KING’S QUEST: STAR OF INFINITY 
by Anthony Durrant



Anthony Durrant 1st N.A. Serial Rights

572 Westminster Avenue © Anthony Durrant, 2001

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 5, 2001

K2A 2V3 All rights reserved.

As I was coming out of my home, I spotted something huge streaking out of the
sky and heading straight toward the ground below. Seconds later, the object
struck the earth with such force that the shock wave knocked me off my feet -
and I was miles away from the explosion, in my home land of Balentrum, across
the sea from Daventry and the other lands. When I rose to my feet, I saw that
the people of Balentrum had been turned into glass! Rushing to the house of
Farmer Brown, I found him standing in the field - a statue of glass. Looking
around to make sure no one was following me, I went into the house and found
his wife and daughter Rebecca had met with the same ghastly fate. Searching
the house, I found some healing mushrooms in a big cupboard by the stove, and
when I opened a box on the shelf by the table, I found 30 gold coins and took
the mushrooms and the coins into my possession before going back to my home.
When I walked through my front door, I looked at the shelves and shelves of
books all around me and smiled proudly. Walking to my bedside table, I opened
the box on it and took out the 80 coins I had tucked away inside for a rainy
day, then walked to my desk and grabbed the knife. Tucking the knife into my
belt, I walked outside and hoped my thirst for knowledge would prove useful in
trying to save the inhabitants of sweet Balentrum from their ghastly living
death.

Taking the east road, I walked up the street to the Balsham family’s house
where I found only more glass statues which had surprised and even fearful
expressions on their faces. As soon as I went into their house, I spotted a
pair of boots sitting by the bed and put them on. They were a good fit and
covered my legs right up to the hips; their leather was brown and resilient.

"These boots," I thought, "will help protect my feet from any attack."

Looking around, I spotted a shelf in the back corner of the house and went
over to take a closer look. An ornate box was on the shelf; inside it were 50
gold coins which I took with me, as I knew I would need gold on my travels. As
I was walking back to the bed, I noticed a bright pink box sitting on the
bedside table. When I opened it, I found not any coins but a little girl’s
braids, cut off many years ago from the head of the Balshams’ daughter. Taking
them, I walked out of the house and into the street again. Up the street from
the Balshams’ house was the town inn; when I went inside, I found that
everyone here had been turned to glass as well.

"I will avenge you!" I cried. "I swear by all the powers I will turn you back
to normal and rid the town of the horror that has befallen each and every one
of us!"

Heading up the stairs to the second floor, I opened the huge chest at the end
of the hall and grabbed the healing crystals which were inside; when I had the
crystals in my possession and safely tucked away, I went downstairs and walked
behind the bar. Underneath the top of the bar, carefully hidden away from
other people, I found a set of gloves which I put on.

"These," I said, "are good gloves and the leather is beautifully tanned. They
will protect my hands from harm and keep the skin safe from the touch of the
hilt of my knife."

Grabbing the mushrooms and crystals on the shelf above me, I also took the
sugar sack at the left of the mushrooms, thinking I might find a use for it in
my quest. Seeing a spice cabinet beside the shelf, I pried it open with my
dagger and found a string of Tangra spice - which is also used as an herbal
tea - hanging by a rope from the top of the cabinet. Cutting the rope, I took
the spice into my possession and grabbed the 30 gold coins from Darena the
inkeeper’s box.

"She won’t mind," I thought, "once she learns I’ve used her gold to save
Balentrum from whatever evil is sweeping over the land I love so much. In
fact, she might even marry me."

Laughing at the absurdity of that thought - Darena would never marry a
crippled scholar such as I and neither would any other maiden - I left the inn
and went back the way I came, to the west. When I reached the crossroads where
the statue of King Vortigern stood, I continued west until I came to the
sawmill. By this time creatures had started pouring into the village from the
sight of the impact - creatures such as I had never seen before. Many of them
carried clubs for close combat fighting and the bigger ones with powerful
muscles just used their fists. One of the smaller ones attacked me and I drew
my knife. Of course, my crippled foot made it painful for me to fight at all,
but fight I did. No quarter was asked and no quarter was given - we fought to
the death, and as I stabbed my knife blade through his black heart and watched
him fall to the ground, I gasped for breath, breathing in the fresh air
joyfully and with a good will. Grabbing the mushrooms he’d been carrying, I
hurried toward the sawmill where I found the miller by the gears of his mill.
Hanging from the second floor was a rope that was tied to the millwheel and
stretched tight. When I cut the rope, it went slack and a staircase fell down
from the ceiling. As I climbed up the staircase, I looked back and saw the
mill was still grinding away.

"I’ll have to stop the gears somehow before the mill catches fire!" I thought.

Turning away from the moving gears, I spotted a large amulet hanging from a
rope at the back of the second floor. Cutting the rope, I took the amulet into
my possession.

"An Amulet of Levitation!" I thought. "I’d recognize it anywhere. Good! I
can’t climb very well, so I’ll need this to help me get up the sides of cliffs
and towers and walls."

As I climbed back down the stairs, I blew the miller a kiss. At the bottom of
the stairs I found a saucer of milk set out for the village’s many cats and
promptly took it with me.

"Don’t worry, old friend!" I said, my eyes choked with tears. "I’ll find a way
to change you back to your old self once again: I swear it with all my heart!"

I still wonder if I had read too many romantic adventure stories and fairy
tales. Feeling a little pain from my crippled foot, I left the sawmill and
turned east to the lakeside. As soon as I came to the lake, I stepped into the
water, limping on my crippled foot. As soon as I was in the water, one of the
huge creatures jumped me and I managed to kill him although I was badly hurt
in the process by his huge fists. Before wading to the wizard’s tower, I
gobbled down some of the mushrooms I had found in the village and on the
creatures, including the one who had fought me in the river a few minutes
earlier. As soon as I did so, I felt myself getting stronger as all my wounds
rapidly healed, and then waded towards the island where the tower stood. Soon
I came to the edge of the island and dragged myself onto the shore where I
relaxed quietly.

