Chapter 14
Lokey
glared around the hall in desperation. How could I possibly agreed to five
minutes?!, he thought wildly. Everything in here is giving
off magic! He turned to the nearest room and ran in.
It
was a large laboratory with millions of different vials and bottles everywhere,
all dusty from heavy disuse. I hope she's not in any of these, he sighed
to himself, trying to center his focus on her. He wasn't even sure what kind of
magic aura he was looking for when it came to him. True, there was a great deal
of magic around, but most of it was rather dormant. Only hers and any other
magic beings in the place would most likely show any activity. Not only that,
he thought, hers will be the smallest active aura.
Armed
with this knowledge, he tried to concentrate again. Strangely enough, the
nearest aura was right above him. He looked up and saw nothing but one of the
fancier style magic orb lights that lit the room. That explains the activity,
he thought with a sigh, and brings me to another dead end. Surely he'd
already spent a minute or more in this one room and he still had the whole
castle and all its potential hiding spots to go. He moved to run out and was
stopped by Drianna's presence in the doorway.
"Dri,
you traitor!" he snapped. "Get out of my...!"
"Don't
you know an avoidance spell when you see one, elf?" said she. She pushed
past him and muttered a few words at the light orb. Slowly, its outer aspect
faded and became transparent. Lokey was inwardly shocked to find not the light
he'd originally assumed it was, but the sphere Crystal was in.
"That's
what avoidance spells do, stupid," he retorted, reaching up to grab
the orb. "You're not supposed to know when you see one." He
looked at Crystal in the sphere, then noticed her cut arm and asked, "Are
you okay? She didn't hurt you, did she? That cut..."
"Are
you concerned?" asked Drianna, with a knowing smirk.
"Magbert
wants to know," said Lokey, saving himself from an embarrassing break in
character.
"No,
I cut myself trying to escape," Crystal said morosely.
"Okay,
so why are you just sitting there? Get up and get out?"
"I
can't!" she wailed. "She took my magic away."
"What
do you mean, she took it away?"
"She
did, that's all. I can't sing anymore and I'll probably die here,
so just leave me here and go on without me." Crystal slumped to the bottom
of her sphere as she spoke until she lay miserably curled up in the center.
Lokey
looked at Drianna, who frowned. "If she'd had all her magic taken away,
she'd be a little Crystal statue right now," said Drianna, in an
undertone.
"I
know that!" muttered Lokey back. Women, he thought in exasperation.
"Listen, you bowheaded moth-winged twit," he snapped. "Stop
sitting around feeling sorry for yourself and fight back already! I'm
sick of listening to you whine!"
"Lokey!"
gasped Drianna. Even Crystal looked up at him in open-mouthed shock for a moment,
then squinted in anger.
"What's
the matter?" added Lokey tauntingly. "Truth hurt?"
Infuriated,
Crystal balled her fists up at her side, then closed her eyes, jumped up and
screamed a pitch that nearly shattered Lokey's eardrums. The sphere in his hand
began to vibrate as she held her pitch and he let it go to cover his ears. It
began to fall, but shattered before it hit the ground, breaking into tiny
translucent pieces. Crystal quickly zoomed upward, flying around Lokey's head
while singing a vengeful little tune that gave him the feeling he was being
swatted at about the head. He took cover behind his arms and laughed until she
stopped.
"I
do not have moth wings!" she said, flying directly into his face.
"You're
out," he pointed out with a grin.
"I
am?" she gasped, suddenly noticing. "I am! B-But how..."
"Maybe
you hit an escape key," he replied, still grinning. Dri and Crys winced at
the horrible pun and rolled their eyes at him.
"No
more pun-nishment," said Dri. "Let's get you guys out of here."
"Waitaminute,
aren't you coming with us?" Crystal asked.
"God
forbid," muttered Lokey.
"Quit
it, Lokey. Well, aren't you?"
"Crys,
I don't have time to explain it now, but I just can't," said Drianna
somewhat exasperatedly. "Now hurry up and get Magbert away from Kathyrn
because he's gonna need you a lot more than I will. And take this with
you." Drianna took the luck charm from around her neck and handed it back
to Crystal. As it shrunk to her size, Lokey frowned.
"Truth
hurts, huh, Drianna?" he said, gazing steadily at her. Drianna looked back
at him while Crystal hovered between them, confused. Just as Drianna opened her
mouth to speak again, Lokey added, "Come on, Crys, we better move it, or
you'll lose a boyfriend." He turned and left.
Crystal
wasn't sure she wanted to leave, but she was positive she didn't want to lose
Magbert to anyone. She gave Drianna a parting "I'll-miss-you" glance,
then streaked out the door after Lokey, leaving Drianna to wrestle with
herself.
Meanwhile,
still in the clutches of Pathos the Demon, Magbert would have been quite ready
to happily pass out from the semi strangling grip, except his mind kept
focusing on self-sacrificing methods of escape for his friends. If Drianna was
going to be as easily manipulated by Kathyrn as he and Lokey had already
witnessed, then he could kiss his life goodbye for the second time. He was
hardly in a position to attempt an escape and he knew it.
