FOUR
Duncan cursed the volcanic heat and the rocky trails that hid, to his mind, an ambush around every bend. It had been a long time since he had worn his full Eternian armor and complete tech pack. The hand blaster that covered his left arm up to his elbow seemed to have gained twenty pounds over the last few days. He had designed it himself, having been an inventor before he had the responsibility of all Randor's defense. He still carried the tech-mace he had carried into battle for nearly twenty years. Also his design, the mace added an electrical jolt to each blow that made his strikes feel like lightning bolts.
Snake Mountain was still a day away. The trip had been as uneventful as he could have hoped. Since coming into the mountains, they had seen signs of troglodyte tribes and even troglodyte scouts in the distance, but with an armed escort that had grown to ten men counting the King and Duncan himself, the troglodytes were happier hunting their standard fare. Unless, Duncan thought, they were preparing something. He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't help feeling that he was the only one who did think about it.
He looked back at Adam. He had grown into a brave warrior. Even though they had met no enemies and he knew the others would protect him with their life, he never complained about wearing the hot breastplate and greaves at all hours, even while he slept. With no heir, Randor would fall into chaos if something happened to their cherished King.
Adam looked up from sharpening the war ax he had brought with him. The Sword of Power was not to be used to kill, so Adam had never trained with the sword to kill. Even though the Sword of Power was locked away in Grayskull, and Adam thought he would never use it again, Duncan had explained to him that learning to use one sword one way and a different sword another way would slow him down in a fight. So he used an ax. He doubted any of the soldiers would let him get close enough to use the ax anyway.
The Sorceress and Teela sat under a tent for shade, whispering something to each other privately. They had been doing a lot of that since the trip started. Adam had never had the moment he needed to speak with Teela.
One of Duncan's soldiers jogged down the path to meet him. He was too young to feel the heat that Duncan was feeling. "Everything looks clear. There's nothing we haven't seen before. Some troglodyte tracks. Nothing else."
"Good. Go tell the King yourself. Let him know we'll be leaving in five minutes." The soldier jogged over to Adam with boundless energy. Duncan was jealous. He adjusted his armor for the fourth time that hour.
The Sorceress and Teela seemed to be able to stop whatever they were talking about and pick up again at any time. Teela folded their tent and added it to the pack she was carrying. She had insisted on carrying all of her and the Sorceress' belongings. In fact, she looked less tired than anyone else doing it. It made her father smile proudly to see his daughter had grown so strong despite the weaknesses he saw in relying on magic everyday.
The group marched deeper and ever higher into the craggy mountains surrounding Snake Mountain. Here, the weather alternated between baking travelers and freezing them. There never seemed to be a respite from one extreme to another. It was a harsh land, and they all knew that straying from the one path through the mountains would lead them to immediate danger.
Rounding a bend, they were watched by an eye that had seen no enemies in over a decade, and rarely before that. It had a simple mind and knew only one response to intruders to its realm. With a heave of power, the creature pushed itself away from the rock wall and came alive.
Duncan blinked his eyes. At first it seemed that the wall of the mountain had moved. His confusion lasted only a moment. He still didn't know what it was, but he knew he had to stop it. "Surround the King! Surround the Sorceress!" he commanded.
The creature moved forward. It was made of rock, pieces that fit together with no sense of symmetry. The rock had a hand that could grab, but no fingers and no feet to speak of, just the flat base at the end of stubby rock legs. On the mound that made up its head rested the creature's only real feature—a red ruby that shined with the light of the powerful magic that animated it. It towered over the men with their sharp sticks, nearly twice their height.
"It's a rock golem," the Sorceress warned them. "It will be impenetrable to most of your weapons."
A guardsman flung his spear, testing the monster's hide anyway. Predictably, the spear merely glanced off the surface of the golem's rock skin. The guardsman drew a tech-club from his belt, undaunted. Duncan looked on in horror as the golem seemed to roll forward and sweep his arm around. It struck the guardsman with such force that the sickening thud left no doubts as to the man's fate.
Far removed from the battle on Snake Mountain, Skeletor was pouring over a spell that he hoped would give him access to Castle Grayskull. Whiplash had reported that some sort of energy field had been left over the castle, defending it even in the Sorceress' absence. Skeletor was sure he could get through it, but it had to be before she got back to Grayskull and before she knew of his escape from Limbo. Skeletor did not know where she had gone, only that she was gone. There was no one defending Castle Grayskull.
