Lair of the Beast Page 16

  Wily watched Valor scurry up the back of the beast. Palojax’s tentacles tried to grab her but she was too swift. She was going to make it.

  “Get off me,” the frightclops growled.

  Valor reached the base of the three necks and stretched her arms to press down on the pressure points on both sides of Palojax’s spine. But she seemed to be struggling. “I can’t reach both spots at the same time,” Valor shouted. “The beast’s spine is too big. Wily, I need your help!”

  Wily froze. I can’t do it, he thought. He felt a wave of pressure roll over him like a large lava wave.

  He was surprised when he felt a hand squeeze his.

  It was Roveeka. “You won’t hit any target if you don’t throw the knife,” she said.

  Wily nodded. He had to try. He spun to Moshul and grabbed a purple mushroom off his leg, then handed it to Roveeka.

  “You know what to do,” he said to her.

  Wily started to run for Palojax as Roveeka threw the mushroom at the ground. It exploded in a giant cloud of smoke.

  Wily had to time this perfectly. As soon as the smoke surrounded him, he came to a sudden stop. He felt a rush of air as the cobra head snapped down at the exact spot he would have been if he’d continued running. He bolted for the back of the snake head and jumped on.

  The batwings blew away the mushroom smoke as the cobra head lifted into the air with Wily on top.

  “Did you catch him?” the frightclops asked.

  “He’s on my head,” the cobra hissed.

  But he wouldn’t be for long. Wily sat down on the cobra head and went speeding down its curved back like it was a giant twisting slide. He landed with a thump next to Valor.

  “Pressure points now,” Valor said.

  Wily jabbed his fingers directly into one spot where the heads joined together while, across the beast’s wide spine, Valor jabbed the other. Wily felt his fingers shove into the tough, leathery skin of the creature.

  Palojax began to writhe. Every tentacle flailed in anger. The cobra head tried to twist backward to snatch the two humans.

  “Harder,” Valor said. “There are a lot of animals and wall-dwellers counting on us.”

  “Now you want to save the wall-dwellers too?” Wily asked as he dug his fingers in.

  “I might have misjudged your people,” Valor said with a faint smile. “Push even harder.”

  “I’ll try my best,” Wily said, giving it his all.

  “That’s all you can do. You’ve already done more than anyone could have expected.” Valor’s words were full of sincerity. “I believe in you.”

  Wily looked over at his friends to see them staring back at him proudly. They believe in me too. He continued to press down on Palojax’s spine with all his might. And I believe in me. Suddenly, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He was filled with a confidence that he hadn’t felt since his days in Carrion Tomb. All the pressure he had been putting on himself was gone.

  At that same instant, Wily felt the great lair beast relax beneath him. As Valor and Wily continued to press down, Palojax’s whole body seemed to calm.

  “Command it,” Valor said. “Firmly and with confidence.”

  “You will return to the surface once more,” Wily said, “and help us defeat the army of stone that threatens the land.”

  “I will help,” the frightclops said.

  Suddenly, Wily felt as giant as the lair beast.

  “Have your companions climb on my back,” the frightclops said.

  “We will not bite,” the cobra head said.

  “Good job,” Valor said. She gave Wily a big hug.

  Palojax lowered its body onto the ground. One after the other, Wily’s friends climbed up the batwing Palojax had extended like a ramp. Only Moshul seemed hesitant to pass the tentacles.

  “Get up there, you big bundle of daisies,” Pryvyd said to the moss golem.

  Once all were onboard, Palojax flapped its giant batwings. They took off from the surface of the upside-down sun and started flying straight up toward a hole in the roof of the Below. Palojax raced past the upside-down hanging trees toward a wide tunnel in the ceiling. As they blasted into it, everything went dark, but moments later the bear head let out a burst of glowing frost from its lips.

  Wily peeked through the gap between the heads of the lair beast as it sped higher. They were heading for what appeared to be a wall of stone.

  “We’re going to crash!”

  “Don’t worry,” the frightclops said. “It’s only ten feet of solid rock. Brace yourselves.”

