Demons and Druids Read online

  I couldn’t help but smile. Thousands of years old, but he still threw a temper tantrum like some preschooler. “Typical guy,” my mom would say.

  As I ran even faster, I imagined a scene that would take place soon, when hundreds of Beta’s servants would scour the junkyard looking for me. Eventually, they would find a message I’d scrawled in charcoal on the side of a rusty cargo container.

  HEY, SPARKY,

  I ENJOYED SEEING YOU GETTING SKEWERED AND FREEZE-DRIED BACK IN THE DARK AGES. REMEMBER KING ARTHUR, MERLIN, AND ME? WHY DON’T WE DO IT AGAIN SOMETIME? HOW ABOUT AT STONEHENGE TOMORROW NIGHT?

  YOU BRING THE MARSHMALLOWS.

  LOVE, DANIEL X

  Chapter 74

  DANA’S STORY turned out to be rather marvelous—but a story for another place, another time, another book.

  But there’s one important fact about it you need to know:

  She met Willy on her journey, and he was sent back to the present time well before we got there.

  Which means that Willy went through a time hole all on his own (another book, too). Now give me one good explanation for how that could happen? My friends, who I thought I created and controlled, were clearly having lives of their own now.

  Things are not always what they seem, Daniel, and you still have quite a lot to learn, I heard my dad saying in my head. Wait a minute—Dad was speaking, but not in my head.

  I was sitting in the backseat of a minivan with the fam, watching DVDs on a tiny screen hanging from the ceiling, and it was like my dad was reading my thoughts.

  I had decided I couldn’t face the ninety-mile trip to Salisbury Plain, the site of Stonehenge. Not just yet. Not after everything I’d been through. Instead, I’d created my parents, and then rented a minivan. I needed a little company, some TLC, a little downtime to prepare myself for Beta and, very possibly, death by fire.

  And yes, I’d even brought Brenda along for the ride. She was chronically annoying, but depending on how things went tonight… I figured it might be nice to spend some quality time with my whole imaginary family. Now my dad was driving while I read a few books on Stonehenge in the back, and Pork Chop was watching, of all things, Fantastic Four. I knew why she’d picked that particular movie: every time the Human Torch came on-screen, I would jump, and she’d laugh like the little maniac she can be.

  “Brenda, don’t tease your brother right now,” said my mother after this had been going on for about fifteen minutes. “This is a very tense time for him, dear.”

  “I can watch something else,” Brenda replied helpfully. “Let’s see… how about Dragonheart? Or Volcano? Oh, I know: The Towering Inferno.”

  “You know, Mom is right. I could be about to die, Porker.”

  “Like I even care,” she said, sticking her tongue out.

  My dad turned around in his seat and laughed. “Hey! Do you want me to pull this car over?”

  “Believe me, if I didn’t have to go on this particular trip I wouldn’t mind at all.”

  He nodded slowly, and faced forward again. “It’s a shame we never got to take any trips like this when we were alive, huh?”

  “Was there anything in those books that could help?” asked my mom, ever protective.

  I shook my head. “Nothing I didn’t already know. The stones are around four thousand years old, give or take a hundred years, and the whole thing is in ruins. No one knows anything about how the monument is supposed to work, or even what it’s for. There are a thousand different academic experts with a thousand different theories about Stonehenge.”

  “Any of them mention aliens?” said Brenda, still staring at the video screen.

  I poked her in the ribs. “Pretty much all of them.”

  “Don’t worry,” said my father. “If there’s one thing you’re good at, it’s winging it. I don’t need to remind you just how dangerous Phosphorius Beta is, though. And he is many, many times more powerful now than he was back in the Dark Ages.”

  My mother reached back, a little awkwardly because of the angle, and patted me on the shoulder. “But you’re not so bad yourself, Daniel. So far, you’re undefeated.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” My father nodded. “Just remember, this is a single-elimination tournament.”

  “I get it, Dad. One strike and you’re out.”

  Chapter 75

  ONCE WE ARRIVED at Stonehenge, I sent my family away—just in case things got really horrifying. No need for them to see me die.