His thoughts were interrupted by Lyn, storming into the room in a way that she would never normally do.
"What is it?" Skeletor hissed.
"The Sorceress. We've found her." Lyn reached into the folds of her cloak and pulled out a wand with a fist-sized crystal globe at its top. The globe came to life under Lyn's free hand. "There."
They could see what the golem saw. Skeletor watched his rock golem crush the life from a young guardsman. He saw the Sorceress and the warrior woman he recognized as Teela with her. He saw Man-at-Arms, who he knew now ran the armies he would be up against. But he gasped with fear, suddenly thinking that all his plans had been for nothing, when he laid his eyes on King Adam.
"He-Man," he spat.
"No, Overlord. It is only Adam, King of Randor. The celestial energy is no longer his to command. You see, he has no Sword of Power," Lyn assured him.
Skeletor looked more closely. "Ah, yes." His ghastly face twisted into a smile. "Still, the Sorceress is there. She must not know I have returned. Not yet. There will be time for that soon enough."
With a wave of his hand, Skeletor reached across the gap and released the energy from the golem's crystal.
Duncan rushed to fill the gap that his dead soldier had left behind. "Sorceress," he yelled over the golem's grumbling roar, "this is a creature of magic. We need you."
The Sorceress' head lowered. "I have no power to spare Duncan. I cannot help us, even though it cost all our lives."
The golem raised its arm to squash Duncan the way it had squashed the other human. From the corner of its eye, it saw another small man rush forward and strike at its massive leg stalk with an ax. The blow was a mighty one. The ax shattered. The rock chipped. The golem turned to crush this human first.
Then, as quickly as it had ignited, the rock golem's energy dispersed. It collapsed in a pile of rubble.
Adam held the handle of his ax, now useless.
"You did it!" Duncan slapped him on the back encouragingly. "Who needs He-Man?" he joked.
"I'm afraid not." Teela's lithe body stood beside them before they realized it. "The golem lost power. It should have lost it long ago when Skeletor was banished. Your blow was impressive," she looked at Adam, "but it didn't hurt the golem." Adam's eyes fell to the ground. He had made decisions that had changed the lives of thousands of people, but he could not face Teela.
"Teela is right," the Sorceress came to stand by her. "We were very lucky to have lost only one."
Duncan and Adam nodded, their eyes falling on the victim of the golem's attack. Duncan looked up to assess his remaining men. They were shaken, but still professional, already eyeing the path for more enemies. "Bury this man," he said. He was the first to start digging.
The next day, the party could see Snake Mountain looming above them. It was a tall peak, but not the highest in the forbidding mountain range. Its rock was black obsidian with molten fire frequently streaming down its sides. At the summit was an enormous snake's head, carved their ages ago by the snake men as a tribute to themselves. The ancient home of the snake men had been gutted after the war with Skeletor. Adam had been determined not to let the place became a nest for more evil.
He looked over at Duncan, who was also eyeing the mountain warily. His old mentor's words the night before had been harsh.
"Adam, what you did this afternoon was very brave," he had started, "but also very stupid."
Adam balked, "I'm not a boy anymore, Man-at-arms. You trained me yourself. Eventually the golem would have broken through and attacked anyway."
"Maybe. But we might have given you time to escape."
"I would never have ran away!"
Duncan interrupted him. "You are no boy, Adam--you're right about that. You are the King. And you had better remember that. I won't be giving you another weapon. I wouldn't want you to be tempted to fight again should the situation arise."
Duncan then walked away without another word. Adam knew that unless he wanted to pull rank painfully on his old friend, he would have to live with the decision.
Duncan brought the group to a halt at the foot of a long stretch of stairs that lead into the evil fortress. Adam had last been here as He-Man. In fact, he had never been here without the Sword of Power.
"We stop here for the night," Duncan called from the front. "This place is still dangerous. We won't be climbing it until tomorrow when we have a whole day to get in and out. I wouldn't want to be caught up there in the dark." The guardsmen nodded their agreement enthusiastically.
