The Hall of Worlds reminded Matt of an airport lounge stretching before them. They had entered one end of the long, two-story rectangle. Lining the walls were various supplies travelers might need, such as blankets and torches. A few weapons and light armor were also for sale, but much of it was food and drink. A six-foot high wall separated one from the next, each having an open storefront. They all stood empty of people. The hall’s center stood bare except for murals of fanciful beasts on the floor and a stage in the center, a lute and several handheld drums lying discarded. Behind it all against the far wall, dancing golden light shimmered from the nearly two-story portal, its surface rippling as if made of a standing wall of liquid gold. Tall and wide enough for wagons to pass through, it stood unprotected, the guard stations to either side of it empty of life. Or so it seemed. They marched unmolested toward it, stopping twenty paces away when Lord Garian held up one hand as he and the other lords continued forward a few strides before turning to face them.
Garian looked at the enthralled. “You are to remain here on Rovell. Live your lives until word comes that we need you and then obey. Tell the same to those outside.” He looked at Matt and the others and smirked. “It was not hard to defeat the famed Ellorian Champions after all.”
“Maybe that’s because that isn’t them,” said a voice to one side. Another Andier and Korrin stepped from inside a guard station to one side as the Lords of Fear turned sharply. A second Soliander and Eriana walked out of the other station on the other side, the wizard beginning to cast a spell. As he yanked the Dragon’s Fire Wand from up his sleeve, Garian’s piercing gaze swept over Matt and the others, none of them having moved.
“What is this?” he asked of no one in particular.
“A trick,” said a dismissive voice from the Orb of Dominion. “It is no matter. Obey and serve!”
Eric yelled, “Now, Ryan!”
Chaos erupted.
The knight ran toward the assassin as the lords turned in surprise. Kori was too slow to stop Ryan’s blade from cleanly slicing through the staff just below the Orb of Dominion, which dropped as she reached to catch it. Ryan swung again and cut her arm off at the elbow. She screamed and dropped the useless staff from her other hand to clutch at the wound as blood spurted from it. The orb struck the stones with a whack but didn’t break.
“Kick it away!” yelled Eric as he backed up, throwing a knife at Garian and striking him in the chest. The knight complied, sending the orb tumbling at the rogue, who stopped it with one foot. Kori staggered toward Aeron and Ryan backed away. The second Soliander completed a spell that sent a hail of fist-sized stones pummeling the lords. Lord Voth leaped at the wizard, sword slicing the man in half and leaving a trail of frost along the wound.
“Rise,” said Aeron, gesturing toward the now dead wizard.
“Burn!” yelled Anna, and pointed at the corpse, which burst into flames instead.
As if they had standing orders to protect the lords, the enthralled warriors moved to attack them. Anna turned and held up one hand, palm outward, as if to stop them. And it worked, to Matt’s surprise. Had she suddenly become a partner in battle, more than just for the undead? If so, she was a welcome addition. Matt saw Lord Garian’s eyes on them and knew something was coming. He struggled for another spell he could cast first.
“Try hitting it with your sword,” Eric suggested to Ryan.
“Worth a shot,” the knight said. He swung the blade high above his hand and brought it slamming down onto the orb with a clang. A shock wave knocked all of them back and onto the ground, Matt striking his head on the stones. He sat up, trying to ignore the pain, eyes on the Lords of Fear, who had also been felled. He followed Garian’s shocked and angry gaze to the orb. It has split into the three pieces, two of them rocking on the floor on their spherical part, the other face down on the broken side.
“No!” said Garian, rising. A glance around the room revealed the enthralled men starting to sit up, their faces no longer intense and enraged, but calm and bewildered. “Attack them!” Garian commanded. But no one moved to comply.
Matt saw his chance and gripped Soliander’s staff in both hands, willing as much power as he dared and not bothering to waste precious moments getting to his feet. “Enuminsar!”
A fountain of flame roared from the staff’s crystal toward the lords, the scorching heat making Matt’s lungs hurt and his eyes sting as if it would incinerate anything in its path.
