Free The Hungering Flame by Andrew Hunter

I think we can spare an hour or two to catch our breath, ” he said.
    Garrett nodded. “ Do you think that rider would recognize you? ” he asked.
    Cabre looked thoughtful. “ It’s possible... maybe some of the soldiers who captured me before survived. Still, I’m wearing a Gloaran tabard. He might have thought we were just a patrol. ”
    Garrett made an unconvinced noise, but said no more. He walked to where the two dire wolves lay, panting, against the cool stone wall of the cavern. He busied himself removing the pack from Ghausse’s back.
    Warren removed Hauskr ’s pack and then rummaged through his sack to find his algae lamp. He scooped up a bit of water in the jar from a small pool at his feet and replaced the lid, shaking it vigorously. A faint blue glow grew inside the glass jar, giving the ghoul enough light to go exploring in the back of the cave.
    Garrett heard the sound of tearing fabric. He looked over to see the prince fashioning a crude splint for Inglefras’s leg, using a pair of thighbones and a few long strips ripped from his green tabard.
    “ We're in luck ! ” Warren called out.
    Garrett joined him in the shadows of a low tunnel he was exploring. There, in the light of Warren’s dim lamp, Garrett made out a series of crude images painted on the cavern wall.
    “ What’s that? ” Garrett asked.
    “ This is a ghoul place! ” Warren said, pointing at a pale smudge in the rough shape of a wolf, “ That’s Nemre, the white wolf. ”
    “ Who? ”
    “ Nemre, The trickster, ” Warren said, “ ghouls used to worship her, or him, depending on who you ask, like a god. ”
    “ You worship a wolf? ” Garrett asked.
    “ Not anymore, ” Warren said, “ it’s just a story, but this means ghouls used to come here, and it means there’s probably another way out. ”
    “ What’s that? ” Garrett asked, pointing at a black figure painted on the wall, an image of a great black wolf with hollow eyes, standing above a drawing of hundreds of little skeletons in the shapes of many beasts.
    “ That’s the Black Wolf, ” Warren said.
    “ Doesn’t it have a name? ”
    Warren shrugged. “ You only learn his name when you die, ” the ghoul said, “ He’s the one that comes to get you. ”
    Garrett shivered.
    “ This makes me feel a lot better, ” Warren sighed.
    “ Do you think there are other ghouls around here that can help us? ” Garrett asked.
    “ Nah, ” Warren said, running his big paw over the rock face, “ I don’t think anyone’s been here in a long time, but ghouls have always loved tunnels... I really love tunnels. ”
    Garrett breathed a little easier. After today, he could do with a bit of underground travel.
    “ Garrett! Warren! ” Cabre shouted from the main chamber.
    They ran back to see the prince standing beside Inglefras with his sword drawn. The light of day had faded almost completely, the open sky above the sinkhole now a patch of dark blue. In its place, a shimmering glow now lit the cavern, arising from the trembling waters of the bone pool.
    “ What’s happening? ” Warren asked.
    “ I don’t know, ” Cabre said, his eyes wide, his skin pale in the ghostly light.
    Lights of many colors flickered beneath the surface of the pool that now rippled as though disturbed by a hundred falling pebbles. Fear fluttered at the edge of Garrett’s reason, but the beauty of the sight held him transfixed as he watched the play of light on the water.
    Now and again, faint swirls of colored flame danced across the surface and licked at the shining white bones at the water’s edge. Lights pulsed within the empty skulls, their sockets shining briefly like watching eyes.
    “ No wonder the dragon fled, ” Cabre said, “ This place is haunted. ”
    “ Ghosts can’t hurt you, ” Warren said, but it sounded as though he was trying to reassure himself as much as anyone else.
    Garrett laughed and pointed at a shimmering ball of light that now lifted slowly from the pool and