Sons of Ironstorm - Book 3: New Alliance

Chapter 24: Shadows of Shadow

"In the earth's voice will the day be trumpeted.

by loud cries of stone and ground in diverse places.

With force great enough to be heard from east to west,

from north to south shall the trembles of travail be felt.

Then will Light gather together to war against Shadow."

- from the Norak Utterance, 1st Stanza

Exhaustion claiming sensibility swiftly, Shiana's sleep was nevertheless far from peaceful. Images of her brother intertwined themselves with a repeating vision of an eagle in flight so quickly she found herself breathless trying to separate one from another. One after the other they streamed, sometimes blending together to give Shawn wings instead of arms, or put his face on the eagle as it streaked across a blood red sky. From her time spent camping out on the plains, watching hawks and falcons and other birds of prey, she recognized the eagle's mood as it flew by.

It was terrified.

Shiana woke with a gasp, the terror she felt emanating from the eagle and the confusion from her brother echoing painfully in the heavy thud of her heart in its bony cage.

"Trouble sleeping?" a quiet voice asked in Taren from the low door to her tent. Stifling a curse, Shiana reached out and with a thought, the rune sword was in her hand, dancing light along its length announcing the gathering of magic.

"Peace," the voice urged as Shiana pointed the sword at its shadowy source, silently cursing herself for not erecting wards for more protection. Shawn wouldn't have made such a mistake.

"Be at peace," the voice repeated. "It's only Dezinor. I mean you no harm, sister to my beloved." Dezi shifted until silvery Rimnor-light, spilling down through the trees, confirmed her identity as it fell across her sculpted face. By that light, Shiana also saw the dark elf woman was unarmed, but held up a hand nevertheless to ward off any blow the human might launch in her surprise.

Eyes widening, Shiana let the magic building in her ebb away as she lowered the rune sword to the ground.

"Dezi! What ... what are you doing here?" she managed to rasp, swallowing against a dry mouth.

As much at ease on her haunches beside a campfire as sitting in a fine chair in Elvenfast, Dezi nevertheless looked uncomfortable as her eyes dropped down. Unlike this afternoon, her emotions were clearly visible on her face. She appeared both taut as a spring with tension, and sagging over her knees in despair. The dichotomy was echoed in her voice.

"I ... I too have troubled dreams. Images of eagles and Shawn, all mixed together. And fear, I felt so much fear from the bird, it gnawed at my vitals like the Deceiver's own hand clutched at them." Her purple eyes black in the silvery light, she looked over at Shiana. "I must tell you, I will die without him, without my Silver Flame. But my concern is not for myself, but for him. Shawn must live, not just for me, but for all of us. He must. Everything else ..." Her voice failed for a brief moment.

"Nothing else matters," Dezi whispered hoarsely. She clutched her knees to her chest with sudden strength. "Blessed Maker, I am so afraid."

The young Ironstorm princess stifled the urge to reach out and comfort the emotionally troubled dark elf woman, knowing such an admission from the normally private creature was a sign of just how disturbed she was. Instead she chose to scrub at her face with sweaty palms in an attempt to push the fatigue and her own emotional turmoil to the back of her mind.