Return to Blue Mountain
Part Two: Mountain’s Heart
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” the elf held up the small egg. “And finished just in time for your arrival, Tyldak.” He floated down from the rocky slab to join them. And then his blue eyes alighted on Timmain, clutching her fur robe tightly.
“Timmain... Mother...” he breathed. Tears sparkled in his eyes. “I have not forgotten...”
Timmain’s eyes seemed to brighten with renewed life. “Aurek... my son... you are whole in body, mind and soul once more.” She held out her hand towards him. “My child... help me. I am drowning.”
He left the egg floating in the air and floated to her side. He took her hand and pressed her palm to his cheek. **I am here, Great-Grandmother,** he sent. **Take my strength.**
Timmain breathed a long sigh of relief. “Aurek... my heart rejoices.”
Pike and Suntop flanked Tyldak. “Does this make any sense to you?”
Tyldak shook his head.
Now Timmain was beginning to swoon on her unsteady feet, and Aurek held her up. “You see, Mother. I have rebuilt the Egg. The truth will never be lost.” Then he looked over the other eight assembled elves. “You have all come a long way. Come inside, and I will tell you the story of Aurek, called Egg.”
Suntop assumed he meant the stone hut, and turned towards it. But instead the floating egg shattered into countless little pieces, then spun outward and reassembled as a huge structure as imposing as the Egg of Six Spheres. Only now the Egg enveloped them.
“What is this?” Quicksilver demanded.
“Merely a change of perspective,” Aurek smiled.
A shared vision overwhelmed them. They saw the gray-skinned Egg sitting in front of the Egg of Six Sphere, helpless as Winnowill held open his mouth and poured a noxious gray potion down her throat. “Look at me!” a voice cried. “Enslaved, enthralled, as gray as the stone. Winnowill held my body hostage, but not my spirit. I mastered all of the Six Sphere and it way to its core I fled when I divined the heart of her plan. It was the only escape I had.”
The vision shifted and they saw Egg as he appeared now, pink-skinned, golden-haired, sharing breath with Timmain, beautiful and bright-eyed. Floating islands trailing silver waterfalls and crystalline spires dotted the dreamscape.
“My spirit found refuge inside the innermost shell. There I renewed my bond with Timmain, mother of us all. She shared breath with me and entrusted me with a great task – to restore the Egg of Six Spheres to the World of Two Moons. And to remember... remember that even though my body was enslaved, my spirit lived! I ran like a wolf with Timmorn Yellow-Eyes. I suffered in the cold of the snow. I knew pain and sorrow and joy and love. I lived in that one moment. I lived. But my task was not complete. I had to restore the Egg. That meant returning to my body. It meant embracing my skin again.”
The scene shifted again. Now Egg lay on the broken ground, his clothing in tatters, his hair spilling out from his skullcap. His legs were broken, one shoulder dislocated. Rain streamed down about the broken remnants of Blue Mountain.
“It meant enduring pain – the bone-grinding pain caused by my injuries. The other Gliders, the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho, all had fled or died in the collapse. I was alone.. or so I believed.”
Now they saw Two-Edge bearing a litter upon which the broken, naked Aurek lay, lashed in place by leather bonds. “Two-Edge found me, dragged me out of Blue Mountain through one of his own secret underground labyrinths. He tended my wounds with clumsy kindness. And as I healed, he babbled to me how this rescue ended a game he and his ‘dear mother’ were playing. Poor tormented soul.”
Now they watched Two-Edge patch Aurek’s many wounds, as Aroree hovered overhead, bearing a bowl of hot water. “Aroree found us... or had Two-Edge found her? No matter. My heart sang to see my grand-niece again. Yes – she is the granddaughter of one of my long-lost sisters, though time had caused many of the Gliders to forget the many bonds of kin. We found a strange sort of peace, the three of us, united in our desire to heal the many wounds inflicted by Winnowill. In time Aroree and I learned to hunt with weapons left behind by the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho. We made our own garments and bedding, and I shaped this house of ours. We shared our knowledge with Two-Edge, and in time repaid him for his compassion. And then I began to reassemble and transform the spheres–”
The visions disappeared, and the great egg shrank into the compact handheld structure.
