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“You sure?” asks Jiron. “There could be more coming.”

“I know, but I need to.” James leans against the wall by the stairwell and sags to the floor. “Just for a minute or two,” he tells him.

Seeing just how tired his friend is, Jiron nods and takes position at the top of the stairs to keep an eye out for anyone approaching from below. He’s not doing too great either. His chest throbs from where that dead creature blasted him, not to mention the multiple strikes of those small flying creatures that burn him like acid. Nothing would please him more right now than to lie down and fall asleep.

He turns his attention from the stairs to James and says, “You know, those dead creatures really weren’t that hard to defeat.”

“I know,” James replies. “I don’t know if you noticed, but a warrior priest appeared on the dais before we left.”

“I saw something but didn’t realize it was a warrior priest,” he admits. Getting a confused look on his face he asks, “Then why didn’t he come after us?”

“I don’t know.” Shrugging, James leans his head against the wall and adds, “I suppose we shouldn’t question our good fortune.”

Grinning, Jiron returns his attention to the stairs. “I suppose not,” he agrees. He absentmindedly rubs the arm that fell numb when the creature touched it.

“Arm okay?” James asks.

“The feeling is beginning to come back,” he says. “What would cause something like that to happen?”

Shrugging, James contemplates what happened a second before answering. “One of the theories that were kicked around back home was that the energy needed to keep a dead body ‘alive’ would have a detrimental effect on the living,” he explains. “When it touched you, the energy suffusing it entered your body and ‘shorted out’ your nervous system.”

“Shorted out?” he asks perplexed.

James gives him a grin. “Sorry, it’s a term from my world. It simply means it stopped your arm from communicating with your brain. If the contact had lasted for any length of time, the damage probably would have been permanent if it didn’t kill you outright.” He indicates the arm that’s numb and adds, “Since the feeling is coming back, it stands to reason nothing permanent was done.”

“That’s good to know,” he says.

Closing his eyes, James tries to relax a moment to quiet the headache that throbs painfully behind his eyes. His restless mind continues trying to make sense of the last few hours. First, Jiron and I are in a city buried by sand and are about to kill each other. Then we wind up in that other place where the little demonic flying creatures were trying to kill us. If the dais is some kind of magical transport device, why did we end up here? It makes no sense! It can’t be a random transporter, such a thing would be useless to the warrior priests. There has to be a way to control it.

Okay, suppose there is a rhyme or reason to it. How did Jiron and I trigger it the first time? Could it be set up to trigger for anyone who does magic? That wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. The warrior priests have made many enemies over the years who can wield magic. They surely wouldn’t want anyone other than themselves to take advantage of their teleportation system. So the trigger must be something that has to do with them and that only they and their agents would have. Maybe some ability they posses or an aura or something?

“James?” questions Jiron softly.

Eyes opening he glances to where Jiron is still keeping an eye on the stairs. “Someone coming?” he asks.

Shaking his head he says, “No. I was thinking we might want to get out of here.” Grinning he adds, “Seeing as how you are awake and all.”

The headache has subsided to a dull throb. He feels a little bit rested and able to continue, though the thought of using magic makes his headache throb even more. “Doubt if I could do anything if we were to be attacked,” he says. Getting to his feet, he says, “But I am fit enough to walk without your support.”

“Good,” he says as he comes to him. “Then let’s get out of here.” He moves past James and crosses over to the corridor. There he pauses and glances back to make sure