Chapter 24
The King wasn’t in his room when I got there. So naturally, I settled down in the softest chair I could find, which happened to be able to swivel. I plucked the knife from the box and tossed the box onto the King’s bed. Then I entertained myself by spinning in circles on the chair as fast as I could.
I heard the door start to open. I planted my feet on the ground so that the back of the chair faced the entrance. When the doors closed again, I slowly spun the chair around.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
The King jumped in fear. He stumbled over his coat and fell face first on the ground. His regal red and white cape fluttered into the air and then flopped down over his head. The King stood up and waved around blindly for a bit before getting out from under his cape.
“Who are you?” he growled.
His face twisted up into a snarl. I decided not to waste any time, so I jumped out of the chair and slammed the knife into the Kings stomach. It shattered into a shower of shards, and I stumbled backwards.
“What the…”
The King burst into laughter. “Ah, an assassination attempt. How novel. Unfortunately for you, I knew you were coming. When your wizard friend was caught, we swapped out your weapon for a different dagger. It’s really too bad for you. If you had the original dagger, you might have been able to kill me. But it’s mine now!”
He pulled the dagger out from behind his back and burst into maniacal laughter. I shrugged at him, and one wormhole later, the correct dagger was firmly lodged in his midsection. He gaped at me and clawed at his chest.
“Wh-What are you?”
“Drake Jinx, card house builder extraordinaire,” I replied.
His eyes widened, but no words ever escaped his mouth. He fell back and landed on the floor. There was a polite knock on the door. I cursed. The door slammed open and a maid with two large knives jumped on me. I cried out and fell backwards. The knives slammed into the floor right next to my head.
“Drake?”
I looked up at the maid. “Oh, hey Jenna. How’s life been treating you?”
She sighed and got off of me. Lilly walked through the door and glanced down at me.
“Get up, Jinx. Lazy bastard. Have you killed the King yet?”
I demonstrated an impolite gesture. “Yeah, he just croaked off. Heart attack. Because I stabbed him in the heart.”
“Let’s get out of here before someone catches us,” Jenna said.
I pointed to the window. “Let’s go. It’s too bad that our giant bird is currently emulating a pancake.”
Lilly shrugged and glanced out of the window. “The fall isn’t too bad. Just jump.”
She leapt out our improvised exit. I made to follow her, but then I paused.
“What about all those poor things in the cage? Shouldn’t we let them out?” I asked Jenna.
She looked at me. “They could just try to kill you when they escape. They didn’t exactly look human to me.”
I frowned. “When I first met you, you were a spider.”
She raised her hands in defeat. “I’m not telling you what to do. I’m just saying they look a little strange.”
“Yeah, but who wouldn’t after being cooped up in a cage for who knows how long? If this goes bad, I’ll just use a wormhole and run away.”
Jenna sighed. “If you say so.”
“Tell Lilly that I’m going after them. We can meet the pancake bird. Jim is there right now,” I said.
I created a wormhole behind me and jumped.
The cage was no different than the last time I saw it. The second I appeared, the wails started again.
I held up my hands and they slowly quieted (after a few threats).
“Listen up. If I free you, there are a few things you need to do for me.”
“What do you want from us?” one called.
“Free us, then we can speak of such things!” cried another.
That was good. If they had agreed unconditionally, they would have probably ambushed me the moment I let them out.
“I happen to need an army. You interested?”
They chuckled. “How would you ever get us out of this cage alone? You have no way to open it. Begone!”
However, I could tell from the dispirited muttering that they didn’t all agree with that sentiment. “Look, if you want to get out, stand at the left side of the cage. I’ll get you out and release you when I find a place with enough room to house all of you.”
A large amount of the captives broke off and moved to the left side of the cage. I squinted to try to find the back of the cage, but it was far beyond my line of sight. I shrugged and made the largest wormhole I could below the left group. There was a mighty creak, and they were gone.
I opened a smaller wormhole and glanced back at the stunned occupants of the cage. “Later.”
I jumped through it and was gone.
Stopping by the dungeon, I picked Jim up. I glanced at the terrified guard, smiled at him, and disappeared again.
When we popped out next to the bird, I collapsed to the ground panting. A trickle of blood seeped out of my glove.
“D-did you kill the King?” Jim coughed.
I winced at the pain in my arm. “Yeah, he’s dead. I still need the rest of my army though. Do you happen to know where Billy ran off to? After I collect Lilly and Jenna I need to go find him.”
Jim coughed again and sat up. “I should be able to find him. I see Lilly and Jenna headed this way.”
I glanced over to where Jim was looking. Sure enough, they were running towards us.
“How did you get here before me?” Lilly grumbled.
“He had another bird.”
I shifted my eyes to Jim and glared. He frowned at me, but shrugged.
“Where is it then?” Lilly asked.
“I sent it to check our surroundings. I’ll call it back now.”
Sure enough, within a few minutes, another large bird crashed down before us. I scrambled up onto its back, closely followed by my companions. Once I was up, Jim tapped me on the shoulder.
“Drake, we need to talk. Lilly doesn’t know about your abilities, does she?” he whispered.
I frowned at him. “No, she doesn’t. And I have my reasons for keeping her in the dark. I would appreciate it if you kept quiet too.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “You realize she’s going to redecorate the floor with your brains when she finds out, right?”
I grimaced. “Yeah, I know. But for the sake of my plans, I really hope she doesn’t find out for a long, long time.”
