Chapter 29

How to Deal with a Witch . . . Part 2

I nearly tripped on the bottom step of a wide staircase as we burst through the exit. My lungs burned as we raced higher and higher, climbing to the top of the boat, but I didn’t dare look back. The terrifying sound of ghastly snarls and the frantic tromping of boots entering the stairwell behind us was all I needed to keep me running.

“We’re going to have to swim for it!” I shouted.

“Got it!” Sierra said.

“You’re not going to drown, are you, Miles?” Jasmine asked.

Miles could only whimper in reply.

We were in the middle of the ocean, on a boat brimming with the Nightmare Legion. Raspaard had yet to show his ugly face, but that hardly mattered. There were easily five monsters for each one of us, not to mention a witch who seemed un­affected by our Heroes’ Devices. I wasn’t giving up on our Quest yet, but until we could get far enough away from the monsters to regroup, swimming for our lives was the only option.

At the top of the staircase, a pair of heavy doors opened onto the deck. It was a straight shot right to the edge, and I could see the ocean a short distance away. As soon as we made it outside, however, we skidded to a stop, when an awful shrieking howl filled our ears. The chilling sound seemed to come from everywhere at once, freezing the four of us in place and prickling my skin with goosebumps.

“What is that?” Miles demanded, gawking at the wall of spiraling blackness looming overhead.

Churning and bubbling like a cauldron and stretching endlessly in every direction, it looked as though a trillion gallons of paint had been splashed across the sky. I had no idea whether the ocean lapped against the swirling wall or spilled over the edge like a waterfall to the depths below, but no matter how hard I strained my eyes, I couldn’t see through to the other side. Zigzagging bolts of lightning lit up the blackness, but I knew those weren’t storm clouds. That was something else. Something much more sinister.

“That’s the Abysmal?” I asked.

Sierra was the only one I knew who had ever seen it before, but judging by her bewildered expression, she was just as stunned as the rest of us.

“That’s not how I remember it,” she gasped. Sierra had once described the Abysmal as a tourist attraction, but she now looked horrified at the sight of the monstrosity.

“There you are!” a voice announced, snapping my attention away from the Abysmal. “I knew you would come rescue me.”

Madge Crockery sat on a wooden crate, swinging her legs like a toddler on a park bench, not even ten feet from the stairwell opening.

“Madge?” I heard Miles ask, and then something rough and powerful seized me by my legs and hoisted me into the air.

My eyes whirled as the boat turned upside down, and I came face to face with an enormous, hideous troll. I saw at least a dozen other faces as well, all ugly and sneering and pointed in the wrong direction, as the troll dangled me by my ankles. Then Faylinn hobbled into view, standing in the center of the horde of monsters.

“Nice try,” Faylinn said, gazing up at me, her yellowish eyes gleaming. She almost looked disappointed, as though she had been hoping we would have put up more of a fight.

“Didn’t I tell you, Faylinn?” Madge asked. “Didn’t I tell you they’d come save me?”

“Yes, I believe you did, Madge,” Faylinn said, sighing in annoyance. “Many times, but as you can see”—she hooked a finger at me, and I noticed the others, upside down as well, each in the clutches of a troll—“your Champions might find it difficult saving you in their current condition.”

“Can I crush him?” the troll holding me captive asked with a voice that rumbled like a car engine. The troll flopped me around like a handkerchief, gesturing at the water. “Can I drown him in the ocean?”

“No, you may not, you idiot,” Faylinn said impatiently. “Now, put him down, gently. All of them.”

I let out a wheeze as the troll flipped my body right-side up and plopped me onto the ground with a thud. Goon stumbled out looking disoriented, but when he saw the rows of monsters hungrily leaning over us, he shimmied back beneath my suit coat. The horrifying shrieking continued to drone on in the distance, as the Runaway Drogue sliced a direct path toward the Abysmal, the gap shrinking by the minute.

“What are you doing here, Madge?” I called out. “Why don’t you just leave?”

Madge wasn’t tied up or behind bars or hanging over the edge of the boat. She had the power to come and go as easily as she pleased. She could change her size or pop up in the most bizarre locations all over the Lower Etchlands. So why was she just sitting there, watching us?

