"I'm with you there," agrees Jiron. A single corridor extends away from the room. With knife in hand, he takes the lead. He doesn't make it far before another of those creatures appears between them.

This time, the creature reacts animatedly and chitters at them before disappearing. Jiron glances back at James who shrugs. Turning back, he continues down the corridor.

James' feeling of foreboding begins to grow into one of impending doom with every step he takes. Just then, the tingling that warns of magic being worked comes to him. Strong and powerful, the feeling is more intense than anything he's ever felt before.

"Jiron," he whispers urgently. "Magic!"

Stopping, Jiron glances back and sees the pallor of James' face. "Close?" he asks.

"It has to be," he replies.

Then Jiron's eyes widen. "James!" he says pointing to his chest. "The medallion."

Looking down, he sees light coming from his beneath his shirt. Pulling out the medallion, the Star upon it bursts into brilliant light.

A frigid wind sweeps down the corridor from further ahead bringing despair and sapping the will. James looks down the corridor to find a figure standing there. Suddenly, the air around them is filled with dozens of the tiny creatures. Chittering and shrieking, the creatures avoid close proximity to the light as they move to strike at them with their tiny claws.

Jiron draws forth both knives and begins fighting back. The creatures move so quickly he is having little effect. A shimmer forms around them as James creates his barrier to keep the creatures at bay. But it does little good, the creatures begin appearing within the barrier.

Jiron finally manages to impale one on his knife. The creature lets out a high pitched squeal then disappears. "James, do something!" he yells as his knives continue to dance, keeping the creatures away.

You have come, mage.

The light coming from the medallion keeps the creatures away from him, the effects of contact with it appears to hurt them. James stands transfixed by the figure at the other end of the corridor until one of the creatures braves the light from the medallion and scores on his right arm. Three lines of red, each several inches long burn like acid as blood begins to well. Then another scores on his leg, ripping the pant leg and baring the flesh beneath.

The tingling sensation spikes and he throws up a barrier to seal off the corridor between themselves and the figure in the hallway. Energy, ma.s.sive energy strikes the barrier and shatters it. Then all of a sudden the air is free of the little creatures as they disappear all at once.

Jiron grabs him by the arm and hollers, "Come on!" Dragging him back down the corridor, they flee.

James glances back and sees two other cowled figures in the corridor next to the first one. Moving around the stationary figure, they make their way down the corridor toward the fleeing pair.

Running fast they return to the room with the raised dais. "Now what?" asks Jiron. From his position at the entrance to the corridor, he sees the cowled figures coming closer. The original one they encountered is now lost in the darkness.

"I don't know," admits James. Searching the walls, he prays to find a secret door or any other way in which to escape.

"How did we get here?" asks Jiron. "Think fast we don't have much time."

"Uh, we were fighting," he says as he tries to recall just what happened. "We were struggling and then the ceiling fell in. Then suddenly we were here."

"How!"

"How..." mumbles James as he tries to figure it out. From his position in the room, he can see the two figures coming closer. Glancing around the room, his eyes settle on the dais. The dais?

His skin crawls as the tingling sensation spikes. "Away from the opening," he yells to Jiron.

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! 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. 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," a.s.serts 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 b.a.l.l.s explode as they collide. When James' eyes recover from the brilliant explosion, he sees one of the h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.sed through during their previous visit. Kicking one of the doors open, he and James pa.s.s 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 the mountain. At the time they were being pursued by soldiers of the Empire and were just looking for a place to hide.

"Not that way," says James as they come to the stairs. "Better leave the same way as last time."

Jiron nods at that and continues down the corridor. They pa.s.s by another corridor extending into darkness on their right and shortly after that arrive at a small room. Standing in the room are two pedestals, upon each sits a statue of a demonic creature. They give them but a cursory glance as they pa.s.s through the room to the corridor on the right. Hurrying along, they pa.s.s three more corridors branching off to the right before entering the room at the end. So far there has been no telltale indication that the warrior priest has appeared on the dais.

Just as they remembered, they find the stairway leading to the room above them. The only exit from the room is an opening in the right wall where a corridor begins. At the top, James pauses and says, "Let's rest a moment."

"You sure?" asks Jiron. "There could be more coming."

"I know, but I need to." James leans against the wall by the stairwell and sags to the floor. "Just for a minute or two," he tells him.

Seeing just how tired his friend is, Jiron nods and takes position at the top of the stairs to keep an eye out for anyone approaching from below. He's not doing too great either. His chest throbs from where that dead creature blasted him, not to mention the multiple strikes of those small flying creatures that burn him like acid. Nothing would please him more right now than to lie down and fall asleep.

He turns his attention from the stairs to James and says, "You know, those dead creatures really weren't that hard to defeat."

"I know," James replies. "I don't know if you noticed, but a warrior priest appeared on the dais before we left."

