Gulamendis introduced himself and his brother, then said, “Sorry to hear about the sudden evacuation; nice to know it was necessity that shut this place down before the recall and nothing personal.”

The warrior looked confused by the statement, but Laromendis said, “Never mind.” He glanced at the doorway into the huge room. “We need to think of something very quickly because eventually…?” He looked at his brother.

“Those fliers and most of the smaller demons won’t trouble us unless we wander right up to them, but the more powerful ones…they’ll sense we are here eventually.”

The warrior looked at him and said, “You know demons?”

“More than I care to reveal most times,” he said, “but I think I know how we can avoid them, for a while longer.”

“If only we knew how to open this damn portal,” said Laromendis.

Gulamendis said, “Something occurred to me.”

“What?” asked his brother.

Gulamendis looked at the bodies on the floor and pointed to one, dressed in a robe, and said, “Arosha, is that the galasmancer?”

The Sentinel’s knees weakened, and Laromendis helped him sit. “Yes, and the others are the rest of my company of Sentinels.”

“Then he didn’t have time to escape.”

“Obviously,” said Laromendis to his brother. “Your point?”

Gulamendis went to the body of the fallen portal builder and pulled a demon corpse from off it, then turned over the red-drenched robed figure. The elf clutched a yellow stone in his hand, so firmly Gulamendis had to pry it from his fingers. Holding up the faintly pulsing stone, he said, “He didn’t destroy the portal! He only pulled the power crystal from it.” He pointed to the empty hole where the crystal was placed. “When the demons got done with everyone, they saw an empty room with two sticks. Obviously none of the really intelligent ones have been here yet, else they might have also realized the portal isn’t destroyed, just turned off.”

He considered the situation as he looked at the glowing stone in his hand. “If we stick this back in the base, with the right starting spell, the portal should open, and we can get home!” He reached down and pulled a small bag from the dead elf’s belt and quickly tied it to his own.

“It wouldn’t do any good,” said Arosha. “For the time being, anything that comes through a portal from this world will be killed the second it steps through.”

“Lovely,” muttered Laromendis. “Now what?”

Gulamendis paused, then said, “We go someplace else.”

“Where?” asked his brother.

“Sorcerer’s Isle,” said the Demon Master.

“How do you propose to do that?”

Gulamendis said, “When I was there I was shown one of their rift gates. There are wards there that act as a beacon.” He realized he was now at the edge of his knowledge. Looking at the Sentinel, he said, “How much do you know about portals?”