The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3) (43 page)

But Garnock was still inhaling, ignoring the sickening effec
t of a Lightrider-related soul.

Weaker by the second, Jake yanked open the pouch and reached into it, grabbing a b
ig handful of Illuminium dust.

It was better than nothing.

He flung it like sand in Garnock’s face, and given the nature of his attack, the sorcerer breathed in a cloud of it.

Garnock
at once started coughing.

More annoyed than ever, he released Ja
ke, throwing him to the ground.

Garnock
gagged a bit on the Illuminium powder that had rushed into his lungs, then he kicked Jake once where he lay. “That should shut you up for a while.”

Coughing
again while Isabelle wept nearby, Garnock pounded his chest and roughly tried to clear his throat. “Still alive, eh? Well, you’re more stubborn than I thought. But no matter. Here comes my friend. You might’ve refused my offer for now, but after you’ve spent a month down here under his care, I daresay you’ll be ready to reconsider. Indeed, let’s give Beelzebub a few weeks to work on you. When I come back, I’m sure you’ll agree to anything.”

Garnock kicked him again in the stomach
one last time. Jake curled up on his side, gasping for air, his head pounding where he had banged it on the ground.

Through eyes only open to slits, he watched Garnock walk back toward the cliff’s edge to await the
huge approaching demon.

Jake closed his eyes in defeat. But
then a thought occurred to him.

Illuminium…

The question in his mind was enough to make Jake drag himself upright.

The sorcerer was standing on the cliff
’s edge, arms raised, while in the distance, a massive horned demon left the city of the damned and started wading through the river of fire, heading their way.

Jake’s throat seemed broken from Garnock’s stranglehold, but somehow, having barely caught his breath, he forced out, in a raspi
ng voice, a few bars of the first song that came to mind.

The
‘Souling Song’ of the beggar children.

Garnock didn’t even hear him at first, too busy shouting praises to his demon friend.

“Hey, ho, nobody home.

No food, no drink, no money have I none…”

He could hardly force the words out. But Isabelle heard him and realized his intent, and instantly she joined in, singing through her tears.

“Yet will I be merry…
”

Odd words from a girl, captured and tormented, and
a boy who had nearly been murdered a moment ago. Nevertheless, they sang louder.

“Hey, ho, nobody home.”

Repeating the simple refrain, they saw Garnock turn, rubbing his chest with an odd, puzzled wince.

They sang it again, louder. Garnock coughed. They did not know what exactly he was experiencing, but a look of panic flashed across his face; he clutched his chest with a wince, then
started trying to spit out the residue of the Illuminium powder as though it was burning his mouth.

“Hey, ho, nobody home. No food, no drink, no money have I none…”
Jake started climbing to his feet, with all the memories of those hard days as an orphan on the streets stirred up by Garnock’s efforts to manipulate him. Oh, yes, he had sung this song before.
But it doesn’t matter what you or fate or anyone does to me. What I do or don’t have. You will never break me.

That was what the song meant. That was why the beggar children sang it. It was the only act of defiance they could afford
with empty pockets and no shoes on their feet, and not a soul in the world who cared.

“Yet will I be merry!”

At that instant, a tiny ray of sunlight or something very like it burst out of Garnock’s chest.

Illuminium.

Its shining brilliance was unmistakable as it pierced the sorcerer’s black robes. Garnock looked down at himself in horrified confusion. Another hole appeared, another bright pinpoint of light, more, shredding him from the inside.

He screamed in sudden terror and pain, trying to plug the holes of his emptiness with his hands.

Jake almost felt sorry for him.

Isabelle d
idn’t. She sang louder still, though her voice sounded nearly as broken as Jake’s was, after all her screaming.

They both forced themselves, directing the frequencies of the music straight at him like the dwarves had shown them
to do to drive off the darkness, while in the distance, the demon came ever closer, walking now through the waist-high canyon, its every footfall like an approaching earthquake.

“What have you done to me?” Garnock screamed a second before a beam of light poked out of his throat.

In the next heartbeat, he exploded into a puff of black ashes and shimmering Illuminium, and all that was left of him was his magic ring. It thunked onto the ground with a metallic clang and rolled.

Their song stopped.

Jake instantly picked up his now-cooled knife and ran to Isabelle, cutting the ropes that bound her wrists. He steadied her as she stumbled against him.

“Can you walk? Uh, better make that
run!
” Still holding his ribs, Jake thrust her ahead of him toward the stairs.

The most terrifying voice Jake had ever heard
—deep, hideous, and gurgling—engulfed them as they ran up the stairs toward the skull doorway.

“Fair game,”
the demon rumbled.
“You are in my territory now.”

