Forest Kingdom Trilogy 2 - Blood and Honor

and Blood and Davey hesitated only a moment before stepping into it. It was horribly silent inside the darkness, as though they'd suddenly been transported miles underground. The light from the guards' torches produced a pool of light just big enough to move in. Beyond the pale golden glow there was nothing but the night. The small sounds the party made as they moved along seemed strangely distinct and magnified, but there were no echoes.
    Blood had no way of telling where he was, or what if anything might lie outside the pool of light. He hefted his sword nervously, and then lifted his hand suddenly to call a halt. Something was moving out there in the darkness. The guards stirred nervously as they heard it too: soft scuffing sounds, not far away, and something that might have been the stealthy pattering of clawed feet. The sounds circled the group slowly, never once entering the pool of light. And then, from out of the darkness, there came the sound of something giggling. Blood's hackles rose. There was nothing human about the shrill laughter.
    'Can't you do something about this?' he whispered to Grey Davey.
    The Sanctuary shrugged unhappily. 'Maybe. I don't know. If I use my power to dispel this darkness, it might not leave me much to face whatever's out there. The Unreal is very strong here, Tim. I can feel it pressing against the light.'
    'Get rid of the darkness, Davey,' said Blood flatly. 'We're too vulnerable like this.'
    'All right. But I've got a bad feeling about this.'
    'You're always having bad feelings.'
    'And they're usually right.'
    Grey Davey pulled his power about him like a cloak, and the darkness faded away, unable to withstand the Sanctuary's presence. Blood stared about him. The corridor seemed to stretch away for ever in both directions, without beginning or end. The walls had sagged inwards, bulging into the corridor, as though the solid stone and plaster had somehow melted and run and then re-formed. The floor was covered with thousands of crawling insects. Some of the guards cried out in disgust as the scurrying creatures swarmed over their boots. Black tar dripped from the low ceiling, hot and smoking.
    'How much of this is Real?' Blood asked Davey.
    'I'm not sure,' said the Sanctuary. 'When the Unreal is strong, some of its changes can't be undone. The changed state becomes Real. Stay close by me. Nothing can harm you as long as I'm here, but . . .
    something's wrong here, Tim. Something's horribly wrong.'
    He looked around him, his hands clenching into fists. Blood felt it too: a deep unsettling feeling of being watched.
    'Something's coming our way,' said Davey quietly. 'Something awful.'
    Blood nodded tightly. His men had picked up on the tense atmosphere, and were hefting their weapons and glaring about them. Blood knew he'd better find them a target soon, or they'd start coming apart.
    'So what do we do, Davey? Stand our ground, turn and run, try to press on? What do we do?'
    'I don't know! I've never seen anything like this!' Stray magic sparked and sputtered around the Sanctuary's clenched fists. 'I think we'd better go back, Tim. I'm not up to this. We need the Steward and her High Magic.'
    'All right,' said Blood quietly, 'everyone start backing away down the corridor. Keep your eyes open and your swords ready. Take your time, there's no need to hurry.'
    He kept his voice carefully calm and even, but already some of his men were starting to panic. Blood didn't blame them. So far, his example had kept them from breaking into a run, but he didn't know how long that would last. Grey Davey wasn't helping. His face was ashen white, and his eyes were fixed on something in the distance only he could see. Blood glared at the corridor that stretched away behind them. He couldn't tell if they were any closer to the West Wing's boundary or not. He didn't even know if what he was seeing was Real or only an illusion. He could have sworn they hadn't walked very far into the West Wing . . .
    And then the roaring began. The air pressure began to build, and the rising wind tugged at the guards'
    clothing. They turned and ran, charging down the corridor. Blood grabbed Davey by the arm and hurried after them. Something big was coming down the corridor after them, something huge and unstoppable.
    Blood glanced back over his shoulder and swallowed sickly as he saw what it was. A change wind was sweeping down the corridor, transmuting the world from gold into dross, from Reality into nightmare. The