“I never expected to see you again.”

The speaker was a young woman, about Sheila’s age.  She was dressed simply, in the manner of the local farmers, but she carried herself with an air of nobility.  Golden colored hair cascaded down to her shoulders.

“We’re just as surprised as you,” Sheila said as she walked toward the young woman.  When they were practically nose to nose, Sheila and the girl threw their arms around each other.  “It’s good to see you again, Karina.”

“You said it,” Eric cut in.  “We need some magic on our side.”

“I don’t understand.”  Karina quickly looked from one child to the other.  “You had such powerful weapons…”

“‘Had’ is right,” Bobby said.  “We had to give ‘em back.”

“But we got a different kind of magic instead, I think,” Presto added.

“You must explain it to me later.  We were about to have dinner.  You’re welcome, although there isn’t much.”

The kids followed Karina through several sparsely furnished rooms of the castle to the kitchen.  Three long tables were by the hearth, with about a dozen people already eating.  They were of all ages, from child to elderly, and yet all had a hardened look about their eyes, as if they had seen far too much evil for one lifetime.

“Kinda chilly in here, isn’t it?” Diana asked, referring to the glowers of suspicion toward the newcomers.

Karina took the hint and spoke up: “These are powerful friends of mine.  They’ve come to help us.  I vouchsafe on their behalf.”  A couple of faces brightened, or at least looked a little more relaxed.  The others continued eating as if nothing had happened.

“I love a hearty welcome,” Eric muttered.

“Forgive them,” Karina said, as she dished stew into wooden bowls for the children.  “This is a rough time.  Venger’s Orcs have had this castle under siege for months now.  The food is almost gone; we’ve already lost our best warriors.  You may have arrived just in time to see the whole thing finally fall.”

“You’re still having trouble from Venger?” Presto asked.  “Why?”

“For no reason.  For any of a dozen reasons.  Because Orcs are vicious fighters and are usually looking for someone to fight.  Mostly, I guess, because my brother forgives no one.”

 “I still can’t believe you and Venger are twins,” Diana said.  “You don’t look anything alike.”

“But they were.”  An older woman spoke from the other end of the table.  “I could never tell them apart as little children.”

Karina walked over to the old woman.  “This is my cousin Oskel.  She raised me after our parents were killed.  But that was long ago,” sighed Karina, looking into the fire.  “Before he became a pupil of DungeonMaster.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, how did he change?”

“Ask as much as you like, Sheila; I still can’t tell you.  I’ve heard a dozen different stories about what happened to Eldrid, but they may all be false.”

“But you used to be close to him.  Maybe your heart knows something, even if you don’t realize it.”

Karina took a deep breath.  “I remember,” she finally said, barely above a whisper.  “I remember everything he said and did up until the time I went away.  Oskel felt that she could not raise us both.  So I went with her and Eldrid stayed with the DungeonMaster.  Then when I did see him again, he was calling himself Venger.  All he was interested in was more and more magic, more and more power.  Do you want to know why he imprisoned me that first time?  It wasn’t because I tried to defeat him in battle or anything like that.  I just made him uncomfortable.  I reminded him of days when he didn’t need so much magic to be content.”

She rubbed her eyes as if she hadn’t slept in a week.  “I don’t know how he changed, but I know when.  He had to be about your age,” she smiled, nodding at Presto.

“ME??  How can you tell?”

“If you wanted to conjure up a demon, what do you think he’d look like?”

“Well, I guess he would kinda look like Venger, or an Orc or something.”

“He is only a bad boy’s version of a nightmare.  It would be funny if he weren’t so powerful, or so cruel.”

Eric took one taste of the stew, and put down his spoon.  “You know, Karina, we ARE on our way out of here this time.  This palace looks like it isn’t what it used to be.  Why not come along with us to our world?”

Diana started to scold Eric; Karina waved her to silence.  “Tell me something, Eric.  All the time you’ve been here in the Realm, no matter what beautiful or wondrous things have appeared before your eyes, you’ve looked for a way home.  Am I right?”  Eric nodded.  “I’m sure I’d feel the same way.  For good or ill, this is my home.”

“How come you just don’t use your magic on the Orcs?” Bobby asked.  “Send ‘em to a desert island or something?”

“I’ve learned better, for one thing.  I still remember what you all taught me the last time; especially you, Sheila.  But even if I didn’t know better, I’m afraid that my magic is almost gone.”

“How can that be?” Hank asked.

