Chapter Thirty-eight: Shadow Pass

Ezran was glad when the month was over. They had found a wide but fairly shallow river, the kind in which you could cross on foot without needing to raise your chin above the deepest water in the center. It almost seemed tailor-made for their purposes; a steady supply of water from the ocean that wasn't harsh or deep. The only snag in the plan was the layer of ice that overtook the river every night. For this reason, Erumpere, an ice breaking spell, was the first Callum had chosen to master. It was back to monotony for the most part, save for a day not long into Callum's studies in water magic. He was now able to extract water from the air, turn water into ice or steam, walk on water with the grace of a ripplebounder, and manipulate small currents. Meanwhile, Soren had somehow gotten it into his head that all Rayla needed to do to overcome her fear was to conquer it. 'Conquering' in this case meaning he'd be trying various methods to either trick or force her into the water to get her to see that it wasn't dangerous. This had ended with multiple bruises throughout his body and Rayla refusing to speak to him for about a week.

Now they were heading further east, where a roaming Skywing elf had pointed them last evening. Not Concordia, but a smaller village of Earthblood elves called Shadow Pass, which was much nearer if they were in a hurry. It was about a day's walk from the river, where Concordia was at least a full week to the north on foot.

"Have any of you ever been to Shadow Pass?" Ezran asked.

"I haven't." Zephyr told him. "If I knew what it looked like, I could probably pinpoint the area. For all I know, I could have flown over it a hundred times."

"I've heard of it." Rayla said. "It's called 'Shadow Pass' because the earth there is only lite up when the sun or moon is directly overhead, it's said to be shrouded in shadows the rest of the time. What I'm worried about is how we're going to find a mentor for you."

Callum was quiet, his expression plainly saying that he was thinking. This had actually been discussed several times because the dilemma was obvious, but no one could find a solution. Earthblood elves hibernated in winter, sleeping as soundly as bears. Well, the adults did; for reasons even the Earthblood elves themselves didn't understand, the children of their race were as awake and active as ever during winter, the fatigue and the urge to hibernate only beginning after the teen years. For this reason, it was common for the older children and adolescents to care for the younger ones during this time; this was why the young Earthblood elves tended to seem more adult then the other kinds of elves in their age group. All Callum could do was to hope that either there was a mage-in-training younger than himself in Shadow Pass, or at least someone in possession of yet another book.

Amer had entered heat-being mode just thinking things over as he watched Novus from a safe distance. He growled as he slunk away from the tree he had been hiding behind, which had burst into flames from the sudden rush of intense heat. Surely it would gain the attention of that horrid general and he didn't need the trouble.

He'd seen Sirus's ultimate fate and who knew where that Kiara had disappeared to? He still couldn't figure out why, if those Earthblood elves from the mountains hated humans as much as they claimed, why none of them had taken him up on his offer to come with him to end the treacherous Moonshadow elf and her human plaything. He knew what had become of those elves, and it was hardly a concern to him that their chief's child was now in Novus under the general's care, one little scrap wasn't worth making a fuss over. It seemed that, not only had he been stripped of his birthright and exiled, but he couldn't even keep ahold of allies thanks to those humans. If only that sister of his hadn't been warped to favor a human woman over her own family, Amer would still be in control of at least some battalions, which he would have had marching on Novus a long time ago, and this wouldn't be a problem now.

"Vexing, isn't it?" Amer's blood ran as cold as the snow, causing his heat-being mode to disappear as abrupted as a switch being flipped. In an instant, he was frozen, mouth agape, eyes wide and body starting to shake. He'd only heard that deep, alluring, cruel voice a handful of times in his life, all within the past year, but it was burned into his brain forever.

Amer jumped around and his heart was pounding in his ears. Aaravos was standing mere feet behind him, with the Scepter of Darkness in his hand, crackling with power. Adrenaline took over, mixing with years of pain and degradation, leading to anger so complete that his heat-being mode returned. He let out the animal-like roar that he and his sisters had gotten into the habit of as children; something that had annoyed their parents in the past, but they had each kept the battle cry.

Amer charged unthinkingly at Aaravos, having surrendered his mind to the rage he felt for a few moments. This was it. He'd take everything out on Aaravos, he didn't care if the Startouch elf had obscene amounts of power or that he really had nothing to do with the current situation, he was going down. The Startouch elf didn't even blink as he draw a rune and casted a spell nonverbally that incased Amer in ice. The coldness of the air amplified the power of the wind spell enough that it seemed to, quite literally, cool the younger elf off.

"Temper, temper," Aaravos spoke condescendingly as Amer continued to watch him. One disadvantage of the heat-being mode was that it used up a lot of energy very fast, rendering inexperienced combatants nearly helpless after the massive wave of power. Amer was experienced, but this was one slip moments after another, and so he lost the steam. Now, Amer was winded and helpless and he knew it. "you can't keep expecting your own delusions to fight all your battles for you."

