Lorit took the time to crawl backwards and reach behind him for his dagger. He could feel the life had run out of the lead wolf. He patted the blood matted fur until he grasped the handle of the dagger. He pulled it free of the wolf's throat just as the second wolf launched itself at him.
Lorit' arm came around in time to get the dagger in between himself and the wolf, but not fast enough to avoid the impact altogether. Like the first wolf, this one started to whimper and howl as the blade slid home. It collapsed on top of Lorit, trapping him between the two bodies.
Lorit struggled to free himself from beneath the wolf. He retrieved his dagger and cleaned it on the fur of the lead wolf. He looked down on his kill and wished he had the time and energy to gut and pelt them. The fur would make great winter clothes, but he had a Wizard to free.
Lorit left the wolves behind and crept around the house, searching for the front door. He crept silently around the bushes to find a well worn path that led out of the woods right up to the front door. He headed for it, dagger in one hand and staff in the other.
When nothing further threatened attack from the woods he relaxed a bit. He heard a hooting from overhead and looked up to see an owl sitting in the tree. Its large eyes tracked him, its head swiveling to follow his path.
As he approached the house, the owl screeched. Lorit turned to see what had upset it. It spread its wings and screeched again, its eyes never leaving Lorit.
From behind him, Lorit heard a hissing sound. He froze in place, not moving a muscle. He knew that sound and it meant that at the slightest provocation he would be struck by the snake. He turned his staff to catch the light of the moon in the jewel. Slowly, he moved the head of the staff between himself and the snake, turning his body to get a look at it.
A large cobra lay curled up on the front step. Its thick body was easily as large around as Lorit's arm, its head swayed from side to side as it watched him. Lorit looked the snake in the eye. He knew that as long as he held its attention, it would not strike, but if he looked away, he would not be fast enough to avoid it.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lorit saw the jewel glowing in his staff and knew it was almost ready. Just a little more, but would it be enough?
Lorit released the light he'd been holding in the jewel. A beam of bright gold light shot out, striking the snake in the eyes. Lorit knew it was blind, but it could still hear and sense his body heat. He stepped to one side and watched as the snake followed his movements, wondering how was he going to get past it?
The owl screeched overhead and launched itself from the branch. It swooped between Lorit and the snake, its wings touching his face as it passed. It struck the snake with a resounding thud as the sharp talons dug into the snake's thick body. The snake curled around but was unable to break the owl's grasp as it flew off into the night.
Lorit shook the tension out of his arms and legs as he watched the owl disappear into the night. He carefully opened the front door. It was pitch dark inside and he couldn't see anything as he stepped across the threshold.
Lorit felt a tingling of magic rise up from the floor twisting around his leg as he placed his foot inside. He quickly repeated the words of the spell he and Chihon had used, hoping that he could complete the utterance before the trap impeded his voice. The spell was effective in slowing down the progress of the trap, but it did not reverse it. He pulled his leg, but it was stuck fast.
He held out his hand and said, "Incendo ignio." A small flame appeared in it, illuminating the room. There was a candle on the table near the door and another one in a sconce. He threw the flames towards both of them.
Lorit tried to find a way to free his leg. He repeated the spell that they had used so successfully, but it had no effect.
He reached out to Chihon. "I'm stuck."
"Is it as bad as the Library?" Lorit could feel the alarm in her voice.
"No ... Well, maybe ... I was able to get the counter spell out before it completely ensnared me. Only my leg is caught." He tugged at it again, as if explaining his situation would somehow change it.
He waited to see if she had any ideas. When she did not respond, he continued. "I hate these hexagram spells. They just lay there until some fool like me steps on them and then, snap, you're caught. I can't believe I succumbed to a hexagram spell twice in the same day."
He sensed Chihon's laughter even without her words. "What's so funny?" Lorit was frustrated and getting angry. More at himself than her, but he wasn't in any mood for humor.
"Your hands are free?"
"Yes, my hands are free," he snapped.
