The Wrath

by D Glenn Casey

  “You will leave these fields and journey over the mountain and into Wyndweir. You will make your way to the village of Tottenham, where you will join in the efforts to restore that town. You will stay there and work for nothing more than food and a place to sleep and you will do so without the use of your voice. This will be your life and it will continue until you experience a genuine change of heart. When that occurs, you will regain your voice and may leave Tottenham and return home to Gallyneer.”

  The man went to say something, but found he couldn’t. He tried once more and there was nothing, but silence that came from his mouth. As the magnitude of what was happening began sinking in, he wanted to seek forgiveness, but he couldn’t.

  “Now go,” said Pendivall, pointing toward the pass.

  The man felt his feet turn and start walking toward the pass, even though he absolutely didn’t want to do that.

  As he left and the two swordsmen walked away, Pendivall and Brinn were the only two left.

  “I guess Garlan was a little wiser than we give him credit for,” said Brinn.

  Pendivall looked at him and smiled.

  “My boy, no one has ever doubted Garlan’s wisdom. Only his willingness to step up and be the leader we know he can be.”

  “Well, he did save both our lives. I’m certain he’ll be back and ready to fight when the time is right.”

  Pendivall nodded and said, “Yes, he will. Now let’s go take care of another small bit of unpleasantness.”

  Chapter 19 ~ Exploring The Mind Of Evil

  “Let me get this straight. You put two arrows into Kerrick? Again?”

  Hilde looked around the gathering at the faces. There were over a hundred pairs of eyes looking back at her. The large campfire illuminated the center of the small bowl in the fields. Troops were sitting on three sides and watching and listening to the proceedings.

  “Well, not exactly.”

  “Not exactly?” asked Jarell.

  “I put the second one in him. Gwen hit him with the first.”

  All eyes shifted to little Gwen, who was standing on the far side of the fire with Lianna, who hadn’t let go of her hand since they had been reunited that afternoon. She bit her lower lip, hoping they would stop looking at her.

  “It was a lucky shot,” she squeaked out.

  Pendivall started laughing and said, “There is one thing I’ve come to know about the bowmaidens and that is, there is no such thing as a lucky shot.”

  “Yeah, don’t let her kid you,” said Hilde. “She made that shot while she was still injured from her fall. A finer shot has never been made by any bowmaiden.”

  Gwen smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Lianna had stopped holding her hand and was now standing behind her and had her arms wrapped around her shoulders. She leaned down and kissed the little bowmaiden on the ear.

  She whispered, “Your mother would be so proud of what you’ve done with her bow.”

  Gwen reached up with both hands and squeezed Lianna’s arms.

  “Alright,” said Pendivall, “we know that Kerrick has run back to the Eastern Desert to lick his wounds and plug a couple of new holes he’s acquired. Now we need to figure out how Kolgan came by his skills.”

  He nodded toward a couple of men standing behind Gwen and Lianna and they turned and pulled the dark figure to his feet. Dragging a very reluctant Kolgan, they conveyed him around the fire and sat him down on a stool. He resisted and they insisted. Quite forcefully.

  He still had his hands tied tightly behind his back and they had taken to muzzling him because he just wouldn’t shut up. His eyes still burned with hatred.

  His face was quite scarred, as if it had been cut numerous times with a knife or sword. Pendivall and Jarell wondered where he had received those wounds because he didn’t have them when he was a prisoner in Rosemoor.

  Pendivall stepped in front of him and pulled the gag from his mouth.

  “I’m going to ask you some questions and you better hope I like your answers.”

  Kolgan leaned over and spat on the ground at Pendivall’s feet.

  “You can go to hell, old man. You’ll get no answers from me.”

  Pendivall tapped his staff a couple times on the ground and its crystal began to glow.

  “Oh, I will obtain the answers I seek. The manner in which I acquire them will be wholly up to you. Give them to me willingly and things will go easy for you. Make me go looking for them and, well, let’s just say I won’t be careful about what I scramble inside that dark mind of yours. Your choice.”