“It’s been a battle just keeping alive.  I suppose you came in by the tunnel.  That was dug long ago.  It reaches to the farms just beyond the hills of Nebur.  The only way we could bring in food was to sneak through that tunnel.  It’s all I can do to keep an illusion spell on that tunnel, so that the Orcs never find it.  I’m surprised you found it.”

“Well, we kind of fell into it by accident.”

“If I were to let the spell go even for a second, the Orcs would find the tunnel and we would all be lost.  It was easy at first, but I haven’t had rest or proper food for a long time.  My magic will fail me soon enough at this rate.”

Sheila turned to the others.  “Isn’t there something we can do?”

“Hey, Karina, maybe you know,” Presto interrupted.  “How are we supposed to work the wild magick?”

“What?  You mean DungeonMaster took your weapons, and gave you…?  Does Venger know?”  Karina’s eyes, weary a minute ago, blazed like a fire.

“I don’t think so,” Diana answered.

“Priceless, priceless.  I am so glad I lived to see this.”  Karina started chuckling to herself, the chuckling growing into laughter.  “I only wish I could see the look on my dear brother’s face.”  The laughter kept growing; it began to make the children nervous.  Oskel rose from her seat and went to Karina, wrapping her arms around the girl and holding her tight.

“Please forgive her,” Oskel said to the children.  “Her nerves are as tight as a bow-string.  She’ll have to rest tonight.  She’ll be alright in the morning.”  The old woman ushered Karina into a neighboring room and closed the door.

The six glanced at each other worriedly.  “Sis, is she gonna be okay?”

“I’ve got a better question,” Eric interrupted.  “What happens to us now that her spell’s on a coffee break?”

“Don’t worry about that,” said an old man near the fire.  “Karina’s had these fits before, but some part of her still keeps that illusion spell going.  It’ll probably take death itself to stop it.”

“At least we know that she knows something about the wild magick,” Hank said to the others.  “Maybe she’ll tell us tomorrow.”

Diana approached the old man.  “We’d be glad to help you keep watch tonight, if you need us.  We’re used to it.”

“So are we, my child.  Thank you for offering, but please be content tonight as guests of Karina’s hospitality, poor though it may be.”

He showed the children to a room with several large beds.  The youngest children had already been tucked into some of them.  The six relaxed as best they could, with Uni curled up by Bobby’s feet.

After a few hours of fitful sleep, Presto decided he needed a drink of water.  However, in looking for the kitchen, he’d gotten turned around and ended up on the parapet.  He looked up at the stars, wondering if he might be looking at the single sun that lit his home world.

“Hey there.”  Diana had just walked onto the parapet.  She walked over to Presto.  “Looks like a meeting of the Lonely Hearts Club.  I couldn't sleep either.”

They both looked out over the foothills.  All that moved under the light of the moons were a couple of zombies, the undead of the Realm.  Sometimes they could be seen wandering the land, looking for something; perhaps a way back to life, perhaps a way to a truly peaceful death.  In any case, they never seemed to find it.  Just like us, thought Presto.

“What’s wrong, Presto?”

“I’m just worried about tomorrow.  We have to find out what Karina knows about the wild magick.  Right now we don’t know a thing.”

“Is that really what’s bothering you?”

“No,” he sighed.  “It’s the same old story.  Suppose we go home right now, this second.  You’d still be one of the cool kids.  You won gold medals and everything.  I’d go back to being just another nerd.”

She put a hand on Presto’s shoulder.  “What were you expecting?  You know we can’t take any magic back with us.”

“I know, but I wanted to do something really big with magic while we’re here.  Something you guys would remember.”

“You don’t have to worry,” Diana smiled.  “No matter what happens to me, even if I go to the Olympics, I know I’ll never forget what happened here, and I’ll never forget any of you.”

Presto studied Diana’s face.  Yes, her mouth smiled a reassurance that “Everything will be all right”.  Her eyes, however, held a ghost of doubt: “I sure hope so, anyway.”  Together they walked back into the castle.

The stirring of the others woke the children before sunrise.  They tried to help in the kitchen, but the supplies were almost gone.

Just as the food was ready, Karina came into the kitchen.  In some ways she looked drained, and yet there was a sense of peace about her face, as if she’d finally gotten the answer to a question that had been plaguing her for weeks.

“Forgive me for last night,” she said somewhat sheepishly.  “I was more exhausted than I realized.”

Presto leaned across the table.  “Do you know about the wild magick?  You gotta tell us if you do!”

“I’m sorry, Presto.  I know the wild magick only by reputation.  I can tell you that it’s the most powerful magic in the Realm, and that, if he knew you had it, my brother would never rest until he had hunted you down.”