“ –Into the form you see in my hand. My compact with Timmain has been fulfilled. The Egg of Six Spheres is whole again, preserving for all time the history and deeds of our kind.”
He turned to Timmain. Tears now shone in her eyes. She smiled and nodded. “You have... done well... child,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
“Come,” Aurek said. “You’ve travelled a long way, and on a quest of great importance. Share meat with me. We will talk more once your spirits and bodies are refreshed.”
Aurek and Aroree’s home was dug into the rock below the hut itself, and Aurek shaped the circular table to grow big enough to hold the nine visitors. They feasted on roast duck and fresh greens, though Timmain ate little. At the conclusion of their meal, Aurek poured a dark brew into the pottery cups, while Aroree beckoned Timmain to follow her into an adjacent room.
“You cook a good meal, Egg,” Skot laughed. “And you brew a good wine. Though I can’t say I care for your bracelet.”
Aurek glanced down at the velvety snake coiled around his wrist. “Oh, he’s quite harmless. He likes the different wines I ferment.” He glanced at Pike. “I’ve come to have a taste for them too, now that my head can handle you.”
Pike blushed. “You remember that, eh?”
“I could hardly forget it. And it’s Aurek, please. ‘Egg’ was Winnowill’s name for me.”
“Aurek...” Vaya said thoughtfully. “You said you know why we’re here. How? Did you see it in the Egg?”
He shook his head. “No, Vaya, Daughter of Snow. The Egg is simply a vessel of knowledge. I am the knowledge.”
“Do you know everything, then?”
“Not exactly. Not what is to come. Not all that has come to pass. But I know this moment, and many moments past. I read the air the way Wolfriders read tracks in the forest, and I record all I have seen in stone.”
“Then you know we are looking for Haken,” Suntop said.
“Aye.”
“Is he here?” Quicksilver asked. “Is he alive?”
Aurek smiled softly. “You have your father’s thirst for knowledge – and your mother’s impatience.”
“How do you know my mother?”
“I know. Is that not enough?”
Quicksilver smiled wryly. “Perhaps.”
“So enough babble,” Skot said. “Let’s go. Where is Haken, huh? Let’s find him, fix whatever’s wrong with Timmain, and get home.”
“Peace, Go-Back. In time.”
“Mmm, good wine!” Pike smacked his lips. “More, please.”
Aurek refilled the cup. “Haken... now there is a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”
“Then you knew him,” Suntop said.
“Knew him? Oh yes. He was my grandfather.”
“Your grandfather?”
“You were correct, Suntop, to infer that Haken founded Blue Mountain. Indeed, he and Gibra the Firstcomer did, though Blue Mountain did not take its true shape until Lord Voll’s time. Yes, Voll was Gibra’s son, and she found Haken just as you guessed, near the Death Water River, a short distance from this mountain. Haken had formed a small band by rescuing five other Firstcomers lost during the first winter on this world. Gibra joined him, her desire to be reconciled with him overpowering her desire to return to Timmain and the others. Eventually Haken’s tribe grew. As time passed, more Firstcomers, the lost ones who separated from the guiders at the moment of crash, came to the mountain, drawn by the call of their kin. I wonder, Ekuar, whether one of your parents or kin came here when the great winter began.”
Ekuar nodded. “Could be... could be...”
“Haken Recognized many times,” Aurek continued, “as did his companions, and soon our ‘tribe’ grew. More caves had to be created. As our rock-shaping gifts became more concentrated with each new generation, Voll and Haken insisted on a grander vision. No longer would we muck in caves like the barbarous humans outside. We would recreate the Palace inside the mountain, and live as High Ones ought to. By that point we numbered close to a hundred elves, many with powers of rock-shaping and all with the gift of flight. All... but Winnowill... whose talents at floating were never very refined. So as the mountain’s interior grew, stairs were built everywhere for Winnowill, and it seemed she did not mind her disability. How were we all to know that was just one of many seeds that would sprout into her madness?”
