Foo-Foo waved his dagger at the masses milling around them. Only a few attendees paid him any notice before looking back at their phones. Aja and Krel both realized that Foo-Foo was right—and that they were still without their Serrators.

  The hard-light blade sang as it sliced through the stale food court air. The royals barely dodged the strike, then looked at each other, desperate for a way to defend themselves. Krel started moving his feet like he was back on the Go-Go Sushi dance floor, flossing his arms in front and behind his hips. The movement distracted Foo-Foo long enough for Aja to reach the nacho station and shout, “Hey, Foo-Foo! Say ‘cheese’!”

  The queen-in-waiting bent the spout upward and squirted out an entire gallon of molten cheese. The yellow goo streamed over Krel’s shoulder and splatted onto Foo-Foo. His armor hit the floor with a resounding clang. Only a few convention goers bothered to look up from their fast food and comics. Foo-Foo tried to stand again, but his cybernetic feet slipped on the viscous puddle. He shook his fist at the royals and roared, “You Akiridion adolescents will pay for this affront—with your cores!”

  “Awwwww!” Aja and Krel said adoringly.

  “So cute,” added Aja.

  “So helpless,” added Krel.

  “Foo-Foo the Destroyer is not cute!” said Foo-Foo. “And I am far from helpless!”

  He popped a hatch on his back and ejected two more of the traps he used to ensnare his Gumm-Gumms. Aja and Krel took off down the nearest aisle, zigzagging between preoccupied attendees. But the traps rocketed after them, matching the siblings turn for turn as if they were heat-seeking missiles. The royals had just reached the next section of Arcadia-Con, when shackles clamped down onto their ankles. They tripped and fell into some folding tables and chairs.

  Foo-Foo’s suit made its telltale springing sound as he hopped over and watched Aja and Krel writhe on the floor. Although his metal face remained impassive, the bounty hunter still had the air of someone who gloated. He pressed another button on his wrist guard, and the two traps responded. The devices each projected a series of intersecting beams, sealing Aja and Krel in a single glowing cage of pure energy. A few Arcadia-Con attendees took notice of this new light show, and Foo-Foo tapped another button. The cage’s bars started to constrict around the royals.

  “We still think you’re adorable!” Aja said as she pushed in vain against the bars.

  “I don’t care,” replied the rabbitlike creature. “House Tarron once interfered with my destiny, and I won’t let it happen again. Once you two are out of the way, none shall stand between Varvatos and me ever again!”

  CHAPTER 13

  INTERCEPTED COMMUNICATIONS

  “Frightened yet?” whispered Zadra.

  Davaros thought over the question as they hid behind a wall in the royal palace of Akiridion. The girl then nodded and asked, “Are you disappointed in me?”

  Now it was Zadra’s turn to think. When she had been a lowly cadet, the Taylon Phalanx trained its recruits to never be afraid—that fear was a sign of weakness. But as Zadra rose through their ranks, she came to understand that the opposite was true. Whether she ran an obstacle course or battled an enemy combatant to the death, Zadra’s fear kept her nerves on edge. Those nerves kept her senses sharp. Those senses kept her aware. And that awareness kept Zadra alive long enough to become lieutenant.

  “Not at all,” Zadra told Davaros.

  Zadra waited for the surveillance orb to move past on its preprogrammed route, then signaled for Davaros to follow her. They left the wall, paused behind a pillar to avoid another orb, then reached the ascensor. Zadra punched in an access code, while Davaros made sure they remained undetected. A door slid open, and they stepped onto a disc, which lifted them upward.

  Zadra winked at Davaros to bolster the young girl’s confidence. But Davaros kept quiet. Rather than force a conversation, which was never Zadra’s strong suit anyway, she decided to let Davaros remain silent. Because that meant the girl was afraid. And that fear meant she just might survive.

  The ascensor reached the top floor of the citadel. Zadra and Davaros exited onto a floor populated entirely by Blank units. The closest Blank turned its sleek white head and said, “Greetings, Lieutenant Zadra. How may we assist you in the communications sector today?”

  Davaros watched Zadra’s six nimble fingers rewire the Blank’s innards, just as Izita had taught her. A moment later the eyes on the Blank unit went from distressed red squiggles to mellow green dots. This effect then spread to the other robots on the floor. The Blanks returned to their work terminals. Each keystroke they made on the holographic displays set off a symphony of melodic chimes.

