The servers brought out the main course, and Djona waited until they had left before continuing.

  “Queen Pharah and the rest of her subjects serve Moloch,” he started. Jace noticed how he didn’t lump himself into that group. After the first lie he had told, he had been careful to speak the truth since. “He requires living sacrifices. Pharah has been pressuring me to provide him with another, but I have held off. He is supposed to bring us prosperity, but we have plenty of that. There is much nd on this isnd we are not using, and we don’t have enough people to work it all. Sacrificing workers we don’t have to get more prosperity we can’t tap makes no sense.”

  “Religion never does,” Rock replied. Jace didn’t comment.

  “Anyway, she has had enough. The six of you were unexpected, and she made it clear to me she won’t wait any longer. One of you will be sacrificed tomorrow morning to Moloch. I will try my best to let the rest of you leave. I’m sorry I can’t help you further than that.”

  “Not much of an offer,” Draya replied, fire pying in her eyes. Behind her, she heard the snap-hiss of the shock weapons, and she let her mana calm down. She could kill most of the people in the room with her magic now that she had some food, but not before being knocked unconscious by the guards.

  “If it were an NPC, they would just be revived,” Rock said, eying Psycho and Draya, who sat across the table next to Jace.

  {Not true,} Gracie said. From the look on Rock’s face, he was listening to his operator tell him something simir. {Demons can only have permanent residence in the realms if they establish a stronghold. When a character is sacrificed to a demon, their essence strengthens the demon and is absorbed into their stronghold in the same way you still hold several of Lexi’s NPCs. It wouldn’t make sense if the demon used their life to get stronger, and then the NPC got all their life back anyway when they respawned. The only way to get a sacrificed character back is to kill the demon or take over their stronghold.}

  Jace listened intently, and when Rock didn’t say more, he guessed his operator had passed on the bad news. The other characters exchanged looks across the table, wondering how to escape this.

  “I nominate Rock,” Esther said. She sat between him and Leah and didn’t even bother looking at the dwarf, taking another bite of meat.

  “I will not . . .” he started.

  “I agree,” Draya interrupted. “He is the reason we are in this mess.”

  “I concur,” Psycho said.

  “Jace,” Rock pleaded. “Stop this madness. These NPCs are not as valuable as we are, you know that. I’ve told you what I have at stake. I can’t die and lose all that. Sacrifice the elf. Without his bow, he is useless to the party.”

  Psycho didn’t flinch and kept eating.

  “And how valuable are you right now?” Jace asked. “If Queen Pharah wants all of us to be sacrificed, and we need to fight our way to freedom, what will you contribute?”

  “You can’t be serious!” The dwarf stood from the table and smmed his fists into his food, shattering his pte and gss. “You would pick a computer simution over me. I can cancel our trade at any moment, you know. You, you . . .” his threats died off as he thought them through. Canceling the trade would do nothing. Leah still hated him, and after seeing how Jace treated his companions, she would leave Rock in a heartbeat. The orc’s control over her now was the only reason she hadn’t attacked him yet. Rock lost his bluster and fell back to his chair a moment before three troglodytes were about to shock him.

  “Very well,” Djona said. He motioned for the guards to come forward. “We will restrain the dwarf overnight and sacrifice him in the morning. The rest of you will remain under supervision, and I will negotiate transportation on the next vessel to arrive. I will see if I can negotiate with Potiphar to get your equipment back. That is the best I can . . .”

  “Wait,” Jace interrupted, feeling out this module. “All of my companions have spoken except for one. If one of us is to die, I would like the decision to be unanimous.” He turned to Leah. The woman had lifted her head from the table during this discussion, tears staining her cheeks.

  Jace would have to write a letter of appreciation to Gandhi about this quest. It wasn’t a perfect facsimile of the Biblical account, but it was pretty good. In Genesis, Joseph, disguised as an Egyptian noble, threatened to throw Benjamin in prison, the youngest of the brothers and the favorite of their father, now that they all thought Joseph was dead. They all must have hated Benjamin just as much as Joseph. Yet Judah, Leah’s son, offered to take Benjamin’s pce.

