was inspired by Belisarius. It occurred to Cadderly that something pernicious might have happened to the congenial mage, that some dark force might have overcome the tower's formidable defenses.
His thoughts were blown away, along with his breath, a moment later, as the bull-headed giant scraped one foot on the stone again and charged, slamming into Cadderly and launching him across the corridor. He cracked his shoulder blade as he smashed into the stone, and his torch flew away, though of course the magical light did not diminish.
The minotaur snorted and stormed in. Cadderly took up his walking stick defensively, wondering what in the Nine Hells the minuscule weapon could do against this awesome beast. The minotaur seemed none too concerned with it, striding right in to meet its foe.
Cadderly swung with all his might, but the skinny club broke apart as he connected on the brute's thick-skinned chest.
The minotaur slapped him once, then leaned its horned head in, squashing Cadderly against the stone. The young man freed one arm and punched the beast, to no avail. The beast pressed more forcefully and Cadderly could neither squirm nor breathe.
His estimate of how long he had to live shortened considerably when the minotaur opened its huge mouth, putting its formidable teeth in line with Cadderly's exposed neck.
In that split second, the young priest recognized the 6elds of energy floating about him. He looked down to the floor, to his unbroken walking stick.
Cadderly jammed his free arm into the gaping maw, and plunged his hand down the minotaur's throat. A moment later, he retracted the hand, holding the bull-headed monster's beating heart. The creature fell back a step, not daring to do anything at all.
"I have traveled down two stairways, which actually went up," Cadderly announced firmly. "And through six doors, two of which were illusionary. That would put me in the west wing of your library, would it not, good Belisarius?"
The illusionary minotaur disappeared, but, strangely, Cadderly still held the pumping heart. The scene reverted to its true form, the west wing, as Cadderly had guessed, and Belisarius, a confused, almost frightened look on his bushy-browed, bearded face, stood across the room, leaning heavily on a bookcase.
Cadderly winked at him, then opened his mouth and moved as though to take a bite of the thing in his hand.
"Oh, you!" the wizard cried. He turned away and put a hand to his mouth, trying to keep his stomach's contents down. "Oh, do not! I beg, do not!"
Cadderly dismissed the gruesome image, willed it away, though he was not certain how he had brought it into being in the first place.
"How?" the wizard gasped, finally composed.
"My magic has shifted recently," Cadderly tried to explain, "grown."
"That is no clerical magic I have ever heard of," Belisarius insisted. "To create such perfect illusions..." Just the words made the wizard picture the heart, and he gagged yet again.
Cadderly understood something that Belisarius apparently did not. "I did not create the image," the young scholar explained, as much to himself as to the wizard,
"nor did I collect the magical forces necessary to create the image."
The wizard dismissed any remaining revulsion, too intrigued by what Cadderly was hinting at. He moved quietly across the room toward the young priest.
"I saw the energies gathered," Cadderly went on. "I discovered the trick for what it was and . .. perverted ... your grand imagery."
"Couldn't you have dispelled it altogether, as most priests would have?" Belisarius asked dryly.
Chapter Six
Cadderly shrugged. "I thought I had," he replied with a wry smile, "in a grand fashion befitting your illusions."
Belisarius tipped his floppy woolen cap to the young priest.
"But I am not sure," Cadderly admitted. "Actually, I am not sure of much where my magic is concerned, and that is why I have returned."
Belisarius led the young man to the adjoining sitting room where they both nestled into comfortable chairs. The wizard produced four items - three rings and a slender wand - that Cadderly had given him three weeks before, and laid them aside, anxious to hear Cadderly's revelations.
It took Cadderly a while to begin his many tales - so much had happened to him! Once he began, though, he went on and on, covering every minute detail. He told Belisarius about summoning Shilrnista's trees, about healing Tintagel, and about watching the gallant horse Temmeri-sa's spirit depart. Then he spoke of the more specific and recent incidents, of creating light and then darkness in his room and in Belisarius's maze. Most disturbing of all