NexLord: Dark Prophecies by Philip Blood Page A

two boys, “Come on, follow me!" and
then dashed down a side hall.
    Malachai noted the three boys darting away,
and seeing his four acolytes against the one Willowman, he decided
to take care of the children himself.  The priest took
another hallway that led the same direction as the one that Lor had
taken.
    Lor slid to a halt at the end of the hall in
brief indecision on whether to turn left or right, but the choice
was made for him when the priest appeared a little ways down to their left and then started coming
toward them swiftly; they ran to the right.
    The air wavered before them and a black shape
rose up out of the floor, coming through the very
stone.  It wore a black hood and intense blue glowing
eyes could be seen within the darkness. 
    Grabbing each other in an attempt to stop
their forward flight, the boys scrambled to a halt; the apparition
was hovering in the air before them.
    "The priest is coming!" Aerin yelled, having
seen the white skinned man bearing down swiftly from the rear.
    Lor grabbed a torch off the wall and threw it
at the hovering apparition.  The torch passed through the
blackness and landed on the ground beyond.
    "It's not really there!" Lor yelled and then
dove forward going right through the hovering
creature.  As he passed through he felt a blast of pure
hatred for all living things, including his own
friends.  Something congealed in his chest as if his soul was freezing over,
but as horrible as it felt it was instantly over and he was on the
ground beyond the apparition.
    "Come on!” he yelled to the others.
    Aerin gulped and dove through as well, and
then Dono followed.
    The ghostly being turned and followed them,
but having felt its touch once the boys needed little urging to get
them running.
    They made a few more random turns and found
themselves back where they had started; the four acolytes Yearl had
faced were now unconscious on the floor.  From ahead they
saw a new pack of churchmen coming through a door into the
hallway.  They turned and found Malachai approaching from
the other direction.  With no other choice, they went back down the circular stairs
toward the cells and the Togroths below.
    "What if the Togroths are coming up?" Dono
reminded them fearfully.
    "Don't say that," Aerin exclaimed since he had no other answer.
    They reached the hallway at the bottom and moved to the corner
carefully.  "We're trapped, you know," Dono noted, "there
are priests coming down after us, there are Togroths down here in
these halls looking for us, and there is no way out."
    "No, we can take the sewers," Lor
exclaimed.
    Dono looked at him as though he had just
turned into a girl.  "Are you crazy?  That's
where the Togroths came from!"
    "Would you rather get killed
here?  Or have a chance to lose them in the sewers?" Lor
asked with unassailable logic.
    They all moved toward the sewer door.
    Aerin once again caught the smell of cheap
cologne and knew they were in trouble.  The silky voice
of Malachai spoke from behind.  
    “There is no need to run, my children."
    The boys spun around and found the pale
skinned priest standing at the corner of the hallway behind
them.
    "That's the creep who grabbed me earlier!"
Lor whispered in disgust.
    Malachai spoke calmly, "If you run your
companions will stab you in the back."
    Dono spun to face Lor, and the two friends
faced off with a snarl of mutual hatred.  Aerin backed
away from them both, also showing the sudden and unnatural hatred
for his friends.
    Malachai smiled and Aerin hated him as
well.  Turning quickly, Aerin dove past Dono and rolled
into the open door leading into the sewers.
    Malachai was slowly walking forward; his
voice was still silky smooth.  "The winner can join me
and live forever."
    As Aerin's body rolled onto the damp stair
that led into the darkness of the sewer the abnormal hatred for his
friends evaporated as if it had never been.  He scrambled
to his feet just in time to see Lor sidestep a