A breath later, Leonard was running alongside Merlin and Sir Ronald. “How far is the port—” Before Leonard could finish the sentence, he was hit hard from behind and knocked to the ground.
“The beast!” cried out Sir Ronald.
Despite a searing pain that made it difficult to see straight, Leonard managed to push himself up from the floor only to be knocked down again by the Questing Beast. Leonard managed to catch a glimpse of his attacker and was astounded how closely it resembled Merlin’s earlier description—serpentine head, feline body, deer hooves—a truly bizarre combination of parts from different animals. The beast’s most notable feature, however, were its strange and terrifying eyes that glowed purple and seemed to be a bottomless well of malice. As their eyes met, Leonard couldn’t help but feel he was looking into the depths of Hell.
Just then, a blast of dragonfire passed over his head, so close it filled his nostrils with the stench of his own singed hair.
“Taddy! Be careful!” shouted Merlin. “You almost scorched Leonard!”
“Sorry!” said the dragon, snapping at the beast’s tail as it made another pass through the group.
Leonard leapt to his feet and drew his sword, trying his best to follow the Questing Beast’s movement through the darkness beyond the circle of light from Merlin’s staff. When the beast dashed in and bore down on him, Leonard barely had time to move out of its way before it rushed by and whipped its tail mere inches from his face.
“Leonard! Duck!” shouted Merlin.
Instinctively, Leonard dropped to his knees just as “Sha-dur!” reached his ears followed instantaneously by a stream of giant hornets. He watched as the insects from Merlin’s spell followed, then engulfed the beast which yelped in pain before doubling back and heading straight for Merlin. The old man’s eyes popped wide, and he fell to the ground, dropping his staff which clattered on the stones before its light faded and plunged the tunnel into absolute darkness.
Leonard strained his eyes and ears, trying desperately to see or hear something, anything. But there was nothing—not even the buzz of a hornet. A fiery blast of dragonfire erupted from behind, making Leonard wince, then gasp at the terrifying sight in front of him. Only a few feet away, the beast sat astride Merlin, a long string of its drool descending toward the wizard’s face. As the dragonfire faded, Leonard instinctively leapt forward, drawing his newly acquired short sword as he went, and plunging it into the Questing Beast’s flank. The beast howled in pain and rolled in the darkness in an effort to dislodge Leonard from its back. With his left hand, Leonard held on to as much fur as he could grab while repeatedly plunging his blade into the howling beast’s body with his right. Another blast of dragonfire lit up the tunnel, and the monster bucked and twisted, bringing its full weight down on Leonard’s chest as he blindly thrust his sword one last time before his head slammed into the tunnel floor and all went black.
**
Leonard’s eyes fluttered open. It took a moment before he could focus and make out the image of Merlin, Sir Ronald, and Taddy staring down at him with concerned looks on their faces.
Sir Ronald smiled. “Welcome back, Leonard.”
Leonard returned the smile, then inhaled sharply, his eyes darting wildly between the faces of his friends. “The beast! Where is it?”
“Calm yourself, Leonard. The Questing Beast is over here,” said Merlin before moving the rekindled light atop his staff to reveal a very dead beast with Leonard’s short sword sticking out of its eye. “You vanquished it, and in doing so saved my life, for which I am most grateful. Thank you, Leonard.”
Leonard grinned, then closed his eyes. “You’re welcome, Merlin.”
**
They arrived at an area where Leonard thought the very air itself could only be described as “fuzzy.” The walls of the tunnel would go in and out of focus and sometimes completely wink out of existence for the shortest of moments—just long enough for Leonard to notice they’d vanished—before coming back again. “How very strange this is.”
Sir Ronald stepped forward and reached out his hand. The ghostly tips of his fingers disappeared into the fuzziness, and re-formed when he pulled his hand out again. “Yes, this is the place where the two worlds switch over.”
Merlin inhaled and exhaled deeply. “All right, here’s what we’re going to do. Taddy, you’re going back into the carry stone again—”
“Aw!”
Merlin’s hand flew up, and he gave the young dragon a stern glance. “No complaining, please. It’s for your own protection.”
Taddy grumbled, but said no more.
“Once he is in, Leonard and I will both take hold of this staff, and I will speak the spell to get us through the void and on to Niflheim. Sir Ronald, since you lack a physical form, the only thing I can think of for you to do is to insert yourself between Leonard and myself to be dragged along, so to speak, for the ride.”
“Is there a chance I’ll be left behind in the void?” asked the knight, grimly.
“Yes,” said Merlin, equally as serious. “Unfortunately, there is that chance. Are you ready, Taddy?”
“Yes,” said the dragon, sullenly.
Merlin pulled the carry stone necklace out from under his robes and whispered a few words before holding it at arm’s length. Taddy took a breath, then jumped into the stone.
He motioned for Sir Ronald. “All right, Sir Ronald, time to squeeze in.”
Sir Ronald inserted himself between Leonard and Merlin, which caused each of them to gasp and shudder. “My apologies,” said the knight.
“Leonard, take hold of the staff,” said Merlin, putting his right arm around Leonard’s shoulder.
Leonard did what he was told, using both hands to grip the polished wood tightly. “I’m ready.”
Merlin inhaled and spoke the Welsh name of the sacred holly tree from which his staff was made . . . “Celyn!”
Chapter Nine
The Great Kónguló
O ne moment Leonard was in a dry, rocky tunnel with the remains of a strange and vicious beast behind him, the next, he and Merlin and Sir Ronald were hurtling through a limitless void—absolute nothingness except for a vicious wind that twisted their hair and burnt their skin.
Leonard slowly turned his head toward Merlin and was surprised to see Sir Ronald’s strangely widened face smiling back at him, stretched out by the wind, he guessed. The knight was yelling something that Leonard couldn’t quite make out, but just as he was about to yell “What?” for the third time, they were suddenly spit out of the void and into the back of another cave.
“I said it seems to be working!” shouted Sir Ronald in a voice that echoed loudly off the stone walls. He quickly covered his mouth and whispered, “Sorry.”
The first thing Leonard noticed when he picked himself up off the cave’s floor was how bitterly cold it was. Merlin had warned him about the almost supernatural lack of warmth in Niflheim, but to actually experience it in person was another thing altogether. He caught Merlin’s eye and struggled to breathe the frigid air and talk at the same time. “This is, w-without a doubt, the c-coldest I’ve ever been in m-my entire l-life,” he managed to stammer out.