Sons of Ironstorm - Book 4: Griffon's Stand

Chapter 30: To the Storm Keep

"The Diamond of Stone; much had been said about it in the histories.

But I thought them stories not worth the time to read.

Until Gorgon's Dagger was restored to hold back

A flood of evil from destroying us all!

Now I look at a second fortress in that Diamond and find myself hoping

That it too has enough strength to keep the Lords of the Abyss at bay

Just long enough for us to win this new War of Shadow and

Avoid being completely wiped out!"

From King Ciradaan's personal journals

Tenne slowly stepped back from the drawing he had made on a spare sheepskin with charcoal. He stared at it for a moment before slowly looking up and through the falling snow at first Lawrence, then Shawn and Patrik.

"I'm sorry, your Majesty, your Highnesses," he said with an apologetic look on his handsome face. "But that's the best I could do. Garth would've given you a much better map than I ever could."

"You short change yourself, General," Lawrence immediately replied, picking up the impromptu map and giving it a critical eye. "This map of the Storm Keep is so precise, I'd swear it was made by the royal cartographers back in Tal Morun from a room full of notes and drawings!"

Shawn nodded in agreement as he stepped closer to peer over his brother's shoulder at the map, the first he had seen of the powerful Diamond of Stone fortress known as the Storm Keep. To his eye, it carried a level of detail that was astonishing, outlining every floor, every entryway, and every wall in the massive fortress that had been Talemon's greatest until Mern's lackeys took control of it shortly after the coup.

The young wielder's eyes then abruptly narrowed as he threw his not-inconsiderable training and expertise into examining the drawing for any possible weak points. Only to lean back a few moments' later to shake his head in frustration.

"Unfortunately, General Tenne, your drawing, as precise and well-made as it is, shows the fortress to be nigh impenetrable by stealth assault," he noted with a wry frown. "And we simply don't have the time or the resources with this vanguard to make a siege."

"Are you sure we can't just open a small portal into an inner courtyard and run inside?" Banik asked, the Redeemed officer close enough to see the map as well from where he stood with the knot of other Redeemed that had accompanied the two Wielders north from the Dagger.

It was Patrik, standing beside a frustrated Shawn, that answered.

"Unfortunately no, General Banik," he said in echo of his older brother's earlier comment, continuing to speak in Taren for the benefit of the humans in their company. "As we couldn't use Wielder magic for fear of drawing too much attention from the Abysslords in our defense of the Dagger, we can't use it here at the risk of letting Calandris and his fel brethren from discovering where we've run to after Tal Morun's destruction."

Banik's expression tightened at that but he jerked a nod of understanding regardless.

"Perhaps a scion portal then, my lords," Ciradaan suggested. "They are sufficiently different from your sa'anish style portals that they should escape notice."

Before any of the Wielders could reply to the white-haired monarch's suggestion, Jaeda spoke into the pregnant silence.

"Please, lords, allow me to speak out of turn," she began from where she was standing close to Patrik, several layers of clothing over top her new armor, "if only to speed our way out of this frozen hell you have brought us to where water is ice and falls from the sky."