The far end of the passage opened up into a cavernous room that reminded Rellen of the palatial grand entryways he’d walked through. Only the front half seemed to be illuminated by the green torchlight. The back side was darker, mostly lost in flickering shadows. From what he could see, there was a large open space in the middle of the floor that might be a ramp going down. A pair of massive, curving staircases flowed up on either side.

  As they stepped in, they gasped in unison at the sheer scale of it all.

  “It’s like a colosseum,” Miranda whispered.

  Rellen didn’t reply.

  It was a grand foyer of some kind, with massive iron doors to the left and right. Between the passage opening and those doors were eight titanic, demonic statues along the wall. They served as pillars, sculpted to look like they were straining to hold up the ceiling, sixty or seventy feet above them. These sculptures were also reminiscent of the ones he’d seen in Jabono.

  The stairs curving up to the left and right had been made for something with a tremendous stride. Each step was roughly twice the size of a normal one. That wasn’t the only thing that convinced Rellen the place had been built for a much larger race of beings. Enormous swords hung on the walls, set between the demonic pillars. In crossed pairs, the weapons were at least eight feet long, with long grips, intricately carved guards and pommels, and curving blades similar to the saber Miranda carried. The dimensions reminded Rellen of a two-handed weapon, but even at that scale, the grip was almost two feet long.

  “Rellen…” Miranda said, “everything is…”

  “Giant,” Rellen finished for her. “Yes.”

  “How can this be?” Tavyn asked.

  “Maybe all those children’s stories aren’t just stories…” he replied softly, as if he were trying to convince himself. “It doesn’t matter right now.” He pointed to where Toreth’s tracks continued down a ramp as wide as the passage they’d come through. It went down for at least a hundred feet, with more green torches lining the walls. Toreth’s tracks went down into the gloom—and all of the animal tracks came out. “We have to keep going.”

  He strode forward and began the long descent beneath the fortress. The walls were devoid of bas reliefs, but burning green torches illuminated the path as far as he could see. The passage was another hundred feet long with iron doors along the way, each pair facing each other and spaced thirty or forty feet apart. They kept following the tracks, and at the end of the passage, it opened up into another large and fairly long room. The sides of that chamber were also lined with demonic statues, but rather than holding up the ceiling, these held large torches that all burned with green flame.

  On the far side, they could just make out a human figure in blue and black robes.

  Toreth…

  His body was silhouetted by a pattern of blue lines and lights set into a stone wall that rose to a high, pointed arch of carved stone. Large, glowing sigils of some kind ran up and down the archway. Toreth moved his arms around in what Rellen believed had to be the somatic part of a spell.

  As they drew nearer, they heard his voice echoing down the chamber, low and guttural, speaking in that same, bizarre language.

  Miranda caught up with Rellen, pulled up on his arm and hissed at Tavyn to get him to stop.

  Sneak up on him? Miranda asked using their sign language. Kill him outright while he casts that spell?

  Rellen shook his head. Wait until he’s finished, he signed. Must see what’s on other side of wall. I think it’s a door. The artifact is the key. We attack with everything once he’s done.

  Why?

  Explain later. I promise.

  She gave him a dubious look, let out a worried breath, and then nodded. She motioned for him to lead on. Rellen gripped his falchion more tightly, and as he moved forward as silently as possible, he swapped out the poison vial for something with more punch. If he was lucky, the timing would work out.

  They reached the end of the passage. Toreth’s voice grew louder with every step. They entered another high hallway that rose above them to a pointed ceiling high above. Sixteen demonic statues lined the walls, their monstrous, horned heads bowed and eyes closed. They held the torches before them almost reverently. Toreth was still focused on his spell, and now that Rellen was closer, he could see that the man stood in front of a door covered by interlocking rings etched into the stone, which also glowed a brilliant blue. They pulsed with a strange inner power, in cadence with Toreth’s spell. It was as if, with each word, Toreth was battering against the light, trying to force it back into darkness.

