Where did these two come from? And if this White One's story is true the prophecy could be coming to pass. If I could only get the one called Mahala to respond to my stimuli! He seems to be in a trance so deep that he feels absolutely nothing of what becomes of his body. The shock that he took must have been tremendous, because he seems like a strong forty year old human. I have tried all of the conventional methods of waking any rationally thinking being. I must try to use magical means to wake him to hear his side of his presence in Habradu. Maybe if I . . .
"Benchadarga, the White One is in the Prisoners Hut and has fallen asleep. How comes the waking of this one?" said another dwarf, also a five-plait.
"Akadle, you know better than to interrupt me when I am meditating. Have you ever seen anything like this before? I sure haven't. I even have to use magic!"
"Magic! You're not serious!" BJ nodded, dead serious. "Using our magic on a White One could destroy both you and him. Especially since the one called Tarja says that this one can use White One Magic. You must be careful. Remember, the only other time that this was tried before both were destroyed and nothing was left of those two. My friend, I do not want this to happen to you. Our clan needs you as its future chief."
"Akadle, you sound like an old woman. I have a theory about what happened to the other two, anyway. I think that they were transported somewhere. Don't worry however, I will be careful and I will stay here with this Mahala, but if something happens to me, it means that this Mahala is truly a human Mage and I want you to take this Tarja to the edge of Habradu and give him enough food and water to let him reach the nearest human city, Totler, I believe it is. Leave me now, so that I may likely meet my doom alone, or, doom another to the death of a trespasser, hung on a tree by his feet until either his heart gives out from the tension, or his head explodes," he sighed. "I hope he speaks truth, for his sake."
With a wave of his hand BJ dismissed his friend and sat down next to Mahala and said to him, "If you can hear me, I tell you that I hope that your friend is telling the truth, even though it could mean both of our deaths. Otherwise, both of you will suffer. I will now engage a construct to let me understand what is your illness and how it can be healed. I will try not to hurt you in any way. My people don't have very much contact with your people, so I am one of a very few who can even speak your language. Since I have not had much contact with your people, I also don't know much about your magic, so if I do something that is against your magic and could destroy the magic you employed and is sustaining you right now, please try to tell me someway. Now I begin."
BJ took a deep breath and began to chant in the Dwarven Magical Language, Tindra'ada, the spell used to probe the mind. When he finished this spell he thought about whether to direct it at Mahala, because the spell was geared to dwarves. He weighed the pros and cons and decided to risk it. He released the spell at Mahala.
Instead of the normal enlightenment, at the gaining of another awareness, BJ's consciousness was thrown into a black abyss, with such force that he couldn't even cancel his own spell, to return to his own body. He fell for what seemed like days, yet felt no hunger or thirst. He prayed that someone had come in to keep his body well fed and be sure he drank. Then he suddenly stopped. It was not solid, and nothing had changed in his surroundings. Was this what the inside of Mahala's mind was like at the moment? When he tried to bring himself out, he came upon an unbreakable barrier. When he tried, he ran into a wall of unbreakable black glass. Then he heard: "Who has invaded my mind? Who dares to try to invade me and steal my knowledge while I lie incapacitated half in the Plain of Magic? Speak fast, before I destroy your mind!"
"Minor Mahala, I am Benchadarga Jerdardlek Cuum, of the Kor-Haggead, I have come to help you, for your body lies on the brink of death, and your student, Tarja, fears for your safety. I in no way shall attempt to take any knowledge, for to use it would be death, for me. I just wished to heal you, if you were ailing, to understand why your friend is in the Habradu. Now I see, for myself that his story was true. You both came here by accident. Could you please explain what went wrong? I shall be glad to help you back to your own land as soon as you are recuperated."
At this, BJ's barricade of black glass lightened, until he saw what was truly there. Mahala's body was encased in a glass like prison, that was slowly filling with a slime. This slime, once it touched Mahala, hardened to a cement-like substance, yet it had no air-holes like normal cement. The substance was appearing at a slow rate. However, he figured it would still fill up the case in a matter of a day or two.
"I'm sorry, but now you see me how I am. I was caught in my transportation spell like a brand new Prenta. My captor sent me here, this will fill up in fifty-three hours, my time, but for every hour that passes here, a week passes in your world. The only way that I can be freed from this prison is with the power of the Radal, an artifact which can be found somewhere in Dlaka, in a city called Okelda, but beware, the man who arrested my progress to Jotbah with Tarja. Please, you must hurry, for I only have fifty-two hours more, and then I shall perish, but be careful!"
With this, BJ's surroundings faded out. When it began to fade back in, BJ realized that he was no longer with Mahala. He found himself in a stone cell, with metal bars serving as a door. It looked like a dungeon,but felt much more evil. Then the "furniture" faded in. There were two sets of chains to the wall which looked rusty. On closer inspection, BJ saw that it was dried blood rather than rust. He saw a rack that had clamps on the ends for hands and feet, with large stains where the shoulders and hips would be located, if the rack was occupied. There was a crank which could be used to enlarge the size of the rack. In the corner of the room was a fan, but this fan had two specially-crafted holes in the side, for hands and feet. On the wall was a hearth that was in use, and next to it, there was an assortment of pokers, twenty different kinds,or so, ranging from the normal design to a knifelike one, to one that looked like a brander. A barrel in another corner, filled with various sizes of broken glass. The stones on the floor were uneven, even jagged at places, and almost completely covered in blood, bones, and extracted internal organs.