“That’s just great,” Eric muttered.  “When we gave up our weapons he was supposed to stop chasing us.”

“Yes, but those were weapons he could take from you by force, or by deception.  The wild magick does not change masters so easily.”

“Then how does he know he can take it?”

“He doesn’t know, Hank.  All he knows is that he wants the wild magick.  He values it above his own life.”

“But DungeonMaster would never agree to teach it to him,” Presto said.

“I know.  That is the one part of Venger’s madness I cannot understand.  Some wizard or other must have promised to instruct him in the ways of the wild magick.  But all the wizards I know of are either dead or refuse to have anything to do with the wild magick.”

“Maybe we can figure this out from the other end,” Hank said. “Do you know where it came from?”

“That too is a mystery.  Some have said it came to this world before the beginning, from beyond the stars.”

“Does that include the book?”

“What book, Eric?”

Eric and the kids then explained what happened to the gramerye.  Karina’s eyes grew wider and wider, and Presto was afraid of her having another attack.  When they were through, Karina simply sat back in her chair.

“This is beyond me,” she finally said.  “I’m convinced that you know what you need to know, but you don’t know that you know it.”

“Well, I guess they don’t call it ‘wild’ for nothing,” Diana added.

A bell started ringing above them.  “They’re back,” Karina said quietly.  As she rose from her chair, she suddenly seemed much older.  “Since you have no weapons, you should stay here.”

Sheila blurted out “No way!” before any of the others could respond.  “I mean, there must be something we can do to help.”

“There’s always something to be done, but this isn’t your fight.”

“We’re friends.  That makes it my fight.  Besides, we won’t get hurt.  We can take care of ourselves.”

Instead of agreeing with Sheila, Hank stepped up to Karina.  “If anyone should stay back here, it’s you.  Putting yourself in danger won’t help your people.”

“It seems we’re all rather stubborn,” Karina finally said with a wry smile.

“Are you kidding?” Eric cut her off.  “Ask anyone.  They’ll tell you my head’s thicker than this castle wall.”

“That’s good, for I should hate to lose any of you.  Come along.”  Karina led them up a curving staircase to a walkway that ran along the top of the castle wall on three sides.  From there they could see a hundred Orcs advancing on the castle.

“This shouldn’t be too tough,” Eric went on.  “Where are your weapons?”

Karina gestured toward a wall.  There were only a few bows, a few half-empty quivers of arrows, some lances and two shields.

“Okay,” Eric went on, “so where are your white flags?”

“Come on, you guys,” Diana said, trying to rally their spirits.  “Remember what happened with the Cloud Bears?  They fought off the Orcs with fruit and nuts.  We can do that much, can’t we?”

“Yeah, but all that stuff was already up in the trees,” Presto replied.  “We don’t have much here.”

Hank was studying the parapet above them.  “Looks like all we have is the castle itself.  But if we can drop a few of those stones on them, it might discourage them.”

“We don’t have many other choices,” sighed Sheila.

“Okay.   Diana, let’s go up that tower.  We’ll push down anything loose we can find.  And be careful!”

Hank and Diana disappeared into the tower.  A minute later Diana’s “Look out below!” warned them away from the wall.  Large rocks then started falling from above, some of them breaking when they hit.  Eric, Sheila, Presto and Bobby moved them to the edge of the parapet, where they looked down to see Orcs nearing the castle.  They were carrying long scaling-ladders.

“They mean to get me this time,” Karina muttered.

“That’s what they think!” Bobby replied happily.  He was glad to finally be doing something, rather than waiting for disaster to strike.  He started rolling one large stone toward the edge.

“Bobby!  Stay back!”

“C’mon, sis!”

“I’m sorry, Bobby, but Sheila can’t help worrying about you.”  Bobby looked at Karina and half-smiled.  “Perhaps you and the unicorn can help me check on the others.  They may need water, or bandages, or even just a word of encouragement.”

“Hey Porky!” Eric yelled over the side at the Orcs.  “You’d better not do that!  You’ll be sorry!”  The Orcs answered by shooting a volley of arrows in Eric’s direction.  He just had time to duck.

Sheila grabbed one of the shields and handed it to Eric.  Then, covering herself with the other, she approached the edge.  “Okay, you can’t say we didn’t warn you!”  She and Eric started lifting up the large rocks and dropping them over the side.  There was the crack of breaking wood, the thud of falling Orcs and a great deal of gutteral cursing.

“All right!” Bobby cheered.  “That’s one for our side.”

“Don’t cheer too soon, short stuff.  There are still too many innings to…”  Eric didn’t finish the sentence.  An Orc helmet, with a particularly ugly Orc beneath it, and an even uglier broadsword in its grasp, appeared further down the parapet.