"You have your staff with you?" Lorit could feel her smirking through their shared link.
"Yes, I have my staff with me," he spat back at her. What was she thinking? He hefted his staff to emphasize the point, when it dawned on him. He looked down.
The diagram on the floor was outlined in silver. Crimson light intertwined with the sliver. The light chased around the diagram throwing off tiny sparks as it shot from vertex to vertex. The light reached up off the floor almost to his knee, wrapping him in a deep violet glow.
He took his staff and carefully slid the point next to the diagram. He infused the staff with as much magic as he could raise. When he was ready, he dragged the end of the staff across one of the lines in the diagram.
A shower of sparks flew up from it as the staff broke through the line. The violet and amber lights raced back and forth as if trying to find a new path through the diagram. Each time they hit the break, they bounced back around the perimeter only to try again and fail with no way to traverse the gap he had just made.
Lorit scratched again, obscuring more and more of the diagram. The lights sputtered and died, unable to find a path to complete their circuit. He felt the grip on his leg relax and in no time at all he was free.
Lorit could still hear Chihon giggling. "Your leg wasn't stuck in it," he complained.
"At least you figured it out. Is Zhimosom there?"
"I don't know yet. I still have to check the rest of the house."
"Watch where you put your feet." Chihon was still laughing when Lorit cut the connection and silenced her.
He searched the house, carefully extending his magical senses out before him. He located and defused several more traps before he finally found the study where Zhimosom was being held.
The old Wizard stood frozen in a pool of shimmering light that changed in color and intensity as Lorit watched it. The diagram on the floor was complex, much more complex than the one that had trapped him at the threshold.
Now that he was close to Zhimosom, he could feel the Wizard's power even through the encasing spell. He reached out to Zhimosom, trying to communicate with him as they had done over a distance so often before.
The Wizard's eyes flew open and Lorit took a step back.
"What happened?" came the old Wizard's voice in his head.
"You are caught in a trap spell." Lorit reached out with his staff to scratch away the diagram and free the Wizard. "I'll cut away the diagram like I did with the last one. That should free you."
"DON'T DO THAT," the Wizard shouted in his head.
Lorit stopped just before his staff cut the first line of the diagram. Zhimosom appeared to be staring off into the distance.
"Sorry, but this is a very complex spell," Zhimosom said. "There are several different spells operating all at once. Some of them trap, some of them kill, and some counteract each other. If you break one, it may be the one counteracting one that would kill me. You have to study the designs and figure out what each of the spells do on their own and defuse them one at a time."
"Where should I begin?" Lorit got down on his knees and examined the diagram on the floor. It was comprised of several hexagrams laid over the top of each other, almost obscuring the ones that had been laid down first.
"Can you share your vision with me?"
"I'm not sure." Lorit knew they could communicate through their magical connection, but not how to share his senses.
"Just relax and let me see what you see. I will guide you through it."
Lorit calmed himself, and concentrated on strengthening the connection between them. He tried to focus on his vision, willing the Wizard to see what he saw.
"There, that's it." He could hear Zhimosom's voice in his head more clearly now.
He examined the hexagram closely under the Wizard's direction until his eyes grew tired. They felt dry and scratchy. Lorit blinked back tears, fighting to keep his vision clear for the Wizard.
"It's no use, son," Zhimosom's voice came to him. He sounded weary and tired. "I just can't focus. The spell takes a lot out of me and it is draining me even more when I fight it. I don't have the strength to think clearly right now."
"I understand."
Lorit reached out his sense to Chihon. She was awake and anticipating his contact. He saw her sitting beneath a sheltering pine tree beside a small fire.
"Did you find him? Did you free him?" she asked.
"I found him, but I can't free him yet. There are spells laid one on top of the other. If I defuse them in the wrong order, they'll kill him. They're draining him of his power. If I don't free him, he will die.
"Do you have the books?"
"I have them." Chihon gestured to her pack that sat beside the fire.
"Where are you?" Lorit asked.
