The Howl of Avooblis Read online

  Dagdron came to a complete stop as his teacher grinned at him. While Dagdron had assumed Flip must have certain rogue skills to have built all the traps over the course of the year, he had never thought about how talented he must be as a rogue. During Dagdron’s momentary thoughts, Flip grabbed hold of one of the ropes and swung directly at him. Dagdron dove to the side to avoid his feet but then was forced to race around the square pathway as the teacher pulled his dagger and chased him.

  Dagdron ran as fast as he could, but the eight rocks weighing down his cloak made it difficult to outrun his teacher. Dagdron finally jumped and grabbed a rope, swinging to the platform, but his teacher did another acrobatic flip and beat him there. He thrust his dagger at Dagdron, who dodged to the side and took out his own dagger. They traded swipes, but Flip stayed in between Dagdron and the rocks.

  Dagdron decided to try the somersaulting move that had tricked Scar, but Flip didn’t fall for it. He tried a few more moves to get to the rocks but then turned and swung back to the bridge. His teacher gave chase, jumping back to the bridge and following Dagdron’s track around the square. Dagdron couldn’t believe how spry his middle-aged teacher was. It was like having his dad be able to keep up with him. Dagdron continued around the bridge, glancing down at the snakes. At one ramp, he didn’t see any snakes at the base, so he sprinted down, grabbed the bottom of the ramp, and sliced a chunk of wood out of it before Flip could catch up to him. He ran along the floor as Flip jumped down toward him. A snake hissed at him as he ran past, so he shot out his hand, grabbed the snake by the tail, and flung it back at the teacher.

  Flip recoiled from the reptile but recovered quickly enough to climb back up on the bridge by the time Dagdron had run up one of the ramps.

  Dagdron darted to the right and Flip raced after him. When he was a few feet away from the corner, Dagdron jumped diagonally to cut the corner. In one fluid motion, he leapt again, grabbing one of the ropes with his left hand to swing across the open area while he threw the chunk of wood. The wood hit his rock away from the center just as Flip flipped to the platform. Dagdron landed and dove across the center, grabbing the rock and pulling himself to his feet. The rogue teacher lunged at him with his dagger, but Dagdron ducked, raced across the platform, and swung back to the bridge, where he ran down the ramp to the door. He glanced back and Flip gave him a quick wave, smiling calmly on the platform. Dagdron slammed the door shut and crossed through the final curtain tunnel to the last room.

  The floor of the tenth room was completely covered in sharp spikes except for a small area on the opposite side, where two chests sat. Directly in front of Dagdron, there was a three-inch-wide stone balance beam. Dagdron glanced around the room, checking for any objects that might help him get across, but there was nothing. Dagdron stepped onto the beam, and a dagger shot at him from across the room. He ducked to avoid it, and in the meantime, a glowing target appeared on the far wall. Another dagger flew at him, so he sidestepped on the beam and pulled one of the rocks from his cloak.

  Picturing himself on the boulders in Cliffmount, Dagdron threw the rock across the room, hitting the target square in the center. The room came alive with balance beams rising from the floor, curving back and forth and sloping up and down until leading directly to the chests. Doorways also dropped from the ceiling to block the path, and a couple of cages fell as well, though Dagdron couldn’t see what they contained.

  Dagdron stepped across to the next beam, walking steadily as daggers shot out from random places, forcing him to be constantly aware. When he reached the first doorway, a click sounded, a compartment opened in the ceiling, and a ball of thorny bushes swung down at him. Dagdron stepped backward, extending his arms to keep his balance. When the thorn bundle swung back across, Dagdron hurried forward with his lock pick in hand and picked the lock on the door. He pushed the door open and was about to step through when a fire blazed in front of him. He stopped in the door frame as the thorns swung behind him again and then turned to look at where a second glowing target had appeared on the back wall. He pulled out another rock and hurled it, sending it clanging against the target. The flames were extinguished.

  At the next doorway, a space opened in the ceiling and scalding water cascaded down. Dagdron jumped backward, wobbling on the beam, but kept himself from falling onto the spikes below. He pulled out another rock and threw it at the target that had appeared on the ceiling this time. The impact of the rock shut off the water, and he picked the lock and moved on.

