Chapter 12

The Prince and I were the last to arrive at the entrance to the Haunted House. Pteri and Blaster were lecturing Alladin on what to expect and what to run from. He seemed to be listening closely, so I wasn't too worried. We didn't have a large enough group to split up, so he would always be close.

I didn't expect to find anything in the upper rooms of the House, but we had to search everywhere. Alladin went around pounding on the walls, while M'hul and I scared off ghosts that got too close. The malevolent spirits that inhabit the House were no great threat, but we treated them with respect. After all, it stood to reason that something in here took down Lasahn. Anything that strong I wanted to meet head on, eyes open. We methodically checked every room, even though it was time consuming, but we found nothing.

"Did we miss something?" Alladin asked, sounding quite depressed, perhaps because we wouldn't let him fight even the weakest ghosts, and I could tell he had some spells he wanted to try out.

"It seemed unlikely that there would be a hidden room in the House," I told him. "I expected that we would need to check the caves below."

"What's in the caves?" Alladin asked.

"Skeletons... mostly," M'hul responded, splintering a wall with his gauntleted fist, revealing nothing but plaster beneath.

"Let's try the caves..." I gathered up the group and led them to a tall break in the wall. We were in the deepest cellar of the House; it was so damp and moldy that even the ghosts seemed to avoid this place. The opening looked man-made, but just inside it opened into a natural cavern, lit by small outpourings of lava and sickly glowing mold on the walls.

"Rats!" M'hul yelled, kicking at a black and furry ankle-deep river of biting rodents. "When did this place get infested?"

Alladin crowed with joy, then clapped his hands. One of the rats ineffectively attacking M'hul's boots sizzled, struck with a tiny lightning bolt, and then fell over dead. The young Rogue laughed again and started clapping repeatedly, casting the same spell dozens of times. Soon, a smoldering black carpet of rat bodies surrounded us.

"Still paying five coins each for dead rats?" I asked M'hul, who looked thoroughly disgusted.

"I thought that program had worked," he replied, "But it would appear that the rats simply moved here. What could get so many rats into one place?"

We stepped carefully through the piles of dead rats and began checking the walls of the cavern, just as we had done above in the House. The search went on, cavern after cavern. Alladin seemed to be enjoying himself, paying far less attention to the walls than to his new favorite prey, the ever-present rats. Still, it was good practice. In the rest of the group only Pteri and I were having any fun, passing the time chatting about her Zibong research and the goings on in the University: who was doing well at mastering it and who was opposing its use. Blaster was in that latter faction and as much as he liked Pteri personally, he disliked the new Zibong magic. My view was that if the new spells were out there, might as well have someone responsible use it first. Imagine what would happen if someone like Blaster's evil "brother", Spellblaster, the mage behind the averted Zibong invasion, had their magic too!

"Is this the entrance to the last cavern?" Alladin asked. So far he had proved quite useful, as we had encountered little but rats. "How do the rats keep getting in? They aren't using the same entrances we are."

"There must be small cracks in the cave walls," Pteri guessed, "They can squeeze through tiny openings and move freely from cavern to cavern."

"Let's get this over with," M'hul said, and charged through the final doorway.

There was a tremendous crash.

"You alright?" I yelled.

"Hurry! Get in here!" His voice came faintly through the doorway. We all rushed to join him.

Just inside the doorway, skeletons surrounded Prince M'hul. It looked like he wouldn't have even made it that far into the room if he hadn't have been running. His massive armored form had knocked over several skeletons, some of which were still trying to right themselves beneath his boots. All of them hacked and clawed at his armor, causing very little damage, but the great press was making it hard for the Prince to swing his Electra sword. As soon as he managed to cut one down, another took its place.

I climbed onto a rock to get a better look at the room.

"The skeletons aren't just surrounding M'hul," I yelled, "They pack this whole cave! It looks like we found all of the skeletons in this one room!"

Tiny bursts of light started hitting skeletons all around the Prince as Alladin went to work. I smiled, knowing that these skels were thousands of times more resistant to his spells than the rats were. Reassured that he was well protected between Pteri and Blaster, I climbed down from my vantagepoint to a open spot behind the beleaguered Prince. Blaster looked frustrated, unable to make enough room to summon animal guards. For the moment, the real magic show belonged to my wife.

