Kasidy was standing next to the side door, heading deeper into the temple. Renfry nodded to her and started through. I pointed to Irwin, and he went next, then Kasidy. I took up the rear. While things appeared secure here, I treated this temple like a dungeon.

Through the door, the passage opened into a wide hallway where we could fight two abreast. The walls were finely crafted granite blocks with large tapestries hanging from them. The floor went from bare marble in the main room to having a deep red runner that covered most of the middle. To our left were over a dozen doors.

I sighed as Renfry paused at the first door and looked over his shoulder at me. “We have to check them all before we can rest.”

He nodded and then pushed open the door. I drew my short sword and stepped in next. The room was just a small bedroom with a single cot and plain furnishings. Yet, it was all clean and in order, like it was awaiting a guest.

Renfry chuckled, and then I got a pop-up.

You may stay as a guest for no more than a season

Claim guest room?

Yes/No

I glanced at Renfry. “You just declined the room?”

He nodded as we moved back into the hallway. “Temple guest rooms are peace bound even if you haven’t claimed it. However, to rest in it, you must be either the guest that claimed it or someone invited by that guest.”

I nodded. “Any way to tell from the outside that it’s a guest room?”

He shook his head. “Nope, we still have to enter each one.”

The following five rooms were guest rooms, with the last one being four times as large. The final room on the hall was a small dining hall. It appeared large enough to let about a dozen people eat at once. It wasn’t lavish but was far from run down. Truthfully it looked far better than Godfrey’s tavern.

Kasidy asked. “Is this it?”

I shook my head. “It can’t be. They wouldn’t have a dining hall where there was no kitchen access. I wouldn’t expect everything to be brought in through the main room or the priest-only access door.”

Renfry nodded. “Check behind the wall hangings. Many buildings hide a door there.”

Irwin was the one that found it just by being at the far end of the dining room. He moved a banner that had the same tree we had seen everywhere. Behind it was an unbarred wooden door.

Renfry nodded and pushed through the door. The passage was narrow, where only one person could walk, likely carrying a tray. It went about twenty feet and opened into a large kitchen like Godfrey’s. There were two open fire locations, with fires, and several places to chop food.

There were three other doors out of the room—one on the far wall and two off to our right. Renfry paused at the first one on our right and pushed on the door. Then he shook his head and moved to the next one. Like the first, he shook his head, and then he sighed.

Renfry nodded to the third door. “First, one said I wasn’t temple staff and couldn’t enter the cellar. The other was the same message about being a priest but also offered being staff. Let’s see what this last door is.”

Next to the last door was a large wood and iron door bar, and on the door were two hooks. I smiled when I saw that, as it likely meant that this door headed out the back. When Renfry opened it, I saw I was right as the blackness of night poured in. He stepped back quickly and closed the door.

I smiled as he barred the door. “Okay, let’s settle in for the night. There are guest rooms that can keep us even safer than just the two main doors being barred. I don’t think anything is coming through the priest-only doors.”

I slid my sword back into my sheath as we started to head back to the guest rooms. “I want us moving at first light so that we can get through and to the lich. I hate leaving Blink waiting in there another night, but we need rest and need to be able to see.”

Kasidy nodded. “We should all rest in the large room. That way, we aren’t alone. While the rooms are peace bound, the hall isn’t, so we could get trapped alone.”

I sighed and nodded. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

She smiled. “There is an old song about a warrior doing just that.”

Renfry laughed. “Is it the ballad Ernaut the Heroic?”

Kasidy laughed and started to hum; then she sang as we filed into the large room.

In the ages of old when honor was pure, there was a knight named Ernaut the Heroic, Though he was ugly and dim, his heart was of a great magnitude. He was wedded to Bathan, a woman of rare beauty, but her heart was unfaithful, And she took a lover, seeking refuge from her husband in a local temple.

Ernaut waited in the hall, for weeks on end, hoping to confront the man, But he never showed his face, hiding away from Ernaut's hand. Though Ernaut could have stormed the room, and taken the coward's life, He chose to wait for justice, and left the man to die of strife.

The coward stayed hidden, and the weeks turned into months, And Ernaut stayed vigilant, for he would not take a shortcut. For he knew that justice could not be hurried, and true honor takes time, So he remained patient, for he would not cross the line.

