Cost of a Crown (Book 3)

Two Heirs

Chapter Eleven: Uneasy Allies

Dare stomped up to his room. Frustrated with his parents and wanting nothing more than to scream into a pillow, or punch a wall, or both. He threw open his bedroom door and stomped inside.

But when he slammed it shut behind him the whole Castle shook.

For one hot second, Dare thought he was so angry, and he slammed the door so hard he broke Castle Grayskull.

Then he realized that could not possibly be the case. He looked outside his window and saw the jawbridge was lowered, the chains that suspended it were broken and dangling over the chasm. Four warriors charged at the open maw of the Castle. Dare recognized three of them. Jitsu, Moludok and Demoman. His attackers from Eternos.

The fourth one he didn't know. They looked like a Trollan, like Orko. …If Orko were a sinister edgelord.

Were they attacking the Castle?

He-Man jumped down onto the jawbridge to confront them.

It was an attack!

Unconsciously, Dare's hand closed over his bandage on the opposite arm. These were the guys who attack him and cut him so bad he passed out. Now they were attacking his home and Dad- and King Adam had to protect him.

Somehow, Dare felt like this was his fault. And what was he doing? Watching helplessly from a castle window like some wilting-flower prince in distress who needed the noble warrior to rescue him.

He watched He-Man raise the Power Sword in the air and shout his words of power. The sky darkened, thunder rumbling between the clouds.

Lightning raked down from the sky, but the evil-looking Trollan was left unscathed.

Dare felt his shoulder's shake. He'd never seen He-Man in action before. Felt the power of his presence, of the aura of the Sword. When he called the lighting, Dare felt it send ripples in the aether. Washing over him like waves. Normally, Dare couldn't even feel the aether at all. He-Man was just that powerful.

And yet, He-Man didn't manage to damage the Unnamed One at all. Was the Trollan just that much more powerful than the 'Most Powerful Man in the Universe'?

Demoman rushed up to He-Man, swinging his scimitar. But using it more as a wand than a blade, casting a curse at He-Man.

Dare's heart leapt up into his throat when he saw He-Man raise his sword to block. He might be mad at King Adam at the moment, but that was still the only dad he'd ever known fighting down there. Dare didn't want his adopted father to get hurt. Or worse, killed!

Then the Unnamed One layered another spell onto Demoman's.

Ripples of power cascaded out from where the aura of the Power Sword collided with the enemy magics. It ruffled Dare's hair like a wind.

On his windowsill, Dare's hands balled into fists. He felt the inexplicable urge to run down there and help He-Man. But what could he do that He-Man couldn't? He wasn't He-Man. He wasn't the chosen one. Dare wasn't even a descendent of King Grayskull! What could he do?

Behind him, his bedroom door burst open.

Dare wheeled around, irrationally expecting more enemies to be coming at him.

He relaxed when he saw Raena and Kay-La barge in instead. Kay-La had her double-bladed staff in her hands, and Raena was wearing her full Fork Lift armor, sans the helmet which she carried under one arm.

"Good, you haven't done anything stupid." Raena sighed, as if in relief. Did she expect him to jump out his window to help He-Man?

Dare opened his mouth to reply but was cut off when a they were all knocked over by an invisible force. Some violent shockwave through Eternia's aether. It knocked Raena against his wall, her Fork Lift armor making an uncomfortable scraping sound against the stone. Kay-La collapsed to her knees in the doorway, holding onto the frame for balance. And Dare found himself fallen forward on all fours, nose almost to the floor.

He pushed himself back to his feet and ran to his window, leaning almost all the way out of the frame to see what had happened.

At first, Dare had no idea what he was looking at. He-Man had reverted back to King Adam for some reason, and King Adam was just sitting that on his ass, staring at… Dare squinted to try and see better. Was that-? That couldn't be-? It looked like a broken piece of metal, but he was holding it by a handle. Almost like a hilt. Like the-

"The Power Sword!" Dare exclaimed in horror! The Power Sword was broken! That was why He-Man reverted back to King Adam.

And now King Adam was defenseless!

Dare watched in horror as Demoman and Modulok advanced on Adam.

He wanted to help somehow. To protect the man who raised him. Dare wanted to do something stupid. To launch himself from his window and place his body between King Adam and the enemy bent on killing him. But- Dare didn't. He hesitated. He wasn't a descendant of Grayskull. He wasn't a hero. He wasn't even good enough to use as fodder in the villains' evil machinations. What could he do?

