The Horn of Moran

“There is no need for forgiveness,” said Alex. “Come, we need to return to the others.”

“As you wish, my master,” Val whispered.

Before Alex realized what Val had said, Val lifted his hands and cast a spell. Alex’s body was racked with pain and an icy cold filled his insides. The pain forced him to his knees, and for a moment he thought he was going to throw up. He had felt this sickening cold once before, and it had almost destroyed him then.

Forcing himself to ignore the cold and the pain, Alex raised his hands instinctively, drawing on his own deep magic. The spell that came to him in his time of need was nothing he had ever heard of or read about.

Val shrieked in agony, and the painful cold that consumed Alex began to fade. Alex got back to his feet and saw Val, curled on the floor, whimpering in pain. For a moment he felt pity for Val, but then Val’s body began to twitch as if his pain was increasing and a strange shadow began to spread like a puddle of ink around him.

Alex watched in stu

“So, young wizard,” said an ice-cold voice. “You have forced me to leave this pathetic excuse of a man and show myself.”

“And now I will end your evil,” said Alex in a determined voice.

“You do not have that power,” the voice taunted. “All you have done is to delay my plans. Look around you, fool. Do you not realize where you are?”

“In the lower library of the Tower of the Moon,” said Alex, but he suddenly realized what the shadowy figure meant. This was the library, but there were no books here; it was empty.

“So, you see at last,” said the voice. “The library is mine, safe from you in this fool’s bag.”

“You have done great evil, and I will stop you from doing more,” Alex yelled. “I have defeated you before, and I will do so again.”

“Young fool,” whispered the shadow. “There is no reason for us to be at odds. Take the treasure of the tower and the Horn that you seek. And I can add to your treasures as well.”

The shadow turned to look at Val. Val slowly took his magic bag and spoke into it. There was a moment when the air seemed to ripple and spark and then the empty library was filled with treasure from Val’s bag.

“All this I will offer you,” said the cold voice. “All this, and a hundred times more. All that I ask is that you leave us now. Leave us, and you will have your reward.”

“You are the fool,” Alex spat back. “This treasure is not yours to give, and even if it were, it means nothing to me.”

“Arrogant whelp!” the shadow screamed, its voice echoing around the empty room. “I have made you a fair offer, and once more you refuse me. So be it. Though I ca

The shadow turned to look at Val once more. Before Alex could move, Val had spoken into his bag and vanished.

“Before you could hope to strike at me, I will join my servant in his bag and use him to become greater than you can imagine,” said the voice as if reading Alex’s mind.

Alex stood in stu

“Your time is short, wizard. You dare not wait if your friends’ lives mean anything to you,” the shadow voice mocked.

The dark shadow claimed that Alex could not destroy it, but Alex knew that was a lie. He decided he had to do something, no matter how foolish it might seem. Lifting his hands, Alex focused all his thoughts and power on Val’s bag. The magic of the bag would only let the adventurer who owned it move it from the floor, but Alex didn’t want to move the bag, he wanted something else.

There was a loud crack, like ice shifting on a frozen lake, and it was done. A large black stone now stood on the floor where Val’s bag had been. Alex felt completely drained. Changing the magic bag had taken all the power he could summon, and now he had nothing left to fight the shadow.

“Very clever,” said the shadow. “You have prevented me from joining my servant and using the library, but it is a small victory. I may not be able to destroy you in my present form, but I will find another way. There are always fools who will let me into their hearts and minds. And time is on my side.”

Alex knew the evil voice spoke the truth this time. He had stopped the shadow for the time being, but another wizard could change the stone back into a magic bag. And Alex could not stay and protect the stone forever.

“So, young wizard, you have failed. I will leave you now to ponder your defeat, and I will return at my convenience to claim my prize.”

The shadow figure changed as it finished speaking, becoming a misty, almost fluid, form. Alex watched it change, too tired to stop it or even to speak. A shrieking ice-cold wind blew past Alex, pushing him down until he was flat on his back. And then the shadow was gone.

Alex struggled to his knees. He was cold, sad, and defeated. He had failed completely. The shadow was still free, and, worse, it would return. For a moment he felt like crying, but then a voice he had never heard before came into his mind.

“Simple solutions are often the best,” the voice said.

Alex shook his head. There was no simple solution to this problem, at least none that he could think of. Then another voice came to his mind, a kind, soft voice: the voice of the sphinx.

“Unseen but heard, untouched but felt,” the voice said softly. The riddle of the sphinx returned to Alex’s mind, and he felt as if a light had been turned on inside his head.

Alex started to laugh as the cold slipped away. He felt his strength return to him in a dazzling rush that almost took his breath away. The answer was so simple, so obvious, and so clever that he had never considered it. Standing up, Alex moved to the stone that had once been the magic bag of Sedric Valenteen. Alex felt sorry for Val, but he knew that Val had made his own choice, and now he had to suffer the consequences of that choice.

Lifting his hands and pulling all of his magic to him, Alex closed his eyes. A cool breeze blew across his face once more, and when he opened his eyes, the stone was gone. Worry slipped away; Alex was certain that no one would ever be able to change the cool breeze back into a stone or a magic bag. He had won in the end, and the shadow didn’t even know it. Someday the shadow would return here to claim its prize and find nothing at all.

Tired, but pleased with his success, Alex looked around at the room full of treasure. If Val had an heir, all of this belonged to them. He would take it and hope to return it to Val’s family sometime in the future. He took his magic bag and spoke into it. The air seemed to ripple and spark once more, and the treasure disappeared with a flash.

Alex moved back to the stairway as fast as he could, not wanting to waste another moment. He ran up the two flights of stairs, his legs burning with the effort. When he reached the main chamber, he paused for a moment. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he thought it couldn’t be more than an hour. With only a moment of thought, he went to the stairway that led higher into the tower. He wanted to find the upper library and the Horn of Moran, if it was there.

At the top of the stairway was a door, which Alex opened to see another large chamber full of treasure. Ignoring the treasure, he continued forward toward another stairway at the far end of the chamber. He knew where it would lead him.