The Magic Collector

by Clayton Wood

  Gideon said nothing, staring at the masses far below.

  “Do you know why?” she inquired.

  “They were afraid of death,” he answered.

  “Why?” she pressed. Gideon frowned, turning to give her a questioning look.

  “Isn’t everyone?”

  “Lucia wasn’t,” she pointed out.

  “Granted.”

  “You should know the answer,” Petrusa scolded. “You’re an artist, after all.”

  “Teach me.”

  “There is magic in stories, Gideon,” Petrusa declared. “Magic brings our stories to life…and our life is a story in and of itself.” She gazed down at the vast network of city streets. “And none of these people wanted their stories to end.”

  She turned to him again, arching an eyebrow.

  “You of all people should understand that.”

  “My story…” he began.

  “I wasn’t talking about your story,” she interrupted.

  Gideon lowered his gaze, swallowing past a lump in his throat.

  “Tell me Gideon,” she continued. “Do you know why Heaven doesn’t exist, but this place does?”

  He shook his head mutely.

  “Because Heaven is a terrible story,” she answered. “The Plane of Death is about sacrifice. About souls being doomed to walk the land of the dead, never to return to the living world. About eternal longing for a chance at eternal life. It’s a curse and a gift, Gideon. Heaven,” she added with a dismissive wave of her hand, “…is what happens at the end of a story. The ‘happily ever after’ that inane fairy tales love so much.”

  Petrusa turned then, facing away from the city, toward the palace nearby. Gideon followed her cue; the great black castle stood before them, and in front of it hovered the huge skull that had brought him here only moments ago. It floated toward them, stopping before Gideon and opening its mouth wide to reveal its shimmering blue portal.

  “Your time here is up,” Petrusa announced. “Good luck defeating the Collector, Gideon.”

  “Thank you.”

  “And Gideon,” she added as he lifted one foot into the skull’s mouth. He stopped to glance back at her. “Don’t die.” She smirked. “Yet.”

  Chapter 36

  Bella didn’t even have time to raise her hands to defend herself as the Collector thrust his deadly blade at her chest. Didn’t even have time to scream. Bright white light flared around his right arm as the deadly point shot toward her, glowing with unholy power.

  But his sword stopped an inch from Bella’s chest…and then was flung backward by an invisible force, flying from his hand. The strange white light crawled up his arm to his shoulder, then to the right side of his face. Then it shot forward, plunging into Bella’s chest.

  “Run!” Grandpa cried.

  The Collector stumbled backward, staring at his glowing right hand in horror.

  “No!” he blurted out, stumbling backward. White light flowed from his body in a continuous stream to Bella’s chest. Bella looked down at herself, seeing a red glow from under her shirt. She glanced back up.

  The fine lines on the right side of the Collector’s face were deepening, his hair on that side turning stark white…before her very eyes.

  “Go Bella, go!” Grandpa pressed, turning and running from the Collector and pulling her with him.

  “Get Thaddeus!” the Collector barked. “Detain the girl!”

  Black soldiers spilled into the foyer through the broken portcullis, rushing toward Grandpa. The soldiers reached him quickly, grabbing his arms and legs, then dragging him toward the exit…and the glowing energy door beyond.

  “Grandpa!” Bella screamed, running back toward him. But Piper hauled her backward, pulling her out of the foyer into the narrow hallway.

  Animus burst into action then, flowing upward into the golden statue in the center of the foyer and bringing it to life. The statue leapt down from its pedestal, attacking the Collector and his soldiers. It swung its golden sword at the leftmost soldier, slicing through its neck in a single blow.

  The soldier’s head toppled from its shoulders in a burst of flame…and promptly flew back up, reconnecting with its neck.

  “Come on!” Piper shouted, turning around and sprinting down the hallway…and then cursing as a huge undead boar charged right at them!

  Piper dodged out of the way, pulling Bella with him.

