by Dean Lorey
“It’s a long story.”
“I would expect it is.”
“Well, that’s that,” Pinch said, running a hand wearily across his boyish face. Charlie still couldn’t get used to the fact that he now looked like a thirteen-year-old. “We’ve lost him.”
“No, actually, we haven’t.”
They turned to see Theodore standing next to his still-open portal.
“What do you mean, Mr. Dagget?” the Headmaster asked, walking over.
“Well, just before Slagguron left, when he was lying there all crippled, I opened this portal.”
Charlie looked through it and was surprised to see a familiar sight: his equipment closet on the 1st ring of the Nether. “Hey, that’s where I keep all my Banishing gear!”
Theodore nodded. “I remembered. You had the battery in there for attracting Gremlins, and some spare rapiers, and I also noticed that you had a handful of interesting little things on the top shelf.”
He held up a small, metal object.
“A tracking device,” Charlie said.
“Yup. I attached one of them to Slagguron’s belt just before he left.” Theodore smiled so widely that Charlie was afraid his head would split in two. “Go on, tell me I’m a supergenius.”
“You, sir, are a super-duper genius.”
“Yes, that’s quite clever,” the Headmaster agreed. “I commend you on your quick thinking, Mr. Dagget. As always, we are now facing a mixture of good and bad. Slagguron has escaped to Earth, which is quite clearly bad; but he will now possibly lead us to the new lair of Barakkas and Verminion, which is potentially quite good. Also, as a result of your extraordinary efforts to get the Hydra milk to save the Guardian, Tyrannus remains stranded in the Nether—again, very good. All in all, well done.”
Charlie, Theodore, and Violet beamed.
“So what now?” Pinch asked. “What’s our next step?”
“Tyrannus may be in the Nether for the moment,” the Headmaster replied, “but there is no way to guarantee that he won’t find another means of crossing over to Earth sometime in the future. If that happens, the Four Named will most certainly summon the Fifth, which is something that we absolutely cannot allow. Our path is quite clear. It’s all or nothing now—we must fight to the last man.”
She turned to face the ocean, her dress blowing in the warm breeze.
“One of the Named must die.”
PART III
THE NAMED
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
PLAN OF ATTACK
The sails on the pirate ship at the very top of the Nightmare Academy snapped in the breeze, distracting Violet. She was concentrating furiously, trying to draw a dragon while workmen from the Division did their best to repair the massive damage from Slagguron.
The drawing wasn’t going well.
She used to be able to see the images in her mind as clearly as a photograph, which made the act of sketching a simple question of transferring them to paper. But the pictures weren’t coming to her clearly now, as if she were seeing them through a milky haze.
“How’s it going?” Brooke asked, walking up to her.
“It’s going,” Violet said, unhappy with the interruption.
“I just wanted to say you were amazing before—attacking Slagguron like that. It was like watching a seriously experienced Banisher. Better, actually. I’ve never seen anyone do anything like that.”
“Thanks. And thanks for grabbing me like you did. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”
Brooke shrugged. “Right place, right time, that’s all.” She flipped her silken hair away from her eyes.
“Well, thanks again.” Violet went back to concentrating on her drawing, praying that Brooke would get the message and move on.
She didn’t.
“Why do you hate me so much?” Brooke asked finally.
Violet looked up at her. “What?”
“Look, I get that I’m not the most wonderful person in the world—in fact, I know I can be annoying at times.”
“Just annoying?”
“Okay, seriously annoying. Probably even worse than that. And I know we got off on the wrong foot when I first met you guys here at the Academy.”
“You think?”
Brooke and Geoff’s constant attacks on Charlie and the rest of them were still fresh in Violet’s mind, even though they had happened over six long months ago.
“I’m just saying,” Brooke continued, “—geez, you really make this hard—I’m just saying that I know I was a pain before but I’ve tried my best to change. I’ve worked hard at being nice to you. I just want to be your friend.”
“Why?”
Brooke seemed genuinely surprised by the question. “Well…I don’t know. For the reason anyone wants to be someone’s friend, I guess.”
“Yes, but why?”
“Because I like you and I thought we might get along.”
Violet shook her head. “That’s not it. The reason is that you want to be near Charlie Benjamin.”
“You’re crazy—he’s thirteen and I’m nearly sixteen!”
“He’s also a Double-Threat: the most powerful kid here. Everyone knows it. You just want to be close to him, and you want to be friends with me because I’m friends with Charlie.”
Violet went back to her sketch. It was truly looking terrible.
“That’s so mean,” Brooke said, her eyes starting to fill with tears.
“And you can save the tears. As well as the little blond hair flip and the fake pouting. None of that stuff works on me.”
“It’s not fake!” Brooke snapped back. Violet could feel the older girl’s eyes on her but resisted the urge to meet them. “Never mind.” Brooke turned to go…but instead of walking off, she just stopped and stood there. “I used to be able to portal,” she said finally. “I was pretty good at it, too—but I lost the Gift and now all I can do is watch everyone around me use theirs and try to find some way to be a part of that.”
