Magic Death

            He didn’t know where he was when he awoke. He lay on a large, flat, circular area of concrete.  Slowly, he regained his senses, thankful he was not dead.  Fighting his aching body, he sat up but could not stand because his ankles were chained tightly together and then manacled to an iron hoop built into the concrete.

            As soon as he saw the bluzzard sitting nearby, he realized his predicament.  Huskus had captured him, and he was chained in the very heart of the enemy’s stronghold.

            Huskus’ guards stared at him, but Jess could not read their thoughts.  He glanced quickly at his wrist.  The talisman, the bracelet of understanding, was gone.  He also noticed his canvas bag was missing it, and with it, the dragon-tooth dagger.

            “Please,” he whispered, “Let them be lost, not”—

            “Looking for these,” the voice said.

            Jess turned to see Huskus holding the bracelet and the dagger.

            All is lost, Jess thought.

            As if he could read his mind, Huskus said, “Your friends are all going to die, Jess.  You incited them to a rebellion that will kill almost all of them except for the few, I and my army of Gillya will enslave.  Stupid little boy.”

            “They’ll stop you.”

            “How cute.  You have the same confidence of your great-great grandfather before I killed him.”

            Jess fell silent.

            “You didn’t think he was a wizard in your world, did you?  It’s a shame I didn’t get his wife and child too.  We could have avoided this mess, and you would never have known.”

            The chains fell off Jess.

            “I want you to see your friends defeated.”