Danny picked up a pebble and chucked it against the wall. It bounced off
with a metallic clang. “It’ll take us days to dig down that far, even with
picks and shovels.”
“Well, we can’t bring anyone through to do our digging for us,” Wiz said.
“We’re the only ones the demon won’t harm.”
Jerry rubbed his thumb where he had mashed it between two stones. “This
seems to be an ideal job for magic. We could use a summoning spell and
just call the heart to the surface.”
“We could also summon Bale-Zur right on top of us. No thanks.”
“So?” Danny interjected. “He won’t hurt us.”
Wiz thought of the huge black demon with the yard-wide mouth and glowing
red eyes. “You seriously do not want to meet this guy. I still have
nightmares about what he did to those Dark League wizards. Anyway, we
can’t conduct the next phase of the operation with him right on top of
us.”
“May I make a suggestion?” Moira’s voice spoke in his ear.
“Sure darling, go ahead.”
Danny started and then realized Wiz wasn’t talking to him.
“Jerry is right. Could you use magic to do your digging?”
“Won’t that attract Bale-Zur?”
There was muffled noise over the crystal as Moira conferred with other
wizards.
“Perhaps, but it is imperative we complete this before nightfall. Unless
you want to spend the night there.”
Wiz remembered some of the things that inhabited the City of Night after
dark and he shuddered again. “No thanks.”
“Besides, should worse come to worst we can lay the demon elsewhere.”
Wiz weighed that. “Okay. We’ll give it a try.” He turned to his
companions. “Now does anyone have any good ideas for a digging spell?”
As the nurse left, Craig pulled a chair close to the bed, wincing at the
slight scraping sound.
“Hi, Judith. Can you hear me?” Always Judith. She hated to be called Judy
and she had pinned his ears back when he slipped the first time they met.
The figure in the bed did not respond. There was not a flicker from the
eyelids and the rhythm of breathing continued uninterrupted.
Craig wanted to bolt. This was too much like his mother had been, before
she’d wake up and start screaming for her shot. The only thing that kept
him in the chair was knowing he’d have to pass the nurse and she’d know he
couldn’t take it. He had to stay for a few minutes anyway.
He felt like an idiot for coming. None of the others had, not since Judith
was transferred out of ICU. So he’d said he would at the last gaming
session and then he was committed.
“Everybody misses you on Friday nights,” he said brightly.
“Bill and Sheri are taking your place in the campaign, but they’re really
not very good.”
Still no response from the bed.
“We had a really good game last Friday. Joe was dungeon master and he set
up a really nasty scenario. You had all these flocks of dragonlets in a
crystal cave and they’d just swarm the party from all directions. But you
had to be careful what spells you used because a lot of the crystals were
Reflect Magic and you could get the spell thrown right back in your face.”
His grin made him look even younger. “Boy, you should have seen it!
Dragons diving on us everywhere. They’d make flame attacks and then swoop
down with claws and tail, ssshhhewww.” He imitated the motion with his
hands.
Judith tossed restlessly and mumbled.
“Anyway we were up to our asses in dragons. Then Howard’s mage figured out
you could use the Reflect Magic crystals for bank shots and he started
bouncing stuff off the walls and hitting the dragons from behind! Hey, did
you say something?”
” . . . real dragons ugly,” Judith mumbled. “Smell like snakes . . . ride
over the castle.”
She was talking! For an instant Craig thought about ringing for the nurse,
but then he realized she probably wouldn’t give a shit.
” . . . tie into the saddle . . .” Judith went on. ” . . . takes years to