I was trapped! Rough tentacles came from the darkness around me and entangled my arms and legs, preventing my movement. I couldn’t get my shield in front of me before a huge, club-like fist slammed into the sturdy steel of my cuirass with enough force to dent it deeply and knock my breath out. As I gasped for breath, my enemies closed in. Their cries hit me in an endless barrage, sapping my will to fight.

  “You killed me! I’ll repay the favor!”

  “What gives you the right?!”

  “You’re not good enough!”

  “Who made you king?!”

  “I live my life my way! How dare you interfere?!”

  “Hypocrite!”

  “We don’t want you here! Go to hell!”

  “You’ll be the death of us all! You and your false heroism!”

  As I struggled, I saw that they had a point. I wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t shoulder the burden of being a leader or even a well-meaning hero. It was too much for me, and I felt myself being pulled down into the darkness a little more with each verbal barb they hurled at me even as they beat me down. The magical prowess of my bloodline was powerless against this, but I struggled anyway. I wouldn’t let them drag me into the abyss without a fight.

  “Jeron…”

  I fought and twisted, straining for the power I knew was mine to command, but it eluded me. I was helpless against the tentacles pulling me down to the endless abyss below. All I could hear was the laughter of my enemies. I wouldn’t quit! I couldn’t…

  “Jeron!”

  I opened my eyes to find myself in a very claustrophobic cabin on the Unseen Blade. Heart hammering, the nightmare slipped away as I took stock of my surroundings. I was in a small bed barely big enough for me to fit on. The walls of the cabin were a light gray color and sunlight streamed in through a glass porthole. I was still dressed in my quilted gambeson and matching pants that I wore under my armor. The sheets were wrapped around me in a tangled mess, holding my arms and legs in place as I struggled both in and out of the nightmare. I was drenched in sweat. My eyes finally settled on the woman sitting next to my bedside in a chair in front of a small writing table that was attached to the wall opposite the bed.

  “Mom?” I asked.

  “You’re all right, Jeron. Everything’s all right,” Nora said soothingly while extending a hand to touch my arm.

  I breathed deeply, trying to steady my heart. My head hurt badly. I ran my hand through my hair, but I didn’t see any blood on my hand when I held it up to my eyes. It was just a headache, then.

  Nora sat in the chair in a blue dress with a white blouse underneath. She had long, brown hair with streaks of silver just beginning to show. Her blue eyes were filled with concern as she looked down at me. Nora was my adoptive mother whom I’d thought of as my own until I was ten years old and the powers granted to me by my Mordonian heritage had manifested, making an explanation necessary. She was a kind woman, and I couldn’t have hoped for a better mother. She had taught me and my siblings everything she knew about the world, which included geography, mathematics, reading and writing. We learned to read not just the common trade tongue that humans and Seekers spoke, but Arborean and Terran, too. We were all very blessed to have her in our lives, and we all knew it.

  “Where are we?” I asked as I took a few deep, steadying breaths.

  “The ship is docked at Stonekeep, son. The ogres left a few of the piers intact, and we’re docked at one of them,” Nora said calmly.

  The fog from the nightmare receded as she mentioned the Ogres of Grunbar, which reminded me of our circumstances. Led by a villain from my youth, an army of ogres and goblins had pillaged their way through human lands to lay siege to Stonekeep. The five of us, which included me, my brother Bran, and my friends Mira, Elle, and Bandit, had gone on a quest to find the means by which we could protect our home from the invaders, and we had barely arrived in time to defeat their forces. The leader of that invasion, Kromwell Surekeel, had escaped the destruction of his army and even now was running back to Fellton with his tail between his legs. I doubted he was done with his plotting, and I certainly wasn’t finished with him.

  “Where is everyone?” I asked.

  “They’re manning the walls and cleaning up the countryside, of course. There are a lot of invaders that escaped the destruction of their army, and they’re raiding the surrounding lands. The Stonekeep militia’s been reinforced with as many townsfolk as possible to defend the walls and hunt down the remaining invaders, but the prince’s regular army is doing most of the fighting outside the city. Everyone’s doing their duty, and we’re safe for now,” Nora said. “Thirsty?”

