sanctuary on the island of Drum.'
'It is so,' conceded Zelafona.
'In consequence of my hospitality,' said Sken-Pitilkin, 'I have angered the Confederation of Wizards, and so have been forced to flee from my home.'
'I do not deny it,' said Zelafona.
'So,' said Sken-Pitilkin, 'I believe you are under a moral obligation to me and mine.'
'I had not thought the life of the Weaponmaster to be of any consequence to you,' said Zelafona.
'Why so?' said Sken-Pitilkin. 'He has been as much my son as anyone's. Since he was but five years of age, I have counseled him, tutored him, guided him, raised him. True, he has been uncommonly abusive of scholarship, and has tortured the grammars of the foreign tongues in a most dreadful manner, but I'll not hold this against him. If you will but save Guest Gulkan's life, then I'll count you free of all obligation to me and mine.'
'How can I save him?' said Zelafona. 'Pitilkin, the Banks will be on guard against us. We cannot hope to storm the Circle as you think. We can but try, and die trying.'
'We cannot hope to seize the Circle,' said Sken-Pitilkin,
'but we can hope to make our way around it. Each Door stands in a chamber, and we need but force our way through three such chambers. The first is that of the Monastic Treasury of Inner Adeer. The second is that of the Flesh Traders Financial Association of Galsh Ebrek. The third is that of the Bondsmans Guild of Obooloo. Then we will be in the Bralsh, in Dalar ken Halvar, and Plandruk Qinplaqus assures us that he will take charge of things from there.'
Zelafona thought about it, then said:
'What exactly to you want from me?'
'I know,' said Sken-Pitilkin, 'that you have powers to delude the minds of mine, powers like those of the wizards of Ebber. I want you to use those powers to seize and hold that chamber in the Monastic Treasury of Inner Adeer which holds the Door.'
'And,' said Zelafona. 'And when I am done with holding? How do I get back to Alozay?'
'You don't,' said Sken-Pitilkin. 'You escape from the Monastic Treasury, not through any Door, but directly into the city of Voice.'
'You mean that I should banish myself,' said Zelafona. 'You mean that I should be parted from my sister and my son.'
'Your son you can take with you,' said Sken-Pitilkin. 'If he is willing to play the hero. As for your sister – these are her final years. She has little time left to live.'
'I will consider,' said Zelafona.
'Guest Gulkan is dying as you consider,' said Sken-Pitilkin, with considerable impatience. 'We are driven by the urgency of a dying man.'
Zelafona again replied that she would consider, whereupon Sken-Pitilkin hastened to Lord Onosh and explained the problem.
The Witchlord promptly told Zelafona that she could consider getting her head cut off, or getting -
But – enough! There is no need to list here the grim and barbarous threats which the Witchlord Onosh made to the elegant dralkosh Zelafona! Suffice it to say that Zelafona was very swiftly shocked into an acceptance of her fate; and that Glambrax consented to accompany his mother into exile.
The wizards Pelagius Zozimus and Ontario Nol consented to fight at Sken-Pitilkin's side. The force was completed by the wizard Plandruk Qinplaqus and his servant Thayer Levant.
'That completes our force,' said Sken-Pitilkin, reporting his readiness to the Witchlord Onosh.
'But,' said Lord Onosh, 'you will need men to carry Guest Gulkan. Rolf Thelemite, for instance.'
'No, my lord,' said Sken-Pitilkin. 'For if we introduce men such as Thelemite to the Circle of the Door, what will we do with them thereafter? I think we will have no recourse but to kill them. The secret of the Door is too great to be shared amongst many.'
'Then,' said Lord Onosh, 'do what you must, and kill the men if you must! I give you full permission to kill Rolf Thelemite as and when you wish, since I think him born to be killed!'
'If I must kill Thelemite then I will,' said Sken-Pitilkin.
