“It seems your Sticka has found a suitor,” Shaella’s eyes scanned the hall again, looking for what it was that had alarmed her. “The two of them must have been making magic,” Shaella joked without a smile. She spoke the words of a detection spell but nothing triggered a reaction. If she’d cast the spell a few seconds sooner she would have seen Phen running as fast as he could to get out of her entry hall. He was certain the statue moved, and he remembered that Shaella was more than just a queen with a dragon. She was a sorceress- Pael’s daughter no less. The statues were probably magicked guardians or the like. Either way, he didn’t plan on approaching her apartments that way again. His heart was still hammering in his chest so hard that he thought his ribcage might burst. The curve of her body had been so distracting that he didn’t even remember if she’d been wearing the dragon collar or not. When he was far enough away from her room that he felt he could relax, he leaned against a wall and gathered himself. I have to have patience, he told himself. He wondered if Spike had escaped the hall. As he went back to the pantry he called out to his familiar to find out.
Later that night, when Phen was able to slip back into the garden again, he found he was too late to get at the skull. He couldn’t just open and close doors by himself. He had to wait on someone and creep in with them. The scene he saw was worrisome at best. He didn’t think that there was any way he could stop the ceremony the red priests were preparing to perform. The skull was already in its place on the lectern, and both of Shaella’s bald- headed wizards were conferring over something in the gazebo. A filthy young woman was half hidden behind them. Her hands were tied together with rope. The three red-robed priests, and a few other men wearing black robes, were scurrying about lighting candles and placing different items about the garden. Then came the Dragon Queen.
“Who brought her down here?” Shaella snapped sharply from the balcony above. At first Phen thought she was falling over the rail, but the smooth way she floated down in her flowing silk gown reminded him of the power she possessed.
When her bare feet were on the ground she started toward the filthy girl. Phen realized then that it was Princess Rosa. The only parts of her that weren’t covered in grime were the twin streaks of white below her eyes where her tears had been running.
In answer to the Queen’s question, Flick pointed at the priests and shrugged.
“Answer me, man,” Shaella ordered one of the red-robed necromancers. “Why was the Princess brought here?”
“If the High King comes to save her during our ceremony,” he answered nervously, “we wouldn’t be able to spring the trap. She must remain in sight until the portal has been closed. To do otherwise would risk losing her while our attention is focused here.”
Phen decided that Princess Rosa was more important than the skull. As the ceremony began, he worked his way over to where Flick and Cole were standing. Phen noticed Cole looked tired and sickly. His eyes were set into deep dark sockets. Shaella’s body shone through her gown as if the material wasn’t even there, yet no eyes lingered on her. She began casting a spell, and implored Flick and Cole to join her.
Phen recognized the nature of the binding wards they began to recite. He almost cast a spell of his own, but was scared that he would alarm the menacing sorceress or her wizards.
“Shhh, Princess,” Phen whispered from right behind Rosa.
“Who’s theere?” she yelped. “Don’t touch me, troll!”
Flick looked back at her and scowled. “Silence,” he hissed sharply. “No one is going to harm you this night.”
“Shhh,” Phen whispered again after Flick went back to his casting. “You’ll get me caught.”
Rosa looked around wide-eyed and terrified. Phen saw that one of her hands was swollen to twice its normal size and that a finger was missing from it.
“Who is there?” she whispered to the thin air around her. Her voice was so quiet that Phen barely heard her.
The murmuring of the red priests had turned into a droll howling chant and the air around them was beginning to fill with the crackling static of powerful magic.
“Look closely in the direction of my voice on the count of three and you’ll see me,” Phen told her. “One… two… three,” Phen pulled the ring from his finger for just an instant and shoved it back on.
“Oh!” she yelped in surprise.
Flick glanced back when he sensed magic behind him, but he didn’t see anything.
“Where are they keeping you?” Phen asked. The sound of the chanting priests and the popping noise of the erratic magical light that was flashing over the seal drowned out his voice so that only Rosa could hear.