Adam glanced over at Teela, already setting up her tent. He had to speak to her tonight, or not at all. He helped the guardsmen set up the campsite first. He lit the fire while a small group found some more dry wood. Duncan unloaded a dried meat from the provisions and started preparing it.
Adam watched Teela leave the Sorceress in her tent to gather some water. She brought a small pot over to the fire and set it their for the water to boil. She crouched wordlessly next to the fire, waiting for the water to heat and pulling leaves from a pouch at her waist that she would use to mix a potent tea that the Sorceress loved. She paid no attention to Adam. They had spoken only when necessary since their conversation in the palace gardens. He cursed himself for being so timid. He cursed Teela for being so oblivious to him. His fear turned to anger. It spurred him to action.
He reached over and placed a warm hand over Teela's soft wrist. "I have to talk to you," he choked.
She looked at him. He saw for the first time, pain cross over the smooth features of her face. "I won't let you dump all of your concerns on me, Adam. I know you're afraid that I'm not ready. I'm afraid that I'm not ready, but the Sorceress believes in me and this has to be done. I won't listen to anymore arguments about it. I've already made them all to myself anyway." She prematurely threw a leaf into the pot.
Somehow encouraged by her misunderstanding, Adam found the voice to tell her the truth. "Teela, that's not it. I don't worry about you becoming the Sorceress. I know you can do it. When you first left, I knew. But secretly, I wished that you would fail."
Teela gasped. "Why?"
"Because I don't want to lose you."
Teela's eyes watered. "Adam, I will always be there for you. You'll know how to fine me. I won't shut out the world. The Sorceress admitted that she made a mistake when she did that."
Adam sighed. "Teela, you don't understand. How could you? I've always been so reserved. It always seemed like the wrong time—now seems like the wrong time." Adam leaned closer to Teela so that he could be sure no one else heard him. "I don't want to have to visit you when I want to talk. These last few years have been torturous. I want you by my side forever, as Queen." He couldn't believe he had said the words. He watched her eyes go wide. He knew he had shocked her, terrified her even. He couldn't stay. He stood up quickly and walked back down the path the way they had come.
Duncan hadn't seen the exchange, but he did see Adam leaving. He pointed to a guardsman, an understood order that he was to follow his King. Duncan's real worry was his daughter though. He hadn't seen her cry since she was a baby. Now, he couldn't believe his eyes. She brushed away tears, unaccustomed to them. Embarrassed, but without control, she buried her head in her hands and wept.
Duncan had the sense not to embarrass his daughter further by intruding on her now. She would tell him what had happened when she was ready to.
The Sorceress watched her apprentice sob knowingly. How could I have been so blind? she thought. She had cried those same tears once before.
Adam didn't wander far, and he came back after just an hour. Teela was sealed up in her tent with the Sorceress. He could hear them whispering, but couldn't make out any words. It was probably for the better, he told himself. It was best not to know what kind of fool they thought he was. Duncan looked at him curiously, caught Adam straining to hear inside the tent, and that was when he knew everything.
Without realizing it, he had cursed Adam to his own fate—to love a Sorceress of Grayskull. He looked away from his King. The idea was too big for him.
It was under this pall of desperate concern for each other that the companions set out the next day. Teela and the Sorceress had talked long into the night. Their only real decision had been to continue on their quest and return to Castle Grayskull. The Sorceress would retain her position forever if she had to, but Teela felt it was unfair, more unfair than the card that life had just dealt her. The Sorceress had performed her duty. Besides, she longed to see her father happy. He was so lonely.
In this mindset, the group climbed the steps leading to Snake Mountain's hidden entrance. Duncan had found the secret passage years ago while Skeletor had still ruled the mountain. In this way, he had snuck into Snake Mountain and taken Skeletor's remaining forces with minimal bloodshed.
Before noon, they had reached the beginning of the new trail, taking them away from the long steps and into the bowels of the ancient fortress. At the end of the trail was a clearing, guarded at one point by Skeletor's minions, long gone now. Behind an overgrowth of trees was the entrance to the cave that Duncan was looking for. He shined a beam of light from his tech pack into the black tunnel, surprised at how well he remembered the secret passage. The group followed him in, silently. They knew that Snake Mountain was not completely empty.
