The Coral Kingdom

'I don't think we can,' the High Queen said quietly, in a voice that still carried clearly to Brigit's ears.

The elfwoman whirled back toward the monster, as if she would run forward and try to drag it back by herself. Then her shoulders slumped, and she staggered in complete dejection. 'We can't,' she agreed, choking with grief. 'Three thousand years …'

She didn't finish, but there was nothing anyone could do to change the beast's inexorable advance toward the Palace of the Ages. The Ityak-Ortheel was clearly drawn to the triangular pyramid by some compulsion not understood by the human and elven onlookers.

The monster rumbled through the wide courtyard, trudging through several pristine fishponds. The crystal waters shimmered in a fine spray as they were splashed by the grotesque feet, and then flowed into the muddy depressions left by the Elf-Eater's passage.

Two blue-coated elven warriors, each carrying a silver-bladed halberd, rushed forward from a palace guardpost. They raised their weapons and shouted a fierce cry as they attacked, but before the blades dropped, the Ityak-Ortheel reached out with leathery tentacles and swiped the weapons away.

The hapless fighters struggled vainly in the grip of those same limbs, their screams silenced with shocking speed.

Again Alicia remembered how swiftly Pawldo had disappeared. Anger boiled within her, coupled with furious frustration. There seemed to be nothing they could do to slow the monster's onslaught.

More trees splintered-three ancient aspens this time, each thicker in girth than a man could reach around-as the Elf-Eater continued in its direct path toward the palace. The high, shining wall leaned away from it, soaring upward in a perfect triangle to the sharp point in the bright Synnorian sky.

'Stop!' shouted Brigit as the first tentacle reached forward to touch the gleaming surface.

'No! Let it go forward!'

The words rang through the air like a peal of thunder, spoken from behind the companions. Shocked, Alicia and her companions wheeled, weapons ready for attack or defense. Even Brigit and Colleen halted their headlong advance to stare in astonishment.

'Deirdre!' gasped Alicia, the first to recover her voice.

'Don't stop it!' The black-haired princess ignored her sister, instead repeating her direction to Brigit as she stalked toward them. She passed through the breach in the wall and marched into the courtyard of the Argen- Tellirynd like some commanding warlord. Wind gusted against Deirdre's black dress, outlining her strong legs and streaming her long hair behind her.

Advancing past her mother and sister silently, the princess finally stopped to confront Brigit with her hands firmly on her hips.

'Who are you?' demanded the white-faced captain of the sister knights.

'My daughter,' Robyn replied, her tone icy as she joined the pair. 'This is an emergency!' she snapped to Deirdre. 'Explain yourself-quickly!'

'The two triangles-the courtyard and the building-give us our only chance to defeat this creature!' the younger woman explained, her voice level, as if the chaos around them was some sort of remote picture. 'If we can lure the beast there, I can send it away-at least, I think I can,' she said, no trace of doubt in her voice.

Alicia looked for Keane's reaction to her sister's astounding claim. Surprisingly the mage's brows were knitted in concentration. He appeared to be giving serious weight to Deirdre's claim.

'You don't believe her, do you?' demanded the older princess.

'I don't know what else to hope for,' Keane informed her, and Alicia had no good reply to that.

'Do you know what you countenance?' spat Brigit, still pale with fury. 'This is the Argen- Tellirynd! It has stood for millennia, and now you ask that we allow this horror within its sacred walls?'

'Only if you want to get rid of it.'

Brigit's eyes flashed in anger, but abruptly she turned and confronted Robyn. 'What kind of madness is this?' she demanded.

'I. . don't know,' replied the High Queen of the Ffolk, studying her daughter-so much the image of herself- with narrowed eyes.

A crash of crystal, mingled with the incongruously musical ringing of broken silver piping, signaled further destruction as the Ityak-Ortheel bashed through the palace wall, probing with its tendrils, smashing a wider opening for its domed body. Quickly it forced itself through the gap, disappearing within the palace to the sounds of continued destruction.

'Come on,' commanded Deirdre. She stepped along the rubble-strewn path of the monster, ignoring the shattered work of age-old sculptors and crushed remains of enchanted gardens. Reaching the gaping hole in the palace wall, she entered the Argen-Tellirynd.

Brigit looked after the young woman with fury etched upon her elven face, but finally she forced herself to clutch at the straw-the desperate, costly hope-extended by Deirdre. If the Elf-Eater could be vanquished, that was the only thing that mattered! She and her sisters, as well as their human companions, fell in behind Deirdre.

'In the center of the building,' announced the dark-haired sorceress, watching carefully as the Elf-Eater rumbled ahead. 'It must go all the way in.'

She picked up the pace of her advance, keeping within a few dozen paces of the monster. They passed toppled pillars of marble, quartz, and silver, saw a hall of tall mirrors, every one of them smashed. High, arching holes marked each wall the Elf-Eater had crashed through, and even when it disappeared from sight around a corner for a moment or two, they had no difficulty remaining close behind.

Finally the beast smashed an opening in a wall of white stone, kicking the rubble out of the way to advance into the great atrium, the triangular heart of the palace. Three walls soared upward, meeting in a narrow peak a hundred feet overhead. Long, narrow windows showered the room with incongruously bright sunlight. A black floor gleamed like a mirror, except where chunks of stone lay scattered from the force of the Elf-Eater's entrance.

Deirdre sprinted ahead, following the beast into the room for several steps before she suddenly stopped. The monster reached the center of the triangle, and Deirdre raised her hands.

The words of her teleportation spell flamed in her mind. The triangles were centered, the three-legged beast vulnerable to her magic. The timing was perfect-now!

'Bluth-tar-!' Rigidly concentrating, Deirdre began to chant the spell.

The Elf-Eater whirled with astounding speed, springing toward Princess Deirdre. She screamed and stumbled backward.

'My spell!' she shrieked as the wasted power hissed in the air around her. She reached out, as if to retrieve the useless casting, but her concentration had been broken, leaving her helpless before the full brunt of the leaping Ityak-Ortheel.

But another had carefully watched her-and in a flash, Keane understood what the princess attempted. And she was not the only one who knew the words to a teleportation spell.

'Bluth-tarith-Erallanor!'

The chant was completed by the magic-user, his voice as free of tremor and as taut as a fully drawn bowstring. The Elf-Eater, leaping from the center of the triangular atrium, suddenly froze in the air, as if suspended by some kind of restraining rope. It hung there for a moment as a bellow of consummate rage shook the very foundations of Synnoria.

Then it began to grow faint, its image shimmering, the Ityak-Ortheel soon fading into nothing more than foggy illusion.

In a few seconds, it was gone.

Brigit found Erashanoor wandering among the ruined walls of the Argen-Tellirynd. The ancient sage's feet crunched across twisted facets of crystal, tearing his boots and finally cutting into his feet.

'Come, grandfather,' she said, helping the old elf to a less littered stretch of the corridor. He blinked at her vaguely, but then his pale eyes focused, reflecting great wells of grief and pain.

'It came through the gate, did it not?' he asked numbly. 'Through the Fey-Alamtine?'

'Yes, it did.' She could give him nothing less than the truth. 'The Synnorian Gate is destroyed-ruined by the