'But I have no need to do so, therefore I won't. I myself will levitate the box in which Guest Gulkan lies. Speed is of the essence, my lord! If we were to shock uncouth fools like Thelemite with news of the Door, we would lose a whole day to its explanation, and we have not a day, for Guest will be dead in far less time than that.'
'Then do as you will,' said Lord Onosh. 'But do not fail!'
'If I fail,' said Sken-Pitilkin, gravely, 'then death will surely be my fate, for the Bankers will kill me out of hand.'
Then Sken-Pitilkin procured a sandglass of the kind which is used to time a boiling egg, and said Lord Onosh should open the Door and keep it open while the sand ran, by which time the shock- troops would either be in Dalar ken Halvar or be dead.
'Thereafter,' said Sken-Pitilkin, 'you will open the Door on each Midsummer's Day, that we may negotiate with the Banks. It may take long for us to settle an agreement with the Banks, but they will yield to us in due course.'
'And, meanwhile,' said Lord Onosh. 'What of Eljuk?'
'We cannot help him,' said Sken-Pitilkin. 'He must suffer his fate. The only counsel I give you in this respect is this: stay away from the demon Iva-Italis! The demon gloats on suffering, and will encourage you to nightmare if you keep its company.'
So the storming party assembled in the abditory in Jezel Obo, the Sky Stratum, the highest level of the mainrock Pinnacle. Then the Door was opened, and the shock-assault party stormed through, and when the sands were run out Lord Onosh closed the Door, and took the star-globe into his own possession, and retired to his own chambers to mourn the loss of both his sons, for he counted the pair of them dead.
The storming of the shock-force party was done swiftly. From Alozay went the stormtroopers, bursting into the padded silence of the Monastic Treasury of Inner Adeer. There the witch Zelafona took command, numbing the minds of all those who stood guard in the chamber of the Door. While they were thus numbed, the dwarf Glambrax efficiently slaughtered them with his axe.
While this work of mass-murder was in progress, the stormforce dared through the door to the Flesh Traders Financial Association of Galsh Ebrek. Here, Ontario Nol conjured the powers of the winds, slamming Bankers in all directions, breaking them at will. Thus Guest Gulkan came again to the land of Wen Endex, the homeland of the Yudonic Knights in the north of Yestron. But he knew it not, for he had been dosed with opium, and hence he was 'floating on the lotus', as the fragrant Janjuladoola saying has it.
Pelagius Zozimus then took control. The wizard of Xluzu, using his powers as a Necromancer, animated those corpses which Ontario Nol had so freshly produced, sent those corpses through the Door, then followed them through that Door into the Bondsmans Guild of Obooloo.
There, Zozimus fought a brief but bloody battle, pitching the dead against the living.
As the shrieks of horror-struck Bankers fled into the echoing distance, Sken-Pitilkin sent Guest Gulkan wafting through the Door into the Bondsmans Guild. Again, Guest Gulkan knew not of his travels, for he lay in the sweating squalor of sleep, fast-sinking from lotus to dream. He was dreaming still as they went through the Door one last time, traveling from Obooloo to the Bralsh.
The Bralsh was the stronghold of the Good neighbors, the lords of the insurance industry of Dalar ken Halvar, and it stood in an area of that city known as Childa Go. The Bralsh was a literal stronghold, an ominously solid fortification built to repulse the periodic disorders which saw Dalar ken Halvar ravaged by riot or by revolution.
On arrival at the Bralsh, Plandruk Qinplaqus used his powers as a wizard of Ebber, numbed the minds of the Bankers who stood on guard there, and maintained his authority as the others came through the Door.
Then that Door closed.
Zelafona, of course, was still in the Monastic Treasury of Inner Adeer. On mature reflection, Sken-Pitilkin realized that it would have been possible for her to come through the sundry Doors with the others, escaping in their company to the Bralsh. Had some unacknowledged desire for revenge compelled him to send the witchwoman into solitary exile in Voice?
Perhaps.
