by James Riley
Maybe the Old Ones controlled them here, too, just as they did when sending them against Washington, D.C., and the old Oppenheimer School?
The Old Ones, or something else.
The red lights and fence on the ledge certainly suggested some kind of being watched over the monsters. Fort slowly crept toward the nearest wall, trying to ignore the shooting pains in his legs and torso. The wall looked like it led to a tunnel with more of the red lights, which seemed to be the only way out.
Without any other choice, Fort entered the tunnel, pushing himself up against the wall as much as possible to keep hidden. The red lights barely illuminated the tunnel, so if whoever watched over the creatures had eyesight like his, they’d never see him.
Considering they’d built only these lights, eyesight like his probably wasn’t a safe guess.
The tunnel ended in another cavern, this one not nearly as big as the monsters’ home. Red lights dotted the ceiling, arranged in lines that led off in various directions. Unfortunately, the ceiling was higher now, so the lights didn’t work as well, and Fort could barely see enough to keep from tripping.
Behind him, he heard the creatures’ roars intensify. Maybe they were annoyed at losing him? The sounds made him nervous, since somebody was bound to come check on the creatures, if that really was someone’s job. Not wanting to find out, Fort hurried along one of the red lines of lights toward what he hoped was another tunnel out.
Another roar made him look back for just a moment, but one moment was too long. Something smacked him in the back of the head so hard it sent him spinning to the ground. He landed hard and quickly tried to grab his staff to defend himself, but it was lodged beneath him, and he couldn’t free his shoulder from the bow.
Slowly, all around him, more of the red circles of light turned on, appearing two by two in a circle that quickly surrounded him. Had he just… walked into one of the lights? Was that what he’d hit? But if that was the case, why were they turning on now that he’d fallen down?
And then a pair of the red lights blinked, and that’s when he knew these weren’t the same glowing circles of light on the ceiling. These were eyes.
- TWENTY-SEVEN -
FORT ROLLED OVER AND LEAPED to his feet, yanking the bow and staff off of his back. He pulled back on the bow where the string would have been, and a ball of fire appeared in the center of the bow, ready to fire.
“Back off,” he said, the light of the fireball illuminating bits and pieces of the creatures, whatever they were. From what he could tell, the monsters weren’t that large, but they seemed to be carrying metal weapons of some sort. One had a wicked looking pickax, while another held a spiked hammer in each hand.
The glossy red eyes, though, were the most familiar, and most eerie part of them. These were the same creatures he’d seen in his dream, the ones that had taken his father away.
Two of the red eyes advanced on him, and he loosed the fireball, shooting it right between them as a warning. It exploded against the floor behind the creatures, and for a moment, the bright light blinded Fort. He stumbled backward to stay out of their reach, only to have one of the red eyed creatures behind him slam a foot into the back of his knees, knocking him back to the ground.
He twisted around as he fell and sent another fireball flying. His angle was way off, though, and it ended up hitting the ceiling. This time he made sure to close his eyes, but the creatures weren’t so lucky, as he heard several of them groan in pain.
Unfortunately, when Fort opened his eyes again, he found that his fireball had knocked out most of the globes of light dotting the roof of the cavern, leaving the room even darker than it had been.
He scrambled back to his feet, holding the staff diagonally before him like Sergeant Tower had taught them. As one of the red-eyed creatures stumbled close to him, still blinded, Fort swept out with his staff at its hand, trying to disarm the creature.
Instead, as it hit, the staff glowed blue, and Fort felt a cold energy pass from the weapon into the creature.
The creature paused, then took a step back. “Ah, I think it healed my hand,” it growled, low and guttural.
“What is it?” another one rasped.
“Looks like another human,” said a third.
“Yes!” Fort shouted, holding his staff in a defensive position, even if it was apparently useless at anything beyond healing. “I am human, and I’m not here to hurt you.”
Several of the creatures laughed at that, which wasn’t exactly comforting.