But
Lokey and Crystal could escape if I could just get them to leave without me,
he thought. As he began to black out, they charged into the room, neither one
noticing him.
"You
found her, I see," said Kathyrn.
"Naturally,"
Lokey replied.
"Then
you are free to go." Go!, thought Magbert, trying to regain his
senses enough to make any sort of audible sound.
"Not
without Magbert," he heard Lokey say firmly. He could barely make out
Crystal's faint affirmation of the statement, partially due to her size and
partially to the fact that he was nearly unconscious. Scratch one selfless
escape plan, he thought dejectedly as his world faded on him.
Kathryn
laughed at their loyalty, then gestured toward Magbert in the corner. The two
looked over and saw him hanging limply in the demon's grasp. Crystal shrieked
angrily and made a beeline for Pathos, flying around his head to distract him.
"Let him go!" she yelled. "Put him down!"
Lokey,
gearing himself up for a demon control spell, snapped, "Move, Crystal, I
got this one!"
Kathyrn,
not phased in the least, said, "You needn't bother, elf; the demon isn't
real. He is wholly my creation, which is why I control him." Lokey,
not bothering to take her at her word, cast his spell at the demon.
Pathos,
frowning in annoyance at the elusive sprite circling his head, turned to his
mistress in irritation. "Mistress..." he began, swatting absently at
Crystal.
"Set
him down, Pathos, but don't let him escape," said Kathyrn. "And, yes,
you may detain the sprite." The demon grinned and let Magbert drop to the
floor, setting his more immediate efforts on trying to grab Crystal. She
prudently flew behind the still shocked Lokey, out of reach.
"Truly,
you've made a grave error, elf," said Kathyrn. No doubt!, he
thought to himself as she continued. "By now, you could have saved
yourself and been on your way to a long and uninterrupted existence. Drianna
certainly won't be leaving and your gnome friend has chosen to die with this
little bit of insignificance."
Before
Lokey could reply, a small tune near him made him look at Crystal, who suddenly
became the calmly defiant human-sized sprite in front of him. "You,"
she said, hands on her her hips, "have treated me as a thing from the
moment you laid eyes on me. Talk directly to me and with respect, or
don't talk about me at all." Then, she added in a lower tone to Lokey,
"So I got sick of being a bowhead."
Lokey
stared at her in surprise. It had never occured to him that Crystal, or any
other female, might actually have moments of unemotional composure; in other
words, not be a bowhead. Still, now wasn't the time to sit gawking over
it. "Drianna's comings and goings are of her own concern," he began.
"She's...welcome to join us if she wishes. Crystal and I have come
specifically to get Magbert." Crystal beamed at him and he realized, to
his great chagrin, that he had allied himself with two women within a span of
15 seconds, something he hadn't planned to do again in the next 15 eons.
"Then
you choose to die with...Crystal?" asked Kathyrn, smiling faintly as she
spoke the name.
Lokey
looked at Crystal, who had turned away from the conversation to go to Magbert's
side again. She ignored the demon, who was quite thrown off by her change in
size, knelt down next to Magbert and took his head in her lap. Lokey saw the
way she lovingly stroked Magbert's face and knew he couldn't just leave either
of them. That would be dishonorable as well as undesirable. "I choose to
stand by my friends," he replied, at last.
"Then
you are a bigger fool than I had assumed," said Kathyrn. The demon
disappeared and Kathyrn rose, no longer looking mildly interested in the
proceedings.
Lokey,
sensing the imminent attack, hurled a force spell at Kathyrn. She raised one
hand to deflect it and bounced back to Lokey, throwing him backward against the
wall near Magbert and Crystal. "I think now would be a good time to
go," he whispered to Crystal in a strained voice, as Kathyrn added, almost
regretfully,
"Drianna
has had her opportunity to save your lives and failed. You, Crystal, will die
first."
"But
why?" asked Crystal, looking like a betrayed child. "What did
I do to you?"
"The
explanation takes more time and effort than I choose to bestow upon you,"
said Kathyrn. "Simply know that you are merely an example to someone dear
to me. The rest of your friends chose to die with you." Crystal looked at
Lokey, who closed his eyes and shrugged.
Several
things happened at once.
Lokey
opened his mouth to speedily cast a large teleportation spell.
Kathyrn
pointed a finger at Crystal, who was already contorting her face in pain as she
prepared to sing a spell much the same as Lokey's while simultaneously leaning
over to protect Magbert.
From
the hallway, a huge crash of solid oak drew everyone's attention to the door.
And
Magbert, who had been unconscious until this moment, awoke to the triply
interesting sight of his girlfriend's breasts and Ian charging into the room
between them, brandishing a nymph and closely followed by his broadsword...or
was that the other way around and did it really matter?, he thought,
grinning weakly.