Chapter 12
The Amulet of Death
In the Black City Castle, Shell paced in the halls of the dark palace, just outside the throne room. He was waiting for his assistant to return with both news, and a delivery. His ebony clad footsteps thumped like a blacksmith's hammer at a forge as he paced in the deranged way his oldest sister once did. It was sunset, and the sun looked as if it were bleeding all over the sky, casting only red and pink on the clouds instead of the usual red, orange and other colors. It was as if Lurline herself witnessed in sadness the ruin of Oz, and the betrayal of all that's good.
Finally a sound. Shell stopped his pacing and immediately turned to looked at the huge doors that lead from the Courtyard- the Entrance to the former Emerald City, and waited. His instinct was correct. Bael slithered through the air towards the Emperor, and with him was the illusive Ozmist and highest traitor to the Crown Oz had ever seen. Natelee. She too was not alone however. In her right hand she held a strange necklace: a large black skull with a closed jaw on a chain made of llinked together bird skulls.
"My Lord, the most powerful Kingdom has fell to your feet. Is there no end to your power and strength?" Natalee said in a very sultry way to the Emperor. Her words echoed. She was an Ozmist, but now a dark Ozmist, capable of leaving the Cloud Swamp (now known as Cloud Forrest after Ben changed the land), and other treacherous deeds. The Emperor looked first only at her hand grasping the strange dark necklace. When she approached closer to him, he looked up at her eyes, and changed his form from the skull head and hands, to flesh. He was a very tan man, with familiar sharp features. A large pointed nose and a triangular pointed yet wide jaw. He had green eyes and black hair with streaks of white throughout.
"Bael, leave us, I will summon you when I am ready for the next phase," He said, taking off his battle armor he'd been wearing all this time. Bael growled and refused to leave.
"Sire! We have much yet to do! Why do you wait for victory? To indulge your pathetic pleasures?!" Bael spoke no more as Shell with one suddenly flaming hand, sent him away down in the bowels of the Black Castle to his own chambers, Shell also locked and bolted with that one spell every window and door in the room. Clearly he was not to be disturbed.
"Shell, hold me, like you did before," the Ozmist whispered laying back on a bed. She too had removed the dress her Ozmist form was always seen in, and laid down on the bed bare and lit now by the dim orange from the fading red of the setting sun. Shell took off his remaining boots and gauntlets, and knelt down ontop, placing his hands on either side of her shoulders. The necklace was on a table beside the bed, closer to Natalee than to Shell.
"You have done more for me than I could have ever hoped for. Using the remaining Rubies to create a new talisman, one that trumps any trinket that blond headed fairy ever dreamed of," He began kissing a thousand times her neck and chest as they both relished in his forseen growth of power.
"The Amulet is yours my Lord, nothing will ever take it away, and soon, Anthony and his friends will die at your own hands," Natalee grinned. Slowly the kissing stopped and Shell took the romance one step further. Making love their dark and twisted hearts raced with adrenaline. Both wore nothing to further heighten the romance and lust.
"There's just one little problem Natalee," Shell said, with a somewhat lesser amount of sexiness, and more of spite. The Ozmist moaned with the pleasure, ignoring the words of the Emperor; her lover.
"Until the Amulet of Death tastes the spirit of another, it cannot truly, be mine." Shell seized romancing the Natalee and grabbed a poisoned, enchanted ghost blade dagger from a drawer in the table that the Amulet of Death waited on. The ghost blade dagger simply meant the blade was transparent, being crafted magically from Shell's will to now take the life source or whatever it was that Natalee used, and fulfill the Amulet. "You've been a good and loyal mistress, but I'm afraid your use has changed. Time to die," As Shell finished, he lunged the blade into Natalee's heart and instantly, the Amulet of Death levitated in the air. As it rose, a loud noise accompanied with swirling blue mist spewed from Natalee's wound to the Amulet. Then it fell, and the jaw opened. The Emperor took the Amulet, and put it around his neck. Almost instantly the Skull grew a few extensions that looked like roots of a plant, and held it in place on his bare chest. The Ozmist disappeared, and left a green stain in the shape of her body on the bed. Shell liked the power this new Amulet gave him. The ability to consume life, or even, things that were already dead, but still somehow existing. Nothing could stand in his way now. Anthony and Alec had to move fast. Their friends may be dying, and now not only had Shell grown in power, but something terrible had happened in the Emperor's lair.
Anthony and Alec after the attack from the Emperor's Dragons, ran from that point towards Munchkinland. The closer they got to the Black City, the more they knew the importance of their success was, and the faster they ran. Along the way however, they were stopped. Princess Nastoya as the leader of the Scrow, had many followers, of all types. One of which was a family of Birds, a strange non-magical Phoenix, white and brown in color. One of these Phoenix had come to their aid.
"Stop! Blue Wizard, Alec son of Ozma, please stop! I have horrible news to tell you!" Cried the desperate Phoenix, trying to keep up with us flying sideways just a few feet above head level.
"We can't! We're on a very important mission and time is already running out! People may be dying! Cities are being ambushed by Dragons! We must press on!" I replied still running. Alec was ignoring the Bird, placing arrival at the Dragon cupboard of higher importance than to conversation with a Phoenix.
"ANTHONY! YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW!" The loud call from the majestic bird stopped me in my tracks, and Alec, noticing I stopped, turned around and stopped as well.
"Alright you have my attention Phoenix, what is it?" Alec said. We were both panting from running so long.
"Young Tipetarius, I have word from reliable sources that Drogans tortured beyond the regulations of normal punishment in the Oziad, six inmates last night," The Phoenix hovered.
"I see. And these Drogans have not been seen to by the Oziad's forces?" Alec asked. Normally if one broke the laws in the Land of Oz, all written in the Oziad, the land's magic would punish you to the degree with which you strayed from the Book. After a just trial, much like what Ozma did to Elphaba the third time I was here.
"No sir, hey have not. It seems the Emperor has overridden more than we originally thought. But there is more. I saw Bael, the leader of the Dragons with an Ozmist, and she was holding the Amulet of Death! And, one last thing, the six inmates, you both know them all. I'm told their names were Ben, Argy, Julia, Her Ozness and Evardo,"
"What about Glinda? Where is she what has happened to her?" I asked him.
"I am sorry, I do not know. I would know her name or a reference to her anywhere, but I saw none last night Anthony." I was deep in denial. Glinda's immortal she can't die! The Wicked Witch tried and she just came back stronger! Where is she? What is she doing? Alec looked as if he could hear what I was saying in my head, and then spoke.
" Thank you for the news, we're doing all we can to stop the Emperor. If you find anything else about him, or our frinends, you will let me know," Alec ordered.
"Yes sir, I am sorry, Oz is sorry, for our loss," The Phoenix said, and then flapped away.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
"What we intended to before, Glinda is still alive, but we mustn't say that to anyone else, she's got a plan. Come on we don't have much further, your Dragon is near! We can win this fight, and by Lurline, We will tear that Emperor's head from his body! Are you with me? ARE YOU WITH ME?" Alec edged me on pumping me up to get back in the game and kick some evil ass.
"UNTIL THE END!" I screamed and off we ran to the not very far Dragon Cupboard just beyond the Eastern border of the Black City.