  Dagdron moved along the balance beam, dodging the continual daggers. The beam sloped upward, and when Dagdron climbed to where it leveled out again, one of the cages suddenly zoomed toward the ceiling. One of the hairy creatures he had seen in the rope room snarled and leapt up at him. Dagdron drew his dagger, stabbing at the beast, but that only increased its fury. Dagdron kept his dagger in hand as he scanned the area. The target was on the wall behind him, so he snuck a rock from his cloak, thrust his dagger at the animal again, then quickly turned and threw the rock. It hit the target and the cage zoomed back down, but the hairy beast jumped before it was caged, swiping at Dagdron’s legs, so the rogue jumped as high as he could, wobbling as he landed on the beam again but not falling. The beast still snarled in its cage, but Dagdron hurried on.

  On the next switchback, when Dagdron reached the door, he rushed forward to pick the lock but was bombarded by blast-bolt spells. He jumped backward, landing agilely to keep his balance, but the blue spells kept crashing down right in front of him. A target appeared at the top of the door, so Dagdron, catching the timing of the blast-bolts, tossed a rock and hit the mark square on. The blast-bolts stopped firing, and Dagdron hurried forward to pick the lock. As soon as the door opened, a blast-bolt shot from behind, hitting him in the back. The force of the spell knocked him forward into a slime trap on the other side of the door. He lost his balance as his feet slipped out from under him, barely clutching the balance beam to save himself from being impaled on the spikes below.

  Dagdron carefully pulled himself back up to the beam with his slime-covered hands, shaking them get the majority of the goop off. As he was wiping his hands on his cloak, blast-bolts began firing through the doorway. Dagdron ducked, staying crouched as another target appeared on the wall in front of him. He timed the spell intervals again, stood up straight, and threw one of his remaining rocks. As it clanged off the target, the spells stopped firing and he slid across the slimy balance beam.

  On the following leg, there three gaps in the balance beam. As Dagdron approached, three cauldrons rose upward, spraying boiling water toward the ceiling. Dagdron glanced around for a target, but he didn’t find one. As he assessed a way to get through the hot water, the middle cauldron started to glow. Dagdron took a rock from the cloak, leaning as much as he could to the right and lobbing the rock. It splashed into the middle cauldron, and the boiling water shot in all directions. The rogue turned his back, feeling the hot water hit his back, but when the water stopped, he turned around to see that the cauldrons had all flipped upside down. Dagdron crossed by jumping from cauldron to cauldron.

  As Dagdron moved along the final switchback of the beam, the daggers began shooting out more and more swiftly, cross-firing across the room. He ducked, carefully lying on his stomach. He saw the target appear on the left wall, so he took his second-to-last rock from his cloak. He judged the speed of daggers and quickly sat up, throwing the rock the wall. Midway across the room, the rock hit one of the zooming daggers. The rock crashed on the spikes, but the dagger deviated and stabbed right into the target.

  Dagdron breathed a sigh of relief as the daggers stopped appearing. He got back to his feet and finally reached the end of the balance beam, just out of jumpable reach of the chests. Dagdron turned as a bright light appeared from behind him. A huge target was on the far wall, so Dagdron took out his last rock and hucked it across the room. The target exploded in a blast of light, and a ramp lowered from the ceiling, allowing safe passage to the chest. Dagdron
rushed down, taking out his lock pick as he went. He felt sure another trap awaited him, but he set to work picking the lock of the chest with a D carved into it. To his surprise, it opened with a hitch, and he pulled out a pouch.

  When Dagdron turned back around, platforms had been lowered all across the room, allowing safe passage. When he reached the doorway, the entire room reverted to its original state, with only spikes and a single balance beam.

  Dagdron left the room, lifting the curtains to go straight down the corridor instead of following the pathway. When he appeared, Earl, Lita, and Elloriana were still there with Cort, and Flip had returned from the ninth room.

  “Congratulations, Dagdron,” Flip said. “You’re a rogue adventurer.”

