I'm doing the final edits on book six of the Sojourn Chronicels - World's End - and though I would post an excerpt from it.

If anyone wants to get the books, rather than order them through Amazon (and give all the profit TO Amazon), you can get them through the Ancient Tomes Press website.

============
Excerpt from World's End by Crystalwizard
============
Chapter Two:

On the other side of the world, the crescent moon scattered weak rays across the land while a chill wind whistled across the shear peaks; whipping snow into clouds of driving ice and chasing the night birds from the sky. A brilliant flash of light briefly overpowered what radiance the tired moon provided as a lone man materialized on a ledge outside the mouth of a cave high up near the top of the mountain. He stepped to the edge and gazed into the darkness below. Thousands of years, he thought. Years of planning and work. All gone. He held his hands out and spoke several arcane words.


Far below, the shattered remains of a tower began to glow. It brightened quickly then exploded into glittering fragments that filled the air for a moment before vanishing. Waste of time and effort, the man thought wearily as he watched as what had been his office and home for countless ages cease to exist. He stared down into the darkness for a few more seconds, then looked up at the stars and allowed his thoughts to travel back over the last year. ?Stupid,? he muttered as he turned away from the ledge and entered the cave. ?Really stupid. At least I still have control. I just hope it?ll be enough.? He stalked down an icy corridor, pushed open the double doors set into the stone wall at the end, and stepped into a dark room.


That figures, he thought and gestured once more. Even the spells up here are shorted out. He shielded his eyes as brilliance bathed the room. The throne?s still in one piece at least, he thought as he gazed around after his eyes had a chance to adjust. Let?s see if it still works. He crossed the floor and sat down on the seat of the room?s dominant feature then gripped the arms and spoke a single word.
After several sections, the throne began to glow with a sluggish, pulsing light.



The man leaned back heavily against the cushions. Not good. The power?s there, but without the pool under the college it?s almost impossible to tap into it. He frowned and stood up. I?ve got to get at least one seeing spell functioning again. I need to know what those idiot Gorg are up to and why they haven?t found him yet. At least that spell?s still intact. That would be very bad, should it let go while he was still alive. The image of his twin infused with all of the world?s power flashed up into his mind, and he shuddered. Not on my watch, he thought as he stalked across the throne room and pressed a hidden switch on the wall. You aren?t going to destroy any more lives. Not as long as I have the breath to prevent you. The wall slid open and Magister Rommalt, Head Wizard of a college that no longer existed, stepped through the opening into the dark.
~*~
Rommalt paused at the top of a long, narrow stair that descended through the mountain?s core, raised both hands, and whispered a single word. A faint light came into existence as the walls reacted to his spell.


The stairs were narrow and quite steep, treacherous in places where moisture had collected from the seepage of underground streams and the wizard descended with exaggerated caution, pausing every now and then to catch his breath. At last, after nearly eight hours, he stood at the base of the stairs and regarded a thick pair of iron doors. Above him, several miles of stairwell stretched away into the darkness. He looked over his shoulder and envisioned the possible climb back to the top with a shudder. Let?s hope, he thought as he placed both hands on the doors, that it?s still intact.

The wizard closed his eyes and bent his will against the doors. They resisted his efforts for several seconds, and then silently swung open. The small landing on which he stood was suddenly awash with brilliant red light that flooded forth from the chamber. Rommalt squinted against the glare and peered into the room. As a grin spread across his face, he took a step through the doorway.


A perfect hexagon almost forty feet across formed the floor of the chamber, with walls that rose at steep angles upward and away from the center. Nearly forty feet above the floor, the walls angled sharply back in and soared higher to meet up with a hexagonal ceiling some eighty feet above the floor. Suspended in the center hung a huge, glowing crystal; so large that it filled almost all the available space.


Thousands of spikes grew out from it in all directions, some thick and imposing, others thin and fragile in appearance. Red light pulsed within it, bathing the room with a ruddy glow. Twisting lines of green, blue, yellow and purple light shot out from the walls and ceiling to the tips of each spike, and a massive column of light descended from its bottom, disappearing into the floor.



Rommalt crossed his arms over his chest and studied the crystal.


Break the spell!

The wizard jumped and rapidly scanned the room. As he caught sight of a flickering in the air, he narrowed his eyes and gestured, releasing a flock of mini-lightning bolts that left his fingertips and sailed toward it. An anguished howl split the air and the flickering vanished.



?Break the spell,? he muttered. ?Not on your life. Not until you?re dead!? He took a deep breath to settle his nerves then turned his attention back to the crystal. The core?s intact. I wish I could use more than a fraction of its power. He glanced up into the air where the flickering had been and shook his head. Took risky. I?ll have to make do with what little leaks out. I have got to get a seeing spell functioning.


