Moving down this new corridor, they go about fifty feet when on their right, a set of ornately decorated double doors appears. When James’ gaze first settles upon the doors, his feelings of foreboding increases. Aleya seems to feel something as well.
“Wait,” James says as Jiron moves to open the doors.
Stopping, Jiron turns and glances back at James. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Not sure, exactly,” he replies. “It’s just that there’s something about this place that gives me the willies.”
Looking at him in concern, he asks, “Do you want me to open these doors?”
Nodding, he says, “We have to. The way out could be in there.” As Jiron reaches for the handle, he adds, “Just be careful.”
“I will,” he assures him. “I’ve come to trust your feelings.” As his hand comes close to the door handle, he pauses just for a second. The worries James has about this place are beginning to affect him as well. Then he reaches out and takes hold of the handle to the right door and pulls.
Where the previous door had been all but rusted closed, this one moves easily on silent hinges. As the door begins to open, light from within the room fills the corridor. Jiron shuts the door quickly when he sees the light coming out and turns to James. “What should we do?” he asks, worried.
“Open it slowly,” he tells him. “I don’t feel magic or anything like that, and I seriously doubt if anyone is still inside.”
“Then where’s the light coming from?” he asks.
“Open the door and find out,” Aleya tells him. “Or stand aside and let me do it.” She begins moving toward the door when Jiron holds out his hand to stop her.
Taking a deep breath, he slowly pulls open the door. Aleya has an arrow knocked and even James has unconsciously pulled a slug from his belt. As the door opens, the light from within again spills out into the corridor and James cancels the orb as he no longer needs its light.
They gasp when the door finally opens enough for them to see what lies within. To their right and left are two rows of three wide columns stretching all the way to the ceiling. A large open space lies between the two sets of columns.
Four large braziers are evenly spaced, forming the points of a square within the open space between the two rows of columns and from these is where the light is originating. A flame burns atop each of the braziers, casting sufficient light to illuminate the entire room.
Within the square formed by the flaming braziers is a raised circular pedestal, five feet in diameter. Rising two feet off the floor, it dominates the room.
“What is this place?” breathes Aleya from behind him.
“I don’t know,” replies James. “Considering the robe you found in that other room, it could very well be a temple of some sort. This could be the room where the priests would perform their rites.”
“How are the flames still burning?” Jiron asks. As he begins moving into the room, James grabs his arm and stops him.
“I should go first,” he says.
Nodding, Jiron moves aside as James passes him on his way into the room.
He moves slowly and cautiously toward the closest of the burning braziers. They are about a foot in diameter and when he comes closer can see they’re partially filled with what looks like some kind of oil. The braziers themselves are stone and their base runs all the way to the floor. Turning to the others, he says, “It’s possible there could be a storage tank with the oil somewhere and they’re being fed from it through pipes.”
“It must have one massive storage capacity for them to still be burning after so long a time,” Jiron says as he comes to stand next to James.
James just nods his head as he moves toward the dais. He comes to a stop and gasps when he sees what’s inscribed upon the face of the dais.
“What?” asks Jiron before he too, notices.
Aleya comes to them and asks, “What’s wrong?”
Upon the dais is a symbol they’ve seen before, three dots forming the ends of a triangle with lines running between them, yet not touching them.
“Then that would mean this was once one of his temples,” Jiron says.
“It would have to be an old one,” he replies.
“Who’s temple?” asks Aleya. “What are you talking about?”
Pointing to the dais and the symbol inscribed upon it, James says, “Dmon-Li. One of his warrior priests that we ran across a while back had been bearing this symbol.”
“But what can it mean?” Jiron asks. “Why would this temple have been abandoned?”
Looking to him, James replies, “We really don’t know that for sure, do we? The lights here would indicate something has been going on, though just what I can’t for the life of me figure out. But whatever the reasons, we’ve got to get out of here, and right now.”
Turning around James makes a beeline for the door. Once outside, he again creates the orb as he presses on down the corridor away from the room with the dais. The light coming from the room suddenly goes out when Jiron closes the door behind him.
Now he understands why this place has bothered him so much since they arrived. The presence or maybe the old signatures of evil which must have been practiced here still resonate within the halls.
“What’s wrong?” Aleya asks when she stops James by taking hold of his arm.
Turning to look at her, he says, “Dmon-Li is the god whose warrior priest has been pursuing us,” he explains. Casting a quick glance to Jiron, he returns his gaze back to her as he adds, “For reasons we can’t go into right now, suffice it to say it would be extremely bad for us to be found by them.”
She studies him for a moment before nodding her head.
Jiron rushes past James as he once again takes the lead. “Just cursory looks from here on out,” James says from behind him. “We no longer have the luxury of satisfying our curiosity.”
“I hear you,” he replies.
The corridor ahead of them suddenly ends at another corridor cutting across the one they’re in. Jiron automatically turns to the right and continues moving. Shortly they come to a set of winding steps on their left going down. “I think this is the way we came up,” he announces, pausing for only a second.
“I think you’re right,” agrees James.
Leaving the steps behind, they continue down the corridor and come to a branching corridor to the right. Jiron pauses a moment and glances back to James.
Shaking his head, he says, “This just leads down the other side of the room with the dais in the middle. Remember the doors that were on the other side?”
Nodding, Jiron turns back and continues moving down the corridor. Another thirty feet and it opens up into what James is beginning to realize as ‘anchor’ rooms, rooms of similar design lying at the corners of a level. He always had them in his dungeons, but never really thought they would be used in actuality.
Another corridor exits the room to their right. Passing by two pedestals with statues of demonic creatures, they quickly cross the room to the other corridor. Once the room is behind them, they go down twenty feet before yet another corridor branches off, again to their right.
“Just keep going,” says James. “I think there will be another stairway leading off the room at the end.”
“Now how do you know that?” Aleya asks.
James shrugs and says, “Just sounds reasonable. It’s how I would have done it.”
She shakes her head and continues following Jiron.
Sure enough, they pass two more right hand branching corridors and come to the fourth ‘anchor’ room. This one is completely bare. Across the room from where they enter lies the stairway James foretold.
Aleya looks back at him and he gives her a grin. “Always trust his instincts,” Jiron says.
“I can see that,” she says.
Moving across the room, Jiron takes the stairs and they wind up to the next level. When they reach the top, James says, “Wait!”
The others stop as they turn their attention to him. “Do you feel that?” he asks. He holds his hand out in front of him as a smile comes to his face.
