Tales from Dargo Island: The Complete Trilogy (12 page)

What if Nalke
did need Astrid in order to regain his power?

As we got
closer to the cloud-castle, I saw dark things running toward us. They stood out
in front of the white clouds. I saw at least twenty of them. Shae, Champagne,
Victor, Estevan and I started running, and I knew it wasn’t because we wanted
to. The islanders gave a battle cry and started running after us.

Rockne was
making us confront the creatures!

I wasn’t too
worried about myself, but I was afraid for my friends. They didn’t have the
power to leach someone’s life like I did. If they died, they would be gone
forever.

I tried to
fight Rockne’s power over me, but his will was too strong. Nalke’s army was
thirty feet away, I guessed. In seconds we would collide. The creatures looked
like gorillas.

I was the first
one to go down. The creature collided with me, and I definitely felt it. It bit
my neck, which I also felt. I saw giant bat wings on its back and I guessed it
was a vampire. The islanders ran past me.

No one was
helping me.

I was getting
weaker by the second.

And then I grew
stronger just as fast.

The vampire let
go of my neck and collapsed next to me, gasping. It was dying. I jumped to my
feet, fully restored. And I was in control of my own body. I hadn’t noticed at
first but I had told myself to stand up.

I looked around
and saw the vampires giving the Dargons a run for their money. Nearly a dozen
islanders were lying dead on the cloud-ground. None of them were my friends.

I ran after the
two armies, which were moving toward the castle. One person ran up the stairs
and into the keep’s entrance, and I could tell from the shiny suit it was
Rockne. I tried to run after him, but another vampire grabbed me by the neck
and threw me over the edge.

I started to
fall but stopped a few seconds later. I floated in midair for a moment and then
floated back up. The vampire who tried to kill me stared in shock before
suddenly catching on fire. It fell over the edge just as I took its place on
the firm cloud.

Rockne stood a
few feet away, his right arm raised in front of him.

He saved me.

Before I could
move toward him, he turned and ran up into the keep again. I didn’t know if he
was aware I’d regained control of my body, but it didn’t seem to matter. I
wouldn’t be able to catch up with him before he found Nalke.

I tried to move
around the battle, but there were so many fighting bodies in my way. So many
Dargons died in front of my eyes. Rockne’s potion must have enhanced our
ability to fight, because I saw Champagne and Shae taking out a couple of
vampires each. I never would have guessed Champagne could move that fast.
Victor swung his axe like nobody’s business, cutting down vampires left and
right.

A couple of
vampires ganged up on Aneela, and I was about to help her, but Shae appeared
out of nowhere and killed them. I ran up to my friends.

“Shae, my
potion wore off. We have to stop Rockne from killing Nalke.”

She showed no
sign of understanding me, though I knew she did. She went back to fighting the
vampires. Aneela, on the other hand, looked worried.

“What are you
talking about?” she asked me.

“Rockne’s
behind everything. Nalke is innocent. Rockne tricked you into helping him, and
now he’s inside the castle. We have to stop him.”

She only
thought about this for a second before nodding. “Let’s go.”

We raced up the
cloud-stairs and entered the keep.

I’d suspected
the inside of the keep would also be made of clouds, and was surprised by what
I saw. The place looked like it was made of stone. The outside must have been
an illusion, so no one could see it from the ground. I looked around, trying to
find Rockne, or even Nalke. I didn’t know what I would do when I found them,
seeing as I was no match for Rockne, but I had to try.

Aneela was
right behind me. We stopped at an intersection in a hallway. There were four
ways to go: forward, left, right, and back the way we’d come. The forward, left
and right ways ended in a red door.

“Which way did
he go?” Aneela asked.

“I don’t know.”

I looked to the
right again and noticed the door was slightly open. It was barely noticeable
from here, but I could see it blowing slightly in a wind. “That way!” I yelled,
running down the hall. Aneela was on my heels.

Before we could
go through the door, something behind us growled. We turned around and saw a
large wolf at the end of the hall.

A werewolf!

It raced toward
us, black fur shining as it passed the many torches on the walls. It was one of
the scariest things I’ve ever seen. Aneela pushed the door open and pulled me
into the room. We just managed to shut the door in time before the monster
slammed into it. Aneela pushed a bar in place to lock it, but the werewolf was
incredibly strong. The door wouldn’t last long.

“Come on!” she
screamed, running up a spiral stone staircase on the other side of the room.

Just as we
started up the steps, the door came crashing open behind us. I could feel the
blood gushing from my nose as I tried to stay on my feet. I ran as fast as I
could but the werewolf was much faster. I waited for death; I could practically
feel the monster’s breath on the back of my neck.

Aneela and I
got to the first landing and ran into the room. I turned to try and fight it
off so Aneela could escape, but as soon as the werewolf appeared, a blast of
blue energy hit it in the chest. It fell to the ground, unconscious.

I spun around,
expecting to see Rockne.

Instead, I saw
Nalke. His hair was long and white. He looked more like a wizard than his
brother. He wore a long blue robe that touched the floor.

