Authors: Dean Lorey
“What…what did you just do?” Charlie cried out, numb with shock.
“Simply what was necessary,” Pinch replied. “We can’t very well give something as important as this to the Guardian without testing it first, now, can we?”
“But you drank all of it!”
“Not all of it. Just one sip, in fact. There’s another one left, see?” He showed them the tiny container. There was, in fact, a little bit of the Hydra milk left in it.
“You thief!” Charlie shouted. “The Mother Hydra is dead. If that’s not enough to save the Guardian, we can’t get any more!”
“Hey, guys,” Theodore said cheerfully, walking over to them, oblivious of what had just happened. He was still basking in the glow of the attention from the other students over his Hydra kill. “You know, this Nethermancy thing isn’t half bad. See, you just have to figure out how to use it for offense. I mean, it’s true that you can’t win without a good defense but, you know, everyone likes to score sometimes.” He eyed Charlie and Violet curiously. “What’s wrong? You guys look like you just saw an Acidspitter in your cornflakes.”
“What’s wrong,” Violet said, “is that Pinch drank the Hydra milk.”
“What?” Theodore cried out, turning to him. “Are you deranged?”
“Just a sip,” Pinch replied.
“Just a—” Unable to contain his rage, Theodore stormed toward the man, rolling his sleeves up over his skinny arms as if readying for battle. “After all we went through just to get that stupid stuff, you decided to take some yourself? I don’t care if you are an adult—I’m gonna knock your head clean off!”
“Wait!” Charlie yelled.
“What?”
“Look.”
Something was happening to Pinch. His face was contorted in pain, and all his muscles were tensed as if he’d just been zapped with a cattle prod. He began to shake violently. Charlie, scared the man was going to spill the remaining milk, rushed over and took the container from him, capping it immediately.
“What’s wrong?” Violet asked.
“I…I don’t know…,” the bearded man groaned. He dropped to his knees, closed his eyes tightly, and cried out in agony. “Oh, it hurts!”
“Something’s gone wrong,” Charlie said. “Somebody get somebody! Get Mama Rose!”
But before anyone could move, a curious thing happened—
All the hair in Pinch’s beard fell out of his face and dropped to the sand below. It was a shocking sight—he looked so different now that he was clean shaven, so much younger.
And that’s when Charlie realized that it wasn’t just the lack of beard that was making him look younger. He actually was younger. The wrinkles around his mouth and eyes had smoothed out, the few extra pounds he carried around his middle had melted away, and he had begun to shrink, losing one inch off his height, then two, then more.
“What’s happening?” Violet whispered.
Charlie shook his head. “I really don’t know.”
The wrinkles, inches, and pounds continued to fall off Pinch until his gray suit hung on him so loosely that he looked like a child playing dress-up in Daddy’s clothes. The skin of his face was unblemished, and the whites of his eyes were clear and strong.
“Absolutely incredible,” Pinch said, and Charlie was shocked to hear that he now sounded like a teenager. “It worked! The elixir actually worked—it returned me to when I was most powerful!”
Charlie stared in awe at the thirteen-year-old boy who stood in front of him: the thirteen-year-old boy who used to be Pinch.
He had become a kid again.
“NP,” Theodore muttered in disbelief. “Not possible.”
Violet shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”
“I wonder,” Pinch said in that strange, prepubescent voice of his, “if the Gift has returned, along with my youth.”
He held out his right hand and closed his eyes. Purple fire crackled across him, and in the long shadow of the Nightmare Academy, a large portal snapped open, leading to the darkness of the Nether.
They all looked through it, astonished.
“You did it,” Theodore exclaimed. “You actually opened a portal!”
“You got the Gift back,” Charlie said. “You really did!”
“I did, didn’t I?” Pinch replied, and then began to weep with happiness.