“Go!” Isabelle stumbled, glancing over her shoulder. Jake quickly helped her up.

“All my devils! Imps! Hellhounds! Out, out into the world of men! The Portal is open!”

“
Run!” Jake yelled.

Reaching the ledge where Garnock had stood
moments ago, the demon swiped at them as they fled, its huge hand blood-red with great black-clawed fingernails.

It barely missed
them.

Meanwhile, the
hellhounds and an army of gargoyles were racing over the desolation of that terrible realm, intent on catching the intruders and tearing them apart.

Jake and Isabelle made it up the stairs
, and just as they rushed out of the skull door, Derek was running in.

“Jake! Izzy! What is that noise?”

The demon dogs were barking riotously and howling while the devil roared:
“After them!”

Jake didn’t bother answering, turning the warrio
r around. “Tell you later. We’ve got to go—now!”

Even Derek gasped
, and they all jolted back in shock when the devil thrust his giant hand through the skull doorway and reached into the cave, trying to grab them.

“You’re mine,” it taunted in its warped voice as deep and dark as the Harris Mine itself.

Its hand was blocking their way out.

“What do we do?” Jake cried.

The hand pulled back. The devil tilted its giant horned head to peer at them through the doorway. Its burning eyes gleamed with malice.

“It’s trying to get out!” Isabelle said.

They both clung to Derek.

“Get out of here,” he ordered, pulling out his Bowie knives. “I’ll hold him off.”

“Are you insane?” Jake yelled while the hellhounds’ barking grew louder. “It’s a suicide mission!”

“Just go!” Derek marched toward the skull doorway.

Before he reached it, however, there was a blinding flash of white light in their midst.

A second flash
appeared, piercing through a mountain’s worth of stone like a column of white light. A third and fourth joined it, seemingly out of nowhere.

Powerful winged
figures appeared in the beams.

Jake and Isabelle clung to each other and stared.

“Dr. Celestus?” he breathed.

In full battle regalia, the angel
from the stained-glass window and three of his fellow warriors rose from their crouched positions, where they had slammed to earth.

“Go, Guardian Stone,” Celestus commanded.
“This is a battle beyond your power.” They drew out their shining swords and marched toward the skull doorway with gliding grace.

When Derek and Jake and Isabelle all
failed to move, paralyzed with shock, the pale-haired angel who had once saved Dani’s life turned and said harshly to them:
“Go!”

The
n they ran. Derek steadied them as the stone chamber started shaking behind them.

Chunks of rock began falling from the ceiling as they ran out through the tomb.

The whole place was coming down—for good this time.

Archie grabbed hold of his sister the moment they cleared the
hole he had blown in the wall. “Isabelle!”

“Hurry!” Derek yelled, pushing them all before him.

Archie had the only lantern and he held it up for them as they all went racing up the tunnel, trying to escape the coming collapse.

It was alre
ady starting. The whole mine shook around them. Jake was not surprised, considering the battle royal going on back there.

“We’re not going to make it!” Archie yelled, when all of a sudden, a little door cut right into the tunnel wall popped open and Ufudd peeked out, beckoning to them.

“Friends! Over here!”

Dani was with him, gesturing wildly. “Hurry! Everybody, this way!
Oh, Isabelle!” She gave the older girl a quick hug as Ufudd rushed them all through the dwarves’ secret door where, apparently, the two mines abutted.

As Jake stepped through the doorway, he was startled to find Emrys
sitting at the front of a line of mining carts waiting for them on the tracks. “All aboard, and make it quick! It’s an earthquake!”

“Er, not exactly,” Jake muttered, bu
t there was no time to explain.

They jumped into the mining
carts and Emrys threw the switch. The shaking continued, but they all held on for dear life as the carts whizzed up and down over the crazy tracks, zooming them back up to the surface.

Minutes later, t
hey whooshed out into blinding sunlight at the top of the White Lace Falls, safe within the bounds of Plas-y-Fforest.

Red was already there, roaring for them.

Dani quickly explained that after leading Madam Sylvia to the frozen governess in the woods, she had run over to the secret goldmine entrance to tell the dwarves what was happening, since Master Emrys always seemed to know what to do.

As they all leap
ed out of the mining carts, Jake seized the chance to mumble an apology to Emrys for going off alone with Red during the gargoyle hunt.

The head dwarf waved him off. “
Never mind that. I’m just glad you’re safe, lad.”

Then they
all ran toward the vantage point atop the waterfall, where they could see a section of the Harris Mine collapsing in the distance.

The ground still shook as from an ear
thquake while the angels battled the demon and his minions back into their fiery prison.