Age of the Amulet Read online

  “What’s the big idea, pencil neck?” asked NotEnrique, hearing Strickler, Nomura, and Steve’s voices getting closer.

  “We’re going to Trollmarket—duh!” said Eli, producing the Horngazel from his pocket.

  “How, uh, how do ya know about that?” NotEnrique said, now getting nervous.

  “Jim said that Gunmar fella took over Trollmarket,” explained Eli while studying the wall. “And this canal is where I saw those two Trolls heading when they ran past my bedroom months ago, with their stone for skin. Ergo, the entrance has gotta be around here somewhere. And like you said, lil’ guy—this Horngazel is the key.”

  “Who’re you callin’ little, ya—?” NotEnrique groused before Eli thrust the Horngazel—handle first—into his open mouth like a baby pacifier.

  “But I figure it can only be used by a Troll,” added Eli.

  Steve, Strickler, and Nomura reached the canal in time to see Eli drag NotEnrique’s face in a straight line across the wall. Eli’s glasses reflected with blue light as the line glowed. He quickly sketched two more lines with the Horngazel protruding from NotEnrique’s lips, creating the rectangular outline of a human door. He paused to admire his work.

  “Eli!” shouted Steve.

  “I told you—call me Romeo!” Eli said.

  The Horngazel doorway crumbled inward, and NotEnrique spat out the crystal key like a petulant baby. Over the grinding of the stones floating around the otherworldly tunnel, Nomura warned, “Don’t go in there, kid! You have no idea of the monster waiting on the other side!”

  “ ‘These violent delights have violent ends’!” Eli quoted again before blowing a kiss and diving headfirst into the swirling corridor with NotEnrique.

  Hurrying down the angled canal wall, Strickler, Nomura, and Steve jumped into the tunnel after them. Remembering something, Steve stepped back out and retrieved the crystal key.

  “Gross!” said Steve, wiping NotEnrique’s drool onto his pant leg.

  Strickler and Nomura’s arms reached out of the Horngazel tunnel and yanked Steve back inside before it closed completely.

  • • •

  “Whoa!” gasped Eli as took in the full scope of Heartstone Trollmarket. “What a dump.”

  Ever since he had first heard of a secret society of Trolls living beneath his feet, Eli had dreamed they lived in some vast and vibrant subterranean metropolis. Instead, he found a drab military state teeming with regiments of Gumm-Gumm soldiers.

  “Aw, no,” muttered NotEnrique, pulling free of Eli. “Look what they did to this place. . . .”

  The elfin Changeling looked up at the Heartstone, which once shone with warm, amber light. Now, however, black veins of rot shot through the crystal, darkening Trollmarket. NotEnrique only looked away when he spotted Eli strolling over to the Hero’s Forge without a care in the world. Strickler, Nomura, and an extremely tense Steve caught up with NotEnrique, watching from an elevated bluff as Eli slipped undetected into the arena.

  “He’s going to get himself killed,” said Nomura.

  “Worse,” Strickler replied. “He’s going to get all of us killed.”

  Eli walked into the training pit at the center of the Hero’s Forge. Long shadows blackened its carved fixtures. He whistled and said, “Man, outta all the places I’ve seen as a Creepslayer, this one’s the creepiest, that’s for sure.”

  Looking up, Eli saw three Trolls staring back at him in dumbfounded amazement from a throne at the top of the arena. One was a blind six-eyed Troll. One was a tall Krubera, her regal face lit up by bioluminescent patterns. And the last was the biggest Gumm-Gumm Eli had ever seen, his veins flecked with gold, his one remaining eye burning with fury.

  “Oh, hey, there,” said Eli with a friendly wave. “Is one of you Gunmar?”

  “How dare you address our Dark Underlord?” demanded Dictatious. “I’d throttle you myself . . . if I could see you.”

  “Another human, here in Trollmarket?” said Queen Usurna in an insulted voice.

  The Gumm-Gumm king silenced Dictatious and Usurna and announced, “I am he who you foolishly seek. I am Gunmar the Gold. Tell me your name, whelp, before I grind your organs into paste.”

  “I am Romeo,” said Eli, standing akimbo. “And the only thing turning to paste around here is you, Dumb-mar!”

  Back on the bluff, Steve chuckled and said, “Heh. Good one.”

  “Unbelievable,” Nomura gasped. “Is it possible Gunmar’s even bigger—even stronger—here than he was in the Darklands?”