"After a few minutes’ respite," I thought, "I’ll go to the tower door."

When I had rested and the pain in my foot had subsided, I went to the door of
the tower and - since I doubted the wizard would want me to knock on his door,
as he would always be at work on some mystical studies that even I could only
guess at - pried it open with my knife, then walked painfully up the long and
winding stairs to the wizard’s chamber. Once at the door of the chamber, I
forced it open and walked inside to meet the wizard.

"Greetings, Wycliff’s Son!" he cried. "I’ve been expecting you ever since the
moon fell from the sky and crashed into our fair land. Now all hell has broken
loose and the land is in very grave danger. We need a saviour, young scholar -
we need you."

"Why me?" I asked the wizard, a bald man in a long hooded robe who was clean
shaven.

"Who knows?" the wizard asked. "Fate. Kismet. Prophecy. No one can say why
most champions are chosen at a time of great need. All I know is that you have
been chosen to be our champion against the evil from the crashed moon."

"Are there not warriors in the land?" I asked. "Why was a warrior not chosen?"

"Most of the town defenders were killed in the explosion when the moon
crashed."

"What was it that fell from the sky?" I asked.

"One of the moons that orbit our planet," the wizard told me, "was knocked
from its orbit by a comet that collided with it and has crashed on our planet,
releasing a great evil which had been living inside it under the rocky
surface, unknown until now. You are needed to defeat this evil by finding the
Star of Infinity and taking it to the Temple of the Moon of Light. Only then
will this otherworldly evil be stopped forever and the land itself returned to
normalcy. To do so, you’ll have to submit to my last and greatest spell - a
Spell of Rebirth. To cast this spell I need a bag of sugar, a few stems of
spice, braids cut from the head of a little girl, and an Everburning Torch.
Are you willing to sacrifice everything that you have been to save the world?"

"With all my heart!" I cried. "Look - I already have three of your four
items!"

"You need to have the fourth, Wycliff’s Son," the wizard said, "or the spell
is useless."

"Then I’ll go and find it," I told him, "even if it means I have to cut off my
crippled foot. I can’t stand by and watch the moon creatures take over the
land I love!"

"Good luck, young scholar," the wizard said, "and I hope and pray you
succeed!"

"Thank you, good wizard!" I cried.

Delighted, I limped slowly and painfully down the long and winding stairs and
eventually came to the bottom of the tower, at which time I walked outside and
breathed in the fresh air. A few minutes later, I was wading through the river
toward the forest. Upon climbing out of the river, and resting to ease the
pain in my foot, I went into the woods where I found the creatures from the
crashed moon had already taken over, scaring the birds and beasts into hiding.
Fighting my way through the woods - subsisting on the healing mushrooms - I
grabbed healing items and gold from the creatures I killed. Eventually, I came
to the edge of the desert, where I found a big cave in the side of the cliff.
Upon entering the cave, I found several women kneeling before an idol who held
a burning torch in her right hand. When I examined the women, I found they had
been turned to glass as well - and that they were witches, bowing before an
evil goddess.

"I can’t let these witches be returned to normal!" I thought.

Upset beyond words, I began smashing the brass hilt of my knife into the glass
women, smashing them into little bitty pieces and shrieking out the words:

"I can’t let you work your evil on the land! I can’t let you hurt anybody
else!"

When my anger had subsided, I stumbled up the stairs to the lap of the idol
and grabbed the torch. Pulling it out of the idol’s hand, I took the torch
into my possession and went back to the wizard’s tower. This time, when I
climbed up the long and winding stairs with my shirt wet with the blood of the
moon creatures, I nearly collapsed at the top from exhaustion.

"I’ve found a torch for you," I told the wizard, "that I think you can use in
your spell. It was in a cave, in the hand of an idol being worshipped by a
coven of three witches. Here are the other three items as well, sir wizard. I
hope you can make good use of the four of them."

As I spoke, I handed the four ingredients to the wizard.

"Would you sacrifice what you are," the wizard asked, "for the good of the
world?"

"Oh, yes!" I cried. "Yes, I would!"

With that, I lay down on the stone slab in the middle of the wizard’s chamber.

"Let’s get this over with!" I cried. "I have a people and a land to save from
evil."

"Let us begin!" the wizard shouted. "This spell can only be cast once on a
person and is the one sure way of destroying an Everburning Torch. With the
torch destroyed, the witches will have to live and worship forever in eternal
darkness at the foot of their once proud idol."

Taking the four items I had given him, he spread them on the slab except for
the torch, which he held in his hand by the lion’s-bone handle, and began to
work his magic. In seconds the items I’d collected were caught up in the
magical fire erupting from the wizards hands, after which he aimed the roiling
energies from the objects at me. When the energies struck, they took my breath
away and great pain surged through my muscles and joints as the spell took its
effect.

A few seconds after the spell energies hit me, there was a blinding flash.

"I will never forget! I will never forget!" I mumbled just before I blacked
out.

When I awoke, I found the tower top had blown off as a result of the Rebirth
spell, and to my surprise and horror I saw the wizard had been killed in the
explosion. A black burn mark on the floor showed where the wizard had been
standing and above it floated his ghost.

"You’re dead, aren’t you?" I asked, surprised by the sound of my new voice.

"Yes I am, Wycliff’s Daughter!" he said proudly. "This was my last and
greatest spell, as I told you, and now that I have cast it you have a new form
in which to save the land."

"But why cast it at all?"

"Because I was already dying, young scholar!" the wizard said. "Because I
wanted to create a new champion who would save the people of Balentrum from
this alien evil."

"What have you done to me?" I asked, looking at my new breasts under my shirt.

"You have been reborn," the wizard said, "and now are Wycliff’s Daughter, not
his son.

