The Fairies and Pixies were working together to operate a giant fan that seemed to have the exact opposite effect of normal fans. Instead of blowing out cool air, it sucked in hot air. The Shadow Men who had ignored the fan at first were now too close and tried to fly away. But the fan continued pulling them in, and when it did, only ashes came out the other side.
Each Shadow Man destroyed took out another piece of Kovol's curse. Everything was going exactly the way Elliot had hoped it would.
The rest of Elliot's army fought one to one. They held off the remaining Shadow Men with their light sticks. None of the Shadow Men wanted to touch those sticks, which was fine with Elliot's creatures who really didn't want to get any closer than they had to.
In the distance, the Goblins continued to blow things up as new waves of Shadow Men approached. Every time Elliot heard an explosion, he knew that some had been slowed down and some had gotten through.
Yet so far, Elliot's side was holding its own.
"We're winning!" Elliot said excitedly to Fudd and Mr. Willimaker. "I think we're going to win this!"
Elliot may have spoken too soon. He heard a popping sound beside him and turned. In his human form, Harold was sitting beside Elliot, out of breath and with a very worried look on his face.
"I tried," Harold panted. "I tried, Elliot."
"Why are you here?" Elliot asked. "Where's Kovol?"
"I'm sorry. I made a mistake."
Elliot shook his head. "Harold, you were supposed to keep him far away from here!"
"I know." Harold took a deep breath. "I let him chase me everywhere. At one point he got bored and went up to the surface to look for you, but I got him back. But I got confused." Then his eyebrows pressed together. "I had to run so fast, and I forgot where I was. I led him back here."
Elliot gestured around them. "Here? You brought Kovol here?"
A deafening screech roared from the edge of Demon Territory. Hearing it, all the Shadow Men left Kovol's cave and flew away.
"That's Kovol calling his army back now," Harold said, burying his face in his hands. "We're in a lot of trouble, and it's all my fault."
Down on the dark ground, the Underworld creatures looked around at one another, confused and alarmed. They had heard the screech too.
"What's happening?" a Centaur said. "Something's wrong."
"Everyone poof away from here!" Elliot cried. "Back to Burrowsville. Hurry!"
A few of the creatures obeyed, but most of them stared toward the border of Demon Territory, where smoke was gathering into the shape of a cone. It quickly twisted into a circle, slowly moving at the top, where it was widest, and spinning faster and tighter at the bottom.
"What is that?" Mr. Willimaker asked. "I've never seen anything like that before."
"We have those on the surface," Elliot said. "If that's what I think it is."
Elliot knew no one could stop what was coming. They weren't protected beside Kovol's cave. They were trapped there!
"That's a tornado!" he said. But unlike the tornadoes on the surface world, this one was made of smoke and fire. "Everyone hurry!" he yelled. "Poof out of here now!"
"We have to leave now!" Fudd called to Elliot. Already, the wind created by the Shadow Men was so loud it sounded as if a train was running through Demon Territory.
Mr. Willimaker held tightly to his hat with one hand and to his glasses with the other. "It's too late," he said. "With wind this powerful, nobody could hold themselves together to safely poof away."
"Everyone go inside the cave!" Elliot ordered. "There's less wind. You can poof away there!"
Nobody needed to be told. Creatures were already rushing into the cave. Above the noise of the wind, Elliot yelled to both Fudd and Mr. Willimaker to leave. They couldn't poof themselves, but Elliot helped them shimmy down the roof, then he used his broomstick to lower them into the arms of some nearby Trolls.
"You must come too," Fudd said.
"I'll wait until everyone else is safely inside, and then I'll come," Elliot said. Sure, that was the kind of thing a good leader did, but mostly Elliot still hadn't decided which was worse: Kovol's creepy cave or a huge tornado.
When the last of the creatures was inside, Elliot sat on the edge of the cave, preparing to jump to the ground.
Then suddenly he held his ears as a voice boomed inside his head. It was louder than the oncoming tornado and made his brain vibrate.
"Underworld creatures, you are in my territory, so you are my prisoners now!"
