Karnic did not see anything but the leavings of the massive army that used to be housed there, but his ears did detect the sound of distant voices. Karnic scowled as the rage inside him grew to a fury. He headed to one of the stairways and started climbing upward. He walked quietly and let his ears guide him towards the voices. When he had climbed seven levels, Karnic turned along a corridor, the voices becoming decipherable. He listened to the conversation of the two men as he silently moved towards the speakers.

“I should kill you now,” shouted Zygor. “Your actions have brought failure to our endeavors.”

“My actions?” retorted Brakas. “You are the one who brought that cargo of poisoned fruit for Grulak to eat.”

“I had not way of knowing what effects the fruit would have,” snapped Zygor. “Remember that it was you who brought the fruit to me in the first place.”

“Like yourself,” countered Brakas, “I had no way of knowing its effects either. At least I tried to redeem myself by scattering the horses of that traitor General Winus. You merely hid here in the temple to see who would win.”

Karnic paused outside the room as he heard a sword being pulled from its sheath.

“You think that sword will save you from my powers?” cackled Zygor. “You are a foolish man, Brakas.”

“Look, Zygor,” Brakas pleaded, holding his sword up for defense as he backed away from the magician, “There is no reason for us to quarrel. We are both committed to the same goal. If we work together, perhaps we can salvage this mission yet.”

“Salvage it?” screamed Zygor. “Our army is scattered all over Fakara. Worse, they have lost the leadership needed to make them into a viable fighting force. We will both be dead when Vand sends someone to find out what went wrong.”