"What did you have in mind?"
"Something like this."
Antorell waved his staff casually in my direction as he spoke. Even if I'd been able to move, I wouldn't have been able to twist the sword into a position to block the spell before it hit me, especially since I didn't realize what he was doing until the pain struck. It felt as if I were fighting the fire-witch again, only this time the pain was all through my body instead of just in my arms. It was worse than anything I'd ever felt. I think I screamed, but I'm not sure.
Beside me, Shiara shouted, and a long ribbon of fire shot through the air in front of me, straight at Antorell. Antorell caught fire almost at once.
As he slapped at his clothes and his staff, trying to put out the flames, the pain stopped abruptly and the key in my left hand got even hotter. Neither of the other wizards even tried to help Antorell.
They just stood and stared at Shiara and me.
The ribbon of fire still hung in the air above the brazier, making a curtain of flames between us and the wizards. Slowly, reluctantly, it began to fade, and as it died, the heat from the key in my left hand faded along with it. Fire, I thought. Fire in the brazier, fire in the key; Kazul had said the key could open any door in the castle, and Shiara had said something about the key and fire…
I lifted my left hand, fighting the remnant of the wizard's spell, and threw the key forward into the brazier.
There was a whoosh of flame that leapt all the way to the ceiling, then died. I thought I saw something in it, but it vanished before I could be sure.
The brazier began to glow, and the whole room was suddenly thick and heavy with magic, like the air just before a summer thunderstorm. I could feel the magic growing stronger, as if it was getting ready for something, but nothing else happened. I was sure there was something else I should do, but I couldn't think what.
"Stop them!" the leader of the wizards shouted.
"Move, Daystar!" Shiara cried, and ducked down behind the brazier.
I tried to follow her, but I couldn't move fast enough because of the remains of the binding spell and because I was worrying about what else I was supposed to do in order to finish the spell I'd started with the key. I saw Antorell and the other wizards bring their staffs up, and I tried desperately to move the sword far enough to block whatever they were throwing at me. I made it, but only just.
The sword flashed as the wizards' spell hit it, and a tingle ran through me. The spell that had been binding me vanished. I could feel what was left of it flowing through the sword, along with the rest of the magic the wizards had thrown. It felt a lot like the jolt of power I'd gotten in the forest, when I'd used the sword on the spell the wizards had aimed at Shiara, except that this time I could tell where the power was going. It was flowing through me, into the magic of the Enchanted Forest itself. Back where it had come from in the first place, if Kazul was right about where wizards got most of their magic.
Back to…
I felt my eyes widening and almost missed blocking the next spell.
Then four more wizards appeared behind the three in the doorway. If I didn't do something soon, I wouldn't have time for anything except blocking spells. There was no way to find out whether I was right except to try.
I stepped up to the edge of the brazier, took a deep breath, and said loudly, "Power of water, wind, and earth, Turn the spell back to its birth.
Raise the fire to free the lord By the power of wood and sword."
As I spoke the last word, I thrust the Sword of the Sleeping King into the middle of the coals in the brazier.
As the sword touched the coals, all the waiting magic around me surged forward, and suddenly I knew where it had come from. It was the magic of the castle and the Enchanted Forest itself, alive and growing, running like a net through the ground and the trees and the air. Fire shot up to the ceiling, the same way it had when I threw the key into the brazier, but this time the flames didn't fade. They got brighter and brighter until all I could see was fire. I heard a rumbling sound like the roof of the Caves of Chance falling in, and the floor shook under me.
A voice said loudly, "All hail the Waker of the Sword? and voices all around me shouted, "Hail!"
Echoes from the shout rolled around the room, like thunder rolling back and forth across the sky. I couldn't see anything except fire, I couldn't hear anything except echoes, and I couldn't feel anything at all. Then something in my head seemed to snap into place, and the noise stopped abruptly.
I let go of the sword and stepped back a pace. The light in my eyes started to dwindle into flames again, but now I could see pictures in them, outlined in fire: dragons fighting wizards outside the castle, and dwarves fighting elves, and elves fighting wizards and other elves.
I couldn't tell who was winning. Sometimes it seemed to be one set of fiery little shapes, and sometimes it seemed to be the other.
As I stared at the fire, I realized that I could feel the jangling from all the wizards' staffs and the deep rumbling of the magic of the Enchanted Forest and the purring of the castle itself, even though I wasn't holding the sword anymore. I could even feel the shape of the wizards' spells inside and outside the castle, including the one around and over the brazier. I could feel the magic of the sword, too, weaving a bright pattern through all the other types of magic. I followed the pattern until I saw how it worked, and then I reached out toward all the different kinds of magic and twisted.
The jangling of the wizards' staffs stopped abruptly as the power of the Enchanted Forest swallowed up the power of the staffs.
Immediately, the flames in front of me swirled and pulled together, so that the pictures I'd been watching disappeared, and I found myself staring at a crowd of very angry ex-wizards through a shifting curtain of fire.
At least two of the wizards were wearing swords, and they were reaching for them. The leader started to point in my direction, and I ducked instinctively. Almost every wizard who's any good carries a spell or two outside his staff, just in case the staff gets stolen. The wizards at the castle didn't have any magic in their staffs anymore, but they could still make trouble with their spare spells.
I dove behind the brazier just in time to avoid something like a large lightning bolt. I swallowed, hoping these wizards didn't have very many more spells like that. I heard shouts, and I peered around the edge of the brazier, expecting to see the wizards with the swords coming after me.
Wizards were running in several directions, but none of them seemed to be heading for me. For a moment, I was puzzled, but then I saw Morwen, Telemain, and a couple of elves charging into the room from the hallway. I didn't stop to worry about how they had gotten there. I turned back to the brazier, to pull the Sword of the Sleeping King out of it so I could join the fight-and stopped.
The flames were still swirling in the air above the brazier, but they were denser somehow, and brighter. All I could see was a mass of white-and-yellow light, shot with power. Then something flashed so brightly that I had to cover my eyes. When I could see again, there was a door in the center of the brazier, right on top of the place where I had thrown the key, and facing the point of the sword. The door hung between two pillars that looked as if they were made of solid light, and I couldn't see anything around it except light and flames.
I stared at the door for a moment as it grew even more solid. I wasn't sure I wanted to find out what was on the other side. Doors like that are even worse than the one in Morwen's house; they can go anywhere. I reached for the Sword of the Sleeping King, but before my hand touched it, the door opened and a man stepped through.
He didn't look at all like the simulacrum. He was taller, with black hair and tired-looking gray eyes, and he didn't have a beard. He was dressed in plain clothes, but there was a feeling of strength about him, and power.
Even without the thin gold circlet he wore I would have guessed who he was. I took a deep breath of relief as he stepped down from the brazier and onto the marble floor in front of me.