Keys to the Demon Prison

He took the coin from his pocket. He could communicate with Bracken. The thought of talking to the unicorn made him shiver. How could he tell him that he had already lost the Translocator? No, he would reach out to Bracken later.

What about Dale? Might he have joined the rescue mission? Coulter hadn’t specified. Seth had never known Dale to go abroad on a mission. He was probably around here someplace. If so, with the treaty undone, he might be in trouble. Seth would ask Hugo.

Before long, heralded by heavy footfalls, the golem returned. Seth rose from the damaged couch.

"Do you know where Dale is?" Seth asked.

The golem tilted his head back. Was he looking at the broken ceiling? Was he listening? Seth wasn’t sure how the golem saw and heard, or if his senses worked some other way. "Stables," the golem said. "Safe room."

"Does the safe room still work?"

"Yes."

Seth regarded the golem. How could he know Dale was at the stables? "Do you see him, Hugo?"

The golem placed fingers into the empty hollows of his eyes. "Not here." Then Hugo tapped his temple. "See here."

"With your mind?"

"Yes."

"So Dale is safe for now?"

"Yes."

"Can you see Grandpa?"

Hugo raised his head searchingly, leaning first one way, then another. "Too far."

Seth hadn’t expected it to work, but it had been worth a try. "I need to look for my emergency kit before we go." The staircase from the entry hall had collapsed, but the hall at the top partly remained. "Can you get me up to that hall?"

Hugo picked up Seth, walked over to where the stairs had once stood, and lightly tossed him up to the hallway. With Hugo’s height and reach, the golem did not have to throw him far. In one direction, the hallway ended along with the rest of the house, leaving an open view of treetops and stars. The attic stairs were the other way.

Passing gaps in the walls, Seth hustled to the attic stairs, which he found mostly intact, although deep cracks ran through the stairwell. The playroom at the top was missing most of one wall, part of another, and a good portion of the ceiling. There were some holes in the floor. But the beds were in place. Peeking under his bed, Seth instantly spotted his emergency kit. He checked inside and found the contents in place, including the figurines of the leviathan and the tower he had brought from Wyrmroost.

Returning as he had come, Seth dropped into Hugo’s reaching grasp. "I got it. Now we can head for the manor."

The golem exited the crumbling house through the back. Glaring firelight brightened the night, the entirety of the barn now blazing. Another portion of the structure collapsed, sending a whirlwind of sparks above the towering flames. Even from a distance, Seth could feel the heat of the inferno.

As the golem started across the yard, a pair of figures emerged from the woods. "Seth?" cried Doren. "Seth!" shouted Newel.

The satyrs gamboled toward them across the lawn. Hugo slowed.

"You’re all right!" Doren yelled. "I knew it!"

"What’s happening?" Newel exclaimed.

"Put me down, Hugo," Seth said. The golem complied. "I escaped from the Society and healed Graulas."

"You healed Graulas?" Newel yelled. "Did the Society amputate your brain?"

"I thought it would ease his suffering as he died," Seth said. "Instead he stole the artifacts I had and went on a rampage. Coulter is dead. Graulas left not long ago. The Society now has all the artifacts to open Zzyzx."

"And the treaty is down," Doren added. "We felt the boundaries fall."

"Right," Seth confirmed.

"We came this way after we saw Viola crashing through the woods," Newel said. "This is going to be pandemonium. Where’s Stan?"

"There’s nobody around." Seth explained how the others had been captured when trying to rescue him.

"Quite a pickle," Newel lamented, hands on his woolly hips.

"What happens now?" Seth asked. "Will the creatures leave Fablehaven?"

Newel and Doren exchanged a glance. "Many of the satyrs are fleeing toward Grunhold," Doren said. "The domain of the centaurs will stand even with the treaty down. Of course, the centaurs will now be completely free to rove. Some creatures might depart. But most have their homes here now. It will be some time before many stray beyond the outer fence."

"Without a caretaker to calm things, the centaurs will probably try to take charge," Newel guessed. "They’ll offer safe harbor to other creatures in exchange for land. They’ve always been sore they weren’t running the place."

"What about the dark creatures?" Seth asked.

"Hard to say," Doren said. "The demons of Fablehaven are bound or gone. The swamp hag gets older and battier every day. The dark creatures will lack leadership. The minotaurs could cause trouble if they decide to leave their territory, but I doubt the centaurs would allow it. Without a leader, the goblins, hobgoblins, and imps will probably lie low. The fog giants love their swamp. The few trolls will skulk and look for advantages in the upheaval. Many of the darkest creatures hibernate except for on festival nights. You’ll know better than anyone if the undead are on the move."

"I don’t sense anything," Seth said. "That’s a relief," Doren said.

"What about you guys?" Seth asked.

"We wanted to get a grasp of the situation," Newel said.

"And now that you know …?"

"It would be fun to catch a movie," Newel mused. "Do you know any theaters that allow goats inside?"

"No theaters will let goats in," Seth affirmed.

Newel frowned. "Maybe we could slip the ticket guy some of Viola’s milk." He glanced at Doren. "We could wear boots and baggy pants."

"Or you could help me try to save the world," Seth said.

"You have a plan?" Doren asked.

"Best not to meddle in human affairs," Newel interrupted, grabbing Doren by the elbow. "I just remembered, we have some women and children to evacuate."

"The end of the world would mean an end to television," Seth reminded them.

Newel froze. It took him a few seconds to recover. "We’d have reruns."

"Not if people stopped running the TV stations," Seth said solemnly. "Your portable TV would be useless, even with the digital converter. On the other hand, if you helped me, there would be nothing to stop me from getting you guys a gas generator."