  Kolgan clenched his teeth, grinding his teeth closed tightly.

  “Simply put, how did you gain your wizard powers?”

  “Family secret,” spat Kolgan.

  “I won’t ask again.”

  “Good. Because I grow weary of hearing your insipid voice.”

  Pendivall took a couple of deep, cleansing breaths and then lowered the end of his staff until it came in contact with Kolgan’s head. The crystal immediately discharged a small lightning bolt right into the top of his head, bringing a scream of pain.

  “Last chance.”

  “You can just kill me!” screamed Kolgan, slobbering all over himself.

  “I have no intention of executing you. I can’t make any promises though, after I turn you over to Captain Jong.”

  Kolgan looked through watering eyes, around the wizard, at the royal soldier standing near the fire.

  “You should have heard your friend beg for his life, royal. He squealed like a pig!”

  Jong reached for his sword, but felt the hand of Belgard on his shoulder. The taller captain leaned over and whispered, “Do not let him break you. You may very well end up killing him, but don’t let him goad you into doing it on his terms.”

  Jong relaxed his hands and clutched his arms across his chest. His eyes burned with a rage that matched that of Kolgan.

  Pendivall touched the top of Kolgan’s again and sent another lightning bolt into the top of his head, eliciting another scream in pain. This time it was strong enough to render him unconscious.

  Pendivall stepped forward and placed a hand on the top of the prisoner’s head and closed his eyes. If Kolgan wouldn’t give up the information he sought willingly, he’d go in and take it by force.

  Wandering through Kolgan’s mind was worse than walking through the Eastern Desert. It was a barren wasteland with a dark mist hanging over it.

  Pendivall shuddered as he took his first few steps into the mind of this traitor. Something in the back of his own mind scratched at his conscious. It felt like it was spreading all around him, like a spider’s web. Focusing on one thread caused the whole world in front of him to shake and quiver.

  One thing was for certain. He did not want to spend any more time in the mind of this madman than was necessary.

  He tapped his staff on the dark ground at his feet and the crystal began to glow, illuminating the immediate area around him. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, but Pendivall was getting a sensation that told him which way to go. He turned and started walking into the mist, searching for the center of Kolgan’s mind.

  It seemed like hours, but he knew he had only been inside the enemy’s head for a minute or two. He began to feel the unmistakable sensation of thirst, as if he had been walking across a hot desert for days.

  Up ahead, he began to see a glow in the mist and he walked toward it. By the time he reached it, he was tired, thirsty and hungry. But, more than anything else, he was angry Kolgan was making it so hard for him to find the answers he wanted.

  As he got closer to the light, the mist cleared slightly and he found himself standing in front of a pulsating light. It wasn’t a white light like he’d seen during previous journeys through the mind’s of others.

  This light was a very dark blue, almost black. How it was emitting any light at all was a mystery to him. Though it was extremely dark, he could see the glow and it was almost as if its light was fighting with the light from his own staff.


  He realized it was the classic battle between good and evil being carried out right in front of his eyes. And evil was a very formidable foe.

  He cast a lightning bolt into the dark light and it caused the whole world around him to rumble and roll. He guessed it was because Kolgan’s body in the real world had jerked when the lightning bolt struck.

  He looked at the black light and saw that his lightning bolt had produced a mark on it. There was a small pinprick of lightness where the bolt had struck.

  He cast again and Kolgan’s body flailed again. Pendivall found himself having a hard time remaining on his feet.

  The spot on the black light had grown in size and was now about the size of his hand. There was a swirling light pattern of many colors in the spot. He thought it would have been really quite beautiful if it wasn’t housed in the mind of an evil killer.

  He took a couple of deep breaths and stepped forward. Reaching out gingerly, he placed his hand over the spot and it immediately grabbed hold of his hand and then, of his mind.

