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“Father,” Rachel whined, “it’s coming closer.”
He looked down. “Good. You just keep your eye on it for me.” He looked back to the wizard. “What do you mean you don’t want to say? Do you think it has something to do with what you said about the veil to the underworld possibly being torn?”
Zedd frowned while he rubbed his smooth chin with his skinny fingers and looked down at the black jewel setting in front of the open box. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Rachel looked over to the wall to watch where the dark thing was. She gave a start when she saw the hands reach over the edge of the wall. It was a lot closer.
But they weren’t hands. They were claws. Long curved claws.
She looked up at Chase, at all his weapons, just to be sure he had enough. He had knives, a lot of knives, around his waist, a sword strapped over the back of his shoulder, a big axe hooked to his belt, a few other things that looked like clubs, with sharp spikes sticking out of them, hanging from his belt, too, and a crossbow on his back. She hoped it was enough.
All the weapons scared other men, but it didn’t seem to be scaring the dark thing that was coming closer. And the wizard didn’t even have a knife. He just wore that plain, tan robe. And he was so skinny. Not big like Chase. But wizards had magic. Maybe his magic could scare the dark thing away.
Magic! Rachel remembered the magic fire stick wizard Giller had given her. She reached into her pocket and gripped her fingers around it. Maybe Chase would need her help. She wouldn’t let that thing hurt her new father. She would be brave.
“Is it dangerous?”
Zedd looked up at Chase from under his eyebrows. “If it’s what I think it is, and it were to fall into the wrong hands, dangerous wouldn’t even begin to describe it.”
“Then maybe we should drop it down a deep hole, or destroy it.”
“Can’t. We may need it.”
“What if we hide it?”
“That’s what I’m thinking. The problem is where. There are things to take into consideration. I need to take Adie to Aydindril and study the prophecies with her before I know for sure what to do with the stone, and what to do about the boxes.”
“And until then? Until you know for sure?”
Rachel looked over to the dark thing. It was closer, as close as the wall came to them. With its claws over the top of the wall, it lifted its head up and looked right into her eyes.
The thing grinned at her, showing long, sharp teeth. Her breath caught in her throat. Its shoulders jiggled. It was laughing. Rachel’s eyes were as big as they would go. She could hear her heartbeats making a whooshing sound in her ears.
“Father...” she whined in a small voice.
He didn’t look down. He just shushed her. The thing put its leg over the wall and dropped down in front, still looking at her, still laughing. Its shinny eyes looked at Chase and Zedd. It hissed and then laughed as it hunched down.
Rachel tugged Chase’s pant leg and strained to make her voice work. “Father... it’s coming.”
“All right Rachel. Zedd, I still don’t know...”
With a howl the dark thing sprang into the open. It ran like a streak, just a blur of black. Rachel screamed. Chase spun just as it hit him. Claws flashed through the air. Chase fell to the ground as the thing leapt on Zedd.
The wizard’s arms flailed about. Flashes of light shot from Zedd’s fingers, bouncing off the dark thing and tearing up dirt or stone where they hit. The thing knocked Zedd to the ground.
It laughed in a loud howl as it jumped back on Chase as he was pulling his axe from his belt. Rachel screamed again as the claws tore at Chase. The thing was faster than any animal she had ever seen. Its claws were just a blur.
Rachel was terrified Chase was being hurt. It flung the axe out of Chase’s hand, laughing in that awful laugh. It was hurting Chase. Rachel had the fire stick in her hand.
She jumped forward and put the fire stick on its back. She screamed the magic words to make the fire stick work. “Light for me!”
The dark thing burst into flames. It made a horrible scream as it spun to her. Its mouth opened wide, teeth snapping as flames burned all over it. It laughed again, but not like people laughed when they thought things were funny. Its laugh made her skin prickle. It hunched over and started walking toward her, still on fire, as Rachel backed up.
Chase let out a grunt as he threw one of the clubs with the sharp spikes sticking out of it. The club hit the thing’s back, sticking in its shoulder. It looked around at Chase and laughed as it reached behind and pulled the club out of its back. It started for Chase again.
Zedd was up. Fire flew from his fingers, covering the thing with even more flames. It laughed at Zedd. All the fire went out. Smoke rose from it. Its body looked the same now as before it got burned. In fact, it looked like it was dark from being burned even before Rachel had set it on fire. It looked the same now.
Chase was on his feet, and there was blood on him. Rachel got tears at seeing that. Chase snatched the crossbow off his back and in a blink he shot an arrow. It stuck in the thing’s chest. With that terrible laugh it snapped the arrow off.