  Leah met Jace’s gaze and nodded, standing up to speak. “It should be me. You should sacrifice me. I am the reason we are all here, not Rock. I may not have wished this fate on Rachelle and Josephus, but my selfish actions brought it about. If they are in some hellish existence because of my actions, the least I can do is go to be with them, especially if it frees all of you.”

  “Leah, no,” Esther said, but her voice cked passion, seeing the conviction in her friend’s eyes.

  “Yes,” she replied. “You have Jace and your friends. With my family gone, I have nothing. Perhaps this will free my nd of its curse. Kill the one responsible for it.” The witch turned toward Djona and offered him her wrists. “Bind me. I will go willing tomorrow morning.”

  The priest’s reptilian face broke into an enormous smile. “That may not be necessary.” He briefly held eye contact with the woman before looking at the other troglodytes in the room. He pulled his scepter from a hook on his belt. “Guards. Leave us.”

  Without hesitation, the 12 lizardmen exited, leaving the seven characters and Snowy alone. Esther and Draya tensed. They both felt they could defeat their host without their equipment, but a gnce from their leader told them to wait a moment.

  “Mother,” Djona called loudly. “You may come out now.” As a door on the side of the room opened, Djona took off his neckce. Jace didn’t know where to look first and eventually decided to watch Leah’s reaction. As soon as the troglodyte tooth neckce cleared his head, Djona transformed into a handsome young man with tanned skin and dark hair. He grew a few inches as his form shifted to human, and Esther whistled in appreciation. Besides the open leather vest revealing a muscled chest and arms, he still wore the loin cloth standard to all troglodytes.

  Leah gave Josephus a few seconds of attention, but her gaze went to the woman entering the dining hall from the side. “Rachelle!” she cried and left the table to race over and embrace the beautiful woman. The two sisters had simir appearances, and Jace had difficulty telling who was older. Of course, in order to have a 20+ year-old son, Rachelle would be near 40, and she didn’t look a day past 30. Jace shrugged. Esther was apparently hundreds of years old and didn’t look much past 25. Once again, the game cared more about aesthetics than biological reality.

  “I’m so sorry,” Leah said repeatedly. “Please believe me; I never intended anything like this to happen. It was just . . . I mean . . . I know Jacob loved you, and I feared he would . . .”

  Rachelle took her sister’s face in her hands and calmed her down. “Your husband loved you too,” she said. “Jude was always going to be king. Joe has talents, but he is not meant for the throne.”

  “Yes,” Josephus said from the head of the table, drawing everyone’s attention. “I have no intention of ruling your kingdom. I have a different calling. What you intended for evil, my god has intended for good. I have done noble things here.”

  “You are ensving people,” Draya said. “That is not good.”

  Jace shook his head but let Joe expin. “No, my child, don’t you see? I have freed them.” It was the second time he had called Draya a child, and now that they only looked a few years apart, it sounded odd, but Joe appeared so much more mature in this moment. “When I arrived here seven years ago, the people here truly were sves. They were beaten every day, with very little food and horrible living conditions. Their only hope of escape was to be thrown into a volcano. I changed that. Pharah recognized my organization and pnning abilities and put me in charge. She gave me this disguise,” he held up the neckce, “so the other troglodytes would obey me, and it worked.”

  Rachelle and Leah walked back to the table, and they both took a seat. “At first,” Joe continued, “the queen wasn’t happy with my tactics. I punished more lizardmen than workers in that first year. I took away their whips, and if I ever saw one beating a worker, I imprisoned them for a week. Productivity increased, and we suddenly had surpluses when we barely met the quota before.”

  He took a drink. “Ships continued to bring more sves to trade, but I felt like I was rescuing them from terrible lives back home. Yes, you had to work here, but if you did, you got plenty of food, good housing, and a beautiful environment. Many people don’t work and stay at home caring for their children. The troglodytes now spend more time clearing the jungle and don’t need to guard the workers.”

  “And you still sacrifice them?” Draya asked with less venom in her voice than before.

  “I have sent no one to Moloch in three years.” Joe paused when he understood how that sounded. It was like telling someone when you stopped beating your wife. “Typically, when Lamashtu collects someone, they’ve done something horrible to deserve it.” He tried not to make eye contact with his aunt, knowing that Ishmael tricked Leah tricked into using the curse. “Thus, we have received several evil wizards and bloodthirsty assassins. When they proved to me they couldn’t live peacefully with the other residents, I allowed Pharah to march them up the side of the volcano.”

