“What do you want, Tyrannus?” the Headmaster yelled to the creature. “We are busy people and don’t have time to waste with you.”
“To waste time suggests that there’s a proper way to use time. I, personally, like to exercise my wings, eat the flesh of the innocent, and dance to the rhythm of the music in my head!”
The Named creature did a little jig. It shook the Nether like an earthquake.
Oh my God, Charlie thought. He’s insane!
The Headmaster, seeing the realization in Charlie’s eyes, shot him a look that said, quite clearly, Be quiet.
“Yes, we all like to dance a jig, now and again,” she said, turning back to the great beast. “Is there some way we can help you?”
“Yes. I’d like to eat you.”
“We can’t allow that, I’m afraid. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. I have the bones of an Acidspitter stuck between my teeth. Would you kindly climb inside my mouth and yank them out?”
“I would, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might just be a clever ruse to eat us.”
“Oh, you’re TRICKY,” Tyrannus roared with a sly grin. “Can’t fool you! You’re too sharp for old Tyrannus—sharp like a Hydra’s tooth!”
“What is it you want?” the Headmaster asked, the playful tone now gone from her voice. “We have much to do.”
“Oh, I know,” Tyrannus replied. He suddenly became quite serious. “The Guardian is dying and you wish to save it. I, on the other hand, want that foul little beast dead. Therefore, I cannot permit you to leave.”
“How, exactly, do you plan to stop us?”
“By killing you, of course. If you get far enough away from the
Anomaly to portal out, you’ll also be out of range of the Guardian’s protection—and then I’ll eat you.”
He gave them a jolly wink.
“So, it’s a standoff?” the Headmaster said.
“Only until the Guardian dies, and then it will be a ‘head off,’ as in I’ll rip your heads off.” Tyrannus smiled pleasantly. “So…how shall we pass the time?”
The Headmaster turned to Charlie and whispered, “I’m about to do something and when I do, I want the rest of you to run out of range of the Anomaly and portal away.”
“How will we know when it’s time?”
The Headmaster’s eyes twinkled. “Oh, you’ll know. Now…get ready for the wetwash.”
Suddenly, she ran forward, unprotected, straight at Tyrannus.
The reaction from the Named beast was instant.
The great creature rose up to his full height and fanned out his wings. From this close, their size was staggering. He let out a screech that dropped Charlie to his knees, but the Headmaster didn’t falter. She continued to run toward the monster—looking, for all the world, like a mouse attacking a lion.
She’s gonna die, Charlie thought. There’s no way she can survive this.
Tyrannus rushed toward her. A heartbeat before they made contact, the Headmaster waved her hand, and a giant portal snapped open between them. Ocean water roared out of it with such force that it knocked Tyrannus backward, causing him to tumble end over end in a tangle of wings, washing away the Class-5 creatures that tried to come to his aid.
She opened a portal to the middle of Earth’s ocean, Charlie realized. Now he understood what the term “wetwash” meant: It was a last resort, designed to clear away everything when the odds were too long and escape was the only thing that mattered.
“Come on!” he shouted to his friends. “Let’s do it!”
They all ran toward Tyrannus, trying to get out of range of the Anomaly as the Named beast struggled to regain its footing. Every instinct in Charlie told him to run away from the deadly creature, not at it, but he knew that the chance the Headmaster had given them was the only chance they were likely to get.
As he ran, he extended his right hand, closed his eyes, and tried to open a portal. Usually it was easy, but not this close to the Anomaly. He could feel its alien power smothering him like a wet blanket on an ember. He focused harder, trying desperately to access his personal fear: the dread of being an outcast, alone in a world that despised him.
I’ve led my friends into danger for nothing, he thought. And why? To impress a girl? How could I be so stupid? They’re gonna die because of me, and then I’ll be left here, all alone….
Alone.
To Charlie’s great relief, that ember of fear started to grow into a brightly burning flame. As he ran toward Tyrannus, he could feel the power of the Anomaly begin to lessen, and moments later he opened a portal back to the Nightmare Academy.
“You did it!” Brooke yelled and Charlie flushed again with embarrassment—embarrassed that she had singled him out like that and embarrassed that it meant so much to him that she did.
With one flap of his giant wings, Tyrannus rose into the air above the powerful stream of water from the Headmaster’s portal, then dived at Charlie and his friends with a hideous, brain-melting screech…but by the time he got to them, they were gone.
They had returned to the Nightmare Academy.
The armory of the Nightmare Academy was located in the large hold of an iron frigate near the base of the banyan tree, where the branches were thicker and could support the massive weight of the metal ship. Charlie and Violet inspected the many rows of weapons that were hung on hooks under a sign marked ADDY GEAR.
“They’re all definitely nicer than the Noob weapons,” Charlie said. “But I still kind of like my rapier.”
He swished it deftly through the air to make his point.
“I hear you,” Violet said. “I still like Bun-Bun—he’s my stuffed bunny from when I was a little girl—but sometimes you have to know when it’s time to say good-bye, you know? How would that little rapier protect you against something like Tyrannus?”