  Tavyn halted and looked back, a questioning expression on his face.

  Rellen signaled for Tavyn to move over to the right side and creep up on the other side of the pillars. He signaled for Miranda to approach the same way from the left side. He would take the middle, out in the open, and they would attack.

  It was a calculated risk, but he didn’t see how they had much choice. He motioned for them to get moving as he crept forward, one silent step after another. He’d closed to within about twenty feet when Toreth’s voice grew to a crescendo.

  Toreth, practically shouting out the words of the spell, raised his arms above his head, the plunnokum held high. It flared with an inner light and ignited with bright, green flames. As it did, the glowing blue lines upon the door flared and went dark.

  Toreth went silent. He sagged, letting out a weary breath.

  Rellen tapped into his majea, preparing for their attack.

  Toreth stepped up to the doors. It looked like he set the plunnokum into the center of them, but Rellen couldn’t be sure. He seemed to twist something, and then a flash of blue light surged along the seam of the door, followed by a loud, metallic CLUNK.

  Toreth stepped back, the burning plunnokum in his hand, as the doors swung open with a harsh grinding of metal and stone.

  Rellen tightened his grip on the vial and started his spell.

  “At last, I can escape my prison,” Toreth said, his voice thick with satisfaction.

  The doors had opened almost fully, revealing a room beyond, where the far wall, at least twenty feet tall, glowed with an impossible, luminescent swirl of light.

  Rellen glanced at Miranda and nodded. He uttered the last word of his spell and threw the vial in front of Toreth. It landed with a clatter and flared bright white with a hiss of smoke and heat.

  Toreth screamed, turning his head away. He spun around and roared out his fury. “Impudent wretches,” he screamed. His wide, unseeing eyes passed right over Rellen and Miranda. “I don’t need to see you to kill you!”

  Rellen yanked a poison vial from his bandoleer as Miranda slashed with her arm.

  The ruby scythe struck Toreth in the chest. He growled out his pain, but there was no blood.

  Rellen had hoped for blood, preferably gushing, but there was nothing at all, and then he hesitated, not believing what he saw. Toreth’s body was changing… morphing somehow. His skin darkened—turned blue. The whites of his eyes shifted to red. Thick, dark horns sprouted from his temples. He grew taller, more curvaceous.

  The demon is coming out! Rellen came to his senses, finished his incantation, and threw the vial just as Toreth uttered a spell of his own. The green flames around the plunnokum flared as Toreth swept his other hand forward. The vial shattered at his feet. A cloud of poison gas erupted around him—it—as a massive wall of green flame sprang into existence, racing toward Rellen.

  Rellen dove to the side and dodged it by mere inches. A wash of searing heat slammed against him as the wall rolled past and exploded against one of the stone pillars.

  The demon swept its hands downward, and the billowing clouds of poison blew away, dissipating in a tornado of wind.

  It can use Land Magic too? Rellen thought in a panic. It’s not possible!

  “Get out of my mind, you miserable bug!” the demon howled, turning to Rellen’s right.

  Tavyn had engaged it somehow.

  The demon gestured and another wall of flame sprang into existence, raced along the floor, and slammed against a nearby pillar, engulfing it completely in green flame.

  Tavyn screamed in pain. Rellen couldn’t see how badly he’d been burned.

  A ruby scythe sailed in from the left and struck the demon. It shrieked in rage and pain, and this time a thin line of blood appeared on its face, running from its cheek down its neck.

  What had once been Toreth now stood seven feet tall, with blue skin, a shapely woman’s body, and thick dark horns that spread out from her temples in tight curves to end in sharp, dagger-like points. Recognition slammed into Rellen. The demon was the spitting image of the creature carved into the bas relief sculptures they’d found in the first hallway.

  She turned and slashed her hand towards Miranda. A ruby scythe sailed out.

