In a vast chasm lit by blood-red light, the molten heart ofWhite Plume Mountain roared. High above, the chasm soared into a ceiling vaulted by the world’s own bones. Hundreds of feet down below, a huge lake of magmaroiled. From this molten blood of the earth, five giant columns of transparent crystal soared upward, thrusting aloft a platform high in the air. Fields of force shielded the platform from the raw heat of the lava, the planes shimmering as energy ebbed and flowed into the air.
Power crackled from the crystal columns, arcing like lightning bolts against the chasm walls. The heads of the columns emerged through the platform floor, each one forming one point of a gigantic pentagram painted in congealed human blood. Power arced from the columns and into pathways gouged into the floor. The chasm shuddered and echoed to the forces gathering deep inside the mountain’s bowels.
All the power, all the force, fed into a single, brilliant point. The center of the giant pentagram held a long, open trough of clear glass. Inside the trough, a human skeleton lay wreathed with power. Tendrils of flesh were creeping ever so slowly to wrap the bones. At each point of the pentagram, a heavy stone table equipped with manacles gleamed evilly in the light. Branches of power crept from the pentagram to lick over the dangling chains before pulsing and flowing back to the trough with its obscene skeleton.
The transparent platform of force hung above the lava lake. Suspended above the magma, the floor shimmered in the lightning light. Trapped inside a small hemisphere with invisible walls, the Justicar stirred slowly and painfully awake, his head still thudding from the agony of a stun spell.
The prisons ceiling was too low. Jus had to hunch over to fit his head beneath the surface of the invisible dome. The big man discovered Escalla and Polk lying at his feet. He gently picked up the faerie-small, frail,and swathed in bloody bandages-and cradled her in his arms as he took stock ofthe scene outside his cage.
A tangled pile of equipment lay carelessly beside the pentagram. Two black swords, one shimmering slightly from the pinpoint lights of a myriad of stars, joined a trident and a hammer. Thrown about, almost as an afterthought, were their backpacks and the erinyes’ magic rope. Cinders laydraped upside down over it all like a throw rug, the light in his eyes gleaming slyly. Jus met the hell hound’s gaze, nodded, and felt the cunning hound hissslightly in reply.
Far below the transparent floor, lava bubbled. A brilliant coil of power lanced up from the crystal columns and out into the pentagram. The hideous skeleton in the trough took on glistening new flesh, sucking obscenely on the energy that crawled across the floor.
The volcano shuddered as magma welled into the fire lake far below. Here and there, a few flecks of fallen rock passed through the screen that shielded the open platform from the heat. The rock chips spattered to the floor like a brittle rain.
The noise of bubbling lava made the platform shiver. Escalla stirred and sat up, rubbing at the side of her skull. She worked a bad taste out of her mouth and looked around at the volcanic chamber.
The faerie sighed and rested a hand against her wounds. “Iguess we passed the librarian’s test, huh?”
“Looks like it.”
“Jus? If you had a great plan for this moment, this is a goodtime to clue me in.”
“I have one.” The big man remained calculating and calm. “ButI need to get free and get close to the librarian.”
“Oh, great.” Escalla craned her neck to see the skeletontrough and its surrounding array of torture tables. “Oh, I really likethe look of that. Gotta admire a host who really knows how to entertain.”
Jus pointed to the skeleton trough with his chin. “Keraptis?”
“Cloned from his own hair strands.” Escalla looked carefullyat the pentagram arrangement, the crystal columns, and the ring of tables with their manacles. Blood-red magma light made the very air seem to boil. “Thisstuff is all really major magical construct. This must be Keraptis’ old hauntsbeneath the mountain.” The girl tilted her slanted eyes, her intelligence sharpas a razor. “Those torture tables are new, though. See-it’s all new-sawn wood.”
The Justicar carefully put Escalla down on the transparent floor. She sat there with lava bubbling two hundred feet below her bottom while the Justicar stood and pressed his hands against the ceiling of his prison. He rapped the dome with his knuckles, raising his eyebrows as it gave off a metallic clang.
Escalla winced as she touched her bandages.
“So what-are they going to do human sacrifices to get thepower to raise this mage?”
“It might be worse than that.” The Justicar carefully tracedthe join of the prison’s walls to the floor. The dome felt cold and hard. Thefloor seemed to be a living, pulsing slab of pure force. “They set thislabyrinth up deliberately to kill the weak but let a few heroes through.”
