It Isn't Easy Being Queen

37. The Tomb of Desolation

Wait, wasn't Frekvic a gnome? "You won't be using it for any wars because I'm going to destroy it. Look what it did to my familiar!" I held out my little rat so she could see. "Help me fix him!"

"Nope. Sorry, stone metamorphosis happens," she said, ignoring my fury.

"Not on my watch."

"I'm afraid that's exactly what happened. Now, it's time for your next trial, The Tomb of Desolation."

"Who names these things? Ten-year-old video-game-obsessed boys?"

"Excuse me? No. Who names anything? They do."

"They?"

"They who cannot be named."

"So, the people who name things are nameless?"

"Has anyone ever told you how annoying you are?"

"Yes, you have."

"Yes, I have, haven't I? Well, hand over the rat."

"Be careful with him," I said, setting my precious familiar in her hand. I fixed my eyes on hers with a severe gaze so she knew I expected her to heal him and not add him to her garden statuary collection.

"I'll put him with your other petrified friend."

"Huh?"

"That annoying minion, Blech."

"His name is Blade. Have you healed him yet?"

"Working on it," she said. "He did call out for you once."

My heart twisted. "That's a relief!"

"Not if you heard what he called you! Anyway, your quest in the Tomb of Desolation will be to retrieve the Skeleton's Key, and—"

The plastic skeleton in the attic flashed across my mind. I held up a hand. "Wait, a sec." Tyra cocked her head, looking at me as if I were a petri dish of bacteria. I gulped. I had a feeling this skeleton would not be made of plastic. It would be made of bones. Human bones. Nope! No way was I snatching a key out of a skeleton's hand. Because you know what always happens next. The hand grabbed your wrist, and then, boom, you're a skeleton too. "I'm not really into skeletons," I said.

Tyra rolled her eyes. "As if I care what you're 'into!' Now after you use the key to enter the passageway that leads to the tomb, you will find your way to the tomb and free the demon imprisoned there."

Ash was kind of a cool demon. Maybe not all demons had nefarious plans to destroy humanity or whatever. Still, it had to be bad if Horrible Tyra wanted to free this demon. I ought to get a little more information. "So, this demon—"

But you, dear reader, already knew I would not finish my question.

Because, as usual, I had ...

No notice.

No countdown.

No warning.

Just a shower of fairy dust, and ...

... boom!

I fell from the sky, my stomach lost in a nauseating spin of magic, and I re-materialized inside an iron gate in a moonlit graveyard, shivering in a cloak of fog. As a lifelong resident of Coffin Ridge, I'd been in my share of cemeteries for merriment, mayhem, and mourning (never for romance, as you already know.) Graveyards didn't scare me as much as they might an ordinary potential evil queen/witch/teenager. Still, this one made my bones quiver, and the adrenaline in my veins gush like blood from a decapitated murder victim. It had the appearance of something long abandoned. A place where bad things had happened that no one wanted to remember.