5 - Heritage of Shannara 03 - The Elf Queen Of Shannara by Brooks Terry

Author:Brooks, Terry [Brooks, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-08-31T14:12:01+00:00

"What's happening?" Wren heard Gavilan demand. She

dropped to her knees to keep from being thrown off balance,

feeling Garth's steadying hand settle on her shoulder.

"Keep moving!" the Owl snapped. "Hurryl"

They ran now, crouched low against a pall of loose dirt that

hung roiling in the air. The tremors continued, a rumbling from

beneath, the sound rising and falling, a quaking that tossed them

against the tunnel walls and left them struggling to remain up-

right. The seconds sped away, fleeing as quickly as they did, it

seemed, from the horror following. A part of the tunnel col-

lapsed behind them, showering them with dirt. They could hear

a cracking of stone, a splitting apart of the lava rock, as if the

earth's crust were giving way. There was a heavy thud as a

great boulder dropped through a crevice and struck the tunnel

floor.

"Owl, get us out of here!" Gavilan called out frantically.

Then they were climbing free again, scrambling from the

tunnel through an opening in the earth, clawing their way into

the weak morning light. Behind them, the tunnel collapsed com-

pletely, falling away in a rush of air, silt exploding through the

opening they had fled. The tremors continued to roll across

Morrowindl's heights, ripping its surface, causing the rock to

grate and crumble. Wren hauled herself to her feet with the

others and stood in the shelter of a copse of dying acacia, look-

ing back at where they had been.

The Keel was swarming with demons, their black bodies

everywhere as they sought to scale the hated barrier. The magic

was gone, but the tremors that had replaced it proved an even

more formidable obstacle. Demons flew from the heights,

screaming as they fell, shaken free like leaves from an autumn

tree in a windstorm. The Keel cracked and split as the moun-

tainside shuddered beneath it, chunks of stone tumbling away,

the whole of it threatening to collapse. Fires spurted out of the

earth from within, the crater from which Arborlon had been

scooped by the magic become a cauldron of heat and flames.

Steam hissed and spurted in geysers. High on Killeshan's slopes,

the crust of the mountain's skin had ruptured and begun to leak

molten rock.

"Killeshan comes awake," Eowen said softly, causing them

all to turn. "The disappearance of Arborlon shifted the balance

of things on Morrowindl; a void was created in the magic. The

disruption reaches all the way to the core of the island. The

volcano is no longer dormant, no longer stable. The fires within

will burn more fiercely, and the gases and heat will build, until

they can no longer be contained."

"How long?" the Owl snapped.

Eowen shook her head. "Hours here on the high slopes, days

farther down." Her eyes were bright. "It is the beginning of the

end."

There was an instant of uncertain silence.

"For the demons, perhaps, but not for us." It was Ellenroh

Elessedil who spoke, back on her feet again, recovered from the

strain of invoking the Loden's magic. She freed herself from

Triss's steadying grip and walked through them, drawing them

after in her wake until she turned to face them. She looked calm

and assured and unafraid. "No hesitation now," she admonished.

"We go quickly, quietly, down to the shores of the Blue Divide

and off the island, back to where we belong.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.