"I saw something but didn't realize it was a warrior priest," he admits. Getting a confused look on his face he asks, "Then why didn't he come after us?"

"I don't know." Shrugging, James leans his head against the wall and adds, "I suppose we shouldn't question our good fortune."

Grinning, Jiron returns his attention to the stairs. "I suppose not," he agrees. He absentmindedly rubs the arm that fell numb when the creature touched it.

"Arm okay?" James asks.

"The feeling is beginning to come back," he says. "What would cause something like that to happen?"

Shrugging, James contemplates what happened a second before answering. "One of the theories that were kicked around back home was that the energy needed to keep a dead body 'alive' would have a detrimental effect on the living," he explains. "When it touched you, the energy suffusing it entered your body and 'shorted out' your nervous system."

"Shorted out?" he asks perplexed.

James gives him a grin. "Sorry, it's a term from my world. It simply means it stopped your arm from communicating with your brain. If the contact had lasted for any length of time, the damage probably would have been permanent if it didn't kill you outright." He indicates the arm that's numb and adds, "Since the feeling is coming back, it stands to reason nothing permanent was done."

"That's good to know," he says.

Closing his eyes, James tries to relax a moment to quiet the headache that throbs painfully behind his eyes. His restless mind continues trying to make sense of the last few hours. First, Jiron and I are in a city buried by sand and are about to kill each other. Then we wind up in that other place where the little demonic flying creatures were trying to kill us. If the dais is some kind of magical transport device, why did we end up here? It makes no sense! It can't be a random transporter, such a thing would be useless to the warrior priests. There has to be a way to control it. First, Jiron and I are in a city buried by sand and are about to kill each other. Then we wind up in that other place where the little demonic flying creatures were trying to kill us. If the dais is some kind of magical transport device, why did we end up here? It makes no sense! It can't be a random transporter, such a thing would be useless to the warrior priests. There has to be a way to control it.

Okay, suppose there is a rhyme or reason to it. How did Jiron and I trigger it the first time? Could it be set up to trigger for anyone who does magic? That wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. The warrior priests have made many enemies over the years who can wield magic. They surely wouldn't want anyone other than themselves to take advantage of their teleportation system. So the trigger must be something that has to do with them and that only they and their agents would have. Maybe some ability they posses or an aura or something?

"James?" questions Jiron softly.

Eyes opening he glances to where Jiron is still keeping an eye on the stairs. "Someone coming?" he asks.

Shaking his head he says, "No. I was thinking we might want to get out of here." Grinning he adds, "Seeing as how you are awake and all."

The headache has subsided to a dull throb. He feels a little bit rested and able to continue, though the thought of using magic makes his headache throb even more. "Doubt if I could do anything if we were to be attacked," he says. Getting to his feet, he says, "But I am fit enough to walk without your support."

"Good," he says as he comes to him. "Then let's get out of here." He moves past James and crosses over to the corridor. There he pauses and glances back to make sure James is following before leaving the room.

He proceeds down the corridor until he comes to where another corridor crosses the one they're in. Remembering the way from last time, he takes the corridor to the right. They don't go far before coming to the three skeletons of the dead priests lying on the floor. The whole area of the corridor has been blackened as if by fire.

Jiron steps over the skeletons and continues down the corridor. He stops when he realizes James isn't following him. Looking back he finds him standing before the skeletons, staring at them. He starts back toward him when he hears James exclaim, "I got it!"

"What?" Jiron asks as he rejoins him by the skeletons.

Reaching into his pouch, he removes the amulet he acquired here the last time. Emblazoned with the symbol of the warrior priest, he holds it up and shows it to Jiron.

"So?" he asks. Puzzled as to why James is standing there with a wide grin, he waits.

"Don't you see," he says as he shakes the amulet slightly, "this is the key!" He looks to Jiron as if that should explain it all. When Jiron shrugs that he isn't following him, he adds, "The dais. This is what triggered the teleportation."

"Still not sure I'm following you," admits Jiron.

"Do you remember me telling you about my time in the City of Light before it fell?" he asks. When he sees Jiron nod he continues. "Ol' One Eye was sure interested in this when he found it in my possession, said it 'changed things'. I didn't understand it at the time but it makes sense now."

"Also, back in Mountainside when we were taken into the jail back when Tinok and Ca.s.sie were still with us, the officer there was mighty interested in it as well. I think it's no small coincidence that the dais sent us here. After all, this is where it belonged."

"So..." Jiron begins as he tries to work this out. Shaking his head he says, "I still don't understand."

Holding the amulet up before him he says, "This is a portal key! It activates the magic in the dais. That's why we ended up here, it's keyed to the dais below. When we jumped on the dais back in that other place, it sensed this key and sent us here."

"But, why didn't we come here first then?" he asks.