The people of Nindrel were not as hospitable as Martha had hoped.  It didn’t matter to them that these children had joined with Martha to defeat the Nightwalker once and for all.  They were a wealthy and complacent people, and lived in dread of anything that threatened that complacency.  To them, there was no difference between the Nightwalker and those who fought against him.  Both upset the peace and quiet of their lives.

"Forgive me, children," Martha said as she walked from the city gate to her caravan.  She tried to stay composed, but her eyes gave away her anger and frustration.  "Suddenly, the beds we were promised this night have disappeared.  You are welcome to stay with me before continuing your journey."

"Thanks, Martha," Hank replied, "but we have a long way to go."

"But you were a prisoner of the darkness yourself.  Perhaps a day or two of rest--"

"Believe me, being back in this world has me feeling just fine.  We still need to find out about--"

"Yes, yes, I know," Martha interrupted, sighing.  "You seek Crinn.  I too have heard of him, and frankly I don’t like what I’ve heard.  DungeonMaster was right; he’s a great magician, but he’s an even greater mystery.  You’ll be lucky if he even agrees to speak to you, much less help you get back to your birth-world."

"Well, it’s gotta be better than nothing," Presto said.

"Martha," Diana asked, "do you know where Crinn lives?"

"Oh, everyone knows, but nobody seeks him out.  You’ll find him by traveling toward the rising suns.  Three days’ walk should take you to the edge of the kingdom of Farnelia.  Crinn lives in a small house on the frontier, set back from the road.  Look sharp or you’ll miss it.  And don’t ask anyone else for help; you’ll never get it."

"I wish you could travel with us," Sheila said.

"So do I, child, but you have your road to travel.  And I have mine."  Martha stopped and looked nervously toward the back of the caravan, at its two new passengers: a man who appeared to be in his forties, and a young girl of about five.

Sheila squeezed Martha’s hand.  "Don’t worry," she said in almost a whisper, "it’ll be easy for you from here."

With a final burst of squeaks and whistles, Wiccan jumped from Uni’s back onto Martha’s lap.  She shook the reins and the great beast set the caravan rumbling down the road, past the glories of Nindrel.

The six children and the unicorn set off down the path, walking through forests that seemed somewhat sunnier since the disappearance of the Nightwalker.  None of them spoke, except when Hank dropped back to walk next to Eric.

"Everyone said you really took charge after the Nightwalker got me."

"Yeah, well, about that.  I know I’ve kidded about your being the leader in the past.  This little tour was just short-term.  All I wanted was to get you back.  I never really wanted to run this show."

"I know.  Thanks."  Hank smiled, and picked up his pace, drawing even with Sheila.

The others were thinking the same thought, on and off, but it wasn’t until they had stopped for the night that Presto gave voice to the thought:

"What is it with this Crinn, anyway?  I mean, if he’s so powerful, how come everybody avoids him?"

"Including DungeonMaster," Eric added.  "Did you hear him?  ‘I heard about this guy Crinn and maybe he can get you home.’  Come on--if you’re the DungeonMaster, you KNOW!"

"Well, I don’t care what you say about DungeonMaster," Bobby piped up, "I still trust him."  Uni bleated out an agreement.

"We all trust him, Bobby," Sheila said sleepily.  "It’s just that things have been kind of rough."

"We have to trust him," Diana added.  "He gave us our weapons, and he’s trying to get us home."

"He needs to try harder," Eric muttered.

The trek toward Farnelia was uneventful, until the close of the second day.  They had spent the entire day walking through forests of what looked and smelled like apple trees, except that the fruit was blue and as dense as wood.  Uni’s jaws could get through the fruit, but the others tried once and gave it up.

They were resting by the bank of a stream late in the day, judging whether they would camp there for the night, when something moved across the setting suns.

They all noticed the sudden dimming of the light.  "Storm clouds?" Diana asked.

Hank took a few steps toward the sunset, looking for a clearer view through the trees.  Suddenly he tensed and raised his arm.  "Everyone down!" he ordered in a harsh whisper.

Reflexively they all dropped, but Bobby started crawling toward Hank.  "What is it?  What do you see?"

Hank gave Bobby a look that said, "I can’t explain this one," and nodded ahead of him.

