HEART OF ICE

CHAPTER 2

Alejandra let the old elf lead her away from the spot where he had found her minutes before. The wind brushed her back as they left the cliff's edge. The gust of air whistled quietly as it swept up over the rocks. Somewhere around them, the stiff limbs of the old trees creaked as they swayed in the steady breeze. An old banner, its color faded by the sun and march of time, its edges slightly frayed, flapped lightly above the flat soil and carved stone of the monument site.

For several steps, there was nothing else spoken between them. Silas could sense the tension radiating from the fierce teenager. He wasn't sure what to say. He'd never been very good at being the first to start a conversation, especially when that conversation meant consoling someone in pain. Silas was an elf of facts and history. Emotions were awkward for him. He kept glancing at Alejandra, hoping to think of something useful to say.

Alejandra finally spoke before he had to. "Did he know?"

Silas blinked, opening his mouth to form an answer.

"Did my father know?...About Erik? About his betrayal?"

Silas closed his mouth. He turned his gaze forward, looking at the ground they were walking over before he answered. "Yes," he said truthfully.

"How long?"

Silas' heart felt heavy. It was the tone of Alejandra's voice. The pain and frustration she was having to deal with and fight through were making her words razor sharp. "Almost from the very beginning," he answered.

Alejandra stopped walking. "Why? Why did he not act?"

"You're assuming he didn't."

"I'm assuming so because of what happened. Look where we are!"

"We aren't here because of Erik Digger." Silas looked at Alejandra. "We're here because of your father." He knew before he'd even spoken his words were not going to go over well. Silas was right.

"What," Alejandra hissed. If it had been possible right at that moment, Silas would not have been surprised to see actual flames in the girl's eyes. "Why would you say that?"

Silas breathed deeply, thinking. He stared at the young girl for a long and quiet moment. Suddenly, standing in that spot on that sacred ground, surrounded by statues, makers, tablets, and shrines carved and crafted by his ancestors, Silas realized he may have very much made a mistake. In the nine days that had passed since their arrival at the canyons's edge, they had seen and welcomed many mourners. The weary pilgrims varied from elves, to dwarves, to even a few humans. Alejandra watched them say goodbye to her father. She listened with Silas to many, though not all, of the stories they told of times and decades long past. Silas shared in their memories, doing what he could to help them along in their sombre visit.

And yet, he had failed to do the same with the very person who needed the attention the most. Silas breathed in deeply again, sighing as he sat down on a cold, stone bench near the base of a giant statue at the center of the sanctuary.

"Your father understood the world much better than most. Certainly better than most of us that knew him, if not all of us. He also understood the purpose of Claus. So much so, in fact, and from early on, that the meaning shaped and defined who Galan the Great was. It was the very thing that made him so great.

"Erik Digger was not the first betrayal your father suffered. That credit actually goes to a figure you came to know very quickly."

"Poriece," Alejandra said, her voice at a whisper.

"Yes. But that wasn't always his name. That was a title he took when he welcomed the darkness into his life, when he let the temptations and trappings of Legion envelope his mind and his soul. Before that, he was known as Ishtaan. Ishtaan and your father were almost inseparable. Both were skilled, cunning, even loyal-to each other and the banner of their kinsmen. Then, the strife began. A long era of suffering, persecution...displacement. It was bad for all elves. Dwarves, too. Fear and doubt were everywhere. They were like strains of a fatal disease that plagued so many hearts and minds."