the scorpion-like creature that Cole had bound was following him as well. Phen was trying desperately to see through Spike’s eyes, but it was hard. Sometimes he could, and sometimes he couldn’t.
Rosa’s untimely questions were driving him mad. Not only did they break his concentration, they were taking away his confidence. It seemed that every time his mind was relaxed enough to see with his familiar, she couldn’t help but ask a question.
Phen saw Cole pass a hallway that he remembered. It led to a smaller hall that went to the base of the tower where he’d gotten on Pael’s lift. Yesterday, Phen learned the command to lower the device. There were a few terrifying minutes of waiting to see who or what was coming back up on the lift after it suddenly eased down out of the room. Cole had come up with a tray of food and a pitcher of water. He set the items on the floor and looked around curiously. Seeing nothing but Rosa’s huddled form and the stirred up dust, he’d huffed, stepped back onto the lift, and spoke the command for it to lower.
Phen tried to make a mental map of Cole’s passage from the point he recognized, but it was no use. Too many turns and archways, and then two sets of stairs. Phen saw the wizard come to a dark alcove with a great iron door centered in its far end. Cole rapped on the steel and a head-high window opened inward spilling orange torchlight in a rectangular beam. A pair of dark skittish eyes looked out. Then after a loud clank the door creaked open. Cole spoke to the man at length, allowing the hell-born scorpion, and then Spike, to ease into the area. Spike had to scurry past them all into the deeper shadows in order to keep Cole’s venomous pet from seeing him.
The dungeon guard was terrified of Cole’s new creature. His fear caused the wizard to cackle with delight. Soon Cole’s zard assistant arrived. Phen overheard part of their conversation.
“Let us see if that thing running loose down there can survive my new friend,” Cole told the zard.
“Thinkss we’ll be rid of it soon,” the zard said.
“I hope so. I didn’t mutate that breed bastard so it could take over our lower levels,” Cole snarled. “The giant Flick caught me has probably starved to death by now. It’s a pity we had to leave it in chains. He might have been able to rid us of the breed freak.”
“A curiouss battle, Masster Cole,” the zard commented. “One I would haves liked to ssee.”
Cole nodded his agreement. “Escort this hell-spawn to the lower gate, Zalvin; maybe it will rid us of our problem so that we can at least examine the pure blood’s internals before it starts to rot.”
“Yessss, Masster Cole,” Zalvin gave a short dutiful bow. Cautiously, as if leading an angry dog, the zard urged the scorpion down a darkened stairway and disappeared.
After Cole left, the dungeon master shut the iron door behind him. The instant the door banged shut, Phen lost contact with Spike. He began to worry about his familiar. Phen tried and tried to reestablish his link with the lyna, but just couldn’t do it. With a frustrated sigh he put his head in his hands and tried to think.
“Are yew all right, Pin?” Princess Rosa asked.
He started to correct her pronunciation of his name, but decided that it would be pointless. To her, she was saying Phen. It was her Seaward accent that caused her to pronounce it wrong. Earlier he had asked her what the people of Seaward call the little appendages that helped a fish swim. “Feens,” she’d replied. After that he gave it up.
“I’m all right, m’lady.” He forced a smile. “It’s just that I need to get that Silver Skull away from here.” He doubted that Queen Shaella even knew Cole was tampering with its magic.
“Eat and rest.” Princess Rosa was barely older than him, but her smile was motherly. She offered him the bigger part of the meal that had come up. “Getting some rest will help you think.”
“Aye,” he agreed and reached for a piece of the hard bread on the tray. “What’s this?” he mumbled. He could see the corner of a gap in the floor. He snatched up the bread and took a bite, and then held it in his mouth as he moved the tray over and began dusting the filth off of the wooden floor. In a matter of moments he revealed a rectangular trapdoor with a finger hole in one end to use as a handle. He stuck his finger in it cautiously and raised the hatch, revealing a ladder that led down into the darkness. Chewing his bread, he smiled at the Princess.
