when your mouth is full of dirt.
There were crashes and thuds and whizzes and occasionally a nasty spang as
something hit the wall and ricocheted away. Once a big piece hit the top
of the wall, knocking off chips and showering them down on the cowering
trio. The dust grew so thick that Wiz couldn’t see two feet in front of
him-not that he was looking.
Then suddenly it was quiet.
No more crashes. No more earth-shaking thuds. Just a couple of zips from
small stuff and then silence. Even the dust started to settle.
Wiz raised his head and looked around wonderingly. Then he realized Moira
was screaming at him through the communications crystal.
“We’re fine,” he told her, looking at his companions. “The spell was just
a little more effective than we thought.”
“Oh man,” Danny muttered. “Anyone got anything for shell shock?”
“It’s the details,” Jerry said to no one in particular. “It’s always the
details that get you in trouble.”
Wiz made a feeble attempt to brush himself off and peered around the
archway.
The remains of the arch were pocked and scarred with fresh blemishes,
white against the polished black granite. But the room itself was as clean
as if it had been excavated by a team of expert archaeologists and then
scrubbed and vacuumed by a village of Japanese housewives. There, almost
exactly in the center of the room, sitting on the newly exposed mosaics of
the floor, was a cloudy gray sphere.
Wiz stepped through the archway and realized he was tracking dirt back
onto the clean floor.
“Okay,” he said into the communications crystal. “We have the thing
located. If it’s safe come on through.”
Then he looked around and bit his lip.
Wiz didn’t like any part of the operation, but this next step was his
least favorite, even counting facing the golden demon. Moira was not
immune to Bale-Zur, but she knew more about controlling a demon than any
of the programmers. In addition to having more skill at natural magic, she
had spent long sessions at Heart’s Ease with Shiara the Silver learning
all the former wizardess could tell her about such things. If their plan
failed, Moira was their last line of defense.
“Sharp lookout everyone,” he called over his shoulder. Danny and Jerry
spread out, staffs ready, peering into the building gloom for any sign of
trouble.
Two figures popped into existence on the polished floor, not just one.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Wiz demanded.
Moira frowned at the greeting and then she whirled. Standing behind her,
not two paces away, was June.
“How did you get here?” Moira asked sharply. But June just smiled
triumphantly and made a beeline for Danny.
“I thought you said she didn’t have any magical ability,” Wiz whispered to
Moira as the couple hugged and June clung to Danny’s arm.
“She does not-I think,” Moira whispered back.
“Well then?”
Moira only shrugged.
“Let us get it over with,” Moira said. With Danny, Wiz and Jerry forming a
perimeter guard, she knelt by the heart of Bale-Zur and reached slowly out
to it.
For a long time she stayed motionless, her hand hovering over the cloudy
crystal sphere. At last she began to move her fingers slowly over the
surface, caressing it without quite touching it. Her lips began to move as
she started the chant she had been taught to bring the demon back under
control.
With the point of her staff she marked a pentagram around the demon’s
heart. Then she stood up, backed off a step and raised her staff. Her
voice rose to a wild cry as she gestured into the air. In spite of himself
Wiz found his attention was drawn to his wife and her work.
The sphere pulsed and glowed with an inner light, casting a greenish-gray
luminance around itself and Moira. It rocked back and forth as if seeking
to break free of the imprisoning figure. Still Moira continued the eerie
chant, bouncing the words off the ruined walls like bullets.
And then Bale-Zur was there.
Half-hopping, half-shambling, the huge demon moved into the circle of
weird radiance. Its great horned head turned neither right nor left and