did see them but were unable to react.
A dozen darklings lay scattered on their ground, their bodies burnt by some fiery spell while one of the big furry creatures lay on its side, a great blackened mass of flesh that emanated smoke. Near the closest of the white marble pillars three reptile men lay on the ground either dead or near death while half a dozen more, all in priestly robes, fought on against twice their number in ghouls and darklings.
Jon Gray’s massive strides took him toward the rear of the darkling creatures, although Vispanius kept up with his own little legs churning like spokes in a wagon wheel and Odellius quickly fell behind, his rolling gate no match for the other two. With one sweep of his massive stone sword Jon sent three of the creatures straight to oblivion, and the First Rider cut into another two with precise sword strokes through their necks.
Odellius, who brought up the rear, attacked the second of the huge furry beasts and drove his blade into the thing’s lower back at an upward angle, and his forward momentum caused him to crash into the creature. The sword burst out of the thing’s chest as it sprawled forward on top of a reptile man with upraised arms and crushed him to the floor with a terrible splat.
The arrival of the third force changed the dynamics of the situation immediately as the darklings turned to face their new foes, while the last of the furry creatures grabbed a reptile man and tore off his arm with a seemingly nonchalant motion. One of the priest’s eyes opened wide and a smile began to form on his lips as he assumed the First Rider and his friends were allies. Jon disavowed him of this notion with a flick of his wrist; his massive stone sword came down on the head of the creature, crushed it and sprayed a wide splatter of skull and brain matter in all directions.
Jon, Vipsanius, and Odellius blew straight through the combatants and into the maze of giant white stones while Sorus moved behind them. The reptile men and darklings stood in stunned silence for a moment, their weapons and spell-casting paraphernalia held high. The third, and final, great furry beast recovered first and took a swipe at a priest of Sakatha, severing his head cleanly, after which the battle resumed in full force.
The First Rider strode through the white stones, running headlong into a spectacularly bedecked priest and shoving him against a pillar with a thrust of his short but powerful arms. The reptile man cracked his skull against the stone, slumped to the ground, and left a trail of blood on the otherwise bright white surface. Within seconds all four of them stood near the center of the stone circle where a huge green stone made of jade, or some like substance, glowed with an internal light, and three reptile men stood around it, their arms raised and their chants at some sort of a crescendo.
Vipsanius raised his hand and the others stopped immediately as they took in the sight. One of the reptiles spotted the group from the corner of its eye, and the chant faltered for a moment, but a glance from the leader of the group returned them to their duties. The leader then raised a hand towards the First Rider, Jon, Odellius, and Sorus and a greenish gas engulfed them. All four scattered away from the miasma and coughs racked their lungs, although the First Rider went towards the priest at the center of the circle with his sword upraised.
At that moment the chants hit a crescendo and a tremendous flash of intensely bright green light, focused on the stone in the center of the room, exploded into the chamber.
Chapter 28
Jon Gray stood stunned for a moment, shook his head as bright little spots impaired his vision, blinked again and again as he tried to clear his sight. First he began to see large blobs of white but they slowly resolved themselves into marble pillars and then he spotted both his friends and the reptile men priests. Everything seemed unusually bright and a glance up revealed blue sky through a skylight in a domed ceiling that he didn’t remember from a moment before.
The reptile men looked up, down, at one another, and then merely stood there without a sound.
“What… what happened?” said Sorus as he blinked his eyes and tried to clear his vision. “Where is that light coming from? Are we outside?”
“The stones look the same,” said Vipsanius as also shook his head and blinked rapidly. “We’re in the same place, they’re,” with a point to the reptile men, “the same, I don’t hear any combat, but that,” with a look up, “is very different.”
A cool, calm voice said something that no one understood and a moment later a tall man who wore white robes with the emblem of a lithe cat on them appeared around some of the rocks. Right behind him came a group of children. He stopped, pointed to one of the rocks and began to lecture the little ones in the strange language without a glance at the group.
Odellius went right up to him, looked at him, waved his hand in front of the man’s eyes, but neither he, nor the children, seemed to notice as he continued to lecture and the children looked rather bored. A number of different races appeared to be in the mix with at least one full blooded elf child, an orc, and even a little minotaur boy.
“What happened?” said Sorus again.
“Look,” said Jon, and pointed to the side of the chamber where a long set of stairs led towards the cavern roof and out into the open where sunlight filtered in. The reptiles seemed to notice it as well and they, with a glance towards the group and a bit of jabbering among themselves, began to walk towards the stairs.
“Is Tenebrous here?” said Odellius and looked around for the shadowy form but there was no sign of the creature.
“Let’s follow the reptile men,” said the First Rider as he started to walk after the creatures, “we still don’t have the Staff of Sakatha and they know where it is… presumably.”
The four followed, took the perfectly cut stairwell up to the surface and soon found themselves in a small city with dozens of tidy stone buildings and hundreds of people of all sizes and shapes who wandered around apparently oblivious to the two strange groups.
“What is this?” said Jon and noted that the reptile men likewise stared in stunned silence at the region.
“It’s the ruin, Jon,” said Sorus as he suddenly guessed the truth. “The ruin we were supposed to find, that the First Rider sent the other group to visit, but from thousands of years ago when the Old Empire still existed!”
“That’s not possible,” said Jon.
Odellius nodded his head in agreement, “I’m with Jon on this one, this is not possible,” he echoed the thoughts. “How can we be here?”
“I’m not sure we are here,” said the First Rider with a look around at all the people who seemed to take no note of them at all. “What was it Tenebrous said about Chusarausea and his dreams?”
“We’re in a dream?” said Sorus as he looked around from the mountainside at the valley below and then pinched his arm, closed his eyes, and shook his head.
“Did that work,” said Jon with a smile.
“No,” said Sorus as he opened his eyes, “and I didn’t think it would.”
“How can we be in a dream?” said Odellius as everyone in the crowd suddenly looked up and pointed towards the sky, and a low murmur began to grow.
“Magic, I’m guessing,” said Vipsanius with a wry grin. “These white marble sites contain much of the magical residue of the Old Empire. I’ve heard they are focal points for the magical energy that exists in the world. All the ruins are central points but the white marble is special beyond that.”
“That’s right,” said Jon. “Val talks about that all the time, that magic is more powerful when performed in the ancient stone circles, and even more in the white marble ruins. That’s their whole purpose, or at least that’s Val’s theory on the things. He’ll be so happy I actually listened to him for once!”
“Fellows,” said Sorus, his gaze on the sky.
“I think the First Rider’s on to something,” said Odellius. “If this is all a dream then we’re back in the cave with the fight still going on.”
“Guys,” said Sorus again, this time pointing to the sky along with almost everyone else in the small town.
“What is it?” said Odellius and he followed the gaze of the boy and then said, “I see.”
Jon and the First Rider looked up as well and spotted a long train of greenish smoke in the sky headed
