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

ERISHA DRAGGED KIRISIN along at such a rapid pace that he found himself practically running to keep up with her. He had never seen her so determined, and he knew better than to question her until he had some idea of where they were going. They were coming up on the Belloruus family home, which sat back from the High Council buildings at a distance of perhaps a hundred yards. The windows of the home were dark and the grounds empty of everything but shadows. It appeared that this was Erisha’s destination.

A member of the Home Guard materialized out of thin air, took note of who they were, nodded to Erisha in polite acknowledgment, and then vanished again.

“What are you doing?” Kirisin demanded. “You let that guard see me! He’ll tell your father I was here!”

“I’ll tell him myself,” she snapped. “Stop worrying, Kirisin. I don’t have to answer to my father for everything!”

Kirisin made no response. This was a different Erisha than from even as little as forty-eight hours ago, no longer tentative and afraid, no longer caught up in the ritual of being her father’s obedient daughter.

Instead she had developed a strength and determination that suggested there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do to assert her independence. It was a complete turnaround, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

She led him to the same side door she had brought him through the night before when they were searching the Elven histories for mention of the Elfstones. Without pausing, she yanked it open and pulled him after her.

“Did you find him?” a voice demanded angrily.

It came from somewhere back in the darkness, and Kirisin jumped and was ready to bolt until he recognized the voice as Culph’s.

“He was trying to get into the Council chambers with help from his sister,” Erisha answered. She continued pulling Kirisin forward.

“Hurry up! We haven’t much time.”

They picked their way through the house without using lights, Kirisin following his cousin blindly. He could just make out Culph’s bent shape as the old man led the way through the gloom, a spectral figure muttering to himself.

“Culph was there when Maurin Ortish came to tell my father of the arrival of the Knight and the tatterdemalion,” Erisha whispered. “He overheard everything, including their reason for coming to Arborlon. So he took a chance and tried to persuade my father that it was time to tell the members of the High Council about the Ellcrys. He kept what he knew about you to himself, but made a strong argument about me. My father refused to listen. So Culph found me. He said we wouldn’t be allowed into the Council chambers, but there was another way.”

“Another way?” Kirisin peered at her through the darkness.

“What way is that?”

“An underground tunnel connects the house to the chambers,”

Culph answered from out of the darkness. “It’s been there for centuries. Mostly it was used as a way to allow the Kings and Queens to enter the chambers without being seen.” He chuckled drily. “But it gives those of us who know about it a way in, too.”

“The tunnel ends at a concealed door that opens into the chambers through a section of the wall,” Erisha picked up. “But just before you go through, there is a small viewing area that allows anyone using the tunnel a way to peek into the chambers first to see who is there. It looks out from right behind and to one side of the dais on which the King sits and around which the High Council gathers. If we can get to it without being caught, we can overhear everything that’s said.”

They continued on through the darkness to the meeting rooms at the back of the house and entered a small chamber off the entry that ended at a windowless alcove. Culph, still leading, stepped into the shelter of blank walls so deeply recessed they were barely visible in a faint wash of torchlight that seeped through a pair of narrow windows from the outside. He fumbled about for a moment, and Kirisin heard a catch release. Then the rear section of the alcove wall swung open, and Culph stepped through into the darkness beyond. He beckoned them to follow, closing the hidden door behind them.