<div>


    <div>


    <h2 style="text-transform: uppercase"> </h2>


    <div>


    The other side of the door opened up to a system of sewers that reminded Lana of the tunnels under Tyralien, except for a decidedly less than pleasant smell. Thankfully, this time, no tentacles or moving corpses appeared as they silently made their way deeper into the sewage system.


    Lana’s chest felt tight and heavy, and the very air around her seemed to thrum and wobble. A constant humming permeated the space, and it caused her hands to tremble. She clutched a metal dagger in each hand in an attempt to steady herself. Thys didn’t bother re-sheathing his sword and dagger, opting to carry them at the ready.


    It didn’t take long for the first pair of purple eyes to appear in the shadows. This time, they spotted the priest before he saw them. Lana wished she’d brought Heylien with her. The archer would make short work of the priest.


    "What do we do?" she whispered.


    There was something wrong with the shape of the priest’s eyes. Even from a distance, they looked feline to Lana. A shudder racked through her body. She would not end up as one of those monsters. If it came to it, she''d put one of her own daggers into her throat.


    Thys stared at the priest, his attention unwavering. "I’ll deal with that one."


    Before Lana could respond, he opened a gateway no larger than a coin and plunged his slim dagger through it.


    The light instantly winked out of the priest''s purple eyes.


    Creeping down the unlit passageway, they approached the dead priest. The lanterns were sparse and spaced farther apart. Hiding in the shadows would have given Lana some solace, if it wasn’t for the humming that made the air thrum around them. The unnatural grip around her heart and the way it made her chest vibrate set her on edge, like they were approaching a thunderous storm.


    The priest did not stir. Behind him, a path opened up in the otherwise solid wall of stone.


    Lana bent down, touching the floor. "Rasps in the stone. It’s like the wall slides away to reveal a hidden path."


    "We have to hurry," Thys said, keeping his voice low. "If this is an escape route, they could already be gone."


    It wasn’t an escape route. The new passageway was narrow, forcing Lana and Thys to walk in a single file. It was pitch-black with no end in sight. Not until the entrance of the passageway was nothing more than a dot of light in the distance behind them did they see a flicker of movement up ahead.


    "What if it’s a pyromancer?" Lana whispered. "There is nowhere to run in this blasted tunnel."


    Thys gave her a gentle shove forward. "Keep going then, so we can get out of it."


    She got the sense that they were moving lower through the entirety of the tunnel and her suspicion was confirmed when they finally exited and emerged in a sizeable chamber, bigger than most people’s homes. A domed ceiling hung far overhead, so high that the light couldn''t fully reveal the images depicted on its face.


    The strange sensation in the air, the resonance in her chest, was stronger than ever, but her breath returned to normal. A good thing because the room was not empty.


    A row of corrupted rhinn soldiers stood in the center of the room. Their uniforms were torn in places and shredded apart in others, with muscles, hair, and fur bulging out of the tears. Thick-necked and with wide mouths twisted into bestial maws, their image wasn’t far removed from the wolf-like beast that’d attacked them by the stairs, only these resembled no animal Lana had ever seen. They stood, waiting, salivating onto the floor. They possessed paws instead of feet, except for one out of the twelve who sported hoofs. They stared at her and Thys, any resemblance of higher intelligence gone behind their blank stares. She didn’t have to search long to find the one who’d orchestrated this madness.


    A priest of Wyndemir stood behind his monstrosities, purple eyes glowing and a wry smile playing across his lips. Despite his short stature, he seemed to tower over everyone else, his presence reaching through the dark like the arms of an octopus, casting shadows where there should be none.


    "Kill them," the priest said.


    The line of waiting beasts howled, growled, and screeched before setting into motion, running for Lana and Thys.


    Remembering that once the priest was killed that the rhinn soldiers would return to their original forms, Lana focused solely on the priest. She ran headlong toward the charging creatures and jumped over their heads with a gust of wind. She landed, rolled, and flipped up running with a conjured dagger in each hand. Lana threw them both before closing the gap, another dagger materializing in her hands. Both daggers flew true, but neither did any real damage.


    At first, she didn’t know what she was seeing. A greasy and bloody slab of meat appeared between her daggers and the priest''s back, blocking her attack. Then it unfolded, and Lana quickly realized it was a wing. Another joined above the priest’s other shoulder. His face began to change, bones snapping beneath his skin and his jawbone cracked and elongated into a fleshy beak lined with razor-sharp teeth.


    The priest raised his head and shrieked. Lana resisted the urge to slap her palms over her ears. Instead, she charged, aiming for the priest''s chest. A leg that now ended in talons kicked forward, and she narrowly avoided the attack, sliding in to deliver what she hoped would be a killing blow.


    Its beak plunged down and pecked at Lana’s shoulder, grabbing her and tossing her to the floor. Her head cracked against the stone floor, and she blinked at the ceiling, dazed. Lana’s daggers vanished as the room swam before her eyes. Something closed around her middle and Lana looked on in horror as the priest''s purple eyes looked up toward the ceiling.


