Pete McGee and the Master of Darkness (7 page)

Ashlyn was looking around at the crowd. Everyone else was looking at Ashlyn. No one saw the banana peel. It was only ten metres from Marloynne and the altar.

Ashlyn stepped on the banana peel. She was dressed in white. She slipped on the banana peel and went for a ride. There was another gasp from every member of the crowd … except for Syra Tanooth and Bob, who giggled in delight: it had gone perfectly. It got better.

Ashlyn crashed into Pete McGee who swung his arm up to try and balance. All that did was whack Marloynne in the eye. Marloynne cried out and stepped backwards … straight onto the toe of the celebrant, who yelped in pain and hopped on one foot. Unfortunately, he hopped straight into the table that held the marriage certificates and whacked his shin. He howled out again and fell to the ground, knocking over a giant vase of flowers. Water gushed out of the vase, running all over everyone's shoes … and all over Ashlyn's wedding dress.

As everyone tried to pick themselves up, get dry and rub their sore spots, Syra Tanooth walked and Bob slid and slithered to the front of the crowd.

‘Gentlemen and female gentlemen, my name is Syra Tanooth, and I am the
Master of Darkness
!'

He paused, waiting for a response, but people were still helping Ashlyn stand up, and putting ice on the celebrant's shin, so they didn't really hear him.

‘I said, you nincomstoops,' Syra tried again, in a louder voice this time, ‘That I am Syra Tanooth, the
Darkness Master
!'

‘Jolly good show, Syra,' Bob whispered out of the corner of his mouth. ‘But I am rather sure you said
Master of Darkness
the first time, and
Darkness
Master
the second.'

‘I know,' Syra whispered back out of the corner of his mouth. ‘I am creating confusion and chaos in their minds. Watch this.'

He stood up as tall as he could, raised his hands to the sky, chanted a few magic words and suddenly the wedding was covered in darkness. It was as if the sun had burnt out. Everyone gasped one more time and stared up at the sky. Pete, standing with Molloy, Tahnee and Smithers, also looked up, wondering what was going on.

‘Yes, future slaves,' Syra said. ‘I have your attention now.'

‘Who said that?' someone cried out.

‘Who's speaking?' cried another.

‘I can't see anything.'

‘Where's my mummy?'

‘I think I peed my pants.'

‘ENOUGH!' Syra thundered. ‘I am the
Master
of Darkness
, and unless your great hero Pete McGee dares to face me, you shall live your lives forever in the dark.'

Pete tried to move forward, but Tahnee held him back.

‘Wait a second, Pete,' she whispered, having figured out that Syra was the voice in the sky they'd heard earlier. ‘Let's see if he has any patience.'

Pete nodded and stayed where he was. Meanwhile, Bob had slithered over the top of Marloynne and was holding him captive in his slimy grip. He had also attempted to slide over Ashlyn, but in the dark it was hard to see, and he actually slid over someone else.

‘Listen closely, Pete McGee. My evil sidekick, Bob, has your wedding … people in his evil grip. We shall hold them hostage until you agree to face me in battle. I shall do evil things to them, you mark my wordage.'

Pete stared at the shapes around him. His eyes were starting to get used to the dark now, and he saw Ashlyn, surrounded by people telling her the dress was fine. But if she was there, who did this Bob have captive? He had to find out, so he snuck around the crowd, checking who was there and who wasn't.

‘Time is running out for you!' Syra cried. ‘We leave in ten seconds. You must try and save your friends, little knight. Then we shall see what you are made of.'

Pete searched frantically; he had almost found everyone, except …

‘Time is up, boy knight. We leave. Come to save your friends … if you do dare!'

There was a flash and they were gone. Pete finished his head count. He knew who the evil duo had taken. He dropped to his knees in the darkness.

‘MUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMM!'

It's on. Oh it is on, my friend, don't you worry about that!

P
ete was ready to go straight away; none of this ‘I won't be up for challenges' stuff, none of this ‘I have training to finish'. No, none of that at all. His mum had been kidnapped. His mum! He was angry and everything, but also kind of excited. He
wanted
adventure and challenges and quests. That was who he was. He had been kidding himself with all that other stuff. Now it was simply a case of let's get this happening and go and save my mum and make that blob into a beanbag.

