Cy grunted, trying everything in his power to simplymove his fingers.
"Yes, I'm sure you'd agree, imprisonment is farworse than simple death."
Shadow turned away from the doorway and startedtidying up the room.
"Though, I don't want you to think my trappingyou in this wand is at all an easy feat."
Cy continued to struggle, gaining a modicum of hopefrom the fact that he could already wiggle his toes and clench the muscles inhis jaw.
"It's taken me years to be able to perfect thiswand," continued the archwizard. "True, the imprisonment spells aresimple enough, as you are now, I'm sure, painfully aware."
Shadow continued to fiddle in the room.
"No, it's the transformation from human flesh tothe insubstantial that has proven tricky, though not impossible."
Cy could feel warmth spreading through his arms andchest, and he was able to shuffle his feet a little.
Shadow looked at the wand with reverent awe.
"This little device right here represents most ofmy life's work. You know," he said, speaking not really to Cy but ratherto himself, "I've lived a long time, and it seems to me that as we'vegrown, things just keep getting smaller and smaller." He chuckled. "Iguess that's what we call progress."
Cy almost had control of his body back. If Shadow continuedto amuse himself for just a few more minutes, he might be able to make a breakfor it, and he'd much rather get killed fleeing than just standing there like astupid jackass.
"Anyway, enough with the chit chat." Thearchwizard turned his attention back to the young assassin and leveled the wandat him. "I suppose I should figure out who hired you to kill me before Idispose of you. I don't suppose you came of your own accord. You're too youngfor that."
The wall behind Shadow exploded outward into the room.What had appeared to be solid stone was actually a secret door made of wood,and the splinters of stone-colored door sprayed out at the two men. Twogigantic ogres stood at the top of a set of stairs in the space where the doorused to be.
Cy was thrown to the floor next to the bed. Shadow,too distracted with the first assassin to protect himself from the two newones, was also knocked face-first to the floor. The ogres didn't waste anytime, and they rushed into the room to clobber the fallen archwizard. Ham-sizedfists began to beat the mage. The two beasts worked together, pummeling the mansimultaneously with opposing blows. Then one stopped pounding the wizard andunsheathed a large sword off its back. The blade slid out of the scabbard withan oily grind.
Cy had regained control of his body, and he got to hisfeet, pulling the larger splinters from his skin. The ogres were completelyignoring him, but they were pounding Shadow into a bloody pulp right in themiddle of the doorway. He glanced over toward the passageway.
If the ogres got in that way, then there must be a wayout, he thought.
He took a deep breath and steadied himself. In themoment he took to compose his thoughts, his mind reeled. What if there weremore ogres down there? What if they had used magic to get into the lowerchamber? If he went down there would he be trapped?
"Lift him up," shouted the ogre with thesword.
The other grunted and stopped beating the archwizard longenough to bend down and grab the man by the robes.
Cy turned back toward the doorway, deciding to takehis chances with the ogres he knew of rather than whatever could be dwellingdown the stairs. While they prepared to behead Shadow, the young assassincharged the door, hoping to slip behind the busy brutes and the doomedarchwizard on his way to freedom.
He took two large steps and dropped into a crouch,trying to ram right through. The ogre holding Shadow took a half step back atthat precise moment, crashing into the charging human as he barreled across theroom. The two assassins got tangled in each other's limbs, and they both hitthe floor with a crash-Cy tumbling head over feet into the hallway, and the ogreagainst the doorframe. Shadow came to his feet, being pulled from the floor bythe ogre and gaining momentum from the great brute's fall.
Wand still in his hand, he shouted, "Shadominiaropalazitsi,"and leveled the crystal end at the standing ogre.
A dark gray stream fired out of the wand in a directline at the ogre assassin. As it approached the ogre's upright form, the streamspread out and began to curve and split. It formed a whirlwind of darknessaround the beast, and the gray areas started to separate and take onindividual, humanlike shapes. The shadows had narrow, elongated heads, andspindly, malformed limbs, and they flew in ever-quickening circles around theogre. For his part, the assassin stood, his sword poised over his head, andgawked in awe and horror.
The shadows attacked, diving toward the armed figureand tearing at him with claws that seemed to form out of thin air. Cy couldhear the ogre howl as if he was in great pain, but no blood issued forth.Instead, the ogre dropped his sword and slowly sank to the floor, landing onthe ground with a thud like a sack of horse manure.
Cy gained his feet and turned up the steps. He'd seenenough. As fast as he'd ever felt himself move, he was up the stairs, dodgingbrightly dressed constructs as he fled out the front door. Never did he turnaround, and it wasn't until he was on his griffon on the way back to report to Lumethat he realized he no longer had his enchanted dagger.
Arriving in camp by sunup the second day, Cy enteredLume's tent at a run.
"Sir, I have terrible, urgent news."
Lume was sitting at his desk eating his morning meal,and the young man's frantic entrance startled the captain, causing him tocough up a mouthful of food.
"In the name of all the gods, what do you thinkyou're doing?" he screamed. Then, abruptly, his tone changed. "Oh,Cy!" Lume stood up. "What is it lad? Did you kill thearchwizard?"
"No, sir, I did not."
Lume slammed his hand on the desk. "Then what areyou doing here?"
Cy proceeded to intone to Lume all the details of hisassassination attempt. He left out nothing, and the captain listened intentlyto the entire story. Then it was Lume's turn to talk.
"Are you certain they were shadows that came outof the wand?" he asked.
"Yes, sir, I'm absolutely positive."
"Gods. A wand with that kind of power could…"
Turning around and placing his hands to the sides ofhis head, he paced out from behind the desk and moved around the tent. After afew moments, he came out of his reverie. He looked at Cy and shook his head.
"But you failed. I should have known thatchain-wielder wasn't an adequate challenge to determine if you could kill anarchwizard."
"Sir?"
Lume whirled, blurting out his words. "Thechain-wielder, son! I sent him to test you. How else do you think a man of thatskill ended up in such a backwater village as Kath?"
"You sentthe blond man after me, sir? But, I… I don't understand."
"Are you stupid, boy? I planted the man in Kathand paid him to attack you," replied Lume.
"But… but why? That man almost killed me."
"To see if you were up to thisassassination," he explained, "but obviously it was a poortest."
Cy stood with his arms limp and his mouth open wide.
Lume paced back and forth for a while longer, then hecaught sight of Cy. "Child, stop your bemoaning. You lived. All thatmatters now is that we go back to kill Shadow and get that wand." Lumewalked over to the young man and put his hand on his shoulder. "Despitethe fact that you failed, you've provided us-provided our great leader Olostinhimself-with a real opportunity to reclaim our world from the haughtyarchwizards."
Cy just stared, fuming at Lume.