Castle of Wizardry

were directing at Durnik through the stone on the table falter and begin to fall apart. He took a threatening step and saw them cringe away from him in the purple light that half clouded his vision.
    Then one of the old men-very thin and with a long dirty beard and completely hairless scalp - seemed to recover from his momentary fright. "Stand firm!" he snapped at the others. "Keep the thought on the Sendar!"
    "Leave him alone!" Garion shouted at them.
    "Who says so?" the thin old man drawled insultingly.
    "I do."
    "And just who are you?"
    "I am Belgarion. Leave my friends alone."
    The old man laughed, and his laugh was as chilling as Ctuchik's had been. "Actually, you're only Belgarion's shadow," he corrected. "We know the trick of the shadow. You can talk and bluster and threaten, but that's all you can do. You're just a powerless shade, Belgarion."
    "Leave us alone!"
    "And what will you do if we don't?" The old man's face was filled with contemptuous amusement.
    "Is he right?" Garion demanded of the voice within his mind.
    "Perhaps perhaps not,"the voice replied. "A few men have been able to go beyond the limitation. You won't know unless you try."
    Despite his dreadful anger, Garion did not want to kill any of them. "Ice!" he said, focusing on the idea of cold and lashing out with his will. It felt odd - almost tenuous, as if it had no substance behind it, and the roaring was hollow and puny-sounding.
    The bald old man sneered and waggled his beard insultingly. Garion ground his insubstantial teeth and drew himself in with dreadful concentration. "Burn!" he said then, driving his will. There was a flicker and then a sudden flash. The force of Garion's will burst forth, directed not at the bald man himself, but rather at his whiskers.
    The Hierarch jumped up and stumbled back with a hoarse exclamation, trying desperately to beat the flames out of his beard.
    The concerted thought of the Hierarchs shattered as the rest of them scrambled to their feet in terrified astonishment. Grimly, Garion gathered his swelling will and began to lay about him with his immensely long arms. He tumbled the Hierarchs across the rough stone floor and slammed them into walls. Squealing with fright, they scurried this way and that, trying to escape, but he methodically reached out and grasped them one by one to administer his chastisement. With a peculiar kind of detachment, he even stuffed one of them headfirst into the crack in the wall, pushing quite firmly until only a pair of wriggling feet were sticking out.
    Then, when it was done, he turned back to the bald Hierarch, who had managed finally to beat the last of the fire out of his beard.
    "It's impossible - impossible," the Hierarch protested, his face stunned. "How did you do it?"
    "I told you - I am Belgarion. I can do things you can't even imagine."
    "The jewel, "the voice told him. "They're using the jewel to focus their attacks. Destroy it."
    "How?"
    "It can only hold so much. Look."
    Garion suddenly found that he could actually see into the interior of the still-flickering ruby on the table. He saw the minute stress lines within its crystalline structure, and then he understood. He turned his will on it and poured all his anger into it. The stone blazed with light and began to pulsate as the force within it swelled. Then, with a sharp detonation, the stone exploded into fragments.
    "No!" the bald Hierarch wailed. "You idiot! That stone was irreplaceable."
    "Listen to me, old man," Garion said in an awful voice, "you will leave us alone. You will not pursue us, or try to injure any of us any more." He reached out with his shadowy hand and slid it directly into the bald man's chest. He could feel the heart flutter like a terrified bird and the lungs falter as the Hierarch's breath stopped and he gaped with horror at the arm sticking out of his chest. Garion slowly opened his fingers very wide. "Do you understand me?" he demanded.
    The Hierarch gurgled and tried to take hold of the arm, but his fingers found nothing to grasp.
    "Do you understand me?" Garion repeated and suddenly clenched his fist.
    The Hierarch screamed.
    "Are you going to leave us alone?"
    "Please, Belgarion! No more! I'm dying!"
    "Are you going to leave us alone?" Garion demanded again.
    "Yes, yes - anything, but please stop! I beg you! I'll do anything. Please!"
    Garion unclenched his fist and drew his hand out of the Hierarch's heaving chest. He held it up, clawlike, directly in front of the old man's