  “I’m parched,” I gritted out. I coughed a bit as I sat up a bit, leaning against the cool walls.

  “Ah. Here you are, son.”

  Nora handed me a glass of water from the little table, and I leaned forward to take a drink. I felt rough, like I had been beaten with a club from head to toe. I had an especially bad headache, and I rubbed my temples after I drained the glass of water.

  “How’re you feeling?’ Nora asked.

  “Like I’ve been beaten up,” I replied. I didn’t want to worry her, but I couldn’t lie to my mother. I was raised to be better than that. Remembering how my connection to the source of magic in Aldon had helped give me strength and the ability to heal faster than usual, I opened myself to the source and seized as much magical power as I could hold, which wasn’t much. It wasn’t really worth the pain of doing so, and I hid the pain of channeling the magic behind the pain of my headache. “What about everyone else?”

  “Everyone’s alive and well as of yesterday. Better than it could have been.” Nora patted my shoulder.

  “My headache’s fading a bit now. I’ll be fine in a little while, so no need to worry about me.”

  “We’ve all been worried, son. You’ve been asleep for four days. No one could wake you. All we could do was watch over you and wait for you to wake up.” I could hear the concern in her voice.

  “I’m fine, mom. Really,” I said as convincingly as I could. Four days? That was a first. “What day is it?”

  “Fiveday. It’s about midmorning,” she replied.

  Aware of my commitment to Stonekeep’s militia, I knew I’d have to report for duty to my ten-man talon again as soon as I was fit. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and slowly stood up. My head swam a bit, and I had to stretch out an arm to the wall to steady myself. I was starting to feel better, though.

  “Easy now,” Nora sighed out. She shook her head. “Just like your father. Always doing too much too fast.” Nora paused. “Jeron, you need to hear this. You’re family and I know you were responsible for the ogres’ defeat, and everyone in the family’s very grateful to you, but you should know that no one else feels that way right now. The townsfolk are scared out of their wits that they’ll be enslaved by some evil Mordonian sorcerer. No one wants to go outside the walls for fear of either the raiders or being blown to bits by powers they don’t understand. The farmers have nothing left after their fields were all ravaged and then reduced to rocky craters, and they’re complaining ceaselessly to the prince about it. The prince doesn’t know what to do, and that’s compounded by his fear that the royal family will be ousted by whoever controls the magic and an invincible army of golems. It’s all a really big mess right now, and I wanted you to know that before you did something unwise, like tell someone what you did.”

  Hearing this, I frowned at the foolishness of my fellow townsfolk. When I paused to consider it, though, they were right to be concerned. I would’ve felt the same way had our roles been reversed, so my anger drained away quickly. I had to think about what was best for everyone when I began to plan for the future from now on. I thought I should keep my involvement in the magical happenings of late a secret from everyone outside my immediate family as she suggested, too. There was a stigma put on sorcerers by evil forces in this world, and I wouldn’t be the only one to suffer for it if people found out that I was a Mordonian sorcerer myself. All I really wanted right now was a good home cooked meal. That was it, really. The whole world before me, and all I wanted was a bath and breakfast. I chuckled briefly, shaking my head.

  “You must be hungry. Let’s go to the house and fix you a proper breakfast, shall we? The others will be very happy to see you’re all right,” Nora said. She may actually have been a mind reader. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to know what I was thinking, though. All we ever did was work and eat.

  “Where’s my armor?” I asked as I looked around.

  “At the house, dear. Your father cleaned it up. I think he wanted to be sure you were all right, and that was as much as he could do,” Nora confided.

  Dortham could tell a lot by the condition of a man’s armor. I thought of my father then, who was an armor smith by trade. He’d taught my brothers and me that profession as well, and we had a good life in Stonekeep because of it. Dortham was a member of the Council of Elders of Stonekeep and ranked just below the prince himself in importance. He never let that title go to his head, though. He still worked his smithy every day and led by example. He had earned the trust of Prince Kimorel Mithram, and thus the trust of King Korban V of Mithram because of it.

