Chapter 3 Part 4

General Kana reviewed his squad of hand-picked men one final time. The Dread Lord of Aspberg had made no light importance of the mission's stealth or secrecy. The general was himself confident that these forty men could do the task before them, but he was a little nervous about the means of transportation.

An old wizard had once confided in him that all high-powered spells carried a certain risk with them. The spell casters had to be certain to put forth enough energy to make the spell work.

Usually if the caster was himself affected by the spell, the job was done well, but when casting spells on others, the casters had a tendency to cut corners with their magic. Therefore, allowing his forces to be teleported by an outside mage was considered terribly risky, especially when one considered the number of teleportees. The only consolation Kana had was that if the old man miscasted his spell, Lord Blackheart would probably slit the mage's throat personally.

As Kana was thinking about all the things that could go wrong, one of his own wizards, who would be participating in the battle, informed him that they were ready for the casting. Kana spoke a silent word of prayer to some obscure gods and then ordered his men into the area where the casting would take place.

At first Kana felt nothing. Only the slow mumble of the mage indicated that any powers were being invoked at all. Kana knew very little of the strange language in which words and thoughts wielded enormous energies. He did, however, know enough to recognize that the mage was reciting a very high level preamble.

The preamble, he knew, was part of the spell which summoned the raw magic. When the mage's voice shifted ever so slightly, Kana knew the old man was defining the spell's function. What else comprised spell casting the General was not privy to.

It was at this time that his skin felt the charged atmosphere of the room, which became blurry. A second later, the voice was no more than a distant echo. As his vision cleared, he saw trees and grass.

Kana was immediately informed by his second in command, a major named Kallior, that all were present and accounted for. Kana nodded his approval, instructed Kallior to post sentries and set up the ambush.

Kallior was a professional soldier and in no time had everything set up and ready to go. All they had to do was wait for one of their sentries, stationed one every half league down the road, to signal their victims' approach.