“I was born to Haken’s favourite son, and soon took up a task to preserve a living history of the world, in the spirit of Haken’s fondly-remembered Scroll of Colors. The mountain grew. And then... one day – a disaster. Our rock-shapers were too ambitious, too arrogant in their abilities. A massive archway they tried to shape collapsed, killing many elves, including Haken’s lifemate.
“Haken never recovered from the tragedy. He disappeared deep into the mountain and was never seen again. Winnowill blamed herself. Her healing powers had not been strong enough to save her kin. She threw herself into deeper meditation, stronger mental training, intent never to lose another life. At first we all thought she was coping admirably – unlike Voll, who began to withdraw into a shell of silence. But we all respected Voll, and we looked to him to lead us. He took up the burden of leadership with resignation, while Winnowill continued to nurture her powers with a growing obsession. In time we began to forget about the pain of the accident, and the disappearance of Haken. But Winnowill never did. And her guilt was simply another stepping stone into madness.”
Timmain and Aroree returned from the other room, and the Wolfriders grinned to see Timmain outfitted in new clothes. Aroree had given her a pair of form-fitting leather trousers and a soft creamy-white tunic. Her slender feet and ankles were protected by durable leather boots, like the kind Egg wore, and her shoulders were warmed by a fur cape. Timmain saw the attention her new appearance attracted and smiled almost shyly.
“It has been a long time since I confined my limbs in clothing,” she whispered. “Yet it feels... safe... like armour.” She gingerly took her seat next to Ekuar. “I heard your tale, Aurek. And I brood on its words.”
Aurek looked at her steadily. “Then you understand, Mother?”
“Yes.” She shuddered. “Tell me, child, does Haken live still? Or does he elude your sight as he eludes the Scroll of Colors?”
“I cannot tell whether he exists here in flesh or spirit. But I can tell you that some part of him lingers here. I felt it – as did Two-Edge, on one of his many delves into the darker tunnels below this rubble heap. There is a presence deep in the earth that does not sleep. In body or in spirit alone, it waits. Perhaps it has been waiting for you.” He glanced over the nine elves, and his gaze rested on Timmain longest.
Pike finished his draught of wine with a loud smack of the lips. “More, please.”
“Haven’t you had enough for now?” Vaya nudged him.
“More, please.” Pike reached for the jug himself.
“Two-Edge, is he still here?” Suntop asked. “Perhaps he could guide us–”
“Sadly, he is away once more. He often leaves for days, moons at a time, seeking healing in the mountain caves. Poor tormented soul. Aroree and I have done much to quiet the demons in his head, but he still has many scars to overcome. Scars I fear only his mother could truly heal."
“I know most of the tunnels,” Aroree said. “I... I often follow Two-Edge on his journeys. I can take you down... perhaps not as deep as Two-Edge has ever reached, but deeper than Winnowill’s old chambers.”
“That’s good,” Suntop said. “From there I should be able to sense things more clearly. If there is a presence under the mountain as you said, Aurek, then I will be able to find it.”
“Indeed, Child of Sun. You have the sight like no other.”
Pike gulped his wine. “So... *hic* we go under the mountain?”
“Now?” Skot grinned eagerly.
“We wait until nightfall,” Suntop said. “Then we go. Ekuar, I hope you’re ready. We may need a lot of rock shaped before tomorrow’s sunrise.”
“Don’t worry about me, little brownskin. I feel fit as a youngster.”
Suntop rose from the table. The floor began to sway under his feet. Pike’s cup of wine tipped over and the other elves leapt to their feet. Now the potted plants were swaying on their woven tethers, and bits of dust and loose rock flakes fell from the ceiling.
