The Call (The Magnificent 12 1)

“Ignorant, rock-headed, jelly-jointed, brittle-limbed sputum! If you truly had the enlightened puissance, you would know that no spell may be reused for a period of at least on

e full day!”

“Oh,” Mack said, crestfallen. “I didn’t know that.”

“Huh,” Stefan said.

“I heard Grimluk use another spell, but I can’t remember…,” Mack said to Stefan.

The name Grimluk drew a torrent of abuse from all the elves at once. They knew the name. And they were not fans.

“Brothers,” the lead elf said finally, signaling an end to the heaping of insults and catcalls, “we must decide. My own small wisdom whispers to me that we must honor the princess’s request and defer the killing of these mucus-smeared cretins.”

There was general agreement on that, much to Mack’s relief. But what they said next changed his outlook entirely.

“So, let us lower them down into the pit and seal up the hole after them.”

“Wait. What?” Mack said.

“Thus will the princess find them imprisoned, entombed, but still alive.”

“No. That’s a terrible idea!” Mack said.

The elves grabbed Jarrah, who was squirming and trying to kick and not accomplishing much of anything. They dragged her to the hole. One of them fired up the generator that ran the winch. They dumped her into the basket. Then they did the same with Karri.

The engine strained and whirred as the two of them slid down the shaft.

Mack counted the seconds, which stretched into minutes. How far down were they?

He couldn’t. They couldn’t. No way.

Someone was going to rescue them because that’s the way it always worked in movies. Someone would rescue him before he was buried alive, buried alive.

“Help!” he cried. “Heeeeelp!”

An elf smacked him on the head with his bowling-pin club. Mack’s vision swam, a swirl of sunset colors tinged with the extra vibrancy of sheer panic.

He thrashed and screamed for help, head spinning, until a second blow turned out the lights.

* * *

DEAR MACK,

I THINK SHRINKING MYSELF WAS A MISTAKE. I MADE MYSELF HALF AS BIG. DAD RAN TO TELL MOM. MOM SAID DAD NEEDED TO STOP DRINKING. THEY SOUNDED UPSET, SO BEFORE MOM COULD SEE, I WENT BACK TO MY REGULAR SIZE. THEN THERE WAS MORE YELLING, AND NOW DAD IS NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE BEER.

YOUR FRIEND,

GOLEM

* * *

Twenty-three

A REALLY, REALLY LONG TIME AGO…

Grimluk and the others reached the Pale Queen. And they battled her with all their powers united.

The battle raged for a day and a night.