  “How have you convinced your queen not to sacrifice someone in the st three years?” Jace asked. “What’s changed?”

  “I’m not sure,” Joe replied. “From what I know, before we arrived here, the pntation struggled. Pharah threw sacrifices into the volcano once every two or three months, but it didn’t help. Lava flowed, ash spewed into the air, and the troglodytes thought that meant Moloch wasn’t satisfied. Then we showed up. Soon after, Moloch appeared in the flesh, or stone, or whatever his skin is made of. Almost instantly, the volcano stopped spewing, and the pntation became more prosperous. I’d like to credit my management skills, but I didn’t take over for a few years. Sacrifices were no longer tossed into the volcano but given directly to Moloch, and they burned up in his arms.”

  Joe shuddered at the distant memories and took another drink. “Initially, Pharah increased the frequency of the sacrifices, but we didn’t have the sves to maintain it. Soon, the offerings happened once every three months, then twice a year, then almost nothing once I took over. Yet, the prosperity hasn’t decreased. I can’t expin it.”

  “While you have seen seven years of plenty,” Leah said, “my nd has seen seven years of famine and pgue. We have come to bring you back so that whatever you did here, you can replicate back home.”

  Joe nodded. “I appreciate the thought, but I honestly don’t know what I did. I don’t know why my mere presence should bring prosperity. My god’s power flows through me, but no more than any other priest. My success here is because of my organizational skills. Is your nd experiencing famine because of overgrazing or not properly rotating crops?”

  Leah shook her head. “No, the Life Spring has dried up.”

  Joe shrugged his shoulders, obviously not knowing what that even was.

  “Regardless,” Rock said, finally comfortable that he wouldn’t be sacrificed, “that is why we are here, to bring you and your mother back. When can we leave?”

  Joe shook his head. “I will not abandon my people and have them turned into sves again. I have been asking the merchants to bring mighty warriors to help defeat the powers on this isnd, not to help me escape.”

  “I’ve seen the strength of the queen’s army,” Jace said. “My group can kill them easily this night if you wish, and we can be off on the next ship in the morning.”

  Joe shook his head. He hoisted his scepter. “With this, I can order all my lizardfolk to jump into the ocean. I don’t need your help to defeat them, and it won’t get us anything. Lamashtu will bring werewolves or dark elves to do her bidding. No, to end the tyranny on this isnd, we need to destroy the duo at the top.”

  “Lamashtu and Moloch,” Jace replied. “And what do we need to bring them out in the open?”

  “A sacrifice,” Joe said, bringing the conversation full circle. “Something my queen is forcing me to perform tomorrow morning.”

  “Do we need to draw straws?” Rock asked, knowing how a vote would go.

  “I don’t think so,” Joe replied. He looked at Draya. “I believe the young mage would make a good candidate.”

  Esther bristled, and Snowy lifted her head from her meal. “Why do you say that?”

  “I sense dragon fire inside her,” the priest answered. “She will be immune to va. Moloch cannot burn her.”

  Jace winced at the idea. “But she is not immune to demon fire. If Moloch is as powerful as you say, surely he can summon more than just va.”

  “Oh,” Joe said, surprised by Jace’s confusion, “did I not say? Moloch is a god, not a demon.”

  “Oh,” Jace replied. “You want us to kill a god?”

  Everyone was silent for a few moments. “Well,” Joe said finally. “I can see you all have a lot of pnning to do before tomorrow, and some of you need a good night’s sleep in actual beds. I must maintain the illusion that you are still my prisoners, so please stay within this hall and the adjoining rooms.” He picked up his neckce from the table and put it on, transforming him back into a troglodyte. “Through the doors you see along the walls, you will find fully furnished rooms with running hot water and comfortable beds. You might even find some clothes that fit you. We have a limited armory, and I will come tomorrow with a selection for you to choose from but don’t get too carried away; until the sacrifice, you will still need to look and act like prisoners.”

  He rose from the table and prepared to leave. One look at his mother let him know she wanted to spend the night getting reacquainted with her sister. He left the room through the main entrance and locked the door.