A bead of sweat rolled down Danny's face.
The Bishop's breath caught in his throat.
"Because there's a magic seal on the treasure and his Excellence, Bishop Welffing, is the only one who can take it off," Danny blurted out without thinking.
The two thugs' eyes widened with disbelief.
"That's right," the Bishop said as he stuck out his chest and assumed his arrogant posture. "I am the first human in the history of Ila to wield magic."
"Yeah right. Prove it," Zuck said.
"Exactly," One Punch agreed. His half smile had been replaced with the usual indifferent scowl.
The Bishop lowered his hand to the big pouch that hung at the side of his robe. Within, was the sacred relic he had stolen from his church: the Kobiv, a book of spells that had once belonged to the evil creature sealed within the volcano.
It had been inside of a decorated trunk in the basement of the church with other valuable relics. Only the Bishop had access to it, and Bishops before Welffing had not gone near the trunk for one or another reason.
When Bishop Welffing decided to investigate the contents of the decorated trunk, half expecting to find it empty and half expecting to be fried by a magic zap, he had felt something within him resonate with the book. He took the book into his hands and felt the power still emanating from it. When the Bishop opened it, he found that, amazingly, he could actually read and understand the words in the book. Flipping through it, he'd found a small scribbled spell.
"For Quick Money" it read.
Bishop Welffing couldn't help but try it, and as the Bishop spoke the words, he felt a coldness reach into his body and grip his heart. It scared him, but he couldn't stop himself. When he'd finished the spell, he'd fallen to the floor of the basement, gasping. He quaked on the dusty floor until he was filthy, and his silver and white robes had turned almost gray. His eyes could not focus, and his thoughts had ceased for the moment. Only one image remained in the Bishop's mind: a heaping pile of money.
When he finally came to his senses, a few hours had passed. The heaping pile of money was really there, in front of him. All over the city within a five-mile radius people were starting to find that they had somehow been robbed. The Bishop, of course, had no clue what was happening outside. He struggled with conflicting emotions.
He wanted to be happy . . . he was happy about the money, and especially to find that he could use magic. Never mind that the book was supposed to be evil, here sat the first human in history to use magic. But the book was evil and something inside the Bishop felt wrong. Something was missing.
Now the Bishop hesitated as these memories flashed through his head. Would he be able to cast a spell and still have enough strength to entrap the creature? He sighed and looked around at the barren land in front of the fortress. Out here no one would see them. He undid the knot that held the pouch shut and reached in for the book.
"Well," Zuck said.
"Get on with the show Bishop," One Punch added.
The Bishop swallowed.
There was a spell in the book that would make everyone around him into a puppet. The Bishop had thought to cast this spell on the creature and now on the thugs, but he didn't want to do that to Danny. He had grown fond of the boy over the years. So instead he flipped through the book, hesitating.
"Daniel, my son. I am a bit parched. Please go to the horses and get me the water skin."
As soon as Danny raced off, the Bishop started the spell. He hoped that the horses were far enough away that the spell wouldn't reach them.
The thugs had been surprised by the boy's sudden run and hadn't reacted fast enough to stop him. Zuck was going to go after Danny, but he stopped short. Both One Punch and Zuck were paralyzed by the effects of the spell.
Danny had almost reached the horses before he realized that he'd left the Bishop alone with the two thugs. It had become second nature for him to follow the Bishop's orders as soon as they were given. Until now, he'd thought of this quality as a good thing. Cursing himself, he turned and ran back toward the Bishop, hoping that the worst hadn't happened.
When Danny got back to the Bishop, he found him crumpled on the ground. Danny thought that the thugs had hurt him, but they were standing, frozen, in the same spots as before. Danny shook the Bishop and called to him.
"Excellence! Eminence! Lordship! Father . . . Father please!"
The Bishop did not wake up.
Danny had gone hoarse from shouting for him to awaken, and he had started to cry. He hugged the Bishop and listened closely at his chest.
His heart still kept its rhythm.
Relieved, Danny sat next to the Bishop and waited.
He looked over at One Punch and Zuck again.
They still stood frozen in place.
Danny thought that perhaps they had hit the Bishop before his spell had taken full effect. It never crossed his mind that the magic had caused his adopted father's condition.
He began praying fervently for the Bishop to awaken. As the hours passed, Danny began to feel more and more hopeless. He would periodically try to rouse the Bishop and fail. Soon, the sky began to grow lighter and Danny was able to see the thugs a little better. They had murderous expressions on their faces, but the scariest part was their eyes. They were empty, soulless. Danny shuddered and turned to the Bishop's still, corpse-like form.
Finally, the desperation got to him. He sat down next to the Bishop and hugged his knees, hiding his tear-streaked face. Then, as he began to rock back and forth in a state of shock, Danny started to hum softly. He hummed a hymn he had heard many times at church. It was one that people sang at funerals, which asked God to protect the souls of the dead and guide the living through their grief.
Danny had just begun humming the hymn for the fifth time when, suddenly, the Bishop coughed.
"Father!" Danny said as he turn to see the Bishop's eyes opening slightly.
"How many times . . . do I have to tell you. I am not just a common priest," the Bishop said and smiled weakly.
Danny hugged him and helped him sit up. He knelt next to the Bishop and looked at him.
Bishop Welffing looked older than Danny had ever seen him. He looked like a ghost in the early morning light.
"Eminence, why did you hire those men?"
It took the Bishop a while to answer. He seemed to be catching his breath and thinking about what to say.
"You know Danny, that it is important for me to learn a way to control this magic better. Right now, I can use it, but I am not really its master. That's why we are here . . ."
"But Lordship, those men are killers . . ."
"Danny do you know how important this book is? I needed those men. I can't defend the book. I thought that if I paid them enough they would do as I asked."
Danny wondered where his adopted father had gotten the money to pay for the thugs, but he didn't ask. He didn't want to know.
"It's just . . . but they were going to kill us."
"I know Daniel, but they won't be killing anyone now. They are under God's control."
"What do you mean?"
"I control them, and I am God's servant."
Danny didn't say anything. He looked at the two monstrous men and they had not moved. They were living statues, grotesque and evil.
"I'm afraid, father."
"Don't worry," the Bishop said as he rose to his feet. "If we can gain the ability to use magic and bring it to humanity, then it's worth a little scare right?"
Danny was still kneeling on the ground. He hesitated as he thought about what the Bishop had said. Worth a little scare. Yes, but worth hiring killers and turning men to stone. . .
"I guess . . ." Danny answered, not at all convincingly.
"Good," the Bishop responded, ignoring the tone of Danny's voice. "Zuck. Grug. Ax an opening for us to get through in the wooden door of the fortress. Expand the hole that you have already made."
Danny watched in horror as the two gargoyles, that were once men, came to life again and grabbed their axes. No. They were not alive, just animated like marionettes.