    The huge, fleshy wings spread and beat, sending dust and sand flying. Lana hung from its talon as the priest shot up into the air.


    The floor below spun as Lana screamed. Thys was far below, left to deal the priest''s minions alone. She’d thought to end the fight quickly. She’d failed.


    Her source slipped from her fingers again and again until she finally managed to grab hold. A dagger formed in the palm of her hand, and she rammed it into the priest''s leg again and again. Blood spewed forth, but it didn’t let go.


    “Release me!” she shouted.


    To her surprise, it did.


    Lana fell, unable to stop her screaming as the ground quickly approached. She refused to die by something as idiotic as a fall. With as much of her source as she could gather, Lana threw gust after gust of wind at herself. It was enough to slow her fall. The expenditure of energy was enough to save her life and her limbs from breaking, but Lana still landed with a painful thud on her already injured shoulder.


    Lana rolled onto her back, clutching her shoulder, when she saw the priest swoop down at her, talons outstretched.


    "Lana!" Thys called, but he was even worse off than her. At a quick glance, she saw that the rhinn gateway warrior was bleeding from several places, his clothes a mess of torn cloth and leather. Three of the monsters lay dead at his feet, but several remained, and they attacked ceaselessly.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Lana rolled toward the priest as he attacked—a gamble that paid off as her body squeezed into the tiny gap between the floor and the priest''s talons as his attack missed. She conjured a dagger, threw it, and conjured another. Both struck its target, punching holes in the creature’s lower back. She’d aimed at its spine but missed.


    She swore and struggled to her feet, tracking its movements in the air as it flew along the ceiling with increasing speed.


    It took a sharp turn and pushed off the wall, diving for Lana again, this time beak first. Lana roared in defiance, but the words came out as nothing more than a babbling of confused tones.


    Lana looked down at herself and saw that her body was growing taller and sleeker, her skin turning gray. Not again. Perhaps struggling against it was futile. It might not be so bad. Lana looked up, her vision changed, somehow murky. After all, the priest knew what was best for her.


    No! She shook her head violently and bit down on her tongue hard enough to draw blood. The pain took her out of the daze for long enough to see what was happening to her. The creature swooped down again, and Lana jumped. Her legs barely worked, and she fumbled for one of the metal daggers at her side. Lana’s fingers were swollen, and, to her horror, she saw how they were melding together, fin-like. Seeing the transformation up close excited her for a brief moment, and she struggled to retain herself long enough to grab hold of the dagger.


    The priest was flying too fast to correct his path, and he passed under Lana, who struck out with her dagger in a final, desperate attempt. It sliced through the priest’s neck, and her attacker crashed into the floor with a satisfying crunch and laid there in an immobile heap.


    Lana looked down and saw her hands were returning to normal. There was a sense of loss in associated with coming back to true herself, and it made her sick to her stomach.


    The rhinn soldiers returned to their original forms and were able hunched over on the ground, puking their guts out while Thys stood over them with his sword raised.


    "Wait!" Lana shouted.


    Thys held back. "What?"


    Lana walked with an uncomfortable gait for the first few steps, like her legs weren’t her own, but the feeling and strangeness passed before she made it over to the others.


    The four remaining rhinn now sat back, clutching at their own faces, crying while looking back and forth between Lana and Thys, their eyes wide with fear.


    "You know what the priests are now, don’t you?" Lana asked.


    They nodded.


    Lana pointed to the way they’d come. "Will you go out and tell every rhinn you can find?"


    They nodded again.


    "Then go," Lana said.


    All except one stood and slowly made their way to the dark tunnel that would eventually lead them out into the open air. Lana longed to have the open sky above her.


    "What about you?" Thys asked, pointing his still drawn blade to the one rhinn who’d remained on the ground.


    "I can’t," the rhinn sputtered.


    Lana squatted down to sit on her heels. "You can," she insisted.


    The soldier looked up at Thys. "Please."


    The gateway warrior put a hand on the soldier’s shoulder, understanding, then pulled back and thrust, ending the rhinn’s life in a single stroke.


    Lana closed her eyes and tried to let her exhaustion flow off her, failing spectacularly. Without opening her eyes, she asked, "What will happen if the priests transform our troops against their will? Can they turn our entire army against us?"


    "We won’t let that happen," Thys said, cleaning the blood off his sword with the tunic of one of the dead soldiers. "We’re here to make sure it doesn’t."


    The far side of the room was cast in shadows. She peered into the darkness. When she was falling to her doom earlier, she remembered seeing a gate there. She felt the thrum again in her bones. It was coming from the gate.


    She approached it cautiously and saw that it was constructed out of solid metal in two parts, joined together in the middle with a lock that, to her eyes, looked impenetrable.