He and Bobby saw an army of hang-gliders.  Hundreds of men in some kind of battle armor moved across the suns in rough formation in winged harnesses of wood and leather.  They flew silently and expertly, whoever they were and wherever they were going.

"Oh, that’s just great," Eric said when Hank and Bobby told the others what they’d seen.  "We’re walking into the middle of somebody’s war now."

"C’mon, Eric," Presto said, "we’re just looking for Crinn.  We won’t have to get mixed up in anything."

"Oh yeah?  With our luck, he’ll probably tell us that the way home is right through the middle of the battlefield."

Diana had started to build a campfire.  "When we get back home, Eric, I’ve got the perfect job for you: you can be the guy on television that reads all the bad news."

"Very funny."

Clouds had started moving in, promising cooler weather but no rain.  Hank struck sparks from a flint; the kindling caught easily in the still twilight and, once the suns set, their fire was the only source of light until the moons were to rise.

One by one the children dozed off, after nibbling at the dried meats and fruit Martha had given them.  After a while, Hank and Diana were the only ones awake.

They sat silently, watching the fire, lost in their own thoughts, until Hank spoke: "Can I ask you something, Diana?"

"Sure."

"The other day, when Eric was saying he didn’t trust DungeonMaster, you said we had to trust him.  Did that mean--?"  Hank let the question hang.

"Of course I trust him.  He gave us the weapons, he’s pointed us toward the way home.  It isn’t his fault that we haven’t made it back yet."

"Well, I don’t think it’s our fault, either.  But we’ve got to get some answers soon.  It’s been too long and we never even get close.  Eric isn’t the only one; everybody’s running really low on patience."

Diana got up, walked to a nearby tree and jumped straight up at the nearest branch.  She grabbed it and pulled herself up onto it.  "I’ll take the first watch, Hank; I’m not tired."

Hank stretched out on the grass, his hand only an inch away from the bow.  Even with someone else keeping watch, he slept lightly.

It was midnight, with the moons directly overhead but dimmed by clouds, when the soldiers attacked.  One dropped from high up in the tree directly onto Diana, knocking her to the ground.  Others pounced on the sleeping children, grabbing away their weapons.  Startled out of sleep, it took Hank a minute to realize by their uniforms that these were the hang-gliding soldiers they had seen earlier.

"You’ll speak to us now," rasped one of the guards to Eric, "for this is the only chance you’ll get.  Tell us of the invasion plans."

"What??  What invasion?"

"Pretending to be foolish won’t save your life," the soldier sneered.

"He’s not pretending," Presto muttered.

The soldier who was restraining Hank pulled a dagger and stuck the point of it behind Hank’s right ear.  "If you are not more forthcoming than your friend, you’ll only have thirty seconds to regret it.  What are the plans of the Arundelian Army?"

"We don’t know anything about any army."

"You have to believe us!" Sheila shouted to the guard.  "We’re just going to see Crinn!"

That name caused a strange reaction among the soldiers.  They stopped, suddenly nervous and seemingly uncertain of what to do next.  The soldier threatening Eric finally spoke; "Well, anyone may say they are on a pilgrimage.  How do we know--"

"Hey, leave her alone!"  Bobby was shouting at a soldier who had trapped Uni in a net and was now trying to free her.  Uni bleated and moaned and mewed until she was free, but the instant the soldiers caught sight of her, they shouted in fear, let go of their captives and the magic weapons and ran back into the forest.

The group sat in stunned silence; after a minute, Eric spoke up: "All right, I’m offering my allowance for a month to whoever tells me WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED HERE!!"

"I guess you called it right," Hank said.  "We did walk into the middle of a war.  They thought we were spies."

"Yeah," Diana added, "but telling them about Crinn made them nervous."

"And did you see them run when they saw Uni?!" Bobby happily blurted out.  Uni was contentedly munching on one of the blue wood-apples.

"Maybe we’ll let her lead the way for a while," Eric said.

"That may not be a bad idea," Presto said, "if they respect unicorns that much around here."

"That wasn’t respect, Presto.  They were frightened."

"Hank, I’m getting frightened," Sheila said.  "They could change their minds and come back."

"Well, we can’t go looking for Crinn until sunrise.  And I don’t think we can go back to sleep tonight.  Let’s just keep alert."

They waited, weapons at the ready.  But nothing broke the stillness of the forest night, and they watched the dawn break undisturbed.