Just before the wall of flames reached them, he saw both the wizard and necromancer raise their hands and speak words he couldn’t hear over the roaring. The flames shot upward and out as if hitting a wall. With a swirling gesture, Matt directed the fire to the right, left, and up to go around any barrier there, and as the flames complied, they cleared his view of the enemy. Both Garian and Aeron stood with hands forward to protect themselves. Matt watched in satisfaction as their horrified eyes watched three tongues of fire rush around the invisible barrier toward them. Aeron turned to block one and succeeded, Garian did the same with the one above, but the other one engulfed Lord Voth and soared past for Kori, who dove out of the way toward escape.
Suddenly a knife flew at Garian and struck him in the arm. He gasped and stumbled toward the portal, the flames above diving closer at him, as if his barrier had nearly fallen, one hand still raised to keep it there. He shot a look of hatred toward Eric, his eyes then widening. From the corner of Matt’s eye, he saw the rogue pulling back his arm to throw again. Garian turned and ran through the portal, Kori close behind. Eric’s knife flew at Aeron instead, and the necromancer barely dodged it before running for escape, too. A thunderous crash outside suggested one dragon had plummeted to the ground.
Lord Voth stood alone before them, seemingly unfazed by one spout of flames engulfing him, only his legs visible. Wondering if three would be worse, Matt directed the others spouts into one unified blast, now that no magic shield stood in the way. No sooner did all three converge on the undead knight than a scream of pain split the air from the burning creature. Matt kept the flames going for another minute as the knight tried to get away from them. Matt made the torrent follow him, the smell of burned flesh growing. He finally wanted to see what had happened and not kill the fire in case he needed it again, so he made the flames form a low ring around the knight’s lower body.
The knight stopped screaming, two blue pinpoints of light gleaming from where his eyes had been burned out in a bone-white skull. All visible flesh had melted away except for what still dripped off, steaming, hissing, and popping. Any cloth had burned off, and parts of him were still on fire. He now looked every bit the undead knight he was. A skeletal hand gripped his sword, the other pointing at Matt.
“You will die by my hand,” he said in a voice shaking with fury or pain.
A moment of fear struck Matt before anger took hold and he engulfed the knight in flames again. He heard the metal boots take several steps before the portal gave a pulse and the sound stopped. He let the flames die. As expected, Lord Voth was gone. He turned back to his friends.
Eric flashed a smile. “I don’t think he likes you.”
Trying to sound unfazed, the wizard said, “He was dead already. Not sure what he’s so upset about.”
The rogue joked, “Maybe attracting an undead bride is harder now that he’s not so handsome.”
“Oh, I don’t know, I think he looks better now. He should thank me for the makeover. The flaming flesh has a nice, romantic quality to it. Wouldn’t even need to light candles on a hot date.”
They all laughed and Ryan came forward, giving him a surprise hug. “Remind me not to piss you off. That’s some spell you have.”
“It’s mostly the staff,” Matt admitted.
They turned to take in their surroundings, and Matt saw that a pair of wizards that had emerged from hiding had shut the portal off. In human form again, Jolian strode up behind them, looking grim, determined, and irritated but unharmed. The formerly enthralled people had risen and se
emed to be no threat, many having put away their swords. He wondered how much they remembered. Did they have any idea where they were or how they had gotten here? Part of him didn’t care, but he thought that, as the Ellorian Champions, they should address it. He was about to say something when the pieces of the broken Orb of Dominion began to tremble, then vibrate. He gestured for the others to stand back as the pieces slid toward each other on the stone. Eric took a step toward them as if to stop one.
“Wait,” cautioned Matt.
“Are you sure?” the rogue asked, stopping.
“No, but I think we need to see what happens.”
Eric didn’t look convinced. The three pieces came together on the floor and turned toward the others, each rising on one edge. Matt knew they were reforming before the three put themselves together as if someone were holding them. Was the wizard who controlled the master doing this? It seemed unlikely with the portal closed. He glanced around the room to see if anyone appeared to be doing magic to cause this, but no one was, and half weren’t paying attention. His eyes returned to the orb just as the three pieces fused together, a brief burst of golden light shining from the cracks that disappeared. The Orb of Dominion appeared to have healed itself.