I have made you as mighty as a lion, as beautiful as a queen, as passionate as
the flames of a lit torch, as proud as a noble and as sweet as a little girl.
I can’t tell you anything more, as I have to go to my eternal respite, but I
can tell you that you now have the power to save the land. You’ll know more
later, before you have achieved your goal and completed your quest."

Stretching my arms, I placed my hands on the table and rose to my feet - my
perfect feet.

"I’m not lame anymore!" I cried, dancing around the room. "I’m not lame
anymore!"

"I am one with the magic now," the wizard said as he began to fade away.
"Farewell, my fine young scholar. May good luck always go with you. As for me,
I’m going to my rest."

As he spoke, he faded from view and disappeared completely. Falling to my
knees, I put my head in my hands and wept bitterly because I could never
return to my original form again as the Rebirth spell was permanent. Pulling
myself to my feet, I looked around the wizard’s ruined chamber. At the back of
the room was a globe of the solar system, showing the planets and other
heavenly bodies ruled by each of the gods. Not having any use for it, I left
the globe where it was sitting and turned to the spellbook at the other side
of the chamber. When I went up to the book, I found one page was blank. As a
gesture to the wizard, I decided to write a memorial to him on the blank page
and reached for the pen, only to have it come alive at my touch. It wrote a
few lines on the blank page, then dipped itself back in its inkwell. Tearing
off the page, I read the poem the pen had written on it, which I now write
here for the reader’s benefit:

"When Mars is in the ascendant,

Whole nations are steeped in war.

When Venus is in the ascendant,

The dove of peace flies overhead."

Normally, I would have dismissed these words as empty braggadoccio, but now I
was on a quest, and when you’re on a quest every clue or message is vitally
important. Looking at the celestial globe again, I saw the pointer moving back
and forth between Mars and Venus and saw the true meaning of the poem on the
wizard’s page for the first time. When the pointer was on Mars, a booby trap
was activated and then deactivated when the pointer moved to Venus. If I used
the page on the globe when the pointer was on Mars, the trap would go off.
Watching the pointer carefully, I used the page on the globe when the pointer
was on Venus. When I did, the globe spun around and opened up on the other
side, facing away from Mars and Venus. Inside it was a potion and a small key,
both of which I took. When I drank the potion, I found I was able to see the
invisible chest beside the desk. Using the key, I unlocked the chest and
opened the lid; inside the chest was a magic flute which I took with me as I
danced down the stairs of the tower in a combination of ecstacy at my new
shape and grief at the loss of the wizard. Once at the bot- tom of the tower,
I idly played a tune on the flute and a nixie came out of the water.

"Lady Champion," she said in a beautiful voice, "this spell is my gift to you.
It protects you from danger, but only for a little while. I wish you good luck
on your quest!"

"Thank you, sweet nixie!" I shouted back. "I’ll need good luck on this quest."

With that, she fell back into the water and swam away. As soon as she was
gone, I went back to the village crossroads, where I took the road leading
north and soon came to the smithy, where I found the blacksmith - Saul - had
also been turned to glass. Looking around the smithy, I saw Saul’s
sledgehammer and took it with me, leaving my knife on the anvil. I was amazed
to find I could easily heft the heavy tool when I took it into my possession.

"I can use this as a weapon against the moon creatures!" I cried.

Tucking it away, I opened Saul’s strongbox and took his coins, which I badly
needed. As soon as I came out of the shop I was attacked by another moon
creature and defended myself by using the sledgehammer against my opponent.
Once the creature was dead, I grabbed the four healing crystals that were on
him, hardly daring to look at his ugly face. Tucking them away for later use,
I turned my steps back to the sawmill on the east road. When I came to the
door of the mill, I hesitated. Something told me I couldn’t stop the sawmill
from inside the building.

"Perhaps if I go around the side," I thought, "I might find a way to stop the
mill there."

My name isn’t Verdance Wycliff’s Daughter for nothing! I thought as I walked
around the side of the sawmill. There I saw a waterfall pouring over the
millwheel. Looking around, I noticed a very old and dying tree near the
sawmill, its huge trunk rotten and full of bugs. Pulling out the hammer, I
swung it at the tree, bashing the trunk into splinters. Eight strong blows
later, the tree began to tilt towards the sawmill and waterwheel behind it.

"TIMMM - BERRRRR!" I shouted as the tree fell down.

It landed directly on the waterwheel, causing it and the sawmill to stop. As
the water at the bottom of the wheel receded, I saw a skeleton with a halberd
in his hand lying on the bottom of the lake just underneath it. Rushing up to
the skeleton, I bent down and looked at the axe as it lay in the dead man’s
open hand as he lay on his back with the arm and halberd raised over his head
to deliver the killing blow - the coup de grace - that might have ended
someone’s life if he hadn’t somehow fallen into the river and drowned.
Grabbing the halberd, I left the hammer on the river bottom, in the dead man’s
open hand, and examined my new weapon intently.

"Why, this is Executioner!" I cried. "Executioner, the weapon of Velikar the
Strong, a long-dead warrior who once roamed Balentrum and fought for the King.
Now I will use him to save Balentrum from the evil forces from the moon that
has crashed in her forest!"

Tucking Executioner away, I walked back to the path and returned to the
crossroads. From the crossroads I went south to the graveyard and church. When
I came to the church door, I found that it was covered in rubble from the
explosion, mostly wood and pieces of rock. Since the door was blocked, I
pulled out the amulet and looked at it curiously.

"How do I use this thing?" I wondered.

