Chapter three
What ran through Benny's mind was the utter reality of the Nekross' threat. Michael and Ursula were unaware that Tom's arm-piece worked perfectly, and now he had witnessed some terribly peculiar conduct from him, that seemed a little more understandable. Mrs Crowe had turned Tom into a Nekross every whit. What was still a mystery was why he had been himself for the first ten minutes or so, but that would probably be figured out later. It was more important now to find a way out of this predicament they were in.
"Tom?" breathed Granny, drawing nearer to her grandson, "Don't you remember?"
"Remember what?!" barked the Nekross, "I have no time for this!"
"Don't you know who you are?"
The yellow alien hesitated, as though contemplating what she had said.
"I…don't know."
He blinked several times.
"Gran?" he whispered, and peered around, "What happened there?" He put his hand to his brow. "It was like…I wasn't really myself."
"You weren't yourself," confirmed Granny, "The spell has started affecting your brain." She started wandering back down the chamber's tunnel. "…which is why we need to undo it as soon as possible!" Everyone followed promptly.
Randal Moon was soon greeted by the posse.
"Quick, Moon!" called Ursula, "We are going to have to find a cure as soon as possible! If we all put our heads together I'm sure we can find a solution in no time!"
"How will we be doing that, Mistress Crowe? There will be no short route around this mischief!"
"We have no choice! The spell is now causing Thomas to think he is a Nekross. If we do not act fast, he will be a danger to us, and perhaps all wizardkind!" She clasped her hands and drew them close to her face. "What CAN we do?"
"Randal Moon will be searching the Wisdom of Crowe."
The company was silent as he flicked bit by bit through the tome, skimming each page for anything of use.
"We're going to be here for ages!" complained Dad, "Isn't there a quicker way? Can't you magically detect what went wrong?"
"Oh no, Michael!" replied Ursula, "I don't recall there ever being such a spell invented…but if Moon finds one, I'll make certain we use it!"
"So, you have to browse through the entire volume to see if you can find one spell you don't even know about?" said Benny, unexpectedly getting a brainwave, "Isn't there some form of magical search engine that can find it instead?"
All of a sudden everyone stopped in their tracks.
"…and what will be this 'search engine', imp?" enquired Moon, "Randal Moon will be having nothing to do with the technockery of the technomages!"
Granny's face lit up. "Benny, you're a genius!" She scuttled over to the scrying mirror. "Moon, young Benny is talking about is using a spell to search for the enchantment rather than doing it manually."
"You'll be speaking of a spell of scrutinizing. The scrying mirror will be assisting in this work!" He and the others crowded round the looking glass.
"Scrying mirror on the wall…" began the hobgoblin, before coming to a stop, "What will ye be asking the mirror to find?"
Tom racked his mind. He discovered that his antennae had a terrible habit of squirming when he was deep in thought. "You said you think you got the words wrong!" he piped up, pointing gently at Granny, "Shouldn't we search for…possible miscalculations…I mean errors you could have made?"
What tickled Ursula about Tom's face at that instant was that his forehead creased in a similar fashion to the way it did when he was human.
"What words did you say, Mrs Crowe?" queried Benny.
Granny strolled over to the book of spells on the table and found the page she'd read earlier, which luckily had a bookmark placed on it. "Ashay wan dah," she repeated judiciously, "That was the undoing spell." There was something missing. She knew she had something else… "Oh dear. I remember I accidentally repeated the first half of the spell when I was trying to turn Thomas into a wizard again. I am sorry! That may have been what caused my mistake!"
Moon waved his fingers in front of the scrying mirror, and a few sentences in stonescript popped up. The Mistress went back to his side so she could discern what it had come up with.
"What does it say, hag…I mean Gran!?" delved Tom, who was not yet fluent in the language of the ancient ones.
"I have never seen most of these before," said Ursula in a serious voice, "Moon, can you bring up a definition for each?"
Moon waggled his hands again. The stonescript faded away to be replaced by some different phrases in the same alphabet.
"The first one is supposed to turn someone into a chicken," Gran explained.
"I think I would notice if I was two feet tall with a beak and wings," joked Thomas.
"The next spell is a healing remedy for burns, then a charm for getting rid of gremlins, and-" She broke off and clapped a hand over her mouth. "I don't believe it!"
"What is it, Ursula?" probed Mr Clarke.
"This must be the spell! It's similar to a transformation!"
"A transformation?" mulled Tom, "You mean – like that spell you taught me when I was six where I turned myself into a mouse."
"Yes, Thomas! But slightly different. This enchantment causes a person to not only turn into a certain creature, but think they are that creature too!"
"Randal Moon will not have been hearing of this for over 200 years!" said Moon in astonishment.
"How do you undo it?" questioned Tom.
"We need to repeat the incantation, whilst concocting a potion of leprechaun's tears and tangleweed shoots…which was actually what we were meant to do in the first place. It says that if the potion is not prepared at the same time the spell is chanted there is no guarantee that it will work…"
Ursula was concerned as to this instruction's meaning, but her worries dissipated when Benny spouted, "That's why Tom didn't think he was a Nekross until later!"
"Randal Moon will be a-making the potion!" exclaimed the goblin - just kidding! - Hobgoblin.