  Wily held on for dear life and squeezed his eyes shut. Palojax plowed straight into the wall, demolishing the barrier. Huge chunks of rock exploded outward. When Wily dared open his eyes again, he was surrounded by blue sky.

  “It’s even more beautiful than I remember,” Palojax said.

  20

  THE THREE-HORNED HELMET

  Looking down from Palojax’s back, Wily could see they’d blasted out of the side of Cloudscrape Peak many miles to the north of the royal palace. From this height, everything below looked like the magical map in the palace’s reading room.

  “To the south,” Wily called out to Palojax. “Past the lake and—”

  “I remember where the palace is,” the frightclops said. “I was there when it was first being built.”

  Palojax gave a mighty flap of its large batwings, propelling them even higher into the sky. Valor sat next to Wily, peering over the side of the beast just like Wily. Below they could see a trail of ravaged forests and towns, most surely the work of the stone golem army. Wily hoped dearly they weren’t already too late.

  Pryvyd relaxed as the wind blew across his face. Righteous, on the other hand, was holding its sword aloft, careful to brandish it every time the fiery cobra looked back at them. Moshul sat in the middle of the great beast’s back, making sure he was as far away from the beast’s slimy tentacles as possible.

  Roveeka climbed up onto Moshul’s back and reached her hands upward. “I can almost touch the cloubs,” she said.

  “They’re called clouds,” Odette corrected.

  “I don’t care what they’re called,” Roveeka said. “I want to catch one and use it as my pillow.”

  “You go right ahead,” Odette said.

  Roveeka kept reaching into the clouds and tried to snag the moist air, with little success. “I wish all the hobgoblets of Undertown were here to see this,” Roveeka said as she waved her arms.

  Before long, the great lair beast was flying over the mountains north of the royal palace. Moving closer to their destination, they passed over the prisonaut.

  “Wait,” Wily called out to Palojax. “Stop there.”

  “What are you doing?” Odette asked.

  “My father’s involved in Stalag’s plan,” Wily said. “I need to know how.”

  As Palojax swooped out of the clouds and descended in a majestic spiral toward the prisonaut, Wily could see the women and men patrolling the high walls take cover behind their shields in fear. The lair beast landed with enough force to make all of Trumpet Pass tremble. Wily quickly hustled to the top of the frightclops’s head and waved his arms to signal the guards.

  “Prince Wily?” a soldier called out, puzzled.

  “I need to know how and when my father escaped from the prisonaut and if he left any clues behind,” Wily called out. “Did he use the screwdriver?”

  The soldier looked puzzled.

  “Escaped? You must be mistaken. He’s in his cell downstairs.”

  “I think you better check again,” Wily said.

  The soldier ran for the stairs in a panic. It took only a short moment before she was running back to the wall.

  “Prince Wily,” she called out, “Kestrel Gromanov is still in his cell.”

  “Are you sure it’s not a mechanical man he built?” Wily asked.

  “I touched him with my own hand,” the soldier said. “There is no question.”

  “I don’t under
stand,” Wily said. “The acorns showed a three-horned helmet just like the one my father wore when he was the Infernal King.”

  “She also told us to hide in the mud when danger came,” Valor said. “Maybe she never thought we would actually get the lair beast to join us. Nobody can see the future in its entirety.”

  “But the mural at Halberd Keep showed the planned attack on the royal palace,” Wily continued. “The Infernal King was part of that plan.”

  “What does a wall know?” Roveeka said.

  “The only walls I’m concerned with right now,” Odette said, “are the palace’s. We need to get there before the stone golems turn them to rubble.”

  Wily nodded. “Palojax,” he shouted, “take us to the palace!”

  The guards of the prisonaut took cover as the lair beast launched into the air once more. Wily’s mind was racing as Palojax flew to the outer walls of the royal palace. There were still so many questions. If the Oracle of Oak wasn’t mistaken, what did the three-horned helmet in her acorns mean? Could his father have been plotting something from within the prisonaut? And had Stalag and the cavern mages found the neccanite they’d been looking for? Wily just hoped that his mother, the Knights of the Golden Sun, and the just people of Panthasos had been able to hold off the golems.

