Vash took a step back, keeping a careful eye on the approaching Scalebacks. The hunters snarled and hissed, coming right to the edge of the steps before hesitating again. A sudden tug on his Core was all the warning Vash had. Dodging sideways, the crude, but still deadly, spear of a Scaleback hunter flew past his head. The spear struck a column somewhere behind him, clattering to the stone floor.

  A Scaleback made a low growl off to Vash’s left. The hunter stepped back from where he had finished his throw, then reached to the quiver on his back, pulling out another of the short, slender throwing spears.

  “What was that?” Corwin’s voice came from further in the temple.

  “The Scalebacks.” Vash replied. “Just saying hello.”

  The scarred bull roared, lips curling back from a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth. The other Scalebacks huffed and growled, glancing from the bull to the temple, shuffling at the edge of the stairs. Another one threw a spear, but with the tightly packed columns and Vash’s , it was easy to avoid.

  “The welcome wagon doesn’t sound friendly.” Corwin said. Vash looked back and saw him standing next to a column a row back, peeking out at the Scalebacks. “Why are they just standing there?”

  “They don’t like this place.” Vash said.

  “Neither do I, but I still came inside.”

  Vash thought.

  “How’s Jabez?” Vash said aloud.

  Corwin frowned. “Still shaky. He’s been having trouble ever since the fight with the Queen. I think that wound hurt him more than he’s willing to admit.”

  “Can he move?” Vash asked, eying the Scalebacks. They seemed to be working themselves up to something. The scarred bull darted about, getting right in the face of each of the hunters, growling and showing his teeth. Some snapped back, but most shied away or bowed their heads. The bull kept glaring up towards where Vash stood, his single yellow eye gleaming with malice. “I’m not sure how long we can stay here before the Scalebacks work up the nerve to come in after us.”

  “I can move.” Jabez said from somewhere beyond Corwin. His voice was husky with fatigue, but he was hiding it well. Vash glanced back, seeing Jabez standing near Corwin. He stooped, like he carried a great weight on his shoulders, and his skin had a pale, sallow look. But Jabez’s eyes held the same iron-hard determination that kept him alive on the Glory Road all these years. “What’s the plan?”

  Vash nodded further into the temple. “The river curves up that way. If I’m right, then whoever built this place wanted to guard the pass through these rocks. If we can get through to the other side, then we’ll be back on the road to the falls.”

  Jabez glanced back into the temple. “I don’t like it. This place reeks of the shadow.”

  “Or we take on a dozen Scalebacks.” Vash said. “I don’t like it either, but we don’t have many options at this point.”

  Another spear clattered among the columns, punctuating Vash’s point.

  “Let’s go before those things finally grow a spine.” Corwin muttered, backing away from the Scalebacks and further into the temple. Jabez followed, giving Vash a weary look of unease.

  “We’re putting our trust in you, Vash,” Jabez said. “Don’t make us regret it.”

  Vash said nothing, turning back to the Scalebacks and watching them get more and more agitated. The scarred bull was now pushing the more reluctant hunters closer to the temple. There wasn’t much time before the hunt came inside.

  He backed away from the front of the temple, waiting until he was at least two rows of columns into the temple before turning to follow Corwin and Jabez.

  “Stay close,” Corwin said. “It would be easy to get separated in here.”

  Vash couldn’t help but agree. The columns stood in neat rows towards the front of the temple, but deeper in they came in erratic patterns, springing up haphazardly to block lines of sight and confuse direction. They also took on a more organic shape. Still roughly cylindrical, the columns flared and contracted like something grown rather than carved. Flakes of purple Therium salts floated in the air, sparkling in the dim purple light that seemed to come from all around them. Vash guessed it was the Therium salts radiating so much ambient mana that gave off the glow.

  Above them, branches of stone grew out of the oddly shaped columns. They merged column to column, forming a patchwork roof of sorts. Vash didn’t like it, they looked too much like the Hollowmound webs. He felt like one of the giant spiders was going to descend at any moment. His attention was so fixed on the structure above him, he almost didn’t notice the way the columns and the rocks between the columns were funneling them towards the center of the temple.

  The way between the columns towards the outer edge of the Temple became blocked, choked with fallen rocks and long, rope-like cords of stone that stretched from column to column. Corwin noticed it at the same time as Vash, slowing to a stop and looking about with a deep frown.