The passage narrowed and widened unexpectedly—sometimes large enough for a horse—sometimes so small that the heroes had to crouch down and crawl through, scraping the sides of the cave. It seemed like hours, but it took them less than one to clear the cave. Soon, they were standing in the polished halls of Snake Mountain.
It had been said that the inside of Snake Mountain had been carved to give its visitors the impression of being passed through the belly of a snake. It was a thought that none of the group appreciated now. The walls were smooth and slick with moisture. The only natural light streamed in from far above them, where the snake mouth silently hissed endlessly.
Duncan turned to face the Sorceress. "We are here. Where do we go now?"
"Deeper, Man-at-Arms. We must go as deep into Snake Mountain as we have ever gone before. We will travel into a place where even Skeletor feared to go, beyond his own infernal laboratories."
Duncan wasted no time in argument. He lead the march into bowels of Snake Mountain. At intervals, they found torches that could still be lit hanging on the wall. Duncan took them down and passed them out until everyone had one.
They walked for another hour before they found the trap door, now thrown open, that lead to Skeletor's private rooms. None of them had been even this far before. Duncan had simply thrown a blast-bomb into this pit when Adam had ordered that Snake Mountain be gutted. He regretted that decision. He no longer had any idea what to expect, and Snake Mountain had been far too quiet up to this point. They could all feel it in the air—something watching them, whispering, brushing lightly against their bare skin.
One guardsman was left behind to stand watch. Duncan lead the way down the stairs. "Slippery," he whispered. Indeed, they felt as slick as a snake's skin. He cursed himself for the thought.
At the bottom was a large room with charred walls. Duncan couldn't tell whether it was the result of Skeletor's magic or his own bomb. At the room's center stood a still pool of water in a stone well. Along the walls were Skeletor's books and scrolls lined chaotically on shelves. Maps and weapons hung from the walls or had fallen to the ground below their assigned spot. The body of something that had once been humanoid lay on a table next to several painful looking instruments.
"Touch nothing," the Sorceress warned. "Let me pass."
Duncan ordered his men to fan out around the room, but to take the Sorceress' orders seriously. Nothing should be disturbed.
The Sorceress, now wearing the falcon mantle of her station, strode into the room confidently. She circled the well twice. She came to the edge of the pool of water and stared into its fathomless depths. "I have saved my power for this. Afterwards, you may only be able rely on Teela. I will be useless to you until we return to Castle Grayskull and I bathe in its energies again." With that, her arms came up, falcon's wings falling from her wrist.
There was no rush of power, clap of thunder, or glowing light to accompany the Sorceress' spell. There was only the swirl of the water as it retreated deep into the well. The Sorceress did not move. "Go," she told them.
Duncan peered over the edge of the well, not surprised to see another stair case leading into its depths. He jumped in, then looked at the Sorceress. She had not moved, and a look of pain crossed her face.
"Sorceress, what is it?" he asked.
"The water is alive. I must fight it until you return. Go. Hurry," she said breathlessly.
Without another word, Duncan raced down the stairs, Teela and Adam behind him. The Sorceress told the guardsmen to stay in the laboratory. This task was for Teela and the people closest to her to undertake alone.
Below Skeletor's lair was a cavern thick with air that had stagnated there for thousands of years. Duncan choked noisily, embarrassed.
"I can sense it now," Teela told him. "It's just a little bit farther." She lead the way deeper into the cavern.
The mist seemed to cling to Adam as he rushed after Teela. At the last minute he had convinced a guard to give him an tech-club in case they ran into trouble down here. He didn't honestly see how anything could live in this putrid environment.
The small group pushed through the mist, deeper into the cavern. Duncan turned off his light beam to reserve power as the mist began to let off a pinkish glow of its own. Teela now lead the way.
She was the first to feel the change in the floor. The solid rock gave way to a creepy, pulsing softness. Teela just nodded at the two men, letting them know that she was aware of the change and that there was nothing to fear yet.
Finally, they came to a set of barred gates, made of a metal none of them could recognize. Duncan examined them and noted that they were locked and probably enchanted. Teela pushed past him, striking the gates and uttering a word of power that sent them flying open. The men said nothing. Their environment defied emotion. Everything around them was dead in the death of a thousand years without interaction.
