“The people have forgotten what the Horn is,” Garson answered sadly.

  “What happened to the prince?” Alex questioned. “And to the adventurers who were with him?”

  “The men who came here with the Horn were adventurers, but not wizards. They felt the same desire you did to touch the flame, but they were not wise enough to see that the power was not free for the taking. They failed the test and were destroyed. I am sorry that it happened, but I could not stop it.”

  “I have destroyed the lower library of the tower,” Alex said after a moment of silence. “I have taken the upper library and put it in my bag. I will not restore the lower library, but I should leave the upper library here.”

  “The tower is more than libraries and treasure,” Garson replied with a wave of his ghostly hand. “Libraries can be replaced. Take what you have won and learn from it. Take the treasure in the room below as a reward; the Horn you seek is with the treasure. I ask only that you leave some token of yourself behind to mark you as a friend of the tower. Perhaps someday you will return, and if you are a friend of the tower, the guardians will allow you free access.”

  “Thank you,” said Alex. “I am sorry I cannot stay. The guardians gave me three hours to destroy the evil that came here, and that time is running out.”

  “You have other reasons to hurry,” said Garson. “There is a storm brewing. Winter is closing in; I do not think you will be able to outrun it.”

  “We can’t wait for winter to pass,” Alex said in a worried tone. “We have to get back to Alusia before the spring festival or else there will be war.”

  “The storms that are coming cannot be stopped,” Garson answered slowly. “As I am now, I have little power in this land, and even less in others. I can, however, see some of what the future holds. I see that your friends have been touched by a curse. You will be stopped by winter, but not for as long as you fear. You will be able to move south much sooner than you might expect.”

  “That is something,” said Alex, thinking of the ghost’s words.

  “Little things often make the biggest difference,” Garson said softly as his image started to fade. “You should go. Move as quickly as you can, young wizard. Time is running out.”

  The ghost vanished before Alex could reply. Without waiting, Alex hurried back down the stairs to the chamber full of treasure. He knew the Horn was here, somewhere, but Garson was right, he didn’t have time to look for it.

  “Treasure room, separate,” said Alex, hoping the bag would understand what he wanted it to do.

  Once again there was the sound of rushing wind as the air rippled and sparked. When the chamber was emptied, Alex shifted his bag to his shoulder. He took a single gold coin from his moneybag. With a little effort, he changed the appearance of the coin in his hand. Tossing the coin toward the center of the empty treasure room, he caught it with magic before it hit the floor. The gold coin flashed as it spun in midair, held by a magical thread.

  With a bit of pride, Alex looked at the token he had created that marked him as a friend of the tower. One side of the coin held the image of a dragon’s head with eight stars around it, while the other side had the image of Moon Slayer on it. Alex knew that the coin would remain where it was until the next keeper of the tower came to claim the power of Norsland. And he knew from his dreams that he would also return when that time came.

  Running out of the tower, Alex started down the path to the second gate and his friends. The sun was coming up, and in the dim morning light, he saw Sindar arguing with the griffins, demanding that they let him pass and allow him access to the tower.

  “It’s all right,” called Alex. “The evil has gone.”

  Bowing, the griffins moved aside without speaking to let Alex pass between them. Then they moved back to block the path to the tower.

  “How are you, Sindar?”

  “Better now that I see you, my friend,” Sindar answered.

  “And the others?”

  Sindar hesitated. “I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They seem to be stunned, but otherwise unhurt. When I ask them to stand or move, they do as I bid, but they don’t seem to see what is around them. And they cannot speak at all.”

  “You seem to have recovered,” said Alex. “Though I was worried when I first found you.”

  “Evil has less effect on me than on others,” said Sindar. “And I was lucky you were able to recover my pendant for me. It has taken most of the time that you’ve been gone for me to recover, and I still feel a deep coldness inside.”

  “It will pass,” said Alex.

  Alex and Sindar returned to their campsite and tried once more to revive their companions, but nothing seemed to work. Alex didn’t know any spell that could reverse the curse, and he was tired. Changing Val’s magic bag into a stone had drained him, and changing the stone into a breeze had taken even more out of him, far more than all his running up and down the tower stairs.

  “We need to get out of the mountains,” said Alex, dropping onto his blankets beside the fire.

  “Yes, but perhaps first you should rest.”

  Alex shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I should send a message to Whalen. He may know how to break this spell.”

  “Possibly, but do we have time to wait for a reply?”

  “No,” said Alex with a sigh. He rubbed his eyes. “I’ll send a message and then we can break camp.”

  “Rest first,” said Sindar softly. “Collect your thoughts and rest your body. You’ve had a long night.”

  Alex’s eyes were already closing. He would rest for an hour or two, then send a message to Whalen.

  Whalen will know what to do, he thought as he drifted off to sleep. Whalen is a great wizard. He always knows what to do.

  When Alex woke, he felt much better. Looking at the sun, he could tell he had been asleep for almost three hours. Sindar was walking around the fire with Andy, but Andy seemed unaware of anything around him.