Elliot recognized Kovol's voice. Every word felt like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard.
But Kovol wasn't a ruler. Or was he? Could he order prisoners not to poof away? Elliot had been sure he couldn't, or else he wouldn't have brought everyone here.
Then Elliot asked himself why he had believed that Kovol couldn't take prisoners. Nobody had told him so. He hadn't asked anyone about it. Maybe he had convinced himself he was right because he wanted to be right, not because it was true. He had made a huge mistake!
"Nobody leaves this place," Kovol ordered. "I am coming! And I will destroy you all!"
When the voice had gone, Elliot slid the rest of the way down the cave and then ran inside. He tried not to look at the dark walls and wonder what crawled there. Or to peek in the direction where Kovol had slept for a thousand years.
The first thing he tried was to poof himself away. Maybe Kovol was wrong and couldn't make such an order. Or maybe this was like the movies. Since Kovol was the bad guy, then the good guys could find a way to ignore Kovol's order. But no matter how hard he concentrated on Burrowsville or his bedroom at home, or anywhere else, he couldn't leave. Along with every other creature still inside this cave, he was trapped.
"How many of us got away?" he asked. "Before Kovol made us prisoners."
Mr. Willimaker shrugged. "Not many. Maybe only a hundred or so. But hundreds more are still in here. There's nothing we can do but wait like trapped prey!"
"The Goblins are coming!" someone up front called. "Everyone scoot back, or we won't all fit!"
It was easy to smell when they entered. Elliot had thought the cave smelled bad before, but the Goblins brought it to a whole new level of stink.
"Where's Grissel?" Elliot asked a Goblin with a thin and bony face. But the Goblin shrugged and hurried away. So Elliot called out, "Does anyone know where Grissel is?"
Several of the Goblins pointed outside, and a tall one up front said, "The Shadow Men know that Grissel was blowing up Demon Territory. They have him trapped."
Elliot grabbed his broom and ran toward the mouth of Kovol's cave. He felt a tug on his arm and turned to see Mr. Willimaker with Fudd standing beside him.
"No, Your Highness. It's too dangerous," Mr. Willimaker said.
"Kovol will be here any moment," Fudd added. "You can't go out there."
Mr. Willimaker nodded in agreement. "Besides, think of everything that Grissel has done to you. He's not worth it."
Elliot said, "Every creature is worth it. I've got to help him." From here, Elliot felt a little of the wind created by the Shadow Men. It would be worse outside. He held his broom in front of him and thought the word "light," but when he peeked at the broom, it was only about as bright as a light bulb. That wasn't good enough. So he thought of the sunlight, of his family, and of everything good he had ever known, and he poured all of those thoughts into his broom.
Immediately the stick lit with a glow that spread light into every corner of the cave. Elliot held the broom high, then walked back into the storm.
There had to be hundreds of Shadow Men forming the tornado. It was taller than he could see and loud enough to make vibrations in his head. Somewhere in the middle of it all was Grissel. Elliot knew how it felt to be trapped as the Shadow Men sucked out all the air. He wouldn't let that happen to anyone, not even his Goblin enemy.
He tried pushing forward through the wind, but even with all of his concentration, there wasn't enough Pixie magic inside him to keep fro
m being blown away. If he couldn't move forward, he couldn't save Grissel. The wind was so much stronger than he was. Then Elliot felt a sudden surge in his strength and slowly forced himself ahead. He took a quick glance behind him and saw many of the creatures at the entrance, their hands held out to him. It took a minute to understand what they were doing, and then he knew. He was moving forward by their power, not his own. They were using their magic to help him walk into a tornado.
When Elliot got close to it, he stretched out his arms with the lit broomstick. One by one, the Shadow Men crashed into the light, and one by one they fell to ashes. Elliot's arms shook from being so tired, but he held on. He had to hold on, because plan B (hoping the Shadow Men got dizzy and fell down on their own) was terrible. Gradually the wind died down as the Shadow Men either flew away or crashed into his broom and disappeared. He had fought a tornado and won!