Suddenly, there was a loud squeal from the cell bars, announcing a man. He was dressed in a dark black robe, which covered his whole body, and shaded his face from view. Then, an oddly sensual voice came from the hidden face, "A cozy little retreat, don't you think?"
"Who in Habradu are you?" BJ asked with a mix of fear, anger, and rage in his voice, as if he held the life of the other in his hands, and would eradicate him if his answer was not the correct one.
This incited a laugh from the figure, a laugh that chilled BJ to the bone. BJ's superior demeanor faded away as soon as he heard the answer of the man. "You have not guessed? Come, now you're much smarter than that. You know who I am, don't you?" With this, the man pulled back the hood on his cloak. He saw the face of a woman of about twenty. "You must understand that this is not my true face, no, I could not have you knowing that! You see a girl who was a friend of mine. She was an accident when I was a new Master Mage, and she got caught up inside of me. Of course, I couldn't have her live inside of me, so I had to destroy her mind. I kept the body, though. It comes in quite handy, I think."
After this speech, a look of horrified revelation crossed BJ's face. "That is the body of my sister! Damn you! She was helping a man who came into Habradu sick and near death!"
"I faked that quite well, after all, that body was dying anyway, I needed a new one. If you weren't so young, I would probably have chosen you. She was quite willing, actually. This spell was supposed to make the body I was in young again, but I liked the results much better then the intended ones, because I still have my original form in tow, and about a dozen others. I even have about four female forms other than my own, so I will be watching you! Enough talk! I shall let you leave alive, this time, but if you come back, I shall destroy you! Only if you get the Radal can you free Mahala, and when he dies, he will become my creature. Now begone!" As the man finished his speech, the world faded out and BJ was plunged into unconsciousness.
What a joke! They'll go into Dlaka to get a "cure" for Mahala, while the cure is almost thirty hulongs away! Well, this shall certainly prove interesting. Maybe, by some freak luck they will find the Radal, but there is no way that I will let them get anywhere within a hulong of Mahala while in possession of the Radal. This BJ must be a stupid one if he thinks that I am so strong as to interrupt the spell of Mahala and I will let him just "find" the cure? He probably even believes that it is where I let "Mahala" tell him it is. As if I couldn't assume any form I wanted to? What an idiot! But that one Tarja has the potential to be a strong mage. I must be careful with him. However, now that Tarja is gone from his father's castle, I believe I'll take that revenge on Sibmah now. I believe it's time to finish that spell I started about fifteen years ago.
Fifteen years! By my master, its hard to believe its been that long since I was dismissed from the Court of Garanga. Fifteen years I have waited, Sibmah. I liked that spell that I would have used but you know, using the same spell twice would be quite repetitious now, wouldn't it? So I believe I will choose a different spell for your pleasure Sibmah. Yes, I believe I shall. Now, which one should I choose? How about the one where the person slowly loses control of his body little by little, and is completely aware of every second of it. When they finally lose all control of their body, they are reduced to the status of a year old baby, still aware of it all, staying alive in this state until their normally appointed time to die, be it a year or a hundred years. Or maybe the one where pain is inflicted upon the marked man, little by little, starting as small as a tiny headache, until the pain dominates every part of him, and continues growing, slowly, but surely, for one year, when it reaches its maximum and stabilizes at an unbearable amount of pain. Most didn't make it the year, but a few did, and those were the surprising ones, like Sibmah, the most surprising of all of the people I have met in my three hundred and seventy six years on Altaranga. I believe he might be the one who outlives the spell's year and a half duration. I think I'll use that one. If he lives, he earned it and I won't even bother him anymore. Now I believe that I will put Mahala's life-force inside the prison in which I showed myself. Yes, I shall. If Tarja and his friend save Mahala, then I shall leave Mahala alone. After all, by then I'll have the Radal from them, and won't be needing them anymore. Now, as to Tarja, I shall have to hinder his progress in some way, so that he believes that I don't want him reaching Okelda. Maybe we could unleash the Kfexus on him. Yes lets do that, he'll find the beasts to his liking I'm sure. Maybe, after a while we'll give him a taste of griffin, or centaur.
Oh, this will be so much fun! Ooh! We couldn't forget to send a dragon at him. Perhaps he'll live through all of those and we could send Nrocinu after him and see if he can handle the magic that they command! This if going to be great! I'll have to come up with a list. I can't run out of things to do or I'll have to kill him. If that happens we'll make it seem that I am just a little bit better of a mage than him, so that while he lives, he hates himself that much more. Lets make sure that when he dies he doesn't die that quickly, too. After all, what fun would that be?
Return to Kraada's Lair or
Read the glossary or
Read the prologue or
Read chapter 1 or
Read chapter 2
Look at the map.
