Pete McGee and the Master of Darkness (2 page)

Below the surface, a long way below, the evil stirred. It stirred, stretched and awakened. This was no ordinary evil. It was evil times infinity. It was evil times infinity plus one, no returns. It was evil put in an evil-increasing machine turned up to level nine, because level ten would just be silly. It was pure evil in its purest form.

It had slept for many years, but now it awakened. It was still a little snoozy though. It grumbled and rolled over, desperate for more sleep. Little did it know it was being awakened and watched by one who rarely slept. No, Syra Tanooth did not like to sleep, for when he did he had nightmares and sometimes, if they were really scary … well, let's just say that was why there were plastic sheets on his bed.

Anyway, the point is, the evil was stirring. Syra Tanooth, the evil sorcerer, had decided he needed a sidekick, and what better sidekick than a being more evil than a jug of evil heated up in the microwave?

Syra clapped his hands to turn off his crystal ball. He would let the evil sleep a little longer. This would be a gradual waking-up. He didn't want the evil to be too grumpy. Not yet anyway.

Pete looked at the other trainee knights. They were all very seriously discussing the last technique they had learned. It was a time-honoured sword-fighting technique that worked fine if your opponent was exactly the right height and weight compared to you and did exactly what you needed them to.

Pete could see it now: the middle of a battlefield, swords and shields and heads flying everywhere. Suddenly you come face to face with an enemy knight. He makes a move. You see the opportunity and raise your sword, only … ‘Ummm, excuse me, good Sir. If it doth please thee, would thou moveth a little to the right. Actually, wait, yes! Swap with the man on thy left. Good. Now, Sir, perchance could thy please lower thy sword a touch, move in a little closer, and hold thy non-sword-wielding arm out to the side. Yes. A little more. Higher. Lower. Perfect. Now take this!'

Pete laughed at the thought. The other boys scowled at him. They didn't like that he was different. A few of them worried that Pete would drag them down in battle, that his one arm would be a hindrance to them and that they would have to look after him.

Sometimes he played on this. Over the years Pete had worked out perfectly good systems for things like tying his shoelaces, cleaning the house and defeating evil monsters! But, on these occasions, he would look down at his shoes and play dumb.

‘Umm, Smithers, could you please do up my shoelace for me? It's undone again.'

Smithers would roll his eyes and wink, knowing perfectly well what Pete was up to.

‘Oh. Gee. Golly gosh, Willikins. Art thou having difficulties, young peasant boy? Would thou liketh me to tie thy shoelace, due to thy lack of an arm-type limb?'

Pete would try his hardest not to laugh.

‘That, good Sir, would be the noblest of gestures. For one as rich and powerful as thee to lower himself to my level, and then even lower—to my shoe's level—astounds and pleases me, for when thou art down there I shall drop mine elbow!'

And then, as Smithers was down tying Pete's shoe, Pete would dig his elbow into Smithers' back and they would wrestle. It was always play wrestling, but it helped Pete develop. Smithers was the most talented of the trainee knights when it came to hand-to-hand combat. Not only that, he was a year older than Pete. Not only, not only that, he was strong. Not only, not only, not only that, but … no, actually, that's the lot now.

All those things helped Pete become stronger and more skilled. Smithers even showed Pete how having one arm could be an advantage. There were holds Pete could use that others couldn't, and holds that people could do on others they couldn't do on Pete. It had been rare that Pete had seen his missing arm as advantageous, although once it had actually saved his life.
(That was in the first Pete McGee book for those who have been reading closely.)

It was odd that Smithers was the one helping Pete McGee see the positive side of having a missing arm. The two had been sworn arch-enemies for years, as Smithers waged a campaign of bullying against Pete, mostly picking on his disability. It took time for Smithers to see past Pete's physical appearance to the man inside, and it was only when Smithers grew up enough himself that the two could truly become friends.

But friends they had become, and were it not for Molloy, Pete's best friend in the entire world, Smithers would have easily taken up the title.

‘Pete! PETE!'

Smithers' voice brought Pete back to the present moment. He now found himself flat on his stomach with his arm pinned behind him.

‘Pete,' Smithers groaned, ‘it's no fun if you aren't even going to try. I mean, I know I can beat you anyway, but at least put up a fight!'

Pete laughed.

‘Sorry, Smithers,' he said, ‘it's just that, well, you know, it's my tummy; it's not feeling too great.'

‘No. Not your tummy. Please not your tummy!'

‘YES, MY TUMMY!' Pete yelled, before letting rip with a stinker of a fart. Smithers quickly let go of Pete's arm so he could hold his nose. Pete rolled over and flipped Smithers onto his back. He stood triumphantly, put a foot on Smithers' chest, and did a victory dance. This was when he felt at his best. This was when he felt alive. He was able to be himself and he was learning how that could be an advantage.

Pete hoped, by doing the knight training and turning his back on adventure, that he would not actually lose who he was, and who he wanted to become.

Master of Darkness: This is Your Life … well a bit of it anyway

S
yra Tanooth gazed longingly into his crystal ball. In it, he saw the evil sleep.

It looked so cute, rolled up into a ball, bits of dribble coming out of its mouth. It even rolled over occasionally, murmuring something that sounded like Mumsy. Syra had to hold himself back from running over there and giving it a big hug.

