The water lapped gently against the side of the boat. The little splits and spluts it made seemed to go perfectly with the sounds of the myriad creatures that inhabited the woods surrounding the lake.

  Rori’s foot hung over the edge of the small rowboat and trailed through the cool water. It was a nice counterpoint to the warm sun that fell onto his face. He breathed in the fresh air and sighed.

  “This place is perfect,” he said.

  “Maybe not perfect, but close enough,” Meredith said.

  “We’ve been drifting for a while and I am enjoying it, but there must be some reason you brought me here. Did you need to talk to me?”

  “No. You’ve been stuck in that mountain for a while. Thought you might enjoy something a little more scenic.”

  Rori turned and looked up to the goddess who was sitting nestled in the prow of the small boat. She looked completely at ease and not at all out of place. Her hair was done up in the messy bun she favored, revealing her long neck and perfect skin.

  “I thought I’d never say this to a deity but, you’re lying. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t tell in any way, but I sincerely doubt this is the top thing on your ‘to-do’ list.”

  Meredith smiled and dangled one hand in the water.

  “Did you know that there is a myth that there is a monster living in the bottom of this lake?”

  Rori lifted his foot out of the water with a jerk but then saw the smile on her face.

  “You’re lying again!”

  “I’ll admit that one of those two statements was not true,” said Meredith, “but I will not say which.”

  Rori gave her a long look and then turned back over and dropped his foot back into the water.

  “I’ll chance it.”

  They drifted idly in silence for a while. Though there were no oars, and the boat was completely controlled by the current, they never seemed to drift too close to the shore.

  “Nolan says the sword is bonded to me,” said Rori after a time.

  “Hmm,” was Meredith’s only reply.

  “That’s why the phren want me dead.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Did you know that?”

  “Hmm.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “It wasn’t on the top of my ‘to-do’ list,” Meredith replied with a smile.

  “Did you know that other gods have been visiting me?”

  Meredith’s smile faded.

  “Besides my brother?”

  “I’m not certain but I think it was Riond. He asked me to go on a trip and leave all my worries behind.”

  “Sounds about like something he’d say. Anyone else?”

  “Any chance one of you is a half-elf assassin?”

  Meredith’s smile returned. “No. Sorry. She is a problem of this world for you to deal with.”

  “But you know who she is, don’t you?”

  “Hmm. The gods could interfere in all things, all of the time, but people would soon grow weary of such meddling. Our followers would grow lazy waiting for us to tell them what to do and when to do it. Or we could let you live your lives and succeed or fail on your own. Of the two, I prefer the latter. It makes for a better class of follower.

  “Some gods, like Azire, take a more hands on approach. The more freewill the people of any religion have the more likely the god is to be one of the good guys.”

  “‘The good guys.’ You make it sound like the gods have sides. Wait, do the gods have sides? Are you at war with each other?”

  “Not really, but it does happen. We all have our own goals and desires though. Sometimes those things come in conflict with others’. Of course, some gods are more confrontational than others.”

  “Like Azire?”

  “Yes, and Brendel and Kurdos to name another two.”

  “I’m not familiar with them. Who follows them?”

  “Rori, it’s nearly time for you to leave.”

  “Okay, is there a reason why you’re mentioning it? Usually, I just wake up. Do we need to go to the shore or something?”

  “You will wake up this time too. But when you do, you will not have time to lay and contemplate. They have come for you. You must move immediately. Do you understand?”

  “No.”

  “Move! Now!”

  Rori went from completely asleep to completely awake.

  In the next instant he had rolled off the bed and on to the floor.

  It was this action that meant instead of three spears being driven into him, they ended up shoved through his now empty bed.

  He sprang up and ran out of the room into the hall pulling the door shut behind him. The door had no lock, so it wouldn’t stop the three phren from getting out, but it might slow them down enough for him to get out of sight.

  Of course, the four other phren standing in the hallway would probably just tell them where he’d gone. The rat men in the hall immediately turned towards Rori. They were all wearing nothing. Except for the swords and crossbows that they carried, they could easily have been larger versions of a standard rat with their greasy black fur, beady black eyes and long hairless tails.

