The Detective drew the next card. It showed a mage surrounded by books and flasks in which various concoctions were brewing.
"The Alchemist," the Detective said. "He abducts girls from the village to use them in his inhuman experiments."
The Alchemist's house stood apart from the settlement. The locals avoided it, keeping their distance. They said that anyone who came near it faced certain death.
The companions approached the gate and knocked loudly. No one answered. Then they vaulted over the high stone wall and entered the grounds.
Ahead of them rose a three-story house, and a garden spread out around it. Lights burned in some of the windows.
The companions moved toward the house. At that moment, dark silhouettes began to emerge from the trees in the garden. Unnaturally thin, with long upper limbs, they reached out toward the intruders.
The Detective cast a spell, and the dark figures instantly disintegrated into particles.
They forced the front door open and entered the house. Three large golem figures attacked them. Brown in color, silent, impervious to ordinary weapons.
The Cursed used spatial magic, and the three golems were erased from existence.
The Alchemist was hiding in the back rooms. When they found him, he began throwing various chemical charges and bombs at them, which exploded with thunder and fire but caused little damage.
The Detective and the Cursed ran him through with their swords, and he died.
They searched the rooms, many of which turned out to be laboratories filled with chemical equipment. The kidnapped girls were nowhere to be found.
"Could your cards be wrong?" the Cursed asked.
"Cards are never wrong," the Detective replied. "They are guided by spirits. Spirits see everything. Look for a hidden door. There must be a secret room somewhere here."
After some time, they found it. Behind a sliding door was a chamber with a magic circle made of stones. They stepped into the circle. Nothing happened. Then a wind blew, and they found themselves in a dark cave.
They emerged through a veil that flashed blue at the entrance and saw another dark forest. From within it came the hungry cries of monsters. In the center of the forest, on a plain, a grim tower rose.
They reached the tower, but it had no doors.
On the other side of the forest, another hill was visible. As they made their way toward it through the woods, dark monster figures attacked them. They fought their way through.
At the entrance to a cave in the hill, a blue veil flared again. Inside was a magic circle. It transported them to the tower.
Gloomy rooms opened before them. On tables along the walls stood transparent containers filled with liquid, in which eyes, body parts, and heads floated. From one of the containers, a woman's head silently watched them.
Strange iron chains hung from the ceilings in different rooms.
A figure in a tall headdress and a robe began to appear in the mirrors and on the walls. Whenever it looked at them, a sharp pain pierced their bodies, forcing them to writhe and fall to the floor.
During one of these attacks, the Detective closed his eyes and kept them shut for a while, as if listening. Then he grabbed one of the iron chains hanging from the ceiling and tore it from its place.
A scream of pain rang out through the tower from some unknown creature, and the robed figure vanished from the mirrors for a time.
The Cursed and the Detective continued tearing down the chains. The screams rang out again and again, as if the tower itself were crying out. Then they fell silent.
The pain that had been striking the Detective and the Cursed receded. All the closed doors opened.
Behind one of the doors was a magic circle.
"The Sorcerer who lived in the tower and became part of it abducted the girls," the Detective said. "The werewolves, the Warlord, and the Alchemist gave him some of the girls in exchange for magical power. The Alchemist was his servant. That's the answer. We killed the Sorcerer. And this is what became of the abducted girls."
He gestured toward the women's heads and body parts floating in the transparent containers.
"It's midnight," the Cursed said and closed his eyes.
At that moment, a strange mist swept in through the windows, and the Cursed found himself elsewhere.
It was a dark room with no windows. He stepped into a corridor and saw creatures with long white hair, burning eyes, and long white garments flying toward him. In their hands, they clutched long daggers.
He struck at them with his sword, but the blade passed through their bodies. The creatures struck him with their daggers, and the wounds were painful.
He ran down the corridor. He climbed a stone staircase.
On the next floor, new flying monsters pursued him. Strange mists drifted along the walls.
Ahead stood double iron doors bearing the image of a monstrous head with its fanged maw open.
There was nowhere else to run.
He threw the doors open and saw a room where another creature with white hair lay on a large bed. It was larger than the flying ones and its eyes were closed, as if asleep. But its body trembled faintly, as if in convulsions.
The Cursed stepped closer and drove his sword straight through the prone creature.
The monster was seized by agony, then fell still.
The mists dissipated, and the Cursed found himself in the night forest. A road led north between the trees.