The Secret of Ashona (17 page)

Around the corner on Jalan Bangka, a signpost was perched on a neatly manicured lawn, reading
WINDOWS TO THE SOUL—ONE STOP EYE CARE SHOP
. It looked so quaint and innocent . . . how ironic that it was the portal to a horrifying fortress. Erec went inside. No longer would he have to worry about finding the right pair of glasses to
show him where the doorway was to pass through to the fortress. As a ghost the way would be quite clear.

The man working in the shop had medium brown hair, was medium height, average weight, and had average features. The only thing that stood out about him were the simple, plain glasses on his face. Even though Erec had seen him before, it took a minute to identify him—he was so unnoticeable that he seemed to even disappear behind his own glasses, blending in to the rows of glasses behind him.

But the man recognized Erec immediately, and his face turned bright red. “Erec Rex! How dare you come back here again. Just because you got away the last time, don’t think you’re going to be so lucky now. I’m calling security!”

Erec shrugged. “Go ahead. I’m going straight in to find Baskania anyway, so I don’t care.” He could tell that the man was terrified. Reading his mind, he could see that he had gotten in trouble, as had many other people, for letting Erec escape before.

There was nothing Erec could do for him now. He looked around at the shelves of glasses, and spotted a hidden door in the wall behind a rack of glasses. He knew that it would not be visible to human eyes. This was obviously the way to get to the fortress.

“Pardon me.” Erec smiled. He twisted open the doorknob, which was icy cold. Freezing wind flung the door back, blasting into the shop, and revealing a dark hallway.

The man’s mouth hung open in shock. “I . . . how did you . . . ?”

“See you later.” Erec winked, darting into the tunnel, slamming the door shut behind him. He swept through the long hallway at lightning speed into the light at the end. There was the beach that he remembered. It had seemed so hard to find a way across it the first time, with the ferocious phantom piranhas ready to devour any living thing. But Erec could fly himself now, so that would be no problem.
Even if he did touch the water, no phantom piranhas could hurt him.

When they had flown across before, there had been other horrible things to deal with. Erec remembered them now. Some of them would be no problem for him: the living things such as minotaurs, manticores, werewolves and wenwolves, lions, and tigers would pass right through him if they attacked. But Baskania was a fan of using the undead to guard his palace as well. He wondered if creatures like the zombies or the Vetalas—the horrific monsters that commanded and also ate the hordes of zombies—would be able to hurt him in any way. It seemed not. He already had lost his life and soul, what more was there to lose?

There were other things as well that guarded the fortress: Specters were pure evil spirits; spirit warriors were once-human ghosts that had been trained to serve in Baskania’s army. And of course Shadow Demons, whose powers surpassed all of the others. Erec wondered if any of the spirit creatures could stop him now, but it didn’t seem that there was much they could do.

He thought a moment about the specters. The ghostly creatures’ whole existence was evil. Was that what he was destined to become if he didn’t get his soul back? And the spirit warriors . . . they were ghosts like him. Why were they helping Baskania as their mission on earth? Had he worked a spell on them? Just to be safe, Erec would make sure that Baskania didn’t find out that he was a ghost.

Suddenly Erec’s eyes flung wide open. Spirit warriors—weren’t they exactly what he was looking for? The golden ghost had said, “There are other spirits like you who occupy different regions. You need to look to places beyond in order to find what you seek.” Well, this fortress was a different region of the world. Were there other places that Erec needed to go to find more spirit warriors, or other kinds of spirits who might be able to help him?

It was time to find out. Erec pushed against the sandy beach and
sprung into the air. He soared over the dark, rippling waters, straight into the clouds. Turning a somersault in the air, he angled himself toward the other shore. It felt great to fly, even if the wind was blowing right through his body instead of against his skin. He touched down on the other side of a huge stone wall, in the midst of a pride of lions. Spotting him, a manticore rushed over with a growl. The thing raced straight through him several times until it lost interest.

The black iron fortress looked surreal, like Baskania wanted it to be as intimidating as possible. Dark spikes covered every turret, post, and crooked Gothic roof peak. Terrifying gargoyles wagged their tongues at the creatures below. Towers jutted all over, each looking as if it held hostages, and creatures of all types swarmed through the air between them.

