CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN – THE POWER OF THE DRUID

"Make yourselves at home," Nancy sighed, shrugging off her pack and rummaging for the necessary spell components. "I'll see about making this pit a bit more hospitable." As her words echoed around the vaulted chamber, Nancy's gaze seemed to drift inward. Her lips moved in soundless incantations, summoning orbs of pale, ghostly druid light that flickered into existence, bobbing in languid arcs near the ceiling. A shimmering, prismatic veil shuddered across the chamber entrance like a heat mirage, no doubt the warding magic to screen their presence. With a strangled gasp, Karina startled as a number of hooded, skeletal figures abruptly materialized around the perimeter, standing utterly motionless in silent vigil. For one heart-stopping moment, she assumed the worst - that somehow, a legion of Sanctus hunters had infiltrated and surrounded them. But a closer look revealed the gruesome silhouettes to be no more than withered husks, remnants of those long-deceased inhabitants of Nancy