"What do you want?" Amer asked. He honestly wasn't surprised when his own voice was trembling in fear, but he wished it didn't.

"Assistance." Aaravos said.

"Y-you should have thought about that before you killed the dark mage!" Again, this sounded much better – and wiser – in the former Sunfire prince's head.

"You are of more use to me than Viren would had been come this stage. You know the current Dragonguard, do you not?" the Startouch elf asked.

The haunting image of the old dark mage slowly disintegrating filled Amer's mind. "No! I've seen what you do to your lackies, I won't do it!"

Aaravos didn't even blink as his hand shot out and grabbed Amer by his ragged, unkempt hair, pulling him with enough force to break the ice. Amer froze, fearful that the smallest movement could set off some terrible spell that would mean his end. "I don't believe you fully grasp your situation, so allow me to illuminate, Amer." Aaravos said, losing his smirk, but still keeping deathly calm. "You either do as I say and I permit you to live so long as you keep in line, or you will be killed right here. If you heed my ever order without issue, you have nothing to fear."

Amer, for once in his life, thought better of some smart remark. He was thinking that someone would notice and come after his murderer, but deep down he knew it was practically a fantasy. The only family he had left hated him, the royal family knew his crimes, he had no home, no allies. The only people he could seriously imagine coming to his aid in the best of times were those two goody-two-shoes humans Callum and Ezran, and he couldn't imagine either of them coming to his aid after what he…

He lifted his eyes to the sky, the idea that this misery was of his own making finally sinking in. Finally breaking through his pride.

…after what he'd done.

Amer looked back at Aaravos, seeing the older elf smirking at the look of epiphany, of realization and of shame in Amer's eyes. Tears would have escaped the Sunfire elf's eyes if an entire lifetimes worth hadn't been used up during the nights in his first year of banishment. He straightened up and forced his breathing to steady. He truly didn't have anything left. When he looked at Aaravos, it was the completely servile look of a once proud, wild horse who's spirit had finally been broken.

"I'm in." he said, his voice and gaze hardening.

Aaravos smirked. "Excellent."

It was dusk now. The group had noticed the smoothness of the snow thinning, giving way to the bumpy terrain of stones that quickly became a rocky path between two raises of land that formed sheer cliffs. An old, dried up riverbed, perhaps. The group stopped to observe for a moment before pressing on, Callum casting an illumination spell to make up for the combined darkness of the shadows and the late hour on a moonless winter night.

"This must be Shadow Pass." Callum said, looking up at the sky that was reduced to a thick band between the two cliffs that towered above them. Somehow, it almost felt claustrophobic.

"What makes you say that?" Soren asked.

"Well, the shadows, for one." Rayla told him as Callum and Ezran looked at him with concern as they often did as a result of his more outlandish comments.

The illumination spell allowed them to see the plethora of small footprints all over the place in the thoroughly disturbed snow; the footprints of children without an adult print in sight. Despite this being a fairly wide pass, there were signs of play all over the place; piles of snow carved out into small caves to freeze solid overnight, evidence of childish games and drawings and the lower cliff walls sporting globs that spoke of snowball fights. There was one thing that the spell didn't reveal.

"Does anyone see any openings in the walls?" Callum asked, noticing the utter lack of den-like structures that had led to the elves' homes in the mountains. Where, exactly, did the Earthblood elves live here?

Claudia wasn't listening. Sometime in the past weeks, the guys had gotten her to talk, if only to them. She still refused to talk to Rayla or Zephyr, the elves, and when she did speak with one of the boys, she couldn't help the anger that would rise in her chest in response to the flickers of distrust and wariness in their eyes. She had found a new great enemy, one-sided as that relationship was, in Zephyr. Whatever the Moonshadow elf thought of her, at least she seemed to understand that Claudia didn't care for her. The Skywing elf didn't seem to get the message and, against the warnings of Soren and her fellow elf, kept trying to be friendly and engage in conversation. The one thing that burned her up more than the Skywing elf's incessant attention was how protective Soren seemed to be of her.

Presently, Zephyr was looking up at the stars, seeming almost to be disoriented. "I have flown over this place before. It all looks so different from down here." As Soren moved to stand near her, causing Claudia's blood to boil hard enough to negate the need for any warmth spell, Callum could see her point; this place was bound to be much less intimidating from far above in the sky. Perhaps he'd give it a try when the world wasn't at stake.

Claudia had to look away, her eyes resting on a small outcropping of rock with large icicles hanging from it. The Moonshadow elf's senses were too fine-tuned for an ambush, but maybe she could at least take care of the more lax Skywing elf. She had been exploiting the soft spot in the back of the head on all kinds of creatures for at least a decade. That or at least have a go at her rope, if she could only inch her way close enough without alerting her captors. Asking them would raise unwanted questions and she looked back at the icicles.

