The Second Generation

“Very well, if you must.” The woman sighed languorously, nestling her body against Tanin’s. “But it’s a waste of time—time that could be spent in much more pleasant pursuits. The dried up old wizard’s been our prisoner now for two years.”

“He’s your prisoner?” Tanin gaped.

“Well, yes,” said the blonde, looking up from nibbling at Sturm’s ear.

“He was such a boring old thing. Talking about pentagrams and wanting to know which of us were virgins and asking a lot of other personal questions. So we locked him in his old tower with his stupid rock.” She kissed Sturm’s muscular shoulder.

“Then who’s been taking the women hostage all these months?” Palin demanded.

“Well, we did, of course,” said the dark-haired beauty.

“You?” Palin said, stunned. He put his hand to his fore head and noticed his skin felt abnormally hot. He was dizzy, and his head ached. The room and everything in it seemed to be just slightly out of focus.

“This is a wonderful life!” said the blonde, sitting back and teasingly rebuffing Sturm’s attempts to pull her down. “The Graygem provides all we need. We live in luxury. There is no work, no cooking and mending—”

“No children screaming—”

“No husbands coming back from battle, bleeding and dirty—”

“No washing clothes in the stream day after day—”

“No endless talks of war and bragging about great deeds—”

“We read books,” said the dark-haired beauty. “The wizard has many in his library. We became educated, and we found out we didn’t have to live that kind of life anymore. We wanted our sisters and our mothers to share our comfortable surroundings with us, so we kept up the ruse, demanding that hostages be brought to the castle until all of us were here.”

“Bless my beard!” exclaimed the dwarf in awe.

“All we lack are some nice men, to keep us from being lonely at night,” said the blonde, smiling at Sturm. “And now that’s been taken care of, thanks to the Graygem ”

“I’m going to go find Lord Gargath,” said Palin, standing up abruptly. But he was so dizzy that he staggered, scattering cushions over the floor. “Are the rest of you coming?” he asked, fighting this strange weakness and wondering why his brothers didn’t seem afflicted.

“Yes,” said Tanin, extricating himself with difficulty from the dark—haired beauty’s embrace.

“Count on me, lad,” said Dougan grimly.

“Sturm?” said Palin.

“Just leave me here,” said Sturm. “I’ll act as . . . rear guard....”

The women broke into laughter.

“Sturm!” Tanin repeated angrily.

Sturm waved his hand. “Go ahead, if you’re so keen on talking to some moldy old wizard, when you could be here, enjoying...”

Tanin opened his mouth again, his brows coming together in anger. But Palin stopped him. “Leave this to me,” the young mage said with a twisted smile. Setting the staff down carefully among the cushions, Palin lifted both hands and held them out, pointing at Sturm. Then he began to chant.

“Hey! What are you doing? Stop!” Sturm gasped.

But Palin continued chanting and began raising his hands. As he did so, Sturm’s prone body rose into the air, too, until soon the young man was floating a good six feet off the floor.

“Wonderful trick! Show us some more!” called out the women, applauding.

Palin spoke again, snapped his fingers, and ropes appeared out of nowhere, snaking up from the floor to wrap themselves around Sturm’s arms and legs. The women squealed in glee, many of them transferring their admiring gazes from the muscular Sturm—now bound hand and foot—to the mage who could perform such feats.

“G—good trick, Palin. Now put me down!” Sturm said, licking his lips and glancing beneath him nervously. There was nothing between him and the floor but air.

Pleased with himself, Palin left Sturm in the air and turned to Tanin.

“Shall I bring him along?” he asked casually, expecting to see Tanin also regarding him with awe.

Instead, Palin found his older brother’s brows furrowed in concern.

“Palin,” said Tanin in a low voice, “how did you do that?”

“Magic, my dear brother,” Palin said, thinking suddenly how unaccountably stupid Tanin was.

“I know it was magic,” Tanin said sharply. “And I admit I don’t know much about magic. But I do know that only a powerful wizard could perform such a feat as that. Not one who just recently passed his test!”

Looking back at the levitated Sturm hovering helplessly in the air, Palin nodded. “You’re right,” he said proudly. “I performed a very advanced spell, without any assistance or aid! Not even the Staff of Magius helped me!"