Chapter 122

Henry stood back to back with Charley.

Several piles of ash were already collected in front of them, like tombstones of the recently deceased. Smoke rose from each pile and made it difficult for Henry and Charley to see the two remaining Bludgeons and the cluster of Gremlins.

Charley set her feet and snapped her whip like a lion tamer. She pulled back and cracked again, over and over, fending off the wild animals. The Bludgeons grimaced and kept their distance. Henry covered her from behind.

He saw something from the corner of his eye.

A Gremlin reeled back with its talons to rip open their legs. Henry jammed the end of his staff down into its paltry abdomen and crushed it.

He’d barely seen the creature. It felt like the bo had leapt into it.

The Gremlin collapsed under the blow and its arms went limp. Henry threw the end of the bo forward and launched the Gremlin like a giant hockey puck toward the Bludgeons.

Then the Bludgeons made a loud, guttural call.

The two Bludgeons began dripping lava from their mouths. Molten, steaming secretions fell and chewed the ground into divots. The Bludgeons heaved back, as if taking a large breath, heads pointed upward. It was the same posture of the Bludgeon at the volcano top. Henry had stopped that one in time—but he couldn’t stop two at once.

Henry grabbed Charley and yanked her to the side. They dove to the ground.

Two expansive streams of lava burned through the air at the place where they had been standing a second earlier.

He tried to get back up but tripped over Charley’s feet and landed on top of her. He scrambled but couldn’t set his feet. Charley tried moving but was pinned underneath him.

The Bludgeons wound up again.

The acid was going to smother them.

Two arrowheads burst through the foreheads of both Bludgeons. Each creature went slack, and the lava oozed out of their mouths like a tepid stream. They fell to the ground and vaporized.

The remaining Gremlins screamed when the Bludgeons fell. They retreated into the night with screeching defiance.

Thom stormed forward. “What are you doing here? I told you to stay put! You could have been killed! Now our surprise is gone and we don’t know what the Nekura are doing. They were looking at the same picture from the book. I don’t know what—”

“Dad!” Henry shouted.

“What?”

“Mom told us to. She said we had to tell you that the Fracas are here.”

Thom stiffened up. He looked around with darting glances. “What?” he said, suddenly different.

“The Fracas are here.”

Thom’s face drained to plaster white. “We have to go. Now!”