Cost of a Crown (Book 3)
Two Heirs
Chapter Five: Attack on Dare
"What'd you think of King Malkyn?" Adam asked his subordinates on the way back from the meeting.
They were in a Landcrawler on their way back from the peace summit and Adam, honestly, did not know what to think. Skeletor's heir said what he wanted to say, brought up issues that, while Adam wasn't sure were real or not, were serious issues that a leader should deal with, and he never once threatened death or vengeance. The meeting ended without a single double-cross or murder attempt. King Malkyn might not be the timid and meek teenager enacting Evil-Lyn's will that Adam had to save, but he wasn't a ruthless warlord either. He was none of the things Adam expected. Now he didn't know what to expect.
"He seems like he's trying very hard." Buzz-Off answered.
"He's a kid playing at being a grown-up." Clamp Champ disagreed.
Dare, Raena, and Kay-La were all sitting in the landcrawler's back seat and were not asked for their opinions. None of them were at the meeting, they didn't see King Malkyn.
But they did meet a bunch of kids from the Dark Hemisphere who knew King Malkyn.
"His people seem to like him." Dare informed the adults without having been invited into the conversation.
Clamp Champ was piloting and could not turn his head away from the view shield.
But Adam was able to turn around and stare at his son and the rest of the children with concern. "Please don't tell me you went out looking for Skeletor's Evil Warriors!"
"I didn't!" Dare assured his father.
"We were at the beach, Your Majesty." Raena took up the explanation. "We met two Gar kids and a Snakeman, all around our age, and they all seemed to like their King."
"That little blind girl was ready to throw hands when we called him 'Skeleteen'." Kay-La added. "Did you see how her brother was holding her back?"
"A bunch of teenagers enjoying another teenager being in a position of power over adults does not make him a good leader." Clamp Champ informed the cabin.
"No, it doesn't." Agreed Buzz-Off. "But, youths have always been more openminded and willing to enact radical changes for the future. Making peace with us would definitely be radical for Skeletor's older followers, but Trap Jaw and Beastman had his back in the meeting anyway. That means they support him. Skeleteen- I mean -King Malkyn might be young, but he might also be the best possible leader the Dark Hemisphere has had since the Preternia Era and the Great Separation."
"Unless this is all some unnecessarily elaborate ruse to get us to let our guard down and Skeleteen's really exactly like Skeletor and that's why Trap Jaw and Beastman have his back." Grumbled Clamp Champ. "Anyway, King Adam, we're approaching Eternos now, did you still want to stop in the Old Capital?"
"Yes." Adam nodded. "I wanted to look up the grievances King Malkyn mentioned during the Great Unrest. I want to confirm for myself how much of it is true and how much might just be Skeletor's bitter minions whispering in his ear."
…
Since King Adam moved the capital and center of government to Castle Grayskull the majority of the palace of Eternos was converted into a museum. A number of the offices in the business wing were still maintained to run the local city government. Eternos might not be the capital anymore, but it was still a large metropolis.
The lower levels, and the gardens were open to the public. The upper floors ran the city's government, and the basement and cellars were converted into storage and archives.
It was the archives that Adam headed straight for.
He told Dare to wait in the museum floors while he, Clamp Champ, and Buzz-Off did a little fact checking on the things King Malkyn told them.
The archives were well below the regular foot traffic of the old capital and were eerily quiet. No patter of feet, no chatter of voices. The air was still from a lack of motion, the old palace still kept up the ventilation and air circulation, but there was no breath in the air, no rush of wind as someone ran by, no motion of activity. Not even the quietest libraries in Eternos were as quiet as the Old Palace archives.
But, they were also very well lit. When the Old Palace was converted into a museum, the whole building was renovated, and new lighting put in. No more wall sconces with torches or witchlight, now florescent bulbs were fitted into the ceiling and illuminated the whole space. Every corridor was a wash of light, no dark ominous hallways, or shadowy chambers.
Everything was meticulously organized and labeled too, and Adam found the section he was looking for easily.
The Great Unrest, alternate title: 'Keldor's Rebellion'; alternate title: 'War of Two Kings.'
There were more volumes than Adam was expecting. Apparently, there were many more contributing factors that went into the Great Unrest than just two brothers who had a falling out. It seemed every race, and culture, and group on Eternia had their own account of it, and for the historians of Eternos to preserve an accurate account, a copy of each was included in the archives.
Pulling a paper-bound book with a hand sewn spine off the shelf, Adam noted that it was a Pelleezean account of events. Well, King Malkyn did mention a land dispute having to do with the Pelleeneans, might as well start there. He looked up at the shelf of more volumes. Most were much, much thicker than the Pelleezean. Adam heaved a sigh. They were probably gonna be at this for a while.