The faerie cocked an eye. “You’re saying we’re heroes?”
“No, I’m saying the maze is actually a filter.” The Justicarseemed satisfied with his examination of the prison. “Polk, wake up.”
The teamster came suddenly awake and sat up, eyes wide open and his head spinning. “I’m up, son! I’m up!”
“Good. We’re leaving.”
The Justicar took a quick look over the open platform above the lava. The place still seemed utterly devoid of life, “We’re in Keraptis’laboratories now. They won’t expect us to get free. We’ll get into the mountainand hunt the librarian down on our own terms.”
Escalla gave an elegant gesture to indicate the little dome that held them prisoner. “And this jail-thingie we’re in? What? Did you find akey?”
Jus sniffed. “It’s not part of the original room. It’s not aforce field. It’s magical steel. It rings when you rap it with your knuckles.”The big man planted his shoulders against the ceiling. “They even put in someair holes! I think it’s just resting on the floor.”
Both the teamster and the faerie looked around as if they could somehow test the truth of the Justicar’s words.
Jus braced himself. “I’ll lift it. You two get out, get mysword, and use it to prop up the dome so I can escape.”
“Gotcha!” The faerie instantly ran over to the edge of theprison, then turned and looked at Jus with a dubious eye. “You’re really goingto be able to lift this thing?”
Jus never answered. He planted his body beneath the invisible prison dome and took the weight upon his shoulders. He shot the faerie a rare smile-full of shared pleasure-and slowly began to stand.
With a noise like the lid being raised upon a cooking pot, the dome slowly began to lift. Escalla probed at the edge of the invisible prison, felt a gap beginning to open, and slid beneath the edge and into the open air. She stood, brushing roughly at her bandages, and grinned with feral delight at her friend the Justicar.
“Oh, man! You can be my hero anytime!”
She spread her wings and turned toward the equipment pile. “Polk? Come on, man. I need you to lift the sword!”
Polk stared at the Justicar in absolute approval and total joy. Slapping his hands together in satisfaction, he backed away and wriggled beneath the invisible dome. Escalla caught the teamster by the hand, and they both ran side by side toward the welcoming grin of Cinders.
A sudden huge blow lifted Escalla up into the air, crushing her inside a giant fist. Polk fell skidding on the floor, knocked almost senseless by the massive ghostly hand that snatched itself about Escalla’s body.
A second fist lifted up the invisible prison dome, cast it aside, then snatched up the Justicar as well. The huge fists trailed tendrils of force, magical links running back toward the cavern mouth that led into the mountain.
Walking coolly through the portal came the librarian. His two acolytes followed at his back. The man lifted his hands and squeezed. The ghostly fists copied the motion, making Escalla croak with pain as she and the Justicar were held dangling like toys.
“A superior man proves his superiority by leaving nothing tochance.” The librarian cast a brief glance toward the faint shimmer of theoverturned prison dome.
“You were right. It was glass steel. You made an impressiveshow of deduction, a good display of physical force.” The librarian turned hisfists as he finally walked onto the vast, invisible platform. He examined the Justicar like an imprisoned insect in his grasp. “It will be interesting todiscover what you do and how you do it. The erinyes was a poor match. She lacked your cunning.” The librarian thoughtfully turned the Justicar this way andthat. “A very useful cunning…”
The librarian nodded to his acolytes, and both men immediately walked over to the tables at the edges of the pentagram. Manacles were unclasped and chains attached. One table was conspicuously adjusted to hold a victim of faerie-size.
Polk sat up, blinking. He sat beside the pile of abandoned equipment, looked dazedly at Cinders where the hell hound lay draped across his backpack, then the teamster finally seemed to see the librarian and his acolytes.
The sorcerers went about their business as a plume of lava hissed upward from the pool far below. Staring at the librarian, Polk changed colors, from pale white to bright red with fury.
“Good triumphs over evil!” The teamster puffed up like afrog, utterly incensed. “You may think you’ve got us, but you’ve lost!”
“Ah, the insect speaks.” The librarian was carefullyinspecting the skeleton inside the trough. Muscle fibres coiled wetly about the bones while power surged up through the mighty pillars that held the force platform up out of the mountain’s molten heart. “I was never in a contest,little man. Therefore I cannot lose.” Still holding his two prisoners in hisghostly fists, the librarian carefully observed his acolytes making adjustments to their equipment. “I have no time for selecting worthy donors, so we let thelabyrinth perform our selection process for us. The trap was baited, set, and sprung. The rewards”-the librarian looked closer at the half-formed body deepinside its tank-“the rewards are about to be achieved.”
