Chapter 7

Punishments and Rewards - Season Finale

Previously on Urgah the Magnificent:

A man on horseback broke out of the clump of raiders. His clothing marked him as a wizard. He had a leather satchel hanging down on his left side and held a glowing wand in his right hand. A sphere of green light surrounded him. An arrow bounced off the sphere and the man dipped his left hand into the satchel, coming up with an object of some kind. He pointed the wand at one of the archers, shouted a spell and a bolt of light shot from the wand. The archer fell with a smoking hole in his chest. Zoltan shouted to the remaining archers, "Shoot his horse!"

The wizard dropped the object in his left hand and dipped into his satchel for another as an arrow hit his horse on the rump. The horse reared, tossing the wizard to the ground. He lost his wand and the thing in his left hand in the process but kept the satchel. He scrambled to his feet and took another object in his left hand. Urgah and Talia were in the lead of a clump of Zoltan's irregulars running toward the wizard. He shot a bolt from his open hand at Urgah, who fell face down, his bearskin smoldering. He was preparing to shoot another at Talia when she reached him. Her descending sword stroke spit his head just as the bolt fired. Both Talia and the wizard fell.

A coal-black demon three times the height of a man with glowing red eyes coalesced in the air above the wizard and Talia. The spirits of Talia and the wizard appeared as translucent, meter- tall figures. The wizard's spirit was cowering, crying and screaming as the demon picked him up with its right hand. Talia's spirit was standing defiantly, holding a sword in front of her with both hands. The demon picked her up by the waist with its left hand and her spirit hacked at its wrist with her sword. "Get your hands off me, asshole," her spirit said. The demon smiled, revealing a glowing red mouth.

The Earth Goddess appeared as a pure white figure five times the height of a man. She said in a beautiful contralto, "She's mine," then nodded at Urgah, "Him, too."

"Yes, ma'am," the demon said in an incredibly low bass voice. It put Talia's spirit down, winked at her and then faded out, carrying the wailing spirit of the wizard with it. The Goddess smiled at Talia's spirit, touched her on the forehead and then faded out. Talia's spirit disappeared back into her body.

The appearance of the demon and Goddess stopped all resistance on the part of the raiders. They started throwing down their weapons and surrendering. Morgan came across the Princess, who jumped to her feet and menaced him with her dagger. He said, "Princess Irulan, I presume?"

Selected scenes from the Rewards and Punishments episode:

Princess Irulan dropped her dagger and threw herself into Morgan's arms. She clung to his black leather jerkin and wept desperately. Morgan did what people do in such situations -- he put his arms around her and made reassuring sounds. After a few minutes she pushed herself away from him and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Sorry, I'm not usually hysterical like that. Lord Morgan, isn't it?"

"Yes, ma'am. Don't be ashamed of being emotional. You've been through a lot. At least you were smart enough to make a break when the opportunity offered."

"Thanks. Do you know what happened just now? I assume that was a demon and the Earth Goddess. Did you see them, or am I having a really bad dream?"

"It looked like a wizard cast a spell of some kind at Urgah and Talia. The demon carried off the wizard's spirit and would have taken Talia except that the Goddess stopped it. That's all I know." Morgan grinned. "It had to have been Talia. The demon picked up her spirit and she was trying to fight him off. I distinctly heard her say, 'Get your hands off me, asshole.'"

"Your friends got hurt? Why the hell are you standing here? Go see to your friends. I'll be along as fast as I can." She gave him a push. "Go."

Talia was lying on her back with her eyes closed with a dreamy smile on her face. She opened her eyes, sat up, pulled her helmet off and scratched her head with both hands. There was a fist- sized crumpled, singed area in the center of her breastplate just above her heart. She took off her armor, stood up and stretched as if she'd just awakened from the best night's sleep that she'd ever had. Her stretching brought the slave ring around her neck into prominence. It had changed from a dull iron gray to a golden color. She looked down at the body of the wizard and her smile turned into one of satisfaction.

Urgah pushed himself to his hands and knees, then creaked to his feet. He had a dinner-plate-sized red area on the center of his chest. His bearskin cloak still gave off wisps of smoke. Urgah wrinkled his nose and dropped his cloak. Zoltan came running up to his side. "Urgah, you're still alive!"

"Looks like it, so far." He looked down at his chest and wrapped his arms over the red area. "Goddess, that hurts. What happened"

"Wizard got you and Talia with some kind of a spell."

"Talia?"

The two saw Talia and Zoltan ran to her side. Urgah followed, a bit clumsily.

Talia pre-empted questioning by saying to Urgah, "Urgah, my love, the Goddess gave me something for you." She brought his head down to hers and kissed him. When she let him go he took a step back in surprise. The red area had disappeared from his chest.

Zoltan asked, "What was that all about?"

"I'll explain it later to everyone."

Later, in Zoltan's main house Morgan, Urgah, Zoltan and Princess Irulan were sitting around a table with mugs of wine. Zoltan was at the head of the table with Morgan and the Princess on one side and Talia and Urgah on the other. Talia's sword and breastplate were lying on the table. The edges of her sword had pieces missing.

Irulan said, "Okay, Talia. We're all here and calmed down. Tell us what happened."

Talia said, "The short form is that the wizard killed me and the Goddess brought me back and healed me. She gave me the power to heal Urgah. Both of us are completely healed, inside and out." She touched her slave ring. "She changed this as a sign."

Zoltan asked her, "What will you do now? Did the Goddess give you instructions?"

"She told me to go to Her temple in Koltor. I think She'll tell me what else She wants when I get there." She nodded at the stuff on the table. "I'm sorry that I ruined the sword you gave me."

Morgan said, "Talia, there are lots of swords and only one of you."

Irulan said, "I'll give you a sword if you'll teach me how to use one."

Irulan, Morgan and Talia took their leave of Urgah and Zoltan and started down the trail. They were accompanied by most of the infantry and the King's Lancers, who had finally arrived and were rested enough to depart. A slave coffle of prisoners chained neck-to-neck accompanied them. The column passed a line of infantry troops and villagers who saluted them as they passed. Talia said to Morgan and Irulan, "You were right, Zoltan's building civilization here. Urgah and your volunteers will help."