Rows of zombies marched, unthinking, in circles around the palace, but Erec flew through them, untouched. He spied a disgusting Vetala, three rotting heads stacked atop one another under its black hooded cape. No problem to him now. He glided, untroubled, toward the front door of the fortress. As he grew closer, he knew that Baskania was inside. Before he talked to the Spirit Warriors, he had to get a glimpse into the mind of his enemy.

He bounded up the outer steps to the pointed gothic stone archway that led to the huge wooden castle doors. Two black-cloaked Vetalas stood in front, talking. Erec recognized one as Master Vetu, the Vetala in charge of the rest.

Master Vetu did not recognize him; however, he was delighted. “Well, well!” His middle head spoke to Erec, staring into him with piercing eyes. His low voice sounded slick and cold. “Look what we have here—fresh meat. How lovely. I was in need of a new head, this bottom one has seen its day.” The eyes in the Vetala’s top head spun wildly, giving it a crazed look. Its lower head was caving in, tongue sticking out and eyes darting around suspiciously.

“I’ll take his hands,” the other Vetala said in a husky whisper. “Mine keep falling to bits. I want one of his legs, too, to eat.”

Master Vetu nodded, looking at Erec appraisingly. “That will be fine. We seem to be the only ones to have spotted this boy. No reason to share with the rest. We’ll each take a leg, then.” His lower face began to drool all over its chin.

Then Erec heard a sound that was more horrifying than anything else. It was a tiny baby crying. He looked around, as did the excited Vetalas. Lying on the stone ground next to them was an infant wrapped in a blue blanket. Erec could read the Vetala’s thoughts—each wanted to tear into the child with its teeth before the other could get a bite. But the child seemed to have no thoughts at all—likely it was too young. How had it gotten here?

Master Vetu held up a hand. “The baby will be mine. You can start with this boy. Just make sure not to ruin his head.”

The other Vetala swiped at Erec with a craggy clawed hand, but it passed right through him. The baby continued to cry, unnerving Erec completely. He had to get the poor thing to safety.

Both Vetalas stared at him now, realizing that he was a ghost. Master Vetu, to make sure, shot a bolt of red lightning out of his bony hand, aimed at Erec. The red beam diverted and was absorbed straight into the Amulet of Virtues that hung around Erec’s neck. Not that Erec would have been hurt by the blast, but it was nice to know that his Amulet was still in working order.

The creatures then turned their attention to the baby. In one bound, Erec swooped the poor thing up into his arms and leaped onto the roof. The Vetalas looked up at him, shaking their fists and drooling.

The infant batted his blue eyes coyly at Erec and smiled. “Thanks, Erec, dear,” it said.

Erec was so shocked he almost dropped the thing. This baby
could talk? It looked like a newborn. How was that possible?

“Oh, my, my, little Erec,” it said in a squeaky little voice. “You’ll never learn, will you?”

“H-how did you know my name? Who are you?” This was the first time that Erec felt fear, as a ghost.

“I’m your old friend. We met the last time that you were here, although I looked a little different then.”

Erec immediately realized what he was holding. It was a Shadow Demon. The last time he was here—and the time he had met one in King Pluto’s dungeons—the thing had chosen to look like a mirror image of Erec himself. It could also, at will, look like any vicious or gruesome being it chose.

The thing felt tingly in his fingers and he dropped it onto the roof tiles. “That wasn’t funny.”

“Ouch,” the thing said, even though Erec knew that it felt no pain. “Don’t you know that it’s impolite to throw babies?”

“You’re no baby. Do you think you’re going to stop me from talking to Baskania? Because I’m on a mission.”

“I know exactly what mission you are on,” the Shadow Demon said. “I can read your little mind just as well as I could the last time. You never fail to amuse me, you know.”

Erec remembered that the way to disarm a Shadow Demon was to simply walk right through the thing. The only way it tried to keep people from doing that was by frightening them, by making itself look like a Vetala or something awful. Well, nothing like that would frighten Erec as a ghost. Just to get it over with, he glided over the rooftop straight through the baby.

The Shadow Demon did not even try to alter its appearance to frighten Erec away. Maybe it knew that Erec was past that now.