As I looked at the amulet, my thumb touched the ruby on the front of the piece
of jewelry and I found myself floating off my feet! A few seconds later, I was
standing on the wall of the church facing up. Blushing with embarrassment, I
walked up the wall to the top of the church as the wind whipped my long hair
in my eyes and pushed me back down. Finally, though, I made it to the top - O,
agonizing climb! - and climbed over the top of the wall onto the roof. There I
saw the whole of the town and especially the graveyard. There was a hole in
the roof and I walked to the hole to see what was inside the church. Using the
amulet, I walked down the wall into the church and looked around. I was in the
entry room of the church, where a poor box was nailed to a wall. Taking a few
of my gold coins, I put them in the box through the slit on the front, and
this action made me feel all toasty and warm inside. Upon entering the church
proper, I noticed a statue of the Lady of the Moon - Artemis the Huntress - on
the altar, dressed in a long flowing robe with a hood that covered the top of
her head. Walking up to the statue, I found a scroll on the floor behind her,
underneath the rudimentary control system at the back of the statue. A tall
lever projected from the back of the statue, and I easily pulled it down, at
which point the doors of the crypt, which I could see through the window,
opened to reveal a portal.

"So that is where I am to go," I thought, "where I have to travel to save
Balentrum!"

Using the amulet, I climbed up the wall to the church roof. Looking towards
the crypt, I noticed a creature with a crossbow just below me. Leaping from
the top of the church, I landed on the creature, who threw me off his back
like a wild horse as I pulled out Executioner. Rising to my feet, I charged
the beast and swung Executioner at the same time. When the weapon bit into his
neck, slicing it in two, the creature’s head went spinning into the darkness
as he fell to the ground; bending down, I took the crossbow and the gold coins
that were on the beast.

"Before I leave Balentrum," I thought, "I should look in on the tomb of
Baldric the Red."

Turning east, I walked toward the tomb and found the iron door shut as usual.
Two good blows from the axe bashed the door open and I walked into the tomb.
Walking up to the coffin, I pushed open the lid and looked inside. Baldric’s
body was wrapped in linen and had been mummified as per his last request; on
his head was a slim golden diadem which I grabbed and put on; I thought I
might have to use the crown sometime later on my quest. Looking around the
tomb, I noticed a torch on the wall and tried to get it, but instead pulled it
down like a lever. When I did, a secret door at the back of the tomb slid
open. Surprised, I walked through the door and found myself in a secret
passage leading north. On following the passage to its end, I found myself in
the dining room of the Royal Palace! Seated at the table, a piece of paper in
front of him, was my father! Like everyone else in Balentrum, he was now a
glass statue. Grabbing the piece of paper, I read it and found it was a note
from my father, which I reproduce here:

"Dear Verdance:

"By the time you read this message, the wizard Varga will have cast the
Rebirth spell on you, transforming you into a new person. I too saw the moon
fall and knew that the comet had returned and that Destiny had chosen you as
the Champion who will save Balentrum. You have quite a destiny ahead of you,
boyo - no, I think it should be girlo by now. I can already feel my- self
turning to glass as I write this message, so I’ll have only a few seconds more
to write. Only you can save Balentrum from the evil forces from the fallen
moon and -"

That was all - my father had turned to stone before he could write any more.
Tucking the note away, I looked around and saw a picture of the King in all
his finery beside a picture of our Queen in all her bejewelled splendour.
Looking more closely, I saw that the picture of the King was slightly askew,
and when I straightened it, I found a lever underneath which I pulled, which
opened the secret door behind the painting. There I found a leather
breastplate which I pulled on over my shirt; it tickled when it touched the
bare skin of my tummy. Heading through the door on my right, I walked into the
throne room, where I found the king and his aide standing in front of a magic
mirror just like the one in the Castle of Daventry. As I stared at the mirror,
the swirls of energy in it formed into the face of an armoured lady wearing a
bizarre jewelled crown.

"I am the Moon Queen!" she shouted. "Anyone who dares to usurp me will be
killed!"

With that her face once again diffused and became swirls of energy. Smiling to
myself, I walked back to the dining room and then left the palace through the
secret passage in the tomb of Baldric. As I turned east toward the tomb, I
heard the sound of sobbing and rushed to the old grave in the middle of the
graveyard. Standing in front of the tombstone was a big blue creature who
resembled a huge armadillo and was crying his heart out, leaving a huge puddle
in front of the tombstone. Pulling out my handkerchief, I handed it to the
creature.

"Why are you so sad?" I asked. "Why are you crying so bitterly?"

"Because I am a Squonk," the creature said, "and all Squonks are so horrified
and upset by our own ugliness that we must all cry. I can’t even bear to look
at my own reflection!"

"Are you someone under the effect of a spell?" I asked.

"No, dear child," the Squonk said, "for I am now and have always been a
Squonk."

"Is there any way I could change that?" I asked. "Is there any magic I could
get you?"

"Most magic does not hurt me, girl," he said, "and if I was captured, I would
dissolve and reform myself elsewhere. Perhaps somewhere on your journey you
will find something that will change me into a different creature so that my
sorrow will be ended - but that is unlikely."

"Goodbye, then!" I said, kissing the Squonk on his scaly nose.

"Farewell, my little love!" the Squonk sobbed as I walked into the Mausoleum.

Once in the Mausoleum, I found the body of an armoured knight with a magic map
in his hand. Grabbing the map, I leaped into the portal and was thrown into
the Land of Heaven. Once outside the portal, I walked forward along the
pathway in front of it until I encountered two very bizarre men in odd-looking
armour who advanced toward me brandishing curved swords.

"We want your soul, Mortal!" one of them cried. "Our life forces thirst for
it!"

"Never!" I cried, drawing Executioner. "My soul will never be yours for the
taking!"

Wielding Executioner, I leaped toward the two men and they leaped toward me
wielding their bizarre weapons. They were formidable fighters, but Executioner
seemed to have a will of his own and within minutes the two men were dead.
Before heading onward, I grabbed the piles of mushrooms the two men had
dropped and ate some of them to restore my health. For a fleet- ing moment, I
thought of my old friend from the Gentleman’s Academy in Daventry. We’d lost
contact after I’d been given a double promotion and had to move to the
upstairs rooms.