The cowardly lover died in hiding, and Bathan was left alone, For she had lost the love of her life, and her husband's love was gone. Ernaut the Heroic remained steadfast, for he knew that love was fickle, But honor and courage would always remain, no matter how things tickled.

And so Ernaut rode out into the land, with his heart still pure and brave, For he knew that love was not enough, and that honor was what he craved. And though his wife had been unfaithful, and his love was filled with strife, Ernaut remained the hero, the truest knight in life.

I shook my head and laughed. “So the lover starved to death? Why didn’t the wife die too?”

Kasidy smiled. “There are several songs about Ernaut and Bathan. Most would say that he still loved her and brought her food. Others think she knew he would just wait around and had food in her room.”

Renfry gave a sly grin as he sat down. “Ernaut was a favorite that we sang about in the barrack. We liked to laugh at the knights who left their wives at home for years. Sadly many lancers had the same problem. Though you had to be smarter as a lancer than a knight.”

Irwin laughed. “I thought that lancers and knights were the same just one had a title, and the other didn’t.”

Renfry shook his head and gasped. “Never say that! Knights are all dressed up in heavy armor, and lancers just wear medium. Their horses even have more armor than them, whereas ours have none. So we couldn’t be dumb and just take hits. But, then again, taking hits might have been what caused Ernaut to be dumb and ugly!”

I laughed. “Okay, let’s have some food and settle down. We had a long day. I am going to check in with Blink.”

As I pulled off my armor, I reached out to Blink. “How are you holding up?”

Blink let the frustration pour across the bond. “Not like cage, Daddy. How soon till you get here?”

I tried to send calming across the bond to her. “We are resting till morning. We can’t see well in the dark and still have about half the city to get through. It’s not a small place.”

She pouted back. “Hurry, Daddy. I don’t like it, and it’s boring. Even the boy left.”

While I didn’t expect the lich to stay in the same room with Blink the whole time, I had kind of wanted him to. So I thought back. “Did he say anything else before he left?”

She paused for a moment and replied. “He said something about how the orcs were dumber than his zombies as they were still trying to take the city. I don’t think he knew that I could hear him.”

I thought for a moment before I asked Blink. “Do you remember how long ago that was? I’m worried he might think we are the orcs.”

I felt Blink’s happiness to be talking with me. “Just a few minutes ago. He also took his most recent creation. I hope you don’t start making things like this.”

I chuckled and then thought back. “Can you show me what it looked like?”

I was disoriented momentarily as my mind wrapped around seeing the world through Blink’s memory again.

She was looking out through the bars of the cage. The boy lich was on a stool so that he could reach over the hulking brute of the dead body of an ogre. I couldn’t figure out how he killed it since I had seen how much damage they could take. Yet there he was, sewing on the arm.

A crystal started to flash off to one side of him, and he got mad. He climbed down from the body and walked over to the flashing crystal. Then he touched it for a moment and got even angrier.

The lich muttered. “Stupid dumb orc won’t leave me alone. They should know better by now. Even a zombie could learn.”

Then he picked up a staff with a blackened skull on the top and pointed it towards the ogre. The grayish brute sat up, showing that it wasn’t just an ogre after all. How he made it work, I might not ever know, but he had stitched on another pair of ogre’s arms just below the first set. Then down the massive legs, he added goblin arms that were all wiggling.

I watched as the boy lich smiled and said. “Come, let’s get you some weapons; seeing you in action should be fun.”

As they walked away, Blink watched. Over the back of the ogre were two additional appendages that looked like they were legs from a giant spider. They started tucked behind the zombie, but slowly they unfolded till they hung over its shoulders.

I shuddered a little at how horrible the zombie looked. Then I thought back to Blink. “Thank you. I don’t think they are coming after us, but I am not looking forward to fighting that monster or the thing it was made from.”

I felt a brief flash of joy, and Blink sent me thoughts of her ripping the zombie apart bit by bit. Then she sent her feeling of sadness for being locked up and failing to stop the lich.

I thought back. “We are coming for you just as soon as we rest up. Then we will finish off the lich once and for all.”

* * *