  I saw my mace leaning against the corner of the bedpost at the wall, and I reached down to pick it up, then slid it though my belt loop. The mace was a magical weapon that I had found leaning against the Amber Throne in Stonekeep castle, though it didn’t look like much. To all appearances, it was a large but unremarkable mace made of steel. That was an illusion, however. I could see the mace for what it really was when I touched it, and it was special in every way. It was made of adamantium, an unbreakable and very rare metal, and the shaft of the weapon had designs of various elements etched into it. I could channel different elements into the mace, which could be used to lethal effect. I had that mace to thank for my growing mastery of elemental magic as well.

  “Why don’t you clean yourself up a bit before we set out? You won’t want to look like a vagabond.” Nora was already getting my pack out of the footlocker where someone had thoughtfully left it for me.

  I ran a hand through my greasy hair. “You’re right, as always. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

  Nora left the room and turned to go outside the cabin of the ship. I opened the pack. Most of my possessions were inside that backpack, and it was a meager lot. All I had to my name was a white shirt, gray pants, a pair of socks, clean undergarments, a glass scrollcase with a letter in it from my birth mother, and a little less than forty gold royals. Granted, those forty gold coins were the equivalent of half a year’s wages for the average worker, but we’d spent a lot of money in our quest to save Stonekeep. Most of that was in the form of a cog that was even now rotting at the bottom of the sea. Easy come, easy go.

  I pulled out my fresh clothes and walked to the bathroom that was next door to my quarters. The Pirate King, who had crafted this ship with magic, had made it with a bathroom that had a working shower and toilet with indoor plumbing. I was curious to know how he did it, too. In the whole city of Stonekeep, only the keep itself had indoor plumbing. As I washed up, I remembered that I’d left a chest of gold coins in that keep that I had taken from Kromwell’s command tent when I had defeated his army. I considered what I should do with that money as I washed. I had a few ideas.

  I finished my scrubbing and dried off, then put on the fresh clothes. I put all my dirty clothes into my pack, including my gambeson and quilted pants. I put my mace in my belt, threw the pack over my shoulder, and walked out onto the deck of the Unseen Blade. It was a fairly long ship at one hundred and fifty feet long with a sharp prow, and it was made of a grayish material that turned out to be an intensely hard glass with a lot of particulates in it when a person looked closer. There was one cabin in the center of the ship that housed the officer’s quarters, the command deck, and the observation deck above. There were no masts or sails on this ship, which made it unique in all the world. Most other ships were galleys and cogs and needed oars and sails for propulsion. This ship was the Pirate King’s personal vessel, and it had a secret means of propulsion that involved a monster made out of elemental water. It was a simple but brilliant idea, and it must have taken a lot of knowledge and talent to make it work. I always felt a bit humbled when I considered what my forebears were able to accomplish compared to what I knew about my abilities, which was nearly nothing.

  When I walked out on deck, I almost ran into the Terrifying Unmanned Reaper of Destruction, or T.U.R.D. that was standing guard next to my mother. It was a golem made of solid steel that stood ten feet tall. It had two pairs of arms and two pairs of legs. The upper arms held swords and the lower arms had circular saw blades at the ends. The golems could use those to deadly effect, as I had seen with my own eyes. The Pirate King had given us the command words and phrases needed to command the golems on board this vessel. As I was already attuned to them, I could command them at will, as could Bran, Mira, and Elle. Obviously, they considered my mom as part of the crew, so she was perfectly safe standing right next to one.

