Free The Death of Yorik Mortwell by Stephen Messer Page B

images slowly came into focus. All around him, for what seemed like thousands of miles, was a vast blue expanse. The light was not blue like the sky, but blue like the color of cold flame. Floating everywhere were rich green masses, stinking like rotting plants dug up from loamy earth. And there were Dark Ones, millions of them,numbers beyond counting. Some were small like the ones he had already seen, and some were as immense as mountains or moons.
    Yorik pulled his head from the opening and turned. “Doris,” he began.
    But Doris was no longer there. In her place stood Dark Doris, the girl he had met on the stone bench, the girl with the beautiful dress and expensive hat and perfect shoes. The girl with the proud laugh and flashing eyes, behind which Yorik could now see lurked the
Yglhfm
.
    And behind her, filling the mammoth graveyard, perched on ribs and skulls and spines, were countless
Yglhfm
, thoroughly blocking the passage out.
    This land was once ours
, said Dark Doris.
Now we will possess her again
.
    “She is dying,” said Yorik. “If Erde is dead, you can’t possess her.”
    Dark Doris chuckled.
She is not dying. She is only returning to our service. Now you will serve us as well. Come, Yorik
.
    Dark Doris drifted raggedly toward Yorik, her body dragging like a marionette on a string.
    Yorik backed away. But there was nowhere to go. The
Yglhfm
were everywhere.
    Then Thomas, crying, waddled toward his sister.
    “Ds!” he cried. “Ds!”
    “No, Thomas!” shouted Yorik. “Don’t touch her. You can’t—”
    Thomas grabbed his sister’s shoulders.
    Blue flame coursed over him, and he staggered. When he straightened, his neck cracked into place and his eyes flashed with the cruel, angry look Yorik had last seen when a large rock came hurtling at him in the elm.
    Yorik
, said Master Thomas.
It is time
.

Chapter Thirteen
    A wave of chittering laughter swept over the
Yglhfm
horde. As Yorik listened, he felt a tremor in the air, and a lambent blue light flickered through the cavern.
    Come, Yorik
, said Master Thomas, sweeping forward.
Lord Ravenby has broken at last. Everything changes now
.
    Dark Doris approached too, murmuring sweetly, her teeth bared in a maniacal smile. She and her brother glistened with new strength. The darkness beyond, full of Dark Ones, was deepening. Therewere more and more of them each moment, the floor of the cavern slowly filling like a pond in a downpour.
    Dark Doris reached her small white hands for his.
    Then Yorik spotted a faint red glow, a space on the floor of the cavern where there were no
Yglhfm
. The broken stone tablet lay there.
    With a leap, Yorik was astride the tablet, one foot on each broken half. Power tingled in his feet.
    Master Thomas chuckled, then cleared his throat. When he spoke, he sounded almost human again. “Give in, will you, Yorik? My father has. Let us take back what is ours.”
    “Erde isn’t yours,” said Yorik. “And you’re not Thomas.”
    Dark Doris’s pretty laugh echoed through the cavern, piercing the sea of
Yglhfm
whispers. “Oh, dear Yorik. Erde was ours for many millennia, more than you can imagine. Long before the humans came and spoiled things. For ten thousand years, we longed to draw her back into us, to embrace her, to drain and diminish her, to bring her back into bondage.” She licked her lips. “And now we have.”
    “You can’t take her completely,” said Yorik, his eyes casting about for a means of escape. “You’re still scared of the Princess.”
    “Dear Yorik,” sighed Dark Doris. “Our masters have nothing to fear anymore. Look!”
    She gestured to the portal. Yorik saw that it was no longer small enough to be blocked by the tablet. Now it dwarfed even the mammoths. With faint
pop
s, giant
Yglhfm
were bubbling out, one after another. Ignoring Yorik, they rumbled toward the cavern entrance, stretching to fill it completely with their vast bodies, squeezing up toward the surface.
    Thousands more of the