“You, hurt us?” one said, and a high-pitched whirling noise was the only warning Fort had before a wooden object slammed into his face, knocking him back to the ground.
He shook off the hit and immediately tried to push to his knees, but froze as something cold and sharp pushed into his neck. “I meant to say, I don’t mean any harm,” Fort said, wincing as the blade bit into his skin. “I came looking for another human, one older than me. Have you seen him?”
This time, one of them sighed, almost sadly.
“We know where he is, yeah,” one of them said.
“But you don’t want to see him,” said another. “It’s best you go before they find out you’re here.”
“If it’s not already too late,” said the first.
Fort gritted his teeth. Of all the people discouraging him from finding his father, the last beings he’d expected to do so were the monsters who’d taken him. “I’m not leaving without him.”
“Then you’re a fool,” said one of the creatures. “We’re trying to do right by you. But if they find out you’re here, then we won’t have a choice.”
“They’ll make us take you to Dragon’s Teeth, just like we did the one you’re looking for.”
Dragon’s Teeth? “Take me there!” Fort said, and tried to stand up, but the blade at his neck just pushed in harder, and he winced. “I have to find him, and I’ll do anything. Please take me to Dragon’s Teeth. See? I’m putting down my weapons and everything.”
He laid his staff and bow down on the ground. For the first time he realized he must have lost his bag of protein bars somewhere in all the falling back in the cavern of the monsters, but that didn’t matter, not if these things were going to take him to his father right away.
The red-eyed creatures went silent for a moment. “You can’t be thinking of taking him,” said a new voice, higher-pitched than the rest, if only slightly. “He doesn’t know what he’s asking. We have to let him go before they—”
“Quiet, boy,” another said. “Those who haven’t been through the ritual haven’t yet earned a say. I think the masters might be pleased if we take him to Dragon’s Teeth. It’d be like our present to them. They might bless us.”
“Those masters have only cursed you!” shouted the higher-pitched voice. “You’re all fools if you don’t see what those monsters have done to you.”
The others growled in low, ugly tones. “Don’t be talking about the Old Ones that way, whelp,” one said.
“You haven’t been through the ritual yet,” another said, more kindly. “That’s when your eyes will open fully. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
“I understand more than you think,” the young one said. “And I’m not going to help you take another human to Dragon’s Teeth. Not again.”
“Keep talking like this, and you’ll be next,” one of the older ones said.
This was rapidly getting out of hand, and the last thing Fort wanted was for the one creature sticking up for him to get punished. “It’s okay!” he shouted. “There’s no need to argue. I want to go. Just tell me where it is, and I’ll come along quietly, I promise.”
Back in the cavern, the monsters were roaring louder than ever, and the red eyes around him started to notice. “What’s got the Dracsi all riled up?” one asked. The blade bit into his neck again, and Fort hissed in pain. “Are there more of you, human? Tell the truth!”
“No, I promise, I’m alone,” Fort said.
“Well,
not exactly,” said a voice that Fort really, really didn’t want to hear right now.
Another fireball hit the ceiling, blinding him along with the red-eyed creatures this time. The blade disappeared from his neck as something swung over Fort’s head, the wind tousling his hair. He ducked to avoid whatever it was, and watched one of the monsters go flying into a cave wall.
“More humans!” another shouted, only to get blasted backward by a bolt of lightning square in the chest. Somehow, the first bolt didn’t seem to do much damage, but a second and third hit knocked the creature out.
“No,” Fort whispered as another creature collapsed to the ground, vomiting everywhere like it’d just contracted some horrible disease. The rest tried to run, but the rocks on either side of the nearest tunnel pushed together, trapping them within.
“What are these things?” one of the red-eyed creatures shouted, only to get knocked backward, its eyes soaring much farther than a body should have. As another fireball lit the room, Fort saw the reason: The red eyes weren’t eyes at all, but goggles of some kind, illuminated from within by the red light.
