Wizard's Bane

There was no help for it but to return to Zhagmyr Khan for advice. Surely he knew a way to open the box. She tucked it under one arm and began to retrace her steps.

She heard foot-steps coming towards her in the ancient corridor. A lone man approached her, but he was like no other man Kore had ever seen. He had long golden hair braided down the center of his broadly muscled back. His body was that of a god, lithe muscles limned in the eerie light, and his face was both masculine and beautiful. He was entirely naked, and his penis was nearly as perfect as the rest of his body, thick and smooth and long enough to satisfy any but the most jaded women. He filled her instantly with desire.

"Who are you who wanders the corridors of the Masters?" he inquired. His voice was like a soothing melody, a song heard as in a dream.

"I meant not to intrude," Kore replied timidly. "But I was compelled to come here to seek a seek the ebony box by a demon."

"What is the name of this demon?" the man asked.

"Zhagmyr Khan," Kore replied.

The golden man smiled. "I know him well. Fear him not, for it is within my power to protect you from such minor entities. There are nether lords far fiercer and more terrifying than the insipid Zhagmyr Khan!"

A strange and overwhelming desire was washing over Kore to touch the penis of this god, to stroke his cock until it hardened in her hand, just as she had seen in the pictures in the book in Azimuth's study. Compelled beyond conscious action, she went down on her knees before him. His huge staff rested along his thigh, and she reached out to grasp it. Her fingers stroked it and she felt the thick veins bulging along it's side. She was fascinated. Never before had she felt anything more perfect in her grasp.

His cock was enlarging, pulsing, filling her hand and growing harder. Instinctively, she stroked the thick shaft up and down, feeling the soft silken flesh roll along the iron within.

"Serve me, wench!" the god laughed, and their was cruelty in his eyes. "Serve me and you'll think and I will be the master you have always craved!"

His words brought her back to reality. She wanted no master! She hesitated. She had almost forgotten what she had come her for! She knew then that the golden man was a demon himself, and had woven a spell of seduction about her physical form.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Why do you attempt to lead me astray?"

The golden man laughed. It was a hollow, inhuman laugh, without feelings, without a soul.

"I am your master, and you are my slave," he replied. "You need know no more."

The golden man was no longer golden, nor was he a man. Slowly, he was trans-forming back to his true form. His flesh was black as the night and in form, he was much like a great terrible and monstrous bear, covered with a thick, coarse hair, and with a face of lunacy and nightmare, resembling a pig except for the huge white, bulbous eyes, which shone like two pale moons in the midst of the starless night of its hideous visage.

"I said that I would protect you from Zhagmyr Khan," the demon said. "And so I shall. For what is a minor demon compared to the great Tarim Baal? It's true that you've but traded one master for another, but I promise that your servitude to me will be far more pleasurable than bondage to that fool, Zhagmyr Khan."

A hairy paw stretched forth to grasp her breast.

But Kore was no longer where she had once been. Her spell of illusion had been completed just in time, and the demon grasped naught but empty air.

Tarim Baal snarled.

"Your reprieve is but temporary," he promised. "I know well that you are a sorceress, but I also sense your weakness. A fledgling magician is no match against me."

Kore paid him no heed. Clutching the ebony box beneath her cloak, she began to weave the one spell that might save her from Tarim Baal, the spell that summoned Zhagmyr Khan.

A great, cold wind sprang up. It seemed to course through the center of her very soul.

"Hello, Tarim Baal."

It was the voice of Zhagmyr Khan, but it had issued from her own mouth. Her lips had spoken with the voice of the demon!

"Zhagmyr Khan!" the demon roared, laughing madly. "This is an unlikely guise for you! Do you now desire to become a mortal female?"

"I take any form I wish to further my ends, as you well know, Tarim Baal, just as you do. Do you still think me a petty demon, my doomed brother?"

"Your tricks mean nothing to me," replied Tarim Baal. "I'll crush you into the slime whence you were spawned! Your power is nothing compared to mine!"

Zhagmyr Khan laughed with Kore's voice.

"Once that might have been so," he snarled. "But now I have the energy of this girl's untainted soul from which to draw new wells of power!"

Kore's Took the ebony box from her cloak and her hand held it high, but it was the demon who used her hand. She made a gesture that was impossible for a human eye to follow

"Stop!" gasped Tarim Baal. "Are you mad? This sorcery could destroy us both if you unleash it!"

"Only if I were here in demon form," Zhagmyr Khan. "Here, clothed in the body of this female, I will be safe from the black vacuum of limbo. You, however, are here unprotected. And so, farewell, my brother!"

Kore's hand opened the box, and an eerie, misty light spread from within, enveloping the form of Tarim Baal.

"No!" screamed the demon lord. "This cannot be! You're naught but a minor imp! A being so lowly as you can't vanquish me!I The idea is impossible!"

"Naught is impossible," replied Zhagmyr Khan." Even imps can have ambition!"