Jus looked at Escalla. He needed time. He needed to find a way to break free. The girl read his intention. She blew out a big breath, engaged her enthusiasm, and suddenly made a mocking, raucous laugh.
The noise turned the heads of librarian, the assistants-andeven Polk as the girl made a flippant little sneer. “Trap? Trap? Ha! Youblew it!” The faerie wriggled inside the giant fist of force. “We got hold ofall the weapons!”
“The weapons were always where I wanted them to be.” Thelibrarian sniffed. “Simple enough to seize them again at need. Until then, theyform an admirable part of the sifting process.”
“But we killed all your little pet monsters!”
“Then we will use a spell to summon some more.” The librarianseemed finished with his work at the tank and turned to look at the Justicar and Escalla. “The two of you make a promising start. There will be others-hopefullybetter. We shall examine ways of snaring tougher prey.”
Polk sat, frozen. The librarian’s two assistants both castglances up at their master’s victims and then stood carefully over to one side.Behind them, the giant pentagram glowed with force, magical pathways rippling as energy flowed up into the transparent coffin. Strand by strand the body in the trough rebuilt itself, the muscle strands shining sticky-wet beneath the flickering light.
Hanging in midair, Escalla cast a glance into the magic trough and insolently blew a strand of hair back from her eyes. “So thisis the triumph you’re wasting your time on? All you did was clone some oldwizard from his hair strands?”
“This is Keraptis!” With his assistants still busy attheir chores, the librarian suddenly had time to educate lesser entities. He turned his back to the abyss and walked beneath his two victims. “A most unusualbeing. Did you know his structure was physically different from other men? He visited the plane of limbo and reshaped himself, allowing himself to store more magical energy that is normally possible for a mortal frame!”
Escalla gave a mocking shrug. “Whoopie! So now you’re gonnacollect a reward from the guy when he comes awake.” The faerie let her antennamake a sarcastic little droop. “This is a new plan.”
Lava shuddered far below, and a tongue of flame shot skyward past the force platform. Curtains of energy at the platforms sides kept away the heat, yet allowed a few pieces of pumice ash to land streaming and hissing beside the pentagram.
Breathing deeply at the stench of sulphur, the librarian slowly turned and continued, “We are not copying Keraptis. We are replacing-orrather, I am replacing him. His physical form was perfectly designed, but his mind shall be my own.”
Escalla made a rude noise and rolled her eyes in mock agony. “Oh, please! Oh for the gods’ sakes, please tell me you’re notgoing to hold us captive while you reveal your evil plan!”
The librarian came to stand beneath the faerie and stare up at her in disdain. “Of all the potential donors, you are the only one whosesurvival irks me. You are a nasty little thing, arrogant, vain, and overconfident.”
“Oh, really!” The faerie let her eyebrows raise in a drolllittle arc of surprise. “It’s called class, egghead. Try itsometime-maybe you’ll like it!”
“Yes. Quite nasty.” The librarian gave a sniff of distaste.“The winnowing process may yet be imperfect.”
The librarian made to turn away, and Escalla swore and struggled, frantically trying to snare back his attention. “Hey! Hey, youbucket of phlegm! Yeah, I’m talking to you!” The girl kicked her legs in afrenzy of hate. “You think you’re a match for me? You wouldn’t know a decentfaerie spell if it bit you on the ass!”
Quite suddenly, the librarian gave an arrogant smile. “But Ishall, my dear! I am going to absorb you, your skills, your experience, your strengths-and the Justicar’s as well.” The man hefted up his fists andsqueezed. Escalla cried out, her bandages suddenly soaking with more blood. “Weshall find new trinkets to make bait for new mazes. We shall skim all of the Flanaess for the greatest powers and talents this world has to offer. All shall contribute themselves to the structure of the Overman.”
The man slowly opened out his hands to encompass his mighty works. Behind him, vast energies roared upward from the core of the world.
“Here is the experiment Keraptis feared to do! His bodystructure was a potential even he never understood! But we are grateful. He has laid the foundations for the world’s first true Overman!” The man drew in abreath of sulphurous air, revelling in his vision.
Trapped inside a huge transparent fist high above, the Justicar looked down at his prey through cold eyes. “I have heard enough. Youare an enemy of the people. You have chosen to prey upon the weak.” TheJusticar’s voice came low and powerful, cutting through the noise of magmasteam. “You have been judged.”
