“Are you hurt?” I asked.
“A wicked headache,” Rolf said. “That’s all.”
“Same here,” Brodnik added.
“Bad headache? He used a nasty spell. Are you sure that’s all?” I approached them, but stopped when their eyes widened as they stared behind me. I rounded, following their line of sight, to see the creature rising from the ground, wearing a different head.
It was a human’s head. Though the skin was dead and gray, the blond hair tangled with leaves, its eyes shone gold.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Heidel said.
“How many heads does it have?”
“Too many,” Kull answered.
Knives appeared in its four hands. “More knives, too?” Heidel asked.
“Duck,” Kull yelled.
I hit the ground as the knives whizzed over my head. The others fell beside me.
“How’re supposed to kill that bloody beast?” Brodnik asked.
“We can’t pierce its body, and if we lop off its head, it grows another,” Rolf said.
I glanced at the first head that had fallen near me. The reptilian, alligator-like face stared up. The golden glow in its eyes had been replaced with oddly shaped pupils. Fan-like with five points.
The golden glow. That was the one thing it still had.
“Go for its eyes,” I shouted.
“What?” Kull asked, swinging his sword, steel ringing as he deflected another blade.
“Its eyes!”
A knife landed inches from me. I grabbed it. I was lousy with weapons, but what if I used magic to help?
I called my magic to the surface. A weak blue glow surrounded my hands. It wasn’t much, but maybe it would be enough.
Another torrent of blades zipped through the air. I dodged, but one grazed my ear. Warmth seeped from the cut, streaming down my neck. I didn’t have time to do anything about it.
With a burst of magic, I flung the blade at the beast, allowing my magic to guide true, straight into one of its eyes.
The beast screamed, a deafening howl that echoed through the canyon. It fell back, its form becoming less translucent. Knives burst from its hands, one of them sailing straight for Heidel. Kull grabbed her waist, pulling her out of the way.
Rage fueled his movements as he leapt for the monster. He lunged with his sword, swinging in a wide arc. He cleaved the beast in two. Blood sprayed the air. Two halves of its body fell to the ground with a sickening thump.
Kull stood over it, breathing heavily, his sword dripping with its blood.
We got to our feet, then cautiously approached.
“Is it dead this time?” Rolf asked.
“Let’s hope so.”
I made it to the beast’s corpse. The head looked up in a soundless scream, the same frozen expression we’d found on the head in the forest.
Its magic came to me in a wave of mixed powers, so potent the enchantment clouded my mind. Buzzing magical energy swirled so strongly, my knees buckled. I sank to the ground. Pressing the palms of my hands to my eyes, I willed the magic to stop.
“There’s something wrong with the waif.” Brodnik’s voice cut through my thoughts.
Kull knelt beside me. “Are you well?”
“No. The magic.” The power swirled more strongly, its intensity mingling with my own. What was happening?
Bright lights spun in my vision.
“Can’t we do anything to help?” Heidel asked.
“I-I don’t know. I think it was trying to create a portal and escape before it died. The spell is still working.”
“A portal?” Rolf asked. “Can you use it to get us out of here?”
I managed to open my eyes for a moment. Whorls of magic swept through the air. Could they see it?
“I’ll try. Gather around me.”
The Wults knelt around me. I steadied my breathing, trying to think through the magic. Its intensity was like nothing I’d felt before. At least I knew I’d have enough power to open a portal. Hopefully two.
“When you’re ready,” I said, “think of a place in Faythander. Concentrate on it as hard as you can, and you’ll return to your own world. I’m going to return to mine.”
“But… will we see you again?” Kull asked.
“Most likely not, but you never know, the universe has ways of putting us in one another’s paths.”
The magic increased, so strong I thought I would be sick. “Hold on,” I said.
Breathe. You can do this.
Concentrate.
The magic was easy to hold onto. It seemed to want to leave the creature’s body and attach to someone else.
Without another thought, I opened a portal to Faythander, and another to Earth. The ground fell away from me. I floated weightlessly through the void.
My head pounded. The creature’s magic stayed with me. The power cushioned me, yet clung to me. Would I ever be able to shake it off?
The wind howled in my ears, the portal finally letting go. I landed on a hard linoleum floor. Fluorescent lights shone above me. I shielded my eyes with my hands as I sat up. I was back in the computer lab.
What happened? Memories stayed with me for a few moments as the creature’s magic kept them preserved. The creature. The Wults. The prince…
But exhaustion overwhelmed me as the magic escaped me completely. Rubbing my head, I looked up at my desk, all the memories fading…
#
“Are you finished with that yet?” Benjamin said as he loomed over me. His staring over my shoulder was grating on my nerves.
“Almost.” I placed the completed Wult statue in its bed of velvet nestled between the other statuettes. A few days ago, I’d been hit by a lightning bolt of inspiration. It had happened when I’d woken on my office floor, the little statue in my pocket, a wispy thread of golden-blond hair clinging to it.
My last memory had been of attempting to create a portal to Faythander, then I’d woken on the floor. I’d racked my brain thinking of every person the hair could’ve come from. Another assistant in the office? A student who’d stopped by? Was it possible I’d traveled to Faythander, encountered Wults, and gotten this piece of hair from them?
If that was so, then why had I lost all my
