Daktari yawned as he reclined in the magical chair he’d summoned. After slaughtering the nomad elders, he’d found little to occupy himself with beyond waiting. Luckily, a sorcerer learned patience early on. When an experiment could take a year or more to produce results, being in a rush was pointless.
Directly in front of him, a circle of flames hung in the air. The lava imp Zin filled the opening as he droned on about Nord’s success in conquering the Broken Kingdom.
Nord had reached Sand City and was gathering the supplies and infrastructure he’d need to invade. It looked to Zin like he’d be ready to march in a week or less.
Daktari sent his compliments to Zin then severed their connection. “Bane.”
His homunculus appeared a moment later. “Master?”
“How fare the nomads?”
“They’ve lost.” Bane shrugged. “There may be a skirmish or two more but the sultan has won the war.”
Bane didn’t seem very concerned about the nomads’ defeat and Daktari agreed. They had served their purpose, tiring and weakening Vilos’s army. Hopefully even now word of the uprising would be spreading to cities all over the world. Princess Shara would be all the more eager to return home when she heard.
“No matter, Nord is nearly ready to continue the battle. Come, we need to pay our ally a visit.”
Daktari rose and went over to one of the tables in his lab. He grabbed a vial of opaque white liquid. Bane flew over and landed on his shoulder. With a thought Daktari teleported out of the cavern.
They reappeared in a shadowy alley that stank of garbage and worse. The sun had nearly set and true night would soon fall. A rat crawled across Daktari’s foot, indifferent to the sorcerer’s presence.
Daktari pointed and the rat was surrounded by a deep purple glow. It levitated up into his hand. He stroked its back and the rat hissed with pleasure. Such misunderstood animals. Despised by humanity as disease carriers, rats were killed on sight.
He smiled. Daktari had a great fondness for rats. They could survive anywhere. Few animals adapted as well as the rats. He’d make a pet of this particular specimen. He slipped the little beast into his pocket.
Time to find Nord.
Zin had said the army was camped near the southern gate. Daktari rendered himself invisible and started south. He’d never visited Sand City before, but like most large cities it featured a large market in the center of town. He ignored the few merchants still open and paused only once to pick up half a crust of bread. As soon as he dropped it in his pocket his new pet started munching.
With the market behind him, Daktari made his way through row upon row of two-story stone houses. No one seemed to be out. No doubt having an army in town was keeping people on edge, except for the merchants selling them supplies of course.
Daktari passed Nord’s first sentries about two blocks from the south gate. The two men were busy with a dice game and weren’t paying the least attention to their surroundings. He could have snuck by them without using magic had he felt like it. One of the two men had a large stack of coins while the other was down to his last five.
The die was cast and Daktari gestured. The unlucky man won the roll. He wove a spell around the die that would ensure the soldier’s victory on every toss after that. Daktari left them to their game with a smile on his face.
How many tosses would it take for a fight to break out? He guessed not many. That would show them what happened when you played instead of doing your work.
The main camp was laid out at random with tents pitched wherever the men felt like raising them. Daktari let his mind drift until he felt the power of Heat’s Bane. He followed the sword’s call through the camp until he came to a larger-than-average tent with a light glowing under the flap.
Daktari slipped inside and found Nord talking with his wizard. The wizard held up his hand to stop Nord in midsentence. “I felt something.”
Daktari let the magic surrounding him fade. He found the horrified look on the wizard’s face quite amusing. It seemed the man didn’t realize with whom he dealt.
Nord’s wizard pointed and spoke the words of a lightning bolt spell.
The bolt struck one of the many shields that surrounded Daktari at all times and fizzled.
The sorcerer frowned. “Get out.”
“I don’t take orders from—” the wizard began.
Daktari’s eyes blazed with purple fire. “NOW!”
Having already seen his lightning bolt deflected by the sorcerer’s magic the wizard seemed to decide that discretion was the better part of valor.
“I think I left a potion brewing,” he muttered before hurrying out the flap.
As soon as they were alone Daktari said, “You finished your business here much faster than I expected, congratulations.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Daktari,” Nord said.
Daktari raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
Nord briefly described his meeting with Duke Benwa. “He could have killed me, easy. But he was more afraid of angering you.”
Daktari nodded. “So this Benwa is the one who told you my name. Most people the least aware of my power fear me. It’s expected. Anyway, that’s not why I’m here. I assume by now you’ve heard of the new danger in crossing the desert.”
“You mean the oases or the nomads?”
“The oases, your brother has dealt with the nomads.” Daktari reached into his robe, withdrew the vial he brought, and handed it to Nord. “Take this. Put three drops into any oasis before you drink and it will neutralize the poison.”
“How do you know?” Nord asked as he held the vial up to the light. “The wizards here have been trying for weeks to negate the poison.”
Daktari smiled. “I have an advantage since I created the poison. I assure you the antivenom works.”
Nord nodded. “So I just put three drops into the water and it’s safe?”
“That’s right. So simple even that idiot wizard of yours could handle it. By the way, tell that fool if he ever casts another spell at me I’ll turn him inside out.”
“You weren’t hurt,” Nord had the nerve to point out.
“That isn’t the point. His attack shows a lack of respect I won’t accept from anyone, much less a wizard of his piddling ability. Clear?”
“I’ll relay the message, anything else?”
“Yes, your brother is now one hundred and fifty miles south of the border. If you hurry, you might be able to engage him before he returns to the capital.”
An evil smile spread across Nord’s face. “Excellent.”
Daktari ducked out of the tent, activated his invisibility spell, and retraced his steps through the camp. He could have teleported at once but he was curious about his prank. As he rounded a turn that led to the outer perimeter, he found the two guards fighting and calling each other a cheat.
Daktari grinned and teleported home.