All Dare could do was watch in horror. And then-

"Hey! Asshole!"

Dare's heart leapt up into his chest when he saw Skeleteen appear on the jawbridge. Dare had never seen Skeleteen before. When he met Mal, Keris, and Danger at the beach, they all seemed nice -if a little standoffish- and they liked their King. So, Dare assumed Skeleteen was a King worth liking. Dare assumed he was nice. But then he was told that Skeleteen was the one who freed the Unnamed, and -look!- here he was helping the Unnamed One's attack and calling King Adam an asshole!

"Remember me?" But it wasn't King Adam Skeleteen shot at with his Havoc Staff. It was Demoman.

Blinking in astonishment, Dare watched Demoman fly over the side of the jawbridge, and Skeleteen lay down cover while Keris and Danger picked Adam up and dragged him back inside the Castle.

"I need to get down there!" Dare pushed away from his windowsill.

Raena blocked him from leaving the room. "You're not going down there to fight!" She told him. "The Queen ordered us to protect you."

"So protect me while I go down there." Dare snapped at her. "But I'm going to make sure my- that King Adam is okay!"

Ducking under Raena's mecha arm, Dare darted out of his room, passing by Kay-La who didn't put up any fight at all. He sprinted down the corridor to the stairs, taking the steps two at a time to get down the entry way as fast as he could.

Raena growled something incomprehensible under her breath and slid her Fork Lift helmet over her head. She grabbed Kay-La by the hand and pulled her along as they followed Dare.

He was already at the entry way when all three of them stopped short. Seeing Skeleteen and two of his lieutenants inside Castle Grayskull.

Raena and Kay-La recognized Danger and Keris. Keris might be wearing a tri-lens visor over her eyes like the original Tri-Klops, but they saw the scar under it. They knew she was blind and why she needed it. And Danger, it was hard to forget a yellow-scaled Snakeman with prosthetic jaw. Skeleteen, however, they had never seen before.

He looked like pictures they'd seen of the original Skeletor. Toned muscle and jewel-tone blue skin. Wearing heavy boots with a skull motif, an armored loincloth, a leather harness also with the same bone motif, and a bare-bone skull for a head. The only differences seemed to be that Skeleteen wore a long vest instead of a cape, and his skull had a neon green mohawk growing out of it. He looked every bit the villain he was made out to be.

Acting quickly, Raena grabbed Dare and threw him behind her, placing herself and her mecha-armored body between the Prince and Skeletor's heir. "Look out everyone! Skeleteen's in the castle!"

Skeleteen's skull turned to her. The bone of the face was immobile and unchanging. There was no expression to read. But Raena got the distinct impression that he was glaring at her. "You will refer to me as 'King Malkyn'."

If an argument was going to start over his name, it didn't get the chance to begin. Another loud, resounding BANG! startled them all back to the more pressing matter at hand. The quartette of powerful enemies at the gate, trying to break through the magical barriers keeping them out.

"Skeletor spent years trying to break into Castle Grayskull." Announced Kay-La, sounding oddly unsure of herself.

"Yeah, and now Skeletor's heir is inside, like he always wanted." Raena conformed, still keeping herself between Dare and the Evil Warriors.

"What I meant was, these new bad guys can't get in, right." Kay-La finished. "I mean, if Skeletor couldn't get in, and he was He-Man's greatest enemy…" She trailed off, unsure of her own statement.

Unconsciously, Adam looked down at the hilt of the Power Sword. Just a few shards of the blade still attacked. He used to think Skeletor was his greatest enemy. But Skeletor never broke the Power Sword before. As bad as Skeletor was, this Unnamed One was worse!

"What did you used to do?" Raena asked. "Back when it was Skeletor laying siege to the castle. How did you repel his sieges?"

Again, Adam looked down at the broken Power Sword. He always used to transform into He-Man and physically beat Skeletor back. But now… without the Power Sword… They needed to find another way, and Adam wasn't sure how to do that. He relied on He-Man so much, more than half his life by this point, he didn't really know how to do anything else. How did the Masters without magical swords that tapped the power of creation even manage to be Masters?

"Normal siege tactics won't work." King Malkyn shook his head. "The way to win a siege is to wait out the enemy. Either starve out the enemy inside the castle, or else make the army outside suffer so much that the gain wouldn't be worth the cost. That doesn't apply here since they're already five minutes from breaching the outer defenses."

