Free Uneasy Alliances by David Cook

main room.
    The interior was a domed circle. In the center was an altar surrounded by candles. As in the underground room, a pedestal stood behind the altar. Several niches around the edges of the room had formerly held images of Umberlee, but these had been wrenched from their positions by the Fallen Temple priests and lay shattered on the floor. To one side were the bodies of two men who, from their clothing, Garkim recognized as a priest of Umberlee and his acolyte. They had been slashed and stabbed many times, their corpses kicked aside in blood-soaked clothes.
    At present, the attention of everyone in the temple was focused on the altar. From an antechamber came a chanting and a whiff of incense. The crowd parted, and three robed priests bore into view the bloodforge. It was held by an iron tripod and carried on a wooden frame. It glowed and flickered with power.
    The canting worshipers placed it carefully on the altar. Now, from the opposite corner of the room, came a loud wailing scream. The crowd again drew back, this time to allow passage of three burly men, stripped to the waist, their faces concealed by hoods. Between them, they dragged a portly man, totally naked, his chins wobbling in fear. His stomach swayed obscenely from side to side. The chanting picked up rhythm, and the crowd began to sway in time to it.
    “What are they doing?” whispered Noph to Shar, who stood next to him. She hushed him with a gesture.
    The servants placed the man on the altar, face to the ceiling. Two held his arms, the other his legs, even as he struggled and screamed.
    A figure stepped forward, red-robed, a silver circlet round his neck. From it dangled a medallion inscribed with designs that Noph could not clearly make out. The priest lifted his hands and face in appeal.
    “? Mighty Ysdar, hear this day our prayer. Feel the power of our sacrifice. Join with us as we feast.”
    In a circle of motion, he whirled, drawing a long, curved, cruel knife from beneath his robes. He slashed in one quick motion, lengthwise down the body of the victim, who gave a ringing scream of agony. The worshipers closest to the altar rushed forward, their bodies hiding the victim, whose screams grew fainter and finally died away.
    In a few moments, the crowd at the altar had cleared. The victim’s body was no more than a shredded mass of flesh and bone. Some in the crowd were still wiping their mouths.
    Noph swayed on his feet. In his travels thus far, he’d never seen anything this horrible. Next to him, he sensed rather than heard Kern reaching beneath his robe for his sword.
    “Wait!” Trandon put a hand out to stay the paladin.
    Kern shook his head angrily. “I cannot watch this any longer, Trandon. It must be stopped.” He looked around at the rest of the party. “Are you ready?”
    Artemis stepped back a pace. “Not yet. Not while there are ten times as many of them as there are of us.”
    “Coward!” Kern hissed at him. “I always knew you were a coward!”
    Shar joined Entreri. “He’s right, Kern. There’s no point in just going out there and getting slaughtered.”
    Kern ignored her words. “Noph?”
    Noph stood for a moment. Then, with a sigh, he stepped forward. “You’re right. This can’t go on. We have to do something. We have to fight for something right, even if we’re going to get killed trying.” He looked at Kern. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe ifs not just profit and loss.”
    Kern clapped his shoulder. “Lord Garkim? What say you and your men?”
    Garkim smiled tightly. “As I told you earlier, Sir Knight, I recognize the danger to my homeland. And I can see what will happen to all the kingdoms of the world if these people are not stopped. I do not choose to fight. I must fight.”
    From the back of the alcove, a quiet voice said, “Yes. We must fight.” Ingrar came forward. His face was glowing, and, astonishingly, he was smiling, as if he had become privy to an enormous secret and was bursting to tell