  He was now in the full, secure grip of evil itself.

  ~~~~

  Everyone in the gathering saw Pendivall’s body tense up and then sag. Kolgan’s body jerked wildly a couple of times and then both men slumped to their knees on the ground, with Pendivall’s hand still on top of Kolgan’s head.

  Hilde made a move to go to the old wizard’s side, but Jarell seized her and held her back.

  “Whatever he is doing in there, whatever he is fighting, it’s his fight. We are nothing more than helpless spectators.”

  She looked up at her husband.

  “We can’t help him at all?”

  “I’m afraid not. Win or lose, we can do nothing.”

  Lianna and Caroline both stepped forward and knelt down next to Pendivall. Gwen stepped up next to Hilde and squeezed her hand. Lianna put a hand on one of Pendivall’s shoulders.

  Caroline looked up at Jarell and said, “We can’t help him more than merely trying to reassure him. Let’s hope that it’s enough.”

  Then she put her hand on Pendivall’s other shoulder and joined her friend in trying to strengthen the wizard in his quest.

  ~~~~

  Pendivall tried to retract his hand, but it was held tight by whatever force had him and there was no breaking free. The harder he tried to pull his hand free, the tighter the force gripped him.

  As he was beginning to wonder what he had gotten himself into, he experienced a wave of warmth wash over his soul, inducing a calm and easiness that could have only come from one place.

  “You ladies shouldn’t be in here.”

  “Neither should you, master,” followed the voice of Caroline from the darkness. “Get what you came here for and let’s get out of here.”

  “I sense more than one of you.”

  “Lianna is here with us.”

  If Pendivall were in the real world, he would have hung his head in despair, having brought these two ladies into such darkness. Having a niece that was a healer, he knew there was no stopping them when they sensed their abilities were needed.

  “Allow me a few more minutes,” he said to the voice.

  He directed his attention back to the dark light and started probing it with his mind. Images started to flood his own mind faster than he could see. They were fuzzy and he couldn’t make out what they were.

  He concentrated on the images and forced them to slow down. As they did, they became clearer in his mind.

  He saw Kolgan as a young boy, working on his family’s farm in the land of Gallyneer. He saw his mother and father, both of whom appeared to be completely ordinary people. As he concentrated on the two of them, he began tracing the family lineage back until he found it.

  About six generations back on the mother’s side of the line, there was a wizard. Going back past that, he discovered a whole line of wizards, rich in power and abilities. Tracing the branches of the tree forward and back, he saw that the lines faded out and disappeared altogether, with the final line going dark, merging into the line that became Kolgan’s family.

  Pendivall had the answer that he sought and knew it was now time to vacate this evil place and take these two sweet ladies with him.

  As he began working his way back, he found himself standing in an encampment deep in the Eastern Desert. He was outside a tent that was set near the base of Mount Thunder. He looked up and could see the smoke and ash belching from the summit of the volcano.

  He also found himself smiling when he saw the crack that Garlan had put in the side of the mountain with Blaze.

  How he wished that boy would come back to the fight.

  As his gaze came back down, he saw Kolgan walking toward the tent, holding a roll of papers, which Pendivall figured had to be the battle plans he had stolen when he killed Hector.

  Kolgan walked up to the entrance of the tent and the two guards just parted and let him through. As he ducked inside, Pendivall followed him.

  This Kolgan didn’t bear the disfigured face they saw now.

  “My liege, I possess what you sent me to find,” said Kolgan.

  Pendivall examined the eyes of Kerrick, who was sitting in an ornate chair at the end of the tent. One could say he sat on a throne, but it wasn’t quite that impressive.

  “You’ve always been a fake wizard, eh Kerrick?”

  He saw the face that he remembered from many years ago. Though the face had grown older, he nonetheless recognized the man who had gone from wizard to wizard at that gathering many years ago, begging to be taken on as an apprentice. When he was blocked at every turn, he just disappeared, not to surface again until word came that he had taken up residence overlooking the small, peaceful town of Tottenham.