The mist did not penetrate beyond the gates. The floor was stone again, giant blocks of yellow stone. Teela spat a word of command, lighting globes along the wall. Adam and Duncan drew their weapons. Before them sat, curled, a creature out of their darkest nightmares. It was a snake the size of a castle, with wings like the sails of a great ship. Its eyes shown with malevolent cruelty while its teeth dripped with venom, hissing when it fell to the ground.
"This is the snake god of the mountain," Teela told them. "The Sorceress told me that the mountain was probably originally built as a temple to this creature."
"What do we do about it?" Duncan asked.
Teela walked towards the giant beast. "Great one, I am Teela, an apprentice to the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull. We have come for the serpent staff. It is needed to guard the celestial fortress and its Chamber of Secrets."
The snake hissed and lowered its head slightly. "Humans. How did you pass by my worshippers?"
Teela was taken aback at first. The giant snake must know that its worshippers had long been dead. "Mighty one, your servants have not inhabited Snake Mountain for many hundred years."
The snake's wings fluttered violently, stirring up the century's dust from the floor and nearly blinding Teela. "The humans won? The humans won!" Its voice never went above a whispery hiss, but it shook the walls of the ancient room. "I warned them, destroy Castle Grayskull and its protectors. Destroy the warm bloods or they will destroy you."
"Those wars are ancient history," Teela reminded him. "The ancestors of the snake men are troglodytes. You would not recognize them. They are the physical and mental equivalent of a snake-man child."
More venom dripped from the mouth of the serpent. Its head lowered slowly, nearly at Teela's level now. It stared into her eyes. Teela felt the serpent in her mind, probing, trying to win control. She would soon be the new Sorceress. The serpent would not be able to control her mind. She fought it off, but gave it the information it wanted. The serpent, ancient beyond even the understanding of Teela, took the nook she had provided for it. It stretched her mind, learning in seconds everything Teela had learned in a lifetime. Satisfied, the creature lifted its head and scanned the room, eyeing the two men who had entered with the brave girl.
"You seek the serpent staff. You are wise to covet its power. You will be the greatest Sorceress the world has ever known once you wield its power. That staff was forged long ago. Its creators would balk to here it used to defend the prize they sought to gain. They are long dead, as you have told me."
The serpent's powerful muscles pushed its great body up to greater heights, uncurling. Its head now swayed over the three adventurers. They tensed for the inevitable strike that never came.
"You may have the staff young one, but there must be a sacrifice for every bit of power gained in the world. Surely your master told you that."
"What do you want?" Teela shouted defiantly.
"I want a life. Choose. Will it be the father who raised you or the man you love?"
Adam heard the words, looked at Teela. Their eyes met and both immediately understood the others pain. It was no revelation to Duncan, and he had faced evil on too many occasions to be surprised by it now. His arm cannon fired, ripping open a man-sized hole in the serpent's side. He had one more shot like that and was loading it when he heard Adam yell in horror. His eyes found the hole he had made in the serpent, where now hundreds of snakes poured from the wound, dripping venom and shooting across the floor at their master's attackers.
Adam's tech-club was all but useless against the agile creatures. He swatted one, only to be bitten by another. He felt the fever of the poison almost immediately. The snakes recognized his infection and left him to die, focusing their attacks on the man with the blaster now.
Duncan reached into his belt and pulled out a blast-bomb. He had to throw it far enough away so that he wouldn't incinerate the three of them along with the snakes. He threw—experience prevailed.
The snakes erupted in fire. Their scales scorched the ancient stone ground. The serpent god felt each of their deaths a hundred times over. Snakes cannot wail, but this giant serpent smashed its own head into the rock in an attempt to stifle its pain.
Teela did not wait another second. Duncan watched her run in a supernatural blur to the altar he hadn't even seen behind the giant snake. There was the staff. He could see it clearly for the instant before it became part of the blur that was his daughter. Teela was beside him again when the giant snake recovered and set itself to strike the human invaders with its own venom.
"No," Teela screamed, covering the men with her body and brandishing the staff before her. The staff was as long as a man, wood wrapped in serpent's skin. It was topped with a serpent's head carved from a strange translucent rock of an amber color. The eyes of the staff glowed a fiery red as it protected its bearer. "I have the staff. Let us pass."
