by M. L. Forman
“You only delay your end,” Val yelled. “I can fight for hours, but sooner or later you will need rest.”
“Whatever promises you have been told are lies. Evil can’t give you greatness, it will only use you and then throw you away when it is finished.”
Their swords crashed against each other.
“Let go of the evil, Val,” Alex said in a calm voice. “Think of your friends, your wife.
“Wife?” Val shouted, diving forward to attack once more. “I have no wife. That was only a fantasy, a dream that has not yet come true. But my true friends will make that dream come true, along with all my other dreams. They want only what is best for me.”
“You will be betrayed,” said Alex. “Remember when you trusted before. You were betrayed before, and the evil that claims to be your friend will betray you in the same way. Let it go, Val. Let go of the lies the shadow has whispered to you and reclaim your honor as an adventurer.”
“Betrayed,” Val said, his voice softening. He froze in place, his sword held out in front of him, the tip wavering. There was a confused look on Val’s face, but Alex could see a great struggle in his eyes.
Alex took the opportunity, hoping it was the right thing to do, hoping that Val would understand. Swinging Moon Slayer as hard as he could, Alex aimed for Val’s sword. A shower of sparks filled the room as Val’s sword shattered, and Val fell back as if he had been dealt a deadly blow.
“Val?” Alex questioned as he stepped closer. “Are you all right?”
“Alex? I . . . I don’t know,” Val answered slowly. “You could have killed me, but you did not. It might . . . it might have been better if you had.”
“Nonsense,” said Alex. “Let go of the evil, Val. Let go of the dreams that cannot be, and come back to your own life.”
“Yes, I understand now,” said Val, his voice growing stronger. “I . . . Forgive me, Alex. I have been a fool.”
“There is no need for forgiveness,” said Alex. “Come, we need to return to the others.”
“As you wish, my master,” Val whispered.
Before Alex realized what Val had said, Val lifted his hands and cast a spell. Alex’s body was racked with pain and an icy cold filled his insides. The pain forced him to his knees, and for a moment he thought he was going to throw up. He had felt this sickening cold once before, and it had almost destroyed him then.
Forcing himself to ignore the cold and the pain, Alex raised his hands instinctively, drawing on his own deep magic. The spell that came to him in his time of need was nothing he had ever heard of or read about.
Val shrieked in agony, and the painful cold that consumed Alex began to fade. Alex got back to his feet and saw Val, curled on the floor, whimpering in pain. For a moment he felt pity for Val, but then Val’s body began to twitch as if his pain was increasing and a strange shadow began to spread like a puddle of ink around him.
Alex watched in stunned amazement and horror as the shadow began to take shape. As the shadow took its full form, Alex recognized it from a dream he’d had long ago and from a night he could never forget. This was the evil that had reached out for him in his dream, a dream he had forgotten until now. This was the evil that had almost destroyed him on his first adventure, and now he knew it for what it was.
“So, young wizard,” said an ice-cold voice. “You have forced me to leave this pathetic excuse of a man and show myself.”
“And now I will end your evil,” said Alex in a determined voice.
“You do not have that power,” the voice taunted. “All you have done is to delay my plans. Look around you, fool. Do you not realize where you are?”
“In the lower library of the Tower of the Moon,” said Alex, but he suddenly realized what the shadowy figure meant. This was the library, but there were no books here; it was empty.
“So, you see at last,” said the voice. “The library is mine, safe from you in this fool’s bag.”
“You have done great evil, and I will stop you from doing more,” Alex yelled. “I have defeated you before, and I will do so again.”
“Young fool,” whispered the shadow. “There is no reason for us to be at odds. Take the treasure of the tower and the Horn that you seek. And I can add to your treasures as well.”
The shadow turned to look at Val. Val slowly took his magic bag and spoke into it. There was a moment when the air seemed to ripple and spark and then the empty library was filled with treasure from Val’s bag.
“All this I will offer you,” said the cold voice. “All this, and a hundred times more. All that I ask is that you leave us now. Leave us, and you will have your reward.”
“You are the fool,” Alex spat back. “This treasure is not yours to give, and even if it were, it means nothing to me.”
“Arrogant whelp!” the shadow screamed, its voice echoing around the empty room. “I have made you a fair offer, and once more you refuse me. So be it. Though I cannot harm you as I am, I can destroy your hopes. The library is mine, and it will remain mine.”
The shadow turned to look at Val once more. Before Alex could move, Val had spoken into his bag and vanished.
“Before you could hope to strike at me, I will join my servant in his bag and use him to become greater than you can imagine,” said the voice as if reading Alex’s mind.
Alex stood in stunned silence, looking at the bag on the floor. With Val in his bag, Alex would be unable to move it from where it lay on the stone floor. He didn’t know what to do. He had tried for weeks to think of a way to destroy the library, but now it was out of his reach.
“Your time is short, wizard. You dare not wait if your friends’ lives mean anything to you,” the shadow voice mocked.
