Elliot and the Last Underworld War (12 page)

“What’s happening?” a Centaur said. “Something’s wrong.”

“Everyone poof away from here!” Elliot cried. “Back to Burrowsville. Hurry!”

A few of the creatures obeyed, but most of them stared toward the border of Demon Territory, where smoke was gathering into the shape of a cone. It quickly twisted into a circle, slowly moving at the top, where it was widest, and spinning faster and tighter at the bottom.

“What is that?” Mr. Willimaker asked. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“We have those on the surface,” Elliot said. “If that’s what I think it is.”

Elliot knew no one could stop what was coming. They weren’t protected beside Kovol’s cave. They were trapped there!

“That’s a tornado!” he said. But unlike the tornadoes on the surface world, this one was made of smoke and fire. “Everyone hurry!” he yelled. “Poof out of here now!”

“We have to leave now!” Fudd called to Elliot. Already, the wind created by the Shadow Men was so loud it sounded as if a train was running through Demon Territory.

Mr. Willimaker held tightly to his hat with one hand and to his glasses with the other. “It’s too late,” he said. “With wind this powerful, nobody could hold themselves together to safely poof away.”

“Everyone go inside the cave!” Elliot ordered. “There’s less wind. You can poof away there!”

Nobody needed to be told. Creatures were already rushing into the cave. Above the noise of the wind, Elliot yelled to both Fudd and Mr. Willimaker to leave. They couldn’t poof themselves, but Elliot helped them shimmy down the roof, then he used his broomstick to lower them into the arms of some nearby Trolls.

“You must come too,” Fudd said.

“I’ll wait until everyone else is safely inside, and then I’ll come,” Elliot said. Sure, that was the kind of thing a good leader did, but mostly Elliot still hadn’t decided which was worse: Kovol’s creepy cave or a huge tornado.

When the last of the creatures was inside, Elliot sat on the edge of the cave, preparing to jump to the ground.

Then suddenly he held his ears as a voice boomed inside his head. It was louder than the oncoming tornado and made his brain vibrate.

“Underworld creatures, you are in my territory, so you are my prisoners now!”

Elliot recognized Kovol’s voice. Every word felt like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard.

But Kovol wasn’t a ruler. Or was he? Could he order prisoners not to poof away? Elliot had been sure he couldn’t, or else he wouldn’t have brought everyone here.

Then Elliot asked himself why he had believed that Kovol couldn’t take prisoners. Nobody had told him so. He hadn’t asked anyone about it. Maybe he had convinced himself he was right because he wanted to be right, not because it was true. He had made a huge mistake!

“Nobody leaves this place,” Kovol ordered. “I am coming! And I will destroy you all!”

When the voice had gone, Elliot slid the rest of the way down the cave and then ran inside. He tried not to look at the dark walls and wonder what crawled there. Or to peek in the direction where Kovol had slept for a thousand years.

The first thing he tried was to poof himself away. Maybe Kovol was wrong and couldn’t make such an order. Or maybe this was like the movies. Since Kovol was the bad guy, then the good guys could find a way to ignore Kovol’s order. But no matter how hard he concentrated on Burrowsville or his bedroom at home, or anywhere else, he couldn’t leave. Along with every other creature still inside this cave, he was trapped.

“How many of us got away?” he asked. “Before Kovol made us prisoners.”

Mr. Willimaker shrugged. “Not many. Maybe only a hundred or so. But hundreds more are still in here. There’s nothing we can do but wait like trapped prey!”

“The Goblins are coming!” someone up front called. “Everyone scoot back, or we won’t all fit!”

It was easy to smell when they entered. Elliot had thought the cave smelled bad before, but the Goblins brought it to a whole new level of stink.

“Where’s Grissel?” Elliot asked a Goblin with a thin and bony face. But the Goblin shrugged and hurried away. So Elliot called out, “Does anyone know where Grissel is?”

Several of the Goblins pointed outside, and a tall one up front said, “The Shadow Men know that Grissel was blowing up Demon Territory. They have him trapped.”

Elliot grabbed his broom and ran toward the mouth of Kovol’s cave. He felt a tug on his arm and turned to see Mr. Willimaker with Fudd standing beside him.

“No, Your Highness. It’s too dangerous,” Mr. Willimaker said.

“Kovol will be here any moment,” Fudd added. “You can’t go out there.”