  Earl, Lita, and Cort burst with cheering and applause; Elloriana joined in less animatedly. Earl stepped forward and gave Dagdron a back-breaking hug. Dagdron pushed Earl off him and opened the pouch he had retrieved. It was filled with lock picks and other roguish tools.

  “That’s your reward for fulfilling the quest today,” Flip said. “A rogue’s toolkit.”

  Dagdron cinched the pouch and threw it to Earl and then headed toward the stairway.

  “I’ll make sure he uses it,” Earl said, smiling at the rogue teacher.

  The teacher didn’t seem surprised by Dagdron’s reaction, but he smiled at Earl and then turned to start Cort on the quest corridor.

  Dagdron hurried as fast as he could so Earl and the girls couldn’t catch up to him, but he heard Earl’s voice echo up the stairs.

  “Now it’s our turn for our final quests! Woohoo! Let’s join Dagdron as real adventurers!”

  Chapter 38: Who Cares?

  Dagdron spent the rest of the morning in complete peace in his tree. He kept his head covered by the hood of his tattered cloak and tossed his dagger into the upper branches, catching it by the blade when it whirled back down. He couldn’t help thinking about how he had lasted all three years at the Adventurers’ Academy. He remembered how obsessed he had been about escaping the first months of his first year. Why had he even stayed? Earl’s love and obsession with the academy and the whole situation with the Arches of Avooblis had kept him there, he figured. But he still could have abandoned everything and everyone once the headmaster agreed not to expel Earl.

  He reminisced in his mind about all the horrible experiences he had had, from arch crystals to evil wizards to magical elementals to vicious creatures. He hated all those things. But as he thought back on the final mini-quest he had fulfilled that morning, he knew he had had fun. Jumping, dodging, and balancing in the rooms had come completely naturally to him. Picking locks, sneaking in the dark, and using his dagger excited him. His father had started him on many of those skills, but if it hadn’t been for his classes at Adventurers’ Academy and all the terrible situations he had been in dealing with the Arches of Avooblis, then he probably wouldn’t have developed his rogue talents so fully.

  Dagdron’s quiet time was disturbed as the back door of the academy burst open, and Earl, Lita, and Elloriana cheered their way to the quest tree.

  “We all fulfilled our quests perfectly!” Earl said exuberantly.

  Dagdron, normally inclined not to reply, paused in his dagger tossing, but before he could say anything, Earl drew his sword and acted out each and every warrior stance, move, and sword thrust he had used to fulfill his final mini-quest. Lita followed him, explaining her lady warrior final, and then Elloriana gave a detailed explanation of the obstacles she had faced and the spells she had used to overcome them.

  “Dagdron, what was the most exciting thing about yours?” Earl called up when Elloriana finished.

  “Yours were boring compared to mine,” Dagdron said. “Scar was hiding out in one of my rooms.”

  “Whoa,” Earl said.

  The back door of the academy crashed open again, and Scar himself stomped moodily over to the tree.

  “Earl, get to the headmaster’s office,” Scar said.

  “Me?” Earl said. “Why?”

  “Now!” Scar said.

  Dagdron watched as Lita and Elloriana moved to accompany Earl, but Scar stopped them.

  “Only Earl,” he said, scowling.

  Scar escorted Earl at dagger point, so Elloriana and Lita headed to Bodaburg to see their parents, who had arrived with numerous others for the graduation. Dagdron was left to himself again until shortly before dinnertime, when Earl sprinted from the academy and scaled the quest tree the most nimbly he ever had.

  “What did the headmaster want?” Dagdron asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” Earl said. “He just wanted my input on a couple things dealing with the graduation ceremony tomorrow.”

  Dagdron glanced at Earl, and his friend quickly looked away, trying not to smile.

  “Then why were you gone all afternoon?” Dagdron asked, suspicious.

  “I had to pack up some of my stuff,” Earl said with a sigh.

  “Then why did you run up my tree like you were so excited?”

  “Dagdron, stop it. I just came to ask you to please come to dinner tonight.” A sentimental smile broke out on Earl’s face. “It would be nice for all of us to have one last dinner before our time at the academy is officially over.”

  “As long as there’re sausages,” Dagdron said.

  “You know Chef Barig always makes those,” Earl said. “Even he knows how much you like them.”