The librarian’s painted mask of a face froze. A moment later,the man snarled in fury, his magic fist crushing tight about the Justicar.
“An overman has no moral constraints! An overman shapes theworld to the needs of his own intellect!” The librarian’s voice shook in a roar.“Good and evil are labels! Small minds paint the universe shades of black andwhite to allow themselves to comprehend! An overman is the black and white!” The librarian lifted up his painted face. “I am both blurred into one!”
Squeezed breathless by the invisible fist, Escalla struggled to make herself heard. “Th-then that makes dirty gray!” The girl arched inagony. “And that’s r-real hard to color c-coordinate!”
With a snarl, the librarian clenched his hand, and the giant fist mirrored his fury. Escalla croaked, squealed, and then suddenly fell limp. With the faerie unconscious, the librarian dropped her to the floor. She landed with her wings crushed and broken and blood spilling from her mouth onto the ground.
Jus roared in anger and fright, his muscles bulging as he fought to break free. “Escalla!”
Laughing, the librarian held Jus dangling helplessly in the air. “She was weak, weak and unworthy!” The librarian flicked a sneer over atthe broken little figure on the floor. “No matter. We shall use her.”
He walked back toward the pentagram, towing the Justicar behind him through the air. Stopping beside the mound of discarded trident, sword, and hell hound skin, the man nodded to his acolytes. “We will drain him.”
“Wait!” The Justicar’s cold voice boomed out above the soundsof lava and steam. Sour and triumphant, the librarian turned to look up at him.
“A plea, Justicar?”
“A message.” The Justicar’s dark eyes gleamed. He gazed downat his enemy, then jerked his chin off to one side. “Someone wants you.”
The librarian frowned, turned, and looked at the empty space behind him. There was nothing except a backpack, a bundle of weapons, and a barbaric, mangy wolf skin. The pelt’s red eyes suddenly sparked with feral glee. Hi!
Fire blasted out to smash into the librarians face. The sheer force of it threw the man backward, his hair and robes going instantly up in flames. Still hanging up above, Jus watched the librarian stagger burning and blinded past his feet.
“Polk! Sword!”
The teamster kicked one of his captors in the crotch. Dodging free, Polk snatched up a black sword from the loose equipment and hacked clumsily at the strand that anchored the magician’s translucent magic fist tohis hands. The black blade clove, and suddenly the Justicar fell free. He crashed to the ground, stretched up a hand, and Polk threw him the sword. The Justicar held the blade and jerked with pain, almost dropping the weapon. He shook his head then surged onto his feet, bellowing in fury.
One of the librarian’s two assistants cast a spell, theenergies shearing past the Justicar to knock Polk off his feet. The teamster picked himself up, surged forward, and kicked his man again. The teamster then gave the man a shove in the chest that sent the apprentice stumbling back through the energy veil. He shrieked as he fell hundreds of feet down into the magma.
The second assistant threw himself between his injured master and the Justicar. The apprentice screamed symbols and sent a rain of darts scything through the air. The Justicar growled and waded forward through the storm, ignored the pounding, and finally punched the apprentice across the face. The apprentice fell, sprawling on the ground. Jus turned and found the librarian standing, grinning in triumph through a mutilated, blistered skull.
The librarian hissed, his breath bubbling. In one hand he held a black-bladed sword. With his back to the abyss, the man lifted his hand and readied a spell, ready to blast the Justicar to atoms.
Suddenly a clear voice pealed in from a dozen yards away.
“Hey! Brain boy!”
The librarian jerked his head to stare at the center of the pentagram. Escalla, her wounds gone and her body utterly undamaged, gave the man a wave. She tapped at the unmarked skin of her midriff and gave a smile. “Polymorph! I do a good fake death scene, huh?”
The girl stood astride the half-formed body of Keraptis in its glass trough. She had her flask of green slime lying directly above Keraptis’ chest. Sloping over her shoulder, she held the hammer Polk used forhis iron spikes and pitons. “Say bye-bye to your super clone!”
The librarian screamed as Escalla whipped the hammer down onto the slime jar. The flask shattered, spurting green slime all over Keraptis’ naked flesh. The savage infection instantly took hold, bubbling asthe skeleton melted into a formless morass of bubbling flesh.
