Easy Betrayals Read Online Free Page A

gate’s location, twin to the one they’d left behind in the dungeons beneath Aetheric’s palace. The fighter’s golden mane whipped around his head in the relentless wind. “Not a volcano, not a dragon’s den,” he remarked. “I guess this could have been worse.”
    “That depends on how you look at it,” Belgin said. “Eidola’s out of our cage now.” He turned his back on Jacob and Rings, moving forward to examine their surroundings. The ground was broken and rugged, heaps of uneven stone piled at random all around him. The walls seemed to form a large courtyard with rows of broken columns rising from drifts and skeletal fingers clawing up through the hissing, shifting sands. Beyond the old walls he gained glimpses of the dark bulk of neighboring structures, revealed and then hidden by the dust. No, not a courtyard, he decided. It’s a great building, long since collapsed. I’m standing on the rubble of the roof. He scanned the wreckage again, still trying to absorb his surroundings. He’d seen blood and horror and death aplenty in the last few days, but as he gazed on the ruins, he felt as if he were a ghost moving in a sad and silent phantom world. He’d left his capacity for wonder too far behind.
    Rings scrambled up to stand beside him, Jacob following a step behind. The three stood together a moment, the wind howling mournfully around them. “What is this place?” Rings asked softly.
    “Who cares? It’s long dead,” said Jacob. “Faerun is choked with ruins such as these.”
    Belgin scratched at the two-day stubble on his round jaw, narrowing his eyes against the dust and sand. “A temple, I think,” he said, ignoring Jacob. “The portal we came through opened when the tomb was disturbed. Guarding the places of the dead is traditionally a role for priests or those who might serve them.”
    “They haven’t been very attentive of late, have they?” Jacob laughed.
    “Don’t be so sure, Jacob. A thousand years is a long time to wait, but some guardians might have the patience for the vigil.” Belgin turned in a slow circle, studying the maze of rubble around them. Perhaps it was only the melancholy sighing of the wind in the old stone that unsettled him… or maybe something else, something more sentient and aware. He knew enough about places such as this to feel a distinct chill at the wind’s soulless moaning.
    “Miltiades comes,” announced Rings. The dwarf’s brass and gold piercings gleamed in the fading sunlight. From the swirling murk that marked the temple’s ancient gate the paladin wearily strode, a tall shape gleaming with silver.
    “See Eidola?” Miltiades asked without preamble.
    “No,” said Jacob. “I take it you didn’t, either. What happened to you?”
    “She was only a few steps ahead when we emerged from the portal, but she outran me, and I lost sight of her,” Miltiades admitted. “She’s hiding somewhere in the ruins. Come on, let’s get moving. We can’t let her get too far ahead of us.” He turned away and set out toward the gate, hammer resting over his shoulder.
    “Miltiades, wait,” Belgin called. “We have to talk.” He glanced at Rings standing beside him.
    The paladin paused, looking back over his shoulder. “We don’t have time to talk, pirate. Keep up or turn back, but don’t stay the course of Tyr’s justice.”
    “Justice?” Belgin asked. “Look at yourself, man. You left your reason at the door when we set off on this little expedition. What were you thinking, running off alone after a creature like Eidola? What if she’d doubled back on you? She could have killed you alone in the ruins, while we stood here wondering where you’d gone.”
    “For that matter, how do we know that you’re not Eidola in Miltiades’s shape?” Rings asked suspiciously. He leaped down the stone pile, rock skittering under his feet. “Eh? Can you prove that you’re not? You’ve been out of sight of all of us for a good ten minutes