"This is great fun, huh, Arim?" Ralph had been enjoying this little jaunt now that it was just him and Arim tromping through the dungeon. Arim's mind tricks had already scared off a number of Sleepwalkers posted as guards, and they had almost forgotten they were looking for Katamobi.
"Huh, Arim?" Ralph turned to look at his friend, and the young Maychorian wasn't there.
"Arim?" Ralph became aware of the sound of marching feet. He realized he was standing in a corridor more brightly lit than all the halls he'd traversed before.
Ralph's heart began to rise into his throat. The sound of marching was getting nearer! Ralph ducked into a side-tunnel and peeked around the corner as a column of marching Katamobi thundered by.
Huge dark beasts with horns, tails, bulging muscle, and weapons of gargantuan size marched down the hall. Murderous red and yellow eyes peered from beneath hooded eyebrows, sulfurous breath puffed from flared nostrils. Dozens of creatures passed Ralph, each different in its own hideous, mutant way. A diverse panoply of monster and freaks, all headed for the dungeon door.
Despite all he tried to make it stop, Ralph's brave heart pounded in terror. His fingernails dug into the stone wall he'd pressed his body against. His green eyes were wide, his small body tense and trembling with fear and adrenaline. It was his first real sight of bipedal Katamobi, and for some reason they were much more frightening than the dragon. But he still intended to fight with all he had, and had no idea that that was real courage.
He was beginning to think they would all pass by without noticing him. But the last Katamobe of the company, a smaller specimen with tiny horns protruding all over its body, turned and spotted him. Though a little smaller than the others, the monster still dwarfed Ralph, and the boy took off running as the demon flew in hot pursuit.
Ralph ran down the dimly lit tunnel, panting like a fish out of water, his head dizzy and chest aching as he listened to the pounding steps behind him. All too soon he reached a rocky wall. A dead-end!
The boy turned to face the awful creature thundering up behind him.
Ralph was trapped.
Eben could almost enjoy these hand-to-hand battles. He knew he was on the right side, and these evil creatures deserved to die. The youth was acquitting himself well and had yet to be wounded. It was gratifying to watch another ugly Katamobe fall beneath his sword and crumble to nothing in the morning sun.
The young warrior looked up from his latest conquest, a goblin with knobby joints now drying to dust. He realized he was a little removed from the battle-now in full swing with roars and cries and the sound of metal on metal-and was about to launch himself back into the fray when a huge bellow grabbed his attention.
Eben spun on his heel and saw Lunehyder crashing towards him, immense blade raised like a club. The young man stepped back with one foot to brace himself as his sword flashed up to meet the blow. With a roar the Katamobe brought his weapon down, and was driven off-balance and stumbled past his smaller opponent when the thrust was deflected with a ringing of blades and a push of Eben's strong young arm.
"Die, little Man!" shouted the Katamobe as Eben dodged his second swing. "I warned you! You have brought the anger of Lunehyder down upon you, and I will crush you like a dung beetle!"
Eben ducked under another blow and thrust his own sword in, cutting a deep slash in the Vorprix's thigh, which was about shoulder-level to the young man. "I serve the King!" he cried boldly.
Lunehyder screamed in pain. "You will suffer for that, little human!"
The Katamobe's fist, larger than Eben's head, lashed out and struck the young man on the temple. Eben fell to the ground with a cry of pain, the blood streaming from his head. He nearly blacked out as darkness closed in on his vision, and for a moment he was too weak to rise.
Lunehyder laughed as his opponent struggled to lift his sword. "You will now die, puny one!" He lifted his great weapon for the final blow.
Sarah took them directly to Ryoo in the throne room, dropped Morrévril in a corner, then slipped out immediately, unable to bear staying around her sister any longer. Too many conflicting emotions had risen up in her during their brief conversation, too many doubts. Sarah was no longer sure what she wanted: the power in Ryoo's iron figure, or the peace in the gentle gray eyes of her sister and brother.
Ryoo hardly noticed Sarah's quiet departure. Now that she had her hands on that accursed Terran girl, she had no more use for her apprentice.
"Well!" the terrible queen exclaimed in malignant delight. "You must be Cheryl. And this must be Lenny."
"Yes, Ryoo," Cheryl calmly responded.
Quick fire flashed in Ryoo's dark eyes. "You will address me as Highness, girl! Bow before me!"
"We cannot."
The girl's unruffled reply enraged the Witch. "You will obey!"
Dark tentacles of power reached from Ryoo to the gray-eyed girl and attempted to force her to her knees. But Cheryl's joints and will were tightly locked. "You are not my master, Ryoo. I serve the King." Cheryl stood under the assault.
Lenny's heart was in his mouth, though he decided to stand with his sister. But when he tried to tell the Witch that, no sound came.
Ryoo's attention was fixed on the defiant maid. "Worship me!"
"No."
"You will do as I say and fall down before Kataphage and me, his representative, or you will die!"
"Then I will see my Maker today."
With a wrathful cry, Ryoo called upon all the power of her wicked master. The black power bristled at her fingertips for a moment, and then she threw the ball of dark lightning at the girl before her.
Cheryl felt every nerve in her body fire. She fought to keep from falling under the excruciating pain. Lenny tried to support her, but she slipped from his grasp and fell limply, nearly unconscious.
Ryoo laughed. "Then if you won't bow, lie there!"
The Witch readied herself to cast the spell that would make Cheryl a Sleepwalker.
Lenny swallowed hard and began backing away.
The situation had never been blacker.
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