"I hope I’ve learned something from our time together, old friend!" I
whispered. "Other- wise, Balentrum and even the rest of the world could be
conquered by the Moon Queen."

At the end of the path was a huge room, in the center of which was a large
cell with two solid doors which were locked tightly and when I tried to pull
them open, I found I couldn’t even budge them. There had to be another way
into the locked cell. Exploring the room further, I saw a number of crates
which I bashed open with Executioner to get the mushrooms and crystals stored
inside. Once I had the mushrooms and crystals safely tucked away, I noticed a
short inscription on a pillar on the upper left corner of the room which read:

"Queen Hsi Wang Mu was born a leopard before she was ever the Queen of
Heaven!"

Heading toward the lower left corner, I founs another pillar and another
inscription:

"Use the key to open the doors that lead to Queen Hsi Wang Mu!"

After reading the second inscription, I rushed to the lower right corner where
I found a third pillar and a third inscription:

"Lord Azriel defeated the King of Heaven in combat and was ordered by the
other gods to find a successor. On an island far away at sea he discovered an
elderly female leopard who was near the end of her life and was the last of
that island’s predators. Upon seeing her, Lord Azriel infused the leopard with
the essence of the King of Heaven and she was transformed in- to a gentle
spirit. That spirit is Hsi Wang Mu, the new Queen of the Land of Heaven!"

"So that’s how she came to be Queen!" I cried.

Hurrying to the upper right pillar, I saw a huge key floating above it which I
took with me before reading the fourth and final inscription that was carved
into the pedestal:

"This key wll open the double door that leads to the prison of Hsi Wang Mu!"

Heading back to the two doors of the cell, I slid the key into the keyhole and
the doors of the cell swung open. Shyly, nervously, I walked through the doors
into a short hallway leading to another set of double doors which swung open
as I walked up to them. When I went through the doors, I found myself staring
at what seemed to be a child’s hopscotch game but was really a puzzlement that
barred access to a final set of doors leading to Hsi Wang Mu.

It’s even in the familiar lowercase T pattern! I thought.

When I stepped onto the first square of the puzzlement, I was immediately
teleported to the area behind the pattern. After a moment’s thought, I
realized that I had stepped on the wrong number - the doors were unlocked by a
set of prime numbers. To open them, I had to hop across the pattern to each of
the prime numbers in the puzzlement. When I stepped on the number 13, I was
teleported to the area in front of the double doors, which swung slowly open.

They must like my style of hopscotch! I thought proudly as I walked through
the doors.

Walking proudly to the back of the cell, I found Hsi Wang Mu seated on an
ornate throne encrusted with precious gems. She was stunningly beautiful and
exotic-looking with long black hair and pale white skin and wore a white robe
with a jewelled belt; in her hand she held a long sceptre which looked like a
blue lotus in full bloom. Her eyes were the gold of a leopard’s.

"Why have you come here, my child?" she asked in a soft, sweet voice. "My
spectral samurai have turned against me and this land is in the grasp of an
old alien evil whose magic I cannot defeat. You would have done well not to
have come here at all."

"I have come," I said, "to defeat that evil and to restore Heaven to your
gentle rule."

"Ah, then you are the Twiceborn!" she said. "I have been expecting you."

"Twiceborn?" I asked.

"You were born once as a male but have been reborn through a wizard spell as a
female."

"Ah, yes!" I cried. "The Rebirth spell cast by the wizard Varga."

"I have but one request to make of you, Twiceborn!" Hsi Wang Mu said. "Make me
smile, and if you succeed, I will then grant you a boon!"

"Mu was born a leopard," I thought, "and leopards are cats. Cats like milk!"

Pulling out the saucer of milk from the sawmill, I placed it on her lap. When
she saw the saucer, the Queen of Heaven smiled broadly and lifted it to her
mouth, then began to drink from the saucer. Still smiling, she put the saucer
back on her lap and sat back in her throne.

"That was good milk, Twiceborn!" she said. "Thank you. That fills my request,
so now I am obliged by honour to grant you your boon. Name any wish and I
shall grant it!"

"Very well," I said, "since you asked, I do have a wish. Tell me how to leave
Heaven so that I may go forward on my quest to save my homeland from the moon
creatures."

"You did not wish to be returned to your original state?" Mu asked. "Why was
that?"

"I prefer the form into which I have been reborn," I told her, "and I don’t
want to ever be a cripple again! To progress further on my quest, I must know
how to leave Heaven."

"To leave the Land of Heaven, one must cross the Bridge of the Sun or be taken
across by my boatman angel to the other side of the River of Wonder."

She gave me a key.

"That is the key to the Pearly Gates!" she said. "Use it to enter Heaven and
go across the River. Only by going across the river can you access the portal
that leads out of Heaven."

"Thank you, your Highness!" I said as I backed out of the cell. "Belantrum is
grateful."

Moments later, I found myself standing behind the cell in front of the Pearly
Gates; Hsi Wang Mu had teleported me there as I was leaving her cell . . . and
I was still Wycliff’s Daughter as well, for the Queen had kept her word and
had not reversed the Rebirth spell - because, I sud- denly realized, she
couldn’t reverse it - not even a goddess could remove a Rebirth spell. Using
her key on the Pearly Gates, I was able to open them and walk into the Land of
Heaven. At the centre of the garden in which I found myself was a fountain,
and when I drank from the fountain, a good feeling went through me and I felt
happy and at peace. Everything else in the garden was wilting, dying - the
result of the weird magic of the Moon Queen. If I didn’t save Heaven, not a
thing would soon grow in this garden again and Paradise would be forever
destroyed. I lay down in front of the fountain and slept for the first time in
what seemed like days. When I awoke the next morning, I again drank from the
fountain. This time, though, I noticed my reflection.

"Why, I -" I said, "I - I’m beautiful!"