When the last of them had gone, Elliot fell to the ground, exhausted. After only a minute he felt a bony hand on his arm, helping him to sit up.
"You're not such a bad human after all," Grissel said, smiling. "King Elliot, I promise never to harm your Brownies ever again."
"Then you're free to leave my jail," Elliot whispered.
"I don't think that matters," Grissel said. "You got rid of the Shadow Men for now. But all of us are trapped here in Demon Territory. And Kovol is coming."
Elliot might have stopped the tornado of Shadow Men, but it didn't take them long to figure out where everyone was hiding. Elliot and Grissel had barely made it back into the cave before the Shadow Men returned.
"Quick!" Elliot said to the Goblins. "Blow up the entrance."
"But that will leave us trapped inside," an Elf said.
The Dwarves were the only ones who cheered at that idea. They often made their homes underground and, in fact, preferred living there. Everyone else started arguing.
"Better that we're trapped in here than to let the Shadow Men come and get us," Elliot said.
Grissel nodded his agreement with Elliot's order, and the Goblins raised their hands to blow up the cave entrance.
But it was too late.
Hundreds of Shadow Men flew inside the cave with so much speed, all that could be seen was their trail of black smoke, which quickly filled the air. Everyone began coughing and sputtering.
"Change into a stick," Elliot said to Harold between coughs. "Or a rock. Something that doesn't need to breathe."
"If it doesn't breathe, it doesn't think," Harold said. "I won't be able to think myself back."
"Do it!" Elliot said. There wasn't time for arguing.
He heard a small pop and saw a bright orange rock on the ground. "The idea was to be less obvious," Elliot muttered to Harold the Rock. Harold the Rock didn't answer. No big surprise. Rocks are not known for their skills at conversation. Even shapeshifted ones.
Elliot watched the remaining creatures try fighting back with their sticks of light, but without enough air they had no strength to hold on to them. The sticks lost their light and clattered to the ground. Even Elliot found he couldn't hold on to his broom. It was hard enough just to breathe.
One by one the dark claws of the Shadow Men reached out and touched several creatures on their heads. As they did, the creatures froze in place.
Elliot looked up from the ground where he sat, still coughing and choking on smoke. "What's happening to them?"
Beside him, Mr. Willimaker said, "They've turned to stone. It's a curse. As long as the Shadow Men move, our friends will not."
Using the last bit of energy he had, Elliot wrote a message in the dirt. It said, "Orange rock."
Then as loudly as he could, he said, "The only one you want is me. If you leave these creatures alone, I'll let you take me to Kovol."
The Shadow Men stopped in midair. Only a few hundred creatures remained uncursed.
"No, Your Highness." Fudd stood and yelled to the Shadow Men, "Take me!"
"Or me!" Mr. Willimaker said.
They were joined in chorus by dozens of other creatures, each volunteering himself in place of Elliot.
Smoke instantly filled the room, making it even darker than pitch black. (Who knew that was even possible?) Elliot heard the thuds of bodies falling to the ground around him, and everything went silent. As the air gradually cleared, Elliot looked around the cave. Every other creature who had escaped being turned to stone had fallen on the ground. It looked like they were asleep, but they were moaning and shivering.
"What did you do?" Elliot yelled at the Shadow Men.
"A cold coma," the Shadow Men said in unison. "We pulled all the heat from their bodies."
"Well, give it back! I said I would go to Kovol if you left everyone alone."
Every Shadow Man in the cave, hundreds of them, laughed with one single laugh. Then together, all of them said, "Oh, but you will go to Kovol. He's ready for you now."
They began swirling around Elliot, choking off his air again. But this time there was no one to save him. His second-to-last thought was how tired he was of Kovol's army doing this, as if they didn't know any other tricks. It was like being a great pianist but knowing only one song. Elliot's last thought was that he was about to pass out, and that when he awoke again, he'd be facing Kovol as his prisoner.