The dark shadow claimed that Alex could not destroy it, but Alex knew that was a lie. He decided he had to do something, no matter how foolish it might seem. Lifting his hands, Alex focused all his thoughts and power on Val’s bag. The magic of the bag would only let the adventurer who owned it move it from the floor, but Alex didn’t want to move the bag, he wanted something else.
There was a loud crack, like ice shifting on a frozen lake, and it was done. A large black stone now stood on the floor where Val’s bag had been. Alex felt completely drained. Changing the magic bag had taken all the power he could summon, and now he had nothing left to fight the shadow.
“Very clever,” said the shadow. “You have prevented me from joining my servant and using the library, but it is a small victory. I may not be able to destroy you in my present form, but I will find another way. There are always fools who will let me into their hearts and minds. And time is on my side.”
Alex knew the evil voice spoke the truth this time. He had stopped the shadow for the time being, but another wizard could change the stone back into a magic bag. And Alex could not stay and protect the stone forever.
“So, young wizard, you have failed. I will leave you now to ponder your defeat, and I will return at my convenience to claim my prize.”
The shadow figure changed as it finished speaking, becoming a misty, almost fluid, form. Alex watched it change, too tired to stop it or even to speak. A shrieking ice-cold wind blew past Alex, pushing him down until he was flat on his back. And then the shadow was gone.
Alex struggled to his knees. He was cold, sad, and defeated. He had failed completely. The shadow was still free, and, worse, it would return. For a moment he felt like crying, but then a voice he had never heard before came into his mind.
“Simple solutions are often the best,” the voice said.
Alex shook his head. There was no simple solution to this problem, at least none that he could think of. Then another voice came to his mind, a kind, soft voice: the voice of the sphinx.
“Unseen but heard, untouched but felt,” the voice said softly. The riddle of the sphinx returned to Alex’s mind, and he felt as if a light had been turned on inside his head.
Alex started to laugh as the cold slipped away. He felt his strength return to h
im in a dazzling rush that almost took his breath away. The answer was so simple, so obvious, and so clever that he had never considered it. Standing up, Alex moved to the stone that had once been the magic bag of Sedric Valenteen. Alex felt sorry for Val, but he knew that Val had made his own choice, and now he had to suffer the consequences of that choice.
Lifting his hands and pulling all of his magic to him, Alex closed his eyes. A cool breeze blew across his face once more, and when he opened his eyes, the stone was gone. Worry slipped away; Alex was certain that no one would ever be able to change the cool breeze back into a stone or a magic bag. He had won in the end, and the shadow didn’t even know it. Someday the shadow would return here to claim its prize and find nothing at all.
Tired, but pleased with his success, Alex looked around at the room full of treasure. If Val had an heir, all of this belonged to them. He would take it and hope to return it to Val’s family sometime in the future. He took his magic bag and spoke into it. The air seemed to ripple and spark once more, and the treasure disappeared with a flash.
Alex moved back to the stairway as fast as he could, not wanting to waste another moment. He ran up the two flights of stairs, his legs burning with the effort. When he reached the main chamber, he paused for a moment. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he thought it couldn’t be more than an hour. With only a moment of thought, he went to the stairway that led higher into the tower. He wanted to find the upper library and the Horn of Moran, if it was there.
At the top of the stairway was a door, which Alex opened to see another large chamber full of treasure. Ignoring the treasure, he continued forward toward another stairway at the far end of the chamber. He knew where it would lead him.
At the top of the second set of stairs, Alex found himself in the upper library of the Tower of the Moon, surrounded by shelves, tables, and thousands of books. He quickly reached for his magic bag, holding it out toward the center of the room.
“Treasure room,” Alex said loudly.
With a sound like rushing wind, the entire library disappeared into his bag. Only one thing remained, and it was something Alex had not noticed when he’d first entered the room. He moved closer, looking at the strange object in wonder.
Against the back wall a single stone table remained and hovering just above the tabletop was a bright silver flame. The flames moved like a living thing, but Alex didn’t feel any heat coming from them. For a few minutes he stood looking at the flames, and a strange desire to reach out and touch the silver fire filled his mind.
“Take it,” a voice whispered to him. “Take the power and become the master.”
Before he knew what he was doing, Alex reached out his hand toward the flame. Alarm bells rang wildly inside his head, warning him to stop, but his hand continued to move forward.
“A wizard born in Norsland must come,” another voice yelled inside his head. “Only a wizard born in Norsland can take this power.”
Alex’s hand stopped moving, his fingers slowly curling into a fist. Cara had told him about the legend of the tower, about a wizard who would come to save his people. Alex knew he could touch the flame and become the master of all the magic in Norsland, but then the legend would fail. Worse, if he took the power, he would have to remain as the guardian of the tower for as long as he lived.
“No,” Alex said softly. “This is not for me. Another will come to guard this power.”
“Wise. Very wise,” a deep voice answered.
Alex spun around at the sound of the voice.
A ghostly image of a man moved across the empty room, stopping a few feet from Alex. “I am sorry you had to be tested like that,” he said. “All who enter the tower must face the test of the flame, but you are the first to ever pass the test.”
“Who are you?”