At this point, only one creature remained standing, the one with the spiked hammers. “Come on!” it shouted, whirling its hammers around, judging by the high-pitched whine they were making. “I’ll take the lot of you on all by myself!”
Twin missiles of magical energy struck the hammers, disintegrating them.
The red eye… no, the goggle-wearing creature paused. “Um, okay, maybe not?” it said. “How do you feel about surrender?”
“Not real good,” said the same familiar voice, and a shield shined in the remaining light as it slammed into the creature’s face, knocking it out. The shield-bearer turned, lighting up his face for the first time.
“Hey, kid,” Gabriel said, giving him a smile. “Nice to see you’re making friends.”
- TWENTY-EIGHT -
OH, PLEASE NO, FORT THOUGHT as a fireball lit up the center of the room, floating in another newcomer’s hand. He looked up to see Rachel glaring around angrily—fireball in hand—and Jia, leaning on a silver staff exactly like Fort’s, looking ready to keep fighting. Gabriel leaned down and offered Fort his nonshield hand.
“Hey, you okay, Fort?” Gabriel asked, his smile fading into concern. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?” He helped Fort to his feet and brushed some dirt off of his back.
“What were you thinking?” Rachel shouted. “You came here by yourself, after everything Cyrus told you?”
“He was just trying to keep you two safe,” Gabriel said. “We can’t fault him for that.”
“Oh, I can!” Rachel said. “I can fault him for days.”
“Do you think there are more of them?” Jia asked, glancing around the room. “Maybe I should go check that tunnel, in case some are hiding.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “You’re not supposed to enjoy this sort of thing.”
“Says the girl who takes guys down in practice and screams, ‘That’s what I’m talkin’ about!’ over them,” Jia pointed out.
“How… how are you here?” Fort asked, finally getting the words out.
“How do you think?” Rachel said, glaring at him. “You’re lucky I’m the forgiving type. In that I don’t forgive you at all, but I’ll still come after you and keep your sorry behind alive.” She pulled a bag off of her shoulder and dropped it at Fort’s feet.
The book of Summoning fell out, with his note on top.
“But… I haven’t been gone that long,” he said, still not believing this. “How did you find my note that quickly?”
“Oh, Rachel’s been keeping an eye on you,” Jia said. “She’s been using—”
“Shh!” Rachel shushed, her eyes wide. “That’s not important!”
Jia snorted, then pushed past Rachel. “Don’t listen to her, she’s all embarrassed about this. She learned the first telepathy magic spell in the book of Mind magic, Detect Mind, when you brought the books to her. Basically she’s had it going since that night, watching over you, making sure you didn’t do anything crazy without us along.”
“You were watching me?” Fort asked, both shocked and offended.
“I couldn’t see anything!” Rachel said, and Fort could tell she was blushing a bit, even in the light of her fireball. “It just told me where you were. Or it did, until you started wearing that amulet. Where’d you even find that? I told Cyrus to make you get rid of it.”
That was what Cyrus had been trying to tell him? “One of the TDA agents made me put it on,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ve been wearing it the whole time I was here. You couldn’t have known.”
“You took it off for a minute or so,” Jia pointed out, over Rachel’s shushing her. “That was the first time we saw you leave the school since you went to New York, so we knew you’d mastered teleportation. It took a little while to find out how to get to you—”
“Basically they came looking for you in our room, hoping to find clues, and I told them where you practiced,” Gabriel said. Fort gave him a betrayed look, but Gabriel shrugged it off. “Hey, you might be protecting them, but I’m watching out for you, roomie. You’re not going to make me feel even an ounce bad about it, so don’t bother.”
“How annoying is teleportation, by the way?” Rachel said, rolling her eyes. “I knew you were below the old school, where you just left a dimensional portal wide open for anyone to walk right through, but because I’d never been down here, I had to teleport us all up to the base above, then tunnel down here using Destruction magic. That’s why we took so long.”