  Miranda slashed back and their scythes met in mid-air. The edges of the demon’s scythe shattered, but some of it kept going and slammed into Miranda. A gash opened up on her face, running down her neck beneath her armor.

  Rellen jerked a different vial from his bandoleer, uttered a single incantation and threw it. The vial streaked towards the demon and exploded. The demon howled in rage and pain, staggering back.

  The demon’s head snapped toward him. She slashed at him, and a ruby scythe filled the air in front of him.

  Miranda countered with one of her own, shattering some of the demon’s spell, but what remained struck Rellen. The magic shield around him flashed. A deep, burning pain coursed along his body, and he cried out in pain.

  He couldn’t take much more of that. He traced a quick symbol in the air before him, the tip of his blade glowing, and uttered a familiar incantation, just as the demon sent another scythe streaking toward him. Miranda countered again.

  Again, shards of the demon’s scythe got through, staggering him. He felt a gash open up across his leg and belly but managed to finish his spell. The demon’s clothing came alive around her body. Her robes slithered up and wrapped around her head, blinding her.

  Rellen drew his other falchion. “For the Honor of Pelinon!” he shouted and charged, hoping Miranda would still be able to protect him—at least a little.

  The demon shrieked out her frustration, yanking at her robes as Rellen closed the distance.

  She touched the flaming plunnokum to her robes, and they ignited, burning away in a flash. She fixed flaming eyes upon Rellen and slashed again. Miranda countered. What remained slammed into Rellen’s body. His protection spell flashed white as pain flared over his body. He felt another gash open up across his chest. His protection spell had been consumed. He closed with the demon and swung his blade.

  She slapped the weapon aside with the plunnokum. Rellen thrust as one of Miranda’s scythes flew in and struck the demon’s arm. The demon roared as she grabbed Rellen’s arm, wrapping clawed fingers around his bracer. She twisted, using Rellen as a shield, and uttered a spell in her strange, guttural language. Rellen gasped, tried to draw in a breath, but the air felt like poison burning in his lungs.

  She raised the plunnokum and swung. Rellen parried with another ring of steel. A sharp pain ran up his arm with the impact, he’d stopped the plunnokum only inches from his head. He tried to draw another breath but was met with only fire. His vision blurred.

  Searing pain flared along his arm where the demon clutched it. The bracer caught fire, burning with green flame. Rellen tried to scream out his agony but managed only a hissing croak. He saw spots. The world spun. He dropped the falchion from the hand caught in her grasp.

  The demon raised the plunnokum again, ready to bash Rellen’s head in as his armor burned.

  A dagger sailed out of the darkness and struck the demon in the shoulder. Her arm dropped almost instantly. Her magic failed. The fire burning around Rellen’s arm went out, and he sucked in a single breath of cool air as the plunnokum fell from her limp fingers, struck the floor, and rolled away to his right.

  “Filthy poison!” she screamed, releasing Rellen as she jerked the dagger from her shoulder.

  It was all the opening Rellen needed.

  He stepped in, drove his falchion into the center of her chest, and staggered back.

  A massive ruby scythe sailed in from his left and struck the demon in the center of her body. A deep gash appeared, running from her forehead all the way down her face and neck. Black blood poured forth. Another dagger flew in and sank to the hilt in her throat.

  The demon’s eyes rolled back in her head. Her mouth yawned open, and a soul-ripping wail lifted out of her body and filled the room. The flame in her eyes spread out, and she started to topple forward. Rellen turned, and as he did, a burning emerald light shone forth from where his falchion had impaled her. The light flared and spread, pouring out from each of her wounds.

  It expanded out. Rellen felt the magic building up to a crescendo.

  “Run!” he said, turning toward Miranda… it was too late.

  He took three running steps when the detonation enveloped him, hammered his senses, filled the chamber with bright, green light. The force of the blast sent him sailing straight toward Miranda.

