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

“Kirisin!” his sister called back to him, shouting to be heard above the wind. She pointed ahead.

The entrance to the caves was a black hole almost buried within a cluster of snow-shrouded boulders, shards of ice hanging off the opening like a frozen curtain. From where they stood, it looked small and almost insignificant against the broad sweep of the mountain, as if it might be no more than the burrow of some animal. As they drew closer, it became steadily larger, taking on more definition. When they reached it, they stopped for a more careful look. It was hard to determine much from the outside. The entrance sloped downward into the mountain, narrow and low enough that they could tell they would have to stoop to get through. Farther back, it seemed to widen, but the shadows made it hard to be sure. Beyond that, it was too dark to see anything.

Simralin looked at him. “Ready, Little K?”

He nodded, not at all sure that he was, but determined to finish this no matter what.

His sister took out her solar torch from her pack and switched it on. With a final glance at Kirisin, she started ahead, stooping to clear the entrance, shining the broad beam of the torch into the blackness ahead. Kirisin followed wordlessly, his own torch in hand. In moments they were inside, swallowed by the shadows and the rock, the snowy slopes of the mountainside left behind.

To Kirisin’s surprise, the way forward was bright enough that their torches were unnecessary. Light seeped through cracks in the tunnel rock, diffused by ice windows that had frozen permanently beneath the outer layers of snow. Ice coated the walls and ceiling of the cave, sculpted as in the visions shown him twice now by the Elfstones, symmetrically formed scallops running back along the walls and ceiling for as far as the eye could see. The light reflected off the scallops in strange patterns that lay all across the surface of the cave. Here and there, rainbow colors flashed, formed of unexpected and random refractions, small wonders amid the gloom.

Fifty yards back, a frozen pillar of ridged ice rose from the cavern floor to a gap in the ceiling. A waterfall had tumbled through a hole in the cavern ceiling in another, warmer time, freezing in place as the cold set in, creating this strange column. Sunlight channeled downward by the ice created the impression that the column was lit from within. Kirisin stepped close and peered into the ice. Within its cloudy depths, tiny creatures hung suspended in time.

The caves grew darker after that, the sources of light fading one by one, the gloom enveloping everything. The solar torches became necessary, and the way forward could only be glimpsed in patches as the beams crossed from one place to another. The cold grew deeper and more pervasive, matched by an intense silence. If not for the crunch of their crampons digging into the ice-coated cave floor and the huff of their rough breathing, there would have been no sound at all.

Ahead, the walls of the cavern began to broaden and the ceiling to lift. Stalactites dripped and became ice-coated spears, some as thick as a man’s leg, some longer than Simralin was tall. The shadows rippled in the glow of the solar torches, and the sheen of ice that coated everything glimmered with colors that danced like flames. From deeper in, still beyond the reach of the torchlight, water rushed and cascaded over rocks.

Simralin stopped. “I think you should use the Stones, Little K.” She flashed the beam of her torch right and left. “Do you see?

Tunnels branch off in several directions from here. We need to know which way to go.”

Kirisin nodded, but looked around doubtfully. He didn’t care much for the idea of trying to summon the magic of the Elfstones in this confined space. Who knew what it might do underground? But he dutifully fished out the Stones, dumped them into his palm, held out his fist, closed his eyes, and formed a mental picture of the Loden. The response was so instantaneous that it made him jump in surprise. The Elfstones flared sharply, and the blue light shot from his hand and down the corridor directly ahead to illuminate something crouched in the middle of a massive cavern chamber, something that was more nightmare than vision.

The light from the Elfstones dimmed and vanished. Kirisin stood in shocked silence with his sister, staring down the black hole of the cave tunnel.

“Did you see?” he whispered, shaken.

“I saw something,” she replied. “But I don’t think it was real.”

“It looked real to me.”

“No, it was just a carving. Out of ice and rock.”

“It was a dragon, Sim.”

She shook her head. “There aren’t any dragons. You know that.”

Well, he did, but that didn’t make him feel any better about what he had seen. He tucked the Elfstones back in his pocket beneath his all-weather cloak, suddenly wishing he were wearing something more protective.