A FOOLS REVENGE
By: Jonathan Antony Strickland
Zarkon Eraddimal Grempuss was bitter. He sat alone, brooding in his large elegant house, remembering the past. Zarkon lived in a small village called Jalmonel just outside of the city of Lardenmuk, were he had spent four years earlier after the wizards held a competition to see who would become the wizard of each city or town in the kingdom of Herandall. Of course each of the wizards desired a city, but unfortunately there were a lot more wizards than cities. So a competition was made were each wizard would choose a city of there choice, if two or more wizards put there names down for the same city then they would have to battle for it using magic. The winner would get to become the wizard of that city, were as the looser would have to accept a town or village to practice his magic.
Zarkon had wanted Lardenmuk for his own but would have to battle another three wizards to get it. However he knew all three of the other wizards, and he knew how powerful each one was. There was Tiron the most powerful of the three. The other two Gartmonon and Darafon were less powerful and less of a threat to Zarkon. Zarkon knew however that his power was greatest of the four, and only Tiron presented a minor threat to him.
The three wizards decided the battle would be fought round a large square table. Each wizard would take a seat at one of the sides of the table and using the old mystical art of mind bending, would battle it out until only one remained conscious. This one would be proclaimed the winner, and given the honour of the wizard of Lardenmuk.
As the wizards settled down in there seats Zarkon observed each of the expressions on the other wizards faces. Tiron looked confident although he kept giving a slightly nervous twitch every time Zarkon looked him squarely in the eye. Gartmonon was clearly nervous, sweat bristled on his forehead and his hands shook slightly. Zarkon knew Gartmonon was a defeated man already. It was Darafon who looked the calmest of the three, Zarkon observed. This he found surprising, as Darafon had expected that he should have been acting in the same way as Gartmonon.
All of a sudden and without warning the battle commenced. Zarkon would play defensively waiting for one of the three to attack him.
With mind bending it is only possible for one opponent to attack another, thus there can only ever be two people fighting it out against each other. This was the reason mind bending had been picked as there where four wizards, the two left remaining would then have to battle each other till only the victor remained conscious.
Zarkon was attacked first by Gartmonon, this meant that Tiron and Darafon were attacking each other. "So it looks like the final shall be between me and Tiron", thought Zarkon.
Gartmonon was no match for Zarkon, and within the minute he was shaken both physically and mentally, sweating profusely as Zarkon's superior power told and Gartmonon's eye's widened as the immense pain grew in his head. He could take it no more as the pain grew too much and he fainted, his head falling forward and making a loud bang as it hit the table. He lay there unconscious and drooling and Zarkon smiled and turned to await his next opponent.
As he turned he was surprised at what he saw, Tiron had collapsed against the table like Gartmonon, clearly unconscious and out of the competition, and it was Darafon who now looked at him calmly and smiled. Zarkon knew that Darafon must have defeated Tiron before he had defeated Gartmonon. This of course was bizarre to say the least but before Zarkon could give it any more thought, the battle between the two commenced as he felt the power of Darafon enter his mind.
Zarkon couldn't believe what he was up against, and it showed as the sweat began to appear on his forehead in the same way as he had observed when he defeated Gartmonon. He tried his hardest to put up a fight against such power, but it was all in vain and Zarkon's head began to hurt, then the room began to spin, and just before he passed out a word sounded in his head, "Maferentuss". Then all went black.
When he awoke feeling groggy, he knew he had lost and he would not be able to claim his post in the city of Lardenmuk. Somehow he also knew Darafon had cheated but there was no way of proving this, so he grimly accepted defeat.
Later that week to add to his embarrassment of losing, he was posted in a small village called Jalmonel on the outskirts of Lardenmuk.
For four bitter years he stewed in the village, knowing that somehow he had been cheated out of his rightful place. And this is we rejoin Zarkon as he sits in his house racking his brains as to how Darafon had gained so much power. He had read most of his books and asked many other different wizards of a possible way in which one could gain such awesome power, but neither the books nor the wizards were any help.
He had been more troubled by it today as it was the anniversary of the day he was defeated. Each of the other years when the anniversary came around he always felt the same. He began to doze in the chair that he sat in, and he dreamed of that day. He dreamt of Darafon's face laughing at him, and then all of a sudden a word sprang back into his head which up until now he had totally forgotten about.
"Maferentuss" rang the word in his head, waking him up with a jolt. He remembered now how he had heard this word just as his consciousness upon that fateful day had left him, and he knew that the clue to finding out about the cheat Darafon lay in finding out the meaning of that word.
There was one book in his whole collection that he had not totally read. The main reason for this is because it was a dictionary, but not any ordinary dictionary. This was a dictionary called a "Marantenomicon", or to those ordinary mortals who couldn’t understand it "The Dictionary of Wizards".
He turned the old ancient pages to the M section, and looked for the word. His eyes widened in amazement as he found it, he then excitedly began to read the description given. It read "Maferentuss, or coupling demon. This strange and evil creature lives on the edge of nightmares, feeding on knowledge. It is called a coupling demon because if the right incantations are performed it may manifest itself. Once this has happened, the creature can be trapped in a magic circle. Any magician or wizard doing this will become the creatures master and can then force the creature to give him some of its power under torture of starvation. The power it is said that one of these demons possesses is incredible and can make the weakest apprentice instantly more powerful than the master mage he studies under. Other than this though, not much else is known of these strange mystical demons".
So that was it. But why had he thought that he had heard the word as he’d blacked out. If it had not been for that he would surely never of found out Darafon's secret. Then it dawned on him. The demon must have put the word within his head. Obviously Darafon was torturing the creature and it sought escape from its captor.
"So”, he thought “The creature needs my help of release, and in freeing it Darafon will be reduced back to his old pathetic self. Then I can defeat him and become the cities wizard, claiming my rightful place".
Zarkon knew that the creature must be kept close to Darafon, all he needed to do was travel to the city of Lardenmuk and cast a spell that sought out mystical demonic creatures, although he guessed that the creature would be kept in the tower with Darafon. This posed a problem, because Darafon was as he knew at this time a lot more powerful than him, thus he would have to travel in secret and meet the demon without Darafon knowing, otherwise Darafon would seek him out and a fight between the two wizards would ensue. A fight which Zarkon would know he would lose.
That night Zarkon set out for the city of Lardenmuk, he travelled by carriage, driven by one of his servants. It took three long hours to reach the great gates of the city. The servant paid the tax of three copper coins that the gatemen asked for to enter. Once inside Zarkon headed off alone, straight for Darafon's tower were outside he would cast the spell to f
ind the place were the demon was being kept.
All of a sudden Zarkon heard a voice in his head, it was the demon. It had sought him out and so he didn’t need to cast his spell after all.
The voice in his head said "I await you in the dungeon of the tower. Have no fear of entering; Darafon sleeps in the top most level of the tower oblivious of your presence. As for his guards I have cast a sleep spell on them so you may enter the tower without trouble. Head straight for the lower level of the dungeon, there you can free me, and then once I am gone you can defeat Darafon and claim your rightful place".
Zarkon couldn't help giggling to himself. Everything was going better than he could have possibly dreamed and it should be a piece of Reigngall-cake (said to be the easiest cake to make within the entire Kingdom, made from Reigngall-mud and buffalo dung-though it was also said it was truly the