Some terrible transformation was taking place in the shadowy form of Tarim Baal. He was dissolving into a thick black tar. Huge pieces of his grisly form began to break free and splatter against the tiles.

"A curse of hate upon you!" cried Tarim Baal. "And upon thy human accomplice. My doom will one day be your own!"

Soon there was naught left but a crumbling mass of black slime, then it too was vanished, and Tarim Baal was no more. Zhagmyr Khan laughed, and Kore's body shook with that laughter.

"I feel you struggling, my helpless slave!" he growled. "But for now, your body is mine and mine is the essence which inhabits it. Soon your ego will reassert itself and I shall have to return the control of your limbs to your own meager consciousness. But as time goes on, my strength will grow. After the passing of three years, my dominance over you will be complete. The bargain is fulfilled, and your body is now mine."

"I made no such bargain with you." Kore objected with the voice of her own mind.

"Ah, but you did! Don't you remember? You gave your body up to me! Did you think I somehow only wished to experience physical pleasure with a female? Fool! There are a million whores in hell who would do anything to please my every desire! Now, you shall be my passage into the world of the mortals. I shall absorb all your knowledge of sorcery and become a demon goddess such as the Lands of Lemuria have never seen!"

Slowly, Kore felt Zhagmyr Khan's influence leaving her. She knew she would soon be

able to move of her own free will again.

"I bid you farewell, for now," said the demon through her own lips. "Good luck in finding your friend!" The demon laughed . Then she was alone, and at last her body was once more her own.

Kore raced down the last length of the red corridor, her hair shimmering like wind blown flame in the crimson tunnel. She came to a portal shaped like a triangle. Within, all was darkness. The mystical light which had led her this far extended no further. But Kore was not to be deterred. Casting a quick spell of illumination, she peered into the shadowy chamber.

There on an immense raised dais was Melissandra. Like some lost princess from a fairy tale, she lay unmoving on that slab of stone. Kore went to her, her heart stopped in her chest. Only moments were needed to discover that she was still alive, though unconscious.

It seemed to take forever, but at last, Kore was able to rouse Melissandra to wakefulness enough so they were able to stumble back to the iron gate. But to her dismay, she found the red corridor wreathed in flames. Choking on the black smoke and searing heat, she only barely managed to drag Melissandra the last remaining yards to safety.

Swiftly, she shut tight the iron gate, and then, wearied beyond the limits of her strength, she fell beside Melissandra. Darkness rolled over like a wave, and for a time, she knew no more.

4

She dreamed, and in her dreams, she saw herself in many different forms, many different places and times. But always there was eternal struggle, battles beyond counting against enemies beyond reason. In endless realms, in countless times, a thousand hordes of relentless foes came against her. Always, she somehow fought on. But she didn't fight alone. She sensed someone fighting by her side, protecting her from countless blows, each one which would surely have slain her. Somehow she knew instinctively that it was a male that fought beside her, though she could never see his face. Through the swirling chaos, she relived these battles again and again. Swords flashed like silver lightning in a midnight sky, and blood flowed in crimson rivers. It seemed as if she had been fighting such battles for all eternity.

Yet, intermingled with these scenes of red ruin were other visions; endless verdant forests, waves of the living sea, flowers blooming in open fields, will o' the wisps dancing above starlit meadows. The memory of the soft touch of Zara's lips upon her own brought forth other memories (or were they only part of her dreams?), and even in that moment, she realized that she was dreaming.

The scene changed. She stood in the midst of a deep forest at the bottom of a golden stair which seemed to ascend to the very heavens. Down that stair a familiar figure trod. He walked slowly, but with each step down, he became clearer and less vague.

"Azimuth!" she laughed. All her terror and despair were suddenly forgotten. The old, thin wizard smiled as he approached her.

"Ah, Kore," he said. "You were ever my greatest bane! I knew you would spell my doom the moment I laid eyes on you. That is the curse of a wizard, to know too much of the skeins of the future, even his own! Yet I had little choice. I could not leave you to the mercy of that which might have been. And though I knew all that would occur when I decided to take you into my home, I knew what fate would be yours if I did not. Yet, perhaps it would have been best to let you die rather than to have set you on the path you must follow now. I feel that I have been no more than a tool in the hand of fate. Curse all gods and demons!""

"I don't understand," said Kore. "What has happened?"

"I dwell in this physical realm no more. I concentrated much of my power in the strength of the wards. When they came down, all the hungry and malicious creatures of Werewood broke through at once. I fought against them, but it was no use. They were too strong. They had been awaiting such a chance for a long time I fear. And so I perished in the final conflagration. But I took most of the demons with me, and by all the gods, what a battle it was! And no one there to see it! Nevertheless, they will return, and you must be safely out of Werewood by then."

"But where shall we go?" asked Kore. "We know naught of the land outside Werewood!"

"You must learn. Now listen well. Whatever you do, don't give up the ebony box. Hide it and make sure that only you know where it is. Go east until you reach the sea, and the port called Nantarri. Take ship there on the boat called the Sea Demon. You must learn the secret of the ebony box.."