Pteri got a faraway look in her eyes, then rapidly cast Paralyze on all the skeletons surrounding M'hul. Once he could give a full swing of his sword, he quickly hewed down enough of them to allow me to fight at his side.

Once again, I felt my stomach turn as Blaster's Scourge spell struck around us. Thick green vapor rolled down the paralyzed skeletons, weakening their defenses. Now, even Alladin's spells had an effect on the nearly endless bony army.

Then Pteri changed tactics, calling StormStrike, a powerful lightning down, hundreds of times more potent than Alladin's. She blew back wave after wave of skeletons, until she exhausted herself.

"Blaster!" I yelled, not breaking my rhythm swinging my Flamefang. The sword helped out by occasionally casting its Burn spell on an unlucky skeleton. "Better start healing M'hul! He doesn't look so good!"

"I'm fine." He said quietly, but as the Poet's Water of life spell hit him again and again, I could see he appreciated the healing.

Slowly we pushed back the wall of skeletons. Step by step we moved into the center of the room.

M'hul faltered again.

"Blaster!" I yelled, not liking this at all, "Heal the Prince again!"

"That's impossible..." M'hul said weakly, "I have ten times your vitality!"

Still, vitality or no, he looked distinctly green. A rather familiar shade, too. Reminded me of the King...

"Blaster!" I called again, "The Prince has been poisoned!"

Every anti-poison spell Blaster had hit the stumbling Prince, followed by another barrage of Water of Life, until M'hul was swinging his Electra again.

Behind us, the floor was littered with burned and broken bones, but ahead a knot of skels surrounded a greenish figure, seeming to be directing the battle. Cursing my lack of stature, I was trying to get a better look over the skeletons, when I spotted a white cloud drifting our way.

"Watch out!" I yelled, as it settled onto our party. M'hul stopped fighting, and I felt an intense heat burn my hands. At first I thought it was my Flamefang casting its unpredictable Burn spell back at me for once, but then I realized that the heat was coming from only the areas covered by the God's gloves I wore under my Titanium gloves. Those gloves helped control spirit weapons so I surmised that we had just been attacked by a spirit-based spell.

I turned to warn the group of this and froze. Pteri was on the ground, not moving. Blaster lay next to her, partly covering the small form of the young Rogue. I turned to the quiet figure of the Prince and saw that his eyes were shut. Worse, the green seemed to be back in his skin, and all our magic users were unconscious!

Quickly, I drew an Indigo potion from my pack and smashed it against M'hul's armor. It generated a weak Purge spell, perhaps it would be enough.

The white cloud around us started to dissipate, and I could see that the skeletons had withdrawn around their leader. Fewer than a dozen remained, but they all stood between me and what must be the source of the foul magic.

Gathering what energy I had remaining, I charged into the backs of the nearest skeletons, toppling them into the ones ahead. Some of those fell, too. As I said, I am no lightweight. I cleared my Fang from where it was entangled in the severed ribcage of a skeleton and started swinging at the ones still on their feet. Most hadn't even turned completely around before their skulls flew off. I crushed their bones beneath my armored boots.

With the last of the skeletons slain, I stood alone before Evil. It was a green rat as tall as a man, smelling of both corruption and power. With a smirk on its whiskered face, it waved its spindly arms and a white flash lit the cavern. My hands burned again beneath my gloves, but my grip on my Flamefang was firm as I drove it into the chest of the puzzled monster. My Flamefang took that opportunity to cast Burn, small flames licked up from the rat's feet, thick drops of greenish blood sizzling, as they fell from its chest.

I ripped my Fang from its chest, making certain that it was dead, then ran back to my friends. They lay undisturbed. A Sleep spell will usually work for some time, explaining why the skeletons and Rat boss felt safe after it had been cast. They couldn't have expected that I would be immune to most Spirit weapons. As Sleep wears off, however, it becomes easier and easier to awaken the bespelled. I shouldn't have much trouble.