  “Any improvement?” Alex asked.

  “No. I thought perhaps moving around would help them, but they seem unchanged.”

  “They will be moving around quite a bit soon enough. Let me send a message to Whalen, and then we’ll start back down the mountain.”

  Sindar nodded, but said nothing, helping Andy sit back down beside the fire. While Alex wrote his message, he noticed the blank stare on Andy’s face. He hoped that Whalen would have an answer and that the answer would come soon.

  Once Alex had sent his message, he and Sindar began leading the others back down the path toward the first gate. Their going was painfully slow because their companions would run into the stone sides of the trail yet continue trying to move forward. After several hours of turning their friends back onto the path, Sindar came up with a clever solution.

  Fastening a length of rope to each member of the company, Sindar was able to pull their dazed companions into the correct path as they went along. But even with this improvement, their progress was incredibly slow.

  What had been a day’s travel going up the path took them almost three days to travel back down. Alex was beginning to worry that they wouldn’t be off the mountains before the snow began to fall, and he certainly didn’t want to spend the winter stuck on the mountainside.

  “From here on it will be more difficult,” said Sindar, dropping to the ground beside Alex. “The path is steep, and there aren’t any rock walls to keep our friends from falling off the edge.”

  “I know,” said Alex. “And they don’t seem to be improving at all.” He thought for a moment. “I suppose I could change our friends into mice and carry them down the mountain inside my magic bag.”

  “Do you think you could do that?”

  “Perhaps, but I’ve never transfigured a human, and I’d hate to accidentally hurt one of our friends.”

  “Then don’t think on it,” Sindar advised. “We will manage, somehow.”

  Alex simply nodded. What he had said wasn’t entirely true. When Alex had transfigured Val’s magic bag, Val had been inside it at the time. It wasn’t a pleasant thought and he pushed it aside. Transfiguration was a simple solution, but not one he was willing to try on his friends, at least not yet.

  “Perhaps we should just put them inside one of our magic bags as they are,” Alex said softly.

  “A simple solution to our problem, but there are dangers. We do not know what magic Val used on them, and the magic inside the bag may trigger some greater damage.”

  “Yes, I suppose that is possible,” said Alex. “And then there are the rules of honor to consider.”

  “Giving another the safety of your bag without his consent is a loss of honor for both the person being protected and the holder of the bag,” said Sindar in a troubled voice. “The rules of honor are there for good reasons, but those reasons hardly apply right now.”

  “If things get worse and we can’t get off the mountain, we may have to risk that loss of honor.”

  “Not yet. Not if there is another way to save our friends. We will find a way to save them, Alex. I’m sure we will.”

  For a long time they sat in silence. Alex felt too tired to sleep or think. He lay back on his blankets and watched the stars above him, letting his thoughts wander freely.

  “You have not said what happened in the tower,” Sindar said softly.

  “We haven’t had time,” Alex replied. “And I’m not sure I can really explain everything.”

  “Rest, Alex. The morning may bring new hope.”

  “And a message from Whalen,” Alex added, his mind and body finally succumbing to sleep.

  Alex woke to the dinging of a geeb and was glad to find a message from Whalen had indeed arrived. He paid the geeb and tore open the letter, his hopes high that the answer he needed was here.

  Dear Alex,

  I will not trouble you for details now as I understand the situation you are in. I’m afraid I can’t be of much help to you. There is a spell that might cure your friends, but I cannot write it here, and even if I could, I’m not completely sure you could use it. It is a difficult spell to work and can go very badly wrong if not done correctly.

  My best advice to you is to get to the enchanted woods as quickly as you can. You may find help in the woods, if you can reach them before the snows block your way. I believe that time will heal your friends, but winter is coming and you can’t wait.

  I am sorry that I cannot be of more help to you at this time. Whatever happens, don’t give up.

  Yours in fellowship, Whalen

  Alex showed the letter to Sindar before storing it in his bag. He felt a little frustrated that Whalen had the answer but that he could not share it. Now he and Sindar would have to do what they could, and Alex wasn’t at all sure it would be enough.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Brownies

  Alex had managed to defeat the evil shadow, destroy the lower library, and recover the Horn of Moran, but he felt like none of that mattered. They were still trapped on the mountain, and his friends were helpless. For the first time Alex thought their adventure might be a failure, and his mood grew darker as he considered what that failure would mean.

  “Come,” said Sindar. “We will do what needs to be done.”

  Alex agreed and tried to shake off his dark mood. Both Whalen and Garson had told him not to give up or give in to despair, but Alex felt that this was an almost hopeless situation. If Whalen had been there, he could have cured Bregnest, Halfdan, and Andy, and they could easily get off the mountains. In the end, however, Alex knew there was nothing he could do but carry on. If they were going to get off the mountains before winter set in, it was up to Sindar and himself to get them off.

  They moved along the trail more slowly now, staying close to the mountain and avoiding the edge. To keep from losing one of their friends over the edge, Alex and Sindar were forced to move them one at a time. This was tiring and time-consuming because Alex and Sindar had to climb each section of the path twice and descend it three times to move the company forward at all.