  But then, guess who showed up? Joe, Willy, Emma, and Dana.

  “I guess you guys are going rogue, now, eh?” I said, secretly thrilled that they were here, but worried all the same. “I can’t tell you guys to just disappear?”

  “Got that right,” said Dana. “Don’t waste your energy trying.”

  They were good company, since we had a lot of time to kill. Hour after hour passed without any action from Beta.

  “It’s three in the morning. Maybe Beta chickened out,” Emma eventually said from her lookout perch on top of a stone plinth.

  “Yes, he’s obviously terrified,” said Joe, fingering the strings of his hooded sweatshirt. “After all, Daniel is a horrifying creature made out of fire, and Beta is small and… oh, wait, did I get that all wrong?”

  “Thanks, Joe. You really know how to raise somebody’s spirits,” I said sarcastically.

  “I try my best.” But then he gave me a quick hug. “Hey, buddy, you know I believe in you.”

  But did I believe in myself? Against Beta? And his thousands upon thousands of minions?

  There was a soft padding sound behind us. We slowly, slowly… turned… and saw Willy marching up from the ditch that surrounded the monuments. He was wearing a navy blue security guard’s uniform. When he spotted us he shook his head.

  “Still nothing. No Beta. No fiery demons.”

  I nodded at him. It was ridiculously quiet. No cars had passed in hours, and a fine mist had settled over the plain. It had made my clothes damp and my skin clammy. Dana, though, seemed as warm as ever, sitting next to me on one of the fallen sarsen stones.

  “You feeling up to this?” she asked.

  “Does it matter? I don’t really have a choice, Dana.”

  “I just… don’t want to see you get killed tonight. Or burned so badly that you’re unrecognizable.”

  I didn’t need to say anything to that, just nodded. A moment later, like she was afraid of the silence, Dana added, “He’s made of fire, but he’s not invincible. And Merlin must have sent you here for a reason. ‘Look to the sky.’ That has to mean something.”

  I knew Dana had to be right. But I’d gone over every stone in Stonehenge, and if there was some kind of hidden technology, I had yet to find it. So what had Merlin been talking about? There was no underground stream here. And these rocks couldn’t shoot fireproof foam, or call down a blizzard.

  “Well, whatever it is, it beats me. You guys have any ideas about the secret of Stonehenge? Maybe these stones are actually spaceships?”

  “Why didn’t you just ask some druids when you went back in time? I would have,” said Joe. I could tell he was still sore that he’d missed out on my adventure with what he’d called “real-life dungeons and dragons.”

  “You know, Joe,” said Emma, “this place wasn’t actually built by the druids. It was around for at least a thousand years before the druids even came into existence.”

  “Really? I met one who says differently.” Joe pulled his hood over his head and lowered his voice into a ghostly moan. “EMMA… EMMMMAAAA. We druuuids created Stonehenge.”

  He started to climb up to where Emma was, still moaning, while she playfully kicked at him with one foot. Then suddenly she was all business.

  “Okay… we got something. To the east. And it’s hot.”

  Chapter 76

  BEFORE ANY OF US could see what Emma meant, we heard the growl of dozens and dozens of engines. Odd shapes were approaching on the road, and they were moving fast.

  Emma climbed do
wn and Dana and I stood up, waiting nervously, straining to see what was coming toward us at a blistering pace.

  It was a convoy of delivery trucks—like the one I’d seen at the metal foundry. There were close to fifty of them, along with six cement mixers. The whole train of vehicles must have been going at least ninety miles an hour. None of them had their headlights on.

  My heart sank as I registered the massive numbers. I guess Beta had decided to show up after all. And he had brought some friends, or, I should say, some fiends.

  Just before the convoy reached us, the lead truck turned its wheels sharply, effortlessly knocked down the fence at the side of the road, then skidded up onto the grass beside the monument. Barely slowing down, each truck followed until they were all stopped in rows, the cement mixers still in the middle.