That’s truly bizarre, Charlie thought, as he watched Pinch wearing the jeans and red t-shirt he’d just loaned him. They fit well. The boy (man, Charlie reminded himself) was about his size and weight, but that’s where the similarities ended—Pinch’s hair was dark, as were his eyes, and his complexion was as pale as a flounder’s belly.
“Here it is,” Pinch said, pulling a weathered case out from under the hammock where he slept. His cabin in the Nightmare Academy was small and spare—there were no pictures, no personal effects, no comforts of home. He brushed the dust off the case, then opened it with something like reverence.
Inside lay a shiny weapon with a sharp, curved blade and a beautifully detailed handle made of onyx.
“My sickle,” Pinch said with an almost gleeful grin, lifting it. The moment his hand touched it, the weapon glowed with a cold blue fire. “I haven’t picked this up since…” He let his voice trail off. “Well, since a long time ago.”
“Pinch,” Charlie prodded gently.
“Yes?”
“We need to leave. The Headmaster is waiting for the milk.”
“Indeed.” Pinch stood, still gripping the sickle.
“Do you want to portal us there,” Charlie asked, “or—”
“You do it. I’m a bit out of practice.”
“Okay.” Charlie turned to Violet and Theodore. “Get ready. We’re going to be heading straight into the 5th Ring, as close to the BT Graveyard as I can get us. There’s gonna be monsters there—maybe a ton.”
“Do you have the milk?” Violet asked.
Charlie nodded. “Sure do.” He checked his pocket anyway. The elixir was there, safe and sound. “Okay, here we go.” Purple flames crackled across him as he began to open a portal.
The 5th Ring was crawling with monsters. Charlie was dismayed to see that the vicious beasts had gotten much closer to where the Guardian was holed up—some of them had managed to get near enough to touch the ruined ships on the outskirts of the BT Graveyard.
“Oh, dear,” Pinch said. “They’ve advanced significantly. The Guardian must be very weak. His aura is waning. I hope we’re not too late.”
“We have to hurry.” Charlie drew his rapier. “I wish I had a great plan to tell you—something smart and clever—but it looks like we’re just gonna have to fight our way to the graveyard.”
“That’s pretty far,” Violet said, eyeing the many monster-filled yards they would have to travel.
“True, but we’ve got one more Banisher with us now.”
“Indeed you do.” Pinch raised his curved sickle. It glowed with a blue brilliance, clearly a far finer weapon than the ones Charlie and Violet carried.
“Theodore?” Charlie said.
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
“You just be ready to portal us out in case things go bad, okay?”
“Yeah, sure. I guess that’s all I’m good for since I’m not a Banisher like the rest of you.”
Normally, Charlie would have tried to lift his pal’s spirits, but there was just no time. In the scant few seconds that the portal had been open, the power of the Guardian had diminished even further, and the monsters of the Nether were beginning to make their way into the heart of the BT Graveyard.
“Here we go,” Charlie said. Rapier raised high, he rushed through the portal and into the Nether, followed by the others.
It wasn’t long before the first attack.
Two Class-5 Dangeroos plummeted out of the sky to land in front of them with a thud. The monsters bared their fangs and growled, acting nothing like the friendly animals that they vaguely resembled. Wasting no time, Charlie, Violet, and Pinch waded in, weapons flying.
He’s good, Charlie thought as he watched Pinch wield his sickle. Even though it had been years since Pinch had used his powers, the weapon flashed and twisted expertly under his command.
“First one’s down!” Violet yelled, and then they all turned their attention to the second Dangeroo. Deadly as the creature was, the three skilled Banishers cut it down to size in a matter of moments.
And that was when they heard the small voice from behind them:
“Help me…”
Charlie turned to see a little boy about seven years old standing with his back to the tangled, mustard-colored crystals of the 5th Ring. He was crying, his eyes wild with panic.
“They took me!” the child screamed. “Those kangaroo monsters—I had a nightmare!”
“They must have snatched him and sent him to finish off the Guardian,” Violet said. “What do you want to do?”
