"I'm the reincarnation of a Gem Lord," whispered Thomas to himself, hardly able to believe that what he'd long suspected had finally been confirmed. "One of the most powerful wizards who ever lived..."

     "The Gem Lords?" said Lirenna doubtfully. "The same Gem Lords who created the Emerald Oracle and the Ruby Keep?"

     "Well, that's still just speculation," conceded Thomas. "We just assumed that because they're named after gemstones. I have a feeling in my guts, though, that it's true. I'm certain of it in a way I can't explain. The Gem Lords..."

     "But everything we know about them suggests they lived on Garon, before the discovery of Amafryka," pointed out the demi shae. "That's at least three thousand years ago, maybe longer. Maybe a lot longer."

     Thomas nodded. "They lived in Tak's world. I now believe Tak went on to become one of them, and Barl Hobson another. Everything points to it. All the pieces are falling into place."

     "But if they lived on Garon, an island continent hundreds of miles away across the sea, why are the Emerald Oracle and the Ruby Keep here on Amafryka? Why not on Garon? There weren't even any humans on this continent back then."

     Thomas shook his head in frustration. "I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe they were still around when Amafryka was colonised. A wizard I met while I was back in time in Mala thought they became raks." He paled at the thought, that he was connected in some way with the terrible undead creatures, considered abominations by all right thinking wizards.

     "Not even raks hang around for two thousand years," his wife pointed out. "They evolve into new forms and eventually lose interest in worldly things. You said Tak lived three thousand years ago. How do you know that, by the way?"

     "I don't know," Thomas admitted. "I just know it." He realised what he'd just said and grinned ruefully. "You know what I mean."

     "All right, we'll accept that figure for the time being, which means Tak, in his rak form, lived for two thousand years at least. Even the greatest of the immortal wizards didn't live much longer than that!"

     "Which is why they became such great legends," cried Thomas triumphantly. "How else would we still have legends of them after all this time? Who else from that time can you name? Kings? Wizards? Poets? Sages? Anyone?"

     "All right, point taken," conceded Lirenna. "They must have been enormously powerful, enormously important, but I still find it hard to accept that they existed as long as the immortal wizards. What could have tied them to this world for so long? Think of the power they must have gained. If it was possible to suspend their evolution for that long, why didn't any other of the raks of the time? Why wasn't the world torn apart by rak wars, similar to the Mage Wars? Also, why is the Emerald Oracle off the western coast of Amafryka, about as far from Garon as it's possible to get and still be in the human world? No human even saw the Western Sea until nearly a thousand years after the first ship crossed the Great Ocean."

     She shook her delicate head, sending locks of fine, dark hair swaying past her face. "No, I don't accept it. Your memories may be those of a Gem Lord, we don't know enough to say yes or no yet, but I just can't see any connection with the Emerald Oracle. There's more we still don't know, that's clear enough. The answers may still be in your head, waiting to come out. Continue your story. What happened to Tak next?"

     "He was sent back to Castle Nagra, to continue his education under Molos Gomm. His apprenticeship was to end just a few months later, though. Molos Gomm's health began to decline, and not just his physical health. His mind was going..."

☆☆☆

     The cleric stood, his face grim, and beckoned for Tak to follow him out of the room. Tak did so, with one backward look at his former master, wasting away on the bed.

     "Is there anything you can do?" he asked once the door was closed behind them.

     Father Barlock, who had been reluctant to come and whom Tak had consequently almost abducted, sighed. "If he was infected, the power of Caroli could cure him. If he was injured She could heal him, but this is something even the Gods Themselves will not interfere with. Death is not unnatural, not something to be feared. He will continue in the next world, where he may please the Gods far more than he did in this one."

     "But what about his mind?" demanded the wizard. "If he has to die, why can't he go with dignity?"

     "I don't have the answer to that," admitted the cleric. "The ways of the Gods are mysterious to mortal men. Be assured, however, that all his mental faculties will be restored when he arrives before Them for judgement."

     "But until then he has to be fed, washed and changed like a baby!" cried Tak in anguish. "When I remember what he was..."

     "He was a monster," pointed out the cleric. "You know that more than anyone."

     Tak nodded. "Years ago, I used to dream of the day I'd be able to kill him. I imagined all kinds of agonies I'd inflict upon him, to punish him. Nothing I could think of was bad enough. But now, when I see him like that... He can barely remember who he is, and he's getting worse day by day."

     "The end will come soon, and then he will be free," promised the cleric. "I have done what I can to ease his going, and now I must also go. There are others who need my attention."

     "Yes, yes of course," said Tak, following as the sandaled, brown robed cleric moved away down the corridor. "Thank you again for coming. Erm, I'm sorry I was a bit rough bringing you here..."

     "It speaks well for you that you cared enough for him to risk the wrath of Caroli." He paused to look back at the young wizard. "I have been called upon by many wizards in my time and have perhaps formed a harsh opinion of them, but you seem to be different. I sense that a spark of goodness and decency still burns within you. If you turn aside from the path of sin and magic you might still make a decent life for yourself."

     Tak felt himself touched by the cleric's words, but he shook his head. "The course of my life hasn't been under my control for some time. Magic and evil don't necessarily have to go together, though. Maybe I can be a good wizard, if there can be such a thing."

     "I will pray for you," promised the cleric.

     They reached the courtyard, where Trobo had the cleric's pony ready for him. Father Barlock mounted up. "The Gods watch over you, Tak Eweela. Be careful not to love the power of magic too much."