“You got the Gift back, remember?” Violet looked up at her. “When you and Charlie were facing off with Barakkas in his lair? You opened a portal and saved both of you.”
“But it didn’t last. It went away again.”
“Because you let it!” She jumped to her feet, truly angry now. “You could be like the rest of us if you tried, Brooke, but that takes guts. You’d rather be the pretty girlfriend—next to the power but not responsible for it!”
Violet was beginning to shake with rage. Brooke took a step back.
“Okay, maybe that’s true, but that doesn’t mean I want it to be.”
“Then change it!”
“How? I just want to be like you.”
Violet laughed. “No, you don’t. Trust me.”
“I do. You’re tough and you’re incredibly skillful and—”
“And I hate myself for it!”
To her horror, Violet realized that it was true: She did hate herself, or at least what she was becoming.
“I used to like to draw,” she continued softly. “Now…look at this.” She gestured at her stilted sketch in disgust. “When the monsters come and it’s time to fight, I feel in control. I can swing my ax—I’m good at it, really good—but I don’t recognize myself when I do it.”
She was silent a moment, staring at the distant ocean. “I can feel myself slipping away. I’m just not sure who I am anymore.”
“I am a seriously astonishing Nethermancer,” Theodore said as he and Charlie walked along the beach in front of the Nightmare Academy, picking up shells. “You wouldn’t believe these portals I opened before: huge! Big enough for two ships to fall through. Both of them dropped into the Nether—boom!—then I dived in after them and—while I was falling, mind you—I opened another giant portal, and they fell through that one just like threading a needle, and—whoosh!—they ended up right back here on Earth, right out there in the water, safe and sound.”
He pointed to the spot in the ocean where the boats had hit.
“That’s so a
wesome!” Charlie said, truly happy for his friend. “You used the portals to do something totally unexpected. It’s like the super extreme version of what you and I did to bring sun to the Darkling, except you did it all by yourself. You must be totally thrilled!”
“Definitely.”
Theodore suddenly stopped walking and bent over with a moan, clutching his stomach in what seemed like pain.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”
Theodore shook his head, then looked up at his friend with fresh torment in his eyes. “The problem is I don’t know how I did it. The portals, I mean—they just happened.”
“So what?”
“So, if you asked me to do it again—right here, right now—there’d be no way. I can’t repeat it. I’m a one-shot wonder! My career is over and I’m only thirteen!”
“Relax. That’s the way it is for me, too. The big stuff, the giant portals, those just happen. They come from somewhere deep inside and I can’t control them. That’s what makes them so powerful…and so dangerous.”
“Really?” Theodore seemed almost hopeful.
Charlie nodded. “Look, you did something great today and, when the moment comes again, and I know it will, I’m sure you’ll do something even better.”
“You think?”
“Absolutely! And just imagine how your dad’s gonna feel when he hears about this.”
Theodore’s eyes lit up. “You think someone will tell him?”
“Are you kidding? Someone? How about everyone!”
Theodore was suddenly filled with happiness. “He’s really gonna be proud, isn’t he? He pretty much can’t help but be, right?”
“Definitely.”
“I mean, he was already kind of heading in that direction. Remember, back in Barakkas and Verminion’s lair, when my dad said it was good how I refused to leave so I could be there to protect you?”
Charlie nodded.
“Well, this is that times ten, right? I protected a lot of people today!”
“You sure did.” Charlie clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Trust me, this is a turning point.”
“A turning point…”
Charlie could almost see Theodore thinking it through, imagining all the wonderful new possibilities in his relationship with his father.
“You’re a good friend, you know that, Charlie?” he said finally. “The best I ever had. Truly.”
“Stop it.” Charlie waved Theodore’s words away, embarrassed.
“Don’t do that! I mean it. I won’t ever let anything happen to you. I swear.”
“Okay.” Charlie was impressed by his friend’s seriousness. “Same here.”
They stared out at the ocean. Gulls dived from the sky and plunged into the water, filling their bills with tasty fish.
“When was the last time you saw your folks?” Theodore asked after a while, breaking the quiet.
Charlie shrugged. “Long time. Six months. I don’t even know where they are.”
“The Division still has them under wraps for their own protection?”
Charlie nodded. “I miss them.”
I miss them.
The truth of those three simple words made his heart ache.
“Hey,” Theodore said, eyes twinkling mischievously. “Wanna find out where they are? We could hack into the Division’s computers, then make a stealth run and go see them.”
“Nah.”
“Could be fun,” Theodore taunted. “Doing sneaky things, not following the rules, getting into trouble…just like old times.”
“I appreciate it. Truly. But Verminion almost killed my parents before because of me. And now, with three of the Named on Earth, who knows what kind of danger they’ll be in if I go see them?” Charlie shook his head. “It’s best I’m not around them, trust me.”
Just then, a portal snapped open in front of the two boys, and the Headmaster stepped through. “Mr. Benjamin, you have been summoned to the Nightmare Division. Something big is happening—get going.”
She turned to leave.
“Wait a minute!” Charlie called out. “Aren’t you going, too?”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. I must return to the Nether and keep an eye on the Guardian.”
“But he’s healthy.”
