Cost of a Crown (Book 3)
Two Heirs
Chapter Ten: Attack on Grayskull
Dare didn't wanna see either of his parents. …Dare didn't wanna see either Queen Teela or King Adam.
But ever since the announcement that Skeleteen had released an ancient evil on the world, Adam insisted on drilling Dare to make sure he remembered all his training. Axe, shield, mace, long spear, and- and sword.
Not just any sword. Adam started personally training Dare with the Power Sword.
The training carefully overseen by Teela, acting as Sorceress of Grayskull and custodian of the Power Sword.
"Keep the blade up." Adam coached as they drilled with the weapons. Adam was using a blunted practice blade, while Dare held the Power Sword. "Remember, that sword is the only thing between you and the enemy who wants to kill you."
Dare lifted his arm, placing the Power Sword directly in front of his face. He was supposed to be blocking or parrying Adam's attack, but Dare caught the reflection of his eyes in the blade and he hesitated. He never really thought much about his eyes before. His eyes were dark. Kinda a greenish brown. Teela had green eyes too, but they were a bright, vibrant green. Not like the green of his eyes at all! And Adam's eyes were blue. Now he was wondering who he might have inherited his eyes from since he wasn't related to them.
When Adam's attack connected with the Power Sword, Dare was distracted and thrown off balance. He went stumbling backwards before finally falling on his backside.
"You're not focusing." Adam admonished. "Dare, you can't afford to let your mind wander when you're with an enemy!"
"Why are we even doing this!?" Dare snarled back, tossing the Power Sword away in frustration.
"To make sure you're ready." Adam answered in a tone implying that should have been obvious. "I was younger than you are now when Man-at-Arms and the Sorceress shoved the Power Sword in my hands and sent me out to fight Skeletor with no training or preparation. I won't do the same to you. When you inherit the Power Sword, I want to make sure you're ready for it."
Feeling an irrational and focusless rage burn through him, Dare catapulted to his feet.
"But I'm not gonna wield the Power Sword!" He snarled. "I'm not a descendent of Grayskull!"
Adam was taken aback. He paused for a moment, just staring at his son. Not knowing what to say to that.
"I think that's enough training for today." Teela announced. She placed a hand on her son's shoulder. "Come with me, Dare, there's something I want to show you."
Teela lead Dare out of the hall they were using for training, and Adam picked up the Power Sword off the floor. This was exactly why he never wanted to tell Dare he was adopted.
Leaving Adam behind, Teela lead Dare deeper into Castle Grayskull. Down a series of stares that were off-limits to the servants and staff who worked in Castle Grayskull. While it might be the new capital of government, the Castle still housed ancient powers and dangerous artifacts. Part of the Sorceress' was making sure no one ever got a hold of the artifacts locked in the vaults under the Castle.
"What are we doing down here?" Dare asked. Neither of his parents- neither King Adam or Queen Teela ever let him down here before.
Dare opened a door at random and found it was a storage room for artifacts. He didn't recognize most of them. But one did catch his eye. A large, clunky looking amulet on a chain. A cold setting with a wide red stone. Dare recognized it as Count Marzo's amulet. The Amulet of Avarice. After being told that he was found after He-Man defeated Marzo, Dare looked him up in the archives. He-Man was able to defeat Marzo by trapping him in his own amulet. It wasn't just a dangerous artifact they were keeping under Castle Grayskull, it was Marzo's prison.
Dare stepped into the room. He was found after He-Man defeated Marzo. Marzo might know who his real parents are -or were.
Teela closed a hand around Dare's wrist and forcefully pulled him back out of the room. "You shouldn't go opening doors down here when you don't know what's behind them."
She slammed the door shut with a deafening bang that accurately punctuated her statement.
Leading Dare by the hand now, Teela continued taking him down. Deeper and deeper under the Castle.
Dare didn't even know Castle Grayskull went down this far.
"Do you know why protecting Castle Grayskull is so important?" Teela asked when they reached a landing.
It was utterly dark. No electric lighting. Not even sconces on the walls for torches. Teela formed a ball of witchlight for them to see by.
