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Sighing, I took a cautious peek over the counter to see that several people were galloping towards the store in quite a hurry, and fortunately, the first one I recognized was Skip. "Mr. Quartermaster, sir," I called out to him while ducking behind the wooden boards again, "would you mind telling me where you deposited my belongings?"

"...rack behind you," was the hassled answer, and he added (though obviously not aimed at me), "Do something! Do something!"

"Treacherous dog," another voice snarled, and something heavy hit the counter with a loud crash. Straight above me the tip of a blade poked through the wood. Instinctively, I ducked even deeper; the sword was ripped out of the pane, and a second later a fight between several grunting and cursing participants started right on the other side of the counter.

Clenching my teeth, I shut out the combat noises and concentrated on finding my pack... now which of it was it? There were several bundles on a shelf directly opposite of my current position, all of them shoddy and torn. Other equipment was scattered between the sacks, starting with six-packs of beer bottles and ending with bloodfly wings- but if I wasn't completely mistaken, my precious pack was the one with the moist stain! After all, I hadn't taken out the piece of scavenger haunch my mighty warriors had organized-

-well, at least my instincts could be trusted. Even though I had tried to blend out the distracting clinking and swearing in the background, I jumped when the counter behind me bucked once again. First there was a ripping noise, then the sound of splintering wood... and this time, somebody went down hard. The thud that shook the wooden floor boards told me this much.

"One turncoat down, one to go," this other voice (which I believed to belong to Raven) sneered; the Ore Baron's wisecrack was answered by an angry growl and the sound of metal hitting metal. Daring to look to my right I saw Skip the quartermaster spread-eagled near the short side of the counter; glinting rivulets snaked out from under him, forming small pools of blood on the irregular floor boards, and bloody froth bubbled in his nostrils.

Not good, I thought, my stomach churning. Hurry up, Garland, you need the healing rune! Stretching for the pack I suspected to be mine without raising my head above the counter was more difficult than it might sound, but I did not want to make my back a target for Raven... I actually managed to rip the bundle off the shelf without leaving cover; bringing it close to my nose, I nodded. The faint scent of dead scavenger clung to the fabric. This was it!

I opened my precious pack with shaking fingers. Right on top there were the summoning scrolls. I reached for the uppermost one to put it aside and had barely touched it when an icy jolt went through my fingers and elbow. The tingle made me shrink back...

...behold, oh child...

Next thing I knew was that I unrolled the scrolls one by one. My invaluable keys to the realms of the undead... relief flooded me like a storm surge. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and let my fingers trace the parchment's texture-

...an army of skeletons marched over a dry, bleak landscape, long dead blades of grass breaking beneath their ivory feet. The sky was of a deep, violet color dotted with swirling stars like wheels of pale fire, and a flock of black birds perched atop dead, leafless trees. The skeleton in front, a tall warrior in a suit of royal plate mail, raised his hand, and the army stopped as one man. The warrior made a step forward, his armor clanking against his bleached bones when he moved. Twin flames of bright purple blazed in the dark recesses of his eye sockets, and wispy white hair trailed behind him like a veil.

"Behold, oh child," he said in a voice like dark velvet. "Behold the eternal beauty of Beliar's realm."

I wanted to express my awe to the warrior, explain to him that I was honored to get this glimpse at a place not many would see during their lifetime, but my throat was so dry from excitement that no sound came from it...

"-get out of my way," a furious voice barked, tearing me out of my trance while a pig was squealing in distress somewhere in the background. I blinked, completely disoriented.

"Stone, I can't allow this," a sonorous voice I had never heard before appealed to the enraged armorer.

"Bite your bum," the first voice - Stone - growled. "The asshole had it coming for a long time!" Then there was a hiss, a strange chortle, and the squealing pig fell silent.

"You can come out now, kid. They're gone." A hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I guess I must have jumped about three yards straight into the air, so absorbed had I been with sorting out where I was, and why. I whirled around and stared, dumbfounded, at a hawk-faced man who looked decidedly uncomfortable in his guard armor.

"Dear sir, you scared the living daylights out of me!" Well, dressed as he was and holding a sword instead of a human bone, Aaron did not look like a cannibal at all, so it had taken me a second to recognize him. "What do you mean with 'they are gone'?"

"The yard is in - is in - in our hands at the moment, but they're still trying to break through from the outer ring... and if you ask me, they're going to succeed. Not that I - that I was a skilled engineer, mind you, but a structure can take only so much abuse, even if it's made of metal."

I briefly shook my head. "But you have been fighting Raven and the other scoundrels just a moment ago!"

Aaron sent me a strangely concerned look. "It's been at least a quarter of an hour since Raven decided to vanish into thin air and the last of his guys gave up his ghost." He shrugged, winced and continued with an uncomfortable backwards glance at something that had to be on the other side of the counter, "...almost. We've been gearing up for the breakout since. - You sure you're alright, kid?"

"My name is Garland!" I fumed, a bit more aggressively than intended, but I did not like the implications of what the man just had said. Had I actually spent a quarter of an hour in the undead warriors' realm?

I looked down at the pack in my hands, at the crumpled scroll I held in a tight grip... and my blood ran cold. My head swiveled toward the side of the counter where I had seen the last of the quartermaster, and by the Gods, I knew that he was dead even before I saw the stained blanket a considerate soul had dumped on him.

The hand with the scroll went up to my mouth; biting back the sudden tears of rage welling up in my eyes, I felt more than just a little betrayed. "You are not a fair player, good Beliar, are you, now," I muttered under my breath.

...the eternal beauty...

I let go of the scroll as if it was a glowing coal. It dropped back into my pack, and my shaking fingers closed defiantly around the smooth, yellow stone I had initially been searching for instead. Pulling it out with a triumphant crow, I held it up in the nightly air.

"What's that?" Aaron asked.

"'tis a healing rune."

Again, he shrugged (and winced). "Well, poor Skippy won't need it anymore. I'm afraid he's more of a case for a necromancer."

Perhaps I should have punched the man in the teeth for that, but all I did was grimace. "The same will hold true for you, good sir, if we do not fix you... you seem to be in quite a bad shape yourself," I growled. "Now, if you will shut your big mouth and hold still."

*

The following minutes were all bustling activity on our part. While I went about healing the cannibal, Scorpio kept an eye on the gate, and the armorer was fussing over the 'troll mother's antique suit of plate... most probably to keep the young man from going on about their controversy over matters of decency 1).

After a final approving nod by the blacksmith the stranger donned his armor again. He shook Stone's hand, exchanging a few words with him, then he walked slowly to the middle of the yard where he raised his arms... and from one second to the other he was gone, a blue shimmer in the air being all that was left of him. I had heard of teleportation spells before, but so far had never seen one in action, and I have to admit that I was duly impressed.

"Damned thief," Aaron muttered, sending a fretful glance after the blue shimmer. I cocked my head, waiting for an explanation on his part, but right then Scorpio came jogging back to us.

"Listen, everybody," he barked, "they're going to- uh, where's the other guy?"

________________________

1) As it was, the spitting mad Stone had crammed a load of glowing coals from the forge down the gullet of the last opponent to go down, something which had chagrined the stranger to no end.

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