Long hair streamed down to my shoulders and my face was stunning, with a long
nose and high cheekbones. My skin was tanned a healthy pink, and my body
strong; I had a lean mus- cular build so I had no doubt I was as mighty as a
lion. I also had no doubt that I was a female as I could feel nothing between
my legs when I moved or walked, apart from having breasts. With a sigh of
delight I broke out of my reverie and walked around the garden. At each corner
of this part of heaven I found a crate which I smashed with Executioner,
releasing the button under the crate; when I had smashed all four I returned
to the Fountain and found a woman standing right in front of it; she was tall
and slimwith red hair and long golden wings that gleamed in the sun. I could
do nothing but bow low to her and say:

"My lady!"

"Welcome to the Fountain of Wisdom!" the woman said. "I am the Sylph of the
Wise and this fountain is under my protection, sweet wanderer; avail yourself
of its waters."

"I already have, my lady," I told her, "but thank you anyway. Are you not
afraid of the evil which has invaded Heaven and now holds Paradise in its evil
grasp?"

"No, sweet child, for my magic will protect me. What of you - are you
protected?"

"Yes," I said, "for a nixie cast a spell on me that would protect me from
evil."

"That would not work against the minions of the Moon Queen," the Sylph said,
"for the power she wields is alien to the forces of nature in the land from
whence you came. I can cast a spell on you that will protect you from the evil
forces that have overrun this land."

"What will you need for the spell?" I asked, remembering the four items Varga
had had me obtain for his Rebirth spell.

"A blue cup flower and the broken sword of a mighty warrior!" she told me.
"Bring me these two items and I will cast a protective spell on you, my lady
Champion."

"Thank you, sweet Sylph!" I said. "I will look around for these items as I
explore."

Walking to the end of the main garden, I found a path leading east and
followed it to one of the smaller gardens, defeating several of the spectral
samurai on the way. There I discovered a path leading up the side of a tower,
and when I reached the top of the tower, I stared out over the length and
breadth of Heaven. From this vantage point I could see four portals on each
side of the garden, each leading to another part of Heaven which I had not yet
explored. Yet, there seemed to be no way of opening them from the main garden
itself. After climbing down from the tower, I went back west and as I walked
out of the path into the main garden, I noticed a sec- ond pathway on the
opposite side of the room leading west. Again, I was attacked by spectral
samurai, and again I used Executioner to defeat them before taking the
mushrooms and crystals from their dead bodies. This time the path led to
another tower with buttons around the base at the corners of the square. A
number of spectral samurai were in the room and I led them onto a button, then
killed them, so that their bodies fell onto the buttons and pushed them down.
After killing the samurai one by one and pressing all four of the buttons, I
took the gold and food from their dead bodies. Using the talisman, I climbed
up the side of the tower and found a samurai in a mail breastplate standing at
the top who lunged at me with his sword, trying to force me off the edge of
the tower. Fortunately, I had Executioner, and with him I was able to push the
samurai back toward the other edge of the tower - the one behind him - and
knock him over the side - but as he tipped over and fell to his death, he
managed to knock Executioner out of my hands and he fell spinning over the
side of the tower. After defeating him, I climbed down the side using the
talisman and reached the bottom of the tower where I found Executioner - his
handle broken in two from the impact and his blade smashed apart. Smoke curled
out of the broken handle and as I watched it formed into the figure of a
knight in full plate armour with a smile on his face.

"You have released me from yon broken halberd, which was my lonely prison for
many centuries," the knight told me, "and now I must repay the favour. Before
the makers of that hal- berd sucked me into the cursed weapon in order to
enchant it, I carried a medallion that blocked the power of witchcraft. Since
I do not need this medallion anymore, I will give it to you."

With that, he pulled a medallion from his chest and handed it to me.

"Take it, my dear, and know that I am truly grateful!" he added. "I am Sir
Malcolm the Executioner and I hope that you will think kindly of me from time
to time."

"I will, Sir Malcolm!" I said. "Thank you."

"Farewell, my lady Champion!" Sir Malcolm cried. "I go now to my final peace."

With that he vanished, leaving me with the medallion, which I tucked safely
away. Find- ing the body of the samurai lying on the floor behind the tower, I
grabbed his sword and took his mail breastplate, leaving my leather
breastplate on top of the spectre’s body. Hurrying back to the main garden, I
found all four portals were now open. There were inscriptions over each one,
and I chose to enter the one whose inscription read: DOOR TO INNER PEACE.

When I hurled myself through the portal, I was confronted by a spectral
samurai on the other side who lay slumped against a huge block with a gaping
sword wound in his chest; it was diamond-shaped, indicating the sword was a
straight one, not one of the curved blades used by the spectral samurai.
Feeling a sharp pain, I looked down at my left arm and saw an arrow stuck in
it just above the elbow. Pulling out the arrow, I grabbed my crossbow, whirled
to face the ar- cher samurai standing on the other side and pulled the
trigger. A few seconds later, the dart was stuck in his chest and he fell to
the ground dead. There was an armoured knight standing on the other side of
the room behind a pedestal on which a golden head rested. He was placing a
cross- bow on the pedestal and was in the process of taking the head off the
pedestal. Once he had the head, I jumped up on the smaller block and then
climbed from that onto the taller block. Facing the knight, I made a running
jump across the river and landed on the other side. Holding the gol- den head
under his arm, the knight whirled to face me and grabbed the crossbow he’d
just placed on the pedestal, which he aimed at me with an angry look on his
face.

"This head is mine!" the knight cried. "It’s mine and I’m not letting you
steal it away!"

Before he could actually fire the crossbow, however, a statue of a tall
shorebird with blue feet came down on the hapless knight from above. He was
crushed underneath the statue, dying instantly. Looking down at his body, I
smiled broadly, then broke out in a laugh.

"That was a very dumb move!" I told the dead man as I grabbed the head from
his hand.