Jim clambered up towards the bird’s head and patted it a few times. The massive bird shuddered and took off. I took the brief interlude between fighting to seriously think about what I would do once I actually had the army I needed to fight off The Unknown Man. The more I traveled through the worlds that the Pisces Empire had taken over, the more I felt inclined to go against them. They destroyed worlds and nations, and didn’t even allow simple men to build wondrous card houses in peace. I was willing to bet that the Pisces Empire had wronged the Unknown Man as well. They probably wrecked his card house too.
I suddenly snapped out of my reverie when someone shook me.
“Drake! We’re about to land. Wake up,” Jenna said.
I blinked. I hadn’t realized that I had zoned out so completely.
“Right, I’m ready. I guess.”
The bird turned down sharply, and I dug my fingers into its feathers as the monstrosity nosedived. It suddenly pulled straight up and plowed into the ground with a mighty crash. The moment it stopped moving, I hopped onto the ground. Billy stood in front of me with a wry grin on his face.
“Mr. Jinx. I see you took care of our royal pain in the behind.”
“Yeah, yeah. He’s dead all right. He had a heart attack.”
Billy smirked. “Wonderful. As promised, your army awaits. I took the liberty of drafting your men for you while you were away. They stand ready and unite
d; just tell them when you are ready to go.”
I nodded. “Did we get any big birdies or other creepy crawlies in the deal too?”
Billy nodded. “A few hundred. Not many, but their size will make up for that. They weren’t part of the deal anyways.”
“Thanks Billy. If that’s the case, I think we’ll be off now. A cruddy empire to save and all.”
I closed my eyes, and the Grid appeared before me. Luckily, there was an exit location right beside us.
“Huh, that’s nice. The exit is right here.”
Billy’s grin grew even wider. “I’ll be off then, Mr. Jinx. Farewell. I dare say that we will probably meet again.”
I looked over to Lilly. “Could you get them rounded up?”
She nodded and turned to the huge mass of teeming soldiers. While she began addressing them, I discretely opened a wormhole and stepped into it.
Before me stood a massive army of uncountable numbers.
“What the heck? How in the worlds beyond did all of you manage to fit within that cage back at the castle?”
One of them stepped forward, marking him as the leader.
“We were war prisoners of the Pisces Empire before you came along and freed us. Our numbers are great, and our anger matches it. As promised, we will help you with your war, but after that, we will serve you no longer.”
I grimaced. “Well, that’s fine with me, but the war happens to be funded by the Pisces Empire.”
I threw up my hands in surrender before they could mob me. “Wait! I may be funded by them, but they hold no loyalty from me. I believe there is a good chance that we may end up fighting against them and crushing them once and for all. But for now, please play along. A loyal agent of the Pisces Empire currently resides with us, and she can report back to them if something goes awry.”
The leader nodded slowly. “You play a dangerous game, but we will do what you request of us… for now.”
I grinned in relief. “Perfect. Right now, I’m going to release all of you next to another army. There is a Pisces agent on the other end of it. It’s important that you stay quiet so that she doesn’t notice you. She has only seen one side of it, so she won’t know if it gets a ton bigger. She isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, if you catch my drift.”
With that, I ripped open the wormhole and ported a second army in right next to Billy’s. I glanced around to see if Lilly had noticed, but she was speaking with Billy, her back turned to me. There was some small commotion in the back lines of Billy’s army, but they passed it off as another of the Pisces Empire’s tricks and calmed down quickly.
Jenna approached me. “We’re ready to go. On your mark, Drake.”
I nodded to her and waved Lilly over. Once we were all standing with our hands on each other, I closed my eyes. The Grid swam into existence before me, and I stepped into the circle. There was a flash, and the world faded away to the unforgiving onslaught of darkness.
Once within the Grid, we were greeted by the rest of my army. Before me stood a massive unit of soldiers that stretched so far back into the Void that I couldn’t see the end of it. They all saluted to us and froze in place.
Caesar and Patton walked up to us.
“So, did you ever learn to ride your tank?” I asked Patton.
He smirked. “I’m better at it than you are, I assure you.”
“I see you have brought a new supplement of rabble to further contaminate my newly trained forces. Will you be adding any more after this, or is this not big enough for you yet?” Caesar grumbled.
“Yeah, we’ll probably be heading out again after this-”
Lilly cut me off. “No, we’re done here. The time to strike is now.”
I turned back to her in surprise. She looked slightly white, and her hand was caressing her weapon.
“I received a notification from Pisces just before we left. They’re about to lose the war, Jinx. It’s time to fight back.”
I grimaced. I was hoping to postpone the war for a little longer. Preferably until the empire was defeated.
“Fine. I’m going to my room to work on a plan. I’ll be ready soon.”
I trudged away from the masses, and Jenna slipped after me. She put her hand on my shoulder.
“Drake, what are you going to do?”
“What do you think? I’ve got a war to end.”
Her grip tightened. “But what side are you going to fight for?”
I looked up at her. “Jenna, I have a question. Don’t you think this has been a little… you know, easy?”
A grin slowly crossed her face. “Oh, definitely.”
I stopped walking. “Definitely? What aren’t you telling me?”
There was a pop, and a wormhole ringed with red ripped open before me. Jenna stepped up and shoved me into it. I toppled through it and landed on my back. My head whipped around and I looked through the wormhole. The last thing I saw before I was surrounded by darkness was her winking at me.