“I would if I could, Lucas,” Madge said. “Believe me, but—”

“She can’t,” Faylinn chimed in. She reached over and patted my cheek, and her hand felt cold and clammy, like a dead fish. “Madge is bound to the ship, and I have the four of you to thank for it.”

“That’s a lie,” Miles said. “We didn’t bind Madge to the ship.”

“No, but your Heroes’ Devices did,” Faylinn replied. “And thanks to my bargain with Madge, that power linking you to the game as Champions now links her to me. We’re partners, in a way. We should be good friends by now, don’t you think?”

I could remember what Bogie had said to Hob about Faylinn the moment he had learned about Mystery’s involvement in our Quest. You don’t bargain with that witch. Everyone knows that!

“But they’re our weapons,” I said. “Why is Madge even involved?” This was our fight, not hers.

“She involved herself when she made the deal. I agreed to loan you your weapons and not to kill you when I had the chance, and believe me, I’ve had multiple opportunities to do so. And Madge agreed to complete and utter servitude upon any week of my choosing.” Faylinn held out her hands and smiled. “Isn’t that a hoot? Where I go, she goes, and she cannot leave unless I permit it. Poor Madge never once guessed I had devised grand plans to call upon her on this of all weeks.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Madge grunted. “I had a hunch.”

“Then you’re a fool, and you’ve sealed your fate.”

Faylinn hobbled over to where Madge sat on the crate, unable to vanish to safety. The two women glared at each other, Faylinn close enough to where Madge could have easily hauled off and slapped her had she been able to, though, thanks to the binding magic of their bargain, she was powerless to do so.

“Tell me, friends,” Faylinn said, casting a glance over her shoulder. “Do you know what becomes of our dear Madge if she happens to enter the Abysmal?”

“We know,” Sierra said. “She’ll be destroyed.”

“Correct! Smart girl.” Faylinn looked impressed.

I vividly remembered that from Barfitzgal’s journal. Should Madge come in contact with the Abysmal, she would instantly be destroyed.

“But that will also destroy the Lower Etchlands,” Sierra said. “Everyone here will die.”

The witch’s mouth dropped open as though surprised by that revelation, but then she dismissed it with a casual shrug. “Unfortunately, that may also be true. But why should that matter to me? I do not intend to return to this horrid place. Madge will surely be destroyed, taking this world along with her, but thanks to her power, we shall venture on. To new places. New adventures. A new world to rule.”

“So you’ve been keeping Madge trapped here all this time?” Miles asked.

Faylinn nodded. “And she’s certainly angered the Abysmal, hasn’t she? Look at it! I’ve never seen it so massive and horrifying. It’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

I didn’t know what I had imagined the Abysmal would look like when I had finally gotten a chance to see it, but beautiful was certainly not the right word for it.

“I was getting worried that you’d never show up in time to set this whole plan into motion,” Faylinn said, winking at me. “Thankfully, Luck was on my side.”

A feeling of a dread seeped into my stomach as I realized what she was talking about. “This is because of my Fortune Trinket, isn’t it?” I asked.

Madge immediately shook her head. “It’s not because of that, I promise you. You’re not to blame yourself for this predica­ment, Lucas.”

“It is exactly because of that, boy,” Faylinn said. “I may have been able to bring Madge here, but no amount of magic could have forced her to relinquish her power into the ship. Without it, none of us could have ever hoped to cross the Abysmal. We would all be rejected. Turned away at the door. And as Madge disintegrated into nothing, we would be destroyed along with everyone else in the Lower Etchlands. That is unless, of course, somebody—some sneaky, conniving Questmaster—played the right card.” A giddy smile crept across the witch’s lips as she pointed to a silver chain draped around Madge’s neck. Clasped on the end of the chain was the golden six-sided game piece Raspaard had created with the two shattered pieces of the Fortune Trinket. “With the Die of Will, Madge has no choice but to share power. I always thought that doppelganger was a slobbering buffoon, but clearly I was wrong. Mystery’s been holding onto that card for years, waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. And when the Wild Crows came along, playing right into my hands, he simply sprung his trap.”

