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Third Power Page 7


  “That reminds me,” Steve said. “My mother has been acting really strange lately, too. Just a few days ago she told me I was approaching a crossroads in my life soon--or at least something to that effect. To be honest, I thought she was just doing her mom thing, given my problems with Amy, and I wasn’t paying much attention.”

  The wizard gave a sidelong nod. “Your mother is a wise woman, although I doubt she realized exactly how prescient her words would turn out to be.” After a moment of consideration he added, “I must admit, though, my bringing you here goes far beyond just wanting to see you safely out of Azinon’s grasp.”

  Steve had been expecting this, knowing all along there had to be more, and he tightened his grip unconsciously on the hilt of Mr. Martin’s rapier. Though he no longer feared them, he would not go so far as to say he entirely trusted them either.

  “Okay, why then?”

  “Azinon is a harsh and evil man. Nearly twenty years ago he overthrew the royal family of this world with the help of a Hell-spawned army under his control, and seated himself upon the throne. Now he rules humankind unmercifully, and manipulates the other races into bloody border wars with each other from behind the scenes. But this is merely a delaying tactic, however; left unchecked, he will inevitably subjugate them as well.”

  “Why does he need a delaying tactic at all?” Scott shrugged.

  Haldorum nodded sagely at the question. “Because not all humans have taken a knee. Five years after Azinon seized the crown, I joined a rebel group that seeks to restore the imperial line. Warriors, townspeople, farmers--anyone who is good of heart and possesses the courage to fight is welcomed into our ranks. For thirteen long years, we have conducted raids and fought the private armies of greedy nobles who remain loyal to Azinon. Aided by my arts, the rebels have grown both in number and in strength, and now they are a small but formidable army.” Haldorum then sighed heavily. “Unfortunately, this is not enough. Azinon’s sorcery is very powerful. His army is vast in numbers and well trained, and on more than one occasion we have suffered defeat at the hands of both. If something is not done to turn the advantage in our favor I fear the day is not far that we shall be defeated once and for all.” He gripped his hands together tightly and was silent for a time. He was clearly reticent to continue but finally said, “I want you to join us, Steven.”

  “Wait—what?! Hold on a minute,” Steve sputtered in surprise.

  “I am partly responsible for bringing you here,” Lurin interjected. “It was I who journeyed to Blue Mountain and spoke with the Oracle. There I was told to seek the Third Power, the key element of a prophecy once thought only fable.”

  Steve wrinkled his brow at that and looked back at the old wizard, who nodded.

  “There is a prophecy, centuries old--”

  “Of course!” Steve interrupted sarcastically. “Yes, yes, I’ve been to the movies; there is always a prophecy.” He lowered his head into his hands and rubbed his temples.

  “It speaks of the coming of three Powers,” Haldorum continued. “I am the First Power; the only man in this world--until now--born with the magical abilities of a wizard. Azinon’s magic is born of darkness, of sorcery; and he is the second. But the Third Power is the key; spoken of in ancient texts, this person is a child of another world, blessed with abilities our realm has never seen.” A dead calm then settled over the camp, leaving only the sound of the gently blowing grasses and the low crackle of the fire to fill the silence. Steve lifted his head and met the wizard’s gaze as the old man said, “And I believe you are that Third Power.”

  “All right, hold on, let’s just back up a minute.” Steve said levelly. “First of all, I already have a life—back on Earth—and I already know what I want to do with it. And, secondly, how do you know this—“ Steve gestured vaguely with his hand—“this oracle thing wasn’t talking about someone else entirely?”

  Haldorum was shaking his head slowly. “Without a doubt, Steven, you are the one the Oracle spoke of. You are both from another world, and you possess the powers of a wizard--already unlike anything I have seen before. How else would you explain it? How many other people on your world can do what you and that crystal are capable of?”

  Steve didn’t have an answer—didn’t want to answer. And yet…

  Scott straightened uneasily, looking vastly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation—even more so after glancing at his friend to find that Steve actually looked to be considering it. “Steve, what about school and everything back home?”

