The Wizard's Tower 02

by Peter Last

  A noise in the hall they had just come from grabbed the attention of the group, and the magicians spun around to face the doorway. The sound of steps echoed through the door, and several of the magicians began to mutter under their breath. The footsteps stopped, and Timothy sensed a flow of magic. A figure stepped through the door, and half of the magicians released their spells.

  Timothy recognized Lemin just in time and reigned in his own. Lemin raised a hand, and a thousand fireworks exploded in front of him. When the flashes had cleared, he glared at the magicians.

  “Next time, would you please look before you attack?” he asked. “It’s possible that your rearguard might move a bit more slowly than the vanguard.” Without waiting for a response, he strode across the room to join the group. “What’s your feeling?” he asked Timothy.

  “Well, I thought these stairs were the best option, but I guess I was wrong,” Timothy said. “They’re just an illusion. When I stepped on them, my foot just went straight through.”

  “And the doors?” Lemin asked.

  “Obvious fakes,” an elf answered. “I can feel that from here.”

  “Well, let's go open the doors and make sure,” Lemin said. His eyes never left the steps as he was talking. Carefully he placed a foot on the bottom step of the staircase. His leg went through the planks just as Timothy’s had, and he looked down for a moment, studying it.

  “It would appear as though it is an illusion,” Lemin commented offhandedly. “On the other hand…” The magician closed his eyes and knelt down by the stairs, feeling along their surface. His arms and legs disappeared into the illusion followed by his whole body as he continued to move forward. He reappeared under the stairs, crawling across the floor on hands and knees, feeling every step he took. Finally he reached the far wall and simply disappeared through it. The magicians waited for several moments, but nothing happened. A few of them went over to the wall where Lemin had disappeared to examine it. They found nothing and returned as puzzled as ever.

  “If you’re looking for me, I’m up here.”

  The magicians looked up to see Lemin standing at the top of the stairs. The group was shocked, and no one spoke for a moment.

  “How did you get up there?” Timothy finally shouted. “We saw you disappear through the wall down here, but how did you get up there?”

  “I climbed the stairs,” Lemin shouted. “Or rather, I crawled up them.”

  “But there are no stairs,” one of the magicians interrupted. “They're just an illusion.”

  “The real illusion is that the stairs are an illusion,” Lemin countered.

  “What do you mean?” Timothy shouted. “We all saw you go straight through the stairs and disappear through the wall.”

  “That may be what you saw, but that isn’t what happened,” Lemin responded. “The illusion which seeks to make you think that the stairs are an illusion created the image of me crawling across the floor. I even felt like I was on the floor the whole time, but all the while, I was actually going up the stairs.”

  “How is that possible?” Timothy called as he stepped through the bottom step. “I sense no magic.”

  “Which doesn't make sense,” Lemin said. “You should have at least felt the magic of the illusion if the stairs were truly fake. This is Molkekk’s headquarters and his magic. Be prepared to encounter things that you have never encountered before. Keep walking forward. I can see you walking up the stairs.”

  Timothy stepped forward again, this time the illusion reached up to his knee. A few more steps and he was completely engulfed. Then he was through and walking straight toward the wall that Lemin had disappeared into. He closed his eyes and continued to walk, encouraged by Lemin. Three more steps and he knew that he was close to the wall, but he refused to open his eyes. Another two steps and his strides began to falter. Then he felt a hand grab his arm and pull him forward. He opened his eyes and found himself in another hall. He turned around and looked at the staircase that he had just ascended. Both sets of stairs, on the right and left walls of the foyer, followed the wall up to the same location. From here, there appeared to be nothing unusual about them.

  “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Lemin commented. Timothy shrugged and glanced back at the hall behind them.

  “I'll scout down the hall while you make sure the rest of them get up the stairs,” Timothy said.

  “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Lemin said. He began talking to the magicians still at the bottom of the stairs while Timothy started down the hall. The walls glowed faintly, and Timothy was cautious as he advanced. It was a foregone conclusion that something unnatural was going on here, and he didn’t want to be caught off guard again. There were niches in the wall, and he went to examine one of them. The only thing in it was an ordinary-looking piece of rock which Timothy picked up and studied. Using all his concentration he looked for spells of any sort: illusions, wards, booby traps. He found nothing and placed the rock back on the pedestal. Still something nagged him about it and after only another two steps he turned around to examine it again.

  He stopped dead in his tracks at the anomaly that presented itself. If he were to guess, he would have estimated that he had covered about half of the distance of the hall, but now Lemin and the top of the stairs looked to be more than twice that distance away. Something felt different, like he was less enclosed, and as he looked up, an oath escaped his lips. The ceiling had been high before, perhaps ten feet, but now it was twice that. He knew before he turned back to the niche with the rock that it would be larger than before. Sure enough, he had to stretch as high as he could to reach the rock he had examined earlier. He pulled it off of its shelf; it was larger than before though no heavier.