Turning away, I cast one last look at the booby trap before heading toward a
broken stone column with a few chips knocked out of it near the bottom.
Lunging at the column, I knocked it over, then walked to the centre of the
lake on the fallen column before leaping to the other side a few seconds
later. Once safely on solid ground again, I leaped into the portal and found
myself back in the garden of the Sylph of the Wise. After stopping to rest for
a few minutes, I hurried to the portal beside the Door of Inner Peace,
inscribed DOOR OF ETERNAL REST.

Upon throwing myself through the portal - and landing somewhat clumsily on the
other side - I was attacked by a samurai wielding a sword. Drawing my own
sword, I fought back and soon overpowered the undead warrior. Pressing my
sword against his neck, I told him:

"I am a scholar, and a lover of knowledge with an insatiable curiosity.
Therefore, I have a passion for asking questions and I have lots and lots of
them to ask you. First of all, who has turned you against your Queen and
defiled the whole of Heaven? Talk!"

"NEVER!" the man cried before drawing a small dagger and slitting his own
throat.

Leaving the dead man on the ground with his broken sword beside him, I hurried
to the ancient bridge that led to the other side. As I walked across, the
wooden boards under my feet jiggled and I was worried they might break, but I
crossed safely. Looking around, I spotted a tall statue standing not far away
which was clad in golden robes and had no head. Walking up to the statue, I
placed the head in the hole in the middle of the statue’s shoulders and the
gold shell was blown off as the statue glowed with its true radiance and the
scepter dropped from her hand, fall- ing to the ground very close to me.
Eagerly, I scooped up the scepter and took the vial of healing water on the
pedestal behind me; opening the vial, I raised it to my lips and drank deeply.
Soon a good feeling came over me and my wounds healed even as I watched in
awe. Delighted, I stepped through the portal and once again found myself back
in the sylph’s garden. Heading to the portals on the other side of the room, I
threw myself into the one engraved DOOR OF YG- GDRAZIL. There I found myself
standing underneath the roots of a gigantic tree with a mighty dragon hanging
from them, biting onto one of the roots and being fought off by a wolf. The
huge roots were withering, like the plants in the garden, dying of the evil
infesting Heaven.

"Yggdrazil," I thought, "the Tree of Knowledge, supporting all life in Heaven
and earth."

Suddenly I realized what my mission was here: to heal Yggdrazil, and in doing
so, heal Heaven itself and free Hsi Wang Mu from her prison outside the Pearly
Gates. As I turned to go back to the garden, I saw a fallen warrior with a
broken sword. Bending down, I picked it up and walked back out through the
portal. Now I went to the portal to the left of the Door of Yggdrazil which
was inscribed DOOR OF JUSTICE. When I leaped through the portal, I found
myself in a dark room with a huge statue at the centre. As I walked toward the
statue a voice cried:

"Your soul, mortal! My katana thirsts for its power!"

Whirling around, I found myself facing a spectral samurai and drew my own
sword - or, rather, katana. I’d let the samurai follow me through the Door of
Justice by mistake.

"Dumb, dumb, dumb!" I said to myself. "I should have been watching my back.
Now I have made a very dumb move - and have to pay for it with a fight to the
death."

We fought back and forth across the room until I knocked the sword from the
samurai’s hand and then hacked his head from his shoulders with one slash of
my own katana. Taking the healing crystals and 50 gold coins from his body, I
walked toward the statue and placed the hea- venly sceptre in her open hand. A
blast of fire shot out of the top of the sceptre and suddenly the room was
full of flowers that sprouted through the wall as Yggdrazil regained his
strength. Hsi Wang Mu appeared before me in all her regal splendour, radiant
and happy.

"Congratulations, Twiceborn!" she shouted. "Thanks to you, Yggdrazil is his
old self once again and Heaven has been restored to her former celestial
glory. You have done very well and I wish to present you with someone you lost
a long time ago."

She waved her hand and a spirit appeared: that of my long-dead, beloved
grandmother.

"Why have you brought her, your Highness?" I asked. "She died of natural
causes."

"True, but I feel that she was taken before her time by my predecessor and I
wish to rest- ore her to you to make amends for what he did to your mother and
father."

Sparks flew from Mu’s hand and my grandmother’s spirit appeared to grow
thicker, more sold, until she was back to her normal human appearance. She
hurried to me, and we embraced warmly; she kissed me on the cheek, making me
feel a thousand times better.

"You knew this would happen, didn’t you?" I asked.

"I guessed," my grandmother said, delighted with my new appearance, "for the
mage said you would ‘have quite a destiny ahead of him when he’s big.’ My
heart broke in two when you came out of my daughter with a crippled foot that
was bent and twisted!"

"By any chance," I asked, "would that mage have been Varga?"

"Yes!" my grandmother cried. "But . . . how did you know?"

"I guessed," I told her, "that the mage who had helped deliver me would want
to cast the spell that has transformed me at the end of his own life. He was
there at the beginning, so he’d certainly want to be there at the ending, when
he himself was dying."

"Farewell, both of you!" Hsi Wang Mu shouted. "I have a kingdom to rule."

With that, she vanished, returning to her kingdom more happy than she’d ever
been. We walked out of the portal hand in hand, and parted company in the main
garden.

"I have to go back to Balentrum and see to things there," my grandmother said,
"so you go ahead and finish your quest. See to it that the Moon Queen never
bothers us again!"

"I will!" I said, hugging her one last time before she headed through the
Pearly Gates to the portal that would take her back home to Balentrum and
safely. "Goodbye, Mimi."

"Goodbye, darling!" my grandmother said as she kissed me on the forehead and
headed through the Pearly Gates to our homeland. "I’ll be at your house if you
need me."

"Thank you, Mimi," I said, "but I don’t think I’ll ever be in much trouble."