  “I never said I was staying,” Steve shot back with more heat than he intended. Inside, however, he was mulling the idea over in his mind. Provided everything he had been told was true, it would make sense.

  “What about the millions of people who suffer every day under Azinon’s tyranny?” Haldorum asked of Scott.

  “We don’t know anything about you or your world,” Scott countered. “Whatever is happening had nothing to do with us until you brought us here.”

  “Steve possesses the potential to help us all—to end the meaningless slaughter of families and friends that will inevitably spread to every race of this world,” Haldorum countered. When Scott did not answer the old wizard turned to Steve. “The land is dying at Azinon’s hands, and suffering from a plague that has claimed more than a hundred thousand souls. Unnatural beasts roam the wilds unchecked. Even here, were it not for my spell of protection around this camp, that sorcerer’s Hell spawn would be at our throats even as we speak. But with your help we can end it—end all of it.”

  “Okay, wait a minute,” Steve replied, beginning to feel more than a little overwhelmed, “just…let me think.” Everything was happening so fast; there was so much to consider. On the one hand, Scott was right. If he decided to join Haldorum his plans for his life on Earth were finished; his journey toward becoming an astronaut was finished. And he would have to leave behind all his family and friends, and Amy. Could he do that? Did he want to?

  But there were millions of people on this world to consider. If people really were dying because of Azinon—and there really was something he could do to stop it—then didn’t he at least owe it to them to try?

  Steve shook his head, feeling suddenly mentally exhausted. This is all just too much. With sword in hand, he rose and walked away from the fire without another word.

  The four of them watched as he walked out of the firelight and into the shadows at the edge of camp.

  Several moments passed soundlessly before Haze finally asked, “What think you, wizard? Will he side with us?”

  Haldorum breathed deeply and shrugged. “I do not know. Perhaps. I hope.”

  “But he must! There is too much at stake for him to refuse.”

  Haldorum shook his head slowly. “We cannot force him. If we tried he would unwittingly turn his strength against us, and that we can do without. No, the decision is his alone.”

  Steve stared out across the moonlighted hills, lost deep in thought. He couldn’t help but wonder how in the world—worlds, as it were—something like this could have fallen on him of all people. This was not his home, not his fight. An hour ago, he knew exactly his path and now, suddenly, there were two. Logic told him this was not something he should get involved in; there was so much that could go wrong even beyond the very real possibility of him failing. Yet, on the other hand, if things here really are as bad as Haldorum described, and Steve did possess some kind of magic that could help, could he just turn his back and walk away from so many innocent people? His head told him one thing, but his heart spoke another.

  Steve looked up to the pale face of the moon as he recalled Azinon’s words after he had thrown him through the Welands’ garage door.

  Do you believe yourself a savior?

  The young man’s contemplation broke as a woman’s icy scream pierced the stillness of the dark. Steve whirled around with a start, his eyes searching the night. In the distance, he could make out the figure of someone fleeing across a hilltop, silhouet
ted against the backdrop of the moonlighted sky. Behind her ran two larger inhuman figures following closely in pursuit.

  Steve bolted into the dark, his sword in hand, on an intercept course for the woman. Behind him, he heard Haldorum’s voice calling after him but there was no time to stop and explain. Whomever was out there didn’t have a second to spare.

  Lurin, Haze and Scott ran up behind the old wizard standing at the edge of the camp’s perimeter, the warrior asking, “What happened?”

  Haldorum gave directions urgently. “Lurin, you are with me. Haze, remain here with Scott; my enchantment will weaken the moment I step outside of it. Steven is in more danger than he realizes.”

  Adrenaline coursed through Steve and mixed with his growing excitement. Together they pushed his legs harder and faster, eating up the distance until the ground beneath his feet passed in a blur. “This way!” he shouted, “Over here!” The woman seemed to hear him, for she changed her path and ran almost directly toward him. Steve poured it on and willed his legs to move even faster, unaware of the ghostly aura flaring brighter from the crystal about his neck. Raw energy surged to his muscles; the feeling incredible, almost euphoric; moving him faster and pumping his legs like a super-charged locomotive. He did not have to think, he just moved, and the magic of the pendant flowed through him.