Teela crossed her arms over her chest, looking mildly annoyed by this teenager who was young enough to be her son and did not have her years of experience. She used to be Captain of the Eternos guard! Did he think she didn't know how sieges worked? "Did you just explain siege tactics to me?"

"Well, actually, I thought I was explaining them to Prince Dare." Malkyn put an odd emphasis on his 'well, actually', as if he was aware that she was trying to call him an asshole.

Dare finally succeeded in pushing out from behind Raena and the mecha bulk of her armor. "What happens when the enemy win's the siege and breaks into the castle?"

Both Teela and Adam clenched their jaws and exchanged a look, their expressions grim. They did not answer their son's question.

But Malkyn did. "A massacre." He said flatly. "If it were my father, he'd take the Sorceress as a hostage and kill everyone else who wasn't useful to him."

"Your father." Raena echoed. "Not you?"

"T'ch." Malkyn gave a dismissive scoff. "Nobody is 'not useful' to me. I play the long games."

Nobody was sure what to do with that statement. But they didn't really have a chance to figure it out. There was another BANG! against the magical barriers, this time punctuated by a soft crackle. Fractures forming in the barriers. They didn't have much time to stand around dithering with each other.

Teela looked at Adam, assessing him. He was himself, no longer transformed into He-Man, the Power Sword was gone, and one of Adam's hands was turning black and blue from colliding with King Malkyn's helmet. Adam probably didn't notice it yet because everything was happening so fast, but he had only one hand and no power.

They couldn't beat the enemy back as they were right now.

Pursing her lips, Teela came to a decision.

"You need to retreat." She told them.

"Good idea." Adam nodded. "You kids get out of here. Teela and I will hold them off while you escape. Gather the rest of the Masters and come back. We'll defeat the Unnamed together!"

"No, Adam," Teela shook her head, "you need to retreat too."

Adam blinked at her, taken aback. It didn't occur to him that she was telling him to retreat. "Teela, no. I have to stay here and protect the power-"

"No. I have to stay here and protect the power." She cut him off. "You are free to travel the world as you please. Or, in this case, escape to recover and come back."

"That's not how I do things!" Adam argued, suddenly speaking unnecessarily loud. Almost shouting. "I don't abandon my teammates and I especially won't abandon my wife!"

He changed the capital city for the whole planet so that they could be together. Did she really think he could just leave her behind with enemies at her gate?

"Does anyone want to hear what I have to say?" King Malkyn cut in.

Five different voices all snapped a loud "No!" in perfect unison.

Queen Teela, King Adam, Dare, Raena, and Kay-La, all at the same time. None of them wanted to know what kind of deranged idea Skeletor's heir had. He was Skeletor's heir! His idea probably involved He-Man and the Unnamed somehow killing each other so that King Malkyn could waltz down into the depths of Castle Grayskull and steal the power for himself! Just like Skeletor always wanted.

King Malkyn slumped his shoulders and for one fraction of a second looked like a chastised child. Then he took a breath, drew his shoulders back up, lifted his chin, and banged his Havoc Staff on the ground. The sound of the magical staff echoed oddly in the Castle Grayskull entrance way.

"Well, too damn bad!" He snapped. "I am a King and you will listen to me!" He pointed the staff at Adam. "You're old. Past your prime, slower to react, and set in your way of thinking. And! You just lost your Power Sword. You're dead weight, King Adam. You can't do anything right now." He moved the staff to point at Teela instead. "But she can. The power under this castle can only be accessed by the blood of a descendent of Grayskull, or the one who controls Castle Grayskull. That's me, you, Prince Dare, and Sorceress Teela."

Standing behind King Malkyn, Dare fidgeted. He was not a descendent of Grayskull, he should not be on that list. But that wasn't something to bring up at the moment.

"The Unnamed doesn't need us to be alive to use our blood." Malkyn continued. "He just needs our blood to be warm. But Sorceress Teela he would need to keep alive. He would need her to grant him access if none of us are around to juice."

Teela nodded, understanding what Malkyn was saying and agreeing with it. "If all of you escape, I can buy you time. The Unnamed might get inside the Castle, but he won't get the power without my permission. I can stall him."

