Jumping backward behind the wall, he narrowly misses being struck by a flash of light which strikes the far wall with a sizzle. When it’s gone, they see the surface of the wall where the light hit now has a hole, six inches wide and three deep, eaten out of it.
“They’re almost here!” he cries.
James feels another spike in the tingling sensation and hollers, “Watch out!”
Jiron jumps to the side again but no attack materializes.
“Just what is going on here?” a deep male voice asks from behind them.
They both turn to see the armored figure of a warrior priest standing upon the dais. That’s it! Lashing out with a wave of magic, he catches the warrior priest completely by surprise. As the warrior priest is thrown backward off the dais to smash into the wall, James grabs Jiron.
“Now!” he yells. “Dive for the dais!”
They both jump and land on the dais at the same time. A momentary feeling of disorientation then they find themselves upon an identical dais sitting in a different, larger room. James immediately recognizes this place. They are in the underground temple they found on their way back from Saragon last year. But why did they come here of all places?
The room is large with two rows of three wide columns, each extending all the way to the ceiling. Between the two rows of columns lies an open area where four braziers form the points of a square. Fire burns in each giving ample light with which to see. The dais they find themselves upon sits in the middle of the square formed by the braziers.
“How is this possible?” Jiron asks as they get down from the dais.
“I have an idea,” says James. “But I’ll tell you as we go. They may be able to track us to here.”
No sooner do they get off the dais than one of the cowled figures appears upon it. James lashes out immediately with magic as Jiron moves to attack.
The cowled figure is thrown backward off the dais and lands on its back. A flash of light shoots toward James only to be absorbed by the medallion, causing it to burst forth with light.
By this time, Jiron has closed with the figure on the floor and strikes out with a knife. The blade sinks into the robes striking the flesh underneath. One hand of the cowled figure touches his shoulder and he rears back in pain. His arm goes numb and lets go of the knife still embedded in the cowled figure.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jiron sees another cowled figure appear upon the dais. “James!” he shouts as he points to the second one. Turning back to the one on the floor, he lashes out with his foot and connects with the side of its head. The force of the blow knocks its head to the side and causes the hood to fall away.
The sight of what’s revealed elicits a gasp of surprise from Jiron. He steps back two feet as the skeletal face turns its lifeless gaze upon him. “They’re dead!” he exclaims.
James, now turned to face the new arrival, lashes out with a wave of force which picks up the creature and throws it across the room. His head is clearing from the earlier blow Jiron dealt him but it’s still an effort to summon the magic. He glances over to the other one on the floor and sees the skeletal head and empty eye sockets. A spike in the tingling sensation and the creature on the floor hits Jiron square in the chest with a flash of light. Knocked backward through the air, Jiron lands on his back a dozen feet away. Rolling, he quickly regains his feet.
“Jiron!” he cries as he rushes over to him.
“We can’t win this,” Jiron tells him, the front of his shirt smoking.
“Maybe,” asserts James. “You okay?”
“Not really,” replies Jiron. The front of his shirt has been burnt away and the skin of his chest is an angry red. “My left arm is numb too.”
James turns to face the two attackers and summons the magic, encasing each within a barrier. One of the creatures reaches out and touches the barrier with its hand. Upon contact, James cries out and sinks to his knees. His head feels as if it’s about ready to explode. Releasing the power maintaining the barriers, the pain eases and then finally disappears.
Holding aloft the medallion, its light blazing forth, he gets back to his feet and faces the approaching creatures. One sends another flash toward him but is absorbed by the medallion. Lashing out with his own magic, he knocks them off their feet. One took the brunt of the wave of force and is thrown backward several yards. It hits one of the large stone braziers before sinking to the ground.
An idea forms quickly and James removes a slug from his belt and throws it with the force of magic behind it. The slug flies through the air and impacts with the side of the brazier directly over the creature. When the slug hits, the side of the brazier cracks open and the oil contained within pours out upon the creature. As the oil flows from the opening, James tweaks the flame burning atop with magic to ignite the oil.
When the burning oil lands on the creature, it bursts into flames. A scream that is felt rather than heard rips through their minds like a red hot knife. It thrashes about for a minute before it finally lies still and the scream stops.
Another flash of light from the remaining creature and the medallion flares into blinding brilliance as it again absorbs the attack.
With one taken out of action, James can now concentrate on the other. The creature approaching still has Jiron’s knife sticking out of its ribs. Removing another slug, he sends it flying toward the creature. The creature makes no attempt to avoid it and the slug rips through its stomach and exits out the back.
Not even slowing, it continues to approach. Suddenly, the flames burning over the remaining braziers roar to life. A ball of flame shoots out of each toward the dais. Meeting in the air, the balls explode as they collide. When James’ eyes recover from the brilliant explosion, he sees one of the hell hounds standing upon the dais.
Behind him, he hears Jiron get to his feet. A brief glance back shows him that Jiron has his remaining knife in hand and is preparing to sell his life dearly. Tuning back, he throws a confining barrier around the hell hound while at the same time lashing out with another wave of force to push the cowled figure backward.
“Jiron, get me out of here if I fall,” he says.
“Do the best I can,” he replies. Though how effective he will be with a numb arm and a chest that’s throbbing horrendously with pain, he’s not sure.
The hell hound fights the barrier. James has to funnel more of his reserves to simply maintain the barrier while he deals with the undead creature before him. Behind the approaching creature, the oil continues to spill forth from the broken brazier, creating an ever widening area of flame.
Lashing out again with a blast of force, he knocks the creature backward into the pool of flame. The fire instantly ignites the creature’s robes. Their heads are again hit by the mind tearing scream as the fire consumes the creature, which almost causes the barrier surrounding the hell hound to fail. Falling over into the pool of fire, the creature thrashes around for a moment before lying still.
When the scream tearing through his brain stops, James is again able to focus his attention back to the hell hound and the barrier encasing it. As he’s done several times before, he turns the barrier cold and begins to shrink it in upon the creature.
Struggle as it will, the barrier continues to shrink until the creature’s struggles cease and all resistance to the closing of the barrier vanishes. With a pop, the barrier implodes completely.
James sags and almost falls to the floor before Jiron catches him with one hand. On the verge of passing out he says, “Help me up. We have to get out of here.”
As he helps James to his feet, he glances over at what’s left of the two bodies burning in the pool of fire on the floor. “What were those things?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” he replies. The memory of the warrior priest that he slammed with his magic before they came here is very much on his mind. Why he hasn’t made an appearance yet baffles him. “You remember the way out?”
“Yeah,” replies Jiron. “Let’s go.” He puts James’ arm around his shoulder for support before moving toward the double doors they had passed through during their previous visit. Kicking one of the doors open, he and James pass through to the corridor on the other side. James’ orb springs to life as they leave the light of the braziers behind them.
Turning down to the right, they walk quickly. Coming to the end they arrive at another corridor that runs perpendicular to theirs. Without hesitation they turn and follow it to the right. They soon come to the winding flight of stairs leading down.
On their previous visit, they had come up this way after crawling through a drainage pipe found in the side of