“Rockne’s in
the keep,” I said, breathless and wiping my nose. “We have to get you out of
here.”

He shook his
head. “I have to face him. He managed to kill nearly my entire army. If I don’t
stop him now…”

Aneela and I
looked at each other. “Rockne deceived my people and me,” she said to Nalke. “I
want to help you stop him.”

Nalke nodded.
“But first, we must find him.”

“I’m right
here, brother.”

Rockne stood in
the landing, next to the unconscious werewolf, his hands behind his back. He
stepped into the room, his eyes on the floor. He looked so calm, so smug. I
hated him more than anything at that moment.

“Hello,
brother,” Nalke said to him. “You’ve been very busy. Deceit, murder. After this
is over, your list of friends will be greatly diminished.”

“When this
over, I won’t need friends,” Rockne said, though he sounded sad. “I won’t need
friends.”

Aneela and I
backed away to a wall. The room got colder by the minute. The brothers stared
at each other, twelve feet apart. I didn’t want to be in the same room as these
two, but I had to see what happened. If Rockne won, I had to stop him.

I hadn’t
figured out how to stop him, though.

“Do you really
think you deserve the throne?” Nalke asked his brother. “You’re immature and
irresponsible—reasons why you were passed over in the first place.”

Rockne
chuckled, looking at the floor. “Though I agree with your assessment, nothing
you say will change my mind. I’m not an evil man, just a desperate one.”

“You are evil!”
Aneela shouted behind me. “You killed the giants of Dargo. You forced your
friends to fight against their will. They’re probably dying for you, and you
don’t even care.”

“I do care!”
Rockne shouted. “I may have lost my friends’ trust today, but I still care for
them. The potion I gave them made them stronger, better fighters. They’re more
powerful than your people. They’ll be fine.” He looked at me. “I saved Josh
from falling to his death earlier. I’m not a monster.”

“I hate you,” I
said before I could stop myself.

Rockne looked
at me.

“I trusted you,
and you betrayed me. You are a monster.”

“I know, Dr.
Debelko, and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t call me
that!” I yelled. “You’ve been lying to me since the day we met. We were never
friends.”

He looked hurt.
He locked eyes with his brother. “It appears I have nothing left to lose.”

“Except your
life, brother.”

“You may be
more powerful, but I have an army and you don’t.”

“Your army
isn’t in this room.” Nalke grinned.

Rockne waved
his hands and the room suddenly became fuller. Shae, Victor, Champagne and
Estevan appeared behind him. They were covered in blood, and I had a feeling
none of it belonged to them.

“They are now,”
Rockne said, unnecessarily.

Nalke looked a
little nervous, but he stood his ground. Rockne had said he was powerful in his
own realm; maybe he had a few tricks up his sleeve. If so, he needed to pull
them out now.

Suddenly,
Rockne’s army jumped toward Nalke. He waved his hand and a mini tornado caught
and tossed them across the room. They landed in a heap, and I couldn’t tell if
they were still alive.

Rockne angrily
shot fire from his hands toward his brother. The fire hit an invisible force
field; Nalke didn’t even blink. He did, however, lift a hand, causing Rockne to
shoot backward, onto the landing.

“You can’t
defeat me in my own home,” he told Rockne.

Rockne spit
blood on the floor. “It’s my home too,” he whispered, standing up again.

“It used to be
your home, before you became a petulant child. You forced Father to banish you
from this place. You could have stayed here, with me, and perhaps gained the
throne later on. But, no, you had to have a tantrum and cause so much death and
destruction.”

“Shut up!”

Nalke looked at
the pile of Rockne’s army to the side. “I lost a lot of my power when I threw
that curse at Shae. Most of who I am lies within my daughter. I can’t get it
back, as long as Astrid lives.”

I didn’t like
the sound of that. “You’re not going to kill her!”

He looked at me
with a disgusted expression. “Of course not. Though I don’t know her well, I
love her with all my heart.”

“Before this
fight is over,” Rockne said, raising his hands again, “you’ll be ready to kill
your daughter to get your power back.”

He shot more fire
from his fingers, and this time Nalke looked to be straining against the power.
This went on for a couple of minutes, and I actually feared for Nalke’s life.
He dropped to his knees.

Rockne laughed.
I could barely hear it over the roar of the flames, but I saw his face. He had
the most disturbing smile I’d ever seen.

“We have to do
something!” Aneela yelled at me.

I nodded to
her. I’d already come up with an idea, but I was scared to go through with it.
But I had to. If Rockne defeated Nalke, everything would change for the worst.
Rockne didn’t have his brother’s discipline. He would cause earthquakes and
hurricanes just for the fun of it. He would use the elements to kill his
enemies, or just people he didn’t like.

He couldn’t
gain the throne. I couldn’t let him.

I ran toward
the fire. I saw Rockne’s face just before I leaped into the flames, the fear in
his eyes. In that instant, he knew what I was going to do. Before he could
extinguish the fire, I jumped into it.