The tiny ball of light illuminated a small space with a relief chiseled into the wall opposite the stairs. The relief depicted someone who looked like He-Man but with longer hair holding the Power Sword up above his head with Castle Grayskull behind him. Hovering in the air around Castle Grayskull the artist had chiseled three faces. Two of them Dare recognized, Hordak and King Hiss, they were mentioned in lots of Eternia's history books. The third Dare did not recognize. It looked a bit like a Trollan, so he assumed it was the Unnamed horror from Preternia that Skeleteen just released.
Dare crossed his arms with impatience. "Because bad guys will misuse the power."
"Well, yes." Teela offered him a gentle smile in the dim light. "The magic of Eternia must be guarded. At all costs. Precisely because those with selfish or corrupted desires will misuse it. But it's much more than just that, Dare."
Lifting her staff, Teela pointed it at the relief chiseled into the wall. The ball of witchlight grew brighter and Dare saw that it wasn't a relief chiseled into the stone of a wall at all. But instead carved into old wood. A pair of wooden doors.
The double doors parted, and through the open doors Dare saw what was at the heart of Castle Grayskull.
Light poured from the chamber. Warm golden light. After walking through the dim corridors for so long, it stung his eyes, and Dare had to throw up an arm to shade himself from the light.
When his eyes adjusted, it was to see that the chamber beyond was a wide-open space with a tall ceiling, and statues lining the walls. Dare recognized some of them. King Grayskull, Sorceress Veena, He-Ro… But most of them Dare did not know the names off. All the statues were arranged so that they were all looking in the same direction, their eyes fixed on the same point. Watching over what appeared to be an alter in the center of the chamber.
The alter was empty. Nothing on it. Except that it was haloed in power. A wreath of fire emanated from the alter like a crown. Except it wasn't fire. Not really. It was power. Raw power the like of which Dare had never seen before.
Tentatively, Dare took a step into the chamber.
"Eternia is home to the power that created the universe." Teela explained at his side. "The power we protect here in Castle Grayskull is the power of the Goddesses. And this is the Forge of Grayskull, fueled by the Fires of Eternity. This is when King Grayskull first forged the Sword of Power."
Dare paused in his steps, suddenly feeling unsure. "Why are you showing me this?"
"Because you need to know." Teela told him. "There was so much I didn't know when I took over as Sorceress. I wish my mother took me down here and gave me the tour. Or even just a short manual. I would've killed for apamphlet!"
"But I'm not a descendent of Grayskull." Dare argued.
"So?" Teela argued. "Neither am I."
"Yeah, but-" Dare wasn't really sure what to say. "Dad married you and he is a descendent of Grayskull."
"And together we adopted you." Teela's hand was on his shoulder again, offering comfort, or support, or whatever he needed. "That's why Adam's been drilling you with the Power Sword. He wants you to take over as the next He-Man after him." She paused, studying the conflicted knit of his brows. "But if you don't want to be He-Man, you could guard Grayskull in other ways. You could be a Sorcerer, like me."
Teela offered, already knowing that Adam was not going to like the idea of Dare becoming a sorcerer. Adam would be afraid Dare might turn out like Marzo.
Dare just stared at his feet, brows knit together from the conflict of what he was feeling.
"I don't wanna do either." He muttered, speaking more to the floor than to her.
"What do you want to do?" Teela asked.
Leading Dare by the hand, she pulled him out of the Forge chamber and shut the door behind them. They were plunged back into darkness, and Teela relit her ball of witchlight to guide their way back up the stairs.
Dare was a long time in answering her. He didn't know what he wanted to do. Like, with his life. He didn't know if he wanted to be King after Adam, or if he wanted the Power Sword, or if he wanted to be a sorcerer. At the moment, he really only wanted to do one thing.
"I wanna go to the Vine Jungle and find my real parents." He confessed.
Teela winced inwardly. She thought of herself as Dare's real parent. But, as someone who went and bothered a dragon over the identity of her biological mother, she also understood the impulse. Dare wanted to know where he came from. He wanted to know who sired and birthed him. Teela sympathized, even as she shook her head in a negative.
"I don't want you leaving the Castle right now." She told him. "Not until we can find and stop Skeleteen and the Unnamed One. And Adam agrees with me. You can't leave to find your biological parents right now."