Syra had been lonely for a long time; when he was young, and wanting to be an evil mastermind, he had decided to work alone. Oh sure, things had gone well for a while. But it got to the point where he would come home from raiding a village, turning a creature to stone, or stealing a valuable diamond, and all he wanted to do was share it with someone. He wanted to laugh and joke with another being of pure evil as they reminisced on their evil deeds for the day.

Also, there had been times when having a companion would have come in handy. Retrieving the Wilderene Flower, for example. Syra had tried on three separate occasions, each three years apart, to get that flower. Twice Dazene had thwarted his attempts. His most recent attempt had been barely two months ago, and had been spoiled by knights that were dead and yet alive, and really rather smelly.

Syra knew that the flower's magical wish would grant him immense and unbeatable power. He laughed when he thought about the things people usually said they would wish for:

‘I wish for world peace.'

‘I wish for all those who are hungry to be fed.'

‘I wish for a sandwich filled with lettuce and venison.'

Syra laughed again. Fools, each and every one, he thought. If he, Syra Tanooth,
Master of Darkness
, was ever granted a wish, he would use it wisely. He never understood why people didn't wish for a million more wishes. Or wish for all their wishes to come true. Or at least wish for some sauce to go on that sandwich—it would be too dry with only meat and lettuce.

For centuries, none had been able to retrieve the Wilderene Flower, as it had been guarded by Dazene, revealer of fears. Finally, one by the name of Sir Pete McGee had defeated Dazene. Syra Tanooth had heard stories of Sir Pete McGee. It had been three years since the flower had been taken, and in that time the legend had become, well, legendary.

Sir Pete McGee: a great knight, over six feet tall and with muscles on his muscles. Syra had heard of his skill, how he had two arms and yet seemed to have twenty so fast did he move, and so large were those arms. He had legs like tree trunks, and a sword so heavy only he could carry it. Sir Pete McGee, the mightiest warrior ever seen, and as handsome as any man ever created—or born, or found under a vegetable patch, or whatever happened when babies were made, Syra didn't know, he had been absent from school the day all that had been discussed.

Syra longed to meet Pete McGee. He did not wish to meet and greet, he wished to meet and defeat! Only by defeating the greatest warrior could he become the greatest villain; it would be his first step on the way to getting the Wilderene Flower. He wanted that flower. He wanted power. He wanted flower power. That was why he needed a partner. Not an equal partner though, more a sidekick. Actually, a minion. Sort of a slave to do his bidding. But it needed to be someone or something as evil as Syra himself.

Syra had researched evil of all kinds, scouring books, scrolls and interviewing those ‘in the know'; the evil below the surface was as evil as they came. It had been asleep, dormant, for hundreds of years, banished underground by the parents of the children it had slain. They had wanted to burn it, but had been forbidden by the King of the time, King Arnold the Forgiving-Old-Softie. So it had been banished and put to sleep.

Until now.

Now that Syra Tanooth had found the evil, it would be his perfect partner in crime. But he had to be patient. All too often, evil was impatient, rushing into things too quickly and being made to look foolish by those of virtue. Not Syra. He had vowed to be patient, ever since the fifth time he had rushed into something too quickly and had been made to look foolish by those of virtue.

Once he had an evil sidekick though, ooooh yeah, the entire world would be the one learning the lesson, and he would be the one teaching it, and it would be geography so it would be boring and everyone would get detention and he may even bring back the strap and then they would all be expelled and never let back into school! Syra Tanooth laughed his evilest laugh.

Pete McGee rode his horse, Lightning, home from training. It had been a long, tiring day, broken only by the fun he'd had play-fighting with Smithers. Overall though, Pete felt dejected. The thoughts that had consumed him at training continued as he rode home. Luckily Lightning knew the way, and Pete could basically be taken along for the ride.

‘What am I going to do, Lightning?' Pete asked. ‘I don't know what to do.'

Lightning whinnied in response. It was all he could do. He was a horse.

‘I know, I know,' Pete said, pretending he had understood the whinny. ‘It
is
good to be in a group. It
is
good to learn the ways of knights. It's just that, I don't know, I feel squashed, and I am just starting to have a growth spurt. It's really bad timing.'

Lightning snorted. Pete agreed.

‘Yeah, I know, bad joke. Still, it's true. I have wanted to be a knight forever, you know. Now it seems like what it actually is to be a knight is not what Sir Loinsteak and Sir Mountable taught me.'

Lightning snorted again. Pete nodded in response.

‘True. True. You do make a good point. The thing is though, Sir Mountable taught me that you don't
need
the title to be a knight. It's how you act, the deeds you perform that are important. The title is all well and good, and means you get invited to the finest hootenannies and all, but I can still be a knight,
my
type of knight, without having to get the title.'

‘Whinny snort.'

‘I know, right? Mum would be so proud if I saw it through. She's always proud when I stick things out, see them through to the end, even if they're hard. But she wants me to be happy too. I don't know, Lightning. My brain's spinning.'

Lightning didn't say anything. A tricky section of the path was coming up and he needed to concentrate, especially as his rider wasn't being much help. Pete continued talking.

‘The good thing is that the wedding's coming up. The new married couple, Ashlyn and Marloynne … hey, I don't even know their surnames! I'll have to ask one of these days. But the best thing is that I get to go to Bandragon again. I get to take the Wilderene Flower to their healers, and I get to hang out with Tahnee, Molloy and Mortone on the way back! I miss them so much.'