“Bale-Zur. Bale-Zur. Bale-Zur. By the power of your true name and the force of our bargain I call you, I summon you, I command you to make yourself manifest.”
As the wizard gestured, the smoke billowed even thicker and the glow grew fiercer and larger. And then the smoke wafted away as though on a breeze, leaving the mightiest of demons revealed.
The huge black creature squatted toadlike in the chamber, nearly filling the pentagram and almost brushing the stone vaulting of the ceiling. His horned and warty head swivelled slowly and continually from side to side, as if seeking prey. The great claws clenched and relaxed against the stone.
“My due,” the demon’s voice boomed out, so low that the undertones made the wizard’s bones quiver. “I will have my due.”
“I give you one,” hissed Toth-Set-Ra. “I give you the one known to men as Sparrow, called Wiz. By the power of his true name I give him to you.”
The monster paused and considered. The huge mouth opened, showing rows of teeth like daggers, and the beast ran a surprisingly pink tongue over its black scaly lips.
“Sparrow is not his true name,” the creature rumbled. “Nor is Wiz.”
“By the power of his true name I give him to you!” Toth-Set-Ra repeated, more shrilly.
Again the demon Bale-Zur considered. At last the massive head stopped moving and the glowing red eyes focused on the wizard.
“This one’s true name is not written upon the wind,” the demon said at last.
Toth-Set-Ra licked his lips, suddenly gone dry. “But he has a true name,” he insisted desperately. “All men have a true name.”
“Then it has never been spoken within the World,” said the demon, hopping cumbersomely forward. “Our bargain is broken and I will have my due.”
Toth-Set-Ra screamed and backed away as the demon crossed the now-useless pentagram. He scuttled toward the door, but the great creature was too quick for him. A huge clawed foot caught him squarely in the back as his hand touched the door handle.
In the riot and confusion of the shuddering palace no one noticed the screams. But they went on for a long, long time.
Blinded, burned and screeching, the goblins fell back around the bend in the tunnel. Atros paid them no heed.
So
, breathed the wizard, now unknowingly the Mightiest in the League. So he is here after all. He spared a quick glance for his companions. Of the fifty or so who had accompanied Atros into the dungeons perhaps a dozen remained. No soldiers here, this would be a duel of wizardry.
The auspices were not ideal, but Atros meant to have this wizard and if his goblin soldiers could not take him, then he would do so himself. He flipped back his great fur cloak, baring his thickly muscled arms, and muttered a protective incantation before he stepped around the corner.
“What is it?” Wiz asked as the hulking skin-clad figure strode down the tunnel toward them.
“A wizard,” Kenneth told him. “I’m sorry, Lord, but we cannot help you now. You must meet magic with magic in a duel of wizards.”
Wiz licked his lips and took a deep, shuddering breath. Then he stepped into the blue-lit corridor, staff in hand.
Atros did not check his stride as Wiz came through the broken door. Stepping around the broken burned bodies of his goblin bodyguard he bored straight toward the slight dark-haired figure holding his oak staff as if it were a baseball bat.
As Atros came on Wiz pointed his staff at him.”bippity boppity boo,” he said and again the roaring lance of flame shot from the staff’s tip. But the big wizard made a dismissing gesture with a flip of his wrist and the flame veered to one side, splashing off the wall and dissipating harmlessly.
Atros raised his hand and balls of fire flew from his fingertips; one after the other they caroomed down the hall at Wiz. Wiz reached into his pouch and threw a tiny, pallid grub at his attacker. Grub and fireballs met in mid-tunnel and the flames were sucked away, leaving only a medium-sized worm behind.
Quickly Wiz muttered another spell. Suddenly Atros found his progress slowed, as if he were walking through molasses. The more he pushed, the slower he moved until by exerting all his mighty strength he was barely able to move at all.