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

In the deep sub-basement of the Belloruus home, surrounded by the histories of the Elves amid layers of gloom and shadows, the disembodied voice was a wraith without a presence. Neither Kirisin nor Erisha could see anything of the speaker, and neither could decide what to say or do in response to the question.

“Cat got your tongue?” the speaker chided.

“Culph!” Erisha said finally, just as Kirisin had decided they might really be in danger. “You don’t have to scare us like that!”

The elderly keeper of the histories moved into the edge of the light that sat on the plank flooring between the Elven girl and boy, hands on his skinny hips, body bent like the trunk of a gnarled old tree. He was short and withered looking, an elder of indeterminate age. His wrinkled face was shaded by what appeared to be a halfhearted effort at growing a beard and was dominated by a pair of huge ears.

“You haven’t permission to be down here, missy,” he declared, extending a bony finger at the girl. “King’s daughter or not. And you,” he added, moving the finger over to Kirisin, “don’t even have permission to be inside this house!”

“I invited him!” Erisha snapped back, no longer afraid, starting to bristle at being spoken to like this by anyone who wasn’t family.

“Did you?” Culph gave her a sharp look. “Asked him over to do a little late-night reading, is that it?”

Even in the pale wash of the torch’s poor light, Kirisin could see that Erisha was losing her temper. “I asked for her help,” he said quickly, drawing the other’s attention. “I wanted to see what the histories had to say about the Ellcrys.”

The old man crouched down next to them, his sharp eyes flitting from face to face. “Oh, is it more of that business about the tree asking the Chosen to use the Loden Elfstone to keep it safe?” He nodded soberly, and Kirisin, who had been trying not to reveal too much, was reminded that it was pointless to be circumspect with Culph since the King had already set him to work on researching the matter. “I know all about it, you know,” the old man declared.

Kirisin decided to take a chance. “Well, the King doesn’t believe that the Ellcrys spoke to me. But Erisha does because the tree spoke to her, as well.

So we decided to see what we could find out.”

“Not accepting that what I did was sufficient, is that it?”

Culph said almost teasingly. “What could an old man like me know about such things, you might have asked yourselves. Probably couldn’t even find the right book, you might have said.”

“That is not what we thought,” Erisha snapped, jumping back into the conversation. “We just wanted to see for ourselves.” She hesitated.

“The truth is, we didn’t know what you might have found. My father doesn’t want me involved in this business for reasons he won’t reveal. He was very insistent that I not do what the tree asked of me. He was adamant. So I can’t be certain that what he told me is the truth. Or even that he told me everything he knows.

Maybe there’s more.” She gave him a hard look. “Is there?”

Culph shrugged. “How would I know? I don’t know what he told you. I do know what I told him. But why should I tell you? Why shouldn’t I just wake your father and turn you over to him. That way it isn’t my problem anymore.”

Erisha glared. “You’d better not.”

Culph grinned mirthlessly. “Or I might be very sorry I did, is that it? What I might be sorry about is if I don’t and get found out. Your father is hardly the forgiving kind these days.”

“What about the Ellcrys?” Kirisin pressed. “If we don’t try to help her, she’ll simply ask one of the other Chosen. She’s already made it clear that she feels threatened. Don’t you think we have an obligation to do something?”

The sharp old eyes fixed on him. “What I think is that you might be hallucinating about all this, the both of you. How do you know for certain what you’ve heard? Move the Ellcrys by using an Elfstone that no one has seen or heard of in centuries? Move our most precious talisman because the end of the world is coming? Am I supposed to accept your word on this without stopping to question it?”

Kirisin hesitated. The old man had a point. “It means something that both Erisha and I heard the Ellcrys say the same thing at separate times. The humans have been working at the destruction of the world for years; that isn’t something we didn’t already know. There are signs of wilt and decay all through the Cintra. If you’ve been outside this building, you must have seen them. To just dismiss everything as the King has done is both dangerous and wrong. As Chosen, we have an obligation to find out the truth. We came here tonight to try to do that.”

“By reading the histories to see if there is any mention of the Loden or the blue Elfstones, yes, I understand all that.” Culph seemed unpersuaded. “But even if you were to find these artifacts, what would you do then? Would you actually try to move the tree?”

Kirisin took a deep breath. “I don’t know. At least we would have a choice in the matter.”

“Maybe my father will have changed his mind by then,”