“Earthquake?” Quicksilver cried.
The tremors increased, and Suntop and Venka darted under the table for cover, Quicksilver fast behind them. Pike swayed drunkenly, then hit the floor hard. Vaya and Skot hurried under one of the archways for safety, while Ekuar and Timmain swayed on the ground, trying to maintain their footing. Tyldak threw his wings out to enfold the High One and the rock-shaper, though his thin wing membranes would not protect them against more than a light dust. Aroree and Aurek floated above the ground, watching the ceiling for signs of stress.
One of the plants pulled free of its ceiling tether and crashed on the floor. And then the swaying gradually began to ease. At length everyone rose from their crouches. Suntop helped his lifemate to stand, then brushed the dust from Venka’s long black hair. Ekuar and Tyldak assisted the disoriented Timmain, while Aurek scooped up the broken plant and coaxed the pottery shards to reassemble around the dirt and roots.
“Pure soil is hard to come by around the mountain now,” he said. “One must never waste it.”
“Whew, some earthquake,” Vaya whistled. “Hey, Pike – you all right?”
“My rump hurts,” Pike moaned as lifemate and lovemate pulled him up.
“Here, let’s get some more wine in you, squirrel-cheeks,” Skot said. “That’ll cure your ills.”
“That was no earthquake,” Suntop breathed.
“No natural one, at any rate,” Venka agreed. “Haken?”
They looked to Timmain. She was beginning to shiver again. She nodded in confirmation, her expression one of dread.
Skot poured Pike some new wine and helped him drink it down. “What – are you saying that cursed rock-shaper is trying to kill us?”
“No... I don’t think so.”
“Such tremors are common,” Aurek said as he skilfully repotted the plant, then let his snake coil up on the warm soil. “The spirit under the mountain is restless. I do not believe it was directed at you personally. But the presence... it lashes out at the world blindly. It has ever since Blue Mountain fell.”
“We might be giving Haken some focus when we go down there,” Quicksilver said.
“Mm,” Suntop nodded. “We’ll have to be doubly on guard. Let’s all rest while we can. The sun will set soon, and then we’re going in.”
Pike lay sleeping off his hangover when Suntop nudged his shoulder, not unkindly. “Hey, Pike. Pike, time to go.”
“You’ll never get him up now,” Vaya laughed. “If we had Rain with us, we might do it, but as he is his memory is useless to you now.”
Suntop shook his head. “Some leader I make. I can’t even keep Pike from drowning in wine.”
“No one can stop Pike when he gets it in his head,” Vaya said. “Leave him here with Aurek. You’ve got Aroree to show you the way now, anyway.”
Suntop glanced over at Aurek, humming softly as he tended to his plants. **Look at him. Haken’s spirit – in his body or not – has been raging under this mountain for years, and Aurek couldn’t care less. He’s almost like Ekuar.**
**A few nuts shy of a full pouch?**
Suntop ignored the mirth in Vaya’s sending. **No... just... somewhere else.**
**Same thing.**
**We should leave someone here to keep an eye on him. I’ve already sent Skywise and the Palace away to the other side of the Death Water River, in case the mountain starts to shake again. Maybe we should send Aurek there as well.**
“I can hear you sending,” Aurek remarked without looking up. “Don’t fear for me, Suntop. I have lived here in peace for many years. Your sudden invasion of Haken’s rocks will not endanger me.”
“Still, Aurek, I don’t want to take any chances. You are a great Elder. We cannot lose you.”
“Really, Suntop. I mean no offence, but who could you leave to guard me that could protect me in some way I cannot protect myself?”