  The boar barreled right past them, entering the foyer and lowering its head to gore the soldiers. The impact sent them all flying…and the golden statue slashed at one of the fallen soldiers over and over, cutting it to pieces.

  “Down the hall,” Bella instructed, following her own advice. “Up the stairs!”

  But more of the black soldiers rushed into the foyer, avoiding the boar and the statue and chasing after Bella and Piper. They moved incredibly fast, closing the distance rapidly.

  “We’re not gonna make it!” Piper warned. Bella focused on the stairs ahead, reaching them and bounding up three at a time. She heard the footsteps of the soldiers behind her, growing nearer with every second.

  Bella and Piper made it to the top of the stairs, and that’s when the enemy caught up with them.

  One of them slashed at Piper’s right shoulder, its claws raking his flesh. Piper grunted, then kicked the soldier down the stairs, toppling two of the other soldiers behind it. Then he followed Bella, reaching the top of the stairs…and the small room beyond. The one with the lone coffin in the center. Bella skid to a stop before the coffin, throwing the lid open.

  “Come on!” she urged, glancing back. The black soldiers dashed after her, reaching the top of the stairs. They lunged at her and Piper…just as Death’s black skull rose from the depths of the coffin, its huge mouth gaping open.

  It wailed, the sound filling the small room, sending chills down Bella’s spine.

  The soldiers switched targets, leaping at the head and attacking Death with their vicious claws.

  Which went precisely as one might expect.

  Death’s black tongue shot out, wrapping around both of the soldiers and pulling them into its gaping maw, swallowing them whole.

  The Collector appeared at the top of the stairs, jerking backward when he saw Bella…and the personification of Death itself.

  “LEAVE,” its bone-chilling voice boomed.

  The Collector glanced at Bella, then the creature…and the coffin it came from.

  “Right,” he muttered.

  And then he turned and ran.

  * * *

  Bella sat on the edge of the stone bowl of her mother’s foyer, the golden statue once again standing on its pedestal. Animus hovered above the floor at her feet, and Piper paced nearby, chewing on a fingernail as he did so. The horrible black soldiers were gone, as was the Collector.

  Grandpa was gone.

  She stared at the damaged portcullis ahead, and at the empty cavern beyond. Part of her hoped beyond hope that the purple energy door would reappear, that Grandpa would step out of it. That everything would be back to the way it’d been.

  But no matter how long she sat there for, nothing happened.

  Bella lowered her gaze to Animus, feeling numb.

  “You sure you don’t know when Gideon will be back?” Piper asked for the umpteenth time. Bella didn’t even bother to answer. He sighed, continuing his pacing. “If that…thing that attacked the White Dragon is still around, Gideon’ll be in deep trouble,” he warned.

  “I think he’ll notice,” Bella muttered.

  “Yeah, but what if it wins?” Piper pressed. “What if it comes down here and decides to take us out?”

  “Then we hide in Mom’s conclave,” she answered.

  “And stay in there forever?”

  “Just until it leaves,” Bella replied. Piper gave her a look.

  “And how are we gonna when it does?”

  Bella sighed, lowering her face to her hands and rubbing her eyes wearily. It had to be early morning, and neither one of th
em had gotten any sleep for nearly twenty-four hours. She was beyond exhausted…but Piper was right. If the huge creature was still out there, they were in big trouble.

  “Let’s go,” she prompted, sliding off the stone bowl and walking toward the stairs leading to her bedroom on the second floor.

  “Wait, where?” Piper asked.

  “Out there,” Bella answered, gesturing at the cavern ahead. “Let me get my Painter’s uniform first.” She went upstairs, changing into her uniform and stuffing her thigh-holsters with paintings. Then she went back downstairs, finding Piper still standing there in the foyer, staring at her with an incredulous expression. She ignored him, passing through the broken portcullis and continuing to the gate ahead. Piper followed behind her.

  “You’re going outside?” he pressed. “Are you crazy?”

