Sons of Ironstorm: Book 5 - Griffon's War

A Fortress Reborn

Morgan frowned as he peered through the trees and down at the confluence of rivers where a great ruin now stood. Tal Furan, one of Talemon's most storied and well-built fortresses, had been reduced to little more than scattered boulders, broken walls, and burnt ground. Ground swept clean of snow by the icy winds howling down both rivers that formed the castle's primary defense beyond her walls.

"To see such a proud fortress reduced to that pitiful state," Nadien said in a low voice, the high general almost invisible in his snow cloak as the wind whipped what newly fallen snow there was around them in an ivory tempest.

The galentaler war king slowly nodded in agreement. Tal Furan had held ground against countless attacks from Talemon's foes, time and time again turning back Hernakese armored foot, or Kaphran rangers. It had even held against Xanchaldan war cultists when Eks' kingdom was significantly stronger than it is now. Built by the Cadremoor as a ward against the Crimson Empire's return, it had protected Talemon's eastern borders for hundreds of cycles and sheltered both galentaler and mamran troops too many times to count.

Yet, despite being garrisoned by Garth's elite Cliffhammer troops, and possessing defenses that rivaled the strongest fortresses built by humans after the Fall, it was taken in a day and night by a massive Shadow force that used both magic and twisted shadow spawn to overcome her walls and the garrison. Knowing what it had been before its destruction, and seeing what it had become, was quite literally a painful thing. Not to mention, all the Cliffhammers that died that night, trying to defend her. He could almost hear their blood on the ground crying to him for vengeance.

At least his scouts had reported the ruins had been cleansed of the Shadow's forces. By who, exactly, they didn't know. They just said the broken walls no longer sheltered the tjor'riin, volsha trolls, and wendigo that had destroyed them.

- Are you in sight of the fortress? - Lawrence's voice asked from the crystal hanging around Morgan's throat.

"What's left of it," Morgan replied. "Tal Furan's walls won't hold out a stiff breeze now."

- We have a plan to fix that, - the distant Wielder of the Tree Staff noted.

"I hope it's a good one, Lawrence. With the Return preparing to land on our eastern shores to begin their march towards you, we definitely need something that will protect us long enough to delay them."

It was nearly a day since that mysterious crystal had first appeared around Morgan's neck as he had stood in the door of his makeshift mess hall, watching the snow fall. A day in which he learned that not only had Lawrence found his Weapon of Power, the awesome Tree Staff. But he had found his two brothers as well. Shawn, who now wielded the Star Sword, and Patrik, who was master of the Earth Sword.

A quick accounting of events had followed, with Lawrence telling the tale of using the Great Ring at Port Titus to jump all the way to the muraan territories west of the Rift. There he made allies, killed enemies, and found the Staff on a mystical island filled with mystery and ancient magic.

The journey east had followed that, with Mern's defeat coming at the hands of a force of elves, muraan and men led by Lawrence, the uncrowned king freeing his capital from the traitorous druid's demon-supported forces. A battle with the Return saw that city in flames, his people fleeing to the east in the hopes of finding safety in the mountains, and his brothers' arrival to rescue the beleaguered king before the demons' masters, the Lords of the Abyss, could kill him.

And now the three Wielders sheltered in Storm Keep, one of two Diamond of Stone fortresses on Talemonese territory, preparing for the final assault against them that was surely coming. Lawrence made mention of gathering forces, the Return ravaging the eastern continents of Hydrai and Uepolua, and the reappearance of the Scions of the Races to bolster the defense against the great enemy.