Chapter 1

Sue realized what a monster of a project she had ahead of her in planning the State Wedding to Jack and combining it with their official installation as Duke and Duchess of Isbardia. She decided that the wedding should come first, followed by the rest of the pomp and circumstance. But she also realized that she was in desperate need of assistance in the planning. Oh, she had plenty of Ladies in Waiting and Pages to do the leg work, but somebody had to do the overall executive planning, and she was just too snowed under in the details to do that, too. In a fit of common sense, she consulted her mentor.

"Hat, please help me! I am so loaded with the details of what Jack and I have to do that I just can't handle the big picture, too. Where can I turn for help?"

"Why don't you do what most girls do under these circumstances and ask your mother to help you?"

"But, I have been told that my mother is dead. How could she help me?"

"Yes, your biological mother is dead, but why not get help from the mother who knows you so well? Your adoptive mother from Earth could do what you need and I am sure would love to do it."

"Oh, Hat, is that possible. I want my whole family to come for the wedding, and Jack's family, too, but I thought that was impossible."

"No, it was once impossible, but you and Jack have accrued so much power now that you can manage it. The process is not simple, but it doesn't take long. You could devote three hours to the project and have all of them come right away. They can be returned to Earth after the wedding at the moment they left, so there would be no disruption in their normal lives, even if they spent a year in Isbardia."

"Oh, that's wonderful! I'll tell Jack and he can start getting apartments set aside for all of them while I work on getting them here."

Sue used their special mental communicating ability to tell Jack what she had in mind, and he was enthusiastic about the deal. He immediately called the chamberlain, Sir Hugo, and got him started on reserving the apartments.

Early the next day, both families were reunited with their children, and a welcoming party was held. The party was confined to the two families, without all of the court functionaries who would normally have attended. Jack gave a synopsis of their adventures since they arrived in Isbardia, so everybody was brought up to date. Since their families were familiar with the fact that Sue and Jack were special people, they came to believe the wild story without too much trouble, especially after Sue and Jack demonstrated some of their powers.

Sue and her mother, Helen, immediately tore into the wedding planning while Jack was delegated the responsibility of entertaining the rest of the families. The first thing he did was to arrange a grand tour of Isbardia so that the newcomers could see the dragons and other fascinating fauna and flora to be found in the magical country. They even visited TU (The Unconquerable) in his underground chamber. Everybody was enthralled by a being that could coordinate that many feet, TU even did a little dance to show off what control he had!

Some trouble had developed in a neighboring country, Sansor, and the trouble was leaking over into Isbardia. Jack transported to the troubled area, which, fortunately, was virtually uninhabited. He found there an encampment of warrior women who called themselves "The Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye," though outsiders usually called them "Rogues" for no obvious reason. Jack entered the encampment and talked to Akara, the spiritual leader, and Kashya, the combat leader. He explained who he was and offered them sanctuary as long as they needed it.

Akara said, "We appreciate your generosity, but we really want to return to our monastery at the edge of the Desert of Lut Gholein. We were driven out by Andariel and her minions. We need a hero who can clear the monastery for us."

Kashya added, "I can provide a guide and helper to that hero. Unfortunately, our ranks are so depleted that only one at a time will be available, and it will take me a little while to reorganize my troops to provide even her."

Jack said, "I need to look around and see what is going on along my border. I'll see you ladies later." Jack left the camp and crossed the small river which marked the boundary between Isbardia and Sansor. Almost immediately, Jack encountered demons very much like those he and Sue had seen when they first entered Isbardia. He had no difficulty eliminating them, especially since they were uncoordinated and tended to flail away without much skill. The place was overrun with skeletons which attacked much like the demons did, and with about the same result. There were a few zombies, but they were mostly just in the way, though they could cause some damage with their swinging arms and biting teeth.

Jack eventually came to a cave, or maybe a pit was a better description. He was somewhat reluctant to enter because of the awful stench that wafted from the entrance. Jack decided that he really did need to look into that cave, since he could hear some disturbing noises coming from it, so he took a deep breath of the last clean air he would find for a while and entered the cave. Well, no two ways about it, this cave was a stinking mess! Most of the stench came from rotting human bodies, though there was an overlying smell of old piss and shit. This was definitely not the vacation spot he was looking for!

Jack had hardly gotten down the ramp to enter the cave when he was assaulted by somebody's idea of a yeti. The creature was about eight feet tall and covered with oily, grubby hair. Its growl would blast ordinary eardrums and its smell was the perfect match for its surroundings. The yeti's attack consisted mostly of swinging its arms like great bludgeons and bites that would tear out huge chunks of flesh and bone. Fortunately, Jack's armor was up to the task of resisting the attacks, but he did miss Sue's spell to restore stamina. It looked like, at least for now, he was going to have to depend on drinking manna to keep his stamina up to the necessary level. Fortunately, he was well supplied at the moment.

Jack wandered through the cave, occasionally meeting another yeti, but mostly being bothered by packs of demons with a demon shaman. The demons were persistent choppers with their battle axes, but the demon shamans were the most problem because of the fire balls they cast. Jack's armor was proof against the fire balls, except that enough of them could wear him down. If his stamina dropped too far, then his resistance to magical attack was reduced. Given long enough, the fireball attack could kill him, so Jack did have to be on his guard.

Jack had worked his way well back into the cave when he was surprised to see a fight going on between some skeletons and some demons. Every once in a while, a green ball of magic poison would come forth and strike the demon shamans, there were three of them. Jack assumed that anyone fighting demons had to be a friend, simply based on the idea that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

To his further surprise, as soon as a friendly skeleton was knocked out of the fight, Jack saw a new one appear to burst from the body of a downed demon and join in the battle against the living demons. Nevertheless, whoever was commanding the skeletons seemed to be losing the fight. There were just too many demons!

Jack called out that he was joining the fight against the demons, even though he still had not seen the other combatant. Jack leaped into the fray, immediately attacking the nearest of the demon shamans. It took only a few swipes with his magic sword for Jack to dispatch the first of the demon shamans and to move on to the next one. This was when Jack saw why there was so much difficulty in winning against the demons: as soon as he had a few seconds to cast the spell, the demon shaman was able to resurrect a fallen demon. That explained why the demons seemed to be in never ending supply.

With this as incentive, Jack renewed his attack on the demon shamans with increased ferocity. Nothing was reviving the demon shamans, so killing them seemed to be the key to winning this protracted fight. The other fighter finally brought down the last demon shaman with a poison ball just as Jack was dispatching his demon shaman. The skeletons were now able to wipe out the last of the demons, and the fight was finally over.