  For a moment or two, they just sat there, accompanied by the ominous ticking of cooling engines. Then the doors opened, and figures emerged from the cab of each truck. The drivers opened the rolling doors at the back of the vans, letting out more of Beta’s faithful.

  “Looks like Beta has a plan,” contributed Joe.

  Of course I knew what was coming next, even if I didn’t want to admit it. There was a deafening whir, and fire began to pour out of the chute at the back of each truck, splashing onto the grass and splitting into flames the size of a person. Each raced along the ground in a random direction until the field had so many fires it looked like an army had pitched camp there.

  The last of the flames from the three trucks came together into the tall orange blossom that I’d been expecting, and dreading. Then it leaned toward us, kind of like an old friend.

  Before Beta could say anything, though, Joe piped up.

  “What, you guys didn’t want to park at the visitor center?”

  Chapter 77

  “HELLO, DANIEL.” Beta sounded amused, even cheerful, but I could hear the menace underlying his words. “I must say, your note surprised me. I’ve spent fourteen hundred years thinking about how exactly to repay you for nearly destroying me, without ever thinking I would actually get the chance to. What luck!”

  “I’m the lucky one,” I said. “Now I get to finish the job that started in the Dark Ages.”

  He sniffed. At least I think that’s what it was. “Maybe I should thank you, Danny Boy. When you forced me underground I had a lot of time to ponder the vicissitudes of life, and I realized something. Why burn a few paltry houses, or a few insignificant people, when I could have a huge, villainous army do the work for me?

  “By the time I was strong enough to come back to the surface, I realized it was time to change my methods. Monsters were out, commerce was in. Cyndaris needs fuel, and Earth has lots of it. Have you noticed?”

  “I’ve seen your so-called ‘fuel,’ Beta. You can’t do that to the planet I love.”

  “The planet you love? Well, you’re really going to like this bit of news, then. When my ships get to Cyndaris, you know what the cargo gets used for?”

  I shook my head, knowing I didn’t want to hear the answer. Actually, I didn’t think there was anything Beta could say that would lower my opinion of him any further. But I’ve been wrong before.

  He cackled. “Fast food, Daniel. Bottom-of-the-barrel grub. But what can I say? There are a lot of folks who don’t care what they eat, as long as it’s cheap and unhealthfully delicious. And fuel matching that description is just lying around for the taking on Earth! I would have to be an idiot not to take advantage! Over one billion burned, that’s my motto. Should I give my ad agency a bonus? Or fire them?”

  Funny how the aliens on The List never seemed to want to be artists or doctors. It was crappy movie producers, crooked used car dealers, sleazy defense attorneys, smarmy ad execs. And now this.

  I gritted my teeth so tightly that it hurt. “Figures that after a thousand years the only thing you would have learned is how to be a lousy cook.”

  “Oh, I’ve learned a lot more than that. You and the boy king were lucky when you faced me more than a millennium ago. I was fresh out of a time portal, little more than a pile of embers. Now I’m a thousand and a half years older, wiser, and stronger.”

  I shrugged, purposefully nonchalant. I had the inklings of an idea forming in my head. “You don’t look that impressive. I mean, come on. The dragon Arthur fought was bigger.”

  “Is that so? Well, watch this. Or just close your eyes, and feel the heat.”

  Chapter 78

  BETA HUFFED AND PUFFED, his flames pulsing in giant waves. Slowly, the shadowy face in the flames turned yellow, then brilliantly white.

  The flame weavers standing closest to him took several steps back. A few shaded their eyes with their hands, which immediately began to blister and ooze.

  As he got brighter, I noticed something particularly weird: the rest of the field was disappearing into darkness. The fires that dotted the plain were on the move, streaking toward Beta, joining with him. He towered higher and higher. Then his core became so bright that it hurt to look at him.

  Soon he was the only light source for miles. His flames crackled high above me, at least fifty feet in the air. Stonehenge is large in scale, with the tallest stones more than twenty feet high. Beta made it look like a toy model.

  “You want big? I’ll show you big.” As he spoke, the roar and whistle of combustion tripled in volume until it was like a rocket being launched.

