Eternal Beasts

Chapter 30: Hope Amidst Ashes

"Who, in their right minds, would put their wounded into stasis?" Bithra quietly asked as Kalannar and a handful of vahndim healers, all carefully hooded and masked so the survivors could only see their bright blue, green, and gray eyes instead of the cholim red, worked feverishly to stabilize the most gravely wounded amongst the elves they found alive in a chamber close to the landing.

"A king desperate to save as many of his people as he could," Ezekiel said in an equally low voice, his expression thoughtful. "Knowing the valley had already fallen."

Then a tall elf in tattered, bloodstained clothing approached, his dark hair disheveled and his right arm in a sling. Yet his stride was resolute as he came towards them.

"Lucht Taistil," he stopped a couple paces away to say to Seth, Phineas, and Mordecai with a bow of his head, revealing that it was he that called out for help. He then turned to the war leaders.

"Denai. Thank you." The elf looked back at the nomads to speak in accented and somewhat archaic westerling.

"Thank you both for your timely assistance. I am Jerem Morningsong of the Stonemasons' Guild. I see you both wearing garments of war. Has Tara Hill been reinforced?"

The six quickly exchanged a look. Then it was Seth who spoke.

"I'm afraid not, Master Morningsong," he said. "We're not here to reinforce King Luthien and his Sky Guard." Seth hesitated slightly, then:

"Tara Hill has fallen to the Harbingers. We're here to rescue the survivors!"

Jerem blinked in shock as he absorbed that, tears appearing in the corners of his eyes. When he spoke again, it was with a quaver in his voice.

"And the throne city?? I was commanded by the king to the palace to help the engineers repair the walls. I left ... I left my wife and two daughters down in the city. Have you found survivors in the city??"

Again the six exchanged a quick look. How did they tell this man, obviously distraught over the possible loss of his family, that they had been dead for four thousand years?

- Seth! - Jared said into the nomad pathfinder's mind. - What's going on? You haven't said a thing for nearly ten minutes! -

- We're in the Library, Lord Jared, - Seth replied, uncertain if he appreciated the slight interruption in their sad conversation with the stonemason or not. While he didn't want to have that conversation, delaying it would only make it worse.

- Fantastic! Have you found the griffons that were in stasis there? -

- Not directly. We can hear them somewhere deeper in the library space, but we can't see them yet. -

- Well, what's the hold up, brother? We need to get those griffons out of there and somewhere safe! -

- Agreed, my lord. But we've discovered something else in the library that is currently demanding our attention, - Seth reported.

- Such as? - There was no hiding the impatience in Jared's mental voice. As far as the Lord of Griffons was concerned, there was nothing more important than rescuing those griffons.

- Survivors, - Seth replied.

Jared immediately went silent as he absorbed the terse answer. When he spoke again, he was obviously shaken.

- Do they know they've been in stasis for four thousand years? - the big nysim asked quietly.

- Not yet. We were just about to explain it to one of their leaders. -