Aelyn’s words died in her throat as there came a splintering of glass and a groan of metal from part way up the palace’s frontage. She looked up in time to see the epic stained glass representation of Selvador’s youthful triumph split down the middle. The glass heaved outwards, then shattered and fell in a razored rain. Aelyn spun and shielded her eyes, feeling jagged shards nick her skin as they fell around her. When she looked back, a pulsating mass of purple and grey fungus was pushing out through the window, crumbling the stonework around it as it went. She dropped her gaze to the main entrance in time to see that same grotesque mass of rubbery mushroom-flesh pushing its way up the entrance hall. It packed the entire space, crushing statues, furniture, paintings and anything else in its path. Whipping coils of mycelium burst from its surface every few seconds, slapping wetly against walls, floor and ceiling and digging in before pulsating, growing rapidly thicker until they became fresh fungal tendrils to drag the mass forwards.

‘What is it?’ she asked, then cursed as another fungal growth split the skin of her neck. She plucked it away quickly.

‘I know only that it burst from Selvador’s body and it hasn’t stopped growing since,’ said Romilla.

‘If it doesn’t stop soon, I imagine the entire city may be in trouble,’ gasped Bartiman. ‘And this light doesn’t exactly seem deleterious to fungal growth.’

‘The light,’ exclaimed Borik suddenly. ‘We’ve got to get out of its light. It’ll send us mad.’

‘What in the names of the realms are you talking about?’ asked Bartiman.

‘You just have to trust me,’ said Borik urgently. ‘I know I’m right.’

Aelyn turned to ask him if he knew what this was, but a splintering crash from the palace dragged her attention back.

‘Aelyn, we can’t go in there now, it’s too late,’ urged Romilla as the fungal wall ploughed up the hallway fast as a man could walk. It was almost at the entrance. Aelyn cursed in frustration. Romilla was right. Her bow, Borik’s cannon, Hendrick’s hammer – all gone, vanished under that mindless mass of revolting flesh.

Still the moon leered above them, still its foul light bathed the square. The infected burst from other palace exits and sprinted off across the square. A few dutiful guards ran to intercept. Others simply ran. Fungi sprouted in thick outcroppings all around them. Screams rose from across the city and alarm bells tolled, sounding to Aelyn as though they floated from every district in Draconium.

‘Borik, you say we need to get out of this light? We fall back to the inner gate, take shelter in its shadow and take stock.’