Charlie glanced around quickly. Now alerted to their presence, Class-5 monsters were closing in on them from all sides. Charlie could even see some of them creeping up behind the boy through the razor-sharp crystals.
“We gotta get that kid outa here. Right now. Back to the Academy.”
“No time,” Pinch shot back. “We must get the milk to the Guardian first. That is absolutely vital.”
“I agree, but if we take the kid with us, he’ll slow us down.”
“We can’t just leave him here!” Violet said. “He’ll die!”
“Everyone will die if the Guardian dies!” Pinch replied.
Charlie closed his eyes in thought. The Headmaster had warned him that there might be other kids stranded in the Nether and that he should save them if he could, but she’d also said that nothing was more important than fulfilling their mission and getting the milk to the Guardian as soon as possible. It was a tough choice.
“All right,” he said finally. “We’ll split up. Theodore, you go portal the kid back to the Academy. Violet, you go with him and protect him while he does.”
“But what about the milk?” Theodore asked.
“Pinch and I will get it to the Guardian.”
“I don’t know,” Violet said. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for us to separate like that.”
“They’re coming!” the little boy screamed as he spotted the monsters approaching from behind: A couple of Netherstalkers and what looked like a Darkling were slithering toward the child through the gloom.
“Go now!” Charlie yelled. “We’re out of time!”
Still a little unsure, Theodore and Violet ran back toward the frightened boy as Pinch responded to an incoming attack by a Netherbat with a furious flurry of strokes from his sickle. Charlie joined in and soon they were engaged in desperate combat with several of the flying Nethercreatures.
Theodore, meanwhile, was focusing on opening a portal back to the Nightmare Academy while Violet’s ax rose and fell against the Darkling and Netherstalkers that threatened to eat the little boy.
“How’s that portal?” she shouted as the petrified child wrapped his arms around her waist, weeping heavily.
“Here it comes!”
Theodore’s portal popped open right in front of them. Through it, they could see the sandy beach in front of the Nightmare Academy.
“Perfect!” Violet said. “Follow me!” She and the little boy rushed into the portal, followed by Theodore.
As soon as they were on the other side, Theodore turned back to Charlie. “We made it!” he shouted. “Everything’s cool here!”
“Great!” Charlie yelled as he and Pinch killed the last of the attacking Netherbats. “Now close the portal before anything else gets through!”
“Wait!” Violet shouted, eyes wide. She began to back away from the child they had just rescued. “Uh, Charlie? You better take a look at this.”
Charlie turned and, looking through the portal, saw the little boy standing on the beach, shaking violently. At first, he thought that the kid was just so scared that he couldn’t stop trembling, but then Charlie noticed something odd—
The boy’s face began to droop and then it actually melted, running off his skull like hot candle wax.
“Do you remember what I said about being as unchanging as the rock I burrow through?” the boy cackled with a crazy, distorted grin. “I lied.”
Oh no, Charlie thought. It can’t be.
The rest of the child’s skin slid away to reveal a wormlike creature underneath. Around its middle was a blackly glittering Artifact of the Nether.
“Slagguron,” Charlie gasped.
“Told you we’d meet again,” the Third Named replied with a laugh.
“He’s a Changeling!” Violet exclaimed as Slagguron started growing. Soon, he was nearly half the size of the Nightmare Academy itself.
“What’s a Changeling?” Theodore asked, backing away from the morphing creature.
“They’re like Mimics, but instead of turning into a copy of something, they can turn into anything they want—but only for short periods of time.”
“All very true,” Slagguron boomed. “You thought you had outsmarted me in the Hydra cave, but who is the smart one now? As soon as you said you were planning to rescue stranded children, I knew your pathetic human desire to ‘do good’ would lead to my victory!”
“And he accused me of being sly,” Charlie muttered, as he and Pinch watched Slagguron’s transformation from their vantage point in the Nether.
“Well, he certainly fooled us,” Pinch said darkly. “I had no idea that this was his true nature. We thought no one had ever laid eyes on Slagguron, but who knows how many times we saw him and just didn’t know it?”
