But he had been surprised and encased in that damned Dragon Queen’s wing. Just as he had triumphantly wrenched it away from her body, he had realized just too late. She had allowed him that small victory, in order for her hexed wing to enfold him within its magical and ever-tightening and unbreakable grip.
The wing’s veins and leathery material had been transformed into a relentlessly expanding death-trap. It had grown and covered his full length and held him fast within its unbreakable glowing, blue-grey cocoon.
“I will be with you within a day I do assure you, Morgrave. But I must first complete my mission here with Doctor Rab Idego here in my secret Cavern Laboratory under Lake Gnash, in Skiltland,” Morgrim growled softly. “Just try to be patient, brother, and await my arrival, then between us we will soon negate that Winged-Worm-Queen’s vexatious Magick.”
“Well, by the Devil-divine!” Morgrave cried. “Isn’t your King more important to you, Morgrim? You should be on your way right now, not tinkering around with your strange, un-Core-like obsessions, all these greedy Humdrum Scientists and weird Psychonomists of yours!”
“Of course, of course, my dear brother,” Lord Morgrim replied as soothingly as he could. “But I am already here, and my task is very nearly done. So, please be patient. I promise you; I will definitely be with you on the morrow, at the very latest.”
“Aaaargh!” Morgave raged. “Patient be patient, you say. That’s just fine for you to say, dearest brother, isn’t it? You’re not caught in this infernal wing, are you? Whenever I move, it just gets even tighter, and it burns me, so hurry to me brother. I demand you, please hurry; The Dragon Queen must be caught and I must have my vengeance!”
“Yes, your Majesty, I assure you, I will alert you when I am nearer to you. But for now, please believe me when I tell you these obsessions, as you call them, are purely for your benefit, my Laboratories are providing new and ever greater advances, and these are all in aid of your magnificent rule brother. For one day you will be King of the Erf – and not just the Core!” Morgrim earnestly replied, but with a slight tinge of sarcasm hidden within his bombast.
And it was but a day later that Lord Morgrim duly made his way southwards to see to the rescue of his brother, Morgrave, the King of the Core. And as he burrowed through the butter-like rock, he ruminated darkly on the increasing irrationality of his over-emotional and far too-little-brained royal brother.
It has become even harder to control the dim fool of late, he thought, as he sped onwards, burrowing underneath the border between Skiltland and Inglande, lying far above him on the Erf’s surface. He has become ever more obsessed with the killing of every Sivad that breathes in Under Erf. And ever since our recent attack on the Dragon Cavern-world, where we killed the High King and captured his grandchildren, still Morgrave refuses to be satisfied.
Lord Morgrim radiated his navigational psychic sense outwards, sweeping the rocks ahead for many miles, sensing the buried scar of a deep fault line there, away to his left. He shifted towards it, knowing it was going his way, and would make for a slightly faster passage.
Trouble is, I must keep my damn fool of a brother on the throne. I can do so much more with him there, taking all of the attention away from me. I must be free to execute my plans, but Morgrave has an incredible knack for getting himself into trouble. It has only been by my diligence that he’s been kept alive this long at all! He continued to himself bitterly.
Now, by my reckoning, I should be within mind-meld reach of him this very night. Then I must try to persuade him against going off on a fool’s errand chasing that Dragon Queen up to the surface and getting himself burnt to a crisp by the Sun God. If not, then I must at least persuade him to return quickly back to the Core. The other Fire-Worm Lords are already growing suspicious of his many absences. But I think I’ll have a permanent solution for that particular problem too very soon now. Doctor Idego, in the Psychonomy Lab, in Under-Hell on the Umber, has come up with just the device I need.
Lord Morgrim gloated pleasantly at the wonderful thought of his being able to have complete and utter control of his dim-witted brother, very, very soon.
And shortly I will have the new Prime Councilor of Inglande in my pocket too. Such a shame that the last one died on me. But these Humdrums are much weaker than Minion worms. And they are so gullible. Even believing that things like gold and diamonds and radioactive ores from the core will make them happy and successful. They hardly deserve to be kept as slaves. And I must gather in the latest reports from my Spy Network. There should be news of interest from both the United States of Ameriga and the United States of Cathay, by now. Oh, dear me; But complete world domination does take such meticulous planning… and patience too, he added, as a wise afterthought.
King Morgave was beside himself with rage. It had been another whole Erf day gone by now, and still no word from his secretive and haughty brother, Morgrim.
Just wait until I get my jaws on him, he thought, distracting himself from the ceaseless web of pain that covered his entire body, with pleasurable thoughts of taking out his frustrations on his twin brother. How dare he leave me like this? Doesn’t he appreciate, I am the King, not him? I’ll have him thrown in the Core Dungeons… I’ll get him experimented on too, see how he likes that, eh? I’ll get a host of his zombie humdrum slaves to operate on him, instead of the other way around. He’ll pay for making me wait. I swear he will.
Morgrave had long run out of the various insane ideas of horrible, drawn out tortures and grim and gruesome deaths he would inflict on that upstart brat of a Dragon Queen and her feeble and puny Egg. He had even mentally filed away several of the choicest and cruelest ideas that he’d been able to imagine. Some of them were so very disgusting and horrifying they had even brought tears of joy to his own inflamed and evil, red eyes.
But now it was his brother’s turn to be the focus of his ferocious fantasies.
Every inch of his horny, armored skin and every steely scale and bony plate was enmeshed within the Dragon Queen’s indestructible wing, and he had long ago learned not to move a muscle. But however hard it was to admit, he really knew, in the deepest, blackest wrinkle of his ebony heart, his only chance of escape lay in the timely arrival of his brother. It was therefore with some relief that he at last heard from the long-awaited Lord Morgrim.
“I am close now, brother. I have come as fast as I could and will be with you very soon,” Lord Morgrim’s voice now came booming into the King’s seething mind. “And please do be assured, your almighty and Magnificent Majesty, the Core Worm Conclave still have no idea of your current predicament at all. They have all been informed that you are with me and on a top-secret mission in order to further expand our Core Realm. And I have good news, brother. You will be able to tell them we now have new vassals in more Under-Erf realms. The domain of Dark Imps, beneath the Forest of Lundun itself, is now ours, as well as the long sought after, Goblin Kingdom of Yekrut. The Core Worm Conquests go well. You will surely return to the Core a Hero, my liege.”