Jus was already moving. He cast his last spell-long-hordedand long-planned for-straight at the librarian’s feet. A surge of force rippedthrough the air, spreading outward in a sphere about the librarian. The sorcerer saw his enemy charging at him and whipped up his hand to smash Jus apart with a spell. He opened his mouth to scream the spell’s syllables-and no sound camefrom his throat.
Horror lit the librarian’s eyes. The Justicar’s battle screamcut off the instant he crossed the edge of his own silence spell. Unable to cast magic, the librarian shrank back against the edge of the abyss, his own acolyte held before him as a shield.
He had no magic, but he did have Blackrazor! Suddenly inspired, the librarian whirled and rammed the black sword through his assistant’s heart. The victim bucked and died, clawing at the blade jutting fromhis chest. Grinning, the librarian awaited the surge of energy that would rush up Blackrazor’s blade, knowing he could use the power to smash the ranger to theground.
No energy surge came. The librarian looked at the sword in astonishment, staring at the wolf-skull pommel in dawning shock.
An instant later, the Justicar fell on him in fury. A savage chop of Blackrazor hacked the librarian’s hand free from its wrist. Thelibrarian’s black, skull-pommelled sword fell to the floor as Jus steppedforward with Blackrazor flicking down into a thrust. He rammed the soul-sword through the librarian’s guts and instantly released the blade.
The librarian gripped Blackrazor in shock, staggering slightly back until he stood at the brink of the abyss. Retrieving his own much-beloved sword, the Justicar simply smacked off the librarian’s head. With acontemptuous push, he then shoved sorcerer, severed head, and soul-sword over the edge into the abyss.
With a look of annoyance on his face, the big man walked out of the sphere of silence, wiping off his blade. He gathered Escalla in one arm as both of them watched the librarian splash down into the magma far below.
Jus sniffed, watching the flare of light in grim satisfaction. “No one touches the faerie.”
“Right on, J-man!” Escalla retrieved her frost wand from theloot pile and thrust it through her belt. Satisfied with a job well done, Escalla reached out to thump Polk on the skull. “Hey! Well done, big nose!”
A blast of light suddenly burst up from the lava. Blackrazor’s destruction unleashed a storm of energy that blew sideways,shearing huge cracks into the columns of crystal. The force platform began to tilt, sliding Keraptis’ slime-covered body inexorably toward the edges of theledge. Another explosion sounded deep down in the magma lake as Blackrazor blew apart with a massive blast of force. The power of countless thousands of drained souls shuddered through the earth to bring White Plume Mountain startlingly awake.
A shower of stones from above began to smash down onto the platform, rebounding and tumbling off into the empty air. The platform tilted sharply sideways as two crystal columns cracked apart. Escalla saw Cinders start sliding off toward the abyss and flew over in a rush to catch him by the tail. The hell hound hung half over the edges of the platform, staring into the surging magma. Burned by heat, the faerie wrestled him back from the edge and dragged the creature back up toward the Justicar.
Thank you.
“You’re welcome!” The faerie watched her bag of gold piecesfalling down into the lava. “Aww, man! That was my treasure!”
Jus and Polk seized the magic weapons, clinging onto Whelm and Wave as the whole platform lurched sideways. The only exit seemed to be through a single jagged cave. As the platform sizzled with energy, Jus caught hold of Polk, gave him Wave and Whelm, and then physically threw the teamster toward safety. Polk clawed over the lip of the rock shelf, hunching as hot rocks crashed and fell about him.
The force platform hung sloping straight down toward the lava. Jus clung onto a projecting knob of crystal pillar a dozen feet short of the ledge.
Still attached to Polk’s backpack, the erinyes’ magic ropecame slithering by. Jus frantically kicked and caught the rope loop around his boot. He snatched the rope, dragged it free, then whipped it up toward Polk’sreaching hands.
The magic rope cracked through the air. Braced in the cave mouth, Polk took the strain as Jus climbed hand over hand into the cavern.
Yards behind him, Escalla flew clumsily through the air, dragging Cinders by the tail. The whole force platform went spinning down toward the magma lake, the magic flaring and disappearing as the crystal columns broke. Raw heat came fountaining upward, catching the faerie and wrapping her in Cinders’ pelt. Shielded from the furnace, she was hurled straight into Jus’hands, blistering winds jetting into the tunnel mouth and almost bowling the adventurers from their feet.