  “I don’t like this,” Corwin said, his voice calm, but his fingers kept flexing on the hilt of his sword.

  “Either we keep going and face whatever’s in front of us, or we go back. We have no hope of evading the Scalebacks if we do that.” Vash cautioned. He had hoped to get some insights from Cass, but she had burrowed herself somewhere deep in his mind. Vash couldn’t even sense where she might have gone.

  “I’ve seen places like this before.” Jabez said. “Even if we go back, it will keep herding us where it wants to. The only way out is forward. Just…stay on your guard.”

  Corwin frowned, unease plain on his face. Vash squared his shoulders and took point, moving past the others and threading his way past the next row of columns.

  The only way forward was to go between a particular pair of columns. Every other gap had a pile of debris blocking it, or a web of stone hanging in the way. Vash walked through the columns, keeping as alert as possible. His still only gave him a cloudy perception of the area, but it still registered things like movement and concentrations of mana. Ahead, the columns opened into a roughly circular open space, gaps visible between the columns to the north, east, and west.

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  Puddles of inky black water filled shallow depressions in the stone. The water was so dark it barely reflected the purple light that came from the large crystals growing out of the largest columns in the room.

  Vash thought. He could feel the mana flowing off the stones like heat from a brazier. But the mana felt strange, like dipping your hand into a pool with an oily film on the surface. They’re shadow tainted.

  Vash took in the room. The space was roughly twenty feet across. Much like other areas of the temple, fallen rocks or the strange, organic stone growth blocked off certain areas or made them difficult to cross. Vash picked his way across carefully.

  “Gods, this place is strange.” Corwin said, standing in the ‘doorway’ to the chamber. He spotted the Heartstones and a look of worry crossed his face. “Are those…?”

  “Heartstones.” Jabez said. “Tainted ones, too. They aren’t Dungeon Hearts yet, though, so I doubt we have much to fear from them.”

  “This place is pretty old,” Vash said, looking for a clear path across the room. “Why haven’t they become Dungeon Hearts yet?”

  “Not enough mana.” Jabez said, peering at the slowly pulsating glow of the stones. “Usually they change when there’s a big mana surge, like when a powerful creature dies. If the things down here instinctively avoid this place, like the Scalebacks do, then it’s likely that the Heartstones haven’t gotten that surge to change over.”

  “Are they supposed to be that big?” Corwin asked, warily.

  Vash took a second look at the crystals. Unlike the ones in the Mossfen Delving, which were about the size of a peach, these were about the size of a large melon. Nine crystals embedded themselves in the pitted black stone of the columns. Long threads of Therium crystals snaked up and around the columns, following the flow of the stone and spreading out like a fungus. The shadowy power that obscured his undoubtedly originated in this place.

  “No,” Jabez said. “This place is like an abscess, full of filth and ready to burst. It wouldn’t take much to set things in motion here.”

  Cass’ voice sounded faraway and frightened, deep in Vash’s mind.

  Vash wished there had been another option. He could feel the pull of the Heartstones, their hunger and desire. They wanted him to do something, to finish what another started so long ago.

  “Why so many?” Vash asked, fighting the urge to go to them, to embrace the power they represented.

  “I’ve never seen more than three together in one place.” Jabez said.

  Cass said, her voice barely a whisper, as if she were afraid that the temple would hear her.

  Roars and hisses, followed by the scuffling sound of bodies clashing, signaled that something was happening with the Scalebacks. Vash looked over his shoulder, but the columns obscured everything beyond a few feet. A long, agonized wail echoed over the stones. It cut off after a moment, ending with a meaty crunch.

  Silence descended like a blanket.

  “What was that?” Corwin asked, keeping his voice low.

  In answer, a victorious roar sounded, joined by many others, then the scrabble of claws on stone.

  “I think the Scalebacks have overcome their fear of this place.” Jabez said, wearily.

  A ripple of light passed through the web of Therium crystals. A small mote of light traveled through the web network until it joined one of the heartstones, making it shine brightly for a moment before fading back to its ambient purple glow.

  “That was odd, right?” Vash asked, hoping that it wasn’t what he thought it was.