"Well," Hank said, "we should find Crinn sometime today.  I just hope DungeonMaster was right about him."

They set off again through the forest and walked for about two hours, until they saw a road.  They followed the road for a mile until Sheila noticed a path that joined the road; a path now overgrown and almost invisible.  Remembering Martha’s words, they walked along the path back into the forest.

There they saw the cottage.  It wasn’t made of stone or clay or wood; it seemed to be made of all of these and more besides: thatch and glass and dried leaves mixed with mud and animal pelts.  It seemed inexplicably out of place even in the Realm.  The front door was open, and they walked into what they at first thought was an abandoned cottage.  Dust lay thick on most of the few pieces of furniture.  Almost no sun came in to disturb the twilight.  The hearth hadn’t seen a fire in days.

"I wonder where he went.  Do you suppose he--YIKE!" Presto shrieked, as he realized he almost sat down on Crinn.  The old magician was seated in a high-backed wooden chair.  His hair was gray, his bony body was barely covered by skin.  He had a mustache, which consisted of only a few strands of hair that hung down to the middle of his chest.  His clothes were little better than rags.  But the most distinctive thing about Crinn was his glasses; rather, that he wore round-lensed spectacles that had been painted an opaque white.

"It seems I have company."  His voice was low and rumbling like a sleeping volcano.

Hank stepped forward.  "We were sent here by DungeonMaster--" he began.

Crinn cut him off.  "Did you bring a unicorn?"

"Huh?  Oh; yeah!" Presto said.  "What are you gonna do with her?"

"I will do nothing, yet."  Crinn turned his head toward Hank.  As their eyes adjusted to the dim light of the hut, they could see that Crinn wore the glasses to cover eyes that had seen nothing for years.  "Why did DungeonMaster send you to me?"

"We’re not from this world, and we need to find a way home."

"And he told you I might help, eh?  I cannot tell you how to get to your world, but perhaps I can help you to find the way yourselves.  How did you come to be here?"
The six children then tried—interrupting each other constantly--to tell Crinn all that had happened to them since they were pulled from their world by the Dungeons & Dragons ride.

"So many chances to get home," Crinn muttered at last, "and so many chances lost.  Tell me the name of your mentor again."

"Like we said," a baffled Hank replied, "he calls himself DungeonMaster."

"And he claims that he rules this Realm, doesn’t he?"

"Well, sure he does," Bobby answered.  "He’s got all kinds of power."

Crinn waved Bobby to silence.  "Understand me, children; if he is DungeonMaster, then the land that he controls is--" He let the unspoken word hang in the air.  The children stayed silent for a minute; not that they failed to understand Crinn.  They just hadn’t wanted to admit to themselves what he was now asking them to face.

At length, Hank hesitantly spoke up: "Are you saying the Realm is a dungeon?"

"Isn’t it?  It certainly is for you.  You can hardly come and go as you please."

"Well, maybe not back to our world--" Sheila began.

"You’ve got it wrong!" Diana interrupted indignantly.  "DungeonMaster wouldn’t have given us our weapons unless he trusted us.  You don’t give weapons to prisoners."

"And you believe that they are weapons?  From what you’ve told me, they are a mixed blessing, what with Venger trying constantly to take them from you."

"Aw, don’t worry about Venger," Bobby said.  "We can get around him any time."

"You must believe me, child; I do worry about Venger.  I know far more about him than you do; certainly more than DungeonMaster has seen fit to tell you.  Neither his attacks upon you nor his temporary alliances with you are a surprise to me.  Back when these eyes could see, he was a young lad of considerable talent--not all of it for good."  Crinn suddenly stood up.  "I will speak of these things later.  Now we must go."

"Go where?" Hank asked.

"The prairies to the north; the land known as the Doomfield.  There, the armies of Farnelia and Arundel are massing.  They mean to destroy each other, and they may well succeed.  The results would be a disaster, not just for the two armies or the two kingdoms but for the entire Realm.  I must try to stop them, but I need your help."

"Lucky we happened along then," Presto commented.

"It was hardly luck; I simply waited for you."

"How did you know we were coming?" Diana asked.

"I didn’t.  I cannot explain this now; we have to be on our way."