  As hiding was no longer an option, Rori switched plans and started yelling.

  “PHREN!”

  Ian and Honoria were sleeping in the main barracks at the end of this hall. Hopefully they would hear him. He continued to yell just in case.

  “PHREN EVERYWHERE!”

  The four phren at the front of this hall stopped searching the nearby rooms and started moving down the hall towards Rori. Two of them raised crossbows and fired.

  Rori jumped back at his own door just as it started to open. He slammed into it and heard a satisfying grunt as one or more of the phren in his bedroom were slammed to the ground inside. The crossbow bolts flew by without connecting.

  He pulled the door shut again and stepped back into the center of the hall, facing the two phren advancing on him with swords in hand.

  “Down!” said a voice behind him.

  Rori hit the ground without hesitation. Volleys of arrows flew over him and he watched as all four phren fell in rapid succession.

  He sprang back to his feet just as the bedroom door started to open again. He slammed back into it. More satisfying grunts came from inside the room, and he pulled the door closed again.

  “There’s three in here!” he shouted back down the hall to Ian and Honoria.

  “Where did they come from?” said Ian.

  “It matters not,” said Honoria. “We defend or we will die.”

  This time when the doorknob in his hand turned, instead of shoving into it, Rori leaned back and held the door closed. The force on the other side increased as the three phren in the room worked to try and pull it open. Rori let go of the knob and the door flew open. The three phren went tumbling back onto the bed. Rori grabbed the knob and pulled the door shut again.

  “Do you think these seven are the whole attack force?” Ian asked as he and Honoria moved up behind Rori.

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  “That would not seem likely,” Honoria said. “The phren attack in giant waves. Hoping to win by numbers in place of skill.”

  “Are you ready?” asked Rori. Then before they could answer he felt the knob begin to turn again. This time he shoved it open and fell back to the ground. The phren, having anticipated another trick, stood with their spears ready. They did not anticipate Ian and Honoria. Arrows flew again and the phren fell without a sound.

  At the front of the hall five more phren came around the corner in a scrambling run.

  “I guess that answers that question,” said Ian.

  “It is only as was said. What is down that hall?” asked Honoria.

  “It’s the stairway down to the lower rooms. It’s mostly storage and the baths,” Rori answered.

  “Can we stand and defend here?”

  “If they keep coming this way we can,” said Ian.

  “There is a connecting passage,” said Rori. “Assuming a horde of phren it’s only a matter of time before they end up behind us.”

  “We must find a more defensible position,” said Honoria. “Rori, it’s you they are after. Go back to the barracks. We will move back as well.”

  Rori ran to the end of the hall with the sound of their bowstrings singing behind him. When he reached the door, he turned back and was not surprised to find these phren had fallen as well. Ian and Honoria turned and headed towards him.

  At the end of the hall three more phren appeared. The first two held swords like the others, but the third held nothing in his hands. This phren immediately began chanting as it started casting a spell.

  The two archers grabbed arrows from their quivers and turned towards the new threat, preparing to fire. But before they could the spell was completed.

  The phren’s clawed hand pointed at Rori and what looked like five glowing red sparks the size of a large apple shot forth and raced down the hall. When they reached Ian and Honoria the missiles veered around the pair without slowing and continued heading towards Rori.

  When the first one got near, Rori slapped it aside as he would an arrow. The red spark slammed into the doorframe behind him. He spun to the left and leapt at the same time. Three more of the missiles flew by and impacted in the room behind him. The fifth missile hit him squarely in the leg and he fell to the ground.

  The arrows in the hands of Ian and Honoria found bowstrings without error. They flew their course true, and both ended in the sorcerer’s chest. They were immediately followed by several more. A strangling snarl cut off the phren’s next spell as he too fell dead.

  “Rori! Are you okay?” yelled Ian.

  “I will be,” said Rori from his spot on the ground. “I can tell you I’m glad that all five of those things didn’t hit. One was bad enough.”

  “I know this spell,” Honoria whispered to Ian as they took down the two phren with swords. “It does not miss.”

  “Tell that to Rori,” Ian whispered back. Then shouting down the hall he said, “I hear more coming!”