  “I think it was the Scaleback that lost that fight,” Jabez said. “When a creature dies, its Core discharges any remaining mana.”

  “Which that heartstone just ate,” Corwin said, clearly uncomfortable.

  “If it takes in much more, then it might start a cascade, make a Dungeon Heart.” Vash said, working through the implications. “We need to get out of here.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.” Jabez said. Vash felt a thrum of mana from the dwarf. Jabez stood straighter, and although the exhaustion didn’t vanish from his face, it did noticeably fade. He took a confident step into the temple chamber, hammer held across his body with two hands on the haft.

  Corwin followed, holding his sword in a classic ready stance. The two of them slipped into the temple chamber. Vash hesitated for a moment, glancing behind them at where the sounds of claws on stone had not yet moved in their direction.

  Vash thought, but he knew it was a vain hope. A scaleback roared in triumph.

  “They picked up our scent,” Jabez said. “Time to move.”

  Vash took the hint. Drawing his short sword and dagger, he followed Jabez out into the temple chamber. Entering the chamber, Vash felt a strange pull on his Core. It felt similar to when he had first encountered Cass, only deeper, older, more powerful.

  He looked at each of the heartstones as he crossed the room. They seemed like deep, glowing eyes, watching him hungrily as he walked. Vash was so preoccupied with the heartstones that he didn’t notice the puddle of oily black water in front of him.

  His foot sank into the puddle up to mid-calf. Vash let out a curse and reflexively pulled his foot up.

  It didn’t move.

  Vash’s foot remained dry, as if the puddle wasn’t liquid at all, but some sort of viscous substance that wrapped around his boot, pulsing and constricting. He tried to pull his foot out again, but the substance held him fast. That was when it rippled and began to flow up his leg.

  As if responding to a signal, the other small puddles around the room rippled and flowed out of their depressions. They sent out tendrils of black ooze, flailing in blind hunger. One struck Corwin in the calf, wrapping around his boot with alarming speed. It flung up a pseudopod, grasping Corwin’s wrist and pulling hard. Corwin gasped in alarm, suddenly tugged off balance as he nearly dropped his sword.

  Jabez’s head snapped around when the ooze nearest him approached. He slammed the head of his hammer down on the pseudopod, reaching for him. The ooze splattered into tiny pieces, and the creature recoiled away from the creature that struck it. Jabez turned his attention to the ooze back to Vash and Corwin, seeing them struggle against the oozes that held them fast.

  Letting out a wordless cry of challenge, Jabez slammed his hammer down on the main body of the ooze holding Corwin. The creature splattered, droplets flung away from the main body like rock hitting a puddle. The pseudopods holding Corwin in place fell away, splashing to the rock floor and leaving black puddles of inert goo.

  “Vash, give me your hand!” Jabez called, stepping through and holding out one solid hand to Vash.

  Sheathing his dagger, Vash reached out his free hand, fingers grasping Jabez’s wrist while the dwarf grabbed onto him with a grip like iron. There was a surge of mana. Vash could almost feel Jabez’s strength through their connection.

  Groaning with effort, Jabez yanked Vash out of the ooze. Vash’s boot came free with a disgusting slurping sound. Staggering away, Vash stumbled forward, narrowly avoiding another puddle of ooze.

  Vash stopped short, avoiding a swipe from the ooze in front of him.

  That’s when Vash noticed the walls flowed and pulsed with movement. The black ooze ran through the grooves and open spaces on the rock pillars. Sensing prey in the chamber, the ooze was flowing down to the floor, forming black puddles on the ground.

  The oozes flowed into one another, forming larger and larger pools. As Vash watched, two large pools joined and spread across the doorway behind him. More were flowing down the walls.

  All the while, Vash could hear the roars and cries of the scalebacks. He turned, looking frantically for a way out. There were several openings in-between the columns, but they were being rapidly cut off by the oozes. Jabez and Corwin swiped and slashed at the ooze, trying to keep it at bay.

  But the ooze kept growing, expanding, flowing to cut off all escapes.

  Vash spotted one opening. A small, dark passage that went beside the largest of the heartstones. “Come on, if we stay here, we’ll be trapped!”

  “Where are you going?” Corwin called, backing up but trying to follow Vash.

  “Anywhere that isn’t here!”