Vaya’s lip curled back in a bit of a growl. **Arrogant mucking magic-user. Let me stay with him and Pike, Suntop. I’ll teach the feather-shirt a thing or two.**
**Don’t pin his ears back, Vaya.**
**I’ll try.** She smiled lopsidedly. **But a good Go-Back never makes promises she won’t be able to keep.**
Suntop, Quicksilver, Venka, Tyldak, Ekuar, Skot, Timmain and Aroree assembled outside Aurek’s house. “Take us in. Aroree,” Suntop said. “We’re ready.” He glanced back at Vaya and Aurek. “Take care, you two. And if you can get Pike awake sometime within the next eight-of-days have him send to me. I’ll hear him.”
Vaya nodded.
“Timmain?” Suntop looked up. The High One nodded. Suntop turned back to the broken plain. The stars were out, shining brightly and casting a silver glow over the slag and gravel. Aroree flew on ahead, searching for the burrow entrance. Now sensibly clad, Timmain strode over the ground with a more confident air, though her eyes were still distant. Quicksilver kept her hand on her sword – larger than an elfin short-sword but shorter than the standard troll-sword. Venka scanned the landscape like a hawk. Tyldak brooded. Only Skot marched over the ground jauntily, one hand on his sword-hilt, the other on his spear. His long tail of brown hair bounced confidently with each step.
“Here,” Aroree brought them to an opening in the ground, guarded by a subtly-hewn stone wall. Steps coated with moss and dust led deep into the ground.
“Ohhh...” Suntop peered into the gloom. “It’s a dark life underground, even to our eyes, and none of us have wolfblood. Do you have lights, Aroree?”
“No worries, Suntop. Two-Edge has cached some glowing rocks just inside. All trolls use them to navigate where their eyes fail them. Come.”
“Two-Edge...” Suntop mused as he followed Aroree down the slippery steps. “I was still a cub when we tangled last. He was... so badly hurt inside. Not even Rain’s healing could ease the pain of Winnowill’s tortures. When I thought Two-Edge had died in the collapse, I thought it a blessing. I never thought I would hear someone speak of him with such respect... or affection.”
“Two-Edge helped me greatly,” Aroree flew ahead into the darkness of the tunnel, and Suntop could just see well enough to watch her open a secret compartment in the rock. A sudden green glow filled the tunnel as Aroree withdrew a handful of small glowing stones, each the size of a robin’s egg but projecting the light of a small lantern. “Just as Aurek needed healing in body, so I needed healing in spirit. Somehow... I’m not certain how, the act of tending to our broken bodies and minds brought out a new compassion in Two-Edge... a new tenderness. And as the three of us healed together, Two-Edge and I soothed each others’ inner demons. Do you know that I never slept at Blue Mountain? None of the Chosen Eight did. Winnowill had sapped our ability to dream through our many ‘lessons’ with her. Here, take one,” she handed a glowing stone to each elf. Suntop cradled it in his hand. It was warm to touch, but barely.
“I could not dream, and sleep without dreams is madness. Two-Edge could dream... but only nightmares. We were perfectly matched, with our broken souls, our yearning for a peace we did not think we could attain. And in time, as the moons faded to seasons and to years, we began to heal.”
“You love him,” Venka said softly.
Aroree averted her eyes. “Come. It is a long descent.”
**She loves that crazy old troll?** Skot sent to Tyldak. **You don’t think they’re... you know?**
Tyldak slapped Skot upside the head.
Aroree led them down carefully carved steps and steeply sloping inclines that the elves had to slide down. One moment the tunnel was beautifully maintained with little buttresses and recesses that served as both benches and storage areas, the next it was a feature-less tube, as though the product of a monstrous – and unimaginative – earthworm.
“How does Two-Edge get around in here?” Skot asked as they had to negotiate a strange cleft in the rocks that connected two tunnel segments. The smaller elves and the nimble Aroree slipped through without difficulty, but Ekuar had to shape the rock to allow Tyldak and his ungainly wings passage.
Hours passed, or so it seemed to the elves. They eschewed the tunnels that led off to the sides and followed Aroree deeper and deeper underground. One moment the tunnel would level, and the next it would plunge deep underground, so steeply that Aroree and Tyldak had to fly the others to the bottom of the slope. As they descended deeper into the heart of the mountain, the rocks lining the tunnel wall become twisted and deformed, like rotten tree roots.