“For the moment, yes, but it will only take another touch from a human to put us right back to where we started, and you can be sure that Tyrannus will do all he can to make that happen.”
Charlie figured that was true, but the Headmaster couldn’t just live in the Nether, keeping an eye on the Guardian for the rest of her life, could she?
“When will you be back?” he asked.
“When it’s safe,” the Headmaster replied in a tone that suggested the issue was not up for further discussion. “Now get going, Mr. Benjamin.”
“Not without me.”
The Headmaster turned to Theodore. “You said something, Mr. Dagget?”
Theodore nodded. “If he goes, I go.”
“That’s quite a strong position to take.”
“I’m quite a strong Nethermancer.”
To Charlie’s shock, the Headmaster actually smiled. “So I’ve heard. Go with him, then. In fact, Mr. Benjamin, you may as well bring all your friends—you can never have too many, you know.”
She walked off then, leaving Charlie and a stunned Theodore behind her.
“Going to the Nightmare Division, baby!” Theodore suddenly shouted. “That’s the way I roll!”
It was cold and quiet in the High Council Chamber of the Nightmare Division. Scrubbed air whispered through vents. Computers hummed with soft clicks and chirps.
“We have found the new lair of Barakkas, Verminion, and Slagguron high in the frozen wastes of the Himalayas,” Director Drake said to the assembled Banishers and Nethermancers. “And yes, I included Slagguron in that group.” He fixed Charlie with a withering stare. “It seems that our young friends at the Nightmare Academy saw fit to portal him to Earth.”
The adults in the room grumbled but seemed unsurprised.
He just had to stick it to me, Charlie thought. Everyone knew about Slagguron escaping from the Nether—you couldn’t keep news like that a secret—but leave it to the Director to make sure everyone knew who was responsible without explaining the circumstances. They thought they were saving a child, for crying out loud! A little kid! How were they supposed to know that Slagguron was a Changeling? No one else did.
“Yeah, they sure enough did do that,” a voice said from the back of the room. Charlie recognized the Texas twang immediately. He turned to see Rex walk up the center aisle, and just the sight of the tall cowboy filled him with happiness. “But, near as I can tell, if they hadn’t of portaled old Slagguron through, we wouldn’t have found their new lair. That comes thanks to the smart thinkin’ of Mister Theodore Dagget over there.”
Rex nodded to Theodore, who blushed furiously and looked over at his father. The General glanced at his son, then shot him a quick wink.
“Hey! Did you see—”
“Yeah.” Charlie smiled. “I sure did.”
Rex fixed the Director with a stare. “Young Mr. Dagget was more clever than all the rest of us put together. We’ve been tryin’ to find the new lair of the Named somethin’ fierce, but we weren’t even close—just running around like a buncha Hydras with our heads cut off.”
He turned to Violet.
“Speaking of Hydra heads, how many of them you figure you cut off, while you were out there saving the Guardian, little Miss Violet Sweet?”
Violet, who sat on the other side of Charlie, turned beet red and shrugged. “No idea.”
“I know, I know, they got six heads apiece, so it’s mighty easy to lose count. I would have. That’s the kinda thing a good Facilitator does for ya—and you had a pretty fine one in Miss Brooke Brighton, I gather, seeing as how she led you to the Guardian boat and got you into the BT Graveyard to begin with.”
<
br /> Brooke, who sat next to Violet, struggled to keep from breaking into the world’s largest grin.
“But I’m sure you’re right, Director,” Rex continued, turning back to the man. “I guess those kids over there at the Academy are just a bunch of incompetent little morons.”
The silence was thick and palpable.
“Thank you for your lovely speech, Banisher Henderson,” Director Drake finally replied, voice heavy with sarcasm. “Did the children accomplish more than other children their own age? Unquestionably. But have they also caused more harm than other children? Absolutely.”
He walked around his desk to stand directly in front of the crowd.
“Because of the actions of these youngsters, three of the four Named are now in our world. If Tyrannus finds his way here, the Four of them will summon the Fifth—but that won’t happen. Now that we know the location of their new lair, we can finish what we started earlier. Ladies and gentlemen, we must complete the Division Invasion and kill one of the Named.”
“Then let’s make it Verminion,” a high-pitched voice said from the side of the room. Charlie turned to see a boy walking toward the Director. He recognized him immediately.
It was Pinch.
“After all,” Pinch continued, “Verminion was the one most gravely wounded during his fight with Barakkas. Consequently, he will be the most vulnerable. He should be first on our list to destroy.”
“Thanks for the newsflash, squirt,” Rex said, arms crossed. “We’ll definitely take that under advisement, but I hope you won’t mind if we leave things open just a touch, in case we need to improvise.”
“Improvise all you like,” Pinch said, “as long as Verminion dies.”
Rex stared at him. “Who the heck are you, kid?”
“You don’t recognize me?”
“There’s something familiar about you, but…” Rex walked closer, inspecting him. Suddenly, awareness filled the cowboy’s eyes. “No…it can’t be.”
“I’m afraid it is.”
“Pinch?” Rex asked cautiously.
“Edward Pinch, if you don’t mind.”
