The Elves of Cintra (Book 2 of The Genesis of Shannara)

The strength of his conviction that the King was responsible for all three deaths continued to grow. Perhaps it was that certainty and the anger that accompanied it that kept him from collapse. Each night, as they huddled together in whatever shelter they were able to find, they spoke of the killings and the reasons for which they were carried out.

There seemed little doubt about any of it, save for the part that had allowed Kirisin to survive and escape with the blue Elfstones. Given the fact that they had been caught so completely off guard coming out of the underground tombs of Ashenell, it seemed that killing both Chosen should have been a sure thing.

Angel thought that perhaps it was Simralin’s quick action that had saved him.

Putting out the four-legged demon’s eye and leaving the dagger embedded in the socket had worked just enough damage that it was only able to reach Erisha.

Simralin, on the other hand, thought that the demon had simply taken on more than it could handle, and that they had all contributed to its failure to succeed.

Kirisin wasn’t sure what he thought, save that he was certain the demon in hiding among the Elves was Arissen Belloruus. He wondered what they were going to do to reveal this even if they found the Loden and returned it to Arborlon and the Elves. How were they going to remove the threat before they closed away the city and the Elves as the Ellcrys had asked of them?“One step at a time, Little K,” his sister replied when, after more than a week out, he finally managed to voice his concerns. “We can’t solve it all at once and maybe we won’t even know how to solve it until we get to that point.

You don’t want to look too far ahead in something like this.”

They were seated on a ledge at the beginning of a down slope off the high desert, looking north toward the eastern slopes of the Cintra Mountains and beyond to the silvery thread of a wide river. It was after crossing the river that they would reach Syrring Rise.

“You didn’t solve the secret of the hiding place of the Elfstones all at once,” Angel pointed out. “You had to solve it piecemeal.”

Kirisin screwed up his face. “It’s just that I keep thinking we aren’t going to have much time to do anything but use the Loden once we find it and get back to Arborlon. Maybe we will have to shut the demon away with our own people just because we can’t figure out who it is.”

“One demon, thousands of Elves,” said his sister. “Pretty decent odds, even if it happens.”

“Tell me something more of the history behind this tree we’re trying to save,” Angel asked suddenly. “What is it that makes it so important?”

Simralin and Kirisin exchanged a quick glance. “You tell her, Little K,” his sister said. “You’re the one who knows the story best.”

Kirisin drew up his knees and hugged them to his chest. He didn’t want to tell anybody anything, didn’t want to talk at all. “This is what our histories tell us, so I’m just repeating,” he said, forcing himself anyway.

“But I think it is mostly true. Before there were humans in the world, there were Faeries. The Faeries were the first people. All sorts, all kinds, good and bad.

Like humans. Elves were one of the stronger, more dominant species. They believed that all life had value and should be preserved. Others did not. The bad ones. So there was a war. The Faeries fought in the same way humans fight except that many had the use of magic and some of their magic was very powerful. Eventually, the practitioners of dark magic began to gain an advantage. Their intention was to dominate the other species and redesign the world in a way that better suited them. They could do that, given enough time and space.

“The Elves led a coalition of Faerie creatures who opposed the dark magic users and their allies. The war lasted a very long time.

Centuries. In the end, the Elves and their allies prevailed. They created a talisman through the use of a combination of elemental and blood magic—the most powerful magic of all—to construct a prison for their enemies. The talisman was the Ellcrys, the only one of her kind, a tree that would live thousands of years and maintain a barrier behind which the Faerie creatures that practiced dark magic and their allies would be shut away. The barrier was called the Forbidding.”

“And the Ellcrys is what keeps the Forbidding in place?”

Angel interrupted.

“Her magic is the catalyst?”

He nodded. “For the Forbidding to endure, the Ellcrys must be kept healthy and strong. The Chosen were formed after her creation to ensure that she stayed so.”

“So if the Forbidding fails…”

“The demons escape,” Kirisin finished. “Back into our world. Faerie demons no one has seen in thousands of years. Monsters of all sorts. Creatures of dark magic. Worse than those the humans have spawned, maybe.”

“Perhaps they would kill each other off,” Simralin offered with a wry smile.