Soon Pug had a small stack of books set aside. He was taking one off a low shelf when a massive upheaval in the ground below the keep threw them to the floor. Dust between ancient stones rained down on them and the stones of the tower seemed to undulate for nearly half a minute. When it subsided, Brandos looked out the window and said, ‘Look!’
In the distance the biggest of the three volcanoes was shuddering, sending a shockwave rolling through the rocks and soil beneath them, causing the keep to shake. Then they felt an explosion of titanic proportion, a massive gust of brilliant hot lava plumed a funnel of white steam straight into the sky like the god’s own teakettle boiling. Rock, ash, and liquefied stone spewed from the mountain at astonishing speed. Pug said, ‘In about one minute a wave of poisonous air, hot enough to broil the skin from your bones, will hit us. Grab those books!’ Everyone grabbed an armful of books. ‘Stand close!’ he instructed.
As the sound of the wind rose to an ear-splitting shriek, there was a sudden, rounder pulse of air in the room and a grey void appeared less than six inches in front of Brandos’s nose. Without a word the old fighter leaped into it, and others followed, Pug pushing his son through; and suddenly they were back on Sorcerer’s Isle. The transport through the hasty rift landed them hard on the ground, and Amirantha, Sandreena, and Gulamendis all lost their footing and fell. The others staggered a bit.
Pug let the books he held fall from his arms and turned. A wave of his hand dismissed the rift just as a pulse of super heated steaming air came through, and he immediately erected a shield that redirected the scalding wet air around them.
Everyone could feel the heat suddenly dissipate, but it gave them a queasy feeling at how close they had come to being boiled alive.
Pug turned and said, ‘I think—’ Then his legs went weak. His son let go of the books in his arm and grabbed his father. As Pug was gently lowered to the grass, he muttered, ‘Damn. I so wanted to bring that gate back here.’ Then he closed his eyes and fell into darkness.
Pug awoke with a massive headache. He found his son sitting at his bedside and said, ‘How long?’
‘All night and half the morning.’
Pug sat up and felt light-headed.
Magnus said, ‘It was a prodigious feat punching a rift through from the tower to the meadow in so short a time. No wonder you passed out.’
‘We didn’t have a lot of choice.’
Magnus said, ‘It got me thinking. Even if we know a world has a rift we’ve visited before, it might be a good idea to send a vision orb through first, just to be safe.’
Pug nodded. ‘I think you’re right. Had we stepped through as that shock wave washed over the plateau rather than a half-hour before, we’d all be dead now.’
‘Caution,’ said Magnus with a nod. ‘What next?’
‘Look through what we’ve found, see if there’s anything there that has any bearing on what we face, then you and I and the demon experts take a journey down to Kesh.’
‘I’ll have food sent up.’
Getting out of bed, Pug said, ‘Don’t bother. I’m in need of a lot of water as well as food. I’ll get some down in the kitchen. Have you been studying your grandfather’s books?’
‘Of course,’ answered Magnus. ‘There are a couple I’ve put aside for you, but I think he made copies from our library and took them there after he left this island, before you found him wandering around mindlessly.’
Pug paused. ‘That would explain part of his absence. But what was he doing on that world, and who was he serving? And does it have anything to do with the approaching demon host? I find it difficult to believe that Macros visited a world infested with demons by coincidence, and left behind his library so that we just happened to find it when we were facing a demon army.’
‘With grandfather anything was possible.’ Magnus had never met his grandfather, but he had encountered a Dasati called The Gardener who had possessed the memories of Macros the Black; it had been a ploy by Kalkin, the Trickster God, but had provided Pug and his son with information that saved Midkemia from a dreadful invasion, but at great cost: the utter obliteration of the world of Kelewan. Even if the Dasati’s memories had not been his own, his belief had given Magnus the opportunity to get to know his grandfather slightly.
Magnus went down to the kitchen with his father, and they found Amirantha and Brandos waiting at a table, just finishing a meal. ‘Where are the others?’ asked Pug.
Brandos said, ‘Gulamendis is studying that demon book you found on Queg, and Sandreena is busy being somewhere else.’ The last was said with a glance at Amirantha, who almost winced but managed to keep his reaction to the comment minimal.