Pug broke off the pain spell and the Warlord fell back from Ergoran. Pug commanded the magician to approach. The Great One’s mind felt like a soft, malleable thing under Pug’s magic control, and somehow Pug knew how to command the magician to act, while keeping aware of what he himself was doing.
The magician began freeing Pug from his chains, while the Warlord struggled to his feet. One hand was free. Axantucar staggered to the outer door. Pug made a decision. If he could be free of the bonds, he could handle any number of guards called in by the Warlord, but he couldn’t control two men and he didn’t think he could keep control of the magician long enough to destroy the Warlord and free himself. Or could he? Then Pug recognized the danger. This new magic was proving difficult and his judgment was slipping. Why was he allowing the Warlord to gain his freedom? The pain of torture and the exertion were taking a terrible toll, and Pug felt himself weakening by the moment. The Warlord pulled open the door, screaming for guards, and when it opened, Axantucar grabbed at a spear. With a heave, he struck Ergoran full in the back. The blow knocked the magician to his knees before he could loosen Pugs other hand. It also had the effect of sending a psychic shock back to strike Pug. Pug screamed in concert with Ergoran’s dying pain.
Fog shrouded Pug’s mind. Then something within cracked, and his thoughts became a sea of glittering shards as the mirrors of memory shattered; scraps of past lessons, images of his family, smells, tastes, and sounds rang through his consciousness.
Lights danced through his mind, first scattering motes of starlight, reflections of new vistas within. They weaved and danced, forming a pattern, a circle, a tunnel, then a way. He plunged through the way and found himself upon a new plane of consciousness. New paths were walked, new understandings achieved. That path opened to him before, through pain and terror, was now his to walk at will. At last he stood in command of those powers which were his legacy.
His vision cleared and he saw soldiers struggling on the stairs. Pug turned his attention to the remaining shackle upon his wrist. Suddenly he remembered an old lesson of Kulgan’s. With a caress of his mind, the hardened leather shackle was made soft and supple again and he pulled his hand free.
Pug concentrated and the magic-inhibiting bracelets fell away, broken in half. He looked up at the stairs, and for the first time the full impact of what he saw registered. The Warlord and his soldiers had fled the room as some sort of struggle took place above. A soldier in the blue armor of the Kanazawai clan lay dead next to an Imperial White. Pug quickly released Meecham, easing him to the ground. He was bleeding heavily from the leg wounds and cuts to his body. Pug sent Dominic a questing mental message: Return. Dominic’s eyes opened at once as his shackles fell off and Pug said, “Tend to Meecham.” Without asking for explanation, the monk turned to treat the wounded franklin.
Pug dashed up the stairs and ran to where Hochopepa lay imprisoned. He entered the cell and the startled magician said, “What is it? I heard some noise outside.”
Pug bent over and changed the manacles to soft leather. “I don’t know. Allies, I think. I suspect the Blue Wheel Party is attempting to free us.” He pulled Hochopepa’s hands free of the now soft restraints.
Hochopepa stood on wobbly legs. “We must help them help us,” he said with resolution. Then he considered his freedom and the softened restraints. “Milamber, how did you do that?”
Passing through the door, Pug answered, “I don’t know, Hocho. It will be something to discuss.”
Pug raced up the stairs toward the upper level of the palace. In the central gallery of the Warlord’s palace, armed men struggled in hand-to-hand combat. Men in armor of various colors battled the Warlord’s Imperial Whites. Looking about the bloody combat, Pug saw Axantucar fighting past a struggling pair of soldiers. Two white-armored soldiers covered his retreat. Pug closed his eyes and reached out. His eyes opened and he could see the invisible hand of energy he had created. He could feel it as he could his own. As if picking up a kitten by the neck, he reached out and gripped the Warlord. Raising him up, he drew the struggling, kicking man toward him. The soldiers halted their struggle at the sight of the Warlord above them. Axantucar, supreme warrior of the Empire, shrieked in unashamed terror at the invisible force that had grabbed him.
Pug pulled him back toward where he and Hocho stood. Some of the Imperial Whites recovered from their shock and deduced that the renegade magician must be the cause of their master’s dilemma. Several broke off from their struggles with the soldiers in colored armor and ran to aid the Warlord.