He reached into a pocket and extracted a small crystal globe, held it up before him and stared into its center, then began to chant. As his words echoed through the room, the globe began to glow softly of its own accord. Rommalt spoke the last word of the chant and squinted into the globe. ?Just about worthless,? he muttered as he turned it around in his hands. ?Still, any set of eyes is better than being totally blind.? He stepped back out of the chamber and shut the iron doors, then sat down on the stairs and bent over the orb. The frown on his face deepened into a furious snarl. ?This is a complete waste of time,? he growled after several minutes and stuffed the globe back inside his robes. ?I can?t see anything. I?ve got no choice but to go there!? He stood up and turned toward the stairs, then paused. Nothing up there that I need, he thought as he gazed up into the darkness. The only thing that?s left is the throne room and there?s nothing in it that?ll help. He turned around, pushed the iron doors open, and re-entered the chamber. No telling where those fools are at, he thought as he began drawing symbols on the floor with a piece of chalk. An entire year since the first wave touched the ground and he?s still alive!
He finished the last of the arcane symbols and hid the chalk in a pocket in his robe. ?You want something done right,? he muttered as he closed his eyes and lifted his hands, ?you have to do it yourself!? He snapped his fingers and shouted a single word at the top of his voice. The room seemed to bulge and then explode as the spell took hold, hurling him across the planet. Tiny flecks of bright light zipped past, then a massive wall of undulating, multi-colored energy rose before him and he slammed into it as the spell transported him through the arcane barrier that encircled the Lost Lands.



The wizard screamed and passed out as the forces of creation grabbed hold of him and pulled in all directions. A moment later, his limp, naked form materialized in the air above his destination and he fell into a pool of stagnant water in the center of the Southern Swamps. A cloud of mosquitoes, gnats, and other swarming insects took to the air, and then happily settled down on the best feast they?d ever known in their lives.
~*~
Rommalt moaned.



The icy water of the swamp brought his mind back to sluggish awareness and he struggled to sit up. Angry insects swarmed into the air and buzzed around his head. He swatted at them, flapped his arms without effect, and then gestured. The air was filled with crackling as the insects vanished in tiny puffs of flame. ?Marvelous.? The wizard muttered as he climbed to his feet. He was covered with mud, slime dripped from his hair and beard and his robes, along with all the paraphernalia he kept secreted away inside hidden pockets, had vanished, leaving him completely naked in the middle of the swamp. His face twisted into an expression of revulsion at the smell rising from the fetid pool. ?Why am I not surprised that those fools would choose this as their landing zone? Where in Galastro?s nine planes of Destruction are they?!?


He stripped slime out of his beard and his mustache with his fingers, gagged at the suddenly overwhelming stench he?d released, and bent over, retching violently. All thoughts of finding the Gorg vanished, buried under an intense desire to locate dry land and clean water. He pinched his nose shut and slogged through the muck to a large tussock of wiry grass growing around the roots of a massive tree. ?Water,? he muttered as he shook bits of sludge from his fingers. ?And not this putrid, befouled muck, either.?


He climbed onto the tussock and shook the rest of the mud from his hands, and then went through a series of intricate gestures. The air swirled around and darkened as a miniature cloud formed above him. Minute lighting accompanied by tiny peals of thunder shot out of it, and rain cascaded over his head. Rommalt ran his fingers through his hair as the rain intensified, then shut his eyes and turned his face toward the cloud.



Better, he thought several minutes later as he scrubbed the last bits of filth from his body. He snapped his fingers to dissipate the cloud, wiped the water from his eyes, and looked around at the swamp.

Cypress trees soared into the sky, their branches intertwined into dense, leafy walls. Thick tussocks of grass grew around their roots, forming islands surrounded by dark, slow moving water upon which wide, green, lily-pads, adorned with pink, purple, yellow, and white flowers, floated. Stands of reeds and cattails grew around the edges of the islands, and the calls of water birds provided background music.



Rommalt gazed at the area and sighed, then began mumbling arcane words. The air around him glittered, solidifying into a long, royal-blue wizard?s robe. He brushed a speck of imagined dust from one sleeve and nodded in satisfaction. Much better. Now to find those blasted Gorg. He swept his hands through the air in a grand gesture and snapped his fingers. A small spot of white began to glow in front of him, spreading quickly to become a perfectly round, four-foot wide circle. The circle shimmered and cleared; affording the wizard an excellent image of several Gorg squatting beside a campfire. He peered at the image and adjusted the view.



What ever possessed me, he wondered as he watched as a small fraction of his army going about their daily life. Some killing machines these have turned out to be. From the looks of them, they?re likely to still be sitting there for the next ten years! I?ll have to do this the hard way. He passed his hand through the spell to dissipate it. If my calculations are correct, he should be just about the center of this continent. His brow furrowed and he sighed. I?ll have to take some of those worthless creatures with me, though. I?ll need a distraction and they should provide that, at least. He pointed up into the air and spoke a single word. A compass materialized, its arrow pointing in a north-easterly direction. Rommalt squinted at it, then raised his hands and threw his arms open wide. The teleport spell took effect and he vanished, only to reappear a moment later on top of a small, wooded hill that overlooked a wide valley. Below him, he could see a small group of Gorg camped near the base of the hill near a large area of rubble. He blinked, and stared at the rubble.


The walls surrounding the area had been crushed and lay in ruined heaps of stone. Piece of walls poked out of the ground beyond the walls, giving the impression of what might once have been houses.He squinted and peered at the rubble. What?s that? He swept his hands through the air again, and then froze as a horrible realization crept through him. ?There?s no magic here!? he whispered as his blood ran cold. ?I?m powerless... oh, this is not good!? He stared down from the hill at the ruins and tried to think, unaware that below him, the Gorg leader had just detected his scent on the breeze.