"Well, grab a book." He sighed at his companions.
…
Upstairs, Dare, Kay-La, and Raena were meandering around the gardens.
It was the Old Palace, and it was a palace. Long sprawling gardens, wide open areas. Flower boxes and herb beds made from white stone and dutifully tended by the palace gardeners. Neatly trimmed trees for shade, statues of the Elders and the Ancients, benches and picnic tables along the side walls.
None of them had ever been to the Old Palace before. The capital was already moved to Grayskull by the time they were born and that was where they grew up.
But this, this was where King Adam grew up. This was where King Randor grew up. This was where Skeletor- this was where Prince Keldor grew up.
It was nice.
In a 'decadent serenity' kind of way.
Beautiful to visit and spent a day in. But Dare didn't think he'd like all the light and wide-open space indefinitely. He was used to the tight and dimly lit corridors of Castle Grayskull. The Old Capital was lovely, but it also made him feel exposed and oddly out of place. Like he didn't belong in his family's old seat of power.
"Dare, look how pretty!" Raena called to him, snapping Dare out of his thoughts. She was sitting on the edge of a flowerbox, holding up a crown she'd made out of the blooms.
"Are we allowed to pick the flowers?" He asked coming over to sit with her.
"Donno." She confessed. "But I already did, and it's not like I can put them back, so…" She shrugged and placed the circlet of flowers on his head. "Your crown, my King."
"I'm not King yet." He told her. "If I'm lucky, I won't be King for a very long time. I feel kinda bad for Skeleteen- I mean, King Malkyn. He's our age and he's responsible for his whole country. I'm not even responsible enough for Dad to let me have a pet bird."
"I actually think you'll make a good King." Raena assured him. "You're smart and you -usually- know what needs to be done. Your main problem is confidence."
"Okay, well, you try being confident when it's He-Man's shadow you're living in." Dare snapped.
He wasn't mad at her; he was frustrated with himself because there was a ring of truth to her words. Every time Dad invited Dare into a meeting, or wanted to bring him to a diplomatic event, Dare's first emotion was panic. Dare knew he could never live up to He-Man, he was He-Man! But because He-Man was his father, everyone would always compare him to He-Man, no matter what he did or didn't do.
Kay-La, whom had been jogging laps around the garden came back over to them, only catching the tail end of their conversation.
"You make surpassing him your goal." Kay-La announced. She continued jogging in place, but made a fist with her hand to illustrate her determination. "I'm going to become a more skilled and respected warrior than Teela and Man-at-Arms combined! They've got chapters written about them in the histories of Eternia, I'm gonna have whole volumes written about me!"
Still sitting on the edge of the flowerbed, Raena just sighed. "You think anybody's gonna be writing volumes about you when all you've ever done is get into one tinny border tussle. Or that anyone's gonna look at you when He-Man exists?"
"He-Man is old." Kay-La reminded her. She finally stopped jogging in place to plant her feet and glare at Raena. "Somebody's gonna have to take him place eventually."
"That's more likely to be Dare than you." Raena pointed out.
As if every other time someone tried to include him in his father's responsibilities, Dare had a sudden stab of irrational fear. "M-me? I can't be He-Man, I'm not… good enough…"
"I could be a He-Man!" Kay-La announced. "Or- uh, Her…-Ro?"
"Her-Ro?" Raena raised an eyebrow, but did not offer any further comment. She turned her attention from Kay-La and focused back on Dare. "Try imagining yourself as He-Man."
"Ooh! Yeah, that sounds fun! Give us a He-Man impression!" Kay-La agreed.
"That is not what I said!" Raena snapped.
While at the exact same time, Dare began, "Hi, I'm Adam. Fabulous powers were revealed to me one day when I-"
But he was cut off abruptly when something attacked the garden!
A blast of energy coming down from the sky. Dare and his friends just barely managed to jump out of the way before it impacted the white stone, scattering debris all over.
They looked up to see three figures drop out of the sky. What they were dropping from was unclear, nobody saw any kind of vehicle. It was like they were just teleported into the Old Capital gardens but some powerful magic.
"What the-!?" Dare exclaimed.
Raena didn't exclaim, she didn't pause, she sprang into action. Directing the civilians that had been meandering around the gardens towards the exit, and placing herself between them and the villains that just dropped in. Raena didn't have any of her equipment on her, but she was still trained by Clamp Champ and would put up a fight to protect Eternia and its people. She glared at them.
"Jitsu!" Kay-La recognized one of them, though she'd only seen him before in pictures. Kay-La was Fisto's daughter and Jitsu was Fisto's rival. "You're supposed to be trapped in some dark dimension somewhere."
