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

But we need allies to find out who it is, Ailie.”


The tatterdemalion sat back against the side of the house, her presence wraithlike and fluid in the moonlight. She seemed more a child than either Kirisin or Angel, small and delicate and gauzy. “Tell them, then,”

she said.

“There was a demon in the Council chambers tonight,” Angel said. She glanced from brother to sister and back again. “Ailie sensed its presence, even though I could not. The Elves have been compromised.”

Simralin leaned forward. “Are you sure, Ailie?”

The tatterdemalion nodded. “I am. Its stench was so strong that it permeated not only the Council chambers, but also the anteroom outside where we waited on the King.”

“Who is it?” Kirisin asked.

Ailie shook her head. “I cannot be sure. I would know if I were alone with it, but in a room full of people, I cannot separate it out. The demon wears a disguise. It is a changeling in the true sense, able to take on any appearance. Most demons possess changeling aspects, but only a few can actually transform completely. This is one.”

Again, they were silent for a moment. “Could it be the King?” Kirisin asked finally. “I know none of us wants to think it, but is it possible?”

Angel nodded. “It is. And that would be very bad. We need the King to help us if we are to succeed in our efforts to persuade the Elves to leave the Cintra.”

“But couldn’t it just as easily be Basselin?” Simralin offered. “You said he went out of his way to insist that the other ministers shouldn’t listen to anything any of you had to say. He called Kirisin a boy, and he said humans weren’t to be trusted. He was insistent about it. And as first minister, he has the King’s ear. A demon would be clever enough to persuade the King to do nothing.”

Kirisin shook his head stubbornly. “But it’s the King who has been acting strangely, who hasn’t seemed himself. If he were a demon, that would explain it. He’s been the strongest voice against doing anything. He tried to keep Erisha from talking, and then he tried to stop me, as well. He has done everything he can to keep us from getting involved in helping the Ellcrys. A demon would do that.”

“Perhaps.” Ailie’s frail form rippled against the wall, a liquid white ghost. “But above all, a demon would do whatever was necessary to hide its identity and shift suspicion to someone else. The King seems too obvious a choice.

“

“Only to us,” said Kirisin. “Only because we know what we are looking for. No one else knows about a demon presence.” He shook his head.

“Are you sure about the demon? Is it possible that you were mistaken? A demon living among us just doesn’t seem possible. How long would it have been here?

Why would it have come in the first place?”

Angel rocked back in her chair. “A demon might not have come here originally for the purpose of destroying the Ellcrys. It might have come just to spy on the Elves. It could have killed whomever it changed itself into and taken that person’s place, then waited to see what damage it could do.

It could have been living among you for years, maybe even decades. Demons are crafty and insidious. This one might be trying to destroy the Ellcrys, but it might have another, more complex plan, too.”

Another plan, Kirisin repeated silently. What other plan?

What could a demon do that would be worse than destroying the Ellcrys and setting free the creatures imprisoned within the Forbidding? He couldn’t come up with anything, the prospect too frightening to bring into clear focus.

“What do we do?” he asked the others.

Simralin shifted forward from where she was sitting, her smooth features coming into the light. “Put Ailie alone with Arissen Belloruus first and then with Basselin to see if either is the demon.”

“That would be very dangerous,” Angel objected. “Even if I was there, she would be at risk. Demons are very powerful.”

“But Simralin is right,” Ailie said suddenly. “We have to know.”

“What I think we have to do is find those Elfstones,”

Kirisin declared. “I kept thinking we would find them today. I still don’t know why we didn’t. I think we are missing something, but I don’t know what it is.”

No one said anything for a moment, then Simralin asked, “Who is it you are looking for again?”

“Pancea Rolt Cruer. She was Queen after her husband died, centuries ago. There are Cruers in Ashenell, but there is no marker for her.”

Kirisin hesitated. “What are you thinking, Sim?”

His sister shrugged. “Well, you said she was a Cruer. But that was her married name. Maybe she wasn’t buried under her married name. What was her family name before she married?”