“Great,” muttered Ryan. “Now what?”
Anna sighed. “Well, the good part is that everyone has been released. Now we just have to prevent it from being used again.”
Matt asked, “Yeah, but where do we put it?”
Eric looked at him with a gleam in his eye. “I have an idea.”
Night had fallen and Anna felt slightly tipsy from the wine, the gait of her white horse doing little to ease the feeling. Behind her rode the others in single file, the Quest Ring on a hill in the distance, Castle Arking behind them. The time had come to return to Earth, assuming no one summoned them in the few minutes remaining here. The idea of going from quest to quest without respite bothered her, but the moment they completed this one, they had become available to anyone else summoning them to solve their problems.
And what of their own? How were they supposed to live their own lives when they had to keep saving someone else’s? It wasn’t fair, but it wasn’t like they could complain about it to anyone but each other. No one on Rovell knew they weren’t the real Ellorian Champions. At least on Honyn, the elf Lorian and many of his closest friends, like Morven, had known. They could be themselves. Not pretend. Admit that they were scared and confused. That they didn’t know how to do one thing or another that they would be expected to know. Somehow, they had succeeded at another quest. But it seemed like only a matter of time before they failed or got themselves killed.
The thought reminded her of home. Fear about what had happened to her friends when she had vanished from behind the wheel of her car had receded with their more direct concerns, but now that everything had been resolved, there was no escaping learning their fate soon. Even if everyone was fine and escaped serious injury, she would have some explaining to do. They had all seen her disappear. How does one explain such a thing when telling the truth is likely to get you locked in a padded psych ward? She would worry about that later. Her immediate concern was her own safety.
They now knew that they returned to exactly where they had been before the summoning. Matt would end up on a sidewalk where his interview had been taking place. Ryan would reappear in the guest house at his parent’s estate. Eric had been at his job. But Anna had been in the middle of I-270, south of Gaithersburg. They all assumed she would arrive in that exact spot. With no car around her. No air bags. No seat belt. And possibly cars hurtling toward her. They had left Earth in late afternoon but arrived on Rovell before lunch. Based on this, they had agreed to leave Rovell a few hours before midnight. Hopefully, Anna reappearing on a major interstate in the middle of the night would dramatically lessen the chances of a car hitting her before she ran off the road. It certainly beat appearing in rush hour traffic. She knew that even with this plan, nothing was guaranteed. It was going to be pure luck. Either a car struck and likely killed her, or she got out of the way before one could. Maybe she should have had even more wine. It was the reason she had drunk so much.
They had also talked of the likelihood that they were famous again. Matt had disappeared on camera, so they expected significant attention. By arriving so late, they might sneak home before anyone knew. If reporters were camped out at their homes, which seemed likely, this was a problem. They had been gone three weeks the first time, but now it had been three days and that wasn’t enough for people to stop watching, they assumed. For now, the plan was for Ryan to get his car and go get Anna. Matt and Eric suspected that their own vehicles might have been towed by now. Their priority was assessing their situation and then calling each other. Anna sighed, not wanting to deal with it.
Before and behind the supposed Ellorian Champions, a train of other riders accompanied them on their way to the Quest Ring. This included King Orin of Minari, his wizard Derin, the dwarven Queen of Morcanon and her retinue, and a host of revelers they had just partied at a banquet in their honor at Castle Arking behind them. Enjoying such an affair was hard when she knew, at any second, they could suddenly vanish to another quest, but she had pushed it from her mind as best as she was able. It seemed she had to do a lot of that these days. The thought made her sigh.