    "That symbol," Thys said, awe in his voice.


    Lana scanned the intricate carvings in the metal, deep grooves painted red in swirling patterns. Among them, a symbol stood out. "Isn’t that?" she asked.


    "Wyndemir. It means Wyndemir."


    "It’s the tattoo all the priests have on their foreheads," Lana whispered, turning to Thys. "What is it doing down here?" She couldn’t help but hurl the question at him in accusation.


    "I have no idea," he admitted. "Could they have crafted it since we arrived from Rhinerien?"


    "No," Lana said, pointing at the well-worn hinges. "This thing is ancient."


    "Well, they never told me anything about a place like this," Thys said, pushing on the door with his shoulder. It didn’t budge.


    Lana tried hacking at the lock with one of her conjured daggers, to no avail.


    "Can you make us a gateway to the other side?" she asked.


    Thys stepped back, looking the door up and down. "I’m too spent for that now."


    A flash of darkness raced past Lana’s peripheral vision and she pulled back on reflex. The arcing swing wouldn’t have hit her, but the fact that it appeared out of nowhere was disconcerting.


    Kax’s sword struck the lock, cutting it about a fifth of the way through, then stopped. Lana saw the surprise on Kax’s face and couldn’t help but feel a slight tinge of satisfaction. So, his blades couldn’t cut through anything and everything.


    Instead of pulling the sword free and trying again, Kax narrowed his eyes and heaved downward, trying to force the blade further, throwing enough weight on the blade to slowly cut all the way through.


    "You did it," she whispered.


    Kax looked up, his eyes wide and pupils dilated. For a brief moment, she thought he would turn his sword on her.


    She took an involuntary step back, the instinct to flee overpowering.


    Kax’s eyes regained focus, and he grinned. "That bad, is it? My face?"


    He touched his cheek, leaving a smudge of blood behind. His clothes were darker than before.


    "Are you drenched in blood?" Lana asked.


    "Found some priests," Kax said simply. "And soldiers.”


    Thys stood by the now unlocked, and slightly open, door. "Perhaps this can wait until we’ve seen what’s inside?"


    The air in the gap practically rippled from the humming, and Lana felt a presence she did not interpret as friendly.


    "This will be fun," Kax said, stepping through the gap and disappearing beyond.


    "Wait," Lana hissed, but she was already too late. Kax was gone again.


    She exchanged a look with Thys, then hurried after Kax.


    The chamber was enormous, the walls towering above so high that she could not see the ceiling. It should be impossible, seeing as the streets of Fyrie should be no more than a floor or two above them.


    The wall behind them disappeared into the dark to either side, and the other walls were shrouded in darkness. Evenly spaced stone pillars lined the chamber. A lantern hung from each pillar, but the warm glow of fire was insufficient to light the cavernous space.


    Walking past the first set of pillars was Kax, a sword in each hand.


    Lana hurried after him, her footfalls echoing around her. She tried to look in all directions at once, expecting monsters to jump out of the shadows. Far off in the distance, a blazing fire lit up part of the floor. It was too far away to make out any details, but a constant, horrible screaming originated from that direction, like someone in terrible pain.


    As she caught up with Kax, it became apparent to her that whatever was making that humming noise and the reverberance inside her chest was straight ahead. There was no question as to where they needed to go.


    "They can transform you against your will. Be careful," Lana whispered, afraid her words would echo and reach even further than the sound of her feet gingerly stepping on the bare stone floor.


    "Into one of those monstrosities?” Kax asked, keeping his eyes straight forward.


    Thys answered for her. "It twists your mind, too. Kill them quickly. Don’t hesitate for an instant."


    "That won’t be a problem," Kax said, his voice void of emotion.


    Lana looked at him but didn’t comment. This was neither the time nor the place to start questioning whatever was happening to him. They needed him at his best for this.


    The screams grew louder as they approached the fire. The screams never ceased, not for an instant. It was like whoever it was didn''t need to draw breath.


    Lana felt jittery and wanted to run forward to put an end to the anticipation, but she knew they would need whatever strength remained in them in the fight to come. The priests were formidable foes.


    Kax picked up the pace, getting them to a brisk walk and then a little faster still.


    Symbols materialized, carved into the floor. They were similar to the one that marked Wyndemir. As they grew closer, they resembled the tattoo on the priests’ foreheads more and more, like a transformation from something unknown into the god they were trying to pull through into Maydian.


    Lana thought the soles of her feet grew warmer as they closed the distance but was sure she was imagining it.


    Shadows danced across the pillars, and she saw people sitting in a ring around a bonfire. The thrumming was coming from the fire and from all around it, but the humming sound clearly originated from the throats of those sitting on the floor. Their approach didn’t even make the priests stir.


    Twenty-two sets of purple eyes fixated on the fire, their lips pursed and their throat humming that melody over and over again, their wordless song making the very air around them tremble.