The flames crackle around them

like mobbish insects.

“Where,”

She-What asks the sages,

“Is the boy?”

By now, Chys has arrived

in her super robot,

and as she approaches,

the two ends of her laser whip

clack together

like angry dogs.

“I’m not here

to waste my time,”

says She-What.

“And I am not to be

trifled with. Tell me —

or die.”

The men are silent.

These are weak men.

But She-What is bored,

and she’s hoping one of them

will entertain her.

One of them does.

“They’re gone!”

a young sage blurts.

“You’ll never find them!”

She-What goes to the man

and snickers in his face.

She grabs him by the throat

and lifts him

two inches off the ground.

“Tell me where they’ve gone,”

She-What commands.

The sage gasps for air.

His eyes widen in terror.

“I don’t know!”

the sage rasps.

“They didn’t tell us!

They knew... we’d talk....”

She-What drops the man

to the glass on the ground.

“That’s because you are

sniveling fools.”

She turns to Chys.

“They knew we were coming,”

she says to her friend.

“Looks like it,” says Chys.

“So...”

She-What says to the sages.

“None of you

has any information?”

She scans their faces,

and can see them calculating.

“Who wants to live?”

she asks.

“I can tell you where they went,”

speaks one of the sages,

a frumpy, balding man

with red hair.

“Shut up, Domas Mant!”

cries the young sage from before,

“I knew you’d talk!”

“Go to the Hells, Arat,”

says Mant.

“I’m going to live.”

She-What smiles.

“Tell me where they are.”

Mant steps forward.

“They went to the Underforest.

They left three days ago.”

“Three days ago!”

exclaims Chys.

“We didn’t know about this mission

until yesterday!”

Yes,

thinks She-What.

They knew we were coming.

What does the Supreme Executive

want

with this boy?

What enemies

stand between them?

“There is something else,”

says Mant.

“The man travelling with the boy,

he is sick,

dying.”

“What do you mean?”

She-What asks.

“The old wizard doesn’t

have long to live.

A stomach cancer.

He is in great pain.”

“Who is he?”

She-What asks.

“I don’t know.

Not really.

He showed up a month ago,

looking for the boy.”

“What is his name?”

She-What demands.

“Phantos. Phantos Geist.”

She-What takes a long breath.

“This trail is cold,”

she says to Chys.

“Tell Commander Veetman

to have these men skinned alive,

and to turn this place

into a hole in the ground.”

She points a finger at

Mant the Sage.

“Except this one.

He may go.”

“No!”

cries the young sage, Arat.

“You can’t just destroy

all this knowledge!

Don’t you understand how long

it took to assemble these books?

How old some of them are?

For the sake of humanity...

please don’t!”

She-What climbs into the cockpit

of her super robot.

“All of this knowledge,”

she tells the sage,

“And you don’t understand

anything.”

TO BE CONTINUED...