Dulrak still had his hands on his hammer, which was still buried in the now re-killed bandit captain, when 2 more foes joined the fight. Shambling toward them, in his sable wrappings, was Menesia, the mummy king. Behind him, holding a candle aloft, was a young man wearing a black and yellow robe. He had black dust smeared across his eyes and lips, and he was chanting as he matched the mummy’s pace.

Dulrak dropped the handle of the hammer and conjured a flaming blade. With a fierce cry, he swept the blade at the mummy and seared its midsection. As he finished his stroke, the mummy punched Dulrak in the stomach. The dwarf stumbled, and his flame blade disappeared, but he kept his feet.

Suddenly Lund was beside him, and with a flurry of action, he hit the mummy 3 times with his greatsword. The young priest stopped chanting and pulled a pouch from his robe. Alice fired magic missile darts at the priest and the mummy, but neither seemed to notice them.

Mery, who had moved toward the priest, cheered Alice’s attack. As she swung at the priest she said, “You’re an inspiration, Princess!”

Isa circled to the far side of the mummy and brought her light blade in an upward swing to catch him under the arm. The blade shone with radiant light as it connected and seemed to burn even brighter as it cut through some of the wrappings. The sable cloth fell away, and under them Isa could see withered, leathery skin.

The mummy let out a screeching roar and raised its arms over its head. The sound seemed to crash into Isa like a slap, and she blinked with surprise at the force. While she was still reeling, a foul wind swept past her, and Isa doubled over, retching.

As the nausea left her, she turned to see Lund stagger and fall on his backside, like a man who’d just gotten bad news. And Alice, Alice dropped like a sack.

Isa fell to her knees almost as if their bodies were connected. She started to crawl toward Alice, but then the end of a sable bandage hit Isa in the face, she twisted her whole body to stare up at the looming figure of the mummy king! He’d take his retribution for the damage that she’d done to him.

All thoughts of Alice, the group, their quest, they all were swept from Isa’s mind, replaced by fear. Skin-crawling, icy fear that left Isa frozen on the ground.

“Ha, you wretch!” Dulrak hit his chest. “Come take me on.”

The mummy pivoted slightly, pointed one wrapped hand at Dulrak and mumbled a few words. The dwarf whipped his head back as if he’d been slapped. He put his hand to the side of his face and flicked something from his fingers.

In the shadowy light Isa couldn’t tell what had hit him, but as she watched, Dulrak’s eyes narrowed, and he lowered his head almost like he was going to charge at the mummy like a bull. He began to chant, and his breath came in gasps. His voice rolled like gravel through the small room, and Isa suddenly felt a new fear – fear of this dwarf druid and the power that lay curled inside him.

Lund was suddenly beside Isa, and he caught the mummy king in the leg as he stepped forward. The blow severed the mummy’s leg, and it went down to its knees. Lund’s second blow knocked him prone. As the mummy king lay at his feet, Lund reached over and grabbed the javelin with the lighted cloth attached to it, and he drove it straight down through the mummy’s chest.

Mery knelt beside Alice and cast a healing spell. As Isa watched, Mery lightly touched Alice’s forehead and whispered in her ear. But Isa had planned on doing that! She was going to cast spare the dying, and then she was going to cast healing on Alice as soon as it was safe. But now Mery had taken that from her.

With an outstretched hand, Mery brought Alice to her feet. And before either of them could react, the priest was beside them. He clutched Mery’s arm and spoke softly. The words hissed from him, and Mery’s face seemed to twist with every syllable.

To the priest Alice said, “Hey! You! Listen to me.” She broke eye contact with him to open her spell pouch. Her fingers fumbled through the contents as Alice looked up and resumed speaking. To the priest she said, “You are going to leave her alone. You’re gonna sit down and stop attacking. You’re gonna—Where is it?” She looked down at the pouch, and the priest grabbed Alice’s chin, spoke a word, and spit in her face.

Alice fell away gagging and landed on her hands and knees vomiting.

The priest smiled, but then Mery had her hands on both sides of his face. “Hey, ya blighter, listen to me. Sit down and tell us how to really kill the mummy. Kill him dead.”

With that she shoved the priest away from her, and he sat down at once. He opened his mouth and said, “Vazo al yve balabini yak. Ates v ayar.”

“In Common!” Mery crossed her arms and glared down at the priest.

He looked startled and shook his head.

Dulrak stepped toward them, and the light showed that the left side of his face was a mass of rippling flesh as if he’d suffered a burning wound. Isa finally found the voice to say, “What the hell happened to you?”

“Some sort of rot. Feels like it’s healing already. Dwarves are hearty. Now,” he leaned down with his hands on his knees. “Ku’zuguma ekconna?”