“I am Garson,” the ghost answered. “I was the last guardian of the tower. Now I wait to pass on the knowledge I have and the secrets I have kept to the new guardian.”
“I am Alexander Taylor,” Alex said.
“You are a wizard and an adventurer.” Garson nodded. “You have come here looking for the Horn of Moran. Yes, I know. I can see your power, and I am glad you have come. The Horn is with the treasure of the tower, but it does not belong here. It must be returned to Alusia.”
“Yes,” said Alex. “The Horn is needed to prove the true king of Athanor.”
“Oh, it will do much more than that,” said Garson. “The Horn is one of three guardian objects that bind the people of Alusia together. It is the simplest of the three, and the only one that could be taken from the land. But simple or not, it is part of Alusia, and it must be returned. It has only been here for a short time, but already Alusia is breaking apart. The Horn will help unite the people once more.”
“If the Horn is so important, why was the prince allowed to take it from Alusia? Why bring it here?”
“The people have forgotten what the Horn is,” Garson answered sadly.
“What happened to the prince?” Alex questioned. “And to the adventurers who were with him?”
“The men who came here with the Horn were adventurers, but not wizards. They felt the same desire you did to touch the flame, but they were not wise enough to see that the power was not free for the taking. They failed the test and were destroyed. I am sorry that it happened, but I could not stop it.”
“I have destroyed the lower library of the tower,” Alex said after a moment of silence. “I have taken the upper library and put it in my bag. I will not restore the lower library, but I should leave the upper library here.”
“The tower is more than libraries and treasure,” Garson replied with a wave of his ghostly hand. “Libraries can be replaced. Take what you have won and learn from it. Take the treasure in the room below as a reward; the Horn you seek is with the treasure. I ask only that you leave some token of yourself behind to mark you as a friend of the tower. Perhaps someday you will return, and if you are a friend of the tower, the guardians will allow you free access.”
“Thank you,” said Alex. “I am sorry I cannot stay. The guardians gave me three hours to destroy the evil that came here, and that time is running out.”
“You have other reasons to hurry,” said Garson. “There is a storm brewing. Winter is closing in; I do not think you will be able to outrun it.”
“We can’t wait for winter to pass,” Alex said in a worried tone. “We have to get back to Alusia before the spring festival or else there will be war.”
“The storms that are coming cannot be stopped,” Garson answered slowly. “As I am now, I have little power in this land, and even less in others. I can, however, see some of what the future holds. I see that your friends have been touched by a curse. You will be stopped by winter, but not for as long as you fear. You will be able to move south much sooner than you might expect.”
“That is something,” said Alex, thinking of the ghost’s words.
“Little things often make the biggest difference,” Garson said softly as his image started to fade. “You should go. Move as quickly as you can, young wizard. Time is running out.”
The ghost vanished before Alex could reply. Without waiting, Alex hurried back down the stairs to the chamber full of treasure. He knew the Horn was here, somewhere, but Garson was right, he didn’t have time to look for it.
“Treasure room, separate,” said Alex, hoping the bag would understand what he wanted it to do.
Once again there was the sound of rushing wind as the air rippled and sparked. When the chamber was emptied, Alex shifted his bag to his shoulder. He took a single gold coin from his moneybag. With a little effort, he changed the appearance of the coin in his hand. Tossing the coin toward the center of the empty treasure room, he caught it with magic before it hit the floor. The gold coin flashed as it spun in midair, held by a magical thread.
With a bit of pride, Alex looked at the token he had created that marked him as a friend of the tower. One side of the coin held the
image of a dragon’s head with eight stars around it, while the other side had the image of Moon Slayer on it. Alex knew that the coin would remain where it was until the next keeper of the tower came to claim the power of Norsland. And he knew from his dreams that he would also return when that time came.
Running out of the tower, Alex started down the path to the second gate and his friends. The sun was coming up, and in the dim morning light, he saw Sindar arguing with the griffins, demanding that they let him pass and allow him access to the tower.
“It’s all right,” called Alex. “The evil has gone.”
Bowing, the griffins moved aside without speaking to let Alex pass between them. Then they moved back to block the path to the tower.
“How are you, Sindar?”
“Better now that I see you, my friend,” Sindar answered.
“And the others?”
Sindar hesitated. “I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They seem to be stunned, but otherwise unhurt. When I ask them to stand or move, they do as I bid, but they don’t seem to see what is around them. And they cannot speak at all.”
“You seem to have recovered,” said Alex. “Though I was worried when I first found you.”
“Evil has less effect on me than on others,” said Sindar. “And I was lucky you were able to recover my pendant for me. It has taken most of the time that you’ve been gone for me to recover, and I still feel a deep coldness inside.”
“It will pass,” said Alex.
Alex and Sindar returned to their campsite and tried once more to revive their companions, but nothing seemed to work. Alex didn’t know any spell that could reverse the curse, and he was tired. Changing Val’s magic bag into a stone had drained him, and changing the stone into a breeze had taken even more out of him, far more than all his running up and down the tower stairs.
“We need to get out of the mountains,” said Alex, dropping onto his blankets beside the fire.
“Yes, but perhaps first you should rest.”