  Kerrick stood up, wearing the black robes he had become notorious for. Black robes that everyone considered to be those of Magrum the Dark and in looking at them closely, Pendivall knew it was true.

  Pendivall looked around and saw the dark wizard’s staff in a stand in the corner. He moved across the tent to obtain a closer look and saw two crystals captured inside an intricately woven cage at the top, one green and one white. The white crystal would be the Star of Wyndweir, taken from the staff carried by Gallen, the murdered head of the wizard’s council.

  The work done on this new staff was exceptional and it was most assuredly, a wizard’s staff. He recognized the workmanship as that of the craftsmen of Guilden.

  How Kerrick got his hands on a true wizard’s staff was now the new mystery. Never, in all of the history of Wyndweir, was a staff created that incorporated two crystals in the head. Not even the Staff of Wyndweir contained two crystals.

  He turned and watched as Kolgan handed Kerrick the battle plans and listened to Kerrick cackle with glee as he unrolled the papers and looked at the maps contained on them.

  “This is marvelous,” he said. “With these plans, we can bring Wyndweir to her knees.”

  Then he moved to the tent flap and yelled out for one of his captains, who came running into the tent within seconds.

  “I want these troops ready to move within two hours. We are heading to Black Mountain. In addition, send some dragons south. There is a small army there. Have them do whatever they want when they find them.”

  The captain nodded and ducked back out of the tent, to carry out the orders he had been given.

  “I did what you asked, master. When do I begin my training?” asked Kolgan.

  Kerrick spun around and looked at him. The look of contempt was impossible for the dark wizard to hide.

  “You think you have what it takes to become a wizard?”

  “Yes, sire, I do.”

  “Well, it’s not me that you need to convince, but you will wish it was.”

  “Who then?” pleaded Kolgan.

  Kerrick smiled and Pendivall could feel the evil coming off him.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” said Kerrick.

  He extended his right hand and the staff in the corner flew across the ten
t and into his clenched fist. He turned and ducked out of the tent and Kolgan followed behind him.

  Pendivall moved through the tent flap and saw Kerrick was heading toward the mountain that lay just to the east of the volcano. It was close enough that it wouldn’t take more than a half hour to reach it by foot.

  “Sorry ladies,” said Pendivall, “I need to observe what these two are up to.”

  “Be careful, master,” came the voice of Lianna.

  He fell in behind the two men as they followed a well-worn path out of the encampment and to the base of the mountain. After another ten minutes of climbing, they came to an entrance to a cave, hidden behind some boulders. As they entered the cave, Pendivall could feel the cool wetness in the air and saw the gentle trickle of water running down one wall, that finished in a bowl-shaped depression in the wall.

  Kerrick cast an illumination sphere and had it hover near the roof of the cave, emitting a sickly, yellow glow around the cave.

  “What’s the matter, Kerrick?” asked Pendivall, under his breath. “You can’t cast a white sphere?”

  Pendivall looked around and saw the cot in the corner, an old, worn-out and tattered robe that appeared to have been made to look like a wizard’s robe and an old walking stick in the corner. There was also a small table and stool against the opposing wall, with a couple of leather bound books laying on it.

  As Pendivall got closer to the table, his heart rate spiked as he read the words on the cover of the book on top.

  The Journal of Magrum

  Their fears had been correct. Kerrick had found the lair of Magrum the Dark and found his journals, his robe and who knows what else.

  He turned back around and looked at the other two. Kerrick was standing in the center of the cave and Kolgan stood nervously near the far wall.

  “As I said, it’s not me you need to convince.”

  Then Kerrick pointed at a narrow opening in the wall opposite the cave entrance.

  Kolgan moved across the cave toward the opening and bent down to look inside. Then he stood up and looked at Kerrick. He had a look of terror on his face.