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No matter how much Golgren stared, Idaria kept her eyes only on the Titan or the bars.

Safrag gestured.

The bars exploded, but the pieces did not go flying at the elf or the sorcerer. Safrag’s spell made them freeze in the air and plunge harmlessly to the ground.

But the moment that the fragments fell, the original bars reformed.

The Titan chuckled. “Clever.”

Again, the bars exploded. A blue glow filled the broken area and the bars remained shattered.

“Reach in, my lovely elf.”

Standing on her toes, Idaria stretched her ivory hands into the glowing alcove.

The elf stiffened. Both Golgren and Safrag held their breath.

Idaria pulled forth the Fire Rose.

Dazzling red and gold light radiated from the artifact as it was brought from its long resting place, forcing the two males to shield their eyes and the elf to all but close hers. The Fire Rose was roughly a foot tall and composed of a crystal that mingled gold and red. The bottom was a thick, singular stalk with six sides that extended half way up its body. The upper half consisted of nearly a dozen projections jutted upward at various angles. The resemblance to a flower-if not necessarily a rose-was obvious.

From within the artifact could be seen the other reason for its name. Deep in its core, a turbulence was swelling, dying, and swelling again. The turbulence was darker and more vibrant than any other part of the crystalline structure, and it was the ultimate source of its glow … a glow like fire.

“The glory of the High Ogres!” Safrag breathed. “The culmination of their civilization.”

“And the death of it?” added Golgren in mockery.

The Titan ignored him, instead reaching out for the Fire Rose. Idaria remained still as Safrag’s hand touched it.

Golgren felt the signet flare. Some sense of impending danger made him look back at the entrance to the chamber.

A shadow stretched there.

And gargoyles formed from the shadow.

They flew furiously at the trio, but especially at Safrag, who turned toward them just as the first reached him. The sorcerer let out a growl, and the first gargoyle turned to white ash that scattered into the beaked faces of the others behind it.

Idaria grabbed for the artifact, but the wing of another gargoyle battered her, sending the slave tumbling to the altar’s base.

Golgren seized another gargoyle from behind, using its momentum to swing him around toward Safrag. He let the beast take the brunt of the Titan’s spell, which shriveled the gargoyle into something more mummified than the High Ogre dead.

Coming up on Safrag’s blind side, the Grand Khan ripped the Fire Rose away. Safrag was knocked to the side by more gargoyles.

The signet glowed as bright as the Fire Rose, and with the exact same colors. The crystalline artifact took on an odd feeling, as if it were melting.

No, not melting. It was slowly disappearing.

Golgren reacted instinctively, trying to grab it with the hand that was no longer there. Coming to his senses, he did the only other thing that he could, thrusting the artifact into the crook of his maimed arm. Yet that only seemed to slow the vanishing.

He swung his hand, using the force of the action to fling the signet away. The ring struck the altar and fell atop Idaria.

Meanwhile, the Fire Rose solidified again. And the gargoyles turned toward Golgren. Worse, Safrag, who had been too besieged to at first to react to Golgren, had regained his poise and was fixing his angry gaze on the half-breed.

Golgren held the Fire Rose between them. He felt the Titan’s spell strike-

The crystalline artifact grew blinding. The fiery glow enveloped both the half-breed and the three gargoyles nearest him.

The gargoyles writhed and fell to the floor. They rolled onto their stomachs, and as they did so, their wings shriveled, and their bodies twisted into something ugly and more reptilian.

Three ji-baraki rose in their place, immediately attacking the gargoyles nearest Golgren. The tall, sleek reptiles stood on two long legs and slashed with savage claws at the end of their paws. They snapped and bit with long rows of teeth designed to tear apart even the toughest hide. Two gargoyles fell under their attack before others began to swarm the trio.

The Fire Rose’s glow decreased to its original level. The Grand Khan’s brow wrinkled as he realized something. He had been thinking of the ferocity of the gargoyles and what beasts could possibly counter them … and the vicious ji-baraki had sprung to mind.

Sprung to mind and to existence, thanks, somehow, to the artifact.

He had no doubt it was capable of much more, but there was no time to consider just how he might summon its power. The reprieve the artifact had granted him was a temporary one. Only the incredible number of gargoyles standing between him and Safrag was saving the half-breed from annihilation.

The path to the steps was blocked by the sinister shadow from which the gargoyles continued to emerge. That made Golgren think of the signet. It still lay where it had fallen, near the fallen Idaria, the symbols glowing almost as bright as the Fire Rose.

As he reached for it, his eyes fixed on the elf. Clutching the ring, he grabbed for Idaria, pulling her to her feet.

“Away with you, you damned pests!” the Titan roared. There was a burst of blue light, and the gargoyles, stripped of their hard hides, suddenly lay dying at Safrag’s feet.

The three ji-baraki were faring little better. One had already fallen to the gargoyles, and the other two were caught amid the sorcerer’s attack.

Safrag’s golden orbs fixed once more on the half-breed.

Aware that he could not hope for another miracle from the artifact, the Grand Khan sought some other avenue of escape. He needed to be far from Safrag, far enough to gain time to recuperate and think-

The Fire Rose burned bright.

The floor ripped up as if some giant hand had seized it in sinewy paws. Stone and earth rose between Golgren and the Titan, who recovered from his astonishment just before the two lost sight of one another. Golgren could see the sorcerer beginning to cast a spell, but by that time, there was an incredible wall cutting off the two from one another.

The half-breed’s surroundings shifted and reshaped. The walls, floor, and ceiling grew as red as flame, churning as if suddenly molten. Golgren stared down, thinking that he and Idaria were about to sink down into that molten hell. Yet his footing remained solid despite everything else transforming.

No, not everything. Bursting out of the wall of molten earth and stone, the altar and the alcove were back, their presence restored. They looked exactly the same as before save that, once again, the bars were there. It was as if they wanted to keep the Fire Rose out rather than contain it.

The artifact continued to radiate a blinding, hot aura. Golgren forced himself to look at the blinding artifact, and realized that the signet touched the Fire Rose.

He released his hold on the ring.

It fell onto the shifting floor and sank. It was gone.

The Fire Rose’s light eased. The walls began to solidify, turning a fiery crystal reminiscent of the artifact. Only the altar and alcove continued to persist in their original form.

The new chamber stretched wider, growing into a room as vast as the field of the Jaka Hwunar, the great arena located in the capital. Yet there was no sandy floor where warriors fought to the death against beasts or each other, where enemies were executed by graphic means often involving limbs torn apart or beheadings. A polished floor with wicked striations mimicking flames ended on each side with tall, flanking columns carved to resemble great plumes of fire.

The altar stood at the far end, shadowed by the imprisoning alcove, a vast sunburst etched into the gold and crimson wall above it. The heat surrounding Golgren was thick, so much so that he had trouble breathing and was forced to lay Idaria down again.