Crinn rose up out of the chair and felt with one hand for a walking-stick of highly-polished ebony.  He waved the other hand about in empty air until he asked, "Could I request a little assistance?"

"Oh; sorry," Bobby blurted out, moving to Crinn’s side.  The magician put a long bony hand on Bobby’s shoulder, and they walked out of the hut, with Uni following.  The others were just a step behind.

That made them easy to trap.  As soon as they left the hut and started to enter the forest, nets fell on them from the trees.  Soldiers immediately ran up to secure the nets and take anything that they thought could be used as a weapon.  Thus, they took Crinn’s walking-stick, but left Sheila’s cloak and Presto’s hat.

One of the soldiers, his elaborate uniform showing his high rank, approached the blind magician.  "Behold the mighty Crinn," he said mockingly.

"How long has it been since you’ve come to see me, General Crivet?" the magician answered, stressing the soldier’s rank.

"Long enough for me to have been promoted to general.  So you found a way to see that without seeing."

"All I found was a visitor last year who liked to gossip, and who mentioned your good fortune.  There’s nothing mystical about it."

"But surely you understand that I can’t take any chances.  I can’t let you and your friends run about unattended."

"Why not?"  Eric piped up.  "What did we ever do to you?"

"Nothing, as yet, and I mean to keep it that way.  You’ll stay here under guard until the battle is joined."

"General," Crinn spoke up, "your men have me in a rather uncomfortable position.  Surely I would not threaten your plans if I were kept under arrest in my own home."

"We both know better than that, Crinn.  Letting you free even in your own house could prove my undoing."

"I give you my solemn oath not to use my powers to escape."

"I suppose I should take that at face value, though I’d be a fool if I did.  However, in deference to your age and frailty, I will let you back into your house.  I’ll also have four men in the house with you to keep an eye on you.  These children can stay out here.  I can spare these few guards for a while."  General Crivet turned and spoke to his men.  "You four, take Crinn inside.  He is not to be bound, but he is not to touch anyone or anything.  He has given his word not to use his enchantments, and I mean to help him keep his word.  Run him through if he tries to disobey you.  The rest of you, watch the children, and especially the unicorn.  Once the battle has been joined, you can free them, or chop them to bits.  I don’t much care, and it won’t matter by then."  With that, the general strode into the forest.

The children were made to sit in a circle on the grass, at the edge of the forest, while four men marched Crinn back into his hut, taking the weapons with them.  Uni, who had curled up on the ground next to Bobby, tried to bleat out some kind of threatening noise, hoping to scare the guards as she had the night before.  This time, though, they just moved a step closer, brandishing their spears; Uni gave up trying to scare anyone and, now very scared herself, hid behind Bobby.

"Well, so much for that idea," Presto sighed.

"Yeah.  I wonder how come they’re not afraid of Uni now," Hank wondered.

"Because she is a prisoner here," one of the guards spoke up.  "If she were free, the prophecy might come to pass."

"That sounds familiar," Diana sighed, her head in her arms.

"What is the prophecy?"

"Sheila, it’s almost noon!  We don’t need bedtime stories."

"Watch your mouth, Eric!"

"Hold it, Bobby!" Hank interrupted.  "Maybe we should find out what we’re in the middle of here."

"And why should we tell you?" a guard sneered.

The first guard who had spoken said, "Because it passes the time.  Besides, my oldest girl would be about her age."  He nodded toward Sheila.  "And the longer we stay here guarding them, the more likely I am to see her again.  I don’t much fancy finding out the secrets of the Doomfield."

"You’ll never amount to much in the army, Bekkan," the second guard grumbled.  "You can’t let your family come ahead of your duty."

Sheila had been nervously fingering the hem of her cloak of invisibility, watching and waiting for a chance to use it.

"Nobody knows what, if anything, will come to pass," the guard named Bekkan continued.   "But it’s always been said that there would be a terrible battle upon the Doomfield.  There’s a saying that goes,

"Victory and defeat, ‘twill all be the same
As one drop of blood starts up the mad game.
Dead eye and live horn shall fight side by side
And both armies shall fall apart."

"And a partridge in a pear tree—"

"ER-RIC!!"

"But what does it all mean?" Diana asked.