  I looked around at the port around me. Stonekeep was built on a small hill situated on the eastern bank of the Deepflow River. The Deepflow was navigable almost all the way to Goldsprocket, a city of Seekers several days march south, and it ran to the Blue Bay to the north where Mithram was located. The docks were almost all burned to the waterline, as were most of the businesses and buildings that were outside the walls close to the piers. I could see the burned hulls of ships under the clear water where they’d been docked. Even now, there was a great deal of activity in the dock district as teams of men labored to clear the wreckage and build new piers. There were walls on the north and south sides of the docks that joined with the lower city’s outer walls and extended into the river a short way that protected the townsfolk from most of the very dangerous beasts that roamed this world. The remaining invaders would need boats to assault people in the dock district, and I’d made very certain they didn’t have any of those. Right now, the Unseen Blade was the only ship docked. That would change, I knew. We’d have to find a place to anchor it so merchant vessels could use the dock.

  Inside the walls, the town of Stonekeep looked the same as it always had, aqueducts and all. The keep was situated at the top of the hill, and I thought once again of how it looked like a two-tiered birthday cake. It was octagonal in shape and had towers at each corner that ended at the top of the first tier of the cake, as it appeared. Above the first tier was another octagonal section that was topped by a flat roof with eight small towers, each of which had a strange, hollow icosahedron made of adamantium on top. An icosahedron was a twenty-sided shape that some people used in dice games. Stonekeep Castle had no windows, was made of one singular gray stone without mortar, and had only one gate. It was surrounded by the upper city, which had its own set of walls. Like the castle towers, the turrets on those walls had those strange twenty-sided sculptures on top. We all now knew that those sculptures were actually turrets that channeled very powerful defensive magic. They were the means by which I had decimated the ogrish army encamped outside our walls. The walls of the upper city were all made of one singular stone like the keep was, and they had never been breached. They were said to be indestructible, and I knew for a fact that they were magically warded against some offensive spells. The walls to the lower city were built in later years in a much more conventional way, so they could not boast of the same strength the inner walls had.

  Nora and I disembarked from the ship by means of the gangplank that was extended from the Unseen Blade. Many of the workers stopped what they were doing to take a look at us as we walked towards the city. Most of the looks were blank, but some were distrustful, envious, or even hostile. I kept my head down as we walked toward the gate to the city on the debris-strewn cobblestone street. There was a full ten-man talon stationed to guard the gate and they let us pass through without challenge. I recognized a few of the soldiers, so I knew this was either talon three or four, I wasn’t sure which. We walked through the streets until we reached the square that held the Washer’s Basin, which was busier usual with women washing bandages there now. A couple more blocks of walking brought us to the marketplace, a large open square full of vendor’s carts and stalls. I noticed that the food being hawked cost triple what it used to. No big surprise there. With the fields outside the town completely plundered then destroyed, the next Harvest Day would not be a harvest day at all. People were going to go hungry unless food was brought in by the crown.

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  We walked through the market and up the short incline to the upper city gates. It looked as it should, with the exception of more soldiers being on duty. The upper city beyond had slightly narrower streets with houses that got a little bit wider at each floor above, making the buildings look like they were leaning towards each other. They were usually built of stone at ground level and had wooden structures built on top to be three or four stories tall. The aqueducts were still plainly visible above many of the houses, taking water that was siphoned from the eternal fountains on two of Stonekeep Castle’s lower towers and transporting it through the rest of the city. It was a very reliable water supply. We turned left and walked to the smithy with our home above it.

  I could hear the ring of hammer on steel before I could see the house, and I suddenly felt like I was home. It had been almost two years since I had lived there full time because I was bunked in the castle for militia service. Those familiar sights and sounds were ones that I’d not been sure that I’d experience again when we were on the quest at the Sunset Isles. I was suddenly feeling a little weepy, though I’d never admit to it.

  At last, I turned from the street and walked through the open smithy door. My father’s anvil was closest to the door, and as soon as I stepped in his hammer paused. Dortham carefully set everything aside where it wouldn’t set fire to the house and came over. As always, my father was a very strong man, both in stature and in conviction. He had brown hair, clear blue eyes, was clean shaven, and he was wearing his many-scarred leather apron above his usual white shirt and gray pants. He came over and we gave each other a firm embrace.

  “Miss me?” I muttered through creaking ribs.