Jitsu looked down his chin at her. She sure seemed to know him, but he didn't recognize her. His eyes swept over all three of them. Then turned to the other two.
One looked to be a semi-organic cyborg of sorts, that looked cobbled together from multiple and mismatched parts. He had four legs and two heads and what looked like two torsos stacked on top of each other, each with its own pair of arms. The resulting figure was a little unsettling to look at.
The third one had the muscular build of any warrior on Eternia, but his skin was an unsettling shade of sickly-green. He had pointed ears and a long, thick beard. But his face looked skeletal and deathly. Exposed bone and empty eye sockets. Part of the lower mandible was hidden by the beard, but it still showed off enough to see that he had no lips. Just the upper and lower mandible of his jaw, exposed teeth in a skeleton grin.
None of them knew who the other two were. Kay-La only knew Jitsu, and even then, only by reputation.
"Which one of them's got the blood of Grayskull?" Jitsu asked of his companions.
Hearing the name 'Grayskull' both Kay-La and Raena quickly glanced at Dare.
The cyborg with all the extra limbs and body parts caught the look and pointed to Dare. "I'm gonna go with that one."
"Dare, run, go get your dad!" Raena commanded.
For half a second, Dare moved to follower her order. Taking a step to the exit that all the civilians had already escaped through. But then he stopped. He was the son of He-Man. He was going to be King of Eternia himself one day. He should not be running when the Old Capital was attacked by the forces of evil!
He turned, facing the trio of villains. "What do you want!?"
The green skinned one with the skull face and the beard growing right out of his bone unsheathed a scimitar. Then announced with a high pitched and shrill snarl, "The Blood of Grayskull."
Dare felt his nerves jump up into his throat and he found himself having to swallow them back down. But he already made the decision not to run. So, he wasn't going to run!
Jitsu lunged at Dare, his over-sized and armored fist extended.
Raena moved quickly. She shoved Dare out of the way just as Jitsu's fist was about to connect with him. Instead, she grabbed his wrist and used his own momentum from the lunge to throw him. A strait-line judo toss.
Dare reached over his shoulder for his sword, only to realize that he left the weapon his father made him take to the summit with Skeleteen in the landcrawler. He didn't think he'd need it here in the Old Capital. Here in his own country, far from the enemy's seat of power. Looks like he was wrong.
Suddenly realizing that he was defenseless, Dare did a duck and dodge to avoid being grabbed by two of the android's four arms.
"Damn it, Moludok," Jitsu barked from where he was picking himself back up from Raena's toss, "he's one kid and you got four arms!"
The multilimbed cyborg -Moludok- gave a synthetic growl at his comrade. "You got thrown by a kid! They're harder than they look!"
The one with the skull and the beard advanced on Dare, probably trying to pincer him in between him and Moludok.
Raena got a running start, then dropped into a skid to knocked Moludok's feet out from under him. She got two of his four legs and the cyborg went stumbling. Raena grabbed Dare and pulled him behind her. Then she looked to Kay-La for backup. Kay-La was always bragging that she was in a real 'battle', she should be able to handle these guys better than Raena or Dare could.
Kay-La hadn't moved since she identified Jitsu.
She just stood there, frozen. As if she didn't know what to do.
"Kay-La!" Raena shouted.
Still she didn't move.
"Kay-La, back me up, gurl!" Raena tried again.
With a bit of a tremor in her voice, Kay-La muttered, "They- they're real Evil Warriors!"
They weren't board border guards, or inexperienced teenagers, or poorly trained enlisted soldiers. They weren't like the ones she got into a little kerfuffle with on the edge of the Dark Hemisphere. These were seasoned and experienced killers. Jitsu alone had almost succeeded in killing her father, Fisto, on multiple occasions. And the other two looked just as terrifying, if not more so!
"Kay-La!" Raena called to her again.
"I can't-" Kay-La muttered, suddenly realizing she'd never been in a real battle before. She liked to talk big, but that's all it was. Talk. Kay-La couldn't do anything!
"Go get King Adam and my father!" Raena ordered, suddenly realizing that she'd get no other kind of help from her friend.
Kay-La blinked, as if realizing that was not only the safest thing for her to do, it was something she could do. Kay-La ran from the gardens. King Adam. Clamp Champ. She could get King Adam and Clamp Champ!
Raena backed up away from the trio of villains, making sure to keep Dare behind her. She was a good fighter, but was also aware that without her equipment she would not be able to hold her own against more experienced warriors with powers. The best she could do was stall for time and keep Dare away from the villains that had come for his blood, at least long enough for her father and King Adam to arrive.
"You're not our concern, girly." Jitsu announced. "Give us the kid with Grayskull's blood and we'll leave you alone."