  He blacked out before he hit the ground.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Aftermath

  “Rellen?” Miranda’s voice came from far away, drawing him out of darkness.

  He opened his eyes to find her staring down at him, a slim gash running down her face, a worried expression in her eyes. The green torches were no longer lit, but he recognized the light of a glowstone. He turned his head, wincing with pain, to see one laying on the floor beside him.

  He drew in a deep breath. That hurt. He tried to move his arms. That hurt too. He shifted his legs slightly. They hurt. He quickly came to the conclusion that everything hurt. The soldier inside, however, reminded him, pain was a good thing.

  It proves I’m still alive.

  “Toreth, or whatever that was?” Rellen asked, looking up at her.

  “Gone,” she replied. “Consumed by whatever magics held the wretched thing inside him, I suspect.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  “What do you mean?” she said, confused. “That thing is definitely dead.”

  “It knew me… from Calamath. I thought it was destroyed then, too.” Could it be the same one? He thought about it, but the timing seemed off. It would all depend upon when Toreth had been possessed. How could they exist simultaneously? He shook his head, afraid he might have to face the same terrible monstrosity over and over again. Either way, he knew there was lots of fighting ahead of him… fighting demons. “My falchion?” he asked, wondering if the demon exploding had taken his falchion with her.

  Miranda reached out, grabbed something, and then held the blade before him.

  “That’s something, at least,” he said. “Tavyn?”

  “Gone by the time I came to,” Miranda replied ominously. “He took that key with him.”

  Rellen closed his eyes, a sense of dread filling him. So that’s what he was after.

  He opened his eyes again, drew in a long breath in preparation for what he was about to do, and let it out slowly.

  “How long were we out?”

  “A while, I think,” Miranda said weakly.

  “He must be long gone by now, and Mygal was in no position to stop him from running out on us.” He let out a pained groan. “Help me up, would you?”

  With a little straining and a lot of groaning from both of them, Rellen managed to get his feet under him. He could feel blood beneath his armor where the demon’s scythes had bit into him. His left forearm was a seared wreck. Just moving it sent waves of pain up his entire arm. He knew the flesh below had been burned, and probably quite badly.

  When he finally stood up straight, his eyes fixed upon the glowing wall that lay a short distance past the now open doors. He took a moment to return both falchions to his sheathes. Picking up the glowstone, he slowly made his way across the chamber and through the open doors. As he passed them by, he noticed that the pattern of circles, now mere stone, had also been etched onto the interior surface of the doors. There was a deep groove set into the edge of each door that obviously would fit the plunnokum if the doors were closed. It locks on both sides? he thought. That doesn’t make any sense.

  Supporting each other, they limped into the next chamber and approached the glowing wall. A pattern on the floor caught his eye. Holding the glowstone out, he gasped. He’d seen the pattern before, although in a very different way. Carved into the dark stone was the shape of a horned, demonic skull. Four small horns rose from its crown, and two larger, curving ones came up from its temples. A pair of downward curving horns came out from its jawline on each side, and there were three, bony horns descending from below its mouth.

  It was the skull he’d seen on the neck rings of the Klymrukaar, without the sword going up through it. Rellen’s insides churned. Why would the symbol be in both places? It didn’t make sense. He shook his head, weary of mysteries. He turned his focus to the faintly glowing wall.

  Although, now that he was standing in front of it, the thing didn’t seem like a wall so much as a mirror or maybe a portal of some kind, although he’d never even heard of such magic. A stone framework surrounded it, carved deeply with circles and lines in a style he’d never seen before. Patterns of color, light and darkness—a mix of every color of the rainbow—slowly swirled along its surface. He couldn’t tell if it was solid or some sort of magical manifestation, but he dared not touch it. Who knew what the damn thing was or what it did? As he stared into it, the words Toreth had spoken when the demon had opened the doors floated up out of Rellen’s memory.

  “At last, I can escape my prison.”