The serpent's wings unfurled again. It hissed loud and long, then began thrashing its enormous bulk against the walls of the room.
"It cannot directly attack us," Teela told her father, "so it will bury us with it."
"Then we have to get out of here. Adam's barely breathing."
Teela lowered the staff's head to Adam's bite. The wound disappeared. "Well, Adam is now immune to all snake poisons," Teela said wryly. "Now, get him up. We have to run."
Adam was on his feet, but not fast enough. The snake god was ignoring them now, content to pull the whole place down around itself. Teela felt a rush of power enter her again. She easily lifted Adam with one arm and gripped the staff in the other. Her body became a blur again as she rushed out into the caverns, her father struggling to keep up. They were deep into the mists again when they heard the ancient room finally shudder and collapse behind them.
"So, that was the Sorceress' great discovery. She controls external magic forces while I control them internally. That's why I was able to run like that and carry you so easily. Yet despite all the training the Sorceress put me through, I could barely light a fire with my magic." Duncan and Adam stared at Teela in rapt attention. "With the serpent staff I will be able to focus those external energies the same way the Sorceress does. That will allow me to harness and control the power of Castle Grayskull so that I can protect it until the next Sorceress is chosen."
"Well," Duncan said proudly, "you certainly surprised me back there. I thought we were all fighting our last battle."
Teela smiled, basking in her father's pride. Then she looked at Adam and said softly, "I guess we have a lot to talk about."
"Yeah," Adam agreed.
"You both should talk the first chance you get, but this isn't the time," Duncan interrupted. "First, we have to get out of Snake Mountain before sunset." They nodded. The group had already climbed out of Skeletor's laboratory. The Sorceress had been surprised to hear about the giant winged snake she had thought was long dead. She was visibly weak from her battle against the living waters of the well. She needed rest and time to restore her energy. For her, too, this wasn't the time. The group began the march out of the mountain, following the path they had taken to get in.
They reached the spot where they had entered Snake Mountain through the secret passage, but Duncan discovered that it had collapsed. "Maybe it was the giant snake's work?" Adam guessed.
"No," the Sorceress corrected. "We didn't even feel what that serpent was doing from Skeletor's laboratory. The shockwaves couldn't have reverberated this far above his lair. There's something else here. I can just sense it, avoiding my sight."
Skeletor smiled from his new room in Ram-Man's fort at the gates of Castle Grayskull. He watched everything from Lyn's crystal ball staff. Now was the time. With a whispered word that echoed louder and louder in the halls of magic, he commanded his minions from across the leagues of Eternia that separated Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain. Three rock golems rose to do his bidding.
The group inside Snake Mountain watched in stunned silence as the rock around them began to move. Again, Duncan was the first to move. "Run! Up the stairs! Run!" They jumped at his command. Adam lead the way. Teela carried the Sorceress easily, bounding up the broken stairs. Duncan and two guardsmen stayed behind to block the passage. Another guardsman lost his life before they had time to turn and run as well.
The golems rolled up the stairs, the massive bodies crumbling and reforming as they moved. The adventurers slowly outdistanced them. "Start looking for an exit," Duncan hollered ahead of himself.
Teela's quick eyes examined the halls and doors that met the stairs they were climbing. Her eyes had been trained to detect the use of magic, and could tell that each door was being sealed against their use. "There's nothing," she yelled back to her father.
Duncan dropped his last blast bomb behind him, and felt it go off with a satisfying rush of heat. The golems rolled through fire, unaffected by the blaze.
It was a testament to the heroes perseverance that they managed to keep running ahead of the golems for so long. Nearly thirty minutes of climbing steps brought them to Snake Mountain's summit, the mouth of its carved serpent head. From here the likes of King Hiss, Hordak, and Skeletor had looked over Eternia, hearts filled with a lust for power.
Adam was breathless. A part of him was thankful that there was no where left to run. "Well," he said, "it looks like we've been herded here. I wonder what for and by whom?"
The Sorceress looked out over Eternia and let the last traces of her unused power crawl over the world, forcing aside the magical mists that obscured her vision. She fell to the floor. "He-Man!" she cried. "Skeletor has returned." With that, the Sorceress closed her eyes and fell into a magical coma caused by her overexertion so far from the source of her power.