  “Their memory banks will now auto-wipe every three sectons,” said Zadra. “To them it will seem as if we were never here.”

  She and Davaros sidestepped the hot-wired Blanks and entered another room. The door hissed shut behind them, sealing the pair inside a technology bay. Soft, pink light bathed a sophisticated array of computer processors. Behind the machines a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows offered a dizzying view of Akiridion far below. Davaros pointed to the central server and said, “That’s what we’ll need to trace the Pingpod. I just never realized it’d be so big!”

  “Nor did I,” said Zadra before suddenly going very, very still. “Do you hear that?”

  Davaros strained to listen, but heard nothing other than the gentle whir of the servers. She gave the lieutenant a quizzical look and said, “No?”

  “Exactly,” said Zadra, pulling the scythe from her back and flicking out its blades. “The computers outside aren’t chiming. The Blanks have stopped working. We’re not alone.”

  The lighting in the technology bay turned from pink to crimson. Zadra grabbed Davaros’s wrist with her free hand and pulled her closer. A half second later the door glided open once more, revealing a regiment of loyalist soldiers. They fixed their one-eyed helmets on the two rebel intruders. The loyalists then parted down the middle, making way for their leader—General Val Morando.

  “Why, Lieutenant, what brings you to this sector?” asked Morando, his gossamer cape billowing as he circled. “I didn’t think communications was one of your specialities . . .”

  Zadra’s mind raced. She tried to envision a way to take out Morando and his guards long enough for Davaros to escape. But every imagined scenario ended only in capture—or worse.

  “Curse you, Zadra!” Davaros shouted abruptly, surprising everyone, Zadra included. Zadra stared at Davaros in shock.

  Davaros twisted her arm around in Zadra’s hand so that it looked like she was the lieutenant’s captive, not compatriot. Morando’s four eyes became suspicious slits. Davaros said, “I’m not afraid of you, Morando! I and my fellow rebels still recognize House Tarron as the one, true authority of Akiridion! Your lieutenant may have apprehended me before I could complete my mission, but fear not! Two more Resistance spies will surely rise to take my place!”

  For a long moment all anyone heard was the faint hum of the servers. Zadra blinked at Davaros, impressed by her skill for improvisation, but deeply worried for what would come next. In assuming all the blame, Davaros had endangered herself. Yet she had also protected Zadra’s identity as a double agent, a mole embedded at the highest level of Morando’s forces.

  “Is this true, Lieutenant Zadra?” the general finally asked.

  Zadra took one last look into Davaros’s eyes, which so closely resembled her mother’s. She tried to imagine what Izita would choose in this moment—the fate of the entire Resistance or the life of her own child. In a voice just above a whisper, Zadra said, “It . . . it’s true. All of it.”

  Davaros nodded almost imperceptibly at her, like she was proud of the woman assigned to protect her. If this girl felt any more fear at the moment, Zadra could not see it. Morando tipped his head toward them and said, “Take the child to Sector Black for elimination.”

  Zadra shut her eyes in resignation. She felt Morando’s guards wrench Davaros out of her hand. To the girl’s credit she never cried or begged. She only looked back with a deadpan expression on her way out. Morando bared his fangs into a smile and said, “Well done, Lieutenant. To be sure, I had been worried about infiltration in my inner circle. How fortunate for me, then, that you are here to keep your general safe.”

  His gaze lingered on her for a moment longer. Then Morando turned on his heels and strode out of the communications area. Zadra watched him go, followed by the loyalists escorting Davaros. More flashbacks from Zadra’s many tours of duty flooded her core. To Zadra, watching Davaros be sent to Sector Black felt like losing another fellow soldier. She felt utterly helpless and miserable but refused to let it show. To Zadra, it felt like Xerexes’s Maelstrom all over again.

  CHAPTER 14

  THE AMAZING CHASE

  “Wait! I want to see what happens next!” whined Mary. “Can’t we stay? Please?”

  Team Trollhunters hustled her, Darci, and Shannon deeper into the Murder House maze, with Foo-Foo’s Gumm-Gumms in hot pursuit. The three girls had watched Jim tell his very tall friend in the monster getup to make a path. So the big guy rammed his mossy shoulder into a wall and punched a giant hole right through the labyrinth. Mary, Darci, and Shannon had giggled as the others then pushed them through the impromptu escape route. But now they felt like they were being rushed past the attraction’s best parts.