One of them was a wonder; the largest and most sturdy-looking she'd ever seen. It seemed these icicles had been subject of another game because there seemed to have been more snowballs thrown here than anywhere else. Several smaller icicles had been broken off by the snowballs in what had probably been a throwing game to see who could knock down the most icicles. No. No, practice. Elf children didn't play games like human children did, it was all practice for adulthood. The biggest and thickest icicles remained, three in all, which bore signs of having been pelted with snow.

When her rope was handed off to Soren – Callum had had custody of her before – Claudia erupted into action and bolted for the icicles; so be it if this sudden burst of impulsiveness failed her, things couldn't get much worse than they were now. She looped her arms around the biggest icicle, ignoring calls of her name, and pulled as hard as she could. The ice was firmly embedded in the rock and before the others could make it over to her, it broke free.

Several things happened at once. Claudia was on the ground, reeling from the sudden fall, but more than that, the cliff roared as a torrent of debris came down the slope. They backed up. Well, most of them did. Claudia was staring wide-eyed at the rush of snow, ice and rock coming for her – it seemed that ice had been embedded in the rock deeper than she'd realized.

Soren looked on with panic. He turned to Rayla. "Rayla, you have to help! You're the quickest of us."

Rayla looked at the scene, knowing there wasn't time to argue. She clinched her teeth in irritation. "I must be out of my mind."

Like a bolt of lightning, Rayla moved out, grabbed Claudia by the back of her shirt and zipped back to the group with the avalanche just on her heels. The pass was wide enough that huddling beneath the opposite cliff was probably safer than anything and indeed, before them was a huge mound of snow, ice and rock, but things calmed down before it reached them. It was a small pile but being trapped beneath it would surely be doom.

For a moment there was silence. This was broken in a matter of seconds, though, when Soren practically constricted Rayla in a grateful embrace.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" he chanted, not seeming to care that the elf wasn't returning the hug. In fact, she looked rather irritated at him.

"You owe me." Rayla declared, glaring at Soren.

In another few seconds, the group jumped back towards the heap of ice and rock when the wall behind them started to rumble. This didn't seem to be another avalanche, as the rumbling was much quitter, limited to the few feet and seemed to come from within the cliff. They watched as the wall seemed to collapse, revealing a pair of Earthblood elves.

The two elves didn't look much younger than Callum, maybe around sixteen or seventeen. One had the same dark skin as Queen Janai, which was in sharp contrast to his bright golden eyes and splash-like markings and spiky hair to match. The other was more of a russet color with blue eyes, green arches reaching out from them and hair the color of wet sand. Both pairs of eyes were drooping and had slight darkness under them. Hibernation or not, it was still late.

"What was that? What's happening?" the russet-colored girl asked, her companion letting out a huge yawn.

Amaya had gathered Gren and a couple of her soldiers to investigate, armed with torches as night fell. The blazing tree had been spotted by more than one villager and had been out of place enough to alert her to something strange. The ground around the tree was muddy and devoid of snow – though by now it was iced over – in a way that reminded her of Sunfire elves. Amer instantly entered her mind, an easy conclusion thanks to Lain's recent sighting of him, but the tracks leading away seemed to say there was someone else involved.

With snow on the ground, it was absolute child's play to track them back to the same cave Viren had once lured Rayla and Amaya to. Amaya gestured Gren to go in, make sure not to be seen, listen in and find out what's happening. Somehow, he managed it and came back after about a minute. He had definitely heard Amer's voice along with a deep voice he thought he remembered from months ago, but he couldn't place it. What he knew was that they were plotting something, with the figure making all sorts of claims. Unfortunately, it was getting late and every moment spent here made it more and more likely they would be discovered, so they had to fall back.

Amaya led the others back home running over everything in her head. She'd report it to Opeli and to Queen Zubeia first thing in the morning; if Amer was involved, the Dragon Queen would probably want to know. Amer was lurking around with some unknown being, and from there she'd relay what had been told to her. All that would wait for tomorrow; for right now she needed to pick up Mira, get home, and get out of the cold.

Author's Notes: 'Erumpere' means 'break free'. The idea with the naming system of these elven towns is that older or capital cities have Latin (or draconic) names, while smaller villages or newer places have names that would seem more at home in something like Warrior Cats or Redwall, hence names like Silvergrove and Shadow Pass. The same is not true for 'wild' places like the Midnight Dessert of the Storm Spire, just towns. It's really just my attempt to bridge the name-gap between Silvergrove and Lux Aurea, which don't sound like they belong in the same world going by the names alone. Review.