  The human servants closest to him began to stagger. One man fell on his knees, then another. A woman fell to the ground, shuddering. Soon the whole field was full of prostrate figures, twitching and jerking.

  And then, in a grisly reversal of what I’d witnessed at the Faust metal workshop, each body began to glow as Beta took back the fire from his followers.

  “Is this big enough for you? Am I a worthy opponent now?”

  Chapter 79

  MY PLAN had worked too well. One enemy was supposed to be easier to deal with than a hundred, right? Wrong. I felt like a fool.

  I clenched my fists and took a step back. “I’m ready,” I yelled. Yeah, ready to get melted faster than the witch from The Wizard of Oz.

  “You know,” said Beta conversationally (if there’s such a thing as a conversation with a fire bigger than a building), “I’m glad my flame weavers weren’t able to wipe you out sooner. You know that saying? Play with fire? Now we’re going to get to play in so many interesting ways.”

  Suddenly he leaned over—but not over me. Over Dana.

  The force of his fire blew her hair back from her face. Especially with Beta’s spotlight shining on her, she looked incredibly beautiful. Even though Dana couldn’t help shrinking back from the intense heat, her expression was defiant.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she said.

  “What was that?” Beta’s flames lowered till they were just brushing the tops of the standing stones at the edge of the monument.

  He didn’t know that Dana was right, because Beta didn’t know me. Messing with Earth is a good way to get on my bad side. But messing with Dana—that was the last straw.

  I jumped in front of her, my arms folded. “Stand back,” I whispered. “Get behind me. Please don’t argue.”

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Fighting fire with fire,” I said.

  It was the only thing I could think of that might work, and something I’d never tried before. I concentrated hard, really hard. This was going to be interesting, to say the least.

  Suddenly I started to grow and wondered if I could stop my latest brainstorm. In just a few seconds I was about 120 feet tall and I towered over Beta like a big brother.

  I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my sleeve. “This seems a little less unfair, don’t you think?”

  Beta hissed and reared up, almost matching my height. “Daniel, let me tell you something. Against me, there is no such thing as a fair fight. Your idea is clever, but let’s face it. It just means there’s more of you to burn.”

&nb
sp; Chapter 80

  BETA DIDN’T WASTE any more time on idle chitchat. Suddenly he was a firestorm headed straight for me. I dove and rolled out of the way, but I’m sure I still suffered third-degree burns all over my colossal body.

  “Hot enough for you, Danny?” Beta asked, and laughed like hundreds of hyenas on loudspeakers.

  He was gathering strength again, and I waited for something else to happen, anything besides my eyebrows and possibly all of my hair slowly getting singed away.

  “Funny you picked this particular place,” he mused out loud. “It reminds me of the first time I came to this country. Ah, the memories.”

  “Don’t tell me you get sentimental about the places you destroy,” I said, keeping my distance as best I could.

  “Things were different back then,” he continued. “I was burning mud huts instead of oil refineries. But England’s always been one of my favorite places to terrorize.” He sighed nostalgically, still edging closer to me.

  “But all earthly things must come to an end, and eventually England will have served its purpose. Then it’s off to somewhere else, and somewhere else after that, until this planet is a husk filled with ashes. I wouldn’t worry, though. You’ll be gone long before that happens.”

  I steeled myself, quickly coated both of my hands with carbon dioxide, and reached for Beta the way a cowboy reaches for the bull he’s trying to wrangle.

  Bad idea.

  Worse than bad.

  Worse than I could have imagined—by a factor of about a thousand. And that’s saying something, because I figured grabbing him would be like sticking both of my hands into a blast furnace. Unfortunately, Beta was a blast furnace that knew what it was doing. Pain shot through my body like dozens of lightning bolts.

  I let go and staggered backward. I had no other choice.

  “I know, I know. I’m hot,” Beta said. “If I could, I’d let you burn for a couple thousand years. It’s the least you deserve. Flesh is so pitifully frail, though. Under the circumstances, I guess thirty minutes will have to do.”