Tomas said, ‘I will go with you two.’
Miranda said, ‘I thought you never left Elvandar.’
Tomas said, ‘I vowed never to leave save at great need.’ He turned to his wife. ‘It is time.’
The Elf Queen’s face was an expressionless mask, yet her eyes betrayed a flicker of emotion. Then she calmly said, ‘I know.’
Tomas asked Macros, ‘Should I call a dragon?’
Macros said, ‘No. Miranda knows where the entrance to the caves is.’ He turned to her. ‘If you guide me,’ he said, ‘I can take the three of us there.’
Miranda said, ‘No need. I can do so.’
Tomas said to his wife, ‘Abide, and keep hope in your heart. I will come back.’
No one spoke until a few minutes later Tomas reappeared, and even though he had seen him dressed so before. Macros felt awe.
Tomas stood dressed in armor fashioned of gold, a helm and coif, chain shirt and leggings. His white tabard, bearing a golden dragon design, was cinched by his black belt, and his boots were black leather as well. His scabbard was white, looking as if carved from ivory, but it was empty.
Calin came and withdrew his own sword, handing it to his mother’s husband. ‘A loan,’ he said.
Tomas took it, nodded once, and slipped it into the scabbard. ‘I will return it soon,’ he said. To Macros and Miranda he said, ‘Come. It is time.’
He motioned and Miranda rose, took his hand and Macros’s, closed her eyes, and they were gone.
Redtree watched the empty space and said, ‘Until I saw him in that armor, I had doubts. But he is Valheru.’
Acaila said, ‘Not truly. A fact for which we should all be eternally grateful.’ No more was said.
Bitter winds swept the mountains as they appeared. Miranda blinked at the bright sunlight after the cool evening light of Elvandar. The rising sun was shining directly in her eyes. ‘Over there.’ She pointed to a cave mouth.
They moved quickly toward the dark opening and entered. Once they were inside, the noise of the wind was cut and Tomas said, ‘I see in the dark, but what of you?’
Macros raised a hand and a nimbus of light surrounded him, illuminating the cave mouth. He looked around.
Miranda said, ‘This tunnel was one I found by accident. Boldar Blood was killing some serpent warriors who were trying to block our path and I noticed a faint light from above.’
At the mention of the mercenary from the Hall of Worlds, Macros said, ‘I wouldn’t mind his sword with us, now.’
Miranda said, ‘Not to mention all those other exotic weapons he bears.’
Macros spoke under his breath, ‘But not at the prices he charges, I wager.’
Tomas laughed. ‘You keep your sense of humor, old friend.’
‘Well,’ said Miranda, ‘you’ll find little to laugh about ahead. This way.’
She led them into the tunnel, one low enough that Tomas had to duck to enter. They half scrambled, half walked down a narrow, steep incline, entering another tunnel by having to slide almost sideways into a stone alcove, about six feet above a larger tunnel.
As they jumped to the floor of the second tunnel, Macros said, ‘It’s a miracle you even noticed that entrance.’
Miranda said, ‘I was motivated. Boldar is a fearsome fighter, but he survived to reach Elvandar with me only because we were fighting a rearguard action up that narrow crawlway. Else we would have been overwhelmed.’
Macros looked around. A few bones littered the passage, and what looked to be a broken sword hilt. ‘Something has disposed of most of the mess.’
Tomas said, ‘Scavengers?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Macros. He asked Miranda, ‘Which way?’
She pointed and started walking without saying anything.
Twice they had paused to rest, though it was not so much that anyone was fatigued as to stop a moment and get their bearings. Once they opened a small bag that Macros carried, which held some small slivers of a food for travel prepared by the elves. Another time they drank from a waterskin Miranda carried.
Then they reached the first major gallery of the Pantathians. ‘There’s something close by,’ Tomas said in a low voice.
‘I feel it, too,’ said Macros.
‘Then we have a consensus,’ offered Miranda. ‘It’s that way.’
She pointed across the hall, now blanketed by dust, but full of dead and dying Pantathians when she had last passed that way. ‘Up there,’ she said, ‘we came into this hall. We saw the demon fighting the Pantathians down on the floor.’ She indicated the ridge that ran around the gallery, above their heads. ‘We crossed along there, and lowered ourselves down a rope to there.’ The location she indicated was marked by a low door, now hanging open.