Professor Dorius led them through the maze-like ruin to an intact stone shed where he’d set up his basecamp. It was a simple, square building, the roof long gone. Dorius had tied a tarp over the opening, leaving a gap for smoke to escape. There was no wood underground so they had to cook over a special oil lantern designed to heat a single cooking vessel.

It was a snug fit for four of them, but Jen didn’t care. All that mattered to her was she had a soft place to sit, a pot of food was on the fire, and nothing wanted to kill them at the moment. For those small mercies she would have traded all the coin she’d saved since graduation.

While Kat tended the stew, Amanda leaned against the shed wall, half asleep. Dorius held his hands out to the lantern then rubbed them together. He sighed. “Nothing like a nice fire after a bit of excitement. Sorry I don’t have any wood for a real campfire.”

Jen shook her head at his good cheer. Either he didn’t understand how close they’d been to dying or he was choosing to ignore it.

“So what exactly brought you ladies down here to find me? Something about a consultation?”

Jen couldn’t help but marvel as the old man cleaned his glasses and spoke like they were sitting in his office back at King’s College rather than huddling in a stone shed in the middle of an underground ruin. “Eccentric” seemed a more than fair description of him.

“That’s right,” Jen said. “Mariela told us you could help figure out more of the Cult of the Horned One’s intentions. We discovered information discussing an event called The Harvest and that it somehow relates to the haunted lands. Anything you can add would be a great help.”

“The Harvest certainly relates to the haunted lands. In fact it created them. The mad king sacrificed all life on the eastern side of the continent, harvesting it for the Horned One. That is the single largest mass sacrifice ever recorded. Our best estimate indicates twenty million people lost their lives in five minutes.”

“Heaven’s mercy,” Kat muttered. “How could anyone do something so horrible?”

“That’s not even the worst part. Alexious wanted to sacrifice the entire continent, but was forced to activate the ritual before he could subdue the primitive tribes on the western side of the mountains. Now any time a large sacrifice is planned by a demon cult they call it a harvest. Though the largest ever documented after the mad king’s was still under five hundred.”

“If King Alexious is Connor’s idol then it stands to reason he’ll want to finish his work, harvesting the western half of the continent,” Jen said.

“That’s the kingdom!” Amanda sat up from where she’d been dozing.

“No need to get too excited,” Dorius said. “King Alexious spent over a century constructing pyramids to help focus the ritual. I can’t imagine the king would let this Connor person build a handful of massive structures without opposing him. And without a focusing system the ritual can’t be completed.”

Jen frowned as she thought. If the professor was correct then what did Connor have in mind? And more importantly to Jen, what did he need her brother and the other sorcerers for? “So there’s no way he can perform the same ritual?”

Dorius chuckled. “Not without conquering the kingdom first. And he’d need a powerful army indeed to do that.”

Jen gasped. “Like an army of demons? How many do you think are wandering the haunted lands? If Connor could harness the sorcerers’ power and subjugate the demons of the wastes that would give him one hell of a start at building an army.”

Dorius stared at her. “No one knows how many monsters are in the haunted lands. Anyone stupid enough to try and explore them ends up never heard from again. That’s why I turned my research toward these ancient ruins from demonology. Up until I found those mutated goblins it was much safer.”

“Wait,” Kat said. “Connor couldn’t just use the others’ power on his own. He’d need some way to gather and control it. I’ve never heard of an artifact capable of doing that.”

“I’d never heard of a goblin with black scales capable of fighting a warlord to a draw before,” Jen said. “But that didn’t mean one didn’t exist. We need to alert the king and archmage then head over to the paladins’ fortress. They need to be told of the possible invasion.”

“They aren’t known for welcoming outsiders,” Kat said.

“Don’t worry, I have a friend that will vouch for us.” Whether anyone would listen to Marie-Bell Jen had no idea.