Adam jabbed the broken end of the Power Sword at Malkyn. "You, shut up! You're just a dumb kid playing at being King! You don't know anything! I'm not leaving my wife!"

Teela placed her hand on his shoulder. "Adam, Castle Grayskull and the power it protects is at stake, you can't think of me as your wife right now. You have think like the guardian of the Power Sword, and think of me as the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull. What King Malkyn said is true. The Unnamed can't tap the power unless I open the forge for him. …Unless you're here for him to cut open and use your blood to open it instead. You have to leave."

This time when Jitsu and Moludok threw themselves against Malkyn's barriers, along with the loud BANG! was also the unnerving SHK of a fracture forming on the magical shield. The enemy was close to getting in. Whatever they were going to decide, they had to decide now.

"How do any of you plan to get us out of here when the only exit is currently under attack?" Raena cut in.

"Teleportation spell." Both Teela and Malkyn answered at the same time, with almost the same inflection in their voices too. They were both sorcerers. Come one. How did they even think King Malkyn and his two lieutenants got to Castle Grayskull so fast in the first place?

"Everyone, stand close together!" Commanded King Malkyn.

Adam didn't move. He grabbed Teela's hand with his injured one and wondered why it hurt so much when he tried to move his fingers.

"You want me to knock him out for you?" Malkyn offered.

With a sigh, Teela stood up on the tips of her toes and pressed a gentle kiss to the side of his face. Adam was not going to leave Castle Grayskull, and leave her, willingly. But she didn't need him to be knocked unconscious. There were other ways to trick Adam into leaving the Castle.

"Okay, Adam," she said, "I'll figure something out." Then to the rest of the younger people in the entryway she said, "The rest of you need to leave now!"

Teela raised her staff.

Malkyn raised the Havoc Staff.

Dare, Raena, Kay-La, Danger Noodle, Keris, and Malkyn were all enveloped in the light of their combined magic.

The light swelled, becoming brighter. Then the magic shuddered, as if it were unsure. Like the power was receiving two commands and it didn't know which to follow. Then there was a sudden jolt and a flash.

Adam and Teela blinked. When their vision cleared, the kids were gone.

"Do teleportation spells usually do that?" Adam asked.

Teela shook her head. "No. King Malkyn and I must have been trying to send everyone to two different locations."

"So, how do we know where Dare ended up?" Adam trembled slightly. Dare was already in a bad place emotionally. Adam didn't like the idea of his son dropping into some unfamiliar place when he was already distraught and hysterical for personal reasons. That, and Adam's hand was hurting for some reason, like he'd broken it, and Adam could not figure out why.

Before Teela could answer him that she didn't know how they were going to find Dare, the magical barriers protecting the maw finally broke. Teela grabbed Adam's wrist, carful not to squeeze his injured hand, and dragged him deeper into the Castle.

"We don't have time right now!" She announced. "We taught Dare the best we can, we have to trust him to take care of himself. We have other things to worry about now!"

Pulling Adam along, Teela led him down the stairs leading into the off-limits parts of the Castle. The forbidden sections that housed the darker vaults of Grayskull. The 'treasure' room where they kept Marzo's amulet. The armory of weapons from fallen heroes and villains. A menagerie of monsters.

Finally, Teela stopped at one specific door. The door she was looking for. The door she was going to use to get Adam out of the Castle before the Unnamed One could get a hold of him and his warm blood.

"In here!" Teela held the door open for him.

Without thinking, just trusting Teela, not recognizing what door it was, Adam sprinted through, expecting his wife to follow him for whatever plan she was about to explain.

Adam didn't realize he'd been had until he heard the door slam shut behind him without Teela following him through.

He turned around, intending to wrench the door back open and demand an explanation, but the door disappeared the moment it was shut. Adam found himself banging against a wall of solid rock.

Rock. Not stone or brick. Rough, course rock, like the wall of a cave.

It was also a lot warmer than it had been in Castle Grayskull. Turning in a big circle, Adam did a quick study of his surroundings. Rock walls and a rock ceiling. With stalactites hanging down, and stalagmites growing up from the floor, and rivers of hot lava running between them. Was he in a volcano?

Adam took a few steps, exploring wherever it was his wife had sent him. He rounded a corner and froze.

Adam knew where he was now.

Adam knew what door she shoved him through.

There were a number of portals in the doors under Castle Grayskull. Adam never imagined Teela using the door that was a portal to Snake Mountain!

…