  “Quit shoving, Toby-Pie!” Darci said.

  Toby yelped and tackled his girlfriend. A split-second later, a Parlok spear flew through the spot where Darci’s head had been. The weapon splintered the painted plywood above them.

  “Solid scare!” said Shannon, admiring what she assumed was a special effect.

  Jim and Claire hurriedly ushered along Shannon and the others. The three wire-infested Gumm-Gumms still pursued them relentlessly. Pouring on the speed, Jim considered the Amulet in his hand and said, “We’ve gotta stop running and start defending ourselves!”

  “Yeah, but ditching Mary, Darci, and Shannon won’t be easy!” Claire said between coughs. “As far as they—koff!—know, they’re having the time of their—koff!—lives!”

  “Aw, for the luvva Glug!” groused NotEnrique, who had been hanging on to Claire’s back the entire time. “Do I gotta do everythin’ ’round here?”

  He hopped off Claire and scampered ahead. Because of his small stature and sneaky nature, NotEnrique easily scooted past Mary, Darci, and Shannon without being seen. He took turn after turn, eventually reaching a dead end. NotEnrique’s pug face curled into a smile, and he said, “Perfect . . .”

  A few yards back, Mary, Darci, and Shannon moved to the head of the pack and followed the same series of twists and turns in the maze. They chattered excitedly, eagerly anticipating the next jump scare the Murder House had to offer. Reaching a blind alley, the girls playfully argued over who should go in first. Mary then “volunteered” Shannon by pushing her forward.

  Shannon stumbled, accidentally tripping into the dead end. Her glasses fell off, and she groped blindly on floor, which was carpeted in fog. With blurry vision, Shannon thought she saw a dark shape slumped in the corner—a dark shape that moved.

  “H-hello?” Shannon called out, still fumbling for her glasses. “Do you work here?”

  “Shan? You okay in there?” called Darci as she and Mary joined her.

  “Who were you talking to?” Mary asked, finding the glasses and giving them to Shannon.

  Shannon put them on, and now able to see again, she said, “There was someone down there.”

  The girls looked at the dead end. It was empty. Shannon startled when she spotted that same dark shape now slumped a few feet closer. Mary saw that it was wearing a diaper. She rolled her eyes and said, “Ugh, it’s just some rubber baby doll. Yawn.”

  Although NotEnrique had recently lost the ability to change his shape, he still retained the size and proportions of a human infant—albeit a furry, green one. But those Trollish features remained obscured by the maze’s smoke machines and dim lighting. Just as Mary, Darci, and Shannon were about to leave, NotEnrique turned his little head toward them.

  The girls caught the movement in their peripheral vision and screamed, “AAAAAAAH!”

  NotEnrique stood up, his Changeling eyes shining yellow in the darkness.

  Again they screamed.

  The wee Changeling toddler-walked down the corridor toward them, the flashing strobe lights making his gait appear all the more stilted and unnatural.

  Yet more screams.

  NotEnrique then held out his chubby little arms and, in his most childlike voice, said, “Baby hungry—for blood!”

  The girls’ final screams were so loud and so long, Mary fainted from a lack of oxygen. Shannon and Darci caught her and ran shrieking back the way they came. NotEnrique dusted his hands in satisfaction and said, “Gets ’em every time!”

  Team Trollhunters jumped as Darci and Shannon rushed by in the opposite direction, dragging the unconscious Mary along with them. Shannon wailed in hysterics and said to Claire, “Don’t go that way, C-Bomb! It’s horrible! Horrible!”

  “Um, bye-bye, boo?” Toby said with a weak wave to Darci.

  The girls bolted past the three Gumm-Gumms, who seemed equally surprised. With this portion of the maze now cleared of innocent bystanders and witnesses, both sides prepared for battle. The Amulet shone in Jim’s hand, and he incanted, “For the doom of Gunmar, Eclipse is mine to command!”