Molloy, strangely, had a calming influence on Pete. He even dropped his rhyming slang.

‘Pete, wait. This isn't one you can do on your own. I know that's how you like to do things, but not this time. This time you have our support.'

‘Agreed,' said Tahnee, stepping beside her brother.

‘Agreed,' said Smithers, stepping to the other side of Molloy, who rolled his eyes.

‘Oh, I suppose you can come along and watch,' he said to Smithers, who just fake laughed in response.

‘I'm coming too, Pete,' said Ashlyn. Pete started to protest, but the look in Ashlyn's eyes told him not to argue, so he closed his mouth and said nothing. He almost felt sorry for Syra Tanooth.

‘You have our skills,' Molloy said.

‘And our support,' said Tahnee.

‘And my axe!' cried Arnold the Small. To prove his worth Arnold raised the axe and brought it down with huge force onto a wooden seat. Unfortunately, the seat stayed intact while the blunt axe just bounced off it. Then the head of the axe fell to the ground. Arnold the Small picked it up, his usually surly expression turning sad.

‘Ah, who am I kidding? This is the worst axe ever. You're on your own, kid. I'm leaving to take up donkey training.'

And with that he dropped the axe and skipped out of sight.

‘Okay,' Pete said, watching him go. ‘That was pretty weird.'

He turned back to the group that faced him: Molloy, Tahnee, Smithers, Ashlyn. They were, aside from his mother and Marloynne, the people that meant the most to him in the entire world. They were there for him, and it blew him away. At the same time though, he wanted them to stay home, to stay safe. He didn't want to risk losing them all. Before he could say anything, King Rayon stepped to Pete's side.

‘Young McGee,' he said in his gentle voice. ‘You are about to leave on a dangerous mission from which you may not return. I have the utmost faith in you, and your friends, however I also wish to be of assistance. You may gather any weapons and supplies you require from the castle. Smithers, you know where everything is.'

Smithers nodded.

‘You big chicken,' Molloy said under his breath, but loud enough for Smithers to hear.
(Just to clarify, even though ‘you big chicken' would have been an insult, Molloy was actually back in rhyming slang mode, and chicken = cluck = rhyming slang for suck. So he was calling Smithers a suck, a teacher's pet, a kiss arse … ooops, don't think I'm allowed to say that one. Ummmm, okay, well, let's move on to less rude words shall we?)

‘Thank you, Your Majesty,' Pete said, bowing. ‘Thy kindness shall not be forgotten.'

The King nodded.

‘Thou art brave, Pete McGee. Your love for your mother and friends will take you far along your journey, but in the end it is something else that will see you are victorious.'

Pete was about to ask what the ‘something' was, but it was too late. The King turned and walked back to the castle, his assistants following. Oh well, Pete thought, he'd figure it out. He always did. This was just like his first journey, where it was the things he discovered along the way that enabled him to triumph in the end.

There was one ‘person' he needed to consult before taking off on his journey though. He headed off towards his house, his friends by his side. It was time to reopen the Green Book.

Open wide, come inside, it's the Green Book

P
ete McGee sat on his bed with the Green Book in his lap. It was dark in his room, as the spell Syra Tanooth had cast still remained over the town. Pete lit a candle and shut the window to block out the breeze.

Pete's friends were in the kitchen. He had told them he needed some time alone. It felt like so long ago that he had sat with his mother and Ashlyn and opened the Green Book for the first time. In a way it hadn't been that long, only around three years, but so much had happened since then; Pete felt as though he had lived a lifetime.

And now here he was once more. On his first journey, the Green Book had proven itself both a help and a hindrance, and Pete was wary about opening it again. He knew the Green Book would present challenges he may not want to face.

In the end though, he thought to himself, that was what often helped him make the right decisions. A knight must face challenges others shy away from, and he must rise to those challenges no matter the odds.

And so he opened the Green Book.

It yawned.

‘Nice kitty … I mean, what? Who? Oh, young McGee, ahem, yes, ah I was just having the loveliest dream. Ahem. Sorry, I haven't spoken in a while. About three years, would you say?'