He turned to go, but Kore wouldn't let him. She flung her self on him, hugging him close to her.

"Don't go, Azimuth!" she cried. "I need you."

"Your apprenticeship is over, Kore," he said. "Now the true contest begins."

Even as she held him, she felt the flesh melting away as he slipped from her grasp. He turned to look back at her. There was naught but a grinning skull where flesh had once been.

5

She woke up screaming. Rising, she stared wildly about her for a moment, unable to remember where she was. Then she remembered everything.

She was back in Azimuth's study, but Melissandra was gone. Her strange dream lingered in her mind. Then she smelled smoke and saw bright blue flames in the shadows of the hall. There was a stink of sulfur on the wind. Afraid of what this might portend, she raced through the house, heedless of the thick black smoke. Blue flames flickered everywhere and she saw that their home would soon be engulfed by this mysterious fire.

"Zara!" she cried. "Melissandra!" But her only answer was the crackle of the flames. Her eyes strove desperately to pierce the haze of the smoky conflagration, but it was no use. There seemed to be naught but burning embers.

Then she saw Melissandra, and she doubted her senses, for she saw that Melissandra was lighting the fires herself with a wand she had picked from Azimuth's chamber!

"Stop!" cried Kore. "Are you gone mad?"

Slowly, Melissandra turned towards her, and Kore could see that her eyes were no longer the eyes of the girl she had once known. They were eyes filled with lunacy and terror, and they were not pleasant to look upon.

"Mad?" the familiar sepulchral voice of Zhagmyr Khan spoke thru Melissandra's beautiful face. "Of course she is mad! She was used again and again in rites so abominable it would drive any mortal female to lose her mind, or even to give it away! Melissandra surrendered easily, and the two of you have become the chief weapons I have used to throw down the house of Azimuth Duul! Do you not note the silence? The demons no longer pound upon the door. Now they wait in anticipation, for they know they'll soon be able to enter! The wizard's shielding wards are now almost vanished, and dawn is a long hour away!"

And then, horribly, Melissandra spoke with her own voice.

"You thought you were the first to look into Azimuth's secret books!" hissed the strange and eery creature that had once been her friend. "You were easily duped by my acts of shocked innocence. But it was I that first felt the thrill of sucking demon cock, felt the sweet fire of their sperm filling my cunt. I was studying the dark secrets of lust magic with Tarim Baal long before you even discovered what that hole between your legs is used for!"

This was all too much for Kore. "Where is Zara?" she asked.

"I don't know," replied Melissandra. "She's vanished the moment I entered her room. I think she had long suspected me, but there is no escape from the demons of Werewood. She'll soon be dead if she is not dead already."

Black tears streamed down Kore's soot-streaked face.

"You betrayed us!" the agonized words were torn from her.

Melissandra laughed, and the sound of it was not pleasant.

"Was it I or was it you? When you chose to summon Zhagmyr Khan, you opened the wards so that any one could command them, and I commanded them to be taken down!"

"Bitch!" hissed Kore, and she advanced upon Melissandra, her heart filled with a rage overwhelming.......

"I'll not kill you now, little sister," Melissandra snarled. "Zhagmyr Khan wants to play with you for awhile. You are his toy now, your body is his, and soon your soul will be his as well. That is the bargain you made that you signed with your own blood. Do you like the results? I leave you now to contemplate your future. It is decidedly grim."

Kore's rage leapt out like lightning, a psychic blow of smashing force, but Melissandra had vanished into thin air and was no longer there to receive it.

She was alone again, and everyone she'd ever cared for her were now forever beyond her

reach. She felt as if she were dying and she realized she no longer cared. Darkness rolled over like a wave, and for a time, she could do nothing but sob uncontrollably.

The full horror of her situation returned to her. The moon now hung low in a sullen gray sky, but night had not yet failed. She would have no chance at all when the wards fell and the were-creatures attacked enmasse. Her only hope now, she knew, was to do the unexpected. She would flee into the forest. By traveling light and swift, she should be able to get beyond the borders of Werewood before the coming of the next nightfall.

But she could do that only if she survive this last remnant of this night in Werewood! She knew there was one item in Akhmun's study that could help her. Quickly, she made her way up the stair and into his room. In the east, the sun was already lightening at the edge of the sky. She grabbed found what she was looking for, a cloak of concealment that she had always yearned after. She slipped it on and was amazed at how it blended in with every facet of the environment she moved thru. Wearing the cloak, she was able to slip quietly out of the back door unseen. She didn't hesitate, but melted swiftly into the dense forest. She saw naught of dark devils, and laughed to think of them crowding around the main gate waiting for the wards to fail.

She knew from her study of maps that east was the shortest route to the edge of the forest. Thru darkness and horror she must now journey before she could reach safety. Then, perhaps she could begin to unravel the twisted mess she had made of her life and make her fate once more her own.

Her journey had just begun.

THE END