  Then the world reeled end over end as something lashed out of the darkness and caught him fast around his ankle. The snare pulled taut instantly and Steve went down into the thigh-high grass in an out of control tumble. An exclamation of surprise followed him as Steve’s momentum jerked his captor off his feet, taking him to the ground as well.

  “Got yooo!” it hissed.

  Steve rolled to his back and looked in disbelief at the inhuman creature rising to its feet. A man-formed lizard, thick set and strong, covered in both mottled green scales and human flesh, standing six feet tall. It looked like a horrible amalgamation of both human and reptile, spliced together from pieces into a single vile construct. Steve winced in pain as its tail tightened its grip around his ankle.

  “Wherrre go yoo, hyoomun?” it rasped. With a jerk of its tail Steve slid a foot closer to its hideous mass. “Nowherrre. Yooo food!”

  Steve’s fear scattered his thoughts like a cloud of butterflies and he instinctively lashed out with the rapier. The creature roared in agony as the deadly edge severed half its tail, the detached limb uncoiling from Steve’s foot and thrashing spasmodically about on the ground. Steve performed a backward roll to put his feet under him and then launched from the ground with his sword extended. Ignoring the gouting blood and bits of cartilage spraying from the stump, he buried the point of his weapon in the creature’s chest where he hoped its heart lie. The half-lizard threw back its head and vomited blood and spittle into the air, its screaming words gargled by the fluid erupting forth. Twisting the blade, Steve kicked the creature in the chest, pulling his blade free, and it fell away dead to the ground.

  Steve stared but did not believe. What in God’s name was it? This thing…this unnamed horror he had just killed…what was it? What was it! His mind fought to make some kind of sense of this newest blight of crazy to infect his life. His mind raced on the verge of panic, and then he breathed, long and slow, remembering the seemingly unexplainable things he had already witnessed thus far. This world was one of magic, after all.

  That thought calmed him, steadied him, as his mind won over the panic about the unexplained. And the fight! What happened there? He had moved without thinking, without knowing. Something inside him just made him move.

  Without warning another tail lashed out from behind and coiled painfully around his wrist. The rapier flew wildly out of his grasp as the second creature jerked him off his feet and caught him in mid-air by the scruff of his clothing behind his neck.

  “Hyoomun kill, now hyoomun die!”

  The second lizard-thing lowered its open maw to tear out Steve’s throat and fear spurred the young man into action. With the crystal singing high and shrill a song like that of falling shards of glass, bone and flesh yielded to four frantic blows that hammered mercilessly from fists like cinder blocks into the creature’s torso. The lizardman tried to pull away but something inside Steve kept him coming. Seeing retreat as the only option, the creature released its prize and turned away but the damage done was too severe for escape. Steve, in his maddened frenzy, jumped to the creature’s back and slipped his arm around its neck in a chokehold. The hybrid beast clutched and groped desperately with its fingers, scoring Steve’s arm with its claws in the process. It thrashed and spun like a wild animal but Steve held fast like a magically-charged vice and refused to be thrown. The next thirty seconds passed like an eternity before the creature finally collapsed to its knees, and then fell face forward to the grass.

  Steve released his hold hesitantly, fearing a ruse. When the creature gave no more indications of life, he jumped quickly to his feet with his heart pounding like a bass drum in his chest. He scarcely took his eyes off the still form as he retrieved his rapier.

  “The woman!” he said remembering. Steve fled in the direction he had last seen her and stopped when he reached the crest of the next hill. Everywhere he looked, there was no sign of either the woman or her pursuers; as if they had all just up and vanished.

  “Look out, Steve!”

  The crystal flared and Steve’s body flew into motion. He ducked and rolled, hearing the whoosh of air as four claws swiped for his head. In the next instant, the lizard-thing’s chest sprouted two feathered shafts as Lurin’s arrows thudded home, each landing only a second apart. The creature staggered forward, still intent on its target, and then fell dead to the ground with a rasping exhalation. With the dead beast before him, Steve understood why he hadn’t seen it before. In the tall grasses and dim light, these strange half-men were near invisible.