  After ten days of moving forward only a few hundred yards at a time, they finally reached the spot where they had camped their first night on the mountain. The wind blew constantly, and the sun hardly ever came out from behind the gray clouds that filled the sky.

  “We’re almost down,” said Sindar. “Perhaps another two or three days and we’ll finally be off the mountain.”

  “And then what?” Alex asked softly.

  “Whalen said we might find help in the enchanted woods. At least we will find shelter there from the coming snows.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Alex, looking at Sindar. “I’ve been letting myself think only dark thoughts of failure. I’m feeling sorry for myself, I guess.”

  “Sorry for yourself or for your friends?” Sindar questioned.

  “A little of both I suppose.”

  “Then stop one and do what you can to help the other.”

  Alex knew there was no reason to be depressed. They would make it off the mountains and to the enchanted woods before it started to snow. He had the Horn of Moran in his bag, but still, he couldn’t find any joy inside himself. Worry filled his mind, and not just about his friends. Alusia needed the Horn of Moran in order to know who the true king was. But even more important than that, the Horn would unite the people of Alusia and stop the different kingdoms from drifting apart and falling into an unending series of wars.

  It took the company three more days to reach the first gate, and it was already dark when they got there. The sphinx watched them silently as they approached and passed through the gate.

  Alex wanted to move on at once, but Sindar insisted they rest before starting for the woods. Alex reluctantly agreed. He had only slept for a few hours each day and had hardly eaten since leaving the Tower of the Moon. All he could think about was helping his friends by getting to the enchanted woods before the snow started to fall.

  “All right,” Alex said. “We will rest. But only for an hour or two. The snow will be falling soon, and I can rest once we get to the woods.”

  Alex conjured a fire to keep the company warm, and then helped Sindar wrap their companions in blankets. Sindar quickly cooked a meal for the two of them and made Alex eat a second helping. When he was finished eating, Alex lay down and almost instantly fell asleep. His dreams, however, were dark and troubled, and not at all restful. It wasn’t long before Alex woke, and when he did, he found snowflakes falling on his face.

  “We must hurry,” said Alex, jumping to his feet. “If the snow gets too heavy, we won’t be able to find the woods at all.”

  “I will lead,” said Sindar, attaching the guide rope to his belt. “I can see better in the darkness, and it would be deadly to get lost now.”

  Sindar set a quick pace, and Alex had trouble keeping up. He felt tired and week, and with each step, his feet felt heavier. The cold wind numbed his senses. At times it seemed that Sindar was pulling the entire company forward like a great sleigh horse in the snow. The ground was already white, and the air was so full of snowflakes that it was hard to see anything. They had walked for a long time when Sindar suddenly stopped.

  “The snow is too thick,” Sindar yelled over the howling wind. “I can’t see where we are going.”

  “We can’t stop here,” Alex yelled back.

  “We can’t go on without some kind of guide. We could wander for days in this storm and never find the woods.”

  “I have an idea,” said Alex, forcing his nearly frozen brain to work.

  Holding his hands close together, Alex conjured up a large, bright blue weir light. Concentrating on where he wanted to go, he focused on the light that hovered in front of him and simply said, “Lead me.”

  The light hovered for a moment and then moved slowly forward and to Alex’s left. Alex and Sindar quickly changed places in the marching order, retying the rope that held the company together. The weir light seemed to wait for Alex to follow and never moved too far ahead of him. It always seemed to move in a straight line, though it was hard to be sure in the blowing snow.

  The snow was soon ankle-deep, but the weir light continued to guide them. Alex desperately hoped that his magic was working, because if it wasn’t, they might be traveling in circles. After walking for what seemed like hours, Alex finally saw the dark shapes of trees ahead of him, and he let out a sigh of relief. As they continued to move forward, the snow grew lighter, and in a few minutes they were inside the enchanted woods.

  “A useful bit of magic,” said Sindar. “A pity that Halfdan didn’t see it, he would have enjoyed that very much.”

  “Perhaps another time,” said Alex, conjuring several additional weir lights to guide them into the dark woods.

  “It is warmer here. The air is much warmer, in fact.”

  Alex had noticed it as well. The change in temperature would normally have troubled him, but all he wanted now was to find a place to sleep.

  After moving into the woods a short distance, they came upon a small meadow. Alex stopped the company and untied the rope from his belt. He was so tired that he could barely help Sindar with the others. He lit a fire and let the weir lights fade.

  “I need to sleep,” said Alex, dropping onto his blanket. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so tired.”

  “Rest, my friend,” said Sindar. “I will watch and keep the fire burning. You have done a great thing, and have earned a rest.”

  “We have done a great thing,” Alex corrected as he closed his eyes.

  * * *

  When Alex woke up, the sky was much lighter, and he thought he heard Sindar talking to someone. Alex hoped that his friends had recovered, but when he sat up, he saw Sindar sitting alone by the fire. The fire was larger than it had been, and Alex wondered why Sindar had built it up so much.

 

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