"I'm just outside of the city. I ran from the Library until I was out of breath. I barely had time to light the fire."
"I need your help," Lorit explained. "I need to see the spells in the book and compare them to the ones on the floor. He described one of the hexagrams for her.
Chihon opened the book and paged through it. She wrinkled her brow as she squinted at the pages, looking for the spell. "Lorit. It's just too dark. I can't make out the spells by the firelight.
He felt her raise a spell of fire to illuminate the book. She scanned the pages looking for the spell, but Lorit could not maintain the contact. The effort was too much for him.
"Maybe we should rest up and try this in the morning," she said. Lorit could feel the weariness in her voice, too.
"You're right, I'm too tired to do this tonight. We can't afford to make a mistake." He cut the connection to Chihon.
"I'm sorry," he thought at Zhimosom, but he got no response. Lorit lay down to sleep at the foot of the old Wizard.
Lorit woke the next morning to the sound of birds singing in the trees outside the window. He sat up rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He was in a strange room; nothing looked familiar. Then the memories came back to him. He was in the Wizard's study, in the forest. Something about Zhimosom.
He turned his head to see the old Wizard standing there amidst a blaze of colored lights that swirled about him. He was still staring off into space, eyes unfocused.
Lorit felt the tug of contact. He opened himself to it. It was Chihon.
"Lorit, are you awake?"
"Barely." Lorit stood up, trying to shake the sleep out of his head. "Where are you now?"
"Still in the woods outside of town," Chihon said. "Get some water, wake yourself up, and let's get Zhimosom out of that trap."
Lorit dragged himself to the kitchen and pumped water into the sink. The ice cold water struck his cupped hands, sending spikes of pain shooting up his arms. He quickly splashed the water onto his face. The cold shot through him, causing his heart to quicken. His eyes flew open and his head cleared.
"That's better," Chihon said. "You were going to share your vision with me so I can look for the spells."
"Yes. That was it." Lorit headed back to the study and carefully got to his knees. He leaned as close to the colored lights as he dared and examined the intricate overlay of spell diagrams.
He focused his attention on his vision, pushing his sight to Chihon just as Zhimosom had shown him. He looked closely at one of the diagrams, trying to memorize the key features of the symbols that had been used and how the light zipped around it.
"I think I can remember it."
Lorit let the connection drop. He headed back to the kitchen and rummaged in the pantry to locate something to eat. He knew that, failing all else, he could step outside and get himself a chunk of wolf meat.
He found some travel bread and a hunk of hard white cheese. It was tough to chew and swallow, but it filled the hole in his stomach. Just as he finished, Chihon reached out to him again.
"I think I found it. Look at this."
Before Lorit could react, his vision clouded over and he found himself looking at a book of spells. The hands that held the book were not his own and the colors seemed slightly off, brighter, more distinct than he remembered, and the diagram was slightly fuzzy.
The hexagram matched one of the ones he had identified in the mix that trapped Zhimosom.
"What does this one do?" he asked.
He saw Chihon's finger trace out the words below the diagram. They indicated that this was spell go keep a person in a sound sleep. It sounded like a promising place to start.
"Anything else?"
"Yes, there's another one." He saw Chihon's hand reach out and turn the pages. The next diagram was close to what Lorit remembered, but he couldn't be sure. The words beneath it said that it was used to suffocate the victim. It could be used by an assassin who wanted to kill his victim, but leave no trace.
"That one looks dangerous."
"Yes, but here's the counter spell." Chihon flipped a few more pages. The diagram looked familiar, but Lorit wasn't sure.
"I think I need to take a closer look at the actual spells before we try anything," Lorit said. "I would hate to pick the wrong one because my memory is faulty."
Lorit tried bringing his own vision back, overlaid on top of Chihon's sight. It took him a while to adjust, but he was soon able to see not only what she saw, but through his own eyes, as well.
He lay on the floor, sliding close to the diagrams, but making sure to keep out of its light. "Can you see what I see?"