  Dagdron and Earl jumped out of the quest tree and went to the entrance hall, where they found Elloriana and Lita. The girls joined them, immediately asking Earl what the headmaster had wanted. Earl was just as evasive with them as they dished up their food. Chef Barig lifted up the plate of sausages as Dagdron went through. The big-bellied cook smiled broadly as Dagdron pierced as many sausages as could fit on the blade of his dagger.

  They all sat together at the third-year boys’ table again. From beneath his hood, Dagdron observed Earl during the meal. Earl’s face was just as happy as it had been the first time he had crashed into Dagdron their first time in the meeting hall. And he talked nonstop, dominating the conversation and evading the follow-up questions the girls asked about his meeting with the headmaster. But, Dagdron thought, while Earl’s optimism was just as it always had been, the young warrior had grown up in skill and stature over the past three years as well. His boots might still trip him up occasionally, but he was a true warrior.

  Dagdron suddenly scowled. How in all the land had his rogue emotions become so sentimental all of a sudden? Who cared if Earl had changed at the academy?

  “What’s wrong, Dagdron?” Earl asked, noticing the scowl.

  “Nothing,” Dagdron replied, hardening his expression even more.

  Dagdron was about to leave when Earl called the dinner to an end himself.

  “We better get a good night’s sleep,” Earl said. “We’re going to be up late tomorrow celebrating our graduation. Right, Dagdron?”

  Dagdron scowled again and headed toward the exit.

  Back in their bedroom, Dagdron saw that none of Earl’s things had been packed.

  “You said you were packing,” Dagdron said as he wadded up his cloak and lay down on the floor.

  “Just a few things,” Earl said.

  Dagdron lay silently as Earl got ready for bed. When he got into bed, Earl recapped their day the same way he had every night for the past three years but left out any mention of his meeting with the headmaster. When the humming began, Dagdron rolled over, turning his back to Earl. Dagdron was drifting off to sleep when he noticed that the humming had stopped and Earl was mumbling incoherently. Dagdron noiselessly twisted his head and saw Earl lying there with his eyes open, moving his mouth in obvious speech but only releasing mutterings.

  Dagdron didn’t remember falling asleep, but when he woke up, he did a double take toward the window to make sure it was morning. Earl was in the exact same position and still mumbling.

  Earl jerked up when he saw Dagdron stir.

  “Did you mumble
like that all night?” Dagdron asked.

  “No,” Earl said.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Fine, I’ll tell you!” Earl said, jumping out of bed. “Headmaster Gwauldron asked me to give the graduation speech! I wrote it yesterday afternoon, and was practicing before bed last night and this morning.”

  “You didn’t say you wouldn’t give it?”

  “Of course not!” Earl said. “It’s an amazing honor!”

  “It’s the headmaster’s final punishment. I would’ve rather been expelled.”

  “Even if you don’t believe it, Headmaster Gwauldron is a changed man,” Earl said. “And this proves it. In the past he always let one of the richy students give the speech, but not anymore.”

  “Did you just say richy?”

  “Yes, but just to see if you were listening.” When Earl saw Dagdron staring at him, he continued. “And because it probably would’ve been Byron if all that stuff hadn’t happened with Avooblis.”

  Dagdron got to his feet and put his cloak on as Earl did a jig across the room.

  “Can you believe we graduate today?” Earl stumbled over a dance move and crashed into Dagdron, sending them both onto Dagdron’s unused bed. “Don’t tell Lita and Elloriana about my speech. I want it to be a surprise.”

  Dagdron left Earl to rehearse and went out back, where he found a horrific scene. Lita, her parents, and a bunch of other Thornrimians were gathered around his tree, oohing and ahhing as they felt the sacred bark. Dagdron whipped out his dagger and raced across the lawn. The Thornrimians greeted him, oblivious to the rogue’s scowl, but Lita pulled Dagdron to the side before he could slice anyone.

  “What’s going on with Earl?” Lita asked. “He’s never lied to me before.”

  “He lied to you a bunch of times before you knew about the arches,” Dagdron said. When Lita scowled at him, he said, “He’s fine. He wants it to be a surprise.”