  “Good to see you back, son! Very good to see you,” Dortham said. He clapped me on the back a couple times.

  Nora walked around us towards the stairs to the house. “I’ll have some food ready shortly. Come up when you’re ready,” she said.

  My brothers Elric and Darek came over to welcome me back, also. They were like younger copies of Dortham, and they were all smiles as they, too, granted me hugs that were almost bruising. We were all very strong of build in this family.

  “Still haven’t gotten enough of a beauty rest!” Elric said, smiling.

  “At least the sluggard got up before noon today,” Darek said.

  “Glad to be back, guys,” I said with a little difficulty. “How are things?”

  We spoke a little while about what Dortham, Elric and Darek had been up to, which included my nephews Jopenn and Dejen, who were Elric’s boys. Elric’s wife Samirah was always chasing after those two little devils. Darek’s wife, Bethan, was expecting again, and their son Berond was a healthy toddler who was always getting into things. We were still talking up a storm when mother called down the stairs that lunch was ready. The four of us filed upstairs to the smell of bacon, eggs, hash browns and sausage all cooked up in my honor. Despite the late morning hour at which I had awoken, no one seemed to mind getting another breakfast, even Juleen, who was still incredibly reserved and withdrawn. We all dug into the food and had a great time catching up with news. They didn’t ask me about my adventures, even though I’d have surely bragged about all the things I’d done. The little ones were present, and we all knew kids couldn’t keep a secret. We eventually got around to talking about the state of the city. It was grim.

  “I’ve got an idea about that, dad,” I said. “When Bran and I were traveling from Kurgh Rhamot to Stonekeep, we passed through Warsong Keep. There were a pair of brothers there who were experienced druids. I may be able to persuade Lord Warsong to hire their services out to Stonekeep.”

  “To repair our fields, you mean?” Dortham asked. He thought about it. “I didn’t know that they had such people in their employ. Something like that won’t come cheap, and we of the Council have used our limited funds to recall more soldiers and buy provisions. We don’t have the money to hire a couple of druids.”

  “We can’t afford not to. Besides, I may or may not have come across a strongbox recently,” I said craftily, “and I think I can arrange for certain funds, which I may or may not have at my disposal, to find their way to Warsong Keep very quickly.”

  Dortham laughed. “You’re full of surprises, son. That help would be most welcome, indeed.”

  “I’m glad to help. I can be there today if needed. It’s getting back from Warsong that I’m unsure about. Do you think you can arrange for a few days of sick leave for me?”

  “You mean a few more days? Of course. The prince is personally heading up the army here with the Warleader missing. I expect he’ll appoint another Warleader or a general soon enough. In the meantime, it’s only Captain Doornail that needs to know any details. I’m sure he knows what your involvement in certain recent events was, and I’m equally sure he’ll cover for you in whatever capacity is needed. I’ll talk to him this afternoon.”

  “Thanks. The last thing I need is to be declared a deserter,” I said with relief. I wasn’t sure how I would work this out, but I thought I could trust the captain. I did save his life, after all. Twice. “Hey, where’s my armor? The day’s wasting, as you always say.”

  “He’s a chip off the old block,” Samirah said.

  “It’s down in the smithy,” Dortham said. “It’s in good shape.”

  “I would expect nothing less,” I said with a snooty air

  “Don’t get cocky, whelp.”

  We broke up the fellowship at the table to get back to the tasks at hand. I put on the gambeson and pants from my pack, then armored myself with Darek’s assistance. Elric went back to the forge and Dortham went to find Captain Doornail. My joints and head still hurt a bit, but it was important to me to get this over with as quickly as possible. People would start to ask questions I couldn’t answer if I prolonged my absence from my talon.