Pete smiled in spite of the stressful situation he was in. The Green Book always tried to get some sympathy for not being read.

‘It has been three years, almost to the day,' Pete replied. ‘And now I am in need of your help once more. It is time that you and your brilliant skills were put to use.'

It was pretty dodgy flattery, but it worked. Pete could almost feel the Green Book puff out its chest.

‘Yes, my skills are being wasted while I sit on that shelf. It is so dusty and the other books are so boring. You can't have a conversation with any of them; they just sit there. Even if they could speak I don't know that they would say anything of interest to me.'

Pete couldn't wait any longer.

‘Mum's been kidnapped,' he blurted out. ‘Marloynne too. Some guy and his pet blob have taken them to … I don't know where. I have to save them. But I have to find out more about the kidnappers first. I have to know what I'm up against.'

The Green Book stroked its beard, thoughtfully … well, as in it would have if it had a beard. Or a chin. Or arms.

‘Hmmmmm, blob you say? And tell me about this other person. Did he have a name?'

Pete nodded.

‘He said he is the
Darkness Master
, and then he made the sky black out. His actual name was Sore Tooth or something, I don't know, I didn't quite catch it. But
Master of Darkness
, that was what he said, for sure.'

‘I see,' the book replied. ‘And this blob? What do you know about this one?'

Pete shrugged.

‘Nothing really. He was wearing some bizarre outfit. It looked like a sheet and had flowers drawn all over it. It was really average. But the blob just sort of slid and slimed along the ground. I don't know anything else about it. What can you tell me? Who are they and where are they?'

‘The blob first,' the book said. ‘Turn to page number 452. If it is this one, we have much to fear.'

Pete flicked through the pages until he arrived at page 542. Then he realised he had meant to go to page 452, so he flicked back until he got there. He scanned the page, and his heart dropped as he read the evil stories about the blob. He read about the banishment. He was, all at once, scared out of his mind yet more determined than ever. He would not let the fear rule him. He stood up.

‘It is truly an evil beast,' he said. ‘And yet, 'tis merely an obstacle in my way. My mother shall be saved. I shall not let her suffer at the, well, at the—it doesn't have hands—at the, umm, at the, okay, so, it will not harm her! Tell me now, Book, tell me about the other one, the
Master of Darkness
.'

The book seemed to hesitate. It ummmed and ahhhed for a second, but gave Pete nothing.

‘Book! Tell me! I must know what I face.'

‘Look, Pete McGee. You are a brave young man. No matter what I tell you of this
Darkness Master
, it shall be up to you in the end. You must find your own way to defeat him. You must look deep within yourself and it must be you who devises a way to emerge victorious.'

‘You don't know who he is, do you?'

‘Not a clue. Never heard of him.'

Pete sighed and sat on the bed again. Sometimes, no matter how much he believed in himself, it felt as though he would not be able to overcome the obstacles placed in his path. The first one on this quest seemed to be the biggest. He had no idea where he was even supposed to look for his mother.

He turned to the book.

‘You have nothing?'

‘Nope.'

‘Not one thing on this guy? Seriously?'

‘I kid you not. He's a mystery—come out of nowhere.'

‘Right. Okay. Well, what about the blob? You say it was banished. Where was it banished to?'

‘Ahh yes, that I know,' the book said. ‘Flip to the index, look up banishment. Or blob. One of the two.'

Pete turned to the index and found
Banishment: page 600.
He flipped to that page and saw it listed the names and addresses of all creatures and people that had been banished. The amazing thing about the magic Green Book was that it continually updated itself. Just the fact there was a page 600 was amazing. There hadn't been nearly that many pages when Pete had first looked at it. The other thing was that on the banishment page, Pete McGee saw his own name, a result of being banished from the kingdom with Sir Mountable the year before.

‘The blob, young McGee. That is your focus now.'

‘Right, yes, of course.'

Pete quickly found
Evil Blob: Cave under the ground
and the directions on how to get there. He closed the book. The cave was where they would start. Suddenly, he noticed a stifled mumbling coming from inside the book. He opened it.