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Run and wait. Once it’s clear, they run again. Step by step they make it closer to the temple’s entrance. They possibly could have done this without the diagram, but they would have left a wake of dead guards behind them. And with that many gone, it would have been almost impossible for someone not to notice.

Once they’ve made it to the corner of the building directly across from the double doors which are the temple’s entrance, Jiron gathers them close. “A guard will appear in one minute from around the left side,” he explains. “He’ll move across the front of the temple toward the left then turn and go around to the back. Once he disappears around the corner, we have less than a minute to get to those doors and through before two other guards will appear from there,” he says as he points to the building on their right, “and there,” he concludes, pointing behind them.

Waiting there for the guard to appear, James feels the prickling sensation continue to gradually increase. Whatever they are doing entails quite a bit of magic.

Finally the guard makes his appearance. Six pairs of eyes watch him as he turns and crosses in front of the temple. Then, when he reaches the corner and turns to follow the other side of the temple, Jiron says, “Now.”

Even before the guard completely disappears from sight, they are racing across to the doors. Taking the steps two at a time, Jiron reaches the top and pauses before the doors. He turns back and scans the temple grounds. Not seeing anyone else moving about, he takes the handle of the right door. Giving it a slight shove, he begins pushing the door open.

From within the murmur of voices comes to them. It sounds as if many men are chanting. Peering inside, he finds a large room with a vaulted ceiling. Lit torches line the walls at ten foot intervals giving off plenty of light. Besides the way they came in, there are four other exits leading from the room. Two are doors, both of which stand closed. The other two are the beginnings of hallways that extend further into the temple.

Not seeing anyone, they move inside quickly and close the doors.

James begins to pull out the diagram of the temple given to them by the Slavemaster but Jiron shakes his head. “I have it memorized,” he asserts.

“You sure?” asks James.

“Definitely,” replies Jiron. “We take the hallway to the right.” He points to the hallway off to their right that runs along the inside of the outer temple wall.

Glancing to the diagram, James sees that Jiron is indeed correct. “Okay, let’s go,” he says. Moving along the side of the hall, they make for the opening of the hallway. James refers back to the diagram again and sees that the first of the areas with annotations is the room at the end of this hallway.

He shows the diagram and the annotations to Jiron as they reach the hallway. Jiron nods then scans the hallway. The right side has no openings as it’s the temple’s outer wall. The left wall has two openings before they reach the end. At that point the hallway opens up onto the room with the annotations. Just what the annotations mean they have yet to decipher.

Jiron has the others move just within the hallway then wait there while he hurries forward to check the two openings on the left. He moves down to the first one and finds another corridor branching off. Fortunately it’s currently empty. At the second opening he finds a dark room, just an alcove really. Like the corridor before it, it’s empty as well. He then returns back to the branching corridor and makes sure it’s clear before signaling the others to hurry past and join him.

Then with the others following close, he moves down to the end of the hallway. The chanting they heard upon first entering the temple pervades the corridors. It doesn’t sound very close, in fact it’s hard to tell just where it is coming from. One thing’s for sure, it isn’t coming from the room ahead of them.

The room they’re approaching is well lit and they can easily see within it