The priest nodded once. “Moto seti.” He covered his heart with his hands. “Moyo maya seti sa.”

“You speak—”

“Yeah,” Dulrak answered Mery. “I know some ekconna. Almost have to if you want to survive the winter in the Hinter, don’t you?”

“What did he say?” asked Alice.

“He says we take the heart and burn it.”

“So we can just set the whole body on fire.” Lund dropped his pack and began to unpack his kindling.

“No,” said Alice. “He’s a mummy. His organs are gone.” She chewed her lip. “His heart could be anywhere. Might not even be in this tomb.”

“You think those assholes took the urn?” Isa put her hands on her hips as anger flared. If Dockma and Flanor had the urn, there was no way for them to truly kill the mummy without first wasting time tracking them down.

“Which assholes?” asked Mery. The first ones or the second?” Isa shook her head in confusion. She said, “Who was the first?”

“The bandits,” Mery replied. “You said they took off running. Maybe that’s because they got what they came for.”

“No.” Alice shook her head. “No, that can’t be.”

Just then the priest reached toward Mery with a hand wreathed in swirling shadow. As he grabbed her hand, the swirling shadows raced up Mery’s arm and to her chest. Just as quickly, it raced back to the priest. He grinned at Mery and said something.

She shuddered and then swallowed. “You’re all alone,” she whispered. “Alone and injured. Aren’t you scared? Run. Run, run, run.”

Her words didn’t seem to affect the priest, but Lund dropped his sword and backed up. On the other side of the room Dulrak had tipped a few drops of water into his palm where it formed a knife made of ice. With a word, he shot the knife right at the priest’s head, but the aim was just off, and the knife shattered uselessly behind the priest.

Isa took advantage of the chaos to step beside Alice and cast a sanctuary spell. Shimmering light descended on Alice as Isa spoke the words and used her silver Lockwood necklace to catch and reflect the light of the daylight spell.

Alice knelt and loaded her small crossbow. She seemed oblivious to the work that Isa had just accomplished. “Babe,” Isa spoke softly. “Don’t undo my work. Just get back, right? You are badly hurt.”

“Everyone is hurt. You, Lund, everyone.” Alice took careful aim and fired the crossbow at the priest. “Yes! Got him.” Alice crouched to load the weapon again, and Isa stepped in front of her. She activated the sun blade again and took a swing at the priest, but he was just out of her reach. To get closer, though, that would expose Alice to his line of sight.

“Lund!” Isa called out to her friend. “Dulrak? I need you guys.” She spared a glance to her right and saw Lund still frozen in the shadows. He seemed to be as frightened as she’d been with the ghost. “Lund, listen. Lund!” She waited to see if he would reply or move toward her, but in the silence she heard the priest casting another spell, and she swung her sword back at him.

Before she could think of what to do, Isa heard a choking sound behind her. She whirled around to find Alice fighting with a large skeletal hand that had attached itself to her throat. As Isa watched, the hand squeezed Alice’s neck, bony fingers digging into the flesh. The massive hand almost encircled Alice’s neck as it attacked. Alice held onto the bit of wrist that the hand had; she held on, pulling the hand away from her throat.

As Isa reached over to help pull the hand away, the fingers went limp, and the hand suddenly hung like a necklace from Alice’s throat.

Alice reached up and tried to yank the hand away, but it stayed in place, fingers locked at the base of Alice’s skull.

“Alice, let me—”

“Go! Go kill.” That was all Alice could manage before coughing again. She grabbed Isa’s arm and stared into her eyes, as if to reinforce her words. Then she was looking in her bag again, and she pulled out the jar of ointment she’d found. “Heal,” she rasped out and smiled.

“OK,” Isa returned the smile and faced the priest again. From the corner of her eye, she spied a huge snake rise almost to the ceiling and prepare to strike. She moved toward the snake, sword out, when Lund yelled out, “It’s Dulrak. The snake! Don’t kill him.”

The priest had also turned toward the towering snake, and that was all the distraction Mery needed. She flashed into the center of the room and ran her new sword right into the priest. Her blow hit him just above the belly button. He stood for a moment with both of his hands cupped lightly around Mery’s hand and sword hilt before slumping over. Slight as he was, the priest would have knocked Mery down if a giant snake hadn’t slid between them.

From Isa’s vantage, it looked like the snake grazed the tip of Mery’s nose as it pushed the priest over to land on his back. Mery’s fingers let the sword hilt go so that her weapon went down with the body.

And then it was Dulrak standing over the dead priest. He plucked the sword from the dead man and handed it carefully to Mery.