"We’ve never been sure," Bekkan replied.  "It’s an ancient part of our history.  We in Farnelia have lived next to Arundel as far back as anyone can remember, with never a war between us.  A mountain range has kept us apart; very high and very steep.  The only pass through the mountains takes us through the Doomfield.  Most of our history has been peaceful; merchants and pilgrims cross the Doomfield without incident.  Once in a great while, though, some general or another on one side may try to get up forces to attack the other, but the armies get to the Doomfield and are never heard of again."

"I guess you think Crinn and a unicorn would be the ‘dead eyes and live horn’, huh?" Presto asked.

"But we have no idea how both armies might fall apart.  Crinn may be powerful, but it’s a rare day he leaves his hut, and nobody’s seen a unicorn in these parts for generations.  Still, there’s something unpleasant in that rhyme, and I don’t blame General Crivet for wanting to keep an eye on the lot of you."

"I really don’t blame him for worrying about Uni," Sheila said.  She said it a little too loudly, and seemed to be talking directly to the unicorn.  "If Uni was in the house, wandering around loose, who knows what she’d do?"

Eric realized what Sheila wanted, and tried to think up a diversion.  But all he could think to do was point into the forest and yell, "Hey!  Isn’t that Arnold Schwarzenegger?!"

The guards all looked at the spot where Eric was pointing.  It took them a few seconds to realize that they had no idea who Arnold Schwarzenegger was.  Still, that was all the time that was needed; Uni had teleported out of the circle.

At once there was a commotion in the cabin.  "What are you fools doing out there!" one of the soldiers inside the cabin yelled.  "Why did you let the unicorn in here?!"

All the guards but one ran to the cottage door, saying, "We didn’t let her out!"  And the last guard turned his head long enough for Sheila to slip on her cloak and vanish.

A tremendous sound of whinnying came from inside the cottage, followed by the sounds of breaking wood and crockery.  The last guard turned his head back to the children, and realized that one was missing.  "What happened to her?"

Eric studied his fingernails.  "You know how it is with some folks; easy come, easy go."

"Enough!" the guard roared, drawing his dagger.  "These games are over!"

Presto, meanwhile, had hidden his hat behind his back.  Now, with no other choice, he waved a hand over the opening (as best he could, considering he couldn’t see what he was doing) and muttered a spell:

"We’re not rich
I’m not a witch
But we’re in trouble
And it’s time for a switch!"

No sooner had he spoken than nets materialized out of nowhere and fell on the guards, both inside and outside the house.  Inside, Sheila was helping Crinn to the door, while Uni still bounded happily among what was left of the furniture.

"Damn you, Crinn," a guard yelled.  "You gave your word."

"And I kept my word.  This magic was their doing, not mine."

As they came out of the cabin, the others met them at the door.

"You could have let me take that guy," Eric boasted.  "After all, I know karate."

"Yeah," Presto replied, "and seven other Chinese words."

"You children are as clever as you are brave," Crinn said, "and we may still have time.  We must get to the Doomfield."

Hank looked around, and went up to Bekkan.  "If we let you loose, can you take us to the Doomfield?"

The guard smiled ruefully.  "A handful of children against two armies?  The odds are long, even with the help of the great Crinn."

"But Crinn said that something bad is gonna happen," Sheila told the soldier.  "It’ll hurt the whole Realm, including your family."

Bekkan studied Sheila.  "This isn’t even your fight, and yet it matters to you.  Well, the general can have my head on a plate for this, but I don’t care.  I’ll get you to the Doomfield, as fast as we can, but only as close as I dare.  Agreed?"

"That sounds fine," Hank said.  "Thanks."

Because Crinn was blind and the forest floor was far from smooth, their progress was slow, almost painfully so.  They all felt that time was of the essence, but they could only go so fast.  Presto even tried to pull a conveyance out of his hat, but had to give it up when all he could produce were toy cars, planes and trains.

It took about two hours before they could hear the yelling of hundreds of men and the clash of steel hitting steel.  "We’re not too late, are we?" Sheila asked.

"Not yet," Crinn replied.  No sooner had he spoken the words than the ground began to tremble and a new sound rose up: a sickening howling from underground.  "But there is no time to spare.  We must hurry!"

"Where?" Diana asked.

"To the middle of the battlefield!"

Eric rolled his eyes.  "I hate being right all the time."

"You’d better tell us what we’re up against," Hank said to Crinn as they started down toward the battlefield.

