Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl and the Dungeon of Despair (9780989878531) by Becket Read Free Book Online

me,” Mr. Fuddlebee responded in a tone of great regret.
    “That is not a good enough reason,” the Queen retorted.
    “Perhaps not,” Mr. Fuddlebee replied, looking around the court, “but regulation 2B-M1 has been violated, and I can count about twelve more violations in this very room. Now, if you prefer SPOOK not to come down on you like the Hammer of Hades, then I highly recommend you accept this child into your home, my dear Crinkle. And,” he added almost as an afterthought, “this does not mean throwing her to the Toags.”
    Old Queen Crinkle stared at Mr. Fuddlebee with burning ferocity. She looked as if she were ready to shout out her hate, shout about how unfair it was of SPOOK and Mr. Fuddlebee and the Society of Mystical Creatures to place this burden upon her, as if Key was a burden. But to Key’s relief, the Queen did not shout. Instead she whispered, which, to Key’s dismay, sounded much more threatening than if she had shouted her lungs out. “Fine,” the Queen spat. “The child can live with us amongst the dead.”
    Key’s new home had been decided for her.
    Crudgel laughed sinisterly at her and his gang of vampires laughed with him. They all watched Raithe to see if she would laugh too, but Raithe wasn’t even smiling. Instead she was giving Key the blackest look one might receive. So, without Raithe’s support, Crudgel and the vampire gang stopped laughing as well, nudging each other in the side to quiet down, for fear of being as disliked as Key.
    At that moment, Key realized that the Queen might be in charge of the Castle and the Necropolis, but Raithe seemed most definitely in charge of the vampires. Key also realized that Raithe was someone who would not show her anger immediately, but let it churn inside her like bubbles in a bottle, ready to burst at any moment. Key decided that Raithe would make an excellent queen of the Necropolis, and she hoped that would never ever happen.
    Mr. Fuddlebee now lowered to the floor, kneeling on one knee before Key. From behind his ghostly spectacles, his green eyes stared kindly at her. “Now, my dear,” he said softly, “I must leave you. But you and I will see one another again. I can assure you of that.”
    “Don’t leave me,” Key whispered to him. Tears began pooling in her eyes. “I don’t like it here.”
    Mr. Fuddlebee nodded sympathetically. “In time you will explain to me the reason you must stay.”
    Key wiped away her tears. “I don’t understand that.” She sniffled. “Please, stay here with me,” she begged.
    “No matter what happens remember this,” Mr. Fuddlebee whispered. “You’re stronger than you realize. Everything will be all right in the end. There is a great plan at work for you.”
    He kissed her forehead. The kiss felt like ice. Key would have preferred a kiss from her mom and dad; she wished she’d had a chance to tell them goodbye. Yet she didn’t want to say goodbye to Mr. Fuddlebee. Although she knew him very little, she had seen enough of the Necropolis to know that she did not want to be left alone with creatures whose hearts were the deadest thing around.
    But in the end, Mr. Fuddlebee had to go. There was no convincing him otherwise. Yet he did not tell Key goodbye, but instead said, “Until the next time we meet,” and it made Key feel a little better, knowing that Mr. Fuddlebee would come back for her.
    The elderly ghost then glided high up into the air, with ghost dust swirling behind him in trails of pale green light.

— CHAPTER SEVEN —

    The Dungeon of Despair
     
    Old Queen Crinkle watched Mr. Fuddlebee float up and away and disappear through the vaulted ceiling, high above the heads of the Royal Court.
    A few tense moments passed, until it became clear to all that Mr. Fuddlebee, Minister of SPOOK, Keeper of the Hand of DIOS, was not returning. Not long after that, Old Queen Crinkle’s malevolent grin widened, and she turned her gaze down from the ceiling upon Key. Her expression then