Nothing had prepared Teela and Adam for the Sorceress' revelation. They looked at each other with fear. The realization over what they were up against sunk in. They stood in Skeletor's fortress, the Sorceress had fainted, and the Sword of Power was locked away in Castle Grayskull.
Duncan sprinted up the throat of the snake's head and saw the Sorceress collapsed. "Oh no," he said. He had no time to ask questions. The golems rolled up after him. Duncan, his mind always on his duty barked orders. "Form a protective half-circle around the Sorceress and the King!" His men rushed to obey, boldly presenting spears they had seen the rock golems brush away just yesterday.
A rock golem lumbered forward, snatching Duncan into its powerful arms while he organized the defense. He had the sense to bring his tech-mace crashing down on the golem's fist, shattering it. The golem dropped the warrior to the ground where he rolled away from his attacker but saw it looming over him again almost immediately. Teela dashed forward, rolled across the ground, and came up striking the rock golem with the flat of her hand. She screamed a word of power at the moment of impact. Duncan saw a flash of yellow as the golem's leg shattered. Teela's foot came around in a powerful kick that knocked the golem over on its side, where it fought to reform itself from the rock surrounding it.
Another golem had brushed passed two guardsmen, killing one and wounding another in an attempt to reach Adam. He straddled the body of the Sorceress protectively. In one hand he held his tech-club, the other held a gold ball covered with flashing microchips and energy wire. He hurled the ball out of the mountain's mouth. It hovered for a moment, emitting its electronic message, then dropped a league to the mountain's base and shattered.
Now the golem was on top of him, hands raised. Adam swung his tech-club, determined to take the blows and shield the Sorceress. The golem's fist came down, but was too late. Duncan fired his last rocket into the creature's back. Broken rock pelted Adam, cutting him in a dozen places. He shoved the pain into a corner of his mind and prepared to face the two remaining behemoths.
The rock golem that Teela had broken had collected enough material around itself to stand upright again, but not to walk. Its ruby eye focused on the man who had turned his back on it, Duncan. With silent understanding, the ruby flashed brightly, sending a beam of light streaking across the space and striking Duncan directly. The heroic warrior's mouth opened in a final silent cry of "I love you" to his daughter, then he disappeared.
Teela watched him vanish, powerless. He didn't disintegrate. He was simply gone. She turned her fury on the rock golem she had already damaged and struck again and again, unleashing the power she had fostered inside Castle Grayskull under the Sorceress' tutelage and the skill she had developed through years of combat. The rock golem shattered again and again, finally falling to the ground in an irreparable heap.
Across the snake's mouth, a guardsman had used his wits to temporarily stop the third rock golem. He had lead the thing against the snake's sharply carved teeth, almost dropping it to the mountain floor. The rock golem was incapable of strategy, but its power was simply too much for one guardsman to hold back with just a spear. Instead of trying to go around the guardsman, the golem simply pushed forward, rolling over the guardsman and crushing him beneath its weight.
Adam saw the golem careening towards him just as the other one had. The remaining guardsmen were either wounded or too far away to help. Again, Adam was saved—this time from a rocket fired behind him that hit with incredible accuracy against the ruby that gave the rock golem its power. The golem collapsed, just an arm's length away from the King and Sorceress.
"Good to see you, Stratos," Adam said to the man that flew to his side. Stratos was an inventor like Duncan who had developed a flight suit that allowed him to soar at heights with the greatest birds. He came from a race of people that could be identified by the shaggy hair that covered their body, a necessity of living in the mountains where the temperature never went above freezing. His only clothing was the flight suit, which consisted only of a few straps, two enormous wings on his arms, and a mask to protect his eyes. His people never wore shoes and had enlarged feet with thick skin to protect them from the harsh elements.
"I got your signal, Your Majesty. Glad to be of service. I see you guys were in a bit of a mess without old Stratos here." He was unswervingly happy.
"My father is gone," Teela told Adam.
"Hi, Teela. My your lookin' prettier ever' time I see ya'," the winged warrior told her.
Teela ignored him. She cried for the second time in only so many days. Adam held her. "We'll get him back, Teela. I promise. We'll get him back."