  “He’s feeding off the Heartstone,” said Strickler. “And poisoning it in the process, by the looks of things. I . . . I never fully realized what horrors we’ve helped bring into this world.”

  In the Hero’s Forge, Gunmar’s eye narrowed at the interloper before him. “You certainly have gronk-nuks, fleshbag. I’ll give you that.”

  Eli stopped mooning Gunmar long enough to say, “That’s not all I’ve got, sucka! Back on the surface, there’s an entire army of Trolls itching for a fight!”

  “The little twit’s gonna give away our location!” cried NotEnrique on the bluff. “We gotta shut him up now!”

  Gunmar pounded his golden fist against his throne, breaking off a piece of it, and roared, “Where? Tell me where the Trollhunter and his rabble hide from my vengeance!”

  “You want to know where?” said Eli.

  Desperate to silence Eli, Strickler transformed into his Changeling self, causing Steve to promptly faint at his scaly green feet. Reaching under his cloak, Strickler flicked a feather dart toward the Hero’s Forge.

  “I’ll tell you where!” Eli yelled up at Gunmar.

  The feather dart soared across Trollmarket and whizzed right past Eli’s throat—severing the Grit-Shaka necklace. The totem fell to the arena floor, and Eli held a hand to his head, feeling woozy all of a sudden.

  “Where . . . where . . . ,” stammered Eli. “Where am I?”

  He adjusted his glasses and saw Gunmar the Gold, as if for the first time. Eli whimpered pitifully and squeaked out a simple “Uh-oh.”

  CHAPTER 14

  MERLIN’S MISTAKE

  Jim worried about Gogun, even as his friends and Blinky’s Troll followers made their way toward Glastonbury Tor Trollmarket’s vault. He peeked around corners and poked his head into abandoned caves, but still found no sign of the crotchety old hermit.

  Probably doing the Troll tango under another bridge somewhere, Jim thought.

  “At last,” said Blinky, reaching the vault’s fortified doors. “Now, does anyone here happen to know the combination?”

  The two young brothers pushed their way to the front of the crowd. Blinky gave them a wide berth, avoiding eye contact with the siblings. The eldest put two of his four green hands on a pair of tumblers. He rotated them a few degrees in one direction, then back a few in the other. With a groan of heavy gears, three overlapping doors sank in in rapid succession, revealing the open vault beyond them.

  “Why thank you, Dic—er, young lad,” Blinky said carefully.

  “Of course, Gronka Morka,” replied young Dictatious, taking his little brother by the hands. “Perhaps you’ll repay the favor one day.”

  Blinky saw his younger self and brother return to the crowd and said, “Yes . . . perhaps.”

  Inside the vault, Toby and AAARRRGGHH!!! dug through the many relics lining its thick crystal walls. In his haste, Toby accidentally bumped his backside against a pile of delicate Troll items, spilling them to the floor—and revealing a Kairosect underneath.

  “Bingo,” grumbled AAARRRGGHH!!!

  “Tobes, you found it!” Jim said, taking the Kairosect from his best friend.

  “Yeah—and this bad boy too!” Toby replied as he then pulled his Warhammer from another mound of Troll gear.

  Claire sniffled and added, “Great work, Toby! Now all we need to get home is—”

  “This?” said a sinister voice behind them, followed by the peep of an adorable meow.

  Team Trol
lhunters’ joy faded. They all turned around and saw Tellad-Urr the Terrible gently cradling Shmorkrarg in one red claw and holding Gogun by the throat in the other. The dark Trollhunter nodded to the Shadow Staff hitched to his hip. Behind him, the freed prisoners scattered to all corners of their market in fear.

  “You turn up nearly as often as this accursed Amulet,” Tellad-Urr said to Jim.

  “Let Gogun go,” Jim said back. “And Shmorkie.”

  “Yeah,” gurgled Gogun. “This seems like it’s between the two of you and not really any of my business—urk!”

  Tellad-Urr tightened his grip around Gogun, but eased the kitten to the ground. He then considered the old Troll in his clutches and said, “You would risk your life to save this coward?”

  “He’s going to become a Trollhunter,” Jim answered defiantly. “Just like me. Just like you used to be, Tellad-Urr.”

  “Not for much longer,” muttered the dark Trollhunter ominously as he glared at Jim.

  Before Team Trollhunters had a chance to react, four more Tellad-Urr replicas zoomed around them. With lightning-fast speed, the duplicates struck down Jim, Toby, Claire, Blinky, and AAARRRGGHH!!! in a flurry of scarlet fists.