  “We have to know what happened,” Bella explained. She pulled out one of her paintings from her thigh-holster. “Apertus,” she commanded, and the painting unrolled itself. It was the painting she’d stuck Goo in. She drew him out, and he landed with a wet plop beside her. “Clausus,” she muttered, and the painting rolled back up. She stuffed it in her thigh-holster, continuing forward.

  “What the hell is that?” Piper asked.

  “Goo, this is Piper,” Bella introduced. “Piper, this is Goo.”

  “Goo?” Piper repeated.

  “Goo.”

  “Creative name,” he muttered. Goo pointedly ignored him, oozing behind Bella as she strode across the cavern toward the tunnel leading back to the Water Dragon’s tail.

  “The Collector got Grandpa,” Bella notified Goo. “He attacked Havenwood.”

  Goo’s body rippled, indicating his understanding.

  “You got a light?” Piper inquired as they neared the tunnel. Bella paused, then made her way to a cluster of the glowing mushrooms nearby. She took a whole bunch of them, dropping them onto Goo.

  “Can you carry these?” she asked.

  Goo sucked the mushrooms into himself, and they made him glow bright green, providing plenty of light. They made the long journey up the Water Dragon’s tail and body, and thankfully there were no more of the Collector’s soldiers waiting to attack them. The Everstream flowed upstream as they made their way to the mouth of the cavern. Bella slowed as they neared the opening, staring at the starry night sky beyond. The pale moon shone its silver light on the rocky outcrop leading to the waterfall, the gurgling water the only noise.

  No sound of fighting. No earthquake-like shuddering of the earth at her feet.

  She hesitated, then exited the cave, Goo at her side. Piper, she noted, stayed behind in the relative safety of the cave. A twinge of fear gripped her as she walked up to the edge of the waterfall, and she steeled herself for what she was about to see.

  Bella gazed down at the landscape spread out before her below, Goo stopping at her side.

  The waterfall fell to Lake Fenestra below, but the lake was no longer blue. Its waters were black with soot. For the mushroom forest surrounding Havenwood was on fire, thick black smoke rising into the air all around. Downtown Havenwood was in ruins, many of the buildings charred or collapsed.

  She closed her eyes, taking a deep, steadying breath in. Then she opened them, looking beyond the mushroom forest.

  The White Dragon was there, as it had been before the siege on Havenwood, its massive body encircling the mountain. But its body was covered with gigantic streaks of blood, many of its scales charred or missing. The flesh of its wings was riddled with tears, its face bloodied.

  It looked…dead.

  Oh god, she thought, putting a hand to her mouth.

  “Well?” she heard Piper call out from behind. She ignored him, staring at the White Dragon. Waiting for it to breathe.

  But it didn’t.

  Bella lowered herself to sit down, feeling suddenly exhausted. She lowered her face into her hands, taking a deep breath in, then letting it out. A vision of Grandpa being dragged away by the Collector’s soldiers came to her. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she took another, shuddering breath in. She heard footsteps from behind, and felt Piper’s presence behind her. He swore, shaking his head grimly.

  “We’re screwed,” he muttered.

  Bella said nothing.

  “We can’t beat the Collector,” he stated. “No one can. He killed the damn White Dragon!”

  Still she said nothing.

  “We’re going back inside,” he muttered, turning back toward the cave. But Bella didn’t stand up to follow him. She just sat there, staring at the White Dragon. Staring at its gigantic chest.

  As she watched, it rose up ever-so-slowly…then fell. Her heart skipped a beat, relief coursing through her.

  “It’s alive!” she exclaimed, pointing to the dragon. “Look!”

  Piper did so, and nearly a minute later, the dragon’s chest rose and fell again.

  “Yeah, but barely,” he conceded. “If that thing attacks again…” He turned to face Bella. “Come on, let’s go home,” he insisted.

  “No.”

  Piper blinked.

  “What do you mean, ‘no?’” he demanded.

  “I’m not going back inside,” she answered.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m not going back inside,” she repeated, standing up. She turned away from the White Dragon, facing him. “I’m not hiding anymore, Piper. I won’t be a victim again. I refuse to be a victim again.”