He cast an orb of light into his palm, causing Rosa to yelp, then he leaned his head into the hole. Phen was delighted at what he saw down there.
“What is it?” Rosa asked, peering down to see what had the boy grinning so broadly. “It’s just a room full of old books.”
“No, m’lady, it’s much more than that.” He grabbed one of the sausages from the tray and started down the ladder. “It’s Pael’s library. There’s more power hidden in this room than anywhere in the world, save for maybe Xwarda.”
“What will you do?”
“Hopefully, I’ll be able to find a spell that will help get us and that Silver Skull away from here.”
“Do be careful, Pin,” Rosa said rubbing the stump where her fingers used to be. “Pael’s was such an evil sort of magic.”
Phen reached up and gave her good hand a squeeze. “It wasn’t his magic that was evil, Princess,” Phen said, hoping that it was true. “It was his heart.”
Chapter Forty
Gerard could smell the evil radiating from the archway before him. His eyes saw nothing but black on black, for there was no light here. The darkness was so thick, so absolute, that a torch flame would have been swallowed whole. But his ears heard the shape and texture of the walls, and his nose smelled the sweet taint Deezlxar left in the air. The dark master of hell was close. Gerard could feel it. The battle lust began to boil in his blood. His teeth ached for demon-flesh and his heart was pounding a potent rhythm in his chest.
After craning his elongated neck to and fro to stretch his shoulder muscles, he eased through the archway into the greater blackness beyond. He was ready to face the thing that stole his ring. He was ready to face his destiny-or so he thought.
“How dare you come seeking my destruction!” A voice so deep that it shook Gerard’s guts exploded all around him. “What are you, that you think you can challenge me?”
“I’m the one that terrorizes your domain, the thing that you cannot control,” Gerard growled back defiantly. “I’m the thing that makes your minions tremble. Now show yourself.”
A sweeping blow sent Gerard tumbling sideways. He hadn’t seen it coming, or what had made the attack, but whatever it was, it was huge. He saw that he wasn’t mistaken about its size when he sent an orange gout of flame up into the air above him. The illumination revealed a three-headed crab-like monstrosity that had six legs. It was already bearing down on him again. This time Gerard ducked the coming appendage and raked his claws across the creature’s underside. His claws found thick leathery hide and hard bone where he’d expected to find vitals. The beast squatted down, almost pinning him to the hard flat floor, and only the slick greasy coating on Gerard’s plated flesh let him slip free.
Gerard sent a churning blast of purple energy into the demon’s side as he rolled away. It struck with a thump and exploded, sending wet pieces of matter everywhere. The thing howled out in pain as it danced around to face Gerard. As big as it was, the great gouge in its side was only a minor wound. It retaliated with its own magic, a triple blast of white-hot demon’s fire, one coming from each of the dragon heads that loomed over Gerard. Gerard howled out a primal roar and charged right through the scorching blast. He was part dragon and therefore fire, even demon’s fire, had little effect on him. He leapt at Deezlxar’s chest, where the three necks branched away, using his long hand and toe claws as if he were a raccoon leaping up on the side of a tree. The monster shrieked and darted one of its other heads at him. The blackness was now punctuated with long bright burns in his vision, but Gerard somehow sensed the attack. He jumped away and latched onto the attacking head just as its jaws clamped down on itself with a bloody crunch. Then Gerard blasted out another fiery roar. One half of Shokin cackled, while the other spoke a spell. Ancient whispers sounded in his mind and a static lavender blast pulsed from his hand exploding a chunk from the head he was now clinging to.
Gerard had to dive away from the beast as it twisted around and screamed. He somersaulted through the air, churning his tail and contorting his body so as to land on his feet, but Deezlxar continued around with a bone crunching lash of one of his six appendages smacking Gerard in midair. Gerard spun and flailed, trying to land well, but it didn’t happen. Mostly his head and neck caught the floor with the bulk of his body coming right down on top of