  As they approached the royal palace, Wily was puzzled to see only a small group of soldiers standing in a line beside the drawbridge.

  “Where are all the other soldiers?” Wily shouted before Palojax had even landed.

  “They already left with your mother,” the soldier called back, “to face Stalag’s army of stone golems, cavern mages, and bone soldiers on the dry plains beyond Trumpet Pass. By now, the battle may have already begun.”

  Palojax didn’t need to be told where to go next. It tilted its wings and soared for the Parchlands. Wily’s heart was beating as strongly as the wings of the great lair beast as they came through the mountains.

  “Look down there,” Odette shouted, pointing into the distance.

  On the ground, two hundred stone golems were marching across the field toward Trumpet Pass, their heads nearly knocking into the aqueducts that zigzagged above them. Some of the golems were armed with clubs, others with swords, and still others with nothing but their fists. They were joined by hooded cavern mages, hobgoblets, bone soldiers, and oglodytes. Girthbellow hovered beside his troop of slither trolls. Leading them all on the back of a giant scorpion was none other than Stalag himself.

  Facing them was an army of humans, elves, gwarfs, and squatlings, forming a line across the dried fields, blocking the way to the royal palace. Wily could see his mother on the back of her horse, dressed in her Scarf outfit, parading in front of the line. The forces of good looked insignificant in the face of the coming threat, but they let out a loud cheer when they saw Palojax diving out of the sky and elegantly landing in the dry grass between the opposing forces. Wily realized just how crucial the lair beast was going to be in the coming battle.

  Stalag raised a bony hand up in the air, signaling his army of golems to stand in place. The oglodytes and boarcus seemed ready to flee in panic. Agorop and Sceely sat on their own scorpions, looking terrified.

  “I see that you have succeeded in your task,” Stalag shouted. Strangely, he didn’t seem to be particularly afraid of the legendary lair beast.

  “I won’t let you take the palace,” Wily shouted back, “or any of Panthasos. Palojax defeated the golems before; he’ll be able to do it again.”

  Palojax extended a wing, allowing the tip to lay flat on the ground. Wily and his companions slid down it and stepped onto the dry earth of the Parchlands.

  “He looks old and tired,” Stalag said with a ghoulish smile. “I don’t think he’s ready for this day.” He addressed Palojax directly. “Go back to the Below and hide away once more. This is not your fight.”

  The bear head of the lair beast let out a roar. Then the frightclops spoke. “You have made a foolish choice, mage.”

  “Alabaster, Quartz,” Stalag called to the two stone golems that had thrown Moshul from the mountain. “Show them what you can do.”

  The two stone golems ran for Palojax with clubs ready for pounding. The lair beast swung its spiked tail in a wide arc. The ball at the end hit the quartz-fingered golem in the chest, sending chips of stone flying as he was knocked off his feet. The alabaster-bearded golem lifted his club but never even got a chance to swing; Palojax’s fiery cobra fangs clamped down on his arm and ripped it clean off.

  “My arm!” the mighty golem cried out.

  “You’ve underestimated me for the last time,” Wily told Stalag. “Call back your golems now. And leave Panthasos forever.”

  “I’ve never underestimated you, son,” Stalag said. “I knew what you were planning. The oracle told me long ago. That’s why I needed you to get me the enchanted compass. I knew there would be no other way to find the neccanite.”

  Wily looked out at the golems standing beneath the aqueducts. All were white and gray, not a black one among them. “I don’t see any neccanite golems,” he said.

  “That’s because I built only one,” Stalag said.

  “You’re about to be grovblundered!” Agorop shouted gleefully.

  “Yes,” Girthbellow shouted. “There will be no cherry tomatoes to save your life this time.”

  “What are you talking about?” Wily asked, dread rising within him.

  “May I present,” Stalag shouted, “the Infernal Golem.”

  The mage raised his bony fingers into the air and fired a crackling bolt of darkness into the sky. The earth trembled with such force that Wily had to spread his legs and arms to balance himself.