With that, I leaped through the gate back to the main garden and headed north
toward the portal that would take me out of Heaven. As soon as I reached the
other set of gates, I unlocked them with Mu’s key and they slid open; then I
walked through and found myself in a cell block where the angels who attended
to Hsi Wang Mu and to God the All-Father were imprisoned. As soon as I went
into the cell block, I smashed the vases on the ledges with my crossbow and
took the potions and mushrooms that had been sealed inside, climbing up onto
each ledge carefully to avoid attracting whatever was guarding the celestial
prisoners. Noticing a set of four levers to the right of the door, I pulled
all of them down and the doors to the cells creaked open. Once I’d gained
access to the cells, I noticed angels and other divinities imprisoned behind
the bars of the cells; therefore, I headed back to the room where I had found
the levers. There I found another set of four levers to the left of the door.
When I pulled the first lever, the other levers moved in opposite directions
at the same time; at least four of the doors in the crossroads where the cells
were located were now open and when I reentered the crossroads, I found that
the four doors off to the northeast had opened; I destroyed the phantoms that
were also being held captive in these cells and smashed the few vases I found
with my crossbow. One of the vases I broke contained a Potion of Reveal which
I grabbed and took with me before heading back to the switch room that
controlled the cell block. Noticing a colourful portrait of Hsi Wang Mu at the
back of the switch room, I gulped down the potion and watched in horror as the
portrait faded away, revealing that a secret passage was behind the fair lady.
When I hurried through the secret passage I found that a large altar was in
the middle of the room behind the door - guarded by a huge being in golden
armour with a force of two katana-carrying samurai and three archers.

"You will never get the Mace of Hsi Wang Mu!" the golden-armoured being cried
as he pointed at me. "That girl is the one who will defeat the Moon Queen.
Kill her!"

Pulling out my crossbow, I fired several shots at each of the archers as they
fired arrows at me and managed to down each of them. Tucking the crossbow
away, I unsheathed my katana and lunged at the spectral samurai as they ran
toward me like cheetahs on the hunt. Somehow I managed to down the two samurai
and whirled to meet the blade of the spectre in gold. He was a very tough
fighter, but I was able to defeat him, suffering severe injuries in the
process. Before climbing onto the altar, I gulped down some of the mushrooms I
was carrying and had found on the dead samurai and their golden leader. Then I
climbed up the steps to the top of the altar and walked over to the mace, my
injuries healing even as I approached the Mace. Grabbing the hilt of the mace
while being attacked by a pair of phantoms who were guarding the weapon, I
pulled it off of the altar block above which it was floating, leaving behind
my crossbow which turned to vapour on contact with the celestial magic of the
altar. Tucking the mace away, I gulped down a phial of healing water and then
walked through the illusionary wall to the switch room. There, I pulled the
second lever and, examining my map, found another set of doors had opened. In
one of these cells sat a little girl about ten years old. Kneeling down, I
looked her in the eye.

"Thank you for freeing me, good lady!" she cried. "I am Isabelle, the sister
of a knight in the service of the King. Have you seen him around?"

"Yes," I told her, "I met him in one of the rooms, behind the Door of Inner
Peace."

"Is he all right?"

"Not now," I said, "for he tried to take the head of the Statue of Eternal
Rest and a booby trap fell on him. Oh, child, I wish I could have saved him,
but he felt no pain and died instantly. There was nothing I could have done to
save your brother’s life - though I managed to finish his quest and was
finally able to purge the evil that had swept through Heaven."

We looked at each other for a few minutes, then we embraced each other and
sobbed our hearts out, as if I had known the fellow all my life. Truly,
Varga’s spell was remarkable!

"Have you got a map?" Isabelle asked finally.

"I have a map which I took from another warrior who died trying to go through
the portal and which I have had with me ever since. Why do you ask, Isabelle?"

"You need to find the portal which can take you back to Balentrum’s portal,"
she told me in a soft voice, "somewhere in the Maze of Heaven. Or you can use
the portal on the other side of the Bridge of the Sun, which leads to the
Musical Rainforest."

"Thank you, Isabelle!" I said. "You’ve helped me more than you can ever know."

"You’re welcome, Lady Champion!" Isabelle said as she left the cell and headed
for the portal that led to the crypt. "I’ll pray for you every night until
your quest is complete."

After she’d gone, I dried my tears and walked back to the switch room, where I
pulled the third of the four levers. This time, when I went back to the cells,
I fought the spectral samurai in each one, smashed all the vases to get the
healing items and potions stored inside them, and saw the freed angels fly
away from the cells, free and happy. On returning to the switch room, I took a
deep breath and pulled the fourth and final switch. When I searched the newly
opened cells, I found a silver lever in the last one along with several vases
which I smashed, taking the potions I found inside them. Grabbing the lever, I
pulled down with all my strength and the door leading to the bridge creaked
open. Walking down the corridor between the cells, I headed through the open
door and found myself facing a group of two archers and three katana-wielding
samurai. A Celestial Samurai was leading the squad and bore a magnificent
katana with a jewelled handle; a few seconds after I came to the bridge, he
pointed at me and ordered his men to attack.

"Your soul, mortal!" he shouted. "I long to feel its power!"

"My soul will always be my soul, Monster!" I shouted back.

Drawing my own katana, I managed to cut the three samurai to pieces and turned
toward the two archers, whom I dispatched with the Mace, hurling it at them so
hard they were dashed to pieces by the impact. Now the Celestial Samurai
charged me with his sword and I charged at him, brandishing my own katana and
screaming at the top of my lungs. There was a long fight, but in the end -
although I suffered many injuries - I was able to chop off his head, breaking
the blade of my own weapon in two at the same time. Grabbing the Celestial
Samurai’s sword and tucking it away, I threw my hammer at the lever on the
other side of the bridge, lowering it and enabling me to cross, which I did
after gulping down a dozen mushrooms. Rushing to the other side of the bridge,
I hurried to the portal and hurled myself through its swirling energy.