  When I was ready to go, I focused my will, steeling myself for the pain to come. I used the power I possessed to whoosh myself to the roof of the keep, a far longer jump than I had done before, but I felt confident I could do it. Calling it “whooshing” was silly, but I didn’t know what to call my travelling ability beyond the noise it made when I did it. One moment I was in the back of the smithy, and the next I was standing on the castle’s roof. It was always a little windier up here than it was in the city below, which I found to be refreshing. The place I appeared was in the center of what looked like a flat stone terrace surrounded with crenellations. The eight towers were all around me, and each had an adamantine golem standing guard at its base facing the center that could not be seen from the city below. Those golems were extremely powerful and were nearly indestructible. They looked like twenty-foot-tall warriors in adamantine plate armor that used massive greataxes in two-handed grips. They each had two tubes attached to their cuirasses that stuck out straight ahead. One tube shot out stunning blasts of lightning and the other one shot out a stream of fire. I was attuned to these golems, so they did nothing other than glance my way as I appeared. Even if they didn’t make any threatening gestures, they always made me nervous because of how deadly they were. The keep was warded against magical transportation spells, or I would have whooshed myself directly inside and not risked a confrontation with these guardians.

  I looked to the northern side of the center of the rooftop where there were two more golems standing guard next to a block of stone about thirty feet tall and twenty feet wide that had an archway carved into it. I knew this to be a magical portal linked to another archway inside the keep on the second level. Though no one else that I knew of could use this portal, I could because of my Mordonian heritage. It appeared someone had made provision for me to enter the keep before I was even born. I walked over to the archway and laid a gauntleted hand against it, feeling the magic within. I activated the portal. I felt the vibration in the stone archway, then saw the silver glimmer appear at the edges of the arch, then fill the center. A shimmering view of a meadow with a stone floor appeared in the portal, and I stepped through the portal and into the brightly lit interior, then closed the portal as soon as I stepped inside. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I didn’t want to take the risk of anything dangerous getting in.

  I had explored a good bit of the castle with Bran, Elle and Mira, so I didn’t waste a lot of time staring at the clever illusion that made this round room appear to be a meadow with blue flowers surrounded by a forest of old oak trees. The area was lit by some magic that looked like sunlight but didn’t come from the sun. I looked to the wall to my right and saw the strongbox full of gold sitting where I had left it a few days ago. I was a lot stronger than I looked, especially with the amount of magical power held inside me currently, so I picked up the chest with a little effort, which made me burp, and carried it with me as I went down the hallway to my right. The hallway was twenty feet wide and forty feet tall, and it always made me feel small. I walked past a corridor to my left, then through a circular chamber with the illusion of a meadow with flowers that shifted colors. There was a portal in this room that I had not explored yet, but it would have to wait. The corridor curved a bit to the left, and I followed it to another archway on my left that had a room full of deactivated golems. On the right side of the corridor, opposite the golem room, was another portal that I had not explored yet. This place was full of them. I continued to a round chamber that had an illusion of a meadow with white flowers in the grass. I activated and walked through the shimmering portal into a hallway that stretched to the left and right of me and was richly appointed in white marble and gold gilding on wall panels at regular intervals. There were paintings of important looking people hanging on the walls. Across from the portal I exited was a double door made of solid gold that was flanked by a pair of adamantine golems. I nudged the door open with my armored boot and walked inside.

  This was the throne room of the keep, and it was a very impressive sight. It was about a hundred feet wide and about sixty or seventy feet deep in front of me. On the opposite wall was a dais with three steps upon which sat a big throne that looked to be made from a single yellow topaz. It emitted golden light throughout the room in a dazzling way, and it caught the eye immediately. The room itself had gold trim everywhere with white marble cladding the walls, ceiling, and floor. On the same far wall that the throne was situated, there were two large archways, one to the left and one to the right of the throne. There were also four golems in the room, one on either side of the dais, and one in the left and right corners close to the sides of the portals. These golems were the bigger thirty-foot-tall golems like the ones guarding the gates in the great hall on the first floor. They turned their heads to look at me when I walked in but took no action.