Mr. Willimaker nodded in agreement. “Besides, think of everything that Grissel has done to you. He’s not worth it.”

Elliot said, “Every creature is worth it. I’ve got to help him.” From here, Elliot felt a little of the wind created by the Shadow Men. It would be worse outside. He held his broom in front of him and thought the word “light,” but when he peeked at the broom, it was only about as bright as a light bulb. That wasn’t good enough. So he thought of the sunlight, of his family, and of everything good he had ever known, and he poured all of those thoughts into his broom.

Immediately the stick lit with a glow that spread light into every corner of the cave. Elliot held the broom high, then walked back into the storm.

There had to be hundreds of Shadow Men forming the tornado. It was taller than he could see and loud enough to make vibrations in his head. Somewhere in the middle of it all was Grissel. Elliot knew how it felt to be trapped as the Shadow Men sucked out all the air. He wouldn’t let that happen to anyone, not even his Goblin enemy.

He tried pushing forward through the wind, but even with all of his concentration, there wasn’t enough Pixie magic inside him to keep from being blown away. If he couldn’t move forward, he couldn’t save Grissel. The wind was so much stronger than he was. Then Elliot felt a sudden surge in his strength and slowly forced himself ahead. He took a quick glance behind him and saw many of the creatures at the entrance, their hands held out to him. It took a minute to understand what they were doing, and then he knew. He was moving forward by their power, not his own. They were using their magic to help him walk into a tornado.

When Elliot got close to it, he stretched out his arms with the lit broomstick. One by one, the Shadow Men crashed into the light, and one by one they fell to ashes. Elliot’s arms shook from being so tired, but he held on. He
had
to hold on, because plan B (hoping the Shadow Men got dizzy and fell down on their own) was terrible. Gradually the wind died down as the Shadow Men either flew away or crashed into his broom and disappeared. He had fought a tornado and won!

When the last of them had gone, Elliot fell to the ground, exhausted. After only a minute he felt a bony hand on his arm, helping him to sit up.

“You’re not such a bad human after all,” Grissel said, smiling. “King Elliot, I promise never to harm your Brownies ever again.”

“Then you’re free to leave my jail,” Elliot whispered.

“I don’t think that matters,” Grissel said. “You got rid of the Shadow Men for now. But all of us are trapped here in Demon Territory. And Kovol is coming.”

Elliot might have stopped the tornado of Shadow Men, but it didn’t take them long to figure out where everyone was hiding. Elliot and Grissel had barely made it back into the cave before the Shadow Men returned.

“Quick!” Elliot said to the Goblins. “Blow up the entrance.”

“But that will leave us trapped inside,” an Elf said.

The Dwarves were the only ones who cheered at that idea. They often made their homes underground and, in fact, preferred living there. Everyone else started arguing.

“Better that we’re trapped in here than to let the Shadow Men come and get us,” Elliot said.

Grissel nodded his agreement with Elliot’s order, and the Goblins raised their hands to blow up the cave entrance.

But it was too late.

Hundreds of Shadow Men flew inside the cave with so much speed, all that could be seen was their trail of black smoke, which quickly filled the air. Everyone began coughing and sputtering.

“Change into a stick,” Elliot said to Harold between coughs. “Or a rock. Something that doesn’t need to breathe.”

“If it doesn’t breathe, it doesn’t think,” Harold said. “I won’t be able to think myself back.”

“Do it!” Elliot said. There wasn’t time for arguing.

He heard a small pop and saw a bright orange rock on the ground. “The idea was to be less obvious,” Elliot muttered to Harold the Rock. Harold the Rock didn’t answer. No big surprise. Rocks are not known for their skills at conversation. Even shapeshifted ones.

Elliot watched the remaining creatures try fighting back with their sticks of light, but without enough air they had no strength to hold on to them. The sticks lost their light and clattered to the ground. Even Elliot found he couldn’t hold on to his broom. It was hard enough just to breathe.

One by one the dark claws of the Shadow Men reached out and touched several creatures on their heads. As they did, the creatures froze in place.

Elliot looked up from the ground where he sat, still coughing and choking on smoke. “What’s happening to them?”

Beside him, Mr. Willimaker said, “They’ve turned to stone. It’s a curse. As long as the Shadow Men move, our friends will not.”

Using the last bit of energy he had, Elliot wrote a message in the dirt. It said, “Orange rock.”