The pain was
the worst I’d ever felt. I guess that goes without saying, but still.

I don’t know
how long I was in the fire, but when it finally stopped I dropped to the stone
floor. My skin and lungs were raw. I was dying.

And then I
wasn’t.

I heard a gasp,
and then I felt a little less pain. I was leaching off of Rockne.

I regained
enough strength to lift my head. I saw him on his knees, his face pale. He
dropped to his side, gasping. “I’m sorry, Dr. Debelko,” he said to me. And then
he fell to the floor. Rockne was dead.

I looked at my
arms. The skin was completely burned away, and I saw my muscles and bones. It
was too much for me. I passed out.

I kept slipping
in and out of consciousness, but whenever I was awake, I heard a deafening
roar. It sounded like a hurricane. I saw large waves every now and then, and
felt water splash on my face. I had no idea where I was or what was going on,
but it didn’t seem good.

“We’re almost
to the hot tub,” a familiar voice said. Was that Shae?

I felt like I
was being carried, and it hurt being jostled around so much, but I kept
blacking out. Blacking out was awesome.

When I woke up
again, I saw Rockne’s house. I closed my eyes again.

When I opened
them, I was being lowered into a hot tub. The bubbling blue water looked so
pretty. My head went under the surface, and I closed my eyes again.

More pain.

My whole body
was burning. I suddenly remembered jumping into Rockne’s fire. Why did I do
that? Why would I do something that would cause this much pain?

After some time
the pain went away. My skin went from burning to itching, and then numb. I
opened my eyes underwater and saw that my arms were pink. I had a vague memory
of them being red. No, not just red. I had seen the insides of my arms because
the skin had been burned away.

I lunged out of
the tub, gasping. The first person I saw was Champagne. She had tears in her
eyes. Next to her were Victor, Astrid, Shae, Aneela and Estevan.

And, oh man,
what was going on around us?

I saw giant
waves crashing down on the mountains far away. There was water in the yard, and
the wind blew so hard I had to brace myself in the tub.

“Rockne’s magic
is gone!” Victor shouted over the wind. “The island isn’t exactly in a prime
location for this time of year!”

“Isn’t there
something we can do?” I yelled back.

“I can,”
Estevan said in a voice that wasn’t his. It was Nalke’s.

He turned and
walked away, toward the street. I jumped out of the tub and followed. Estevan
stood in the middle of the street, waving his arms around. I noticed for the
first time the clouds were red. They swirled to Estevan’s movements. And then
he pushed his arms outward, and the clouds did the same.

That stopped
the wind and rain, but not the waves, which were roaring toward us.

Estevan braced
himself and held his hands in front of him. Just before the water reached the
gatehouse, it stopped. It was like it hit an invisible solid wall. It was an
amazing sight. The water rushed around the invisible barrier that circled us,
and we were surrounded.

We stood in the
street for at least a minute as the waves died down on the shore and the water
washed back into the sea.

Estevan dropped
his arms and turned to me.

“You need a
human host to walk on land,” I remembered.

“As did my
brother. He’d been using that body for decades. I mourn the loss of the poor
soul that was lost with him.”

I felt like I’d
been stabbed in the heart. I was the one who killed them. I could never undo
that. Though my power saved me, and the world, I wished I’d never been born
with it.

I felt a hand
on my shoulder and saw Astrid smiling at me. The potion had worn off.

“My dear
Astrid,” Estevan said, and I had to remind myself it was Nalke speaking.

“All my life,”
she said, “Rockne convinced me you were evil. I could’ve known you all these
years.” She shook her head, and for a second I thought she was going to cry.
But she didn’t.

“We still have
time to make up for all that was lost,” he said, taking her hand.

Despite the
show we just witnessed with the weather, I was glad Rockne’s magic was gone
from this island. If it hadn’t disappeared, Estevan would’ve started melting
the way Tack had when Nalke possessed him.

But there my
friend stood, unharmed and happier than I’d seen him, even if it was Nalke’s
smile I saw.

“Is there any
way you can get your power back and lift Astrid’s curse?” I asked. “They’re the
same thing, aren’t they? That’s why she turns old during the day, right?”

He nodded. “I
could easily extract it from Shae, since she was the one to which I hurled the
curse. But with Astrid, it’s part of her being. She was born with it. I don’t
know if I can remove it without killing her.”

I suddenly
thought of how Rockne’s potion had worn off when the vampire attacked me.
“Could you extract the curse from me?” I asked Estevan.

He looked at me
through narrow eyes. “Perhaps, but you’re not cursed.”

I told him what
happened earlier, and how I thought I could leach the curse out of Astrid with
my power, the way the vampire leached the potion from me.

Estevan looked
worried. “That sounds dangerous. It could kill her.”

“Not if she’s
standing in the hot tub.”

“I’m willing to
try it,” Astrid said, hopeful.

Estevan looked
from her to me, and then he smiled. “I guess it’s worth a shot.”