That was not the answer Dare wanted to hear and he stamped his foot in frustration. "Then why even bother asking me what I want?"
Dare darted back up the stairs.
Teela sighed. Teenagers. So many emotions. Everything was the end of the world. She remembered when she was that easily excitable and that intense.
She didn't try to stop Dare as he ran away from her. Sometimes teenagers needed words of comfort and assurances that they mattered and that they were important. Other times, teenagers needed to just be left alone. To be given space while they worked through all of their adolescently charged feelings on their own.
Dare past Adam on his way back up. He was heading all the way up to his room which was in one of the Castle's squat little towers.
"Whoa! Where's the fire?" Adam asked.
But Dare ignored him. Stomping the rest of the way up the stairs and slamming the door behind him.
Teela came up behind Adam and encircled her arms around his waist. "He's still adjusting." She said. "He'll be fine. I was."
Adam sighed. He turned around in his wife's arms to face her. "This is exactly why I didn't wanna tell him."
Teela shook her head. "This is exactly why I wanted to tell him a long time ago."
Adam groaned. This was an argument they had more than once over the years. Teela felt it was better to tell Dare he was adopted when he was younger. So that he would understand that no matter where he came from, they were his parents and they loved him. Not because they created him, but because they chose to love him. Between the two of them, Teela was the one who actually was adopted, and she felt Adam should differ to her experience on the matter.
But because of who Adam suspected was Dare's biological father, he did not want to tell the boy anything. He did not want Dare to know. He did not want Dare to go out looking for the trouble that he would inevitably find. And because Adam was King, and Dare was his heir, they did what Adam wanted.
"I don't want to argue." Adam muttered.
"We have bigger things to worry about right now." Teela reminded him. But she would be continuing the discussion with Adam once this latest of crises was over.
Adam thought the matter was settled and he leaned in for a kiss. Teela was always so intense with her convictions, their make-up kisses after a disagreement were amazing.
But their lips hadn't even met when an explosion shook the castle.
Teela and Adam ran to see what had happened. They arrive at the rampart above the skull façade at the same time as Clamp Champ, Raena, and Kay-La. All five of them looked down to see the jawbridge was lowered and the main gate was blown wide open.
Standing on the jawbridge, surrounded by a semi-circle of smoke and debris was a Trollan.
Floating above the wood slats of the jawrbidge like Orko. His face hidden like Orko. But while Orko wore almost all red, this Trollan was dressed head-to-hem in shades of purple. A pointed hat without a brim, a veil covering the lower half of his face, only the glowing golden eyes showing. A purple robe with a tattered hem under a weathered breastplate.
"The Unnamed." Teela muttered. Looks like Skeleteen wasn't giving them much time before sending his newly summoned monster to attack them.
"Surrender your universe!" Commanded the Unnamed One. "I am master now."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Adam muttered. He reached over his shoulder and drew the Power Sword. Raising it high above his head, he called out the words he hadn't had need of in almost twenty years. "By the Power of Grayskull!"
Light engulfed Adam, so bright Clamp Champ and the others had to shield their eyes. The power coiled around Adam, changing his tunic to a Power Harness, and his satin loincloth to a fur loincloth.
He-Man stood atop the cranium of Castle Grayskull. "I have the power!"
He-Man jumped down onto the jawbridge below, blocking the Unnamed One from entering the castle.
"Raena, put your armor on." Clamp Champ commanded his daughter.
"Right." Raena nodded.
Kay-La looked terrified for a moment. As if unsure of what she should do. For all her talk of how great a warrior she was, and how enemies didn't stand a chance against her, Kay-La was afraid of getting injured or killed.
Raena grabbed her arm. "Kay-La and I will protect the Prince."
Teela nodded, trusting the other women to protect her son. "Dare's upset right now. Please make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
Both women nodded before dashing off to find Dare.
Teela peered back down over the rampart at He-Man and the Unnamed One. They were on the jawbridge, which was just a few steps too far out from the gate for her to join him in the fight.
The Unnamed One's clawed hands glowed with the power of his magic and He-Man kept his sword up in a defensive stance. Ready to block the magical attack with his magical blade.