A long corridor ran past rooms filled with laboratory equipment, books, and scrolls. Jus snatched Cinders and pushed the others ahead, hanging the hell hound skin about his neck to shield the party from the heat. Behind them, the lava bubbled like a stew, the whole mountain beginning to throb with building force.
The group pelted down a jagged corridor. As they passed a table, Jus ducked beneath a tongue of fire and snatched up a bag of gems. Escalla blinked at it in shock as Jus shielded her from a fire blast.
“Yours!” The Justicar sheltered Escalla as chunks of rockrained from the ceiling. “I promised I’d get you treasure!”
The entire mountain shook as the adventurers sped onward down the hall. Escalla snatched a ruby from a shelf as she passed. Stuffing the treasure down her meagre cleavage, she sped down the passageway, shooting up an overhead tunnel as the corridor took a turn straight into the air.
Jus shoved Polk up the steel ladder rungs then began to climb hastily behind the teamster. Keeping just ahead of Polk and his rather careless trident, Escalla discovered a hatchway and threw her tiny strength into trying to turn the wheel that opened the door. Below the tunnel entrance, flame sheeted through the air, heat blasting up the tunnel to lick in hunger at their feet.
“Polk! Press the catch!” Shielding himself unsuccessfullyfrom the heat, Jus clung onto the ladder rungs. “Get the damned thing open!”
Encumbered by his trident, Polk fought past and rammed his hand against the hatch. The trapdoor flung backward, and a cascade of filthy water began to tumble inward through the open hole.
The adventurers fought their way past the flow to find themselves in familiar algae-spattered corridors. They were in the north passage of the dungeon, and Enid the sphinx’s backside faced them only a few yards away.The Justicar tried to slam shut the trapdoor, but steam shot out to fill the corridor with a choking fog.
“Out! Kelpies! Enid! Move! Get out of the mountain!”
Enid looked about, saw the adventurers pelting pell-mell down the passageway toward her, then saw a lick of flames come shooting from the hole just behind. Hard on the Justicar’s heels came two shrieking women made ofbundled kelp, their weed-strands steaming as fire licked into the passageway. Escalla shot past Enid and grabbed the big catwoman by the ear.
“Enid, the spell’s broken! Run like hell!”
They all ran down the corridor and reached the spiral stair. Jus thrust the two kelpies ahead of him, shoving them up the stairs and bringing up the rear. Behind him, ceilings shattered and rock cracked in two, superheated steam blasting through the cracks to jet into the halls.
The fugitives blundered up the steps and out into a cave. Daylight streamed inward, making humans and non-humans alike begin to blink and stagger. Escalla led the way ahead of Enid, breaking out onto the open mountainside. Steam and smoke jetted from fissures in the rocks, the whole mountain heaving underfoot as it shuddered in fury.
A steep series of cliffs switchbacked below them. Even as Escalla watched, a rumble deep inside the mountain made the land before them split open in a crevasse. With a mighty roar, the roadway fell away for two hundred feet, turning into a maze of jagged rubble far below.
High above the cave, the lip of the volcano blasted lava through the air. Red-hot stones spattered all across the ground, and a great wave of lava tumbled slowly down toward the adventurers. Escalla stared at the lava-then at the jagged slope below, and ripped the frost wand quickly from herbelt.
“You damned flightless twits will be the death of me!” Thegirl used her wings to fight the recoil as she hosed ice across the jagged slope and made it into a toboggan run. “All right, people! Slide-slide-slide!”
The faerie dove away, plastering ice in front of her as she plunged toward the road below. The two kelpies and the sphinx hesitated in fear until Polk blundered into them from behind. All four went shooting off downslope, wailing in fright as they slid away at lightning speed.
Jus stood at the brink of the toboggan slope. He looked back at the erupting volcano behind him, gazing at the lava flow and the spurting steam. Despite a volcanic eruption behind him, the man remained unhurried and calm. The erinyes’ magic rope was coiled carefully at his belt. He tied Cinderstight about his neck, settled sword and hammer in his hand, then looked down at the rest of the party spilling out onto the road below.
“Cinders, we did good.”
Did good! Cinders eternal grin lit up. Cinders hassome holes.
“I’ll get you mended back in town.” The Justicar watched thetwo kelpies sheltering in a nearby stream. “Ready to go?”
Go now. Eat coals later. Then chase girls.
“Right.” Jus jumped down onto the toboggan slope and speddown the slide. Behind him, an entire underground fortress went up in flames, shooting great white plumes of smoke high up into an evening sky.