Instead, the baby just laughed. “You are too much. Really.” It cackled harder, which sounded strange coming from a baby, giving
Erec the chills. “What, do you think you can make me go away if you pass through me? Like you’re still human or something? That would only keep me from
eating
a human. But you don’t have much to eat, now, do you?”

“So, you can’t do anything to me now, then?”

“Oh, I didn’t say that.” The baby winked.

Erec was confused. If only he could read the thoughts of this thing like he could read humans. “I’m going to go find Baskania now. Have a good day.”

“Oh, I will. I’m going to have an excellent day. It’s always fun when you visit. Feel free to speak to the Shadow Prince. I’ll be going with you, if you don’t mind. Kind of part of my job, you know.”

Part of his job? What was his job? Erec remembered that the Shadow Demon alerted Baskania that intruders were there. That was no issue now—Erec wasn’t hiding.

But there was one problem that occurred to him. The Shadow Demon knew something that he was hiding from Baskania—that Erec was a ghost.

“Bingo,” the baby said. “It doesn’t take you too long, does it? I mean, for a human at least.”

“Hey, could you not mention that to Baskania? I mean, he doesn’t need to know that I’m dead. I’d just like to find out a few things from him, and keep that to myself, okay?”

The baby opened its mouth and a snake tongue darted out. It stretched its jaws wider, and a fat snake with red and black stripes oozed out. After about six feet of snake had appeared, the rest of the baby morphed into a pale rattle at the end of its tail. The snake hissed, “You want me to keep your sssssecret, then? Why should I do that? I have made an agreement with the Ssssshadow Princsssss, you know.”

“I understand. But you are your own boss. Why help that guy out when you can help a fellow ghost?”

“You’re not a fellow anything to me,” the snake hissed. “A deal is a deal, and fun is fun, you know.”

“Please. I’ll trade you for anything I have. Do you want this Amulet of Virtues?” Erec had no need for the amulet. As a ghost he could never be king. And if he ever became human again he’d be happy to give quests up forever if he could get his soul back.

“Thanks for offering me ssssomething entirely usssselessss. I will make a trade, though, for that lovely Twrch Trwyth, and the three Awen that are left in it.”

Erec did not have to read the Shadow Demon’s mind to know that the Twrch Trwyth would give the thing far too much power. The Awen were strong enough to have an effect on even the three Furies.

“Have it your way, then.” The snake sprouted wings and flew in circles through the air around Erec’s head.

Erec tried to ignore it and go on his way to find Baskania. It really didn’t matter if the snake blew his cover, anyway. It wasn’t like the human Baskania could do anything to hurt him now that he was already dead. He had to find out where Baskania was keeping all of the spirits, and also what his plans were. That was the only important thing. That was why he had to come here, after all.

Erec could hear the snake laughing as he sailed down to the fortress gate.

It was easy to find Baskania—Erec could sense exactly where to go. He leaped to the front door of the castle, the Vetalas swinging around in a fury. Ignoring them, he passed right through the wooden door.

Inside, he glided down hallways and up staircases with no effort. He tried to keep his pace within the norm for a human, just in case he could keep his cover. Around corners and down hallways—Erec could not wait to face his enemy now that he was the one with all of the power.

The flying snake hovered right behind his shoulder the whole way. Erec finally flung open the wooden doorway to the room where Baskania was. Hundreds of candles glittered through the huge gold leaf–painted room. Ornate paintings and tapestries decorated the walls. Baskania sat behind a polished wooden desk, carved with gargoyles and Minotaurs. His face had stretched wide to fit twenty-six eyes, all of which gazed at Erec with surprise.

After a moment, his face began to morph. Eyes in the lower half sunk into his skin, forming deep pits. It was nauseating, like his face had become a sick version of Swiss cheese. Then his skin flattened over the pits to create a smooth expanse of skin. A wide area caved in, cracking across the lower part, until it broke into a sharp, thin-lipped mouth, stretching into a cruel smile.

“What a welcome surprise! I am delighted to see you here, Erec. I’m curious how you made it through my fortress, but I’m sure that I’ll find out soon. What can I do for you?”

Erec glanced at the Shadow Demon, wondering if he was going to tell Baskania right away that Erec was a ghost. But the floating snake seemed content to wait and watch. “I wanted to talk to you, that’s all.”