The Dark Lord's Demise (7 page)

Betty looked around as though in search of something. "What
does it look like from the inside?" she inquired.

"What?" asked Wesley, Kurt and Lisa together.

"The TV set. I'll just climb back through it. Where is it? It must
look different from the inside."

"Urn ... the TV set isn't here," Lisa replied. "Anyhow, you'd
never get back that way. You only go back when Gaal decides."

"When who decides what?"

At that moment the persistent background hum rose to an indistinct roar. They all looked across the water. The Friesens still
expected to see some sort of boat. What they saw looked at first like
another kind of fog about to roll in.

A small, dense black cloud rushed toward them a few yards
above the surface of the lake. It rose and fell as though it rode on
wind currents, but the main movement was straight at them across
the water. The cloud looked alive. Its edges rippled in waves. As the
roar increased, bits of black broke off from the edge of the cloud
and rejoined it. The shape was only a few yards offshore when the
children realized what it was.

Kurt yelled, "Bees! Hornets! Wasps!" And the swarm was on
them.

They threw their arms in front of their faces and ducked their
heads as the roar of thousands of wings engulfed them.

Kurt was hit first, as though to punish him for warning the others. Fire stabbed the back of his neck. He slapped at it and was
stung again on the hand. He dropped to the ground and tried to
curl into a protective posture. It took the attackers only seconds to
sting him through his clothes. Each sting was a red-hot needle
deep in his flesh. There was no way to roll out from under the
onslaught. Kurt scrambled to his feet and ran in frantic circles,
eyes tight closed, as he waved and slapped at the savage insects.

Lisa ran for the trees, though she knew the insects were too swift
for her. She beat at her legs and shoulders and face in an attempt
to kill or at least ward off the attackers. Their stings felt like a rain
of molten metal. With her eyes shut tight, she ricocheted off one
tree trunk and then another. A root tripped her, as if in league with
the insects. She fell face down in the dirt. She attempted to shield
her face with both hands, but as the rain of fire continued, she had
to beat at the fierce attackers with her fists.

Over the roar of wings Lisa heard Betty scream, "Where is it?
Where is it?" Lisa thought, She still thinks she can get back through the
TV screen! She shouted, "Betty, we can't go back! We have to stay
and fight them!" A human body landed on her and rolled off. It
was Betty, still howling "Where is it?" Lisa shoved her away and
curled into a ball, but it didn't help.

Eyes closed tight, Wes scraped at the ground in a wild effort to
dig a hole like a dog and bury himself. It was no use. Burning-hot
stings rained onto his legs, his neck, his back, his arms. He heard
the shouts and screams of the others and thought he should help
them, but how?

Gaal! Help us! The words tore through Wes's brain before he
knew what he thought. Of course! Gaal the Shepherd had always
helped them in times of danger. Where was he now? Would he
come and rescue there? Wes longed to open his eyes and see that
strong figure stride toward them through the trees, maybe even
across the water.

Still the insects assaulted them. Wes blindly scraped the ground
for leaves or pine needles or anything he could pull over his
exposed skin. The palm of his hand landed on what felt like jagged
pebbles. He knew instantly what it was. He risked a brief look and
caught a flash of bright jewel colors.

The Sword of Geburah! It lay in the dirt where Betty Riggs had
dropped it. Wes went to his knees beside the sword. Now he didn't
need to see. By feel alone he grasped the sword's hilt and slid the
blade from the scabbard. A flash of brilliant blue penetrated even
his tight-shut eyelids.

The sword felt familiar and right in Wes's grip. He had swung
this great weapon in battle. So had Uncle John and Kurt. So had
Gaal himself, from the back of a flying horse, in life-and-death battle with a winged serpent. Wes stood and raised the sword high. He
wondered how close Lisa, Kurt or Betty might be. Through the
insect roar he shouted, "Everybody out of the way! I've got the
Sword of Geburah!"

Wes slashed the sword through the swarm. He took a second
swing and a third. His sword met no resistance. He only flailed at
the air. You idiot! he reviled himself. A flyswatter would be a better weapon! But the Sword of Geburah was all he had. He continued to
swing as the insects hit him with needles of fire. His strength
failed. His arms and shoulders ached. The stings felt less intense,
and the noise of the swarm was muffled. He thought he must be
losing consciousness.

Wes ducked his head and opened his eyes. He had dropped his
cloak. It lay over his feet in a heap. No, he didn't have a cloak!
Then what was that strange dark blanket around his shoes? He
looked up and saw Kurt, Lisa and Betty, eyes shut, trying to beat off
their attackers. Did he only imagine the swarm had thinned? He
was stung on the arm and reacted with a quick slash of the sword.
In the path of the blade, dozens of bees dropped like stones. They
joined the dark mass on the ground. It was a blanket of dead
insects!

Wes shouted, "Everybody come to me fast!" Lisa and Kurt
responded to the confidence in his voice. They opened their eyes
part way and stumbled toward him. "Hold still!" he ordered. He
chopped with the sword in quick thrusts around his brother and
sister. Dead insects dropped around them.