Just in front of her rode Jolian and her brother Brazin, both in human form and in their preferred tight leather of red or blue. The group had told no one of Brazin’s mental capture by the Orb of Dominion, to spare any humiliation or damage to his reputation. Once free of it, he had shown a level of humility and sorrow she didn’t expect from a dragon, not that she knew much about that. They had collected him at Valegis and rode him and his red sister back to the castle, leaving all others behind at Ortham. Farewells to Talis and anyone from the city had been brief, but they had earned more friends that they would likely never see again, as much good as that did them.
It had taken hours to implement Eric’s plan. First, he had Ryan try to break the Orb of Dominion into three pieces again with a different sword, which had shattered the blade instead. Only Ryan’s weapon, made of soclarin ore, could do it. Once broken, Eric, Ryan, and Matt had each taken a piece and walked away from each other in the Hall of Worlds. Twenty steps apart hadn’t been enough, because the shards tried to pull together once more, but doubling the distance prevented it from happening again. Eric had wondered if that was true, and with it proven, he told them his idea.
Leaving Anna and Ryan to heal people, and provide leadership, he and Matt had climbed aboard Jolian with one piece and been gone for two hours before returning without it. Then they experimented with bringing the two remaining pieces close together. The parts showed no attempt to merge, so they turned their attention to other matters. This had included a meeting with the rulers of Ortham to inform them of developments. They also arranged for those who had been enthralled to be sent home with necessary supplies for their journeys, whether to the town of Durba, Castle Arking, or wherever they lived. They offered Ortham some gems from King Orin for this, but in a show of appreciation, he had refused it.
And so they returned to Valegis for Brazin, who had proven to Jolian’s satisfaction that he was of his own mind again, not that they doubted this. They had questioned various enthralled victims before and knew most had only been dimply aware of having been compromised. Most spoke of feeling an agreement with orders given to them, as if they had long thought of doing the very thing they were commanded to do and now felt certain of its rightness. When the orb had shattered, they had suddenly come to their senses and been disturbed by what they had done.
And for this reason, Brazin seemed genuinely ashamed that he had killed his friend Sebast. Anna had felt bad for him, having seldom seen such troubled eyes in her life. Brazin was haunted, and she wondered if the same thing would befall her on returning to Earth and learning the fate of her friends. Inspired by a dread that this would be so, she had spent most of the night with the b
lue dragon, trying to help him and gain some understanding of what this might be like. In doing so, she admitted to some fear of what had happened in her absence without going into details, and he seemed to understand that they had this in common. The kiss he had given her had surprised and delighted her, the tingling feeling of a dragon’s kiss not something she’d soon forget. Had he just ruined her for regular guys? She laughed and looked fondly at his back as he rode before her.
That night in Valegis, with Brazin recovered, they had filled in Ogren and spent another evening in town. That had been the first celebration, where a small feast had been done in their honor, there not being much time to anticipate a bigger one. She didn’t really mind, and the others had clearly enjoyed the attention. Eric had not returned to their rooms that night, and the smirk on his face the next day erased any doubt he’d been in a woman’s room overnight. Ryan had returned late with something of a sloppy grin that had irritated her. She’d had half a mind to go find Brazin and get another kiss, but she wasn’t really sure what that would do to her.
Instead, she had spent the night with Matt, memorizing spells with him. She had noticed women intrigued by the wizard, but also intimidated by Soliander’s reputation. Matt had seemed little interested in them, but she suspected it was his new obsession with learning magic. She agreed with his desire to commit these spells to memory and write them down on Earth if magic became available to them.
In the morning, they had flown on Brazin and Jolian to the Kirii Cave. Eric seemed fine without a saddle, the crazy boy that he was, but Ryan had seemed concerned by the experience. Once there, they found another way into the cave itself and hid a second of the orbs’ three pieces in the bottom of the underground lake. In doing so, they discovered that the leviathan wasn’t entirely dead, though it didn’t attack, and they returned to Valegis to ensure Ogren and the townspeople knew. This would prevent anyone from seeking the orb shard. Before leaving the cave, they had removed the saddle from the dead Sebast and placed it on Brazin, who had paid his respects while the others were below. His own saddle had been left behind at the lake where Novir had disappeared.
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