began pouring oil on the bodies. WhenHebold protested the waste of oil and time, the priest gave him a chill look. “Would you be foolish enough to leave a body in
At its end, he paused once more. There was a chamber to their left. Eddis could just make out a large, red stone block that might be an altar and farther in, a great tapestry that covered most of the wall behind it. She shuddered and turned away.
Panev led them past the room, then paused. “There is a doorahead-perhaps two doors. Men are there, and evil surrounds and fills them. Thegods grant us courage.”
Jerdren nodded grimly and led the company on.
Another dosed door. Hebold broke this in and threw himself at those inside. M’Baddah fired his remaining magic arrows, and the battle wasquickly over. Hebold came back into the open, bleeding from a head cut, which he grudgingly let Panev heal.
Another chamber, more priest-clad enemies who grimly swung maces. Two Keep men went down under the attack. Eddis leaped back as a priest evaded Hebold’s axe and pelted straight for her, hand snatching at her. Blorys’sword came down across the robed back, and Flerys lunged, spear stabbing deeply into the hood. The enemy sagged, dragging the spear from the girl’s hands.Blorys pulled it free, and she snatched it up.
Another hooded man burst free, and his mace knocked Blorys to his knees. Eddis jammed her blade two- handed into thick cloth. The weapon felt sluggish, her arms weak, and the point seemed to hesitate just short of flesh.
“Foul thing!” she yelled and used her legs to drive the swordin. The man wailed, staggered back into the wall, and slid down it.
More dead men, more injured, and another room ablaze. Where does it end? Eddis thought wearily. Panev looked as exhausted as she felt.
“Undead hold the way against us, up there,” he said. “We willavoid them, if we can.” His eyes kindled. “The center of evil is here-so close!”
“Let’s get ’em, then!” Hebold snarled, but Jerdren pressedhim back.
“Wait,” he said. “Any other place, I’d be with you, friend.Here, we let this priest guide us.” He caught Eddis’ eye and managed a faint,wry grin. “Didn’t you tell me once that dead men don’t kill anything?”
“Hah,” Hebold retorted but stayed where he was.
“Rest, all of you,” Panev said. “Our greatest challenge liesahead. And I warn each of you-touch
“Great. So, if he’s that powerful, how does a mere man likeme kill him?” Hebold asked He scowled at his broken battle-axe and tossed itaside.
“The priest who controls this place is still mortal, thoughharder to kill than most men.” Panev paced while the others drank water orchecked their weapons, then led them swiftly on.
All at once, the passage widened into a chamber, a dark void at their left. Panev drew them close to hiss, “There are undead waiting beyondthe wall, to our right. Keep still if we are to avoid them!”
They moved slowly and cautiously now, easing into the large, open room. Light flared. Black candles burst into flame, illuminating the chamber suddenly and painfully. Panev ripped a scroll tube from his pack, though he did not yet open it.
The wall ahead glowed as if covered with fresh blood, then seemed to shift and change. Eddis hastily turned away.
It’s a temple! she realized as her eyes adjusted. There ablack stone dais, here benches and pews for worshippers. The vast dais took up much of the room and was topped by chairs of the same stone grouped about an enormous throne. Gems glittered-the dais and the chairs were covered in them.Kadymus gasped then spun away, hands clasped together behind his back. Even Hebold seemed subdued.
As they passed a great iron bell, Hebold’s face lit up, andhe tapped Mead’s arm, pointing at something Eddis couldn’t see. The mageshrugged, brought up the wand he was carrying, and finally nodded. Hebold grinned hugely, sheathed his sword, and scooped up a pair of heavy mallets, knocking them together with a dull dank. Mead gestured urgently for silence and hurried to catch up with the priest, who had reached the far end of the room.
A long purple drape covered the wall. It shifted, colors swirling wildly, curious writing and symbols filling the space.
Panev drew Eddis and Jerdren close and whispered, “There aresmall passages beyond the doth and three undead at guard. Beyond that is a small room where the priest dwells. He is the one I seek, the one we must defeat if this place is to be taken back from chaos.”
Jerdren nodded and signed for Willow and M’Baddah to staywith him.
Eddis glanced at Blorys, who waited only long enough to see that Hebold wasn’t on his brother’s heels.
“Gods, Blor,” she whispered. “What are we doing here?”
“The best we can,” he whispered back. “Remember your pledgeto me!”
She nodded. “Remember yours.”
His eyes warmed. Panev laid a hand on her shoulder in passing, and her heart lifted briefly. When he pressed the drape aside, she followed close on his heels, sword in one hand, dagger in the other.
Her nose wrinkled as they came into the passage behind the drape. There wasn’t much room for maneuvering here. Too much fancy and luxuriousfurnishing-couches, carpets, odd bits of statuary here and there- and not enoughbare floor. The space reeked of long-dead flesh. Zombies. She could see one now, shuffling toward her, sword in its rotting hand.
A loud dang brought her around. Hebold had leaped to the attack, beating down a zombie with his long- handled bell mallets. M’Baddahpinned another to the wall with his sword, ducking back as the thing continued to swipe at him, but M’Whan charged in to behead the thing with a two-handedswipe of his sword.
The third turned from her and staggered toward Mead, giggling madly, but the mage snatched up a spear from one of the Keep men. The creature veered away, right into Jerdren’s reach, and he smashed it down, bones and blackfluid spilling over the tiled floor as he reversed his grip on his sword and beat at the thing with the heavy hilt.
Another door loomed. To Eddis’ surprise, it opened easilywhen Mead pressed his spear against the latch. A small chamber was beyond, nearly as obstructed with furnishings as the last space had been.
“Great,” she murmured sourly. “No room to fight… nowwhat?”
Panev strode past her, Mead on his heels. The priest’s scrollcrackled as he read the spell aloud-odd words that echoed in her mind and madeher skin crawl.
The words meant something to his enemy, clearly. Wild, deeplaughter filled the room. Eddis shuddered.
“Why do you invade my private sanctum, priest of Law?” avoice demanded from the shadows “What fool are you, to invoke a spell of lawfulholding, here? Do you think me a weakling that I will fall to such simple words as that?”
“Foul creature of chaos!” Panev replied, “I knew you wouldturn that spell! Because you turned it, you have torn down the wall you built against lawful spells such as mine, and now you are open to both my magic and the weapons my allies bear! You cannot overcome us, dark one! Die, you and your undead servants! Sink into darkness forever!”
Eddis stopped just inside the doorway, fingers clutching her bow and her sword. The priest who strode into the open was tall and thin, clad in red and black. But as Panev spoke, the least wind soughed through the chamber, and the other’s robe shifted, revealing a gleam of mail under it.
His eyes were black, luminous, eager pinpoints. After one glance, the swordswoman knew she dared not look on his face again. Blorys was a sudden, comforting presence against her left arm, his sword in his left hand, throwing-dagger held by the point in his right.
The evil priest darted aside to snatch up a staff, lips moving. Mead raised his hands to begin a spell, then went flat as the priest launched the staff at him. Eddis ran to help him up, then jerked away as the weapon clattered to the floor, writhed, and became a serpent. It twined around the elf mage.
“Get away from it, woman!” Panev ordered her sternly andbegan to pray aloud. A snake grew between his hands, twisting and hissing. With a shout of triumph, Panev cast it at the dark priest, but the dread creature dapped his hands together, and the snake was unmade in a coil of black smoke just short of his feet.
