required, as Ubbrroxx, taunting now, raised a spurting jet of itself directed at Kendra
On cue, Stroud screamed and raced madly at Ubbrroxx, cursing it for having burned the screaming woman alive, just as Esruad had promised he would. The other Stroud drew forth an enormous sword, a knight prepared to slay the dragon, but the sword took shape away from Esruad and grew larger and larger, forming an enormous steel mirror, and for the first time ever Ubbrroxx gazed on itself, sending a river of fire at the steel mirror created by the ancient magician.
Stroud saw the river of fire coalesce into a river of light, and it shone back at Ubbrroxx, blinding him, reflecting back a burning light that began eating away at it, parts of its fiery exterior falling away, raining down over Stroud like screaming bombs.
Stroud reached for the crystal skull and held it firmly up to the creature and he felt the jolt of light reflected off the crystal now, and in the struggle the three points of light and energy formed a kind of supernatural transponder network. It was Esruad's plan to reverse the field of energy from which the demon drew its evil magic, to transpose and interchange his own power for the demon's, and to ultimately neutralize it. His calculations and his faith in the triangulation of their three energy fields were an incredible risk, but it was the only risk worth taking anymore. It must work.
Stroud was now completely blind. The light, heat and energy charging down at him from the mountain of fire that was Ubbrroxx, pounding into the crystal skull, by all reckoning ought to have exploded the crystal. Stroud found himself beaten back by the sheer force directed at him as it beamed off the steel mirror to Ubbrroxx's essence and back to him. The energy surge had sent him to his knees, and he was being doubled over, his hands burning as if frozen in ice where he held firm to the skull. The skull turned into the hideous head of an ogre, but he held firm.
He heard no more laughter, no more screams, all the sounds that gave the demon comfort. He heard no more rending of flesh, no more flesh popping with heat, for all the power was now directed as with a laser at and into the eyes of the silvery, crystal skull. It was being drained away and stored like a battery in the skull and Ubbrroxx sensed this and for the first time began a whining, sniveling screechy noise like a keening bird that was going hungry.
Stroud felt now the heat polyps on his own face and hands bubbling, and for the first time he realized how badly he had been charred, but he was relieved to once again be feeling something, anything. For a time he had gone completely numb, blocking out everything, and his sight remained lost. He could only see now through the ethereal 'eyes' of Esruad, who had regained the form of a lich once more and had come to Stroud, taking the skull that was burned into his flesh out of his hands and placing it into his own.
'I, too, must go now,' said Esruad, holding on to the skull.
Stroud stared through Esruad's eyes at the spongy, moldering residue of mossy material left behind where Ubbrroxx had been. There were no smoldering skeletons hanging from the wall, no sign of Kendra or Wisnewski ever having been here; not so much as a shackle. There was only the wavy, fading apparition of Esruad, the skull he held in his hands and the fire inside the skull--electrical impulses, miniature shooting stars.
'Any further battles with the demon god,' said Esruad in a reassuring voice, 'will be fought inside the skull.'
'Wait!' said the blind Stroud, stumbling toward Esruad but in the wrong direction as Esruad's spirit flew into the skull and the skull fell to the planks of the ship and rolled to Stroud's feet.
Esruad, too, was gone ... possibly forever.
Stroud gathered up the skull which had saved them all--all but Leonard, Wisnewski and dear Kendra, he feared. He had been willing to sacrifice himself for them all, but that apparently was never the demon's wish. Ubbrroxx had wanted them all, and especially Esruad. The demon had wanted to swallow the skull and make its energy source part of its own.
Watch what you wish for, Stroud silently told Ubbrroxx, wherever the damnable bastard now was. 'And watch yourself, Esruad...'
Stroud stumbled about trying to find his way, unable to see, as blind now as a man could be, banging against dangerous tiers in his way, belowdecks of a ship sunken beneath earth. He was blind inside a black hull.
Then he remembered the radio. He couched the skull in the crook of one arm and tried to raise James Nathan, and it seemed that all static had been created by the demon. He got directly through to Nathan. An agitated female voice came over before Nathan got to the radio.
'Abe! Abe, you're alive! You're okay!' It was Kendra.
'And you? You're topside?'
'Yes, Wisnewski and I made it back when--'
'I thought you died. In fact I thought I saw you die, both of you. Illusions, deception ... all along.'
'Thank God you're okay.'
Nathan must have snatched the receiver away, for he was suddenly on. 'Stroud, it's like a miracle. Everyone here, the zombies--'
'All free, I know ... I know.'
'Thanks to you.'
'I need help down here. Can you send help?'
'We're on our way.'
Kendra got back on. 'You must be awfully lonely down there by yourself. How ... how did you do it, Abe?'
'Kendra, I ... I've lost my eyesight.'
'Your eyes?'
'Burned badly ... can't see ... stumbling.'
'Stay where you're at. I'm coming back with the team. We're on our way.'
He wanted to shout that he didn't want her to set foot in the pit or the ship again, but she was gone, replaced by Wisnewski, who said, 'Now, Abe, just sit tight. Stay right there. Stumbling around inside that debris field could get you killed, and after all you've gone through--'
'I know, a terrible irony now to have a beam fall on my head, or to suffocate below a mountain of bones.'
'What about the ... your ... ah--'
'Have the skull with me, and thank God and Mamdoud in Egypt that we had it with us.'
'I keep thinking of poor Leonard.'
'Yeah ... yeah ... me, too.'
Stroud soon heard them coming and thanked Wisnewski for staying on the radio with him. 'Not afraid of the dark, are you?' asked Wiz.
'Now I am ... afraid of blindness.'
'What do you think of our doing something archeologically sound with the ship now, Stroud? Now that the cursed demon has vanished?'
'I say let sleeping demons lie.'
'Ahhhh ... thought you'd say that.'
The others finally reached him, Kendra throwing her arms around him, Nathan helping guide him along. It took some time maneuvering out of the ship and through the tunnels. When Stroud took in the first breath of fresh air he'd had in hours, it was a great relief, moving him near to tears. He'd thought on several occasions that he would be buried forever in the tomb.
Kendra tightened her grip on him, and he held firm to the crystal skull, asking her to see that it be kept in an absolutely safe and unassailable place as they put him into the waiting ambulance. She climbed in with him, telling him he wasn't getting rid of her so easily. In the absence of his eyes, unable to see the destruction to his torso, limbs and arms, Stroud sensed her apprehension on seeing him in the light of the outdoors. The medics were calling in with the report to the hospital, second- and third-degree burns over two thirds of his body. Most of his clothing had been torn away. Stroud wondered if Kendra thought he was going to die when he went off into a drifty little boat that carried him into unconsciousness.
Three months later
Abraham H. Stroud's bandages had come off his eyes the week before, and after some initial distress, he was
