Rick Cook - The Wizardry Quested

Wiz looked at the people arrayed around him. One by one those in the first fine signaled they were ready. He looked over his shoulder and saw the second line was ready to go too.

"Wait a minute," Jerry said. "I’ve got something to go in first." He spoke a phrase, gestured and suddenly there were hundreds of fluffy pink Rambo bunnies on the floor, with machine guns slung and drums at the ready. The mechanical rabbits turned and started down the tunnel in loose order, some going straight on and some dodging from cover to cover.

Wiz’s eyebrows shot up, but he watched the "recon element" go marching, dodging and banging up the tunnel without comment.

"It knows how to deal with those," Taj pointed out.

"Yeah, but they’ll give it something else to think about."

Almost immediately the tunnel was filled with smoke, gunfire, roars, screams and colored lights. Bits of bunny, pieces of monster, boonie rags, cartridge cases, chunks of rock and other, less identifiable objects came flying out of the tunnel.

"That’s our cue, folks," Wiz yelled "Hit ’em!" With a yell the group charged down the tunnel and into bedlam.

The surviving rabbits were still blasting their way forward but not all the defenders had been suckered into attacking them. Three steps into the tunnel a giant spider dropped from the ceiling, aiming for Wiz’s face. He blasted it with a lightning bolt that sent showers of dirt and rock down on the party and kept going without breaking stride. Another step and a wall of flame came roaring down the tunnel, only to turn aside and break back under the impact of Wiz and Jerry’s spells. Meanwhile, Malkin speared something on her rapier that writhed horribly and screamed like a dying child. Wiz had only a sickening glimpse of it before Malkin tossed it back into the maelstrom before them with a flick of her blade.

Two more steps and an undead dragon reared up before them. It took the combined fire of all the wizards and several mighty strokes from Blind Fury to cripple the monster and a liquid-oxygen spell from Jerry combined with a deluge of water from Wiz to freeze the thing solid. As they scrambled over the still-straining monster, the walls of the tunnel began to constrict on them like a throat. Jerry used a spell to force the tunnel to dilate, but he could only handle a few feet at a time. They pushed on step by step with Jerry dilating and Wiz freezing the tunnel in place repeatedly.

That left Danny to handle the attacking monsters, and his methods, while generally effective, tended to be chosen for creativity. Wiz was especially impressed with the spell that created four equidistant points of strong gravitational potential around the circumference of the tunnel. It not only ripped a herd of charging tyranosaurs into little, bloody pieces, but it plastered the remains tightly against the wall so the attackers didn’t have to wade through them. His method of handling the giant acid slug left Wiz less impressed, primarily because the leftover slime was eating through his boots. The Tajmanian Devil was busy, too, although Wiz couldn’t be sure what he was up to. He thought Taj was responsible for stopping the horde of armored skeletons that fell apart into piles of bones as they came down the tunnel.

Wiz couldn’t see what was going on in the back, either. However, the yells, screams, banging and other noises told him the other waves had their hands full as well.

The air began to grow clammy and the temperature in the tunnel dropped perceptibly. Then mist began rising from the tunnel floor. Jerry and Wiz dispersed it as best they could with their staffs, but it came back ever thicker until it was a wall in front of them. Then it grew thicker yet, until it swirled around them, confining each of them in their own little bubble.

Almost touching, but isolated by fog and freezing wind, the party forged ahead into the chamber. There were bits of ice in the fog that stung against skin and eyes, distracting them and making them lower their heads. Wiz gripped his staff tighter and held his cloak before him to try to shield himself from the magical storm. Dimly he could see Danny and Taj as darker forms forcing their way ahead on either side of him, but the rest of the party was utterly lost from view and hearing. Belatedly he realized they should stop and regroup, but there was no way to communicate with the others. So he lowered his head again and concentrated on putting one foot ahead of the other on the treacherous icy floor.

The going was easier for some than others. In a few paces their neatly formed line had grown ragged and then dissolved completely.

"Wiz!" Taj yelled, and tossed the sphere to him. Wiz caught it in both hands, juggling globe and staff as the wind whipped and lashed at him.

Suddenly the wind tore the fog away and there was Moira, sitting on a throne carved of black glass. Rising behind her was a black, gelatinous mass that shimmered and rippled as if from the wind.

His wife stood and held out her arms.

"Come, darling," she breathed. "Come to me."

Wiz’s breath caught in his throat. She was as beautiful as ever. Her flaming hair a mane about her and her green eyes as wide and inviting as he remembered. Beneath the shimmering green gown he could see her belly swelling with new life. She extended her arms to him in open, aching invitation.

"Kiss me. Oh, kiss me, Wiz."

In spite of himself Wiz took a step forward, the grenade loose in his fingers. Suddenly Moira froze. She twisted and shrank in on herself. There where Moira had been was a large green frog.

Wiz gasped and stepped back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Danny blow on his fingertips, like a gunfighter blowing gunsmoke from the barrel of his six gun.

"Ribbet," said Moira.

With a convulsive jerk, Wiz hurled the golden globe over Moira’s head in the direction of the shining mass.

The sphere hit the dais beside the throne, but a hungry black pseudopod lashed out and scooped it up and into the glistening thing behind.

There were flashes within the ice, blue and green and red and orange, like the largest, most gorgeous fire opal that ever was. The cavern shook and a high, grating noise seemed to come from everywhere at once. The surface bulged and pulsed and heaved like gelatin going over speed bumps.

The mass seemed to slump in on itself and the flashes dimmed and died. Then it was an ordinary block of ice with shadowy forms embedded in it.

The wind died, the fog dissipated as rapidly as it had come and the party found themselves standing in a large room crudely hewed from the rock.

Moira was pirouetting in static little circles, her arms flung out

"Free!" she crowed, a wonderful silvery sound, "I’m free."

She stumbled back against Wiz and he caught her close. "I’m also a little unbalanced," she said, looking down at her swollen abdomen. Wiz lifted her chin and kissed her passionately, holding on as if for dear life.

Fluffy let out a plaintive wheep as if to say he wasn’t sure what had happened but he wasn’t at all happy about it

Wiz broke his hold on Moira and looked over her shoulder at Danny.

"If that change hurt the baby:"

"Relax," Danny said. "I didn’t morph her. It was just an illusion." He gestured at Glandurg and the dwarf instantly shrank into a particularly warty and unappealing brown toad. Before anyone could react, he gestured again and there was Glandurg.

"Stupid mortal tricks," the dwarf muttered.

Moira laid her hand on her husband’s sleeve. "No, I am fine. Honestly love. Never better."

"You!" came a roar from the cavern entrance. Wiz and the others turned as King Tosig stomped into the chamber with a half-dozen dwarves trailing behind. Their armor was bent, their shields were battered and their battle axes were nicked and scarred. Tosig’s blade was as damaged as those of his followers and he held it aloft in a way that boded no good. Instinctively Wiz took a tighter grip on his staff and the guardsmen moved between the wizards and the oncoming dwarves. Tosig ignored the mortals. "Come here, you," he roared, pointing at Glandurg. "I want to talk to you."