Everson pushed open the door to the chamber and instantly wished he hadn’t. The stench was overpowering, and the sight that accompanied it was worse. The prince swallowed hard, wishing for the first time that he possessed more of his father’s conviction and less of his mother’s compassion. An orb glowing dimly at the far side of the room gave him something to focus on, and he started toward it.

His very first step met with resistance when his boot encountered something round and not without substance. The object rolled away from him and wobbled to a stop. Everson was shocked to suddenly find someone staring back at him.

The severed head of a warman was so fresh that, for a stunned moment, Everson thought it still alive. The blank stare seemed a bland judgment, and the prince suddenly felt self-conscious. He stared back, studying the fixed features until he was finally satisfied that the disembodied head held no life, much less an opinion.

The warman had been handsome in life. His headless body lay nearby, and Everson could see that he had been strong and stout. The very embodiment of a champion. Yet he had failed. Self-consciousness easily segued to self-doubt.

Everson’s next thought was of imminent concern. What in the worlds had wreaked such havoc? There was nothing else in the room save for the orb that sat on a pedestal before the door to the second chamber. He recalled The Which’s simple but obviously insufficient instructions. He was supposed to engage a small Dog, and once that trial was tamed, pass through to the second chamber where another challenge awaited. Simple. But the decaying remains of his predecessors gave ample evidence otherwise. He moved toward the orb because there was no place else to go. Everson quickly reasoned that if the Manoliths called this building the Tree, then maybe the Dogs were not quite so literal as well.

The electronic eye on the orb whirred open, and Everson nearly turned and ran. Instead, he froze. He had the immediate sense that he had awakened something best left slumbering, and was afraid that the slightest movement would result in his joining the casualties on the floor.

After a long pause, he willed himself to advance, only to freeze again as an electric blue laser fanned out from the eye of the orb. It swept over him as quickly and completely as a gust of wind and then disappeared back from whence it came.

Everson knew that he had been scanned. They had similar technology on Indira, but it was used to detect illness within the body. In this case, he concluded that the orb might have been examining him for weaknesses that it could exploit. If this thing was the Dog that The Which had predicted, he wondered if it could also sense fear.

As if in answer, the orb floated upward from its pedestal, and with it rose the hair on the back of Everson’s neck. The orb hovered in midair, as if waiting. Everson assumed it was his move.