### 56

'Upon my soul, a Kai Lord!' he exclaims, his eyes now wide with astonishment.

'How I've prayed for freedom, for deliverance from this infernal place. And although hope never deserted me, I never expected such an illustrious rescuer.'

In the middle of his excitement, the old man is suddenly disturbed by a fit of coughing that leaves him pale and exhausted. It is a few minutes before he can speak again. 'My name is Loi-Kymar. I am an elder of the Magician's Guild of Toran,' he says, slowly removing a small crystal star pendant, the symbol of the guild, from beneath his tattered robes. The guild is known as the Brotherhood of the Crystal Star, and the magician shows his pendant as proof of his identity. You ask him how he came to be imprisoned here in Ikaya, many hundreds of miles from his native Toran.

'Vonotar, that unspeakable wretch is responsible for my plight. Days before the Darklord invasion of Sommerlund, he betrayed your Kai masters to win power--the black power of death and darkness. However, he failed to play his part in the war plans his evil masters had laid. The Darklords do not tolerate such weakness--mercy has no place in their brutal minds. In the bitterness of defeat, they sought to destroy Vonotar for his crime of failure. Vonotar knew that I possessed the only means to effect an escape from their vengeance, for my Guildstaff has the power of teleportation. He tried to steal it and flee to the safety of Ikaya by himself, but he learnt that its power is not for all men to share; only I am blessed with its secret. He was angry and would have murdered my kinspeople had I not agreed to bring him here, so I had no choice but to do so.'

'Ever since, I have been a prisoner in this cell. Vonotar has tortured my body and my mind, but I have not divulged the secret of my Guildstaff, which he now keeps in the Hall of the Brumalmarc. For if I were to tell him, my life would no longer be of any value.'

You tell Loi-Kymar of your mission and of the events that have led to your meeting. He offers to show you a route through Ikaya to the Hall of the Brumalmarc where Vonotar now resides as ruler, and if you can retrieve his Guildstaff, he promises to teleport you to the coast in time to rendezvous with your ship.

For the first time since you fell into the caverns of Kalte, you feel confident that your mission can now succeed.

Turn to 192.

Text copyright © 1984 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1984 Gary Chalk.