He didn't know what to expect from the Unnamed One. He was Trollan, like Orko, his magic was from another dimension. When Orko used his magic from the Timeless Dimention, it didn't work right, or it worked just sideways of how it was supposed to. A spell to iron s tunic might instead set it on fire for example. Somehow, He-Man got the feeling that no such absurd shenanigans would ensue from the Unnamed One using his own extra-dimensional magic.
The Unnamed One waited a faction of a moment to see if He-Man was actually going to surrender to him.
When He-Man didn't drop to one knee and present his sword to the Trollan sorcerer, the Unnamed One sent a blast of magic at him to test his strength and resistance. A short shot that was easily blocked by He-Man's Power Sword, but still managed to push him back a few paces. He-Man's boots sliding down the wooden planks of the jawbridge.
"Your resistance is insignificant." The Unnamed One informed him. "Eternia's power will be mine!"
"Over my dead body!" He-Man vowed, shouting back at the enemy so that even those in the castle could hear him.
It was impossible to tell with that veil hiding his face, all He-Man could see were his golden eyes glowing out from the darkness of his hat. But He-Man got the distinct impression that the Unnamed One smirked at him. "If that is your wish."
His clawed hands glowed with power again, and this time the magical blast the Unnamed unleashed was not a test shot, or warning fire. This time, the curse aimed at He-Man was meant to kill!
He-Man dove forward. Throwing himself at the jawbridge planks and curling into a roll to dodge the attack. The death-spell sailed over him and impotently impacted the gray stones of the castle's façade instead.
He-Man swung upwards with his sword, intending to slice the Unnamed One in two, right up the middle.
The Unnamed One moved to avoid the attack. Floating up higher and back a bit farther. Putting more distance between himself and He-Man.
Unnamed laughed down at him. Muscle-brained sword wielders were all the same. They thought they were so powerful, and so strong. But they had to get in close to an enemy to do damage. Put a little distance between them and suddenly the sorcerer had all the advantage. The Unnamed One continued to laugh at He-Man. A warrior, unable to fly and unable to cast spells. Ha!
He-Man seemed unbothered by the distance between them. He raised the Power Sword over his head and shouted, "By the Power of Grayskull!" again, and the sky turned dark as clouds gathered from out of nowhere, flickering and rumbling with thunder. "I have the Power!"
Lightning raked down from the sky, cutting through the air.
The Unnamed One barely had a moment to register the attack before he was throwing up a magical shield to protect himself. Electricity crackled over the membrane of his barrier, hissing and popping as the two powers slid against each other. If the lightning had hit him directly, the Unnamed One would have been fried to a crisp and this battle would have been over.
Okay, maybe He-Man wasn't all muscle-brain and sword-hand.
He-Man glared up at the Unnamed, seeing that the lightning passed around him, leaving the Trollan sorcerer unscathed. He raised his sword and called the lightning a second time.
But this time the Unnamed One was expecting it.
Still keeping his magical barrier up, the Unnamed wove and zig-zagged, evading the tongues of lightning as it crackled around him. His shield bubble protecting him from any stray prongs of power that might otherwise have grazed and burned him.
He-Man raised the sword to try the lightning a third time, but the Unnamed One stopped him. Letting loose a wave of raw, unfocussed magic. He-Man moved his sword in front of him to block the attack, and he did. He-Man was unharmed. But the force of the wave pushed him backwards along the planks of the jawbridge. He lost ground.
Jitsu and two others jumped onto the jawbridge. Adam recognized them from the descriptions that Kay-La and Raena gave of Dare's attackers. A creature made of mismatched body parts, two torsos stacked on top of each other, four arms, four legs, two heads, that must be the one they called Moludok. The other tall and thick muscled, with green skin and a thick beard, but with just a skull for a face. Like Skeletor, but he wasn't Skeletor. If Adam remembered correctly, Raena said they called him Demoman.
Moludok shot two of his fists at Adam.
Demoman drew his scimitar and, using it as a wand or a staff, aimed a spell at He-Man.
Moludok's detached fists impacted against He-Man's raised sword. He managed to block them from punching him in the face or the groin, but the hit the sword so hard, He-Man could feel the blade reverberating in the hilt.
Then Demoman's spell hit, and He-Man managed to block that too, the sword once again protecting him from damage. But the blade shuddered harder.
