The Cry in the Water Part 10

"You!" spat the crazed man, a mixture of fear and rage in his eyes. "You return at last to contest my power? Die now you little snake!"

Burton, who still remained with the refugee villagers that had gathered around him, watched as the man in the hooded cloak reached out with violent hand, sending a flashing spasm of electrical energy towards the creature that had burst into the chamber. Sheets of blue and white flickering bolts reached out and surrounded the creature, dancing in waves of pain across its black scaled hide.

Rearing back on its legs, the terror of the lake roared in agony, pawing the air with huge webbed claws. The thrashing tail smashed its way about, sending crates and barrels splintering, spilling their contents in a rush, but there was no escape from the net of energy cascading forth from the mad spell caster.

"Now!" cried Jayr, catching the eyes of Zena as they both snatched the moment of distraction.

With fluid grace, the warrior swung her arm in a firm arc, sending here thin blade spinning through the air towards the mad man. He in turn flicked his right hand in a gesture of anger, deflecting the blade with unseen power, a wrathful snarl on his lips. It was of course the opening of his focus that was the goal all along.

Jayr leapt forward then, hands extending, the staff striking towards the target with fury. An enormous gust of air lifted the mad spell caster right off his feet, vaulting backwards nearly in a perfect rotation. The waves of energy that had been flowing from him withered as the breath was knocked from his lungs as with a hammer's blow. Flailing wildly, the spell caster was falling to the ground when a huge hand reached out and snatched him by the mid drift.

"No!" shrieked the man, his eyes wild with terror as he reached for the edge of the glowing orb. His hands were burned by the edge of the powerful ring, yet he continued to struggle while the dark coal black hands held him motionless. "Not me, master!"

A triumphant scream issued from the creature, now free of its pain and its golden cat eyes on its tormentor. No moment was spared for looking at the warrior and wizard who had contended with it all this time. The eyes looked with hungry longing on the old man and for a heartbeat all of those witnessing the reversal of fate stood breathless.

In a harsh booming voice, a single unintelligible word was uttered, which echoed around the cavern. The spell caster screamed in agonized terror, and then the hands retracted into the glowing orb, taking his writhing form with them. The creature who had been watching with avid interest, now screamed with what sounded like delight as apposed to all the other times it had voiced itself, skipping as it were on all four webbed claws, before jumping forward and diving into the glowing orb.

There was a cracking sound and the orb shrank rapidly, winking out in a gasping sound, just as the flame pit it had hovered over disappeared like an extinguished candle. The cavern was thrown into complete darkness, and the voices of terror finally came from the villagers who had all watched the events in stunned silence. After a moment, a golden glow sprang from Jayr's staff, and in its light Zena retrieved her sword.

"I think we should leave now," she said quietly."

"Yes ma'am," replied the wizard.

*************

Three days later, two considerably happier horses were carrying their riders away from Ilmara with very willing speed. The warrior and her husband had gone some distance in silence, turning back at the last rise to look at the village that now had a chance to thrive once again. They had learned much from Burton and the people that had escaped the cavern, and not many questions seemed to remain, except the conjectures that had to stay unanswered for the present.

"It is clear to me that we will not be seeing that Benenji again," said Zena, turning her horse first to pursue the road onward. "You made that quite clear to the people we left behind."

"Well, I had to give them hope and calm their panic," he replied. "How do you tell people who have never meddled with such black powers that sometimes our worst enemies seem to find ways of escaping even the improbable?"

"Burton told me last night that he and his father were thinking of moving away."

"And what did you say to that?"

"That evil overthrown does try to comeback from a defeat, but second attempts come at the cost of having forewarned."

"Yes," he agreed with a smile. "They will certainly be on the lookout for any other suspicious activity around the fortress in the future."

"So you still think that the former dwellers in the fortress were taken away by magic? A first trial run of the summoning?"

"I do think that there was a failed first try by that man or whatever it really was in the past," said Jayr with a sigh. "A failure so bad as to absorb all those poor souls either into that dark pit beyond the orb, or through pathways to other places. Probably the latter, as the experimenter was able to come back eventually. How he brought that nameless first creature through I would assume is an easy guess. It was intelligent but not a higher order of its kind. He probably lured it with a four footed victim of the grass feeding kind."

"And then it escaped his control and tried to harm him?"

"That is my guess love."

"Then in his madness, he tried to go for something higher with the villagers as the bait. What a fool."

"Thank Valin he did not succeed," he replied. "It almost worked."

She rode here horse close aside to his and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. He blushed and smiled.

"Well, it did not, yes? Let's get to a real town with delicious food, good wine, and soft beds this time please."

"Yes ma'am," he replied with a laugh, the both of them letting their horses free to race down the road into the golden plain before them.

*Finis*