Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (34 page)

Magda waved her torch through the air when she saw them coming.
 
“How did it go?
 
Did you find what you were looking—MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT?”

Michael felt something shoot up from the water beneath him.
 
It struck him in the side and knocked him several feet through the air before he splashed back down into the water.
 
Abigail’s screaming rang out through the cave as he struggled to regain his bearings.

Rubbing the water from his eyes, it took a moment to focus on the dark being rising up beside him.
 
The thing had the torso and arms of a man, as oily and black as tar.
 
It had the head of a gnarled fish, with dead black eyes and dripping spiked teeth.
 
It was twice the size of a normal man, and in its hand was a long wooden lance.

“Ascalon,” Michael whispered.
 
This creature was the one who’d taken it.
 
It began coming toward him, sizing him up as it raised the lance into the air, preparing to strike.
 
Michael heard a wet, rubbery sound as two of Magda’s throwing daggers bounced from the creature’s hide to splash harmlessly in the water beside him.
 
He then caught sight of the Dragon treading water on the beast’s other side.

“Hey, monster,” the old man yelled, “tell me who you are and what you’re doing with that weapon.
 
It
doesn’t
belong to you.”

To Michael’s relief, the thing turned away.
 
“I am Dagon,” it said.
 
Its voice was low and gurgled like someone drowning.
 
“I am the Lord of the waters beneath this castle, and you will all die for disturbing them.”

“You are a thief and an abomination created by an abomination,” the Dragon told him.
 
“And you are unworthy to look upon that lance, much less wield it.”

The beast choked out a spongy laugh.
 
“And you are a decrepit old man, whose bark is bigger than his bite.”

“Michael,” the Dragon called to him, “take the lance and go.
 
You must get the girls to safety.
 
Do not wait for me to follow.
 
Do you understand?”

“Uh, yeah,” Michael stuttered.
 
Take the lance and go?
 
How exactly was he supposed to do that?

The fish-man continued to laugh as he returned his attention to Michael.
 
He seemed to be interested in the lantern, which was still dangling from his mouth and lighting up the chamber.
 
The strange light almost seemed to be drawing him in as if it were a fishing lure.
 
The thought would have made him chuckle if he wasn’t so scared.

Out of nowhere, the familiar head of the dracorex came up from behind Dagon and bit down upon his shoulder.
 
He gurgled out an angry scream as the lance dropped from his hand and splashed down into the water.
 
For a moment, Michael thought it might sink, and he drew in his breath to dive down after it, but to his relief it bobbed on the surface.
 
He wasted no time in swimming to retrieve it, but just as his fingers began to clench the handle, Dagon lunged for the weapon and shot beneath the water’s surface, taking it with him.

Michael headed for shore while the sounds of beating, splashing and biting filled the air behind him.

“Give me your hand!” Magda yelled, reaching out to him.
 
She groaned to pull him up out of the lake.

“Isn’t there something we can do to help him?” Abigail pleaded as the other two pulled her away from the water.

Magda shook her head.
 
“You saw how those daggers I threw at him just bounced right off.
 
If he comes after us we might be able to fight him, but he’d easily overpower us in the water.”

“She’s right,” Michael said as they helplessly watched the struggle.
 
The Dragon seemed to be holding his own fairly well, though Dagon clearly had an advantage in the lake.
 

Michael eagerly watched for an opportunity to seize the lance, but each time it was about to be thrown to him Dagon snatched it back.
 
He was amazed that the weapon wasn’t torn to shreds as the two great beasts fought over it, clawing and biting and yanking it between them.

The battle reached a point when Michael was sure that their friend would be lost.
 
The Dragon looked exhausted, and Dagon cast him against the cavern wall far from where they could offer any help.
 
The last thing they saw was the old dinosaur latch onto the lance with his teeth and tear it away from Dagon as the two disappeared beneath the water.

For several long minutes they waited on the shore, hungry for any sign that might offer them hope, but no sign came.

“Do you think he’s dead?” Abigail cried, scanning the still lake.

“I hope not,” Michael said, pulling his shirt back on.
 
“We don’t know where these waterways go, we can only hope the old guy was able to resurface somewhere else.”

“Whether he has or not, we need to get out of here,” Magda urged them, heading back toward the crypt.
 
“We’ll be no match for that beast if he returns.”

Michael sadly looked over the face of the lake one last time before turning to follow the girls back through the crypt.
 
He felt unusually cold inside as they passed through the tombs where so many fallen warriors had been laid to rest.
 
Had Vlad the Dragon now joined them in the dark, eternal sleep of this place?
 
And what had his sacrifice been for?
 
Only another broken hope, another failed chance at finding a way to defeat Mihnea.

“So what do we do now?” Magda asked as they arrived at the mouth of the cave.
 
“It might be smarter to hide out here until the sun comes up than to go back out into the night and get snatched by a vampire.”

“Maybe,” said Michael, “but Dagon could come busting out of that crypt at any moment.
 
I’d like to get as far away from him as possible.”

“What if he tells Mihnea where we are,” put in Abigail.
 
“Who’s to say he isn’t one of his servants.”

Michael hadn’t thought of that.
 
“Abby’s right.
 
We need to keep moving and get out of here while we can.”

“Alright,” Magda sighed.
 
“But we’ll have to move quickly and quietly.
 
We’ll head back up the cliff and back toward the garden, and then cut through the forest and move along the outskirts of the main road leading to the castle.
 
We need to be ready for anything.”

The only thing Michael was ready for was a good night’s sleep.