“Charlie, what do we do?” Violet yelled through the portal, but before he could answer, it snapped closed, leaving Violet and Theodore at the Nightmare Academy while Charlie and Pinch remained in the Nether.
“Should we go back and help them?” Pinch asked.
Charlie shook his head. “No. To help them, we have to go forward.”
He turned to see a flood of monsters coming toward them now that the distraction of Slagguron was gone.
“You ready to do this, Pinch?”
“Oh, I’m ready,” Pinch replied. “Are you?”
“Definitely.”
Charlie rushed toward the attacking Class 5s, weapon raised. Pinch followed, only steps behind. They closed the distance between themselves and the BT Graveyard in a blur of swinging steel, sticky black ichor, and flying monster parts. As they fought, Charlie glanced over at Pinch and was shocked to see how elegantly the boy (man, he stubbornly corrected himself) banished his share of Nethercreatures. He was awesomely good, and Charlie was struck once again by what a crime it was that the Nightmare Division had tried to destroy such an astonishing talent.
Soon, almost without realizing it, Charlie and Pinch found themselves safe in the BT Graveyard, leaving behind a trail of dead, bleeding monsters.
“Quite remarkable,” Pinch said, glancing back at their handiwork. “We did all that?”
Charlie nodded. “Not bad for a thirteen-year-old and a guy who looks like a thirteen-year-old.”
Pinch laughed, and for just a moment Charlie could see the boy he must once have been—the boy who had only wanted to do good and be liked.
But then Pinch grew serious again. “Where’s the Guardian?”
“This way,” Charlie replied. Running through the maze of wrecked ships, he led Pinch toward the one where the Guardian made its home.
I wonder what’s going on back at the Nightmare Academy, Charlie thought with dread, weaving through the towering hulks of boats that would never again see an ocean. Has Slagguron started his attack? Are my friends even still alive?
The students of the Nightmare Academy rushed out onto all the available decks, catwalks, and branches, staring in silent awe at the Lord of the Nether. Brooke watched from the pirate ship at the very top with Geoff by her side.
“Wow,” she said. “I can promise you one thing: This wouldn’t have happened if I’d gone with them.”
“Riiiight,” Geoff replied skeptically.
“The Guardian is dead,” Slagguron roared. “Or close to it. The crippling effects of its aura are now no more than a tickle. I have waited many long years to come to Earth and start my destruction.”
“Well, you know what they say?” Theodore yelled up to him, still standing on the beach. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”
“They also say something else,” Slagguron thundered in reply. “Might makes right—which makes me very, very right.”
“Hey, you!” a voice shouted in a thick southern twang.
Slagguron swiveled his head to see Mama Rose standing on the deck of the Academy’s galley. Food for lunch was laid out carefully on worn, wooden tables.
“That’s right, I’m talking to you, fella! Now, I know you’re a big dang deal and all, but these are just kids around here—kids who should be inside and not out gawking at the giant monster!” She directed that last part at the students behind her. They scattered, disappearing into the ships of the Academy like frightened mice. She turned back to Slagguron. “Now, I know you wanna do some killin’, but you gotta take it somewhere else. I’m sure even a big ol’ Lord of the Nether like you don’t wanna be hurtin’ children!”
“That,” Slagguron said, “is where you’re wrong.”
Then, with the force of a thousand wrecking balls, he reared back and slammed his body into the trunk of the banyan tree.
Charlie was pretty sure he had never seen anything as close to death as the Guardian. The frail creature was now a sickly yellow. Its chest rose and fell in shallow, wheezing gasps. Its big eyes were glassy and unfocused, and its cracked skin wept a thin, puslike fluid.
“Oh no,” Charlie said. “Are we too late?”
“It’s still breathing,” Pinch replied.
Just then, the Headmaster entered behind Charlie and Pinch. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you first arrived,” she said. “I had to banish some Acidspitters that had drawn too close.”