  I walked through the empty room and sat the half full chest down in front of the inactive portal on the right side of the throne. Thinking that I may have a need for some of this gold, I scooped out a small pile of it next to the wall on the side of the portal. As quickly as I could, I counted out a thousand gold royals and put the rest in the chest. Then, I walked over to the Amber Throne (as I called it) itself. Mordon’s helm sat on the throne where I left it. The helm was made of adamantium with golden gilding in a decorative pattern. It had horizontal slits for the eyes and some vertical ones for the mouth. What was very striking about it, however, were the gems that encircled it. There were gems of twenty-one different types and colors, and they were all of a uniform rectangular shape and size, each about as big as my thumb. They had a glimmer of light inside them and rotated around the helm above the brow where a crown would go. This crown was the key to Stonekeep’s defenses. The wearer could bypass all the wards and golems protecting this place and could control the arcane turrets that surrounded the keep as well as give commands to any or all of the golems in the Adamantine Legion. In my opinion, this was the most powerful magical item in the entire world. With the thousands of golems in the Legion, the possessor of this helm could take over the world. I paused and thought about it briefly. I could actually rule the world. A life of strife and chaos would accompany any kind of rule, and I rejected the idea. I had no desire to rule over a kingdom. I just wanted to help people, and I could do that in my own way without the aggravation of dealing with pain-in-the-ass people.

  I took my own helm off and put on Mordon’s helm. The room around me looked a little more vibrant now. I could easily see the magical auras of the throne and the golems, and I could once again sense all the golems in the area. I could feel the magic that connected them to the helm and allowed commands to be given. I focused on the throne as I sat down in it. I wanted to check on a few things before I went to Warsong Keep.

  The Amber Throne wasn’t just a nice chair. It was a very powerful artifact that could allow the person in it to see things that were happening anywhere in the world. It was the way I’d seen the coming army, and we’d found that power very effective when we were forming a plan to save Stonekeep. Without the helm, trying to focus on the magic of the throne was very taxing and eventually caused a bad headache. The helm and the throne were linked, however, and wearing the helm allowed better use of the throne’s far-seeing power with no strain on the part of the wearer.

  I guided the magic of the throne to show me Kromwell Surekeel. I saw him from a bird’s eye view as he was travelling down a muddy trail the ogrish army had created through the woods on their way to Stonekeep. Kromwell was arrayed in dark red plate armor that was fashioned to look like a demon, just like his father had once done. It had spikes and horns coming out of the vambraces, pauldrons, and helm. He rode on a very large beast of a kind I had never seen before. It looked a lot stronger than a typical horse and had impressive horns. With Kromwell were about a hundred ogres and a thousand or more goblins. The ogres with him were large, about ten to twelve feet tall, and wore partial suits of plate armor and chainmail. They marched with huge two-handed greataxes and mauls. They were of a brownish or dark greenish skin color with greasy black hair, a thick brow, warts everywhere and tusks coming from their lower jaw. The goblins had chainmail if they had any armor at all, and they all carried shortswords and daggers with a couple of javelins on their backs. They had grayish or black skin, a mouthful of sharp teeth and hateful expressions on their faces.

  They didn’t appear to have a baggage train with them, and they were marching with a lot of effort. I thought it likely that they would be marching for another month or two before they got to the vicinity of Fellton and the edge of human lands. I thought about creating a portal with the Amber Throne to take me there where I could destroy a good number of them before they scattered, but I rejected the notion after a little thought. I wanted to see where Kromwell fled to and find out who his masters were, and I couldn’t do that if he died on the road. I detested Kromwell for his bullying, murderous ways, but I knew there would be more like Kromwell running amok if I couldn’t find the source of his power.

  In my mind, I wished him saddle sores, then I turned my thoughts to my friends. The throne showed me Bran, who was standing watch on the walls. Bran was taller and stronger than most men, and he cut an impressive figure in the plate armor he’d made. He didn’t try to disguise Vengeance, the sword we’d recovered from the demon’s lair. It was a beautiful weapon, the kind of weapon a king would wield, but Bran wasn’t haughty nor concerned about what people thought.