  And now he’s got Araknak the Agile’s quickness, Jim thought just before his body hit the ground.

  “You come from the future, yet you do not perceive the inherent flaw in all Trollhunters,” said the original Tellad-Urr, tossing aside Gogun like so much garbage.

  The River Troll’s smock snagged the Shadow Staff on his way down, dislodging it from Tellad-Urr’s hip and sending it clattering across the vault floor. The dark Trollhunter did not seem to care, he was so consumed with his tirade, saying, “We must be strong enough to protect those around us, even as the Amulet erodes at our resolve, century after agonizing century. This is the wizard’s folly. This is Merlin’s mistake.”

  “The only mistake I see is your own,” said Jim, struggling to push himself off the ground.

  “Do you really think you will spend the rest of your life as a Trollhunter?” asked Tellad-Urr. “Do you truly picture yourself carrying this mantle day after day? Barely able to swing your sword in old age? Pushing away those you love? Giving up pieces of yourself along the way?”

  “I . . . I don’t know,” Jim answered truthfully, an image of his mom alone in their kitchen popping into his mind. “But do you really think Gunmar and Bular will honor your deal? They’re gonna double-cross you the second they overthrow Orlagk. Trust me, I’ve read about it!”

  Tellad-Urr the Terrible’s devastated face twisted into contemptuous look—even as his four duplicates glanced at each other in concern.

  “Do . . . do you think it’s possible?” asked the second Tellad-Urr.

  “Treachery is always possible with Gumm-Gumms,” said the third.

  “That seems to be all there is these days,” mused the fourth ruefully. “Treachery.”

  “If only we—I—could go back and do things differently,” the fifth now said. “Broken bones and endless obligation might not seem so painful if traveling the virtuous path once more.”

  “NO!” roared the first Tellad-Urr, absorbing the quarrelsome quartet into his Amulet. “No more argument! No more voices or ticking or sacrifice!”

  The dark Trollhunter stormed over to Gogun’s battered body, raising the hackles of the startled kittens gathered around him. Tellad-Urr pressed one red boot on top of the old Troll’s chest and pledged, “I will never pass Merlin’s misery on to another. History will change.”

  “You can change, too,” said Jim, now on his feet. “Anyone can.”

  “You lie!” Tellad-Urr snapped.

  “No lie,” AAARRRGGHH!!! said as he rose next to Jim. “I change.”

  “Aarghaumont speaks true, Tellad-Urr,” Blinky interjected as he Toby, and Claire recovered. “He once fought on the side of the Gumm-Gumms as one of their strongest warriors. Yet his true strength lay inside, making his miraculous change of heart possible.”

  “You can be triumphant again,” Claire said, quickly tucking her hand under her coat.

  Gogun cracked open one fearful eye as Tellad-Urr lifted his boot. The dark Trollhunter’s lopsided face seemed to soften as he considered these five strangers’ words. Turning his back on them, Tellad-Urr braced his hands on one of the thick walls, as if steadying himself. Jim and his friends looked hopefully to each other—until Tellad-Urr dug his claws into the wall. The dark Trollhunter excavated an enormous hunk of crystal from the vault, raised it over his one-horned head, and uttered, “Not if I can help it.”

  Jim, Claire, Toby, Blinky, and AAARRRGGHH!!! had just enough time to share one last, desperate look before Tellad-Urr the Terrible slammed the crystal wall down upon them.

  CHAPTER 15

  MESS WITH THE TROLL, GET THE HORNS

  “DIE!” commanded Gunmar the Gold, his primal roar echoing across the Hero’s Forge. “I will see this Row-Muh-Oh die!”

  Eli screamed out of the arena and into the dark Trollmarket. All around him, hundreds of Gunmar’s Gumm-Gumms poured from every cave and tunnel. The helmeted soldiers converged, pointing their Parlok Spears at Eli’s trembling body—until a series of explosions rocked the underground city. The detonations sent Gumm-Gumms flying this way and that, clearing a path for Eli.

  “Run, Romeo, run!” yelled Steve, now awake and lobbing more Dwärkstone grenades.

  “Who?!” said Eli as he scrambled to safety.

  “I thought we confiscated all those,” said Strickler, reverting to his human form.

  “Oh yeah, like I’m gonna listen to what one of my teachers says!” Steve replied sarcastically. “Especially one who turns into a creep!”