Gritting his teeth and planting his feet, He-Man made a stronger stance and called out the magic held within the castle. "By the Power of-"
But then the Unnamed One launched another spell at He-Man from above. It combined with Demoman's attack and Moludok's punches.
It wasn't just the blade shuddering under the pressure now. The whole sword shook in He-Man's hands. There was an off metallic groaning from the stress on the blade. He-Man gripped it tighter. The Power Sword had never failed him before. They always managed to overcome all odds! With the power of goodness, and the way of magic, they-
The Unnamed One cast another spell, layering it over his previous one. Dogpiling onto the onslaught and a crack formed in the metal of the blade.
He-Man's eyes went wide as a tiny shard, no larger than a fingernail, chipped off. Then-
-the Power Sword shattered.
"Wha-!?"
King Adam was thrown back. He landed almost inside the maw of the castle. His ears ringing, his vision blurred, his mouth tasting oddly metallic.
Adam stared at the hilt he held, not understanding what had just happened. He was holding it so tight, his knuckles were white, and his hand hurt. It felt strangely heavy in his hand. The Power Sword never felt heavy to him before.
He heard voices around him. Shouts. Orders being given and received.
Demoman was stalking towards him, his scimitar raised menacingly.
But all Adam could do was stare at the shattered remains of the Power Sword.
Demoman was almost on top of him. Adam needed to move. Adam needed to dodge, or retreat, or do something! Or else Demoman was going to chop his head off with the curved blade of his own sword.
But all Adam could do was sit there and stare at the small shards of Power Sword still attached to the hilt.
Then, from somewhere behind Demoman, someone shouted, "Hey! Asshole!"
Demoman paused to turn.
"Remember me?"
Then was hit with a blast of violet magic.
Demoman went careening off the side of the jawbridge, just barely managing to snag the clawed nails of one hand on the wood before he could plummet down into the bottomless chasm.
Adam was still in a bit of a daze. He wasn't really sure who saved him. She was two pairs of boots, and one pair of Snakeman feet running towards him. Three people. His eyes were still kinda blurry. He was having trouble focusing.
"Get him on his feet." One of the trio commanded.
Blue hands hooked under his shoulders and hauled him up. Forcing Adam to stand.
He swayed on unsteady legs.
Someone's back was to him. Adam saw a long vest, a shade of purple so dark it was almost black, and a neon green mohawk. They raised their arm, holding a staff and Adam recognized the staff. A tall, slender pole, topped with the skull of a ram. The Havoc Staff! Skeletor's staff!
But Skeletor wasn't attacking him. His back was to Adam, and when he cast a spell is was not an attack it was- …a barrier spell. A shield went up in front of them. Protecting Skeletor and Adam, and Skeletor's companions from Moludok and the Unnamed One.
Disoriented, Adam looked at the person holding him.
He expected the blue hands to belong to Trap Jaw, Skeletor's lieutenant. But it wasn't an old Gar man with a face scarred green and a prosthetic jaw. It was a young Gar woman with a heart-shaped face, and a tri-lens visor covering her eyes.
The Snakeman with them wasn't Kobra Kahn, or General Rattlor, or King Hiss. It was a young Snakeman Adam didn't recognize. With a prosthetic jaw and bright red armor covering both his arms, but not much plating on his chest.
These weren't Skeletor's minions.
"We need to retreat!" Said Skeletor. Except it wasn't Skeletor's voice. It wasn't high, or screechy, and lacked the nasal quality that still haunted Adam's dreams. It was a young medium soprano. "Into the castle!"
"Can we enter the castle?" Asked the Snakeman.
"We'll know in a sec!" Replied the Gar woman.
Adam was dragged inside the maw of Castle Grayskull. And he blinked at every step, watching Skeletor put up new barrier after new barrier, layering the defenses until they were inside Castle Grayskull.
The portcullis slammed down after them and Skeletor finally turned around.
Adam saw that skull face with its dark and empty eye-sockets, that unchanging bone with its skeleton grin and he was overcome with rage. He did this! Skeletor did this!
Pulling out of the Gar woman's hold, he launched himself at Skeletor, swinging a punch so hard, he broke his own hand on Skeletor's lower mandible.