The sight of the moon hanging over the ruins of Poenari Castle made a chill run down Liam’s spine.
 
This place was downright spooky.
 
Just a few hours before, he’d hiked up to the top with his father and Mr. Belmont, and though they had seen nothing unusual he was still determined to find out for sure if this was the right place- the place where Mihnea had brought Michael and Abigail.

“Well,” his father said as he strode up beside him, “it’s now or never.
 
Have you got that magical little light of yours?”

Liam nodded.
 
He didn’t blame his father for being skeptical, after all- he’d never seen one of these things in action.
 
Liam didn’t know how his faery lantern worked, he just knew that it did- at least when it wanted to.

“It looks like the last of the hikers have left,” Mr. Belmont called to them from the bottom of the hill where they’d parked.
 
He jogged back up to join them.
 
“Are you guys ready to head back up there?”

“Yeah,” Liam told them as he started out on the path to the ruins.
 
He took the lantern from his pocket, and its soft, warm light spread over the forest around them.
 
The landscape instantly came to life- revealing minute details that not even the daylight had shown.

“That thing
is
pretty impressive,” his father conceded.
 
“But what exactly do you think it’s going to show us?”

“I don’t know,” Liam shrugged.
 
“These things seem to know what you want, and if they can, they help you find it.”

His father skeptically raised an eyebrow.
 
“All right then, lead the way and let’s find out.”

They crept up the mountain with hopeful hearts and determined faces.
 
Stars twinkled overhead, and a handful of fires crackled off in the distance, keeping their determined winter campers warm.
 
It was a beautiful, clear night, and although the lantern’s light shown all around them, Liam saw nothing out of the ordinary.

After a while, they stopped to catch their breath.
 
Liam took a long drink from his water bottle, and nearly choked when something beside the trail caught his eye.

“What is it?” asked Mr. Belmont, smacking him on the back.

A small shower of water spurted from Liam’s mouth.
 
“That,” he told them, pointing out a small ball of light, which was zipping chaotically around the hillside.
 
They watched it bounce back and forth for a few moments before Liam looked up to see what his father was thinking.

The man caught his eyes and smirked before looking back to the ball of light.
 
“You’ve seen those things too, haven’t you?” he asked his son.
 
“In the forest across from the Fianna Barrows?”

Liam nodded.
 
“There were a few around the night that Michael and I went into that faery grove, and I’ve seen them loads of times through my telescope.
 
Do you think there are faeries around here?”

His father shrugged, and then turned to Mr. Belmont as if to get his opinion.

“Don’t look at me.
 
You two are the experts on all that faery stuff.”

Declan smirked and nodded his head toward the dancing little light.
 
“Those things are called
Will-o-the-wisps
.
 
They’re supposedly mischievous little spirits who lead foolish travelers off to their demise.”

Liam lowered his gaze and scratched his head to consider it.
 
“Well, I’m up for that if you are,” he told them.

Mr. Belmont pulled out his gun and chambered a round.
 
“You really are your father’s son, Liam.
 
Are you going to lead the way or what?”

Liam stepped out in front and headed toward the wisp.
 
Just when he got within a dozen or so feet of it the thing zipped ahead of them.
 
In fact, it moved a little farther away every time they got close.
 
The ground was rough and the going was slow, and before long they found themselves traipsing along the edge of a steep hillside.
 
They got to the point where the wisp led them onto a narrow, rocky path that headed back up the mountain toward the ruins.
 
They climbed cautiously upon the shifting rocks, with Liam’s father calling ahead occasionally to remind him to slow down, and that a turned ankle wouldn’t do them any good at all in a place like this, and that he and Mr. Belmont were not spring chickens and he didn’t want Liam to get too far away from them.

The path eventually evened out in a spot near the top of the mountain, and again the wisp settled, waiting for the others to arrive.
 
This time when Liam approached, the light stayed put.
 
He got within a few feet of the thing, and it continued to hang there, hovering around in the same spot.
 
Liam wasn’t quite sure what to do.

“Well,” he asked the orb, “what happens now?”

The light continued to hover, but it had stopped moving altogether now.
 
It made no noise and it didn’t budge.

Liam reached out to touch it, and just as his fingers got to it the thing vanished.
 
He snapped his head in every direction to look for it, but the light was nowhere to be seen.

“That was interesting,” Mr. Belmont said, scanning around for any sign of danger.

For several seconds, none of them saw anything, and then Liam caught a strange glow from the corner of his eye.
 
He turned and gazed across the mountainside in front of the castle, where dozens, and finally hundreds of small orbs just like the one they’d been following took form scattered across the landscape.
 
Soon the lights had them completely surrounded.

“What is this?” Liam’s father asked suspiciously.
 
The man rarely looked this nervous, and that alone made Liam uneasy.

Mr. Belmont dropped to one knee, taking a good look at the scene around them.
 
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.
 
It’s kind of pretty really, but I still don’t like the looks of it.”

The orbs slowly began to change.
 
They grew taller, expanding into misty, man-sized forms, and after just a few moments the hillside stood host to the apparitions of hundreds of people.
 
Each one of the smoky bodies floated lifelessly upon the pole that had been run through its body.
 
Every one of them was terrifying and pitiful in its own way, but as much as he tried, Liam couldn’t look away.
 
His blood ran cold, and he noticed that his whole body was shaking.

“WHAAAA?” he shouted as he felt a hand grab his shoulder and spin him around.
 
It was only his father.

“Take a look at that,” he said as he pointed up above the top of the mountain.