"I’m not sure I like this," Jerry said as they huddled together for a final review of their handiwork. "We really should run a couple more tests."
"We don’t have time. Unless you want to stay here all night?"
Jerry looked around at the menacing ruins and pulled his cloak tighter. "No thanks. I just wish…"
"Oh come on, we’ve tested the thing to death," Danny said. "Let’s get this over with. I’m freezing."
Mentally Wiz reviewed the spell one more time. It simply checked each loose piece within its radius of operation to see if it was the heart of the demon and if it wasn’t, tossed it aside. When it reached the demon’s heart, it would stop. It was straightforward enough and Wiz couldn’t find any flaws. Besides he was as cold as Danny was.
"Okay," he said. "Let’s do it."
All three of them stepped back from the pile of rubble and out the collapsed archway. When they were in position, Wiz called:
"emac"
A three-foot-high demon with enormous ears popped up before him. "?" it said.
Wiz pointed his staff at the rubble choking the room. "kill exe!" he commanded.
The Emac turned toward the spot and gabbled soundlessly. Then it bowed and popped out of existence.
For a moment nothing happened.
"It takes a while for the effect to build up," Wiz explained unnecessarily.
"I just wish…" Jerry began. "I have this awful feeling we forgot something."
"It’s working!" Danny shouted, pointing at the rubble. A single pebble detached itself from the pile and flew off in a flat arc. Then another pebble whipped off in another direction, and another and another.
As the three watched a head-sized chunk of material shook itself loose and lobbed away from the rubble. Then several more pebbles.
One of the pebbles flew over Wiz’s head with an ugly singing whirr.
"Direction," Jerry said abstractedly. "Did we put anything in the spell to control which way the rubble would go when it left the pile?"
"No," Wiz said apprehensively, as another volley of material broke loose from the mound.
"Then hit the dirt!" Jerry shouted as a dozen big chunks of rubble came flying straight at them.
All three of them dropped and rolled behind the remains of the wall just as a half-dozen pieces of stone went through the spot where they had been standing, humming like angry bees. Then a torso-sized slab of black marble lofted over the wall and crashed into the frozen dust behind them.
Then all Hell broke loose.
The pile of rubble exploded outwards in all directions. The small stuff came off with the velocity of rifle bullets. The bigger pieces arced away like mortar shells. The three wizards pressed themselves against the base of the wall and tried to burrow into the dirt as debris landed all around them.
I am not a target, Wiz told himself as he tried to become one with the base of the wall. This is not aimed at me. He shifted slightly just as the remains of a large piece of furniture sailed over the ruined wall and crashed to earth a few feet from him. Abstractedly he realized there should be a simple command to shut the spell down, but it’s hard to think when you’re in the middle of an artillery barrage and impossible to talk when your mouth is full of dirt.
There were crashes and thuds and whizzes and occasionally a nasty spang as something hit the wall and ricocheted away. Once a big piece hit the top of the wall, knocking off chips and showering them down on the cowering trio. The dust grew so thick that Wiz couldn’t see two feet in front of him-not that he was looking.
Then suddenly it was quiet.
No more crashes. No more earth-shaking thuds. Just a couple of zips from small stuff and then silence. Even the dust started to settle.
Wiz raised his head and looked around wonderingly. Then he realized Moira was screaming at him through the communications crystal.
"We’re fine," he told her, looking at his companions. "The spell was just a little more effective than we thought."
"Oh man," Danny muttered. "Anyone got anything for shell shock?"
"It’s the details," Jerry said to no one in particular. "It’s always the details that get you in trouble."
Wiz made a feeble attempt to brush himself off and peered around the archway.
The remains of the arch were pocked and scarred with fresh blemishes, white against the polished black granite. But the room itself was as clean as if it had been excavated by a team of expert archaeologists and then scrubbed and vacuumed by a village of Japanese housewives. There, almost exactly in the center of the room, sitting on the newly exposed mosaics of the floor, was a cloudy gray sphere.
Wiz stepped through the archway and realized he was tracking dirt back onto the clean floor.
"Okay," he said into the communications crystal. "We have the thing located. If it’s safe come on through."
Then he looked around and bit his lip.
Wiz didn’t like any part of the operation, but this next step was his least favorite, even counting facing the golden demon. Moira was not immune to Bale-Zur, but she knew more about controlling a demon than any of the programmers. In addition to having more skill at natural magic, she had spent long sessions at Heart’s Ease with Shiara the Silver learning all the former wizardess could tell her about such things. If their plan failed, Moira was their last line of defense.
"Sharp lookout everyone," he called over his shoulder. Danny and Jerry spread out, staffs ready, peering into the building gloom for any sign of trouble.
Two figures popped into existence on the polished floor, not just one.
"What the hell is she doing here?" Wiz demanded.
Moira frowned at the greeting and then she whirled. Standing behind her, not two paces away, was June.
"How did you get here?" Moira asked sharply. But June just smiled triumphantly and made a beeline for Danny.
"I thought you said she didn’t have any magical ability," Wiz whispered to Moira as the couple hugged and June clung to Danny’s arm.
"She does not-I think," Moira whispered back.
"Well then?"
Moira only shrugged.
"Let us get it over with," Moira said. With Danny, Wiz and Jerry forming a perimeter guard, she knelt by the heart of Bale-Zur and reached slowly out to it.
For a long time she stayed motionless, her hand hovering over the cloudy crystal sphere. At last she began to move her fingers slowly over the surface, caressing it without quite touching it. Her lips began to move as she started the chant she had been taught to bring the demon back under control.
With the point of her staff she marked a pentagram around the demon’s heart. Then she stood up, backed off a step and raised her staff. Her voice rose to a wild cry as she gestured into the air. In spite of himself Wiz found his attention was drawn to his wife and her work.
The sphere pulsed and glowed with an inner light, casting a greenish-gray luminance around itself and Moira. It rocked back and forth as if seeking to break free of the imprisoning figure. Still Moira continued the eerie chant, bouncing the words off the ruined walls like bullets.