  A geyser of black-and-red magic spiraled out of the device and around Jim. The Gumm-Gumms shielded their eyes from the supernatural spectacle, then saw the Trollhunter standing before them in his obsidian Eclipse Armor. Jim’s teammates quickly followed suit. Blinky raised four fists, AAARRRGGHH!!! cracked his knuckles, and Claire extended her Shadow Staff.

  “Decided to go for a darker look this time, huh, Jimbo?” Toby asked of the Eclipse Armor.

  Jim retracted the faceplate from his horned helmet and said, “Guess I was inspired by the Murder House décor, Tobes.”

  “Then let’s stay on-brand and hold a demo day for these Gumm-Gumms!” said Toby.

  His Warhammer connected with one of the evil Troll’s skulls. Jim manifested the Sword of Eclipse in his hand and drove the ebon blade through the dazed brute, turning him to solid stone. Blinky grabbed another Gumm-Gumm with one pair of his hands—then used the other pair to shove Dwärkstone grenades under his armor. Claire opened a shadow portal as the Gumm-Gumm frantically tried dislodging the bombs. AAARRRGGHH!!! then rammed into him, sending him spinning into the infinite vacuum of the Shadow Realm.

  “In space, no one can hear you explode!” said Blinky.

  The black portal cinched itself shut just as the grenades detonated, muting most of the resultant blast. And the final Gumm-Gumm, now outnumbered five to one, fled. The Trollhunter detached the Glaives from his thighs, connected the interlocking blades, and hurled the single curved weapon. It struck the retreating Gumm-Gumm in his circuit-riddled back, reducing him to another lifeless statue. Now petrified, the Troll teetered over and shattered.

  “Out of all our victories, this has to be the most a-maze-ing, right, guys?” Toby said with a wag of his eyebrows.

  Blinky slapped four hands against his forehead and moaned, “Master Jim was mistaken. The frights we faced here were nothing compared to Tobias’s terrible puns.”

  “Hashtag lame,” grumbled AAARRRGGHH!!!

  Jim knelt to retrieve his Glaives from the broken Gumm-Gumm on the floor, then noticed the foreign circuitry still mixed in with the rest of the rubble. The Trollhunter tugged on the wires and followed them till they eventually led him to one of Foo-Foo’s neural control discs.

  “What in the world do you suppose this is?” Jim asked. “If it even is from this world . . .”

  The disc and wires spontaneously combusted in his hands, as did the filaments on the other felled Gumm-Gumm. The maze’s overhead lights turned on then, washing Team Trollhunters in a harsh fluorescent glare. As their eyes adjusted, they realized how shoddy the labyrinth looked when it wasn’t lit just right. Jim and the others then heard a stampede of footsteps coming from one direction and the squawk of walkie-talkies from the other.

  “It sounds like somebody noticed our recent renovations,” Toby guessed. “Whoops.”

  Jim said, “Claire, I hate to ask this, but are you well enough to shadow-jump us home?”

  “M-maybe not that far,” she answered unsteadily. “But I might be able to send us someplace a little closer.”

  Team Trollhunters ducked into the new swirling shadow Claire summoned. NotEnrique ran over on all fours and said, “Don’t forget yer backpack!”

  The Changeling disappeared into the portal with the others, just before it winked out of existence—and just before several Arcadia-Con security guards filed into the maze. They stared at all the destruction done to the official Murder House fan experience and at the strange gravel crunching under their feet. One of the shocked guards unclipped his walkie-talkie and said, “Uh, come in, central. You’re never gonna believe what we just found. . . .”

  “Copy that,” said the voice on the other end. “We’re getting strange reports coming in from all over the Con. Requesting immediate assistance at the main entrance—over!”

  CHAPTER 15

  SLAYING WITH SWAGGER

  A laser shot straight through the top of Octopoid costume, grazing the cowlick on Eli’s head. He wrinkled his nose at the unexpected smell of burning hair, then noticed the smoking holes leading into and out of his cosplay costume. Standing on the tips of his toes, Eli looked out of the entry wound and saw a drone hovering a few feet away. Everyone else in the VIP lounge—including Steve and his acting idol—was too busy hobnobbing to notice the flying robot. The drone detected Eli’s eye peering out of the tentacled husk and began recalculating.

  Extraterrestrial life-form: Classification error/not cephaloplasmus, Zorkian

  Primary directive: Per Foo-Foo the Destroyer, leave no witnesses

 

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