“Do you like my pet?” the black-robed wizard crooned, laying a gnarled hand upon the scaly head. “I made him especially for you, Sparrow.”
The demon remained impassive under the caress, its yellow eyes fixed hungrily on Wiz.
“Not nearly as powerful as Toth-Set-Ra’s demon, but he has seen you and that is enough.
“He is attuned to your magic, Sparrow. Make magic. Oh yes, please make magic. He will be upon you and your end will be truly wonderful to watch.”
Wiz started to form a spell mentally. Instantly the creature’s yellow eyes flicked open and its ears pricked forward.
“Go ahead,” the wizard was almost dancing in anticipation. “Oh my yes, go ahead. We want to see this new Northern magic up close, don’t we?”
The man was insane, Wiz realized. Crazy and full of spite and malice at the same time.
“No?” said the wizard in a disappointed tone. “Well, we will have to persuade you then. Flaying alive for a start. With salt rubbed well into the flesh to preserve it as the skin is peeled off. Toth-Set-Ra was right, there is so much one can do with a wizard’s skin.”
“No!” Ebrion bellowed.
Dzhir Kar stopped and regarded him as if he were an insect.
“I told you I would not have him harmed! We are to return him to his place only. That was our bargain.”
“Bargains are made to be broken,” Dzhir Kar said. He gestured to the surrounding wizards. “Take this one away.”
“Fools,” Ebrion shouted. “You seal your own doom.”
“We will see who is doomed when the Council is deprived of its most powerful member,” Dzhir Kar retorted. “And when it becomes known that one of the most powerful wizards in the North had a hand in the deed.”
As the wizards of the Dark League closed in on him Ebrion stepped back and raised his arms. With a crash and a roar a dozen bolts of lightning struck him where he stood. Wiz flinched from the noise and the light.
So did the two wizards holding him. Instinctively, Wiz twisted in their slackened grips and broke free. Before anyone could react he was across the room and out the door.
“Get him!” screamed Dzhir Kar and the others leapt past the still smoldering corpse of Ebrion to comply. But Wiz was halfway down the rough flagged passageway and running for his life.
He turned the corner so fast he slipped and a bolt of lightning exploded on the stone behind him. He scrambled to his feet and ran on as the wizards came clattering out behind him.
He ran on at random, turning this way and that on panicked whim. The place seemed to be a maze of low stone passages with rough flagged floors. Behind him always he heard the sound of pursuit, sometimes close at hand and sometimes further away, but always there.
He ran out into a rotunda where five or six corridors came together and dashed down one to his left. Down another corridor he saw the bobbing gleam of torches.
The corridor was long and straight and Wiz ran down it full tilt. He was going so fast he almost ran straight into the wall ahead. Blind alley! He whirled and pounded back the way he had come, ribs aching and breath burning in his throat.
Again out into the rotunda and down another corridor. No sign of the lights now, but he was sure they were not far behind. Halfway down the corridor there was a place where the wall had collapsed. He slowed to avoid the pile of stones and saw lights before him and behind him, distant but coming his way. Without a thought he darted up the rubble pile and through the hole in the wall.
Suddenly he was outside on a narrow street between two- and three-story buildings of rough black stone. It was night, he realized and the moon was hidden by clouds. There was little enough light, but Wiz didn’t slow down. He turned right and pounded down the street, heedless of the stitch in his side.
The empty windows of the upper stories gaped down at him like accusing eyes. Here and there an open doorway yawned like a devouring mouth. He ran without purpose or direction, on and on until a red mist fogged his vision. Finally, chest heaving and staggering with exhaustion, he turned into one of those open doorways in search of a place to hide and catch his breath.