The Wizard

Dragon's Eye

Within two days Øregård was up walking around, pulled off his bandages, and had eaten all the food they brought. Mevner, on the other hand, wasn't looking well in the slightest. He sat slumped in a chair hardly finding the strength to talk. 

"What's wrong, friend, aren't you feeling alright?" Grimble looked concerned.

"The pain... it's coming back. I don't think I'm over the curses." 

Øregård pulled off the ring that just fit over the first knuckle of his pinky. He tossed the silver band into Mevner's lap.

"Here, the Wizard's ring. Useless magic." 

Mevner slid it onto his middle finger and immediately felt better. 

"Part of its effect may be placebo, but it surely works." The ring had become part of him as it was once a part of Melock. 

"Wizards, humph." 

Øregård ducked under the lab door and went up to the roof. He busied himself with the repairs. After all, he'd been a lighthouse keeper for over a century.  

That night the famed beacon of Verina Luki was lit again. Its slow rotating beam cast out over the ocean to the horizon line. The light that touched and monitored the island home of the dragon. 

The occupants of the lighthouse, however, were not worried about the island, nor the light. They were downstairs in the pitch dark of the tower's basement talking over a square metal box. 

"When we open it, don't let the pupil gaze upon you. For the dragon sees what the eye sees. We don't want him knowing we're alive and..." 

Mevner paused when he realized he was telling them things they already knew. Being a leader was a new role for him and he took his cues from the greatest. Filling Melock's shoes or lack of shoes was a monumental feat.

Grimble lit a lantern with a focusing mirror. Øregård stood to the side of the box as Mevner opened it. Inside the eye was covered with a wool blanket. Øregård lifted it out and set it on the table. 

Grimble peeked under with the lamp. It wouldn't be entirely terrible if the dragon saw him, even if Luhng was sure to remember the gnome who'd taken the Animator Stone as a prize so many years ago.

"It's facing toward me," he said. 

They placed the lantern and two other candles on each side to flood the eye with light. They stood behind it in the darkroom and lifted the blanket off. From the back, it looked like an old leather medicine ball with a dull inner glow caused by the candle's illumination. 

Øregård went back in the box and retrieved the lens. It was a convex magnifying glass held in a brass cylinder with a small adjustable stand. He handed it to Grimble who was standing on the table behind the big eye. He focused and adjusted the angle. The three looked at an inverted image projected from the eye onto the wall behind it.

"A wonderful invention, if I do say so myself." Grimble did enjoy his creations. 

Øregård added, "A great prize, but it pales in comparison to having the whole head."

The image started to make sense. Upside down mountains heaved and twisted. Below them, rolling clouds caught the moonlight. The image moved up and down with the dizzying rhythm of reversed wing beats; the movements of a huge animal in flight. 

"The Stone Mountains," Øregård observed. 

They watched upended dragon flight in the first person for over an hour before they saw the castle and knew Øregård's assumption was correct.

"They're at the Stone Mountain castle. We should stop now before Luhng realizes we're watching." 

The dragon would be inside out of the moonlight soon. They extinguished the candles, covered the eye, and returned it to its trunk. 

"We must go to the castle." Mevner's next move was clear. 

"I will go with you. To avenge the Wizard and claim the head," said Øregård

Mevner wanted to suggest it wasn't about revenge but he would need the help. "I'm going to take the gauntlets back and recover the master's amulet. The world shouldn't have to suffer their evil in the hands of Redwing. He's far too dangerous with them and I fear he's lost his mind." 

"Melock was the only person who could put down the gauntlets voluntarily. Redwing won't just hand them over. Do your best to keep us righteous, my new friend, but don't fool yourself about what this will entail." 

Grimble relit the lantern and lit his pipe as well. 

"Melock the Wise was a great wizard, he kept a balance in this world."

"And beyond," added Øregård. 

"That's right, and beyond. There's no telling what kind of mischief this Redwing will be up to with such powerful tools at his disposal." 

They sat in silence. Each imagining their own part in the journey ahead and after a time Øregård broke the quiet contemplations with a question.

"The Wizard promised to return me to my home. Do you, Mage Ozgold, inherit the oath?" Øregård always spoke formally, it was a sign he was back to normal, even if he looked like a monster constructed from other monster parts. 

"If you help me retrieve the master's amulet, I'll do my best to keep his promise and take you home." 

Øregård put out his big green mitt and Mevner shook it. 

"You have a deal then, Wizard Ozgold." He looked from Mevner to the little man smoking on the table. "And you, Mr. Grimble Grumble?"

"Aye, I'll be going too, old friend." 

The little smile hardly visible beneath his beard was reflected back in the big toothy grin of Øregård, the ogre and epic warrior of Gastraddar.