“But you had to cheat,” Madge said. “Let’s not forget about that. For this plan of yours to have worked, Mystery had to twist the rules in his favor. That Fortune Trinket was a Level Sapphire card and could have only been played during a Quest with the same level Champions.”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we did cheat.” Faylinn shrugged. “But when have you ever strictly played by the rules? We weren’t the ones who started the game in the first place. You brought this Abysmal to us. You changed our world and left us here to rot, and it is high time we put an end to your cheating ways.”

While the two of them bantered and the snarling monsters of the Nightmare Legion hovered around us, I felt as though I might throw up. I had already experienced a full-blown Creeper attack once because of that mini-figurine. I could not let it happen again.

“A Level Sapphire card?” Sierra muttered. “The Fortune Trinket was a Level Sapphire card?”

“We don’t need another reminder,” Jasmine said.

Sierra’s forehead crinkled. “No, don’t you get it? I think I know what I have to do.” She opened her hand, and the necklace she had found in Barfitzgal’s journal was on her palm. “The opponents we’ve been facing on this Quest are harder than they’re supposed to be. But it’s not because of your level. It’s because of mine. I’m the reason Mystery could have played that card in the first place.”

“That’s not true,” Jasmine said. “We’re all Sapphire Level, remember?”

“It’s not that I’m better or stronger, or more skilled at you in the game,” Sierra continued, ignoring Jasmine. “I’m just an alternate who’s played more Quests than you.”

“You’re still a part of our Band, Sierra,” I said.

“Thanks, but I know how this works,” she replied softly. “If we succeed in our Quest, which doesn’t seem likely at this point, then I’ll level up. But it’s not like I’m a real Champion. It doesn’t really matter. But if we fail, it’ll be because of me, which will hurt all of us: Madge, the Lower Etchlands—everyone!”

Jasmine leaned forward apprehensively as Sierra eyed the Astral Stone necklace. “Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?” she asked. “You’re not going to try something stupid, are you?”

“I hope not.” Sierra hurriedly snapped one of the stones free from the necklace, and before anyone could stop her, she popped it into her mouth. “I hope this will help.”

“Why did you do that?” Miles gasped, as Sierra swallowed the stone.

“You were wrong about the journal, Jasmine,” Sierra said, closing her eyes. “I think I was supposed to find it all along.”

Then her body fell limp, and the Champion’s Catch appeared, snuffing out the howling sounds of the Abysmal. Faylinn, the monsters, and Madge had all stopped moving.

“A Band of Champions must play at the same Level,” the disembodied voice of Champion’s Quest announced. “The alternate is no longer Sapphire and shall therefore be removed from the Quest.”

“Removed?” Miles blurted. “She’ll only have to start over, right?”

“I don’t think so, Miles,” I said.

This was the first time anything like this had ever happened. Sierra hadn’t died—I could still see most of the bloodstones remaining on her Advancement Medallion, but because she had swallowed the Astral Stone, it had decreased her level, and she could no longer be a part of our Band.

“Did she think this was a good idea?” Jasmine asked. “Did she go crazy?”

“She made a choice,” I said.

“But it was a dumb one,” Jasmine hissed. “Now we have one less member of our Band!”

I may have been the Band Leader, but this was a tough decision. Maybe the toughest one ever. On the one hand, we could accept Sierra’s time in Champion’s Quest had ended, but on the other, something told me she hadn’t been trying to quit the game. If we ignored that and continued our Quest without her, we would be making a terrible mistake.

Stooping over, I picked up the necklace lying next to Sierra’s outstretched fingers. This whole Quest had been a setup from the beginning, but if she was right, then the necklace with Astral Stones may have been placed in our way on purpose. And maybe—just maybe—they had come from Hob and Bogie.

“What if we took these?” I asked, breaking a few of the tiny stones free from the silver chain.

Miles looked at me, his eyes wide with panic. “Wouldn’t we die too?”

“Maybe not,” I said. “There’s a chance we might return to Bronze Level.”

“It would be taking a huge risk,” Jasmine said.

“I know,” I admitted. “But at this point, what do we have to lose?”

Jasmine shook her head. “And I thought I was the impulsive one.”

“I think you still are,” Miles said, releasing a timid giggle.

Then the three of us ate the stones.