“In Pael’s tower, in a room called the nest,” she answered.
“Here,” Phen touched her cheek and gently moved her head so that she would have some sense of where he was.
“Wheere are Kang Mikahl and Hyden Hawk? Is my motheer seending the Royal Guard?” she asked hopefully. “I remember yew, yer Hyden Hawk’s apprentice, Pin.”
“My name is Phen, and there’s only me,” he told her. “I came to get that.” He pointed at the Silver Skull then realized that she couldn’t see his hand. “The Silver Skull,” he added, hoping his embarrassment wasn’t evident in his voice.
“What’s it feer?” she asked, but Phen didn’t have to answer. A great grinding roar filled the night. It was accompanied by a blasting gout of flame that shot up high into the sky.
As soon as Phen saw it, he knew that it was Gerard. The thing stood with its head level with the second floor balcony and was covered in thick plated skin. Its leathery wings stretched wide and were dripping with stringy mucus. Its claws looked like daggers, as did its teeth. It had short thick hind legs and an elongated torso. Its neck was stretched and its rope-like hair dangled from a huge half-snouted head. Its skin was glossy black and at its elbows and knees wicked looking spikes had formed. Bright eyes, as big as cantaloupes, looked out from under angry brows. Other than their size, the eyes looked perfectly human. That’s how Phen knew that it was Gerard. They were so much like Hyden’s eyes that he shivered with disgust.
Princess Rosa fainted, collapsing into a heap beside Phen. It’s probably for the better, he thought. He was having a hard time controlling his fear. Any time, one of the wizards, or even a priest, might sense his presence. The sound of the priests chanting, and a deep humming whistle of wind, kept him from hearing the conversation Shaella was having with her lover, but he could see by the way she was touching him, and herself, that the two of them were sharing something deeply personal.
Had there not been such a resemblance, Phen would have discounted that this thing was once his friend’s brother. How this monstrosity of might had once been human he couldn’t fathom. Nor could he understand why it leapt back into the gaping maw of the seal. A few moments later, a pair of panther-like hellcats peered cautiously up out of the hole. Shaella let loose a binding spell and they leapt into flight. Then came another winged demon. This one shot up out of the hole, straight into the sky. By the look Shaella gave Cole, it was clear he had failed to bind it with a spell. Shaella cursed and screamed orders at both of her wizards. They moved around for better position, leaving Phen alone with the Princess.
He hoped that she would turn invisible when he grabbed her, but she didn’t. Worse, she was too heavy for him to lift, much less carry to safety.
A great commotion near the priests’ gateway commanded Phen’s attention. Something that radiated evil like a foggy stench crawled up out of the hole. It was huge and hairy, with long apish arms, and cherry eyes. It stood on two legs and carried a massive bone as if it were a club. The end of the bone was knotted and gnarled, and the shaft was the size of a healthy tree. When the thing stood upright, its wolfish head was above the balcony. Several smaller things crawled out at its feet and Cole spelled each of them as quickly as he could. One was a scorpion as big as a goat. There was venom dripping from its curled stinger.
With a sharp pop that left Phen’s ears ringing, the hole suddenly disappeared. The three priests collapsed into heaps on the garden lawn. Flick was casting a spell that was far beyond Phen’s understanding. Then the bald- headed wizard scooped up the Princess and strode away. It was all Phen could do to keep up with him as he wound and twisted and climbed through a labyrinth of hallways to Pael’s tower lift. Phen couldn’t go up with the two of them, but that was all right. He heard the command Flick used to make the lift rise. As soon as Flick came back down, Phen got on and, with a word, rode it up to the nest. It was several hours later, after he had somewhat healed the infection in Rosa’s hand, and tended the stump of her finger, that he realized he didn’t know the command to send the lift back down. Not only would he soon be discovered, he couldn’t get away.