  “What do we do?” asked Rori getting up off the ground.

  “We need a place with but one entrance,” said Honoria. “There we will make a stand.”

  “How about the food storage behind the kitchen?”

  “It’s around a corner,” said Ian launching more arrows down the hall. “Some place with straight sight lines would be best.”

  “We go to the armory,” said Honoria.

  “It’s not much better than the kitchen,” said Ian.

  “Yes, but it has a barrel of arrows,” said the elf.

  “Good point. Rori to the armory!”

  Ian and Honoria began firing volleys of arrows down the hall. After each round the archers took several steps backward before firing another round. In this way they made progress towards the room, but it took time.

  Inside the barracks, Rori raced towards one of the two other exits. It led out to a hallway that was a part of the circuit around the rooms. It was almost assured that the phren would soon be coming from this direction as well.

  Rori slammed the door and grabbed one of the nearby bunk beds and toppled it onto the ground in front of the door. He did this twice more before calling the impromptu barricade good enough. The process had taken long enough that Ian and Honoria now stood in the doorway. They continued to launch attacks down the hall at what Rori presumed was more phren. He raced across the room to the other exit and turned back to the archers.

  “Let’s go!”

  No sooner had he said this than there was a slam against the door he had just barricaded. The sound of phren shouting could be heard behind it as they tried to force the door open.

  “That was timely,” said Ian. Then seeing something Rori could not down the first hallway he slammed the door in front of him and cried, “Watch out!”

  There were three low thuds as something hit the door. Rori wasn’t sure if it was magic or some kind of projectile, but regardless the door immediately burst into flames.

  Ian and Honoria ran across the room to Rori.

  The slamming against the barricaded door abruptly stopped and was quickly followed by the same sound of three thuds. That door burst into flames as well.

  “If we are going to get to the armory before them, we need to hurry,” Rori said.

  They fled down the hall and into the dining room. Even though the shutters to the pass through were latched closed and the door to the kitchen was shut, there was no missing the sounds coming from behind the shutters.

  “We were too slow,” Ian said in a whisper.

  “Doesn’t sound like many of them,” said Rori. “I’m going to go into the kitchen and draw them back out here.”

  “What if they do not follow?” asked Honoria.

  “They’ll follow. Just be ready to do to them the same thing Honoria and Sean did to me,” said Rori. “I’m going in on three.”

  Rori ran to the kitchen door and turned back to the two archers. He silently counted to three using his fingers, opened the door and dove into the kitchen. Immediately the sound of combat followed.

  There were several loud smashes, clangs and clatters. Then the small wood latch holding the shutters closed gave way with a snap as Rori came bursting out of the pass through. He once again rolled, sprang up onto the table and immediately slid over to the other side and onto the floor.

  In the pass-through window four phren crossbows appeared. Ian and Honoria fired on the rat faces behind them. Then they each took down one of the two swordsmen who came running out of the kitchen door.

  “Did you get six?” said Rori springing back to his feet.

  “Yes,” said Honoria.

  “Then let’s move.”

  Rori ran back through the door and across the kitchen. The hallway on the far side was clear for the moment. But it wouldn’t be for long. Rori could hear the sounds of phren up ahead. Hopefully there wasn’t enough to keep them from getting to the armory.

  As Ian and Honoria stepped into the kitchen three things happened at once. The squad of phren coming through the doorway into the dining room behind them was almost expected. The squad of phren with a sorcerer appearing at the back of the kitchen from the food storage area probably should have been expected. The pitch-black darkness that enveloped everything was completely unexpected.

  “Run for the armory!” shouted Ian. So Rori ran.

  The black was absolute. He could see nothing. Not his hand in front of his face and nothing from the lantern he knew was shining on the wall less than two feet away. But fortunately for Rori, the route was familiar. He reached the corner and turned down the next hall without slowing.

  Humans and elves do not have the ability to see in darkness. The phren do. There was always a chance that this magical darkness was impeding their vision just as much as his, but given that they had cast the spell, Rori didn’t think it likely.

  His one hope was that he would eventually reach the edge of the darkness. Spells have limits to their effects. This one would too. It was just a matter of finding it.