Although this was all very well, Ursula perceived it was much too easy. Didn't they have to go on a quest to a deepest darkest dungeon or make a bargain with a banshee squadron or climb Mount Everest or at least receive some opposing force to the task? Wouldn't the Nekross try to interfere whilst…?
The chamber door had been left wide open, so nobody's ears were exempt from hearing the whir of transporters coming from somewhere in the house.
"What was that?" said Dad.
"Stay here, Thomas!" ordered Granny, scurrying away to find out what had caused the noise.
No sooner had she made it out the chamber, when she found herself in the path of a blaster, clasped by a helmeted Nekross stood in the sitting area, henchmen in regimental lines on each side. "The hag Crowe," said the Nekross smugly, who sounded awfully like Lexi, "You will lead me to the wizard stronghold or I will obliterate you…"
Dad and Benny had followed the Mistress and now caught sight of the army gathered in the living room. "…or perhaps I will obliterate the others. Are not wizards inclined to protect the 'un-enchanted'?"
Meanwhile in the chamber, Tom recognised the noise he had heard. Great! The Nekross had to turn up right this moment, didn't they?
He needed a plan – and quick! What could he possibly do?
Back in the lounge, Lexi pointed forth and called out, "FORWARD! MARCH!"
The soldiers whipped their weapons into position and stomped towards their targets, taking their arms with brute force. Thankfully, Benny had closed the chamber behind him so they had no clue of the secrets the toilet held. The three humans were frogmarched into the sitting room.
"All nations back on Nekron will thank me," boasted the princess, "For at last I have access to a magical dimension filled to the brim with information about the locations of every kind of wizard in the world."
"I'm not telling you anything!" protested Gran, "By the blood of the warrior wizards that runs through my veins, I will not allow you to break into the Chamber of Mysteries!"
"You can do nothing to stop us, crone! The Nekross shall feast!"
It was then the entrance to the chamber opened, not that any of the Nekross were in the right position to glimpse the mystical properties of the Clarkes' lavatory, and into the hallway stepped someone Lexi was definitely not anticipating.
"My most Exquisite Excellency," fawned the Nekross who had appeared out of seemingly nowhere, "I'm afraid I have to report to you – dear princess – that your communication device is defective, and will need recalibration, which I am more than willing to give to you, my Excellency."
Benny fought away the smile that threatened to form on his face. Tom was really good at pretending to be a Nekross. Now it was proven not only could a human be fooled by his acting skills, but a Nekross herself!
"State your rank," probed Lexi.
"Why, my Excellency, I am Technician Gandalf 21, sub-section Alpha Grex 2!"
"Technician Gandalf 21," said the female Nekross, "How is it that you have discovered the fault in my gauntlet so soon after I departed from the Zarantulus?"
"It was picked up by the scanners as you transported, dear princess. Do let me inspect it!" He navigated past the guards to the centre of the room.
Under the influence of Gran's spell, he could sense he now had a basic understanding of how Nekross technology worked, and he was going to use this knowledge to make the device backfire, beaming Lexi and the bunch back to the ship.
Lexi fiddled with the arm-piece, struggling to detach it, abruptly jerking her head up. "This vexatious visor must have moved again! I cannot see a thing!" She hurled her helmet off, revealing her scaly skin underneath. One of the henchmen ducked to avoid its impact.
Speaking of the faulty gauntlet, Lexi wasn't buying any of it! She furtively kept her gun in a position to shoot this mysterious Nekross at the first sign of trouble.
Once she had thoroughly disconnected the piece of armour, "Gandalf" examined every detail of it…but he was definitely not expecting to truly spot something wrong with it.
The outer shell was perfectly normal; it was when he peeked inside that he instantly became alerted that something fishy was going on. If ahead of time he had visualised the interior of the gauntlet, he would have pictured it to be similarly smooth as the outside, perhaps with some wires, or to be crafted from some material that made it easy to attach to Lexi's outfit. Of all things, he never would have supposed it to be comprised of blue, immaterial, pulsating lightning bolts, or that from this point of view the gauntlet was translucent.
Tossing the object on the floor, Tom reverted back to his normal voice and said, "What game are you playing this time, Lexi?"
It took the princess a few seconds to register why Gandalf had changed character without warning, and who it was under that clever Nekross disguise…
"Tom Clarke!" she exclaimed.
"In the flesh!" responded the wizard, "Which also happens to be yellow and scaly! You can blame Gran's latest spell for that."
"Cheeky!" teased Ursula
Benny had picked up the discarded gauntlet and found out what had caused his friend's suspicion. "Is that a hologram?" he called.
Lexi gave a cruel cackle, and confirmed that it was.
High up on the Zarantulus, she and the guards were stood on the flight deck. The background had faded away to darkness, and projected around the place was the Clarkes' lounge, appearing as solid as the real thing. In fact, it did feel solid. That was why the soldiers had seized prisoners without any difficulty. Lexi had been taking no chances when she commenced the battle – if the wizards were up to some kind of ploy then two could play that game!
"We were never in any real danger," said Tom.
"You are quite mistaken!" answered Lexi, "We have the co-ordinates of your house programmed into the Zarantulus' computer. Surrender – or we will launch a full attack!"