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

“I found what you’re looking for,” the old man told them when they were safely away from the others, hidden back in the screen of the forest trees.

He looked tired and out of sorts, his hair and beard matted and his face a sheen of sweat. “Her maiden name was Gotrin. It’s an old family, goes back several thousand years in the genealogy tables, but they all died out long ago. At one time, they were more powerful than the Cruers; more of them were Kings and Queens in the time the families overlapped. Pancea left one child, but the tables make no mention of her after her mother’s death. That was the only immediate family member to survive her. There’s nothing to say what Pancea’s relationship was with her husband’s family, but she might have considered them beneath her and chosen to be buried with her own people.”

He was panting hard as he finished, rubbing at his beard and licking his lips. “Had to run. The King will be back any moment.” He screwed up his face. “What are you going to do?”

“Search again,” Erisha announced immediately. “Can you help?”

The old man shook his head. “I can’t do anything right now except what your father tells me to do. Don’t know when I can. Not for a day or two, at best.” He paused. “You’ll have to do this without me.”

Kirisin compressed his lips and breathed in sharply. “All right. We can get my sister to help.”

“The Knight of the Word and the tatterdemalion said they would help, too,”

Erisha added quickly.

Culph looked uneasy. “That’s a lot of people. Easier for so many to be seen.

If that happens, the Knight and the Faerie creature won’t be mistaken for anything but what they are. That will put an end to all your efforts.”

“We’ll do it at night,” she said. “One of us will keep watch while the others work.”

The old man shook his head. “If you do it at night, you will need a light to read the engravings on the markers. You might as well set the forest on fire and beat a drum!”

“We won’t need a light,” Kirisin declared, jumping in. “The moon is nearly full. Unless the sky clouds, we should have light enough. All we need to do is to find the Gotrin section of the burial ground, and then it’s just a matter of sorting through the Gotrin markers.”

“You make it sound easy, but it won’t be. You know that.”

Erisha’s face tightened. “I don’t see that we have much choice if we want to find the Elfstones.”

He made a dismissive sound. “Some of the Gotrins were magic wielders, powerful warlocks and witches. This was a long time ago, but it’s a fact. The Elven runic symbols next to their names in the tables designate the ones who had the power.” He locked eyes with her. “She was one. Pancea was one.”

Erisha hesitated, and then shrugged. “As you said, that was a long time ago. She’s dead now, and her magic with her.”

The sharp old eyes tightened. “Magic, little missy, doesn’t age. It doesn’t fade. It hides and waits.”

There was a long pause as Kirisin and Erisha stared at him.

“Are you saying there might be something dangerous in the tombs?” Kirisin asked finally.

“Maybe. It bears thinking on. You need to keep watch, young Belloruus.”

Their eyes locked, and for a moment Kirisin had the distinct feeling that Culph was telling him something that had nothing to do with what they were talking about.

Then the old man’s eyes shifted away. “I have to leave.

Remember what I said. Both of you. Be careful.”

“You’d better be careful yourself,” Erisha snapped back at him, taking hold of his arm to keep him from going. “Ailie says that there was a demon in the Council chambers last night. One of the Elves!”

Culph stared at her. Then he shook his head quickly. “That isn’t possible.

A demon? She must be mistaken.”

“She says she isn’t. She says if she could separate everyone out, she would know which one it is.” She fixed her fierce gaze on him, then released his arm and stepped back. “It could be anyone. It could be my father.”

It cost her something to say that. Kirisin saw it in her face. Culph looked as if he might respond, his seamed forehead wrinkling. But instead he simply nodded and turned away. “Maybe, maybe not. The world is full of demons of all sorts. Better to worry about the ones you can see and let the others be.” He kept walking. “Let me know what you find.”

He disappeared back into the trees, leaving Kirisin and Erisha to ponder if what they had decided to do might turn out to be a mistake they would later regret.

MIDNIGHT CREPT out of the darkness like a wraith at haunt, a silent and stealthy creature, and the little company of conspirators followed in its wake.