The Horn of Moran

by M. L. Forman

  “My pendant. I need my pendant.” Sindar pulled at his shirt with his right hand, desperately trying to find something.

  Alex pushed aside Sindar’s hand and pulled open the top of the elf’s shirt. There was no pendant, only a dark red line where something had been yanked from around Sindar’s neck.

  Alex searched Sindar’s blankets and the ground around him. He forced more magic into the weir lights, changing them from gentle gold to dazzling white. The bright light glinted off something, but as Alex reached out for it, his hand stopped. Sindar’s pendant was made of true silver, but there was no mistaking the design. It was shaped like a flower, the same flower as the pendant Alex’s father had hidden.

  Alex retrieved the pendant, but almost dropped it as it burned his hand with cold. The cold was gone almost as soon as the pendant was in his hand, the burn forgotten, and a gentle warmth seemed to flow out of the metal flower.

  “Here, I have your pendant,” Alex said, forcing it into Sindar’s hand.

  Sindar took a few deep breaths. His muscles relaxed, and his eyes fluttered open. For a second he seemed confused, and then he spoke in a desperate, pleading tone.

  “Val. Some evil has taken over his mind.”

  “What?” Alex asked, wondering if he’d heard Sindar correctly.

  “Val carries a great evil with him. He will go to the tower. You must stop him before he reaches the lower library,” said Sindar, blinking slowly.

  “But I can’t leave you and the others,” Alex protested. “The others won’t wake up, and you can barely speak.”

  “Go, quickly,” said Sindar, his tone becoming urgent. “I will recover soon. I will care for the others while you are gone.”

  “Sindar, this is madness,” said Alex. “What evil does Val carry?”

  “Go,” Sindar repeated. “Go now.”

  Alex looked at Sindar and his other friends. If he left them, they might be lost, but what could he do for them if he stayed? If Val was carrying some evil and he reached the lower library, it could be disastrous.

  Alex knew what he had to do. “Do what you can for the others. I will return as soon as I can.”

  Sindar seemed to nod, but he said nothing.

  Alex put out the weir lights but left the fire burning, then he ran toward the Tower of the Moon with only one thought in his mind. Stop Val. Stop the evil.

  “Stay,” an angry voice commanded as Alex ran toward the stairs that led to the tower.

  Alex slid to a stop. He had forgotten that the griffins were still there, and they were angry.

  “What do you seek in the Tower of the Moon?” the griffin growled.

  “I seek the evil that has gone there,” Alex answered.

  “The evil you seek traveled here with your company. It attacked us, blinding us with its dark magic. Why do you seek it now?” the griffin demanded.

  “We did not know this evil was with us,” said Alex defensively. “Now that it has shown itself, I must stop it from reaching the lower library and learning even greater dark magic.”

  The griffin paused. “There is no evil in you,” it said finally in a somewhat softer tone. “You may pass. But know this, young wizard, your friends will remain here as hostages.”

  “Hostages?”

  “We will allow you three hours. You must either destroy this evil or return here with it. If you do not return before the time is up, the hostages are forfeit.”

  The griffin’s words filled Alex with a cold fear, but he had no choice. “Agreed,” he said, resolved to his fate.

  “Then go,” the griffin commanded. “And return swiftly—if you can.”

  Alex didn’t hesitate. He rushed up the stairs that led into the tower without looking back. He had little time and no idea where Val might be. What evil Val carried with him Alex could not guess, but he knew it must be powerful in order to blind the griffins and allow Val the chance to slip past their watchful gaze.

  Alex was breathing hard when he reached the top of the stairway, his heart pounding loudly in his ears. The entrance to the tower was in front of him, but there was no sign of Val. He stopped for a moment, trying to catch his breath and think. Val had carried the evil, but for how long? And why had Alex not felt the evil, as he had before when other evil had been near him? He was only a wizard in training, how could he possibly defeat this overwhelming evil?

  Alex approached the tower, his worries picking at his brain. He had to try, even if it was hopeless. If he failed, he would probably die, though the thought of his own death didn’t bother him as much as the knowledge that if he failed, his friends would surely die as well. And if he succeeded, he had only three hours to return to the griffins and save his friends.

  As he entered the tower, Alex found himself in a wide chamber. The torches were lit, which helped him to see, but it also helped his enemy. Looking around, he saw there were two stairways leading out of the chamber. One stairway led up into the tower, the other spiraled down into the mountain beneath the tower.

  “It must be down,” Alex said to himself.

  Alex ran to the stairway on his right and started down. The stairs circled around the wall of the tower and were poorly lit. Carefully, Alex moved downward, keeping his eyes open in case Val was hidden somewhere, waiting to attack him. There were no hiding places along the stairway that he could see, but Alex continued to move with caution.

  At the bottom of the stairs was a long hallway, and at the far end of the hallway, Alex could see what appeared to be more stairs leading down. Alex moved down the hallway as fast as he could. He watched for any sign of movement and listened for any kind of sound. He paused at the end of the hallway to listen again, but there was only silence. There were no doorways or passages leading away from the hallway, so the only thing to do was to continue down.

  The second stairway ended in a narrow chamber. There were doors on both sides and a large double door at the far end. Alex moved into the middle of the room, looking for any sign that he was going in the right direction. There was something familiar about the room, but Alex couldn’t remember where he had seen it before. He felt certain that he was going in the right direction, but if he had chosen wrong and the library was higher in the tower, he was wasting what little time he had.

  Alex stood for a second with his eyes partly closed, listening. A cold breeze blew across his face from the direction of the large double door, and he took that as a sign. He moved to the door and reached out for the handles. His hands shook slightly, and he could already feel the evil and hate waiting behind the doors. Not just waiting, but waiting for him.

  Focusing his thoughts on what he had to do, Alex pushed the doors open and stepped into the lower library. Val was standing halfway down a large empty room, looking back at Alex.

  “I knew you would come,” said Val in an odd-sounding voice. “I knew you would try to stop me.”

  “What are you doing, Val?”

  “What I have been told to do,” Val answered, his face twisting into what might have been a grin. “I do what my friends say because they want what is best for me.”

  “What friends?” Alex asked, stepping closer to Val and looking around the empty room.

  “The friends that I have carried with me on this foolish quest,” answered Val. “The friends who found me on my last adventure and showed me what I could be, if I listened to them.”

  “And what is that?” Alex asked, thinking that Val’s words sounded strangely familiar.

  “I will be king of the known lands. All will bow before me, and all will give honor to me.”

  “I have heard such promises before,” Alex said softly. “They are lies, and those who promise such things are full of evil.”

  “So you say,” Val answered with a sneer. “You threw away your chance. You refused to accept them once, and now you will pay the price of your foolishness with your life.”

  “I threw away only lies. I refused to accept their evil, and I have paid no price for my choice.”
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br />   “Your time is over, wizard. We will destroy you,” Val screamed, leaping forward, the point of his sword driving toward Alex’s heart.

  Alex spun away, avoiding Val’s attack by dropping to the floor and rolling back to his feet. Moon Slayer was in his hand as he turned, and the magic sword began to glow softly in the darkness. Alex felt Val’s next attack coming, and he spun away as he slapped Val’s sword aside with Moon Slayer.

  The two of them began a deadly dance around the empty library. Val spun and attacked wildly time and again, but Moon Slayer was always there to block his attacks. Several times Alex saw an opening where he could easily have killed Val, but he didn’t. Val was his friend, and he was being controlled by evil; Alex felt like he had to try to save him from that evil.

  “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 s
hadow 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.