Kaspar indicated they should move away and when they were safely distant from the gate, he whispered, “I don’t know what this place is, but it’s like nothing I’ve encountered. It’s easily defensible with a hundred soldiers, damn near impregnable with twice that, but I’ll be damned if I see much sense to it otherwise.”

“My best guess,” said Sandreena, “is they built this to defend for a short while in case someone tumbled to what they were doing and tried to stop it. I see no close-by water source, no decent supply route, and no quarters for any garrison. It’s as if they are willing to walk away from this place once they’ve accomplished whatever it is they plan on doing here.”

“My thoughts as well,” said Kaspar. He turned and motioned for Magnus to come close. Whispering, he said, “Do you have any sense of what this place is for?”

Magnus’s expression was grave. “There is some very dark magic occurring within those walls. It’s…muted, waiting for something to be unleashed, but it’s there.”

Suddenly a fine silver netting appeared out of the darkness and landed upon the white-haired magician. Magnus stiffened, then his eyes rolled up into his head as if he had been struck from behind by a massive blow. Kaspar and Sandreena crouched low and drew weapons as figures apparently rose up out of the soil of the plateau before them. Sandreena turned toward Laromendis and Jim Dasher, only to see them gone, and as she raised her mace and Kaspar his sword, a pair of finely woven silver nets descended over them.

Sandreena felt a shock course through her body, and her mind became a tumbling cascade of thoughts and images. Part of her knew she was under attack, but years of training, both martial and magic, wilted under the effect of that net. Her defensive spells refused to coalesce in her thoughts; moves as basic as raising a shield or hefting her mace, ingrained in her body’s memory as much as her mind, became spastic jerking attempts to control herself.

Kaspar was likewise overcome, jerking and twisting as he sought to command his body by force of will to meet the coming attack. But like Sandreena and Magnus, he quickly fell to the ground.

Looking up they could see three figures covered in suits of fine cloth from head to toe, with only the smallest slits for eyes. The cloth was the same color as the dirt that had hidden them and they must have been lying in ambush for quite some time, perhaps hours, waiting for the intruders to get close enough to render them powerless.

Another figure appeared a moment later, a grinning bearded man who looked down at the three prone bodies and said, “Bring them!”

As he turned away, Sandreena managed to whisper, “Belasco!” She didn’t know if Magnus or Kaspar could hear her.