“Whose work is this?” Venka mused aloud. “A rockshaper, certainly, but who?”
Suntop groped for Quicksilver’s hand. She caught his hand and squeezed it tight.
**Malin?**
Suntop lifted the back of her hand to his lips. **Just stay right beside me, Khai.**
**Always.**
They came to another deep chasm, and again Aroree and Tyldak ferried the others down to the bottom. Suntop and Quicksilver went first, and Skot, Venka, Ekuar, and Timmain watched as the light of their glowing stones disappeared in the darkness.
“Whee!” Skot whistled. “How far do you think that pit goes?”
“Far enough...” Venka said.
Aroree and Tyldak returned. Venka entwined her arms about Aroree’s neck while Tyldak drew Ekuar’s slight form into his arms. “We will return, Skot, High One.”
“Hurry,” Skot shouted down the chasm as they disappeared.
Within minutes, they returned for the Go-Back and the High One. Tyldak carried Timmain down into the darkness while Aroree carried Skot. At length the light of the others’ glow stones appeared in the gloom.
“Where now?” Skot asked as they touched down.
The pit was a dead-end. No tunnels led away from the bottom of the chasm. “We must have reached the end of this tunnel,” Aroree said. “Two-Edge has dug no deeper.”
‘Two Edge couldn’t have dug this pit,” Suntop said. “It would have taken endless eights of eights of years to create this – even with a rockshaper’s gift.”
“So this cave is naturally formed then?” Venka asked as she paced around the bottom of the pit. “But if this was forged by wind and water, then there must surely be a way out.”
“Where are we, do you think?” Suntop asked.
“Below the deepest of Winnowill’s caves, surely,” Tyldak frowned. “Below the very foundations of Blue Mountain. Perhaps as deep underground as the mountain once stood above ground.”
“Hmmm...” Quicksilver bent down. “I think I may have found the water’s path out of here.” She pointed to a tiny little crack in the ground, two fingers in width, running across the cave floor. “No way for us to get in there. Looks like its time for you to work, Ekuar.”
“Wait,” Suntop said. “Give me a moment.” He closed his eyes. His eyelids fluttered as he entered a deep trance. Quicksilver watching him nervously, chewing her lip. Ekuar, meanwhile, bent down and inspected the thin crack in the rock.
“Hmm, hmm, humm,” he murmured. “Old rock, very strong, but brittle. I’ll have no trouble here, my little brownskins, if this is the way to go.”
Suntop opened his eyes. “What is it?” Quicksilver asked. “Is Haken... or whatever’s here... further below?”
Suntop nodded. “Yes. I can feel it... a dark... brooding presence... like a black moth tightly cocooned, about to break free. We go down. And we tunnel that way,” he pointed behind his left shoulder. “East, towards the sunrise. Take us down at a gentle angle, Ekuar... say... the rays of the sun on a winter’s day.”
Ekuar knelt down and touched the rock. “Humm-de-hmm... here we are,” he smiled as the rock melted away and a large hole opened up in the ground. He sunk down below the floor of the pit, and Suntop and Quicksilver followed.
“Are you ready to go on, Timmain?” Tyldak asked her.
Timmain shuddered. “We are going so deep... so far... I fear what we might encounter.”
“Do not fear, High One. You are among friends.”
Timmain smiled wanly. And she moved towards the growing tunnel in the floor, her silvery hair streaming behind her on the cave floor.
Ekuar’s tunnel was tighter, more claustrophobic than Two-Edge’s tunnels, and Quicksilver rubbed her shoulders. “Brr... I don’t like this. I think I inherited Father’s fear of tight spaces.”
Suntop took her hand and smiled as confidently as he dared, given the circumstances.