"Years ago, the kings of both Farnelia and Arundel approached me.  They sought a way to ensure that there would always be peace between their two lands.  I told them that they only had to unite into a single country, but they wished to remain separated.  I didn’t realize how impossible a task I had been given, but I set about trying to solve it.

"I cast a spell on the land known as the Doomfield.  I created a creature that lives in the ground beneath the Doomfield.  It feeds on the blood spilled in battle, and grows larger with each feeding.  I had hoped that the two kingdoms would learn from this and stop sending armies, but I was wrong.  Now it’s been nourished by thousands of men over hundreds of years.  The time has come for it to break from underground."

Crinn was interrupted by the most awful roar the children had ever heard.  The blind wizard tightened his grip on Bobby’s shoulder.  "It’s broken free."  He turned in the direction of the soldier.  "Go home, man.  Save yourself."

"I don’t have that choice," Bekkan replied.  "My comrades are down there.  I’ll not have them think me a coward, no matter what kind of monster you’ve conjured up."  Without another word, the soldier plunged through the trees.

"Miserable fool," Crinn muttered to himself.

"Come on!" Hank waved to the others.  "We didn’t come all this way for nothing!"  The group went as quickly as Crinn’s blindness and age would allow the last few yards, until the forest ended and they looked down upon the Doomfield.

And the beast that had broken out of the earth, and was now attacking any soldier it could reach.

This beast was one of the most evil, awful things the children had seen in the Realm.  Crinn had apparently started to create a manticore: a human face, bat’s wings and scorpion’s tail on the body of a lion.  For whatever reason, this beast wasn’t a true manticore.  Its lion body had the batwings and scorpion’s tail, but also supported the heads of a scorpion, a bat, a lion and a man on four long necks; and the face of the man was the worst of the bunch.  Its leathery skin mottled, its hair long gone, its ears and teeth pointed, it was a head that ceased to be human long before, and was now a part of a living monstrosity.

A monstrosity that towered three stories above Crinn, the children and the soldiers of both armies.

"We’re too late!" moaned Presto.

"No!" Crin shouted.  "We still have time, but not much.  Do not try to slay the beast; it is beyond your powers.  But you must stop it from growing larger.  With this much blood to feed upon, it would break out of the Doomfield and terrorize the entire Realm!"

"How do we stop it, then?" Hank asked.

"Some of you go to the Farnelian camp; the rest to that of Arundel.  You must keep the soldiers apart from each other; prevent them from shedding any more blood."

"What about you?"

"The monster is my responsibility, Diana; mine and one other’s, if she will consent."  The blind old man held his hand out—toward Uni.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Bobby blurted out.  "How am I supposed to protect her?"

"You aren’t.  You must trust the unicorn, and me."  Uni was walking back and forth nervously, as if held by an invisible leash.  "Choose, boy, or all is lost!"

"Bobby…"  Sheila didn’t finish the sentence.  She didn’t have to.

"Just don’t let that big bozo hurt her, okay?"

"Quick!" Hank called out.  "Bobby, you and Sheila come with me.  The rest of you cross over to the other side."

"This is nuts!" Eric yelled over the shrieking of the monster and the yells of the soldiers.  "How are we supposed to stop them?!"

"How about this for openers?"  Diana saw a group of soldiers from Arundel; spears drawn, they were trying to get around the monster to attack a group from Farnelia.  She sent her javelin twirling into the air; like a boomerang, it flew out, sheared the points off of the soldier’s spears, then flew back to her hand.

Hank was bit more direct.  He shot off an energy bolt that left a trail like a cord of golden light.  It circled a knot of Farnelian archers, tying their arms to their sides.  Hank took the other end of the rope, pulled the archers a few yards away from the Doomfield, and tied it to the trunk of a tree.

Eric tried not to be seen by the demonic manticore, but its multiple heads covered the entire Doomfield.  It tried to bring its scorpion tail down on a knot of Arundelian soldiers.  Eric had to leap into their midst so that his shield could protect them all.

Bobby ran right in front of a half-dozen Farnelian archers.  "Stop it, you guys!"

Their answer was to draw their bows, aiming at the Barbarian.

"BOBBY!" Sheila screamed.

A split second later, they loosed their arrows.  But Bobby blocked them all, letting them hit his club.  "I said stop it!"  He slammed his club into a tree, which started to fall on the archers.  They had to scatter to keep from being flattened.

Presto, meanwhile, was making passes over his hat:

"These guys can’t fight here any more;
You’ve gotta help me stop this war!"

A dove with an olive branch in its beak popped its head out of the hat.  "I was hoping for a little more help than that," Presto muttered.  No sooner had he said it than a hundred doves flew out of his hat.  They started crowding around the Arundelian army, forcing them back into the forest.

Eric, still shielding some of the fighters, called over to Presto.  "I always said that hat was for the birds!"

Meanwhile, Bekkan had drawn his sword and was about to swing it at an enemy soldier when the sword flew out of his hand.  An instant later, the other soldier’s sword also flew away.  As they watched, Sheila took off her cloak and revealed herself, holding both swords.  "Don’t you get it, Bekkan?" she said.  "The more you fight, the bigger the monster gets.  You have to stop!"

Meanwhile, Crinn and Uni had gotten as near to the monster as they could.  "Just draw some of its blood; that’s all that I need."  That was easier said than done, since the monster was thrashing around, trying to break free of the earth, and Uni was frightened nearly to death.  Still, she swallowed, edged forward, and used her alicorn to scratch one leg of the monster, just enough to draw blood.

The smell of that blood seemed to flood the air as soon as it started flowing, making everyone feel deathly ill.  Crinn, however, spread his arms wide and began to intone:

"Parto anabishi kopallah!"

This stopped the monster in its tracks.  The scorpion tail, ready to swipe at Diana, stopped in mid-swing.  The heads each gave out a final agonized howl and, like watching a time-lapse film of a candle burning down, the children and the soldiers stood amazed as the monster dissolved into a bloody ooze, which was soaked up by the ground of the Doomfield, never to live again.

Crinn seemed to know when the last of the monster had vanished; he dropped his arms and stumbled to his knees.
 
The children rushed to his side.  "Wow, you really are a great magician," Presto gushed.

"And a greater fool.  I invested too much of my life-energy into the making of that beast; so much so that I could not die until it died.  As it stands, I don’t think I’ll last until sunset.  Frankly, I’m looking forward to it."

"You—you want to die?" Diana asked.

"You needn’t be so shocked, child.  I’m sure you’d feel differently about death if you weren’t allowed to go.  I’ve been waiting around here for about 500 years, and I’m sure that 200 of those are stolen."

Two Farnelian soldiers offered to accompany Crinn back to his home.  Before he left, though, he reached down toward the ground.  Uni, understanding what he wanted, rushed up so that he could give her one last pat on the head.

"My thanks to all of you, but especially to you, my magical little friend.  You’ve brought peace to two nations, and to one old wizard.  I hope you find what you’re looking for.  If it were mine to give, I would give you the way home.  But you still must make your own way, as I must make mine."

They watched as the soldiers helped Crinn through the woods, watching until he was lost among the trees.

General Crivet walked up to the group.  "I’m the last person who should be glad for this, but you children have brought us peace everlasting.  Come back to the capital with us and…"  His speech trailed off as he realized that all six of the children were crying.

Sheila’s voice was barely above a whisper.  "He never let us say goodbye.  How could he do that?"

Crivet scratched his chin.  "He always was a strange old man," he began.

Diana cut him off.  "That strange old man is the greatest magician in the Realm."

"Well, don’t look at me," Eric added, wiping his eyes on his cape.  "I just got some smoke in my eyes, or something."

"Sure, Eric," Presto smiled, punching Eric lightly on the arm.  If nothing else, in the Realm he had learned how to give a noogie to someone wearing chain mail.

"How about it, guys?"  Hank was subdued, but closer to his old self.  "We can spend one night in town."

"Sounds neat!" Bobby replied.

"AAHN EEET!"

Sheila chuckled.  "I guess that makes it unanimous."

"Of course, she’ll be a guest of honor, too," Crivet said, pointing at Uni.  "Because of her, we never again need fear unicorns."

They walked through the woods until they reached the great road to the capital.  There, they climbed up on army wagons and rode the rest of the way, arriving at the great gate at sunset.

They stopped before the gate in silence, each looking to the setting of the last sun and remembering the words of Crinn.  They also remembered—not for the first time, not for the last—their homes.

Next:  "New Magick for Old"