Paul Collins - Trouble Wizard

"Well, must be on our way!" he said and quickened his pace.

The ghoul raised his spear - a vicious looking thing with barbs twined around the point.

Then suddenly the water at the ghoul's feet shrank back a little as though a tide were pulling it away. The blood-red river shrank down with alarming speed until it resembled a minor tributary.

A loud Burp! thundered from somewhere down the river and Shantele wasted no time in joining the others. "A god taking a sip," he explained.

The ghouls at this point began yelling out war cries and hefting their cudgels, spears and wicked axes.

"I say," Gilbon said, "shall I dispatch the horrid creatures or shall we stand in queue?"

More ghouls surged from the forest. Amassed there on the muddy banks of the river stood some thirty ghouls. They were edging themselves on, and making a great fuss about it.

Hyiat withdrew his broadsword. He glanced at Jute and Bonnie. "When in doubt, do the unexpected," he

said for all three of them.

They ran helter-skelter toward the gesturing ghouls.

The head ghoul was taken back by the pirates' charge. He hesitantly raised his hand and threw it forward, indicating his army to meet the opposition.

They clashed mid-stream.

"I say," Gilbon said, feeling panic rise from the pit of his stomach. "Can't you do something, Shanny?"

But Shantele and Winston were having difficulties of their own. A shimmering force-field of blue light had encapsulated them, and despite their valiant efforts to shred the unnatural force, it held them firm.

"Stand back, Jackie!" Gilbon roared. "I'll show these - wuh?"

A swishing noise zapped past Gilbon's ear, and as the hiss diminished, a barbed tail flicked its razor-sharp point which flayed a deep gash into Gilbon's hide. "Yipes!" he yelped.

"Take to the air!" Jackie warned. "You'll never make cover!"

"I hate flying!" Gilbon groaned. He heaved himself skyward. Airborne, he caught sight of his adversary. It was a mammoth stingray; its wings spanned a good slice of sky and blocked out a considerable slab of daylight.

The stingray added a quick burst of energy, rose, then spiraled so that it now faced its prey. With its mouth gaping wide it swooped in for the kill.

Gilbon gunned his wings but it was useless. Panic, more than ability, moved him.

The stingray swished past the floundering dragon, missing him by a good hairsbreadth for it had expected the dragon to move a lot quicker. It veered away but within seconds its marauding black shape was detaching itself from sinister clouds and was again diving for Gilbon.

Anger welled up in Jackie. She watched the two colossal figures merge into one as they collided in mid air. Impotent rage filled her. She watched the hapless wizard and his apprentice conjuring counter spells, and down there in the blood-bath she could see Jute, Hyiat and Bonnie hacking their way through the berserker ghouls. Tears welled up in her horrified eyes as she saw Bonnie fall.

With a scream of rage she rushed down into the melee. Two crows hovered cautiously above the raging battle. To the human ear they were squawking at one another, but to more supernaturally-attuned ears they were conversing.

"The magic is strong," the youngest of the crows warned. Its companion, an old wizened crow, indicated they should land quickly.

The two black specks landed unsteadily as a black power flux strained to drag them from the sky. No sooner had the birds returned to their former selves, Mollie ran to Winston's side.

"Winston!" she cried. She had seen the wraith-like capsules at work in her youth. They sapped a victim's strength the more they resisted its power, and the less they resisted the more it took over their body.

"Hold hands, mother," Mollie said urgently. "We'll need everything we have left to free the boy!"

United, a shimmering life force sprang from Mollie's fingertips. Five tendrils of feather-fine energy probed Winston's opaque prison. They curled about it as though caressing its surface, then with cat-like tenacity, they squeezed around it until it bulged and buckled.

Like a burst balloon it snapped with a loud bang. Winston was lifted off the ground with its force. He shook his head to clear it and realized with a start where he was. Groggily he saw his mother and grandmother sinking to the ground and knew it was they who had freed him, but in doing so had drained themselves.

"The others," Mollie said through parched lips.

Winston tore his gaze away from his master who right now was fighting a losing battle with his prison. He could see the others being driven backwards by sheer numbers. And in the sky, he saw Gilbon and a massive bird of prey grappling one another as they strove to maintain altitude.

"Quickly!" Mollie said before finally slumping unconscious.

Winston felt old. His skin had become flaccid in those few minutes he had been battling the prison. But summoning all his strength he lifted his head, wove his fingers in the air, and directed a spell toward

Jackie and the pirates. He repeated the procedure and flung his arm toward Gilbon who was suddenly plummeting to earth.

Winston heaved once, twice, and a searing flash exploded from his fingertips. He jerked as though he had received a shock and collapsed into a coma. As he slid down into sleep he snapped one final burst of power toward Shantele.

Jute and Hyiat suddenly found their strength doubled. Jute felt the crawling pain of an old wound grind its way into him, then suddenly it faded to a pin-prick, giving him full use of his sword arm. Other parts of his anatomy responded to the magical therapy and he felt young again - the strongest he had been in decades!

Hyiat too, although bloodied from many gashes to both his arms and torso, suddenly felt refreshed. The stings he had received merely invigorated him, and in fact reminded him of when he had lost his beloved to the army of Brugg the Ogre. He growled angrily and lopped off the head of the nearest ghoul.

Jackie suddenly discovered a well of energy she never knew existed. It rose up in her like a volcano and erupted with the fire-power of a dozen warriors. She blocked a hurtling ax, twisted it from a ghoul's tight grip and ran him through with her lance.

Bonnie had floated free of the melee. Left for dead, her body had become snagged by tree roots. She woke from unconsciousness and coughed up water. She heaved for several seconds as she strove to gain breath. Her eyesight cleared at the sound of the pitched battle.

She shook her head free of mud and with a maniacal cry sprang to her companions' aid.

Thus smitten with magical power, the four drove back the ghouls until they were well clear of the river.

That same unfathomable light had shot skywards, circled the falling Gilbon, who immediately felt a surge of adrenaline. He could see clearer than he had for years, and his wings felt invigoratingly alive.

The stingray had now gauged the dragon's reflexes to be dismally slow. It came daringly close with not a care in the world for it would sting this dragon to death at its leisure with careless flicks of its tail.

Effortlessly, Gilbon did a somersault in the air. "Argh!" he let out, and a "Whooops!" as he tested his new found ability.

Somewhere deep within their citadel, the Wizards' Guild became aware of other, unexpected power.

Their concentration faltered and suddenly the stingray's mind became its own. It screeched its anguish and swerved away for it knew it had been possessed.

Fire that had long since been dormant in Gilbon's nostrils, lashed out and slid over the fleeing stingray.

The latter promptly jerked its barbed tail to avoid the heat.

Gilbon rocketed after his prey.

The black shape swerved away, caught an updraft, then disappeared over a small island. Gilbon thought he heard a terrific splash, but the chase was on him and he pushed the thought away.