Tyldak and Timmain ducked the heads a little as Ekuar hadn’t shaped the tunnel quite high enough. But neither complained or asked the rock-shaper to tax himself further. No one spoke, and the only sounds in the cramped space was their rapid breathing.
“Is it just me, or is it getting a lot hotter?” Skot finally said. He tugged off his parka and tied it around his weight by the furred sleeves.
“I know,” Venka wiped her forehead. “Are we nearing one of the world’s veins of liquid fire?”
“I don’t know,” Aroree said. “I have never gone this deep before.”
“We’re not going to run out of air, are we?” Quicksilver asked. “Are we?” she asked again, when no one answered.
In time Ekuar smiled. “Ahh... I sense something ahead. Another chamber... not far now...”
Timmain was shivering intensely now. Tyldak draped one wing around her in comfort. She didn’t seem to notice.
“We’re almost through,” Ekuar said. “Hum-hmm, these rocks are quite warm... no, not liquid fire... I think it’s a simpler kind of heat... yes, yes... almost there.”
Quicksilver drew her sword. Venka tensed. Suntop stared ahead resolutely.
The last of the rock melted away under Ekuar’s gentle touch, revealing a large chamber softly illuminated by the glow of a fire. Suntop edged through the opening Ekuar had shaped, and Quicksilver slipped through after him, ready to cover him with her sword-arm.
“Can you sense anything?” she whispered.
Suntop nodded. “Dark... dark fog.”
The chamber was carefully shaped by a magic-user, and resembled the darker recesses of Blue Mountain where once they had confronted Winnowill. But the scale was much smaller, more like Aurek’s simple home. A fire burned in a little recessed fireplace. Suntop glanced at it, then stared again. The fire was not burning wood or straw. Instead the flames were suspended in the air, burning independent of any fuel.
Furs were artfully arranged on stone benches. Little bottles that seemed to hold no liquid perched on rock-shaped shelves. Carpets that seemed made of soft Preserver silk covered the stone floor. A leaden silence filled the chamber.
“Poke me once, poke me twice...” Skot breathed. “Where are we?”
“Listen...” Suntop whispered.
A little flutter of wings, like a distant moth, broke the deathly stillness. For a moment the sound hovered just out of reach, then a small creature descended from above.
“A Preserver!” Venka whispered.
The little bug, on the small side for a Preserver, had a smooth dark blue body and delicate violet wings edged in black. Unlike all the Preservers the Wolfriders knew so well, this one bore no hat, and was bald as Ekuar.
The Preserver hovered in the air, watching them warily.
“Hello,” Suntop attempted in a soft voice. He held out his hand in friendship. “Can you–”
“Yaah!” the Preserver cried, leaping on Suntop’s palm and digging its claws into his tender flesh. It snarled at Suntop, then took off, leaving bleeding claw-marks behind.
“Lord Highthing!” it screamed as it flew down the chamber, then disappeared around the corner. “Lord Highthing! Newcomers!”
“Puckernuts!” Suntop cried. “Come on. We just blew our element of surprise.”
They chased after the fleeing bug, crossing the chamber’s width and turning down the darkened corridor after it. A steep staircase spiralled into a muted light, and Suntop and Quicksilver almost lost their footing as they led the charge after the Preserver.
Suntop turned the corner and staggered onto the floor of the second chamber. What he saw stopped him in his tracks. In contrast to the almost-habitable room they had just left, this one was bare of creature comforts, and decorated instead with a huge stone box, large enough to hold a prone human, and shaped with intricate symbols reminiscent of the Egg. Atop the box reclined the figure of a beautiful female High One with flowing hair and leonine features. An unseen light source above the stone cast a supernatural glow over the strange construct. And beyond it, huddled against the wall in a defensive crouch, was a tall elf, his elegantly long limbs clad in tattered leather and feathers, his black hair dishevelled and dust-covered. His right hand instinctively rose to clutch his maimed right shoulder, and the hidden stump of flesh under his leathers.
“So, you’ve come at last,” Haken rasped.
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts.