He smiled warmly at Cy who was still unable to move.
The best part, however, is that once you've died, your punishment hasn't ended. You will awaken as a shadow, and you'll live out the rest of eternity as an ethereal creature, unable to affect the solid world around you. Doesn't that sound far more horrifying?'
Су grunted, trying everything in his power to simply move his fingers.
'Yes, I'm sure you'd agree, imprisonment is far worse than simple death.'
Shadow turned away from the doorway and started tidying up the room.
Though I don't want you to think my trapping you in this wand is at all an easy feat.'
Cy continued to struggle, gaining a modicum of hope from the fact that he could now wiggle his toes and clench the muscles in his jaw.
'It's taken me years to be able to perfect this wand,' continued the archwizard. 'True, the imprisonment spells are simple enough, as you are now, I'm sure, painfully aware.'
Shadow continued to fiddle in the room.
'No, it's the transformation from human flesh to the insubstantial that has proven tricky, though not impossible.'
Cy could feel warmth spreading through his aims and chest, and he was able to shuffle his feet a little.
Shadow looked at the wand with reverent awe.
'This little device right here represents most of my life's work. You know,' he said, speaking not really to Cy but rather to himself, 'I've lived a long time, and it seems to me that as we've grown, things just keep getting smaller and smaller.' He chuckled. 'I guess that's what we call progress.'
Cy almost had control of his body back. If Shadow continued to amuse himself for just a few more minutes, he might be able to make a break for it, and he'd much rather get killed fleeing than just standing there like a stupid jackass.
'Anyway, enough with the chit chat.' The archmage turned his attention back to the young assassin and leveled the wand at him. 'I suppose I should figure out who hired you to kill me before I dispose of you. I don't suppose you came of your own accord. You're too young for that.'
The wall behind Shadow exploded outward into the room. What had appeared to be solid stone was actually a secret door made of wood, and the splinters of stone-colored door sprayed out at the two men. Two gigantic ogres stood at the top of a set of stairs in the space where the door used to be.
Cy was thrown to the floor next to the bed. Shadow, too distracted with the first assassin to protect himself from the two new ones, was also knocked face-first to the floor. The ogres didn't waste any time, and they rushed into the room to clobber the fallen archwizard. Ham-sized fists began to beat the mage. The two beasts worked together, pummeling the man simultaneously with opposing blows. Then one stopped pounding the wizard and unsheathed a large sword off its back. The blade slid out of the scabbard with an oily grind.
Cy had regained control of his body, and he got to his feet, pulling the larger splinters from his skin. The ogres were completely ignoring him, but they were pounding Shadow into a bloody pulp right in the middle of the doorway. He glanced over toward the passageway.
If the ogres got in that way, then there must be a way out, he thought.
He took a deep breath and steadied himself. In the — moment he took to compose his thoughts, his mind reeled. What if there were more ogres down there? What if they had used magic to get into the lower chamber? If he went down there, would he be trapped?
'Lift him up,' shouted the ogre with the sword.
The other grunted and stopped beating the archwizard long enough to bend down and grab the man by the robes.
Cy turned back toward the doorway, deciding to take his chances with the ogres he knew of rather than whatever could be dwelling down the stairs. While they prepared to behead Shadow, the young assassin charged the door, hoping to slip behind the busy brutes and the doomed archwizard on his way to freedom.
He took two large steps and dropped into a crouch, trying to ram right through. The ogre holding Shadow took a half step back at that precise moment, crashing into the charging human as he barreled across the room. The two assassins got tangled in each other's limbs, and they both hit the floor with a crash-Cy tumbling head over feet into the hallway, and the ogre against the doorframe. Shadow came to his feet, being pulled from the floor by the ogre and gaining momentum from the great brute's fall.
Wand still in his hand, he shouted, 'Shadominiaropalazitsi' and leveled the crystal end at the standing ogre.
A dark gray stream fired out of the wand in a direct line at the ogre assassin. As it approached the ogre's upright form, the stream spread out and began to curve and split. It formed a whirlwind of darkness around the beast, and the gray areas started to separate and take on individual, humanlike shapes. The shadows had narrow, elongated heads, and spindly, malformed limbs, and they flew in ever-quickening circles around the ogre. For his part, the assassin stood, his sword poised over his head, and gawked in awe and horror.
The shadows attacked, diving toward the armed figure and tearing at him with claws that seemed to form out of thin air. Cy could hear the beast howl as if he were in great pain, but no blood issued forth. Instead, the ogre dropped his sword and slowly sank to the floor, landing on the ground with a thud like a sack of horse manure.
Cy gained his feet and turned up the steps. He'd seen enough. As fast as he'd ever felt himself move, he was up the stairs, dodging brightly dressed constructs as he fled out the front door. Never did he turn around and it wasn't until he was on his griffin on the way back to report to Lume that he realized he no longer had his enchanted dagger.
Arriving in camp by sunup the second day, Cy entered Lume's tent at a run.
'Sir, I have terrible, urgent news.'
Lume was sitting at his desk eating his morning meal, and the young man's frantic entrance startled the captain, causing him to cough up a mouthful of food.
'In the name of all the gods, what do you think you're doing,' he screamed. Then, abruptly, his tone changed. 'Oh, Cy!' Lume stood up. 'What is it, lad? Did you kill the archwizard?'
'No, sir, I did not.'
Lume slammed his hand on the desk. 'Then what are you doing here?'
Cy proceeded to intone to Lume all the details of his assassination attempt. He left out nothing, and the captain listened intently to the entire story. Then it was Lume's turn to talk.
'Are you certain they were shadows that came out of the wand?' he asked.
'Yes, sir, I'm absolutely positive.'
'Gods. A wand with that kind of power could…'
Turning around and placing his hands to the sides of his head, he paced out from behind the desk and moved around the tent. After a few moments, he came out of his reverie. He looked at Cy and shook his head.
'But you failed. I should have known that chain-wielder wasn't an adequate challenge to determine if you could kill an archwizard.''
'Sir?'
Lume whirled, blurting out his words. 'The chain-wielder, son! I sent him to test you. How else do you think a man of that skill ended up in such a backwater village as Rath?'
'You sent the blond man after me, sir? But, I… I don't understand.'
'Are you stupid, boy? I planted the man in Kath and paid him to attack you,' replied Lume.
'But… but why? That man almost killed me.'
'To see if you were up to this assassination,' he explained, 'but obviously it was a poor test.'
Cy stood with his arms limp and his mouth open wide.
Lume paced back and forth for a while longer, then he caught sight of Cy. 'Child, stop your bemoaning. You lived. All that matters now is that we go back to kill Shadow and get that wand.' Lume walked over to the young man and put his hand on his shoulder. 'Despite the fact that you failed, you've provided us-provided our great leader Olostin himself-with a real opportunity to reclaim our world from the haughty archwizards.'
Cy just stared, fuming at Lume.
'Son, if we get that wand,' explained the captain, 'we could use it against Shadow and all of his kind. We've been trying to kill that man for years, and now we might finally have an opportunity to use his own research against
