Sons of Ironstorm - Book 4: Griffon's Stand

Island of Mirrors

Will slowly lifted himself up enough to peer over the jumble of boulders that marked the foot of the line of cliffs marching along the island's northwestern edge, not but ten paces from where the beach met the cold water of the Expanse. With enough of him above the rocks to make a quick scan of the cliffs, the young lord rapidly did so, the muscles in his neck tense in anticipation of either the island finding them with its defences or the Kaal Eran swooping in on the Wielder and his companions to stop him before he could obtain his Weapon of Power. Either way, the anticipation of disaster was making him horribly nervous. 'And that's all you don't need right now, Janux.' He darkly mused inside his mind. 'Is being nervous in this particular hot pot of a situation!'

Dani'isis' captain had managed to swing the sloop around the island of mirrors' southern tip without being noticed by the demons on the beach or the island's mysterious defenses. Shielded from the southern beaches by the cliffs, he had then slipped in close to the northwestern beach, a half crescent-shaped gravel stretch of perhaps fifty lengths long. It granted little protection from the weather, but the mountain's bulk, a rough jut of weathered basalt that spoke of an ancient volcanic origin, further hid them from the Kaal Eran's view.

Once the sloop's anchor was secured, Qo'sa sent a squad of scouts, with their wondrous, sculpted metal armor and bulbous, water-filled helmets, up onto the beach to secure it. Veteran troops, they made short work of the task. A couple trips with the sloop's only rowboat then brought Lawrence and his small company, Dani'isis and Mram'met and his muraan soldiers ashore.

Finding the gap, clearly marked on Qo'sa's survey map, was then the next task to which Lawrence assigned Will. Hence the reason he now crouched behind the rough scree tumbled at the foot of the weathered cliffs, looking over the boulders in an attempt to find it after carefully crawling to the spot over the rough gravel between their landing and his vantage point.

There! Finally he spotted the relatively deep gash in the weathered rock that marked the defile leading through the cliffs to the rocky ground immediately surrounding the mountain. Twisting in place, he made a quick hand signal and, moving almost silently, Mram'met's brother, Hhe'muk and a small squad of muraan, slid past him to secure the defile's v-shaped mouth.

Watching intently, Will followed Hhe'muk and the muraan into the defile with his eyes. They quickly disappeared into the shadows within, bodies coiled for action and weapons bared. That left Will to wait for their signal that all was well, which he would then relay back to the rest of the party.

Thankfully the defile was as empty of defenders and demons as the beach had been; within several shades Hhe'muk reappeared out of the shadows to quickly make the 'all clear' signal. Heaving a sigh of relief, Will twisted to face the landing once again to relay the message. And a handful of shades later found the rest of the landing party joining the young human lord at the jumble of rock at the cliffs' feet.

"Hhe'muk and his squad have confirmed the defile clear to the top, Lawrence," Will added verbally when the big Talemonese prince glanced in his direction. "They're waiting for us, just inside the defile's entrance."

"Then let us join them there," Lawrence rumbled and, with a look of confirmation over at Mram'met then Stylles and Duncan, who confirmed their own readiness to move with nods of their own, the powerful prince slipped around the boulder Will had chosen for his vantage point and on silent feet, made his way across the jumbled scree to the shadow-filled defile entrance.

A quick draw of the Sword of Aecalyx from its sheath once inside those shadows confirmed Lawrence's hopes: the blade's magic, which would glow in the presence of evil, remained dormant. That meant the Kaal Eran weren't close enough to present a problem. 'At least, for now,' he grimly reminded himself. The demons and their gates could move quickly, if they needed to. They were distant, for now, but if they caught wind of a Wielder on the island, they'd be surrounded in short order.