  An inexperienced magician might have assumed everything had grown in size, but Timothy knew better. As soon as he had seen the increased height of the ceiling, he knew that he had shrunk. It was magic, a booby trap he hadn't anticipated, and he chided himself silently. He had been so focused on finding the spells that he had walked headlong into one of them. But that mistake was in the past; what he needed to do right now was apply his brains to the situation. He was smart enough to get out of this. All he had to do was think of the solution.

  Lemin had mentioned that Molkekk specialized in spells that attacked emotionally and mentally, and Timothy could feel those effects right now. Fear and anger were inexplicably bubbling up in him, and if he allowed them to do so they would incapacitate him. This threat was relatively simple to combat since he had been warned of its coming.

  On the other hand, the attack on his mental abilities had taken him by surprise. Twice he had not recognized a spell for what it was. This place was clouding his thinking. Now he had to come up with a way to beat this hall, but his mind kept jumping to other subjects. Maybe he was overthinking this. For all he knew, he could escape the way he had come. It seemed unlikely, but even if it failed, he would know more about the enchantment. Taking the rock from the pedestal, he jogged toward Lemin and the growing crowd of magicians at the top of the stairs. He covered the distance quickly, but just as he was half way there, the world seemed to explode around him. Now that he was paying attention, it was easy to see the hall growing, or rather him shrinking.

  The sudden change in size caused him to stumble and drop the rock he had been carrying. He rolled onto his back and lay there motionless for a while, trying to focus his thoughts. He'd shrunk twice, meaning he was probably a quarter of his original size. He had a rock, but was unsure of why he'd held onto it. It's only unusual quality was its utter lack of any interesting characteristics. If only Senndra were here, she could solve the mystery. He shook his head. Why, out of everyone that he knew, had he thought of Senndra? It was because this rock reminded him of her. Now he was just being crazy; how could a rock remind him of a person? He was getting nowhere and knew it.

  Slowly he sat up and rubbed his head. The other magicians were starting to enter the corridor from the end of the hall and he briefly
thought about trying to warn them, but knew they wouldn't see him at this distance, especially with his decrease in size. Instead he took up a post in the middle of the hall and waited.

  ******

  Senndra was so happy to see the infantry arrive that she could have kissed them all. Even with the aid of the dragons, they had been very hard-pressed to hold off the enemy soldiers. The appearance of the infantry changed all that. They attacked the rear of the enemy ranks, using the element of surprise to kill many of them before they realized what was happening.

  Joining the ranks of the dragon riders, the combined forces mounted an assault on the enemy, pushing them back in a deadly onslaught. Steadily they had forced them to retreat toward the gate of the city, exacting such a heavy toll on their numbers that only two or three hundred escaped from Vollexa Temp. The dragons continued to chase the hapless soldiers, and the invaders of the city had lost sight of them some time ago. By now the soldiers of Magessa were putting into effect the plans which they had prepared for after the city had fallen. Guards and sentries were placed along the walls and at the gates. Half of the total number of dragons took two or three riders each and headed back to Belmoth to defend the city in case an attack was made against it. The soldiers that remained in Vollexa Temp cleared out the entire city, killing those who resisted and rounding up the others. They placed their prisoners in a section of the city separated from the rest in such a way that it would function effectively as a prison.

  The soldiers finished rounding up their captives and placing guards on them, but even as they worked, they cast uneasy glances at the tower in the middle of the city: Molkekk’s abode. A squad of magicians was supposed to have infiltrated it at the commencement of the attack, and though more than two hours had passed since that time, there was still no sign of them. The soldiers who were off duty began to gather on the walls around it, watching expectantly for something, anything to happen that would indicate that their men had been successful. The day marched on, the sun rose into the sky, sending scorching rays down, and still the tower stood tall like a black, skeletal talon in the middle of the city. The heat forced the soldiers to strip off their armor to keep from overheating, and though the temperatures dropped slightly as the sun sank again toward the horizon, they remained unusually high.

  Senndra had retired to a shady spot under the wall in an effort to escape the heat. There was some relief in the wall’s shadow, but even so she was very uncomfortable. She lay back, closed her eyes, and dozed fitfully for a while. When she awoke, the sun had already disappeared behind the tower occupying everyone’s attention and was continuing its steady, downward march. It would be completely gone in less than an hour, she estimated.

  The shadow that Senndra was in had attracted several dozen people, and more were still making their way toward it. Senndra recognized William and called to him, indicating the open ground around her. William, along with two other soldiers, one female and the other male, came toward Senndra. They still wore their armor, and the perspiration on their bodies was evidence of their discomfort.

  “Hey, Senndra,” William said. “Anything happened with the tower yet?”

  “Nothing at all,” Senndra replied with a sigh. “Two of the magicians that went in are my friends, and I’m beginning to worry about them.”

  “You know that Lemin went in with them, right?”

  “He went in with them?” Senndra repeated. A worried look lingered on her face. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Don’t worry about him,” William said with a chuckle. “If I had to place a bet on someone coming out completely unscathed, I’d put my money on him. He’s the best magician I’ve ever seen.”

  “Just how many magicians have you seen, Will?” his male friend asked in a mocking voice.