With a quick snap of her wrist, she collapsed her metal staff, now black with monster blood, to the size of a small rod and put it away in a fold of her dress.
“Who is this?” she said, glancing at Pinch.
“It’s me, Edward,” he replied. “Edward Pinch.”
The Headmaster’s eyes widened. “I see. I see…. This must mean that you got the milk, then?”
Charlie nodded. “Here you go.”
He handed the Chapstick tube to the Headmaster.
She took it from him gratefully, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank you very much, Mr. Benjamin…and Mr. Pinch. I’m sure you both have many interesting adventures to speak of, and I would like to hear them all—as soon as the Guardian has recovered, of course. As you can see, he is feeling poorly.”
“Please, give it to him,” Charlie said. “We need him strong. Right away.”
The Headmaster held Charlie’s gaze. “Why do I have the feeling that you have something…unfortunate to tell me, Mr. Benjamin?”
“I do. And I will. After you give the Guardian the milk.”
Suddenly, a horrible shriek ripped through the Nether. It was so close that the glass windows of the warship shattered from the vibration.
“Tyrannus draws near,” the Headmaster said. “He knows the Guardian will soon be dead.”
She removed the cap from the tube and, careful not to touch the creature, poured the last of the elixir into the dying Guardian’s mouth.
The impact was astonishing.
The sheer force of Slagguron’s assault caused the great tree to rock violently. Two boats—a clipper ship where Mama Rose stood that served as the Academy’s galley and a small sloop that was home to the laundry—were ripped from the branches on which they rested. The people inside screamed as they plunged to the ground.
Theodore, acting purely on instinct, lashed out with his right hand, instantly creating a large portal beneath the falling vessels. They sailed through it and into the 1st Ring of the Nether—a hundred feet in the air.
Without thinking, Theodore leaped into the portal after them.
As he fell through the Nether alongside the spiraling ships, he closed the portal above him and then opened a new one below, causing the boats to plummet through that portal and straight into the ocean in front of the Nightmare Academy, where they landed in a great explosion of water. The impact was rough, but not nearly as devastating as it would have been if the ships had slammed into solid ground.
After plunging into the warm ocean himself, Theodore surfaced and started to help the injured people escape from the sinking vessels. The first one he came to was Mama Rose.
“Well, look at you, boy,” she said with a smile as Theodore pulled her free. “You may just have a future at this Nethermancy thing after all.”
“Imagine that,” Theodore said, smiling back.
As he continued to rescue the victims of Slagguron’s first attack, Violet—blind with rage—raced toward the Named beast, ax at the ready. She grabbed on to the lowest of his centipedelike legs and, using them as a ladder, began to climb up them toward his massive head.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Slagguron said, noticing her the way a horse might notice a fly. With one quick shake of his body, he sent Violet soaring. She tumbled wildly through the air, toward the Nightmare Academy, and slammed hard into the rough-hewn railing of the pirate ship. She tried to grab on to it but missed and started to tumble to the ground far below, when she heard a familiar voice—
“Got you!”
Brooke snatched Violet by the arm. With one strong yank, she pulled the young Banisher up onto the deck of the ship.
“Thanks,” Violet said, out of breath. “If you hadn’t been here…”
“Don’t mention it.” Brooke smiled warmly.
Violet turned and jumped onto one of the Nightmare Academy’s elevatorlike dinghies. She swung it back and forth on its long rope like a pendulum. Then, using all her strength, she leaped from the dinghy and onto Slagguron’s buglike face, where his thousands of short, waving arms couldn’t reach.
“Get off me, human!” he roared.
Without a word, Violet raised her ax and sank it deep into the great beast’s left eye.
He screamed in pain so loudly that the ground trembled.
“Now, you die!” he thundered, then reared back to slam Violet into the Academy’s massive trunk.
“No!” Theodore yelled. “Violet!”
