Sons of Ironstorm - Book 1: Griffon's Rise

Chapter 28: That Which was Once Forgotten

"The Firsts of the Races did gather in council

To determine how best to advance their cause.

The enemy was puissant, determined and relentless.

They agreed to bind their races together in alliance

To strive together against the enemy in battle.

Thus did they hope to find victory against the Shadow."

- from a fragment of a history on the First Alliance

Silently the elves clustered around the partially opened door, weapons still drawn. It was dark as a cave inside, with no sound or motion to disturb the absolute black they saw beyond the wedge of pale light allowed in by the open portal. Yet, as much as they wanted to wait to determine whether it was safe to enter, approaching night and their wounded pressed the reluctant elves into action.

This time it was Nakana Ciradaan singled out from the Aquilans with a pointing finger. When she stepped close, the white haired Aquilan king leaned forward.

<<Take a look inside,>> he commanded in a whisper. <<If it's safe, give the signal and we'll move in.>>

<<At once, your Majesty,>> Nakana replied, reaching back and under her cloak to where her pack lay against her back.

When her hand returned a moment later, it was holding something the wood elves of Aquila called a crystal torch, a remnant of ancient magic passed down through the loremasters of the Eagle clan. A y-shaped handle carved from dark ironwood the length of an elf's forearm with a fist-sized and shaped crystal held between the stubby arms, it was an effective and controllable method of illumination when fire wasn't available. Which, in this place of broken stone and frost, it wasn't. No Aquilan scout or ranger was without at least two such torches in their packs.

A puff of breath against the crystal, like the ashara, was enough to activate its inherent magic, releasing sunlight stored during the day from within the crystal's matrix. And it began to glow with a soft golden light, casting a circle of illumination two paces in diameter around the Aquilan scout. Then, with a nod to Ciradaan, Nakana slipped through the narrow opening and into the darkness beyond, the crystal torch in her left and a long-bladed dagger in her right. Two steps in and she was swallowed up by the inky blackness within, leaving her companions staring fitfully at the dancing afterimages of the torch in their eyes.

Just when Ciradaan was beginning to think his scout had run into trouble, they heard a soft bird's chirp from within. It was the all-clear signal.

<<Let's go,>> he husked with a curt gesture to move in and, as quickly and quietly as they could, the company slipped inside.

<<Close that door,>> Brax commanded when the last member of the company was safely within, the darkness relieved only by the light of Nakana's crystal torch, held high near the large chamber's center.

Silently the door swung shut at the urging of several hands. As soon as it was settled back into its frame, it re-locked with the same soft 'click' it made when KeLarion had opened it. Just in time: even as the elves closest to the thick portal took a step back, it abruptly thrummed with the impacts of several heavy bodies. But, close to two handspans thick, the massive portal did little else and the company collectively heaved a sigh of relief.

<<Burn them, they were closer than we thought,>> Fenoran rasped in the dim light cast by the crystal torch, turning hooded eyes towards Ciradaan. <<They must've been hiding on the edge of the square and made a charge when they saw us slipping into the building they'd never managed to breach.>>