“How would anything protect us against a monster like him?”
“Let’s go!” a stern voice behind them commanded. “This is just an upgrade. It ain’t like you gotta marry it.”
Charlie was happy to hear the rough but somehow welcoming sound of Mama Rose’s voice. She was a large woman, pink-cheeked and strong, and she gave off an aura of comfort like the smell of home-baked chocolate-chip cookies.
Mama Rose turned to Violet. “Go on. Look around, girlie, and find one that speaks to you.”
Violet looked over the many spears and maces and swords that were precisely mounted on the iron wall. In a way, it reminded Charlie of how his dad used to hang tools in the garage. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
“That one,” she said, pointing. It was a one-handed ax with a double-sided blade as long as her forearm, and a handle made of ash.
Mama Rose grinned. “It’s talking to ya, ain’t it?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Then take it.”
Violet lifted the weapon from its hook. Holding it easily in her right hand, she gave the ax a few casual swipes through the air.
“Wow—it feels light but strong.”
“A big step up from that puny little dagger, huh, girlie?”
“Absolutely! It makes me feel powerful just holding it.”
“That’s how a Banisher should feel.”
“I don’t know why I can’t pick out a weapon,” Theodore moaned. He had been standing in the corner, pouting. “Sure, maybe I wouldn’t be a hundred percent as good as Violet and Charlie, but I know how to handle one. I come from a long line of Banishers, you know.”
“That so?” Mama Rose said mildly, then turned to Violet. “Why don’t you give him yours?”
“My new ax?”
“Sure. Hand it over to him. He said he can handle it.”
“Fine,” Violet said, clearly reluctant, but she did as Mama Rose told her.
“Come to Daddy!” Theodore said gleefully, wrapping his fist around the ax handle—but the second Violet let go of it, the weapon clanged to the ground with the force of an anvil.
Mama Rose laughed, long and loud.
“Good grief!” Theodore shouted. “It’s so heavy! How can you even lift it?”
“I don’t know,” Violet said with a shrug. “It doesn’t feel heavy to me.”
“Because you’re a Banisher, girlie!” Mama Rose said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to feel to you.” She turned to Theodore. “And when are you gonna stop tryin’ to be something you’re not, little mister?”
Theodore, embarrassed and angry, stomped out of the armory without saying a word.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Charlie said. “You really hurt his feelings.”
Mama Rose swiveled her large head toward him. The look in her eye made Charlie wish he’d never said a word. “Now, you listen to me, Charlie Benjamin, and you listen good. You ain’t doing that boy any favors by coddlin’ him and tellin’ him he’s something he’s not. He can either be a great Nethermancer or a crappy Banisher. It may not seem like it now, but that can make the difference between him being a hero and him being dead. You wanna be responsible for that?”
“No, ma’am,” Charlie said quietly.
“Then grow up.”
Grow up. The two words hung in the air like a poisonous cloud.
Desperate to escape it, Charlie turned back to the wall of weapons and searched for something to replace his rapier. After a moment, he spotted just the thing.
“Another rapier?” Violet said in disbelief as Charlie took down the shiny new sword. It cut through the air with a satisfying swish.
“Well, if it ain’t broke…”
“There’s our new little Addy,” a voice behind them said. Charlie turned to see Pinch approach. “I see it didn’t take you long to go over my head to get precisely
what you wanted.”
Oh boy, Charlie thought. Here it comes.
“The Headmaster told us to upgrade our weapons,” Violet replied, stepping in front of Charlie. “That’s why she made us Addys. We didn’t ask her to do it.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Pinch said wryly. “You’re completely innocent, just like every convict in every penitentiary—not guilty to the very last man. So, Theodore tells me we have a little adventure ahead of us, led by young master Benjamin.”
“The Headmaster wanted you to join us in our quest to get Hydra milk,” Charlie said, “because of your knowledge of the Nether.”
“Yes, my knowledge is vast and deep, just like the ocean of the 4th Ring—which is, coincidentally, exactly where we are headed. Shall we go?”
Charlie, Pinch, Theodore, and Violet assembled on the deck of the pirate ship to prepare for their return to the Nether.
“I may have to open a couple of portals to find the 4th Ring,” Charlie said. “It could take a bit of trial and error because I’ve never portaled there before.”
“Well, I have,” Theodore said cheerfully.
They all stared at him in disbelief.
“What? Okay, yes, it was a mistake and yes, I almost got eaten—but you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right?”
“Sounds like you broke the whole carton,” Violet said with a grin.
“Ha-ha. Good news is, I can get us back there—no worries.”
Amazingly, he was already over his anger about Mama Rose’s comment. Charlie was astonished at how easily Theodore changed his moods. Emotions for him were like a storm that crept up without warning and blew away just as quickly.
“Hey, sorry I’m late!”
They turned to see Brooke arriving in a dinghy. She had changed clothes and brushed her hair. Every time Charlie thought she’d gotten as pretty as she could get, she surprised him by looking even prettier.
