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

“Okay,” she said. “But I’m going with you.”


He shook his head. “I don’t think you can. I don’t think it’s allowed. This dragon is some kind of watchdog. Pancea Rolt Gotrin and her family probably constructed it with magic. They put the Loden Elfstone inside to protect it. It keeps out everyone who isn’t permitted to enter. A moment ago, I was wondering how the dragon would know who to let in. I think the blue Elfstones are the key. I think that’s one reason Pancea’s shade gave them to me. Whoever holds the Stones is allowed inside. Everyone else gets…”

He trailed off, shrugging. “Eaten or something.”

“You think this, but you don’t know it,” she pointed out.

He shook his head. “I think it, but I also feel it.” He tapped his chest. “In here.”

His sister gave him a long, hard look. “I don’t like it.

What if you’re wrong?”

“Then you can come get me out. That’s what big sisters are for. Meanwhile, you can wait here for Angel. She should be along any moment now. She needs to know what we’re doing.”

He could see Simralin struggling to find something more to say, still unhappy with what he was proposing. But they both knew there wasn’t any other choice if they were to have a chance of gaining possession of the Loden. And after all, that was what they had come this far to do. In the final analysis, that was what they must do.

She gave a deep sigh and nodded. “Be careful. If there’s magic at work, you won’t have much protection.”

“About as much as I had in the tombs of Ashenell,” he replied, smiling. “Keep the faith, Sim.”

She smiled back. “You keep it for me, Little K.”

He turned back to the dragon. Its jaws yawned before him, an invitation to enter the blackest of maws. He gave a quick glance at its rows of teeth and then at the strange glassy eyes, wondering again if he had seen them move.

Then he started forward, the blue Elfstones held out before him like a talisman.





Chapter THIRTY-ONE


WHAT HAPPENED NEXT caught Kirisin Belloruus completely by surprise. As he stepped onto the dragon’s tongue, across the front row of teeth and into the mouth itself, everything behind him disappeared. Simralin, the cavern chamber with its stalactites and layers of ice, and even the smallest hint of light vanished as if they had never been.

The boy stopped where he was, barely across the threshold of the great mouth, and looked back in disbelief. He swung his solar torch in a wide arc, seeking to penetrate the darkness, but he might as well have been pointing it at a blank wall. The powerful beam failed to reveal anything beyond the inside of the mouth. He shone it ahead, into the dragon’s throat, and was surprised all over again. Unlike before, when Simralin had tried unsuccessfully with hers, his solar torch shone down a darkened corridor, deep into the interior of the dragon. The corridor was ridged and cored out like an animal’s throat, but he could not determine where it led.

Presumably, into the beast’s stomach, he thought. Where he might end up as dinner.

But he preferred to think that this was where he would find the Loden. He considered briefly stepping back across the dragon’s teeth, but the idea of going back at this point seemed wrong. What if he couldn’t get back inside again? Now that he was here, he should continue on and see what would happen.

He started ahead, walking carefully, making sure he was on solid footing. He need not have worried. The tunnel or throat was as solid as the rock of the caves outside. But he noticed that it wasn’t as cold in here, as if the dragon was alive and kept warm by its body heat. That prospect was too troublesome for him to consider for long, and so he pushed ahead into the blackness.

He walked for a long time—much longer than should have been possible. The corridor twisted and turned, and that didn’t seem possible, either. Now and again he could hear a rumbling sound, the sort that a big animal makes. He tried not to think about it. He tried not to think about anything but what he was trying to do, putting one foot in front of the other, keeping an eye out for what might be waiting ahead.

He also tried not to think about the fact that he didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Despite all his walking, everything around him looked exactly the same.

Then abruptly, his torch went out, and he was left standing in complete blackness.