That evening, as the yellow sun was setting and a few stars were beginning to show through breaks in the clouds, the six travelers and Kerrinott crouched behind a patch of shrubbery at the edge of the circle of farmland surrounding the sholog village.

     Shologs with short swords and whips were still standing over the nome slaves working the fields, and would continue to do so for another half hour or so until it was fully dark. Kerrinott explained that the slaves would work on the fields for between three and six days before trying to escape, in which case the shologs would either catch them and bring them back or let them go, depending on what mood they were in. After all, there was nowhere the running slaves could go where the shologs couldn't catch them again anytime they wanted. There was no way off the island. Every so often they would simply raid a village to get a few new slaves, an activity they enjoyed a great deal. Every nome on the island, except the very youngest, had served several terms of slavery and they knew that running away was only a temporary solution.

     Even as he spoke, one of the nomes suddenly threw his hoe at the nearest sholog and ran away across the field, straight toward Kerrinott and the questers. They held their breaths in horror as two shologs gave cries of joy and set off in pursuit. If those shologs saw them, the alarm would be raised and their task made a thousand times more difficult, probably impossible. Lirenna prepared to cast a sleep spell on them, a futile gesture as the guards around the village had heard the commotion and were watching in excitement.

     For a moment it seemed as though the nome would make it to freedom, entering the woods less than twenty feet from where the watchers were hiding and leading to their almost certain discovery, but at the last moment the lead sholog, less than ten feet behind, swung his whip and tripped him up as it coiled around his ankles. They pounced on him and carried him back in victory, their bestial faces split in a huge grin at the best bit of fun they'd had all day while the nome struggled helplessly in their grasp, kicking and biting desperately.

     "Monsters!" cried Kerrinott helplessly. "Bastards!"

     Lirenna put a comforting arm around him. "Don't worry," she said. "In a day or two, you'll be free of them forever. As soon as that wizard's dead, the whole ship's crew will come running for their share of the treasure."

     "But how are you going to get in?" asked Kerrinott, pointing to where the nome slaves were being herded into the village by their captors. "They keep just as good a watch at night as in the daytime, and there's no cover in those fields. They'll spot you the moment you stand up!"

     Thomas took off his backpack and rummaged around in it, bringing out a handful of small bottles. Reading their labels, he selected three and put the rest back. "Here we are," he said. "Invisibility and ethereality, courtesy of the great wizard Zebulon, may he rest in peace. I would have preferred two potions of invisibility, but there you are. We just have to make do with what we have. Now then, we said that Shaun and I were going, didn't we? You'd better have the invisibility one then."

     "Good," said Shaun. "I don't like the thought of being ethereal. I'd rather remain solid and substantial, so I can fight if necessary."

     "Okay," said Thomas, handing him the bottle, "but remember that you run the risk of breaking the spell if you make violent contact with anything. That includes attacking anyone with your sword. You mustn't think you can run amok killing shologs left, right and centre and they won't be able to see you. Chances are you'll become visible the first time you land a blow."

      The soldier nodded his understanding and took the bottle, squinting to read the tiny, crabby writing on the deeply stained label.

     They waited until full night had fallen, hoping that most of the shologs would be asleep, giving them another much needed advantage. The red sun and two of the three moon’s were in the sky, though, which meant that there was still plenty of light to be seen by. Shaun lifted his bottle and looked questioningly at Thomas. The wizard lifted his own bottle and snapped off the top, where the glass had been deliberately weakened so that the break would be clean with no sharp edges. He lifted the bottle to his mouth, the woodsman did the same, and they swallowed the contents together. The third bottle, another potion of etheriality, was tucked in Thomas' pocket, to be used later.

     Thomas’s potion tasted awful and he took a sip from a water bottle to wash it out of his mouth. Beside him, he saw Shaun slowly become transparent and fade from view, staring in fascination at his hand as the transformation took place. When he'd vanished completely Diana reached out and touched his invisible arm, and he stroked her hand in return.

     Thomas took slightly longer to disappear, and when Lirenna reached out to touch him he was surprised to feel her hand as it passed through his shoulder. Nowhere at any time during all his lessons and tutorials at the University had anyone said that you could actually feel things passing through you. It was a strange, tingly feeling that he didn't like and he was glad when she withdrew her hand again, staring at her fingers as if she'd also felt something. When he reached out a hand to touch a rotten tree trunk that lay alongside, though, he felt nothing as his hand passed through it. It seemed that he could only feel living things.

     "Come on, let's get going," said Shaun. "Come on, Tom."

     He gave Diana's hand one last squeeze before setting off towards the village, expecting the wizard to be able to keep up with him. Thomas had difficulty getting started, though. Not being able to touch the solid ground, he had to swim through the planet's ambient magic field like a fish in the ocean, and this was made more difficult by the currents of magical force that flowed softly and silently across the surface of the planet, in places dipping deep into the ground or soaring high up into the air. If he wasn't careful he could be swept high up out of the atmosphere, to die horribly in the vacuum of space when the spell wore off and he returned to solidity, or he could re-solidify underground, inside solid rock...

     All apprentice wizards were taught the fundamentals of ethereal swimming in the fourth year of their education, but it still took Thomas a few minutes to get the hang of it. An act of will was all it took to get him moving, and then he was drifting across the ground like a balloon, using all his concentration to prevent the currents of magical force from blowing him off course. He couldn't see Shaun, of course, but he was able to see stalks of grass being pushed aside as the woodsman moved through them and he tried to follow them as best he could. Shaun, on the other hand, couldn't see or detect the presence of Thomas in any way. He was simply trusting that the wizard was still beside him, remaining close as they crossed the open ground between their friends and the sholog village.