"If you want him, you'll have to go through me!" Raena announced.
"Oh, we will." Moludok nodded with both his mismatched heads.
Then Moludok surprised her by taking off two of his four arms. Unsnapping them from his body as if they were more like clip-on accessories rather than parts of a living body. The two arms floated in the air of their own accord before one of the flew forward, fist first, and impacted Raena in the mid-section. Way harder than a normal punch would have hit.
She coughed, and gasped, and felt her body heave. The natural response to a blow like that being to puke then pass out. Raena fought both urges. She struggled to stay conscious, but swayed on her feet between Dare and the others.
"I won't- …let you…" She coughed.
Jitsu shoved her to the side easily.
Dare tried to defend himself, throwing a punch at Jitsu, and when that didn't work trying to kick his knees out from under him.
But Moludok's two detached arms circled around behind him. Each one grabbing one shoulder, they lifted Dare up off his feet. He hung in the air, flailing his legs impotently and shouting that they'll never get away with this!
"Bring him here." Commanded the green-skinned and skull-faced monster in that shrill nasal voice.
The disembodied arms holding Dare floated him over to the villain. He struggled and kicked his feet the whole way, flexing his arms to try and pull himself free from their hold.
"Keep him still." Squawked the skull face.
Moludok's other two arms latched themselves onto Dare, this time holding his legs so he couldn't kick at the monster.
"All yours, Demoman." Moludok announced.
The skull-faced creature -Demonman- raised his scimitar and Dare pinched his eyes shut, expecting the villain to chop his head off with a large, curved sword.
Instead, he felt just the tip of the blade press into his arm. The sharp point piercing the tender and sensitive skin of the inside of his arm near the fold of his elbow. Dare hissed in pain. Then screamed when Demoman raked the blade through his skin. He made one long cut down Dare's arm. From his elbow all the way to the base of his wrist.
Blood poured from the open wound. Thick, and red, and lots of it.
There was so much blood, and it hurt more than anything else Dare had experienced. It was all he could do to gasp and try to stay conscious. He'd never seen that much blood before. He'd never seen that much of his own blood before!
"The blood of Grayskull…" Moludok muttered gleefully.
Jitsu came over and placed his over-sized, armored fist under the fall of blood pouring out of Dare's arm. He turned his fist one way, then the other, coating the whole thing in the blood of Grayskull.
"We managed to get this done much faster than I was expecting." Jitsu commented. "Our master will be very pleased."
Dare heard the words, but he only half understood them. He was becoming delirious from blood loss. Their voices swam in his head, and his vision blurred, but he fought the urge to pass out.
Re-sheathing his scimitar, Demoman began casting a spell over Jitsu's blood covered fist. Dare didn't catch all the words. But did catch 'ancient power', 'free Unnamed', and 'Grayskull's blood is the key'.
Jitsu took a solid stance, perfect foot placement, as if he were just practicing his kata in the dojo. Then punched the air with his blood-covered fist.
There was an intake of breath as Moludok, Jitsu, and Demoman waited.
Nothing happened.
Jitsu punched the air again.
Still, nothing continued to happen.
Jitsu turned to Demoman. "What the hell!? You get the spell wrong?"
"My spells are never wrong." Demoman assured him. "It must be the blood." Demoman leaned in close to Dare, the open cavity of his skull where a nose should have been almost pressed into the open wound. Demoman inhaled deeply. Then pulled away. "It's not Grayskull's blood!"
"What!?" Both Moludok and Jitsu exclaimed.
"But it has to be!" Argued Moludok. "That was the whole reason of coming to Eternos and getting the Prince! The son of King Adam who is He-Man and wields the power of Grayskull."
With his other hand, Jitsu grabbed a fistful of Dare's hair and lifted his head up. "Who's your father, boy?" He demanded. "Is your father King Adam of the House of Randor?"
"W-wha…?" Was all Dare managed to stammer out in his semi-delirious state. He didn't even understand what they were asking. He'd lost too much blood. Were they asking if his father wasn't his father? Absurd! Who else's son could he possibly be?
When Dare did not respond with a coherent answer, Jitsu dropped the fistful of hair he was holding. "What do we do now? Without the blood of Grayskull we can't free our master."
Demoman stroked the thick waves of his bears, thinking. Finally, "Moludok, drop him. We're leaving."
The disembodied arms holding Dare did let go and Dare dropped to the floor in a heap. His red blood seeming so much brighter on the white garden stones.
Moludok's arms reattached themselves to his torsos. "Leaving? But what are we gonna do? We can't free-"
"We will." Demoman assured them both. He began casting a teleportation spell to get them out of Etrernos. As the trio began to vanish, Demoman announced, "I know of another with Grayskull's blood."
…