Betty Riggs stayed away from Wes. Her eyes were still tight
closed as she tried to battle the insects. "Betty, stand still!" Wes
yelled. He ran to her and sliced at the air around her. She flailed
around so wildly that the sword blade almost hit her twice. Wes
commanded, "Open your eyes or I'll cut your arm off!" He meant
to protect her, but when she opened her eyes and saw him with the
Sword of Geburah raised high, she screamed and sprinted for the
lakeshore. A few insects trailed after her like wisps of dark cloud
but gave up and veered away.

The tattered remains of the swarm regrouped in the middle of
the clearing. For a moment they hovered in apparent confusion.
Abruptly the swarm shot away through the trees. Their angry droning noise faded and vanished.

The Sword of Geburah dangled from Wes's hand. Betty stumbled back from the edge of the water. All four of the children stood
exhausted and trembling in the aftermath of terror. They stared at
the carpet of dead insects. Lisa asked, "What are they? I've never
seen anything like them."

Kurt got his breath back, along with some of his courage. He
bent down for a closer look at the insect bodies. "They're not like
any hornet or wasp I've ever seen. And they're sure not honeybees." He blew on the insects. They made no response. He
touched one.

"Don't!" Lisa warned. "Some of them might still be alive!"

There was no movement. Kurt stirred the bodies with a fingertip. When he was satisfied all were lifeless, he gathered a few in his
hands and stood up.

Fascination overcame the children's fear. They leaned closer.
Except for their ancient-style clothing, they might have been modern entomologists-scientists who study insects-or Canadian students on a biology field trip.

"Look at them," Kurt marveled. "They're gigantic!"

Each insect had a heavy, jointed body at least two inches long.
Dark veins ran through the four large transparent wings. The rear
section of the body bore bold stripes of dark brown and pale yellow or off-white. Unlike some insects, these did not lose their stingers after stinging their prey; from each tail protruded a wicked
barb like a fishhook. The front body section was black with some
fuzziness. Each of the six jointed legs was shiny black and thickmuscular, Wes thought, though he knew the word wasn't accurate.
The head had two very long feelers that sprouted fuzzy ends. Large
multisectioned eyes bulged from the sides of the head.

"How did they die?" Betty asked. "Wes, you couldn't possibly
have killed them with that sword."

"Sure seemed like it to me," Wes replied. "I swung the sword,
and they dropped dead. What else could have done it?"

Betty kept at it. "They're all in one piece. None of them got
sliced in two. How do you account for that?"

"I must have injured them enough that they died," Wes surmised. He walked away to where the scabbard of the Sword of
Geburah lay on the ground.

Behind him Kurt said, "Wes, why do you always have to be the
big hero? I think Betty's right. You didn't kill them with the sword."
Wes turned around. Kurt was busy examining the dead insects.
"There's not a leg or antenna missing from any of them. They look perfectly okay-except they're dead."

"Maybe they died of concussion from the force of the sword
swinging through the air," Lisa suggested.

Betty scoffed. "Nobody can swing a sword that hard!"

"Well, maybe they died of fright!" Wes snapped. He didn't mean
to be funny, but the others laughed loudly. Wes was so irritated that
it took him several tries to get the Sword of Geburah into its scabbard. Meanwhile Kurt flung a handful of insect bodies high into
the air. Lisa and Betty picked up double handfuls and did the
same. They kicked through the blanket of bodies the way they
would kick through autumn leaves on their way to River Heights
School.

Wes leaned the sword against a tree trunk and watched the others dance with relief and joy. He sighed. After all, they did have a
lot to celebrate. They were safe. They had met and survived the
first challenge on this trip to Anthropos. Thanks, Gaal, Wesley
thought. Immediately he was ashamed. Hadn't he pleaded for
Gaal's help in the middle of the attack? Their Shepherd had
answered. Wes had swung the sword, but Gaal himself had won the
battle.

Wes knew he had to tell the others, especially Betty Riggs. She
would probably have trouble understanding. He went back to the
pile of insects and put in a few kicks of his own as he tried to think
of the right words. Before he could figure out what to say, Betty
stopped with one leg held out stiff in front of her. She looked at
her own legs and arms and felt the back of her neck. Her eyes wide
with wonder, she announced, "I don't have a single welt from all
those stings! Do any of you?"

The Friesens quickly checked themselves over. A wasp sting
almost always leaves a painful welt. Some people even have lifethreatening reactions to a sting. These insect attackers were more
vicious than any insect they had ever seen. Yet none of the four
children had a mark, not even one like a mosquito bite.

The children's festive mood sobered. They looked at themselves
and each other with awe. Whatever was going on here, it was mysterious. Quietly Kurt said, "You know something? All of a sudden I
feel like we really are in Anthropos. Things have started to happen the way they happen there. I mean, this must have something to do
with why the Changer summoned us."