     "Magic can be useful as well as dangerous," replied Tak. "If you ever need the services of a wizard, or if anyone in the village needs me, please don't be afraid to come to me. There's a new wizard in charge of Castle Nagra now, and things are going to change."

     "I pray that that might be true." The cleric slapped the reins and the pony ambled its way out through the ruined gates and down the long and twisting mountain path.

     Tak waited until he was well away before speaking to Trobo. "Did you put the gold in his saddlebag?"

     "As you instructed," replied the houseman as impassively as ever. Tak suspected that his demeanour would be exactly the same confessing to the murder of dozens of small children.

     The wizard sighed. The cleric would not have accepted payment from a sinful user of magic, but Tak had wanted to compensate him for his visit anyway. He'd probably just give it away to the poor and needy the moment he discovered it, but it still made the wizard feel better to have made the effort.

     A related problem was preying on his mind, however. There had been others present when he'd entered the village looking for Father Barlock, and it had proven impossible to keep the reason for his visit secret. The whole town now knew that Molos Gomm was dying, therefore, and he could only guess how they would react to the news. If they came marching up the mountain path to burn the castle to the ground, he didn't fool himself that he'd be able to stop them. He had to make arrangements to leave quickly, therefore, should the need arise.

     He'd already collected a few essentials and hidden them in a secret room in the basement, where a rampaging mob would be unlikely to find them, but that was only a stopgap measure. He was probably going to have to find a new home. He couldn't leave Molos Gomm while he was still alive, though. He wished he could, even though he still raged inside at the crimes the evil old man had committed. He yearned for vengeance, to make him suffer as he had suffered, but what remained of his humanity cried out in outrage at the thought of just leaving him to die alone. He couldn't do it, not without being haunted by it for the rest of his life. He had to stay to look after him for what remained of his days, therefore, and hope and pray that the villagers gave him that much time.

      He re-entered the castle and returned to Molos Gomm's bedchamber. These days he couldn't be away from him for longer than an hour at a time before the increasingly senile old wizard got himself into trouble of one kind or another, whether it was turning his room upside down searching for something he'd owned twenty years before or wandering the passages of the castle with no clear idea of where he was going and no idea what he was going to do when he got there.

     These things were bad enough, and it had been weeks since Tak had gotten any decent work done looking after him, but his big fear was that he would find his way into one of his laboratories, where the younger wizard had hidden his spellbooks. Tak was hoping that most of the old wizard's spells would have changed since he'd last read them, rendering them useless to him, but some of the most powerful spells were also the most stable, remaining unchanged for months or even years at a time, and if Molos Gomm got it into his head that he was being threatened by enemies he was still capable of causing massive violence and destruction.

     This time at least, however, his fears were groundless. He found the old wizard still sitting in his favourite chair, staring blankly ahead at the bare stone wall as if the secrets of the universe were written on it. He gave a start as the younger wizard entered his field of vision, and then he stared at him in alarm.

     "Master!" he cried in fear. "Forgive me, master, I was just resting for a few minutes! Don't hurt me! Please! I'll be good, I promise I'll be good!"

     He was struggling up out of the chair in real fear and distress, gripping the varnished wooden arms with knobbly, arthritic hands as he tried to find his balance. Tak gently pushed him back, wishing he could still hate him the way he'd used to. It would be so much easier to bear, seeing him like this, if he could still hate him, but all he could feel now was a terrible, aching pity. It seemed impossible that this feeble, confused creature had once had such power over him, and it was strange to contemplate how the situation between them had now reversed. Now Tak had the power, but the one thing he wished more than anything else was that he could just be free of him.

     Molos Gomm confused him with other people quite a lot these days, and Tak had found that the best way to deal with it was to play the role, pretend to be that person. "I won't hurt you," he said therefore. "I'm very pleased with you. Your work has been excellent and you have made great progress."

     The old wizard stared at him in surprise and delight. "I try very hard!" he pleaded. "I do everything you tell me to, I swear it!"

     "I believe it," replied Tak. "You have been good and faithful, and now I want you to rest. How do you feel now? Do your hips still hurt?" The old wizard had fallen down the stairs the day before, breaking his pelvis, which had been the final straw prompting Tak to bring a cleric. The bone had healed easily enough, but that had been the least of Tak's worries.

     "I feel fine," replied the old wizard, feeling himself experimentally. "I'm sorry I struggled, I'll do whatever you want me to do from now on, I promise! Please don't punish me again!"

     "I won't punish you," replied Tak, feeling sick as he guessed the memory the old man was currently reliving. Gods, but how far back did it go? Old wizards abusing their apprentices, who went on to abuse their own apprentices in turn, and so on and so on. It occurred to him that every wizard he'd ever known had been the same, although both Gal-Gowan and Philip had had a slight preference for women. But I'm different, he vowed. It stops with me! If I ever have an apprentice of my own I'll treat him like my own son. My apprentice will not hate me. He'll love and respect me as if I were his father.

     Suddenly he needed to get out of there, needed to get some fresh air. He was afraid he might be physically sick if he had to listen to the old man's senile ramblings any longer. "Your dinner will be ready soon," he said. "I'll bring it to you when it's ready. Stay here, understand? I want you to just stay here. Relax, take it easy. No work, no exercises. No looking for lost wands or keys. Just stay in that chair. Do you understand?"

     "I'll do whatever you say, master. Don't punish me! Please! Pleeeeease!"

     He began weeping and Tak ran from the room, slamming the door and leaning against the cold stone wall until he could regain control of himself. "Gods," he prayed in a whisper. "Take him soon. Please take him soon!"