  Steve took off down the bluff, and the Changelings followed. Eli met them at the base of a spiral staircase, its crystal steps dim like the Heartstone, and hugged his fellow Creepslayer.

  “You saved my life, Steve!” Eli said, catching his breath. “How can I ever repay you?”

  “By never hugging me again,” Steve answered with a hard shove. “But I, uh . . . I’m glad you’re alive, Pepperbuddy.”

  “That ain’t gonna last for long,” said NotEnrique, looking back at the wave of recovered Gumm-Gumms racing toward them. “I could really go for a glug right now.”

  Unfazed, Strickler pointed up the crystal staircase and said, “The Horngazel access point is that way. Let’s move quickly, before—”

  A blue, spiked ball suddenly rolled in front of the steps, blocking them. It then unfurled, revealing a muscular Troll with a metal arm, nose ring, and mirrored eyes. To Nomura it looked like—

  “Draal?” Nomura gasped at the Troll. “What’s happened to you?”

  Draal stepped toward them, malice shining in his chromed gaze. The Changelings and Creepslayerz backed away as the spiked Troll wordlessly advanced, while the phalanx of Gumm-Gumm soldiers closed in from the rear.

  “I’m afraid he’s not Draal anymore, Nomura,” Strickler said. “At least, not the one you knew. Gunmar’s Decimaar Blade has seen to that.”

  Nomura’s face fell in sorrow before Draal tucked back into a ball again and spiraled toward them. Steeling herself, Nomura grabbed Steve and Eli by their collars and jumped out of the way. Strickler and NotEnrique leaped aside with their incredible Changeling reflexes. Draal barreled right past his targets and slammed into the oncoming Gumm-Gumms, scattering them like tenpins. Unfortunately, Queen Usurna and her Krubera Trolls now descended upon the scene, barring the path to the crystal staircase once more.

  “You heard your Dark Underlord,” Usurna cried to her Kruberas. “Kill the intruders!”

  “Oh no, what have I done?” Eli moaned. “I’ve doomed my best friend and three innocent shape-shifters!”

  “We’re far from innocent,” Nomura clarified.

  “And what’s this ‘best friend’ business?” asked Steve.

  “We’re not doomed just yet,” Strickler said. “There may be one last way out!”

  Strickler br
oke off to the side, and the others ran after him—as did Draal, the Gumm-Gumms, and the Kruberas. The five fleeing figures seemed so tiny compared to the onslaught of deranged Trolls that threatened to engulf them. Running deeper below Dark Trollmarket, the Changelings and Creepslayerz rushed onto a platform that contained a spherical Troll vehicle.

  “The gyre!” NotEnrique said as he hopped inside of the conveyance. “You two fleshbags may wanna buckle up!”

  Steve and Eli entered the gyre and did as instructed, while the collective howl of enemy Trolls rumbled closer. Nomura saw the gyre tunnel blocked by a gigantic hangar door and said, “We’re trapped.”

  “Not necessarily,” Strickler said as he stood at the vehicle’s controls, ignoring the nearing Trolls. “Not unless Misters Palchuk and Pepperjack are finally out of their ‘smoke bombs’?”

  Steve and Eli turned their backs to the others. Nomura thought she heard the sound of zippers. When the Creepslayerz turned around again, they held two last Dwärkstones.

  “Disgusting,” NotEnrique said with a shudder.

  “Says the green guy wearing a diaper,” Steve quipped as he and Eli threw the grenades.

  The door blasted to smithereens, revealing an infinite network of underground tunnels. As Draal, the Gumm-Gumms, and the Kruberas stampeded toward the platform, Strickler cranked a control lever and yelled, “Hang on!”

  The gyre launched down the tunnels like a rocketing armillary, transporting two Creepslayerz and three Changelings away from their pursuers and out of Dark Trollmarket.

  • • •

  “They . . . they escaped, Dark Underlord,” admitted Queen Usurna as she led Dictatious toward the Heartstone, their heads bowed in shame.

  Gunmar didn’t even bother looking at his cowed advisors. He merely pressed his claws against the colossal crystal, leeching more of its life-giving energies. New black tendrils of decay snaked through the Heartstone, even as Gunmar’s veins pulsated with a golden sheen.

  “You tell me what I already know,” said Gunmar the Gold. “Or have you forgotten that Draal’s possessed sight is now my own?”

  Dictatious cleared his throat and said, “Sire, if I might suggest—”