Sons of Ironstorm - Book 4: Griffon's Stand

A Shadow over Earthforge

Unaware of the forces of Light marshaling at Gorgon's Dagger far to the north, the Kaal Eran demon Ra'Khan frowned as he watched another piece of the Earthforge gateway being fitted into place by a team of desperately sweating tjor'riin, the nearby lava flows' heat biting deep despite the magic protecting them. Even if he had been aware, the wiry demon wouldn't have cared much about the renewed vigor in the alliance between humans and elves which now fortified and garrisoned the rebuilt First Alliance castle. He had a far greater thing to care about at the moment: the completion of the portal that would not only connect distant Maedorin and Earthforge together, but also open a second door into the Abyss.

It had been nearly three tendays since the Chancellor gave him five days to complete the portal. Three tendays spent attempting to penetrate the Picean blockade around K'Tallus and cross the seas to Reutha and Earthforge. Three tendays in dread anticipation of feeling the bite of dark magic between his shoulder blades at his failure to do not only the Chancellor's biding but also that of the great dark masters in establishing the secondary portal to the Abyss, thereby furthering the Great Plan.

Of the company of demonic engineers he had sailed from Maedorin with, only a handful now remained. The rest lay slaughtered by Picean magic at the bottom of the southern sea, their heavily-armed force attacked time and time again by the fish people as they strove northward. Not a few times did he contemplate opening a demon's portal to directly bridge the distance, only to be reminded of the energy field generated by the massive planar node that fueled Earthforge's power prevented a negative energy gate directly into the volcano. That fact had initially thwarted the long dead Kaal Eran who first invaded Ramnor millennia ago following the Sa'anish Folly in re-opening the gate to the Abyss.

They had attempted such a gating to the volcano in an attempt to take the Weapons of Power before they were finished being forged in accordance to the dark masters' wishes. Attempted and horribly failed, if the fragmentary records describing the event could be trusted. Thousands had died as they ran to their deaths into a dead end pathway that went nowhere instead of to the volcano they thought it travelled to.

And now the node's power thwarted not only Ra'Khan's desire to bring materials and more engineers from Maedorin to Earthforge, but also the Tjor'riin garrison from being reinforced, making their only real hold on the northern continent tenuous at best. That further illustrated the need for the hardwired gateway they were currently constructing. Only by using such a brute force method of piercing the time/space continuum, did they hope to open a portal south.

Ra'Khan's eyes narrowed as he pondered those facts for a brief moment. Perhaps that was the real reason why he still lived: the need. By all rights, he should've joined his fellow demons at the bottom of the sea, split asunder by the Chancellor's own hand. Still, he thought, he had accomplished much in the past three days. The least of which not being the effort of returning to rest the dragon the Wielder of the Earth Sword had awoken when he wrested his sa'anish weapon from the beast's body.

Damdalinor, spawned by the foul, yet incredibly powerful blood of the fallen Abysslord Damdalis coming into contact with the planar node beneath the volcano, was still enraged from when the new Wielder of the Earth took the weapon from him when they arrived.  That rage had slaughtered half of the garrison and pushed the molten rock within to a full boil.  Needing the dragon calm in order to complete his task, Ra'Khan had gone grimly to work.

It took nearly a full day, a dozen tjor'riin sacrifices and every sleep spell he knew to finally convince the beast to return to its slumber.  It was a price that, as he watched a final piece of the primary gate array swing into place thanks to one of the spider-like machines the Kaal Eran had brought with them to assist in building the gate in the absence of Abyss-powered negative magic, Ra'Khan had happily paid. He would've done it again in an instant to accomplish what he had in the three days he had been here. And now the gate was only moments from completion.