Chase threw aside the crossbow and yanked out the sword from over his shoulder, then ran for the thing, jumping over it as he stabbed the sword. The thing moved so fast Chase missed. Zedd did something that sent the thing tumbling across the grass. Chase put himself in front of her, pushing her back with one hand while he held the sword out in the other.
The thing sprang to its feet again, looking at each of them.
“Walk!” Zedd yelled at them. “Don’t run! Don’t stand still!”
Chase grabbed Rachel’s wrist and started walking backwards. Zedd started walking backwards too. The dark thing stopped laughing and looked to each of them, blinking. Chase was breathing hard. His chain mail shirt and the tan leather tunic under it had big rips from the claws. Rachel got more tears at all the blood on him. Blood was running down his arm onto her hand. She didn’t want him to be hurt. She loved him something fierce. She clutched Sara and the fire stick tighter.
Zedd stopped. “Keep walking,” he told Chase.
The dark thing looked at Zedd standing there, and a big grin with sharp teeth came to its face again. It laughed that awful laugh and tore at the ground as it started in a rush toward the Wizard.
Zedd threw his hands up. Dirt and grass flew up in the air around the thing. It was lifted into the air. Bolts of blue lightning struck it from all around before it hit the ground. It howled in laughter as it thudded to the ground, smoking.
Something else happened, Rachel couldn’t tell what, and the thing stopped with its arms stretched out, like it was trying to run, but its feet were stuck. It howled and twisted, but couldn’t move. Zedd swirled his arms around in circles and threw them out once more. The ground shook as if from thunder and there were flashes of light hitting the thing. It laughed and there was a breaking sound, like wood snapping, and the thing started toward Zedd.
Zedd began walking again. The thing stopped and frowned. Then the wizard stopped and threw his arms out again. A terrible ball of fire went through the air toward the thing as it ran for Zedd. The ball of fire made a loud scream and grew bigger as it flew toward the dark thing.
The fire hit so hard it made the ground shake. The blue and yellow light was so bright Rachel had to squint as she was walking backwards. The ball of fire stayed in that one place as it burned and made a loud roar.
Smoking, the dark thing stepped out of the fire, its shoulders shaking as it laughed. The flames went out in little sparks that flew around in the air.
“Bags,” the wizard said as he started walking backwards.
Rachel didn’t know what “bags” meant, but Chase had told Zedd not to say it in front of little ears. She didn’t know what that meant either. The wizard’s wavy, white hair was all messed up and sticking out in clumps.
Rachel and Chase were on the path through the trees, almost to the door. Zedd was wal
king backwards toward them as the dark thing watched. Zedd stopped and the thing started coming again.
Walls of flame shot up in front of it. The air smelled like smoke and roared with noise. The thing stepped through the wall of fire. Zedd made another, and it stepped through that too.
When the wizard started walking again it stopped by a short, vine covered wall, watching. Fat vines ripped off the wall by themselves and grew suddenly longer. They whipped around the dark thing as it stood there, tangling all around it. Zedd was almost up with them.
“Where are we going?“ Chase asked him.
Zedd turned. He looked tired. “Let’s see if we can shut it in here.”
The thing tore at the vines as they pulled it to the ground, and was slicing through them with its sharp claws as the three of them went through the big doorway. Chase and Zedd each took one of the golden metal doors and pushed them shut.
From the other side came a howl. And then a loud crash. A big dent popped out in the door, knocking Zedd to the ground. Chase put a hand on each door and put all his weight against them as the thing pounded from the other side.
Horrible screeches came through the metal as the thing clawed at the door. Chase was covered with sweat and blood. Zedd jumped to his feet and helped Chase hold the doors closed.
A claw stuck through the crack between the two doors and slid down, then another came out from underneath. Rachel could hear the thing laughing through the door. Chase grunted as he pushed. The doors creaked.
The wizard stood back and held his arms out, with his fingers up, like he was pushing against the air. The creaking stopped. The thing howled louder.
Zedd grabbed Chase’s sleeve. “Get out of here.”
Chase backed away from the doors. “Is that going to hold it?”
“I don’t think so. If it comes for you, walk. Running or standing still attracts its attention. Tell anyone else you see.”
“Zedd, what is that thing?”
There was another loud crash and another big dent popped out in the door. The tips of claws broke through the metal and made rips in the door. The noise it made hurt Rachel’s ears.
“Go! Now!”
Chase snatched her up with an arm around her waist and started running down the hall.
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