A
braham hit the ground a split second later.
Thud!
He lay flat on his back, sword in hand, looking upward at a bulging hulk made of tentacles with eyeballs. It reminded him of the monster Elder they’d fought at Crown Island. It was a huge creeper but much smaller. It started rapidly sliding down the rock wall.
“Holy sheetrock!” He scrambled on all fours away from the descending sludge pile.
It hit the ground with a squish.
Abraham gasped. His legs were pinned underneath the bulging hulk. He pushed away from the slimy creature and, with a fierce grunt, finally freed his feet. Panting, he stood up on noodle legs and swayed. He used Black Bane as a crutch.
“Where am I?”
A tentacle with an eyeball coiled around his calf.
“Gah!” He chopped right through the tendril and jogged away. “Blazing saddles! It’s still alive!”
With a shiver, Abraham limped farther away from the creeper. In seconds, the monster was gone from sight. He was on a cavern floor. A thousand feet above him was an eye of wide-open sky. Looks like I’m in the Wound. I wonder what happened to everyone else.
He shivered. “Frosty the Snowman, why’s it so cold?”
Step after step, he stumbled over the rises of the black canyon. He didn’t hear another soul. The land was cold and barren. Slowly, his natural strength started to return. He moved at an easier gait and tried to remain quiet. He let Ruger’s senses do the work.
I can’t believe I’m back. Just like that. I wonder how Ruger is doing.
He contemplated everything that had gone on in the last several hours. Dr. Jack and Eugene Drisk had revealed a lot. They had a way to get his family back… Or do they?
He shook his head. So far on this misbegotten adventure, anything seems possible. I have to end this. It’s getting too crazy.
He wandered—step after step, hour after hour. He had to be able to find the Henchmen. Certainly, they would be near. They had to be.
“Did you say something?”
“Huh,” Abraham muttered aloud, noticing that the engravings in the sword’s blade brightened when it spoke. “Is that you, Black Bane?”
“I don’t think that is my name.”
“No, that is the sword’s name. You go by another name, but we don’t know what that is yet.”
“Hmm… did we kill that monster?”
“Yes, I think.”
“Interesting. Who are you? You sound different than the other man I was speaking to. Ruger. I like him. You’re that other fella. Softer, but serviceable.”
“I’m Abraham, and I’m not soft. Are you freely talking with Ruger but not me?”
“We go further back. It’s a well-established relationship. But I have some good news.”
Abraham held the sword before his eyes, looked at the gently pulsating orange runes, and said, “I can’t wait it hear it.”
“You sound like someone that doesn’t want to know.”
“No, I want to know. I’m confused, though. So, you’ve been talking to Ruger recently?”
“I don’t have the same concept of time that you do, but I’ve spoken with him thoroughly since the last time I talked with you.”
“And?”
“I like Ruger Slade. He has the grit of old friends I can’t remember, but I can see them like ghosts from the past. He said that I should help you.”
“Wow, it sounds like a real game changer,” he said sarcastically, recalling that the essence within Black Bane had been extremely unreliable. “So you weren’t willing to help me before?”
“I admit, I had my suspicions. Now, if you were an ample woman, there would be no doubt about it. But some strange fellow that holds me by the handle, eh, I’m not warming to that.”
“What difference does it make? You can’t see.”
“Who says I can’t see? I can see. I just didn’t tell you that I could. But of course I can. I have a strong intuition about things.”
Abraham spun the sword in his palm and said, “In that case, can you help me find my friends?”
“Perhaps. Are there any ample women among them?”
Abraham started to say no but switched his thoughts and said, “Of course there are. Some of them are plump, others athletic, but all of them bosomy.”
The engravings inside the sword blade flared the bright orange of a fire. “Tell me more!”
“Show me the way, and I’ll tell you about the triplets.”
“Did you say triplets?”
“Yup, and I hope you like piles of silky black hair cascading over heaving mounds of cleavage.”
Black Bane moved under its own power, pulling Abraham briskly through the caverns.
“Whoa,” Abraham said as he was practically jerked out of his boots. He tugged back on the sword and said, “Slow down. What are you, a dog in heat?”
“No—more like an old dog in heat. Come on, young fellow. We have vixens to fetch. Tell me more.”
Restraining himself by giving more modest visual pictures, he accurately described Sophia, Selma, and Bridgett.
“Those are pretty names. I like them all. I can see them in my mind. Black. Red. White. The perfect trio. And you didn’t marry any of them?”
“No, I’ve been married, but now I’m a widower. I had a son too.”
“Hmm… I seem to think that I had a son. I’m not sure though. I sense your friends are near. Very near.”
The sword pulled Abraham at a quick pace then forced him to break into a jog. Finally, it stopped in place. “Is this them?”
Abraham moved toward a cluster of standing men. In the dim light given by the blade, he squinted and said, “Horace?”
It was Horace. He was standing like a statue, his body unmoving. He was with Bearclaw, Vern, Prospero, Skitts, Apollo, Tark, and Cudgel. Their limbs were frozen stiff, as if they had been marching in place and suddenly came to a stop. Abraham touched Horace on a cheek. It was frosted with ice and cold.
“No, no, don’t be dead. You can’t be dead. Not all of you.”