  “Oh, sorry for my rudeness,” William said, ignoring the question. “Senndra, these are my friends Richard and Alyss. Richard and Alyss, this is Senndra.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Senndra said as she climbed to her feet and extended her hand to Richard and then to Alyss. “So what have you guys been up to lately?”

  “We were doing an independent exploration of the city,” William explained. “We figured we might as well know our way around the place if we’re going to be here for a while.”

  “And we stumbled across a library of sorts,” Alyss interjected. “Actually it’s just a large storage building that contains scrolls and books. Nothing’s organized, but it’s vastly interesting.”

  “I might want to see that sometime,” Senndra said. “It sounds like an adventure all by itself. Albeit one that happens safely in the confines of a respectable building,” she added in response to William’s raised eyebrow. “I mean, come on. Not everything that’s interesting has to involve running around and fighting.”

  William and Richard looked at each other for a moment. Then they turned back to Senndra.

  “Yeah, they pretty much do,” Richard said.

  “Don’t listen to them,” Alyss told Senndra. “They’re like that all the time. Everything has to be gung-ho and macho with them.”

  “Typical boys, I suppose,” Senndra said with a wink at Alyss. “They’re all immature to the core. Can’t take anything seriously unless they’re bashing away at it with a sword, at which point, it’s very hard to take them seriously.”

  “Well, she’s got us completely figured out, doesn’t she, Richard?” William said to his friend. “Hey, Senndra, you must know a lot of guys to understand us so well.”

  “Yeah, almost no one realizes that we’re actually very immature at heart,” Richard stated with mock seriousness. “And that part about the sword…pure brilliance.”

  “Actually everyone knows young men are like that,” William said in a low voice.

  “They do?” Richard said, feigning surprise. “No, they don’t. Are you serious?” William nodded his head with a sense of extreme gravity. “And here I was, thinking we had everyone fooled.”

  Senndra looked at Alyss, who rolled her eyes. Apparently these antics were not new to her. The boys exchanged a few more playful remarks as the girls waited for them to come around to a more pertinent topic. When it appeared that this wouldn’t happen soon, Alyss intervened.

  “Doesn’t anyone here think it’s odd that this entire operation,” she waved her hand at the city around her, “was launched and carried out by kids? I mean, I know we’re supposed to be ‘young adults’ and all, but isn’t this sort of thing supposed to be done by older people? You know, people with actual experience?”

  “Hey, if the real adults aren’t willing to step up to the challenge, I guess us imitation ones will have to fill in for them,” Richard joked. “Seriously though, I hear a lot of them are down south, holding off the might of Molkekk’s army. They can’t be everywhere at once, you know, so everyone has to play their part; that means us, too.”

  “I know all that,” Alyss said. “I just was wondering what happened to the entire army of Rampӧn. Belmoth was being attacked long before the enemy was at the bottom of Rampӧn, yet we got almost no help. It seems to me that the numbers of our army should be much greater than what they are now.”

  “I know what you mean, but I don’t have an answer for your question,” William responded. “Fully mustered, the country should be able to field an army of at least half a million. I know that includes everyone who can fight, but at the moment we only have a fraction of that number. It’s almost as if some people are living in a different world and don’t even realize we’re in danger. Let’s pray they haven’t gone over to Molkekk’s side. After all, his arm can reach very far.”

  “That’s a nice thought,” Senndra commented. The group lapsed into silence for a few moments.

  “I just had an interesting thought,” Richard finally said. “You know how we have been brought up as children to hate and fear Molkekk? Well, who would’ve guessed we’d be sitting here in the evil city waiting for our own men to destroy Molkekk? I mean, it used to be taboo to even use
his name, but now…” he trailed off.

  “This is kind of weird, but you know what I find the most odd about this whole thing?” Senndra asked. “I always associated this place with evil and everything bad. I even thought it would be a disgusting, messy place, but it’s neither of those. It’s clean and well kept.”

  “I thought the same thing,” Alyss admitted, “but I didn’t say anything because I thought you guys might think I was strange.”

  “You are strange,” Richard said. “Just because you found someone else who agrees with you doesn’t mean that your ideas aren’t weird.”

  ******

  “Timothy checked out this hall already,” Lemin said, scanning for the younger magician. He was nowhere to be found. “I guess it must be safe if he didn't come back to warn us.”

  “Or he got eaten by a particularly nasty booby trap,” another magician spoke up.

  “That's a possibility, but I don't really want it to be true,” Lemin said. “Let's pretend he made it through safely and just keep our defenses up.”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Vladimir spoke up. He wasn't convinced the hall was safe to traverse but didn't want to think about the possibility of Timothy being dead.

  The magicians made their way warily down the hall. It was rather boring; the walls were painted a flat grey and only broken periodically by niches with pedestals in them. Lemin relinquished the point position to another magician and stopped to examine one of the stones. He scanned it every way he knew how and didn't find anything. Still, something tickled the back of his mind, like a star at night that you can only see out of the corner of your eye but which disappears when you look straight at it. Digging into all of his skill, Lemin scanned the rock again. There was the glimmer, and this time he knew what it was.

  “Stop!” he shouted without ever taking his eyes off of the rock. The command was useless; they had already stopped and were staring at something in front of them.