Sons of Ironstorm - Book 4: Griffon's Stand

Resonance

Lawrence looked up from his contemplation of the floor at the harsh sound of rust-thick hinges squealing open and watched a battered Mram'met be thrown into the tiny cubicle of a cell he had awakened from the Kaal Eran's attack to find himself laying in. The big human watched the guards close the door behind the crumpled, unmoving form of the muraan captain and leave before he moved to Mram'met's side.

"You look a little worse for wear, my friend," he softly murmured and Mram'met jerked at the sound of his voice.

"Lawrence!" he thickly cried through a ruined mouth with not a little relief. "I am so glad you are still alive."

"Alive, yes." Lawrence frowned, sketching a healing rune on Mram'met's face and nodding in satisfaction to see the big cat's features ease back into their familiar configuration. "But unfortunately not free." More runes sealed the slash in Mram'met's side as well as the torn muscles in his legs and arms, damaged tissues throughout his body and sundry bruises and cuts. In the space of a turn of the small glass, the muraan captain was sitting beside the powerful human, completely healed but as dejected.

"We had almost reached the harbor when we were ambushed by a group of muraan," Lawrence reported with a grimace as the two stared off into the darkness together. "They slowed us enough for a Kaal Eran to appear and capture us."

"Yes, I think I just spoke with this 'Kaal Eran' demon of yours," Mram'met rasped, shaking his head in memory of the chill that ate him from the inside while the creature talked. <I've seen many things in my life, and have fought many battles against both elf and muraan. But never before have I felt the fear that chilled my bowels like the fear I experienced when this Gar'Tang spoke. It was like a living thing inside me, consuming my courage and turning my strength to water."

Lawrence nodded morosely.

"Aye, that sounds like a Kaal Eran, all right," he confirmed with a sigh.

Just knowing one of the Damned was here was enough to put doubt into the human's heart. While he knew it wasn't here to stop the quest specifically, the Kaal Eran's presence could only mean the Great Enemy had a foothold amongst the Muraan kingdoms. And where there was one, there was usually more, as they witnessed in Talemon and the Gyren. This one, in particular, was one to worry about. With some sort of magical dampening field in place, he couldn't feel where they had taken the Sword of Aecalyx, nor did it respond to any of his mental commands. Even the Tree's quiet voice in his mind had been silenced, leaving him irrevocably alone.

Alone, that is, until the guards threw Mram'met in. 'At least now I have company while I wait for this Dani'cheris to decide what she's going to do with us,' he darkly mused. 'Although I suspect, with the Kaal Eran urging her on, we'll be next facing the headsman. And then the quest, and our efforts to save our world, will be over.' The only thing that refused to find a reason was why the Kaal Eran didn't just kill him out on the streets of Isile'ahkanak, when it had the opportunity. It certainly didn't hesitate to slaughter those muraan apparently in its thrall, or at least employ.

Perhaps the demons were growing complacent, two fully-realized Wielders in their hands and a third, not yet with his weapon, powerless in some forgotten muraan dungeon. Waxing confidence, now they sought to simply make the Wielders' lives as retched as possible before letting underlings finish their work for them. And retched certainly suited the cell Lawrence had awakened into.

Well below water level, the ill-fitted stones of the small chamber constantly seeped brackish water, making the small cubicle both cold and uncomfortable. The only light cast into the cell came from the flickering torch set in a rough iron sconce in the corridor beyond. Thankfully that was enough for his Wielder sight, or he would've been sitting completely in the dark, considering his defeat at the hands of the Kaal Eran. Dank and ill lit, this certainly wasn't the place Lawrence thought his quest for the Tree Staff would end.