But just before Slagguron could smear Violet against the side of the great tree, the Named beast screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground with the force of an asteroid hitting the Earth. Violet rode him all the way down, using the meat of his body to cushion the enormous impact of the fall.
“Unbelievable!” Theodore said, racing up to her. “Did you do that to him?”
Violet shook her head. “No way.”
Slagguron tried to rise before collapsing, once again, to the ground.
“What’s wrong with him?” Theodore asked.
“Charlie and Pinch must have revived the Guardian!” Violet exclaimed happily. She slid down the side of the huge creature and landed on the sand with catlike agility. “The Academy’s defenses are back up.”
“Wow, look how strong the Guardian’s aura is! Even all the way out here, it’s still totally crippling.”
Hard plates slammed down over Slagguron’s face, creating a point like a drill bit. Violet realized that she had seen him do this once before. “He’s getting ready to escape!” she shouted.
“Uh-oh, I think you’re right.”
Without another word, Theodore opened a portal to the 1st Ring of the Nether.
“What in the world are you doing?”
“You’ll see,” he said, and ran through.
The Guardian’s recovery was astonishing.
Moments after he drank the Hydra milk, the sickly orange color of his skin faded, replaced by a green that looked vibrant and healthy. His cloudy eyes became clear, and even though he was not a large creature, his body seemed to fill out and strengthen.
“All right!” Charlie exclaimed. “He’s getting better!”
Then, from all around them, they heard screams of pain.
Charlie ran out on the deck to see the many beasts of the Nether retreating in agony as the aura of the Guardian flowed out across the graveyard of ships. The loudest shriek of all came from above, as Tyrannus tumbled violently out of the sky to crash into the harsh ground in an explosion of mustard-colored crystals.
“TREACHERY!” he screamed, staggering to his feet, his bat wings twisted comically beneath him. “Unfair! Unfair! The Guardian should be DEAD so I can paint the ground RED with blood from your HEAD!”
“Actually,” Charlie said, turning to Pinch, “Theodore came up with the last part of that rhyme.”
The Headmaster walked out to join them. “As you can see, the Guardian is strong once again. Come, we must now return to the Nightmare Academy.”
“If it’s still there,” Charlie muttered.
“What was that, Mr. Benjamin?”
“I said I can’t wait to get there.”
She walked past them, away from the portal-dampening effect of the great, red Anomaly up above. Charlie turned to follow until he heard a small, soft voice behind him.
“Hold me,” the Guardian said, standing in the doorway of the ship it called home. “It’s so cold here in the Nether, and so lonely….”
He’s right. It is lonely in the Nether, Charlie thought, staring into the pleading eyes of the gentle creature. What a sad, miserable life it leads—he can’t touch anything here, and no humans can touch him.
“Sorry, Hank,” Charlie said softly. “You know I can’t do that. I have to go now. Good luck to you.”
Tearing his eyes away from the frail, needy creature, Charlie turned and ran after the Headmaster. After all this time in the Nether, he was desperate to get back to his friends.
As Charlie and Pinch arrived at the Nightmare Academy through a portal made by the Headmaster, Slagguron, still in terrible pain, rose up into the air. With all his remaining strength, he dived headfirst into the ground. There was a great explosion of sand and soon he was gone from view, leaving behind an enormous tunnel that snaked into the dark depths of the Earth.
“Slagguron,” the Headmaster said.
Charlie glanced nervously at her. “That’s what I wanted to tell you about, actually. He, um…well, he escaped from the Nether.”
“I would say he did.”
“It’s a long story.”
“I would expect it is.”
“Well, that’s that,” Pinch said, running a hand wearily across his boyish face. Charlie still couldn’t get used to the fact that he now looked like a thirteen-year-old. “We’ve lost him.”
“No, actually, we haven’t.”
They turned to see Theodore standing next to his still-open portal.
“What do you mean, Mr. Dagget?” the Headmaster asked, walking over.
“Well, just before Slagguron left, when he was lying there all crippled, I opened this portal.”