Oddly, when Elliot woke up, he was not facing Kovol, or even the Shadow Men. He was facing a tree, which as everyone knows is much less dangerous than an evil Demon and his army. He was also tied up and hanging upside down, which was a bigger problem. It was the sort of thing Tubs had done to him plenty of times. Elliot felt all the blood in his body rushing from his feet to his head, which he hoped would be a good thing. He figured since blood was important for living, it was probably just as important for thinking. And thinking was exactly what Elliot wanted to do right now. Besides, as long as he was tied up this way, he really had nothing better to do other than think.
As nice as the tree was to look at, Elliot twisted his body around to get a different view. He couldn't be certain, because things always look different when you're upside down, but he was pretty sure he was somewhere in the woods behind his house. Which meant Kovol was also here, or he would be soon.
Elliot thought about calling for help, but nobody would be this deep into the woods, especially not this late in the day. And he didn't know how he would explain what was happening, even if he did get someone to come.
Dear Reader, as one of the great coincidences of all time, the great adventurer Diffle McSnug was in these very woods only five minutes before Elliot arrived. Although Diffle has had many wonderful adventures, including his most recent trip down the rapids of the Nile River while balanced on a crocodile's back, Diffle has read the books of Elliot's earlier adventures and was very distressed to realize he was not a character anywhere in them!
So in the effort to make himself a character once and for all, Diffle came to the woods behind Elliot's house, sure that if he looked hard enough, he would find Elliot in great need of help. Once he rescued Elliot, he was sure to finally be made a character.
Unfortunately, Elliot was still in the Underworld at the time. Diffle forgot to look for him there, perhaps because he didn't know how to check the Underworld. Diffle can do many great things, but, alas, he cannot poof. Nor can he curl his tongue, but that's really not important right now. Diffle had left the woods only five minutes before Kovol brought Elliot here as his prisoner. Sadly, Elliot was, in fact, very much in need of help.
Since Diffle missed his chance to help Elliot, the decision by the Committee on Character Placement is that Diffle will not be admitted as a character in this or any other book about Elliot. After all his troubles, Diffle still needs to get his own book. Poor Diffle.
And poor Elliot! He just had to wait through an entire story about someone who isn't even a character in this book. Still upside down, and still all alone, with no chance for escape.
Or could he?
Because Elliot remembered he had Pixie magic. Most readers might think
if they had Pixie magic, it wouldn't be the sort of thing they'd forget, whether they were hanging upside down or not. But Elliot had a good excuse. After all, he was facing the end of the world, which was partly his own fault since he did wake up Kovol. And if you recall, he'd only had the Sahara Desert sandwich for lunch, so he was also a little hungry. In other words, he'd had a hard day. Also, all the blood in his body was rushing to his head, so his thoughts were starting to get really crowded, and the thought about Pixie magic was stuck way in the back, where it had almost been forgotten.
With Pixie magic, escaping would be simple. All he had to do was poof away. Then maybe hide in the bushes until Kovol came and saw that his trap was empty. Elliot thought he'd love to see the expression on Kovol's face. He'd be so angry, he'd start ripping whole bushes right out of the ground...wait, now that Elliot had a chance to think about it, hiding in a bush was a terrible idea.
Elliot closed his eyes and told his body to poof out of the ropes. But nothing happened. He closed his eyes even tighter, and this time he ordered--no, he demanded that his body poof away. Again nothing happened.
"It's because I'm Kovol's prisoner," Elliot muttered. "Well, that's dumb."
But he wasn't finished yet. Maybe he couldn't poof away, but that didn't mean he had to stay here, tied up and helpless. He closed his eyes and imagined he was tied up with licorice ropes. Elliot planned to eat his way free--and get a yummy snack too! It was a perfect escape plan.
But as hard as he tried to make it happen, his ropes remained as they were, and Elliot remained stuck. However, he was able to poof in a piece of licorice to snack on while he thought of a new plan. So his Pixie magic wasn't completely useless.
Then Elliot's eyes widened. He might be trapped here, unable to use magic to free himself, but there were still things he could do.
"Patches!" he hissed. "Patches, I need you!"
Instantly, Patches appeared and hugged his face, the only part of him she could reach. "There you are! Kovol must have found some way to block us from finding you." She frowned. "Are you okay? Your face is really red."