Sheila, hiding behind her own shield, dashed over to the Orc.  It swung the sword, which embedded itself in the edge of the shield, just a few inches short of her skull.  She pushed sword and Orc and ladder away from the wall and down.

They fought well at the parapet, repelling any Orc who tried to climb their way into the castle.

The children had forgotten about the front door.

The attempt to scale the wall was a diversion, by about half the Orcs.  The rest waited, then attacked the door to Karina’s castle en masse.  There was no longer the force to resist.  The Orcs spread out throughout the castle, looking for Karina.  One Orc commander climbed the steps to the parapet, and found Karina and the outworlder humans.  He quickly raised his bow and arrow.

Diana was just coming down the stairs of the tower; there was no more loose masonry to use as weapons.  She did find a piece of timber, and was carrying that to give to Bobby as a club.  When she saw the Orc nock the arrow, she ran the rest of the way and swung the wood with all her might against the Orc’s head.  The blow sent him spinning to the edge of the parapet, then over.  From the noise, his fall was broken by other Orcs who were trying to scale the walls.

Diana hit the Orc a split second after he loosed the arrow.  It drove into the center of Karina’s back.

Sheila screamed and ran to Karina, who had fallen to her knees.  Hank and Diana came out of the tower and joined the others crowding around Karina.  Even a brief look at her back told them everything.  There was no way to pull the arrow out; the head was barbed and in too deep.  “We should never have come back,” Sheila said out loud without realizing.

”No, Sheila,” Karina gasped, “it had to be this way.  I knew it all along—so did my brother.  When you see him—tell him I don’t hate him.”

“Just take it easy, Karina,” Sheila said in a near-whisper.  “You can tell him yourself.”

Karina smiled weakly.  “Thank you, Sheila.  If I’ve learned anything about being a friend, it was you who taught me.  I…”  Karina stopped and inhaled violently, eyes wide open.  Then she slowly let out her breath, and just as slowly shut her eyes, and lay still.

Hank had stood silently behind Sheila.  Now, he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder.  “I’m sorry—”

Hank never finished.  Sheila jumped up, eyes blazing, and ran to the edge of the parapet.  “You didn’t have to kill her!” she screamed at the Orcs below.  “What did she ever do to you?”

“Sheila!”  Hank tried to pull her back; arrows and spears were again flying toward the castle.

Sheila ignored both Hank and the Orcs.  She tried to think of something else to say on behalf of Karina, but her grief kept words from forming.  She could only raise her fists above her head and yell, “NOOOOO!!!”

And so it started.

As she stood there, the space between her upraised fists caught fire.  Sheila’s eyes were shut and she seemed unaware, but the others watched as the flames, made out of constantly shifting colors, began to grow in size.  The fire soon defined itself as a sphere and kept growing, pushing against Sheila’s hands.  The others ran toward her, although they didn’t know at that moment what it was or how they were going to deal with it.

Presto reached up to try to pull Sheila’s hand away from the ball of flame, but his hand ended up holding hers.  His other hand reached out and away from himself; Hank took it, and it continued until all six were standing in a circle, apparently in a trance.  As soon as all six of them joined hands, the ball of flame began to swell, taking up more and more of the space between them.  Just as it threatened to crowd them out and break the circle, they raised their linked hands and called out with one voice:

“HYZENTHLAY!”

The light exploded outward, like the rings of Saturn gone mad.  The force of the blast knocked the six children off their feet, breaking their contact with one another.  At first, it seemed only to leave them shaken.

Both within and beyond the castle walls, the effect was much worse.  The force of the blast spread out swift and powerful over the land.  No Orc survived who was unlucky enough to be caught in the path of the force.  A few found shelter in caves, behind and in trees or atop large stones.  But when they saw what had happened to their comrades, they fled Nebur, and Venger’s army—never to return.

* * *

“Speak to me, ShadowDemon.  I sense that something has happened at Nebur.”

“Much has happened at Nebur this day, sire.  But I do not know how to speak to you of it.”

Venger’s brow furrowed.  This was unlike any mood he had ever seen in ShadowDemon.  The shade was usually quite servile, and cared for nothing but Venger’s will.  Now this thing seemed to have emotions, which seemed to be in turmoil.  “Tell me of Karina.”

“She is dead, sire; felled by an Orc commander’s arrow in the back.”

There was no outburst of joy or sorrow or any other emotion.  Venger seemed to wait a minute, as if marking the end of one chapter in his life and the beginning of another.  Finally, with no change in his voice, he spoke again: “And the Orcs have overrun the castle?”

