Gently the vampire reached out a thin fingernail that curled like a fishhook, just as sharp. The finger caught the outer rim of Johan's ear and tugged. Split, the ear bled, so Johan felt warm drops splash on his neck.

Stepping around to face the mage, the shriveled fiend smiled, a ghastly sight given dry lips and needle teeth. Then the smile reddened. The vampire grew taller. Sprouted dark hair. Gained a curved form. Lost its sallow pallor to a golden glow.

Facing Johan was Lady Shauku, austere, blue-eyed, glossy-haired, and beautiful.

Gently the lady touched a finger to Johan's ear, then touched his blood to her moist lips. "Tasty. But I have better plans for you, my dear Emperor. You see, I have ambition too. Schemes far too vast for your petty mind to encompass.

"Such a fool." The beautiful vampire chuckled, a sound like branches scraping in the wind. "All those days spent studying, and what did you team? Nothing, I'll wager."

Johan's eyes bugged. Yes, his studies had definitely gone awry, but he never grasped how or why. For one, die wild hallucinations had distracted him, making him doubt everything he saw. Yet no matter how much he read, it still seemed familiar!

Seeming to read his thoughts, the vampire said, "Poor deluded Johan. The more you read, the less you learned. Wonder why? Those books contain nothing, Johan. Many are blank, bought and sold to be scratched with a quill. Some are shop or city ledgers, some dreary family histories. The last lord of this castle was illiterate but wished to appear well-read, so collected trash to fill, a library. And you, dear Johan, pored over each empty or useless volume as if to unlock the secrets of creation!"

Despite his frozen state, the wizard shivered with rage and shame. How could he be so completely deluded?

More chuckling from the beautiful, evil creature. "Don't blame me, my dear Emperor. You gulled yourself. You wished to read of cat warriors, so I offered you a book, and a string of arcana painted across your shoulders, and a dose of hellbore. That tome had a plain calf cover, but you, pitifully eager, imagined it was bound in tiger hide. Daily you pored over page after blank page, imagining you sopped up great stores of knowledge, when really you only mulled facts already planted in your own mind. Oh, how I laughed each evening to hear you spout enlightened babble and gawk like a rustic at hallucinations. Oh, such amusement!"

Stepping back, Lady Shauku tilted her pretty head, then pointed to the writhing horror. "And now, dear guest, you finally discover a source of new knowledge-no hallucination-yet you can't comprehend it. How sad. Let me explain. That celestial being came from beyond the stars. I own it. From it I leech unworldly secrets such as no wizard on Dominaria ever conceived!

"So shall I treat you, Johan. You'll stay here alongside the horror while I whittle away your mind. Thanks to these deluding glyphs, you are long down the path of becoming my thrall. One day soon I shall release you into the world to become Emperor of all Jamuraa, my brainless puppet. Then shall I rule as the real empress!"

Chuckling like a saw biting wood, the vampire plucked up a fragment of amber crystal. Gently Shauku pressed the broken shell against the wizard's back. "Much have I learned from yon creature, good Johan, spells you'll never know. Here's a sample."

Pinned on his knees, helpless, Johan shuddered as the very air flushed amber.

"Spirits of sea and sky!" bleated Adira Strongheart.

Led by three reluctant kobolds, pirates and pine warriors emerged from a cleft in a wall to see the hideous "crying horror" writhing in eternal torment. Eyes bulged and rolled, tentacles lashed, mouths full of jagged teeth champed and clashed, tongues lolled. A gigantic cobbled-together mistake, it was rooted like a tree stump amid golden shattered crystals and a ring of coals that gave a dim red glow.

"Blood of the martyrs," breathed Murdoch. "Where does it start and end?"

"It's not a horse, sergeant," said Adira, "but it's obviously a living thing."

"So's a turnip," said Simone. "Does that thing think?"

Adira just shook her head. "Who could say?"

"Even if it could," put in Jasmine, "Shauku's torture may have driven it mad."

"Good for us," returned the practical ex-soldier. "Hurt breeds hate. That thing must loathe Shauku. We need all the allies we can scrape up."

"Good luck enlisting it," said Simone the Siren.

"But what is it?" Like most, Whistledove felt a combined pity and disgust. "Why the ring of fire?"

"To mask the stink?" asked Simone. Everyone's eyes were bloodshot and irritated by the pall of smoke wafting along the ceiling.

"So it can't grow,'' said a kobold.

"Grow how?" asked Adira.

"Like a plant. It makes little sprouts, but Shauku saws them off." People shuddered.

"So the fire keeps the roots from spreading," mused Heath.

Even as they watched, another quartet of kobolds dragged a log into the chamber, dumped it in the fiery trench, then went away. No other people were evident. "How big would the beast grow, given free rein?"

"Big," said a kobold.

Adira Strongheart's reduced Circle of Seven crouched in darkness and stared, pondering how to proceed. As did Magfire, her brother Taurion, the scout Kyenou, and four other woods warriors. The three kobolds were restrained by ropes around their necks lest they dash off and alert legionnaires or Lady Shauku herself. The two pixies Sacred Tree and Peaceflower perched on rocks, wary of queer newcomers.

Nearing the huge cavern, the party had been joined by five fire sprites. Long as a man's hand, naked and yellow with glaring black eyes, the fairies rode the air on wings of pure flame, hot as coals from a forge. One in passing frizzled Adira's chestnut curls. The sprites didn't whistle or sing like their wood brethren but simply tagged along like fireflies. The kobold Dog Ears or Prince explained that fire sprites were common in the Blue Mountains, and a pack of fire sprites had been shifted here along with the kobolds. They cast a pleasant yellow glow, so the adventurers ignored them, aside from watching their hats and hair.

As sudden as a thunderclap, a tiger's roar shook the walls and jarred human ears. The crying horror snapped and flailed helplessly. Pixies and fire sprites vaulted into the air to hover near the smoky ceiling.

"That's Jedit!" snapped Adira. "Where the hell-Where did he go?"

No one had seen the tiger slink off. One of the pixies flittered and jabbered. Hurriedly, lurking behind jumbled rocks where possible, the party skirted the hazy cavern. Magfire designated pickets while the pirates split to circle the trapped monster. Then stopped cold in their tracks.

Whereas so far they'd seen only broken fragments of amber glass, now they beheld a giant crystal intact, six-sided, half as tall as a man. The tiger Jedit Ojanen wrestled the crystal as if mad, making the thing rock like a ship at sea. Black claws skittered and screeked over the glasslike surface, unable to score it. What mostly stunned the adventurers was the shadow tumbling inside the crystal.

"Strike me blind!" piped Adira. "Johan!"

Trapped within the amber cube crouched Johan, Tyrant of Tirras, Emperor of the Northern Realms, and prisoner of Lady Shauku. Onlookers gawked. Jedit Ojanen, raging, bunched his mighty thighs and slammed into the crystal as if to tear it open. Talons skittered off harmlessly. Still the tiger hammered, mindless with fury.

"Heath! Hit him! With your bow!" barked Adira. When the part-elf balked, the pirate chief snatched away the thick bow, wound up with two hands, and whacked Jedit hard across the muzzle. Stunned, the tiger backpedaled and made to leap. Adira had drawn her black sword. "Stand fast, Stripes, or I'll fillet you like a hake! I may anyway! What's the idea of caterwauling like a banshee? Would you bring Shauku and every last legionnaire in these hills down on our heads?"