Adam stumbled and Skeletor fell backward, his skull flying off his head.
For a heartbeat that felt like an Eternity, Adam had no idea what just happened. What did he just do?
A curtain of snowy white hair erupted out from where the skull used to be and Skeletor fell backwards on his ass.
He groaned. One blue hand pushing the white hair out of the way. Revealing another face under the skull. A younger face. Too young to be Skeletor. He was just a kid! Oh, Goddess above! King Adam just punched a kid!
"What the hell, man!?" Snarled the not-Skeletor kid. "We came here to help you!"
Adam blinked, the adrenaline pumping out of him. He stared at the not-Skeletor kid, his brain feeling oddly sluggish, trying to catch up with the rest of him and process what he was seeing.
A kid, not Skeletor, dressed as Skeletor. With the blue skin and pointed ears of the Gar race, Skeletor's race, but with Evil-Lyn's Zalesian white hair. Not Skeletor. His son, Skeleteen. King Malkyn.
"You-" Adam felt inexplicably short of breath. Adam wanted to ask, 'you released this evil, why would you help me?' But he just did not have enough breath in his body for form the words. His whole body felt fatigued and it was all he could do to keep gulping in breaths of air and try and work some oxygen back into his system.
Teela appeared in the entrance way. "Adam, what- The sword-!"
"Teela!" Adam moved to place himself between the three interlopers and his wife.
Skeleteen seemed uninterested in attacking Teela, however. He was massaging the side of his face where Adam's punch had connected with enough force to launch his helmet off his head.
"Unbelievable." He muttered and turned to look for where his helmet had landed.
"We save your ass, and this is the thanks we get!" Snarled the Snakeman.
"You okay, Mal?" Asked the Gar woman.
In answer to that question, all Skeleteen did was spit out a mouthful of blood mingled with saliva and pick up his helmet. The lower mandible of the faux-skull was cracked on one side and only holding on by the seam on the opposite side.
"Help us?" Teela asked, confused. She was under the impression that Skeleteen was the one who freed the Unnamed One. After all, the Unnamed Dimension could only be opened with the blood of King Grayskull, and Adam sure as hell didn't open a vein and bring forth an ancient evil.
She watched Skeleteen gather all his hair back up and twist it into a knot before sliding his helmet back over his head. And when he lifted his arm, she saw a bandage just under the armor of his bracers. A bandage running the length of his forearm, from the base of his wrist all the way to the inside of his elbow. A bandage identical to the one Dare had.
Teela had a sudden epiphany, remembering what Dare told her. That his attackers tried to use his blood for something, and it didn't work. Because Dare isn't a descendant of Grayskull. When their attempt with Dare failed, the villains must have gone looking for another descendant of Grayskull and they found Skeleteen! Malkyn of the House of Keldor. It was the blood of Skeletor's heir that freed the Unnamed One, but not with the heir's consent!
To confirm this, she pushed past Adam and crossed the entrance way to King Malkyn. Without warning or preamble, she grabbed his arm and deftly unfastened the clasps holding the arm bracer in place. Seeing the bandage clearly and unobstructed, she could confirm. "It's the same as Dare's."
Malkyn yanked his arm out of her hold. "Do you fucking mind!"
"Don't yell at her!" Adam snarled, still ready to fight. Then Teela's words caught up with his ears and he focused on the bandage on the boy's arm. A bandage identical to the dressing they put over Dare's injury. When he was attacked in Eternos by cutthroats that wanted his blood…
It took Adam longer. His mind was still working sluggishly. But after a moment's pause, he came to the same conclusion as his wife.
King Malkyn did not summon the Unnamed One of his own volition. He was attacked and his blood stolen, same as Dare's.
King Malkyn came here to stop the monster that was released. King Malkyn came here to help them. King Malkyn was not their enemy.
Adam opened his mouth to apologize to the kid.
But he was cut off before any words could pass from his lips.
A loud BANG shook the entryway and all five of them turned to see the Unnamed One and his minions beating against the layered shields Malkyn had cast.
"Those won't hold forever." Malkyn announced.
"We need to come up with a plan. Now!" Adam agreed.
Teela asked, "Where's Dare?"
…