  “Ian? Honoria?” Rori whispered back down the hall behind him when he heard the sounds of someone approaching.

  “We are not your friend. Give us who we seek, and we will kill you quickly,” a voice from the darkness said. Instead of replying, Rori turned and ran again.

  After rounding another corner, he knew the sparring room that sat in front of the armory was just ahead, but at this point he wasn’t sure why he was still heading there. If Ian and Honoria had fallen, there was little point in his going there. The last thing he needed was a room full of weapons. With no better plan springing to mind, he reached the door and listened.

  From inside the room, he could hear the sound of chanting. Though he didn’t understand the words, they sounded something like phren, and they had that same singsong quality many spellcasters used. If Rori opened the door and it was dark inside the room, it wouldn’t take long for a room full of phren sorcerers to blow to bits a human stumbling around blindly.

  Instead, he immediately switched directions and went back down the hallway. He trailed his hand along the right-hand wall until if found the second doorway. He pulled open the door as quietly as he could and slipped inside.

  If he hadn’t gotten turned around, this was the bedroom used by Dade and Kedra. He cautiously crept forward with one hand out hoping to find the foot of the large bed. He’d run his circuit of the hallways enough times to be comfortable doing it in the dark, but he’d only been in this room once before. Hopefully, his memories were accurate.

  When his hand encountered something wood, he quickly confirmed it was the bed.

  “Okay. Now what?” he asked himself.

  He heard several people move past the door in the hall outside. It wouldn’t take them long to figure out he’d ducked into one of the side rooms. His time was limited.

  If he hid, they would likely find him. If he stood here, they would be able to attack him in the dark and he didn’t like his chances of defending. What he needed was to get outside of the darkness’ effect.

  Outside, he thought. Maybe that’s it!

  Rori reached the far side of the bed and crept further into the room. From somewhere else there was the sound of a loud explosion.

  “What in the world could that be?” he wondered.

  He came to the far wall and began to slide left along it. In a few steps he found what he was expecting, the double doors that led out onto the cliffside patio attached to this room. He opened one of the doors and stepped outside into the cold night air. As he was closing the door, he could hear someone coming into this room from the hallway.

  He stopped with the door nearly all of the way shut and listened.

  “The humans are in one of these rooms,” a voice said in phren. “We will find them soon. Search them all now.”

  Rori pulled the door closed and wondered what to do now. A fight in the dark was one thing. A fight in the dark next to a several thousand-foot drop was something else altogether.

  He edged over to the railing. He was outside, but the darkness was still absolute.

  Though he couldn’t see anything, he could hear the sound of fighting coming from around the side of the mountain. It sounded like someone was fighting the phren back in the main sitting room. Had others arrived?

  If he shouted it was possible they would hear him, but he would definitely give himself away to the phren in the room beside him. And the phren would get here long before anyone else did. Even if he stayed quiet, eventually the phren in the room would check the patio and there was nowhere out here to hide. That meant either standing his ground here in the dark or fighting his way back through the phren.

  It occurred to him that there was another option. It was risky and some might say stupid, but there was a third choice. He could get off this patio and try to climb his way around the mountain to the next patio. If he went left, he should come to the small patio outside of the kitchen. If he went right, it would eventually take him to the main sitting room.

  “Am I actually going to try this?” he said under his breath. “On the plus side, at least in the dark I can’t see how far down it is.”

  He slid his hand on the side of the mountain beside the patio. It was not entirely smooth natural stone. There were handholds. The question was, were there enough hand and footholds, and did they make it all the way around to the next patio? Based on the layout of the complex Rori guessed the patios could be no more than a hundred feet apart in a straight line. Of course, his path would not be so direct. He knew the side of the mountain moved out from the right side of the patio and curved around so that you couldn’t see one patio from the other, but who knew how much the mountain side twisted and curved between here and there?

  He climbed up onto the railing and reaching out found a place for his hand. Searching with his foot he found a first foothold. This was it, time to decide. If he waited too long the phren would come onto the patio and see him hanging on the side of the cliff. Their crossbows would have little trouble hitting him.

  “Meredith, help me,” he whispered as he shifted his weight forward.