Among the Naz Mathoni: A Name to Conjure With Chapters 11-12

Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)

Last chapter ended with a ridiculous plan. Sandy and Zhadnoboth would walk into a camp full of enemies and pretend to be harmless travelers. Uskban and Pognak would hide in the desert, waiting.

So how does it go? Better and worse than you’d expect.

The Invisible Entrance

Sandy and Zhadnoboth don’t just walk in normally. The sorcerer actually does something useful for once and makes them invisible. They ride right into the Naz Mathoni camp without anyone seeing them. Then they just… appear. Suddenly. Right in the middle of camp.

That’s actually pretty smart. If you ride in from the desert, people have time to get suspicious. Where did you come from? Why are you here? But if you just pop into existence near the camp, it’s so weird that people don’t know how to react.

The camp is run by a guy named Haz the Widow-Maker. Great name. Very welcoming. He’s clearly the kind of leader who earned that title the hard way.

Zhadnoboth then pulls off something impressive. He performs the proper desert greeting ritual to claim hospitality rights. In the Kri Shandri culture, hospitality is sacred. If you ask for it the right way, even your enemy has to give it. It’s like an unbreakable social contract. Haz can hate them all he wants, but he can’t harm them while they’re his guests.

So now Sandy and Zhadnoboth are sitting in a hostile camp, protected by tradition, drinking water they desperately need. It’s tense but it’s working.

Enter Izme-Lal

And then they meet Izme-Lal.

If there’s a character who steals every scene she’s in, it’s this woman. She’s a priestess of the Goddess. And she is not what you’d expect from a religious figure.

Izme-Lal is brash. She’s tough. She used to be a wild woman before the Goddess claimed her. And she has absolutely zero patience for nonsense. When she encounters Haz the Widow-Maker, she doesn’t show fear or respect. She verbally destroys him. Just takes him apart with words while he stands there being the most feared warrior in the camp.

Sandy watches this and you can tell he’s fascinated. Here’s a woman who doesn’t care about the power structures around her. She serves the Goddess and that puts her above petty tribal politics. She says what she thinks and nobody can touch her for it because messing with a Goddess’s priestess is a very bad idea.

She’s the kind of character who makes a story better just by being in it. Every line of dialogue she has crackles with personality.

Reading the Room

Sandy’s sixth sense is working overtime in this camp. He can feel the tension. He can read the situation better than he should be able to. Something about this world has sharpened his instincts, or maybe it’s the Goddess’s influence.

He spots something important: there’s a Zalkring spy in the camp. The enemy has infiltrated the Naz Mathoni. That’s bad news. It means the Zalkrings know who’s coming and going. And it means when Uskban attacks, the spy could warn them.

This sixth sense of Sandy’s keeps growing. He’s not just a regular guy from Minnesota anymore. He’s developing abilities that feel natural but aren’t. And he doesn’t fully understand them yet.

The Attack

When sunset comes, everything changes. Uskban and Pognak attack from the desert.

Sandy doesn’t just stand around watching this time. He fights. He’s got Uskban’s poniard, the one he accidentally took earlier. And he uses it. Sandy, the man who was helpless a few days ago, is actually fighting alongside these desert warriors.

Meanwhile, the real battle is happening on a different level. The Zalkring mage in the camp goes after Zhadnoboth with magic. It’s a sorcerer’s duel. And say what you will about Zhadnoboth being annoying and incompetent in daily life, the old man can fight when it matters. He holds his own against the Zalkring magic.

The fight is chaotic. Sand flying, steel clashing, magic crackling. But Uskban is in his element. This is what he was born to do. He tears through the camp’s defenses.

And then he finds something incredible. Hidden in a secret room, tucked away where nobody would think to look: the Key of Arimithos.

Remember that ancient talisman the Goddess was thinking about? The one meant for a descendant of Idman? Uskban just found it. In a Naz Mathoni camp. At Idman’s Well.

That’s not a coincidence. The Goddess set this whole thing up.

Chapter 12: The Goddess Reflects

Chapter 12 gives us the Goddess’s perspective on the victory. She’s satisfied. Things are going according to plan. Her champions performed well.

But she’s especially pleased with Sandy. He’s growing. He’s fighting. He’s developing instincts and abilities. The random guy from another world is becoming something more.

It’s brief, but it tells us something important. The Goddess isn’t just interested in Uskban and his bloodline. She’s watching Sandy too. He matters to her plans in ways we don’t fully understand yet.

What’s Working Here

These chapters are Aamodt at his best. He’s juggling the infiltration, Izme-Lal’s introduction, the spy subplot, the battle, the magical duel, and the Key discovery without dropping any threads. It all flows naturally.

And the character growth is real. Sandy started this book confused and helpless. Now he’s reading situations with a supernatural sense and fighting in desert battles. He’s not suddenly a hero. He’s still scared. But he’s adapting.

That’s more compelling than any chosen-one prophecy. Sandy isn’t special because destiny said so. He’s becoming special because he refuses to quit. Well, okay, destiny kind of did say so. The Goddess picked him. But he doesn’t know that. And his growth feels earned regardless.

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