  “Bella, we’re not safe here.”

  “We’re not safe anywhere,” she retorted. “And what are we going to do, hide for the rest of our lives?”

  “If we want to have lives, yes.”

  “That’s not a life,” Bella pressed. “I spent most of my life lost in a book, hiding from the Collector. How is hiding here any different?”

  “Well it’s the only reason you’re still alive,” Piper pointed out.

  “Maybe so,” she conceded. “But I don’t want to just be alive. I want to live.”

  “Bella…”

  “When I came here, for the first time in my life, I felt free,” Bella stated. “I felt like I belonged somewhere. Like I wasn’t some freak trying to fit in where I didn’t belong.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And for the first time in my life, I saw Grandpa happy. Truly happy.”

  Piper grimaced, but held his tongue.

  “The Collector hunted us for ten years, and for ten years Grandpa kept me safe,” Bella declared. “And now the Collector has him.”

  “He’s probably…”

  “And your wife,” Bella interrupted, glaring at him.

  Piper drew back as if he’d been slapped.

  “Do you love her?” she asked. Piper swallowed, then nodded.

  “More than anything in this world.”

  “Well I love my Grandpa,” she replied. “And I won’t stop until I get him back.”

  Piper sighed.

  “What’re we gonna do?” he inquired, raising his arms up to the sides. “Storm the Collector’s castle and demand he give them back?”

  “We have to do something,” Bella insisted.

  “That’s not a plan.”

  “Fine, we’ll come up with a plan then,” she replied. Piper’s eyebrows went up.

  “Oh yeah?” he said. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  “You’re gonna need an army to take on the Collector,” he warned. “Either that or some pretty damn powerful magic.”

  “I think we already have some,” Bella replied. She looked down at her amulet, holding it in one hand. Remembering the white light that had surrounded the Collector, streaming into her amulet.

  “What’d’you mean we already have some?” Piper demanded.

  “Did you see the Collector’s face?” she asked. Piper nodded. “It was older on one side,” she explained. “And it got even older when he tried to attack me. The light…it when into here,” she added, pointing at the heart-shaped ruby. She studied it…and frowned. The large
crack in the ruby looked…different. It extended two-thirds of the way through the heart now, instead of going all the way through.

  “So…”

  “Huh?” she asked, glancing up at Piper.

  “So what?” he pressed.

  “So…he can’t attack me,” Bella concluded. “That must’ve been how Mom’s amulet saved me the first time.”

  Piper’s eyebrows furrowed.

  “The first time?”

  “I think it happened before,” she reasoned. “Grandpa said the Collector attacked Mom, and…killed her. Then he tried to kill me.”

  “And the same thing happened.”

  “His face was already old on one side,” she pointed out. “So yes, it must have.”

  “So you’re saying if he comes near you, he’ll be…drained again?”

  “I think so,” Bella confirmed.

  “Alright, maybe so,” Piper conceded. “But how exactly do you plan on getting close to him again? His defenses are incredibly powerful. And he might not be able to kill you, but his army will.”

  “Then it’s time for me to get real creative,” she decided.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because the more creative I am, the more powerful my magic will be,” she answered. “Let’s go,” she added, turning left and following parallel to the edge of the cliff.

  “Go where?” he asked, following behind her.

  “We need to look for survivors.”

  “It’s still too dark,” he countered. “We should wait for the morning.”

  “I’m not afraid of the dark,” Bella replied with a grim smile, stuffing her amulet under her shirt. “But it’s about time I made the darkness afraid of me.”

  Chapter 37

  The Collector eased himself into his chair before his desk in the inverted Castle Over, wincing at the pain in his right hand as he did so. It throbbed something fierce, a constant, reminder of his terrible mistake.

  He squeezed his eyes shut, cursing under his breath.

  Idiot!

  The Collector slammed his left fist onto the desk, his jawline rippling.