Stormlands ( Book 2 of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Eighteen: Left Behind, PT 1

Katerin spun, her boots falling from her hands as she hefted her staff. She peered into the darkness around her. "Come out," she said, as cold fear tensed her legs.

"Would that I could," the voice said with a quiet chuckle.

Katerin was down the steps and away from the circle in an instant. Her weapon at the ready and her eyes scanning for any movement.

"If you want to see me you'll need to come over here." The voice was soft, and held no note of threat to it. There was a soft clinking of metal.

Katerin's eyes narrowed as she stared at where the sound originated, from a small copse of bushes near the corner of the building. She whispered under her breath, preparing a spell, should she need to run. "Why don't you stand up first?"

"If I could, I would delight in it."

She sighed, and stepped forward doing her best to keep her steps quiet. She pushed aside a heavy branch with sharp thorns, and gazed at a campsite. There was an old unused ring of stones with the remnants of some animal bones discarded near it. A small keg that was broken open, and most strangely, there was a metal cage. She stepped through the bushes and peered at the hunched form in the cage.

"Ah. You're very brave to be here, alone."

She crouched down, eyes still wearily scanning her surroundings. "Waiting for your friends?" She finally paused and looked at the form in the cage.

"Nothing alive out here, but me. There was a jungle cat, but I believe it got bored when it realized it couldn't eat me," an elf said, from where he sat directly in the middle of the cage.

Katerin blinked and conjured a small ball of magical light. It was an elf, but no typical one. His skin was pale as the stone itself. His hair gray, and terribly matted. One arm had a long set of claw marks down it, and blood crusted around the wound. Burns covered his chest, and his eyes glowed in the light—like an animals.

Stone elves were a rarity. If the elves were elusive and secretive, stone elves were an entire other matter. Their societies were hidden under mountains, or any other place where no one dared go. Many books depicted them as evil creatures who would pillage and burn any surface settlement they found, though Katerin had not ever really believed that. When something was not well known, rumors spread like wildfire. "Why is this place so dangerous?"

He watched her with curiosity, but made no move for the edge of the cage. "Demons used to walk, here. The veil has... thinned over time. You could call it a gate, if you like. One of the many precarious effects of magic, I suppose."

"Lovely." Katerin stared at the heavy lock on the cage, noted again the burns on his skin. She pulled her water skin over her shoulder, and pulled a loaf of bread from her bag, and set them both just inside the bars of the cage. "How long have you been here?"

He reached for the water with cautious hands, and took only a small sip. His hands shook and relief washed across his features. "Many days. Two months, at least."

Katerin blinked, as he picked up the bread with trembling fingers. "How..." she trailed off, unable to find the right words.

He held the water-skin and bread like it was the finest food in all the world. "How am I alive, you mean?"

Katerin only nodded, sitting fully down across from him, her staff close to forgotten in her hands.

"Mediation," he said, a haunted look of amusement flitting across his gaunt features. "With it, I could survive without sustenance, though it has not been pleasant."

"For two months?"

He nodded, watching her expression. "Might I ask the name of the savior who brought me the gift of water?" Already he sounded more alive, and more alert.