  Then, out from between the high mountains, an enormous figure emerged—a golem of neccanite so big it made all the other golems look like children. The golem’s head had been carved into a giant helmet with three horns—exactly like the helmet of the Infernal King.

  “I thought this would be a fitting means of your destruction.” Stalag’s evil grin made Wily’s heart sink.

  This was the threat the oracle’s acorns had shown.

  The Infernal Golem marched across the earth, shaking it to its core, stepping over the aqueducts as if they were just sticks that had been tossed on the ground.

  “Boy, do you really want to rule all of Panthasos?” Stalag taunted Wily. “It’s a very big job for someone as young and sheltered as yourself. You’ll only fail.”

  Palojax’s three heads let out a mighty yell in unison, and the lair beast took to the sky. It flapped toward the sun before diving, heading straight for the Infernal Golem. But before Palojax could strike, the Infernal Golem grabbed the lair beast by the tail, plucking it out of the air. Then, with what seemed like no effort at all, he tossed the mighty lair beast back into the sky with such force that Palojax disappeared into the clouds.

  The lair beast wasn’t ready to surrender, though; it came shooting back out of the clouds and struck the Infernal Golem in the chest. Yet the great neccanite giant didn’t even seem to notice the beast’s attack. The golem lifted up the lair beast and threw it back toward Wily and his companions. They dodged out of the way as Palojax struck the earth, making a crater from the impact. Once the dust settled, Wily could see that the lair beast looked terrified, fearful expressions on all three of its faces.

  “You have nothing to do now but run and hide,” Stalag said with a laugh that made Wily’s arm hair bristle.

  “The oracle told us to sink into the mud,” Pryvyd said, dropping his shield to his side. “I’m afraid to say that right now, it doesn’t seem like such a terrible choice.”

  “I’m not ready to give up,” Wily said. “And I’m never going to hide away below the surface of the earth ever again.” He turned to the army standing in wait and called out to them in the loudest voice he could muster. “If we all stand tall together, we may defeat Stalag and we may not. But at least we’ll have tried.”

  Lumina nodded from the back of her hor
se. All the humans, elves, and squatlings raised their weapons in support. Righteous raised its sword so high the disembodied arm was practically soaring skyward.

  Wily called out to the recovering Palojax, “You battle the stone golems. We’ll take on the oglodytes and hobgoblets and cavern mages.”

  “And what will we do against the Infernal Golem?” Pryvyd asked.

  “Fight it together as one,” Wily said. “With you all by my side, I feel like anything’s possible.”

  “We wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Roveeka said.

  “Actually, I’d prefer to be picnicking in a peaceful glen,” Valor said.

  “That’s a good point,” Roveeka said. “I would like that better too. Especially if we had some mushroom skewers.”

  “But if we are to be standing in the face of insurmountable odds,” Valor said, “I want to do it at your side.”

  “For Panthasos,” Pryvyd called as Righteous pointed its sword ahead.

  The army of humans, elves, and squatlings charged toward the mass of bone soldiers that composed Stalag’s front line. As they moved closer to the enemy, Wily suddenly realized just how greatly outnumbered they were. There were three walking skeletons for every one of their warriors.

  “There aren’t enough of us,” Wily said.

  “We need a whole extra army,” Odette said.

  “Good idea,” Roveeka said from high on Moshul’s shoulders. She cupped her hands and shouted at the top of her lungs. “I am the Grand Slouch. And I need your help. Stand by my side.”

  Cavern mages, slither trolls, and bone soldiers looked up at the tiny hobgoblet with amusement.

  “Your rambles don’t scare us,” Girthbellow said. “Go back to the Below, little girl. You are not—”

  A club knocked Girthbellow out of the air. The cavern mage looked around to find a dozen formerly loyal hobgoblets tackling him.

  All the other cavern mages, slither trolls, and bone soldiers were swarmed from behind by the rest of the hobgoblets. “Grand Slouch! Grand Slouch! Grand Slouch!” they cheered.