  Lurin and Haldorum ran up the hill and met him at the crest. “Are you all right, lad?” the woodsman asked winded, helping him to his feet.

  Steve swallowed the lump in his throat and managed a nod. “Yeah, I think so. Thanks to you. What in the hell is that?” he said pointing.

  Haldorum looked down at the creature with a mixture of both pity and disgust on his face. “They are called shangee, products of Azinon’s foul magic. They are capable of limited human speech, and they use it to lure their prey out into the open. That woman you thought you saw and heard was only their ploy—common among their kind—to bring you outside the range of my protection spells.” He looked again at the blood and gore coating Steve’s once-white sweats and asked, “Are you sure you are all right?”

  His heart was still beating like a frightened rabbit’s, and his muscles were tense, but he nodded. “I don’t really look it, do I? But, yeah, I’m okay.”

  Lurin gave a quick nod and nudged the shangee he had killed to its back with his toe. He withdrew both arrows from its chest, and then tossed one aside looking rather insulted as he did so, seeing the shaft had splintered when the creature fell. “Good. Let us all get back to camp before I have to waste another good arrow on one of these.”

  Scott and Haze looked up from the fire as Steve, Lurin and Haldorum walked back into camp. Steve looked badly shaken and his clothing was more red with blood than white.

  “Oh, man! What happened out there?” Scott exclaimed rising. As if fearing his friend would fall, he ran to Steve and supported him by the shoulders.

  Steve gently shrugged away his help. “I’m all right, it’s mostly their blood. I got jumped by a couple of those…” he gestured over his shoulder, forgetting the name, “those things out there.”

  “Things? What do you mean ‘things’?”

  “Shangee,” the wizard explained again, “a magical hybridization of man and reptile. Azinon has many terrible ways of dealing with his enemies; turning them into shangee is but one.”

  “You mean those were people out there?” Steve asked incredulous.

  “Once,” Haldorum nodded, his voice sounding
indifferent. “Now they are slaves to dark sorcery. They retain memories of who they once were and of their families, while possessing little in the way of human intellect. In a short time, they go quite mad. Azinon has many enemies in the realm, and he finds it a convenient method of dealing with them while not wasting the manpower for his armies.”

  “I haven’t even seen them,” Scott said with a sickened grimace, “but I know you have got to be one evil bastard to do such a thing to someone.”

  Haldorum cracked a slightly sardonic smile. “You could not begin to imagine what Azinon is capable of. The shangee are but the smallest example.”

  Haze looked up briefly from sharpening the blade of his sword. “Believe me when I say we do them a favor by killing them.”

  Steve turned and, feeling suddenly exhausted, walked over to the fire and sat down heavily. Scott looked about to follow, then stopped when Haldorum signaled for him to help Haze tend to the horses. Scott nodded, his understanding written clearly on his face, and went to go help.

  The wizard gathered the folds of his robe about himself and sat beside the young man. “I hope you are not having second thoughts about staying.”

  Steve opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. On his second try, he managed, “I just—I’m not sure I’m cut out for this. I’m beginning to think maybe I’m not the guy you were hoping for.”

  Haldorum smiled kindly. “You are who we were looking for, Steven. I knew it from the first moment I sensed your presence. Are you sure that is all that troubles you?”

  He made no attempt to deny this, only looked over his shoulder in the direction where the now dead shangee lie.

  “What is it, Steve?”

  There was no answer.

  “I know you were frightened out there; but that is only natural. Is that what is bothering you?”

  Steve glanced over his shoulder a second time and then returned his eyes to the old wizard next to him. “Ever since I first started fencing, I have always wondered what it would be like to fight someone for real. And now that I have, I find out it’s nothing like I expected.” A look of heartache crept into his eyes as he fingered the hilt of Mr. Martin’s sword. “I’ve never killed anyone before, Haldorum. Before now I had never even seen a dead body.”