Chapter 13

We discussed the matter in some detail in our war council and came to the conclusion that we should start attacking the wizards of the cabal directly. For one thing, this might distract them from attacking Prince Albert. The only name I knew was that of Ex'zar, so he was at the top of our list. We should be able to get at least one more name the next time the cabal found it necessary to construct another king-puppet. That could be as soon as next week, so we had to stay alert.

I knew where Ex'zar lived, so he would be easy to attack once we were certain that he was actually in residence in that estate. We did not expect him to be anywhere else when he was not doing cabal business. For one thing, he had his home arranged to suit him, and he, like most wizards, was not likely to move somewhere else and have to redecorate and rearrange to fit his habits and needs. For another thing, he would not want his fellow cabal members to think that he was afraid of me and start hiding from me. The latter situation might bring on an attack from one of his so-called friends.

Wizard Armon and Granny Eltman had worked with me to construct an enclosed shell that would stop all magic and physical passage. In fact, I was going to have to keep transferring air into the bubble to make sure that Ex'zar and anybody with him did not suffocate. Armon said that he was not married and only had a woman around when he wished for sexual relief from a live human. Otherwise, he always used those not-men as servants because he would be the only one who could control them; therefore, he did not have to worry about a sneak attack by a servant.

I did a little preparation with more help from Armon and Eltman and readied my attack. I could penetrate Ex'zar's magical security shield, so I had no trouble knowing when he was in residence. More from the psychological effect than anything else, we decided to start our attack at night.

Ex'zar was sleeping when I made my first move. I installed my containment shield around his bedroom, rather than our original intention of enclosing the whole estate. This was easier for me to do because there were fewer distractions, and Ex'zar should be intimidated by not being able to escape from his bedroom. The effort to keep him harassed and confused was to keep him from using some of the more complex spells. The more agitated his mind was, the less likely that he would be able to do the necessary logical thinking.

To add to Ex'zar's agitation, the second spell raised the temperature of the bedroom to over 100° F. More minor spells were used to make his skin itch in a multitude of places all at once, to make his ears ring, and to make his eyes water excessively. Armon was certain that all of these relatively minor aggravations when added together would drive Ex'zar to distraction, and he seemed to be correct.

Ex'zar was so bothered by these minor spells that Armon and Eltman could apply without my intervention that he may not even have noticed when I stopped his heart from beating. He lived for less than a minute after his heart quit working properly, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor of his bedroom.

I removed all of the spells that had been cast and wrote on the wall of his bedroom a warning to the cabal. They were ordered to cease operations and to return the rightful king to the throne. I warned them that failure to do this was going to precipitate more deaths until the cabal either stopped functioning or was wiped out. To that, I signed my name in flaming letters. I was sure that I would not be ignored.

I also put a modified version of the impenetrable magic shell around Waterfall Keep. The modification was to let air move freely through the shield and to let the locals move freely about the grounds. We put several warning sensors in place in case a wizard tried to pump poison gas into our home. We thought that we had covered all of the bases, but we were not taking chances. Armon, Eltman, and I put up our own sensors, all different, to detect any sort of attack.

We also had various sensors and listening devices hidden in the King's castle at Kings Home. We were gratified to learn that the death of Ex'zar was detected very soon after it happened: specifically, the afternoon of the next day. Several wizards went to investigate why Ex'zar did not show up at a scheduled meeting. There was considerable consternation when they saw the warning message that I had left. We were all interested in what would be the next act of the cabal.

Surprising to all of us, the next we heard from our enemies was not from the cabal as a whole, but from a particular wizard. Obviously, he considered himself to be much more powerful than Ex'zar; therefore, he did not need any help from other members of the cabal. Some of this we found out later, but he had the foolish idea that he was stronger than me, and he could take over the cabal as its leader once I was out of the way.

His first attack was rather simple: he laid over my shield one of his own. The shield was somewhat elementary and it only blocked the passage of air. We might well have been in trouble if we had not detected the new shield almost as soon as it was in position. I asked Armon to try to determine what the shield was, magically, and how hard it would be to remove.

He was back in only a few minutes with the news that the enemy shield was very primitive and the type that would normally be used by a rank beginner. He reported that he had already removed the enemy magic. In his opinion, the shield would have worked if it had not been detected, but it could hardly be construed as the work of a sophisticated wizard. He further speculated that the spell had been cast more to see if we were paying attention than anything else.

The next attack was a hood of fire. We could not figure out what that was supposed to do because the fire was held so far away from our cave by the rocks of the mountain that it would take months for us to feel any effect. However, the surface rocks of the mountain were being heated very hot, almost to the point of glowing from the heat.

We ignored the hood of fire for a week until the other shoe dropped. Suddenly, the fire disappeared and our mountain was drenched by millions of gallons of cold water. Now we understood what was going on. The sudden shock of the cold water on the hot rocks was to cause many of the surface rocks to shatter. The broken rocks rolled down the mountain sides and our mountain was no longer quite as tall as it had been!

Well, this was more of a nuisance attack than anything else because it would take years of alternate heating and cooling to bring the mountain down around our ears, but it was a damned aggravation! Fire spells were sort of a hobby with Armon, so he said that he would stop the next one that was dropped on us. That was good enough for me, and I quit worrying about the fire hood returning.

Oops, there was another distraction. The cabal was going through the routine of making another king-puppet. There were four wizards working on the spell, and we decided to hit all of them if we could. Granny Eltman hollowed out four new chambers within our mountain. None of the chambers were connected to any other chamber; thus, the only way out would be by transporting. Normally, a wizard cannot transport if he does not know his starting point, so there was a good chance that anybody stuck in one of those chambers could not escape. That would be where I stashed any wizard that I could capture.

We deliberately restricted the amount of air that was available, but we were not planning on suffocation except in case of necessity. Armon was standing by to dump in more oxygen and remove the carbon dioxide if it was necessary, but there was enough air for 12-24 hours, depending on the activity of the chamber's occupant.

I was ready as soon as the chanting and marching part of the spell casting began. I snatched the first wizard with no bother because they were not expecting to be interrupted. As soon as that wizard was no longer chanting, the king-puppet began to flow back into the component parts in the tub.