“Something slow and satisfying. I’ll make good use of my acid nature to prolong as much agony as I can derive. A burning pinprick here, a splash of anguish there. I very much intend to savor every moment of his distress. I tire of your presence. Begone before I change my mind.”

  “We’ll not leave him here to be dissolved!” shouted Ignatius.

  “For that there is little you can do to intervene if you cannot protect yourselves.” Sculch’s words were accented by a squirt of his dark acid leaping off the wall to splash upon the end of Ignatius sword. The metal instantly began to bubble and fizzle as it was eaten like aphids chewing leaves. Surprised, Ignatius slung the blade to get it off but it was no use. When he held it close to see, the tip and end of the blade were all but ruined. Still no one moved. “Perhaps you require some cajoling to hasten your departure…or destruction.” Slowly the walls of dark acid and gel and corpses and swords began to close in. Black ichor reeking of rot seeped in as a trickle at first along the floor at their feet.

  “Siouxsie.” Said Ignatius. “We must away.”

  “What of Morell?” asked Siouxsie. “He can’t fly!”

  “Siouxsie, I believe he means to kill all three of us.”

  “I’m not leaving Morell to be tortured by a ball of rot!”

  “Siouxsie, you will mount that broom and exit out the chute or I will snatch you under my arm and take you myself!”

  “Nay!” she shouted. “I will not abandon Morell! I will challenge Sculch!”

  “A challenge you say?” laughed Sculch as the walls stopped advancing inward. “Young witch, you may have spirit, but you should know I have steeped myself in centuries of knowledge. I accept whatever challenge you may have to offer.”

  “Are you mad?” asked Ignatius “This talking atrocity is covered in acid that eats steel!”

  “Please, big brother!” she pleaded, holding a hand out to cover his heart. “Trust that I know what I’m asking!” she said. And for a moment, Ignatius stood as still as a statue as his eyes met hers. “I will make you proud.”

  “You believe you can challenge this thing? You believe it with all your heart?”

  “I do!”

  “You’d better, or your bones and Morell’s will soon join the bones of our ancestors.”

  “I will not fail.” She said “Go. Stand clear of the fountain.”

  “I will.” He said as he leaned down to remove her pointed hat and kiss the top of head before replacing it. “I will wait for you above with the others.” And with that, Ignatius zipped away in a flash to vanish in the shaft leading to the higher level.

  “Sculch!” she called to the waving globbish face suspended in the goo.. “I challenge you to a test of might!”

  “Oh? and how might you intend to challenge me? I know your powers all too well. You can summon lightning. A fine and effective power against those of solid make. But for we few who remain somewhere between solid and liquid, I assure you your thin bolts will have very little effect on me.”

  “But can you sustain three bolts?” she asked?

  “Is that really the challenge you’ve staked your life upon?”

  “Do you accept my challenge or not? She asked. “If you decline, you must set Morell and I free!”

  “My dear, I have no intentions of setting either of you free nor will I decline your challenge. Cast your spell if you dare. I know your lore and your teachings and your spell! Drop your deadly Furious Cumulus from the sky and strike at me if you dare. It matters not!”

  Siouxsie pulled Morell close to her. “Morell, get behind me and cover your ears. Don’t take them off until I tell you!” The boy was frightened beyond words and wasted no time in doing so as he continued to look upon the sinister face of Sculch still hungrily eyeing him. “Prepare yourself!” She said, throwing her arms skyward in a “V “and repositioning herself directly under the shaft leading to the surface.

  “Do your worst, child.” Growled the goo.

  “I shall!” she exclaimed. Meanwhile, on the higher levels, Ignatius and the others watched the ominous storm clouds begin to gather and swirl far over their heads.

  “We have to get away from the fountain or we could be struck as well!” Ignatius told them. The companions retreated to the southern wall and took cover behind a fallen pillar.

  “And you say there’s a monstrous gel down there threatening to kill them?” asked Hoxley.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Indeed!” said Ignatius holding up his weapon for her and the others to see. “It has an outer layer if acid. Look what it did to my sword!”

  “And you thought to leave our sister down there with it?” said Robert, already climbing the pillar to head toward the fountain. “I’m going to help her!”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Ignatius said snatching him by the back of the collar. “You could get cooked by whatever bolt she’s about to send down.”

  “But gels don’t have bodies that can be affected by lightning!” said Robert, fighting to get free. “There’s no body or metal for the lightning to strike! It would simply pass though it!” Hearing this truth, the others looked to the tall witch who in turn looked even more worried.

  “Stay here. Stop fighting.” Said Ignatius “We have to trust Siouxsie’s intuition. It’s her life that hangs in the balance down there. She would not take something like that lightly. We’ve no rope to lower down the shaft to pull Morell away from that monster. There’s no other way. All we can do is wait and hope that her decision was not her final one.” High above, black clouds swirled and churned, rumblings of portentous thunder filled the air as flashes of light danced here and there behind roiling black curtains spanning the entire night sky.

  “I have faith in little Siouxsie!” spoke the pirate. “And I’d hate to be on the receiving end of whatever she’s about to dish to such a scoundrel! Abducting children? Such a fiend deserves a magic bolt up its underside for such actions!”

  Down in the depths, Sculch grew impatient.

  “No more stalling!” hissed the dark mass. ”Strike me or forfeit your challenge so that I might devour you!”

  “Don’t be too quick to collect your fate.” Seethed Siouxsie. “It might not be what you expect. Morell, cover your ears!” Siouxsie lifted her broom with the glimmering lyythium tip above her head and called aloud:

  Furious cumulous!”

  Hundreds of feet above her head and the rest of Oldvale, the sky split to send a fast bolt down from the heavens to thread the needle eye of the fountain shaft. The bolt, faster than the eye can follow, stuck Siouxsie’s broom and shot out hot arcs in all directions, splaying the lightning like the many tendrils of a deep sea beast. The chamber and every part of the ruins around it shook from the force. And as fast as the shot was called, it was gone. Morell opened his eyes and removed his hands from his ears to see that Sculch was not affected at all! His gelatinous body gurgled and wiggled but for the lightning he appeared to have escaped the magic unscathed. Seeing this, Siouxsie lowered her broom in astonishment.

  “Ohhh…my dear.” Jigged Sculch with a callus laugh. “If that was the best you have to offer, than I’m afraid you’re quite doomed for sure.”

  “I’m not finished yet.” The witch snarled as she wrinkled her nose in disgust. “I still have two more bolts to call.”

  “I hope you’re going to summon ones far stronger than that last one. For your effort I can say it did nothing more than tickle me.”

  “We’ll see what tickles when I’m done.” She huffed.

  “Then by all means continue….If you’re not too tired.” said Sculch

  “Far from it, fiend!” she said before taking a large deep breath and raising her broom a second time. A familiar mantra filled her head and she crushed her eyes shut to find power within.

  

  On the upper level, the other companion’s eyes grew large at the sight of the black storm clouds beginning to churn and writhe faster and faster. Entire clouds as big as half the sky on their own were twisting as fast a bedsheet in a rushing river. End over end they churned, the flashes behind them growing more and more intense.

  “Furious cumulous!”

  Siouxsie shouted. The clouds parted a second time to open wide and send forth their gift. Godly fire dropped like a falling star to find the girl. And from her lyythium tipped broom, the lightning reached out with sparking white and orange blue hissing fingers to drive themselves deep into Sculch’s mass. The sound of it all threatened to burst Morell’s ears even as he clamped his palms tight about his head. Electric tendrils struck walls and bones and exploded anything solid that dared be in their way. But when the lightning stopped…..Sculch remained unmoved.