“I think we got those monsters all riled up,” Jia said. “A few of them tried to grab for us while Rachel floated us down, before we worked out where you’d gone.”
“Floated you?” Fort said to Rachel. “I knew you could make tornados, but I didn’t know you could fly.”
“We’ve had an interesting few days, me and Jia,” Rachel said. “I’ll tell you about it when you’ve apologized to me a few thousand times.”
“Anyway, that’s how we got here,” Gabriel said, clapping Fort’s shoulder. “And now that we’re all together—”
“You can leave together,” Fort finished for him. “You can’t be here! If you stay, then… then bad things happen, okay? I know it for a fact. Cyrus—”
“Cyrus told us, too,” Jia said. “Both what would happen if we came… or if you went alone.”
“Yeah, nice try,” Rachel said, glaring at him. “You think you’re just going to leave us behind and get trapped here forever? We’d just spend the next few weeks trying to get you out, and probably all die trying.”
“So, what, then?” Fort said. “You all just planned on showing up and carrying me back home, whether I wanted to go or not?”
“We should,” Rachel said. “You deserve it. But first, we’re going to do this.” She leaned down and set her fireballs against the book of Summoning.
Fort started to stop her, but then paused and changed his mind. After everything he’d done, and now putting his friends in danger, this might be the right move. Besides, now there really was no way the Old Ones could get ahold of it.
“We, uh, never said we’d be doing that,” Gabriel said, his voice low as he stared at Rachel.
“I don’t remember needing to ask your permission,” Rachel said, glaring at him.
“Rachel,” Jia said, and began whispering to the other girl as Rachel tried waving her off.
“Fort,” Gabriel said, turning back to him, though he still seemed annoyed about the book. “We talked about it, and we’re with you,” he said. “But none of us are going to get ‘lost’ here, or whatever Cyrus said. Because I have a plan.”
“Oh, a plan,” Fort said. “Those have gone so well for us in the past.”
“Yeah, but this one Cyrus told me would work,” Gabriel said. “But he also told me if I told any of you, that you’d mess it up, so I have to keep it to myself.”
“Yeah, we didn’t buy that either,” J
ia said as Rachel shook her head. “Still, we can’t leave your dad here, Fort.”
Fort just stared at his roommate in confusion. “What could you do that would get us all home safely that none of the rest of us thought of? Cyrus told me that there was no way, that it didn’t matter what we did.”
Gabriel punched his shoulder, giving Fort another bruise. “Guess I’m just more creative. Now let’s get a move on. We’re not going to rescue your dad just sitting around here.”
Something groaned from the corner, and Gabriel immediately tensed up, running over with his shield. Jia got a crazy look in her eye and followed right behind him as Rachel just stared at her in shock. “She’s losing her mind, but I kinda like it,” she whispered to Fort.
“All of you are losing your minds,” he told her, but moved quickly to see what was going on.
One of the red-goggled creatures was leaning against the wall. As Rachel brought her light closer, Fort saw that it wasn’t a monster at all, but instead, looked almost… human. A short human, at least. With just the hint of a beard, and—
“They’re dwarves!” Rachel shouted, bouncing up and down in excitement. “Are you seeing this? Real, actual, dwarves!” She sent her fireball flying around the room, revealing more of the creatures as it circled, then landing back in her hand. “Look at their beards! I wonder why they wear the goggles? This is so cool!” She leaned down and stared at the still-groaning dwarf, just inches from his face.
“Okay, let’s not play with them,” Jia said, pulling Rachel off of the dwarf.
Gabriel leaned in next, a curious look on his face. “Are they really dwarves? But why would they be here, with those monsters?”
Rachel shrugged. “We’re underground, and that’s sort of a traditional dwarf place to live. Look.” She pointed at the weapons strewn about the floor. “They’ve got pickaxes and stuff. Maybe they’re miners. Lots of dwarves are.”