ShadowDemon found the words almost painful to utter:  “The Orcs are likewise slain.”

“WHAT?!”

“Only a handful have survived.  They have fled your army.”

“Those children lied!  They said they no longer had their weapons.”

“Their weapons did not do this, sire.  Those who lived to tell the tale spoke of a single flash of power, of magic that swept the ground for miles…”

ShadowDemon never finished his sentence.  Venger’s black steed appeared in the blink of an eye; Venger mounted and rode off at top speed through the sky toward Nebur.

ShadowDemon sighed; this too was unusual, since he was little more than a sigh himself.  “I shall wait here until Venger returns, or until he is no more.  Either way, I’m sure I will know of it.”

Venger raced to Nebur as quickly as his black steed could take him, but all he found was a wasteland.  Karina’s castle was empty; abandoned by Oskel and the few remaining humans.  Their final act was to place Karina’s body in a tomb of her own devising, hidden in the tunnel that led to the valley.  Then they abandoned their homes and farms, seeking out less accursed lands but taking with them the memory of the young woman who had befriended them and sheltered them at the greatest cost of all.

“Come on, Sheila; spill the beans!”

“Leave me alone, Eric!”

The six children walked away from Karina’s palace, toward no place in particular.  Sheila was plainly distraught at what had happened, but Eric couldn’t see it.  He just wanted answers.

“But we all saw you.  You must know something; you started it!”

“I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!”

“Sorry because you wasted a hundred Orcs?!”

Hank put an arm around Sheila’s shoulders.  “That’s right, Eric, so back off.  If she didn’t feel sorry for the Orcs, we might never have been chosen for the wild magick in the first place.”

“What do you know about it?”

“Because I felt sorry for Venger, alright?  Is that what you want to hear?  I’m not going to apologize for what happened in the Dragons’ Graveyard.  Maybe that’s the only real difference between us and Venger.”

Eric bit his lower lip.  “I’m sorry, guys,” he said in a much softer voice, “but this has been driving me crazy.  Now I know that I know something, but I can’t put it into words.”

“Same here,” Presto said.  “Somebody else is gonna have to go first.”

Everyone looked at Sheila.  “I really don’t know what happened.  All I remember is a phrase: The desire to summon it.”

Presto followed immediately with  “The knowledge to name it.”

“The patience to choose it,” Hank added.

Eric spoke up with “The skill to shape it.”

“The cunning to aim it.”  After Diana spoke, they all looked at Bobby.

“Sorry, guys, I really can’t think of anything.”

 “DungeonMaster probably missed you and your part landed in the unicorn.”

“BRNEEH BLE NE!!  PPFFFTT!”

“Guess she told you, Eric,” Bobby grinned.

“It’s still not finished, guys,” Presto cautioned.  “We still don’t know how we knew what to do, or why Bobby still doesn't know what his role is supposed to be. We need to figure this out.  And are we going to use the wild magick again?”

The children had stopped to tend their wounds.  The wild magick had exacted its own cost. The palms of Sheila’s hands were badly burned by the power they wielded, and were starting to blister; part of Uni’s mane was singed in the explosion, and all of them had the wind knocked out of them.

“If this is what the wild magick does, I vote we leave it alone,” Eric said.  “I don’t want to have to go through all that again.”

“For once, I agree with Eric,” Diana added.  “We still don’t know how to use that much power.”

“Yeah, but that was the funny part,” Presto interrupted.  “I don’t think we were controlling it.  It felt more like it was controlling itself, and we were just along for the ride.”

Hank looked from one to the other.  An idea had taken shape in his head, but he didn’t like even thinking it, much saying it out loud.  “Guys, I don’t believe I’m saying this, but DungeonMaster said we’d have to fight what we cannot name.  You know who fits that description.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding!”

“Hank’s right, Eric,” Sheila interrupted.  “It’s the only way that having the wild magick makes any sense.”

“But sis, what about your hands?”  Sheila’s hands had been growing worse as the day went on.  The red patches on her palms were swelling and starting to blister; Sheila herself recognized these from her Girl Scout days as second degree burns.  But she played them down for Bobby’s benefit.

“They’re not too bad, Bobby, and I’d put up with worse if it meant getting rid of the big No-Name.”

“Face it, Eric,” Diana said, “you’re gonna be outvoted again.”

Eric sighed, picked up the discarded Orc shield he had been carrying—bent, dented and far heavier than it looked—as the others began their march to the Tower of Darkness.

To be continued in:
“Herald of Chaos”