     As they walked, Thomas explored the strange sensation of being ethereal. He was no longer a full part of the material universe but had crossed over into another plane of existence, one that was still being explored by the senior wizards of Lexandria University. It was known to be inhabited by strange ethereal creatures, most of which were harmless but some of which would attack and devour an ethereal wizard. In the University, senior wizards would cast powerful spells into the ethereal plane to drive the ghostly inhabitants away before taking the apprentices in, but here Thomas just had to take his chances.

     He looked around nervously, remembering the second hand stories he'd heard about monsters that seemed to be composed entirely of iridescent bubbles and that would drain the life's blood out of anyone unlucky enough to encounter them. Other creatures were so powerful that they could direct the flows of the magical field, sucking in everything for miles around. He wasn't aware of anything in the vicinity at the moment, but then he wasn't sure he would be even if there were hundreds of the beasts just on the other side of the palisade. Never having seen one or having heard a reliable report of one, he had no idea of what warning signs to look out for. He wished with all his heart that they'd had two potions of invisibility. Being invisible was so much simpler.

     Reaching the log wall around the village, Thomas simply drifted through it and then brought himself to a stop on its other side to wait for Shaun. The woodsman had to climb over, though, and he had to do it softly and silently, then lower himself gently to the ground. Even the shock of landing hard on the ground after a jump might be enough to break the spell and leave him visible to the shologs. Shaun forgot Thomas's warning though and, taking a few steps back, he took a running jump at the palisade, just managing to grab the top and pull himself up.

     As his face cleared the top, though, he found himself almost face to face with a sholog, standing on a raised platform on the other side. Fighting back the panic, he held his breath and froze.

     The sholog had clearly heard him and was searching in puzzlement for the source of the noise. Another sholog, about thirty feet away, saw him peering over the side of the fence with his head cocked, listening intently, and came over to enquire into his strange behaviour. "Waddya doing, Crawfang?" he asked insolently.

     "Thought I heard sumfin'," answered Crawfang, ignoring the other sholog's tone of voice. "Summun' climbin' the fence."

     The second sholog looked over the fence, looking right through Shaun whose face, if it had been visible, would have been bright crimson. He dared not even take a breath and just hoped that they would go away quickly. The second sholog laughed harshly. "Nuffin' there," he sneered. "Ya must be 'earing things. P'raps you'd better go an' lie down fer a while."

     He laughed again, but choked off as Crawfang grabbed his throat with a scaly, clawed hand. "I ‘erd summin', I tell yer! There's summun out there!"

     "Gerrof me, ya ratman lover!" yelled the other, and in seconds they were at each other tooth and claw, tearing and biting and shouting insults. Shaun took the opportunity to pull himself over, gasping for breath, and drop down the other side, running clear as several other shologs, howling with glee, rushed over to join in.

     Instinct took over and Shaun ran for the cover of a nearby hut, glancing around as he went for any sign of the wizard. Fortunately, the inside of the village was hard packed earth, with no grass to register the presence of invisible feet, but that meant that Thomas was also unable to locate the woodsman and the two men lost a great deal of time wandering around the sholog village whispering each other's names and getting further and further away from each other. Damn it, thought Thomas. We should have foreseen this! Now what are we going to do?

☆☆☆

     Shaun was getting equally frustrated. He tried raising his voice and calling a little more loudly, but the sholog chieftain had arrived to break up the fight and his shouts drowned him out completely. Eventually he decided that the situation was quite hopeless and that the only thing to do was to go find the sholog wizard on his own. Hopefully, Thomas would do the same thing and they would meet up there.

     He reached the hut that Kerrinott said was the wizard's home, stopped by the door, held his breath and listened. Hearing nothing, he opened the door cautiously and peered in. The interior of the hut was pitch black and he opened it wider to let Derro's light in. It didn't help. He reached for his glowbottle, but stopped. Would an invisible glowbottle give any light? He should have asked one of the wizards before coming. Even if it did, though, it would be better not to use it. Mustn't attract attention.

     Feeling around in the hut, he decided that it was empty. Blast! he thought. Isn't anything going to go right? Where in the name of Hell could he have gotten to? The answer came to him in a flash. The sound of the fighting must have awoken the sholog wizard and he'd gone out to investigate. I must have walked right past him! he thought. How come I didn't see him? Never mind, he must be near the wall now. Maybe I can catch him there. He left the hut and headed back the way he'd come.

     He arrived to find that the fight was over, with the chieftain berating the original two combatants. He looked around, looking for a sholog who looked like a wizard, but all the shologs he saw were wearing swords and other weapons. Thomas had told him that most wizards wizards couldn't use any weapons other than the very simplest, such as daggers. Their studies left no time for weapons training, and those who did take the time to learn a weapon were poor wizards as a result.

     What applies to humans might not apply to shologs, though, he realised with shock. Fighting was such a fundamental part of sholog culture that they probably wore swords even if they didn't know how to use them, which meant that any of the shologs around him could be the wizard! But which one? A growing sense of frustration was disturbing his concentration, making him make mistakes. He should have stayed in the hut, he realised now. The wizard would eventually return there. All he had to do was wait. The dozen or so shologs still present were drifting away, now that the excitement was over, and Shaun once again retraced his steps back the way he'd come, back to the hut.