  Bran was flanked by Elle and Mira, both of whom we’d known since we were ten years old. Elle was wearing the plate armor Bran made for her, and a little bit of her blonde hair peeked out from under her helm. Elle rested her shield on the ground in front of her, which I was surprised to see was the rectangular adamantine shield called the Reflector that we’d found in the Sunset Isles. It was a potent item, magical in nature, and she probably should have kept it hidden, at least in my opinion. Elle had very penetrating green eyes, and with her flawless skin and perfect figure, she was one of the most beautiful young women I’d ever seen. Bran had fallen in love with her the moment he had first seen her, and I certainly knew why. It wasn’t just physical, either. Elle was a real pleasure to be around, even if she seemed very reserved to people she didn’t know well. I’d bet anything that she and Bran would be married in a year.

  Mira was on Bran’s other side, and she was wearing the plate armor I’d made for her. She held her helm in the crook of her arm, letting her short, brown hair blow in the gentle breeze. Mira had a very common face and brown eyes, and she was a very easy person to overlook in a place like Stonekeep. To the eye she was unremarkable, but underneath was a vivacious and curious person with an impish smile who could find a way to do great things. I had to admit to myself that I was in love with her. Though we had known each other for ten years now, I’d only recently come to that realization. I wasn’t sure what she really thought of me, though. Would we end up together? I wondered.

  I looked around for Bandit in the picture that the throne showed me, but I didn’t see her. Bandit was a pixie who masqueraded as a common raccoon when other people could see her. She and Mira were a lot alike in their sense of humor, which, unfortunately, was aimed at me a large part of the time. I didn’t mind so much, though. I focused the magic of the throne more on Bandit, and I was shown a view of a thirty-pound raccoon in the act of stealing one of Johala Baker’s honey buns. Bandit clutched it in her little paws and quickly hobbled away on two legs to get around the corner to safely eat it. It was business as usual for her, and I laughed as I let the image go.

  I thought about it briefly and came to the conclusion that I couldn’t use the helm for this next part. I couldn’t risk this helm falling into the wrong hands. I got up from the throne and left the hall. Walking to the left, I followed the hallway to the lord of the castle’s rooms. There were two golems there guarding the ornately carved wooden double doors. Because I had the helm on, the doors opened by themselves as I neared. I walked past the golems into a very large living room with wood paneled walls. It could hold a lot of people, as the room was around fifty feet on each side and had a dining area in the corner that was ahead and to the right. There were very comfortable looking sofas and chairs in this room that were nicely made, but not in an outrageous way. They were tasteful rather than garish or gilded everywhere. There was a door to my left on the same wall I entered on, a door through the room on the left-hand wall, and a ten-foot-wide hallway going to the right just before the dining area. I took the hallway on the right and walked to the last door on the right. Opening the door, I saw all the books in shelves lining the walls and once again resolved to read some of them one day. I moved to the desk in the center and put the helm back on the desk where I found it. Then I retraced my steps back to the throne room and put my own helm back on.

  Sitting on the Amber Throne once again, I focused the magic of the throne on Warsong Keep. A bird’s eye view of the keep came into focus, and I saw it in all of its very great size with all of its square towers and flat rooves. I saw some movement at the front gate and moved the view in for a closer look. Grath Warsong was there astride a white warhorse drilling a company of cavalry. He was as impressive then as he’d been when I met him a few years back. Grath wore golden gilded armor styled to look like a dragon’s scales, and he had that very large mace at his side that I knew to be magical in nature. When I was getting a better look, he shifted his attention right at the view I was looking from like he could see me. I panicked and let the viewing slip away. No one had ever noticed my magical viewing before.

  Using the magic of the throne again, I brought the viewpoint back to a higher level, then started scanning the area for a good place to put a portal. No one could be allowed to see a portal, or I could be branded as a Mordonian sorcerer and put to death. I found a spot around two hundred paces inside the tree line close to the road to Stonekeep and used the throne to open a portal there with the archway on my left, where I’d left the strongbox. I gave the command to keep the portal open for only a few seconds, then got up, picked up the strongbox, and stepped through the portal into the woods beyond.