Agis whispered, “They’ll see us soon.”
“I’m ready,” Sadira answered, also whispering. “Now where, Ktandeo?”
“Twenty pillars to the right,” the old man gasped.
“Let’s go.” Agis said.
Sadira took Ktandeo’s hand and led him away. They had traveled only six pillars when a templar cried out, “I see them!”
“I hope your spell works,” Ktandeo huffed.
“You’ll be proud,” Sadira promised, continuing forward.
A few seconds later, a loud crack echoed behind them. Sadira looked over her shoulders and saw a pillar of golden, fluidlike flame consume the leader of the templar column. The man screamed and whirled in a wild dance of agony, throwing great globes of golden flame all around.
The commander shouted orders for the rear of the column to circle around and take the lead. As the templars obeyed, more sprays of flame erupted from the base of the pillar, shooting directly for the nearest men. More templars burst into flame. Within moments the cavern was glowing with golden light and echoing with anguished screams. The templars fell into complete disarray.
“Let’s go,” Agis said. “Their confusion won’t last forever.”
“Wait a moment,” Sadira replied, motioning her companions to hide behind a pillar.
She pointed a hand upward and summoned the energy for another spell. Again, a circle of the gauzy flora overhead shriveled and turned black. This time, the small skeleton of some long-dead cavern animal tumbled from the ceiling and landed at Ktandeo’s feet. The thing had a flat, circular skull with four eye sockets and six legs.
Ktandeo’s eyes went from the skeleton to the ceiling, then the old man gasped. “Look what you did.”
Sadira cringed at the reprimand, knowing it would eventually result in a long lecture, then cast her spell. A glimmering yellow light, resembling a distant torch, appeared amidst the pillars to the right of the templars. It slowly began to drift away.
For the next few moments, Sadira held her breath and hoped the simple conjuration would be enough to fool the templars. She had intended to enhance the deception by adding ghostly voices to the phantom torch, but that was out of the question now that Ktandeo had seen how delicate the strange plantlife on the ceiling was.
At last, a templar noticed the light. “What’s that?” he cried, barely making his voice heard above the general clamor.
Sadira gestured at the light, and it danced away as if running. The templars followed, screaming orders at each other and leaving their burning companions behind to die.
“Now we can go,” Sadira said.
She led her companions forward until she had counted twenty pillars, as Ktandeo had instructed. “Now where?” she asked. The templars were no more than distant voices of turmoil, and Sadira was once again relying on her elven vision to see in the dark.
“Turn half a step to the left,” Ktandeo panted, barely able to speak.
“I think we can rest for a minute,” Agis said, supporting the old man. “We seem to have lost them.”
“What are all these strange columns for?” Sadira asked, inspecting the pillar closest to her. It had a woodlike grain, but the thing felt like solid rock.
“I assume you’re looking at the pilings,” Agis replied, blindly facing Sadira’s voice. “Those are the foundations of the city. This is UnderTyr.”
“Tyr is built on pillars?” Sadira asked. “Why?”
“According to legend, Tyr once sat in the middle of a vast swamp-”
“That’s more than legend,” Ktandeo said weakly, his voice lacking its customary strength. “But we have more important things to discuss-such as the destruction Sadira’s spellcasting caused.”
“What was I supposed to do, let them catch us?” she demanded.
“Yes,” Ktandeo answered, fixing his eyes on the darkness over Sadira’s head. “You must maintain the Balance at all costs. Once you become like the sorcerer-king and his minions, there’s no coming back to our way.”
“I thought you said killing Kalak was more important than-”
A pair of fine-featured men with the arched brows and slender features of half-elves jumped from behind the pillar at Ktandeo’s back. Both wore the heavy cassocks of templars. One of them stood nearly as tall as a full elf, and the other had an unusually stocky build.
“Behind you!” Sadira yelled, grabbing Ktandeo and pulling him toward her. “Templars!”
The tall half-elf tossed a rope net in her direction. The square mesh settled over her shoulders before she could react. Immediately the templar cinched the drawline, and the bottom of the net contracted, pinning her arms against her body.
Ktandeo activated his cane’s violet light.
Though she had little chance of freeing herself, Sadira continued to struggle, hoping to keep the tall half-elf busy.
“Commander!” cried one of the half-elves. “Over here!”
Ktandeo raised his arms to use his magic, but the stocky templar called the king’s name and pointed a finger at the old sorcerer, casting a spell of his own. Ktandeo’s hands grew stiff, and his incantation came out in a jumble of meaningless phrases. The sorcerer tried to shrug off the templar’s magic, but could do no better than to move at half the speed of everyone else.
Agis drew his steel dagger. He sent the stocky half-elf reeling with a kick to the stomach, then stepped toward Sadira and slashed the rope holding her prisoner.
The tall templar dropped the net and backed away before Agis could strike again. The noble whirled on the other ambusher, catching the stocky half-elf just as he was recovering from the first kick and reaching for his sword. Agis drew his dagger across the man’s throat before the man’s weapon left the scabbard.
The effects of the enchantment upon Ktandeo ended. He took two steps forward and stumbled over the half-elf Agis had just killed. The old man fell to the ground in a heap.
By the time Agis turned to face the tail half-elf again, the templar had fled into the dark. Instead of attacking, the noble finished cutting the sorceress free.
“We’d better move,” Ktandeo groaned, slowly returning to his feet. “Look.”
He pointed back the way they had come. Sadira could already see torches moving in their direction.
“How are we going to escape?” she asked.
“Follow me,” Ktandeo said.
Wheezing and gasping, the old man led the way at a slow run, lighting their path with his glowing cane. The templar commander’s harsh voice echoed behind the trio as he shouted orders to his subordinates. Each time, the voice was louder.
“Maybe you should darken your cane, Ktandeo,” Sadira suggested. “It’s making us easy to follow.”
“It’s not my cane they’ve been following so far,” he huffed. The sorcerer braced his hands on his knees and looked ahead, to where the forest of pilings ended. From there the ground sloped down at a steep angle. “Besides, we’re almost safe.”
Ktandeo took a deep breath, then led them down a bank to a small cobblestone courtyard. Although she was surprised to see such a thing under the city, Sadira had no time to puzzle over its origin. As they crossed the courtyard, she kept her attention focused over her shoulder, glancing at the ground only occasionally to look for obstacles. By the time they reached the other side of the small courtyard, the first templars were standing at the top of the embankment. They were close enough that she could distinguish between the ones who had mustaches or beards and those who did not. Many of them had stopped pursuing and were staring over her head with their jaws drooping open.
Sadira looked forward and saw the reason for their shock. Ktandeo’s cane was illuminating the facade of an immense building of granite block, the likes of which she had never seen before. A great apron of stairs led up to several pairs of ornate doors, each set into a high arch covered by a gabled porch. Beautiful windows of colored glass adorned the gables, each depicting a tall man with the head of an eagle, a huge pair of leathery wings, and the lower body of a coiled serpent.