Ru Emerson - Keep on the Borderlands

Back past the entry and a like distance on, the passage ended in a door ahead and a door on their right. Panev brought out a stubby black wand and gazed at it, then turned to look from one door to the other. He nodded toward the one straight ahead, but as Jerdren and Hebold surged that way, the priest blocked their way.

“There are priests within,” he murmured. “Four priests. Trustnothing they say or do!”

Hebold shrugged and slammed into the door. The panel gave way. Four hooded, red-robed men snatched up weapons and ran to put themselves between the invaders and two other priests who had been reading a text.

Mead fired a glowing dart across the chamber into the nearest standing priest. The fellows hood smoldered, and he flung his mace aside to beat at the thick doth. Mead jumped back, M’Baddah and Willow brushed him aside andblocked the entry, firing two swift arrows each. M’Baddah’s bounced off therobed being with a dang. Willow’s lodged deep in the hood, and the unseen priestsagged and fell across the table. Hebold and Jerdren charged into the room then, as outlander and elf swung away from the doorway. Two Keep men followed, bearing down on the priest with the still-smoking hood.

Eddis and Flerys stayed in the hall, the swordswoman with her blade out and her free arm around Flerys, her eyes searching both corridors. Panev said noise would bring the undead down on us, she thought. If this isn’tnoise, I don’t know what is.

It was abruptly quiet back in that chamber, all at once. Someone was moaning in pain. A sword clanged into something hard and metal, and the moaning stopped. Eddis looked that way. Blood splashed the far wall, and all four hooded men lay still.

“It’s all right, child,” she told Flerys. “We’ve won again.”She hoped. There were men down in there-one she could see with a long daggersticking out of his neck, his eyes open and vacant.

Panev walked around the chamber, spoke a blessing over their dead. “Everyone out,” he said tersely, and 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 this unholy place?”Without waiting for a reply, the priest strode on down the west-facing passage.

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 nothing! We approach the heart ofevil, and the thing that catches your eye may draw you from us and turn you into its slave. Do not let any creature touch you or hold your gaze. And let no priest escape!”

“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.