I stared at Xanthocus. “Were you a goblin?” I asked.
“No, I was never called by that name. We were the gray elves once, called for the magical color we possessed. We were a peaceful species, living our lives in the One Tree that once towered on the mainland, where the magic took root.”
“You lived in the Ever Root?”
“Yes, long ago, when it was a flowering tree—alive, a sight that inspired—a spiritual place of pure magic. It was our home until the wyldern elves took notice. They were not like us, for they craved power and wished to take our magic for themselves. They destroyed our tree, and those who survived, they captured. Eventually, they brought us here to this island, where the magic aided them in manipulating our bodies.
“They called us goblins and destroyed the history of our kind, instead recreating it until none knew the truth.”
Xanthocus held out his hands, where a scroll appeared. “The elven one wished to remove this single parchment from the tomes in this temple, for it is the last testament of our people, and it tells the truth of what happened to the gray elves. But I have hidden it from her.
“I entrust this scroll to you. I have prepared it so you will find it when the time is right, and so the elven one will never be able to touch it. Will you accept this sacred duty? Will you protect the knowledge of my people?”
His words were deep, yet soft. I knew I had to accept his challenge, yet protecting the knowledge of an entire race of people would be a daunting task. But, if I didn’t do it, then who would?
“I will protect it,” I finally answered.
He nodded. His goblin’s face revealed no emotion as the scroll disappeared, and then he, too, vanished.
“I entrust the history of the gray elves to you, Earth dweller,” his voice echoed.
Gasping for air, I awoke. Chaos reigned around me. Kull’s shouts were broken up by the princess’s panicked voice. Kull was giving me compressions, and I feared he would break my ribs if I didn’t stop him. I grabbed his wrists. Although I couldn’t speak, I did my best to pry his hands away.
“Stop!” I finally managed.
Kull’s eyes opened wide, dark blue in the silver light. “Olive?”
“I’m fine,” I gasped. “Please, just help me up.”
Relief filled his eyes as he helped me sit up. When he hugged me to his chest, I once again feared for the health of my lungs. The princess loomed over us, her face pale and drawn with worry.
“Are you sure you are all right?” Kull asked.
“Yes, I’m certain. You can release me.”
He pulled back. “Did I hurt you?”
I rubbed my breastbone. Possibly bruised, but at least my lungs were still working. “I’m okay.”
“What happened?” the princess asked.
I stared up at her, feeling a sense of revulsion from the knowledge Xanthocus had just imparted. Her people were responsible for the suffering and eradication of an entire race, and now she was trying to erase that knowledge forever. But in order to protect the history of the gray elves, I couldn’t let the princess know what I had learned.
I shook my head and stared at the silvergate, where the second crystal shard peeked from the top. “Nothing,” I finally answered. “I blacked out and don’t remember much afterward. You placed the second Illumina crystal in the gate?”
“Yes,” the princess answered. “After Kull placed it in the gate, the creature disappeared. I can only assume it was trying to stop us from destroying this place, which is why I feared it had killed you in an attempt to keep your powers from affecting the silvergate’s spell.”
Kull squeezed my hand. “But you are all right?”
“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Very well,” Princess Euralysia said.
Kull helped me stand up, and the princess led us to the silvergate.
“Do you feel well enough to use your powers?”
I inhaled, feeling my Earth magic inside, steady, but slow. “Yes, I believe so.” As I had done earlier, I removed the orb and placed my hands on the smooth, round stone. Now that I knew what to look for, removing the spell was easy enough to do. Once I felt the magic move from the stone and into the shard, I backed away.
A focused beam of silver light pointed in the direction of a door across the room. As I replaced the orb in my bag, I followed Kull and the princess out of the chamber and into a hallway where the light shone, pointing the way down another dark hallway.
I held my pack close, feeling the weight of the orb inside.
Kull and I followed the princess through one hallway and into another, following the light as it refracted from mirror to mirror, pointing the way. Without it, I was sure we would have lost our way ages ago.
Up ahead, I was surprised to see actual sunlight illuminating our path. When we rounded the corner, I found the reason. The hallway abruptly ended at an enormous crater. It looked as if someone had dropped a bomb on the fortress. We stopped at the end of the hall to find a sand-filled hole spreading before us. Large building stones and busted bricks lay haphazardly in the open chasm.
“What happened here?” Kull asked. “And where do we go next?”
The princess sighed. “This is unexpected.”
Above us, the sky was cloudless and blue. Shielding my eyes against the sun, I noticed that the daylight outshone the silver beam, although I suspected it didn’t matter anyway. Wherever we were supposed to go had obviously been destroyed, and the silvergate would have most likely been destroyed along with it.
“What should we do now?” I asked.
“We must descend into the crater and search for the final silvergate,” the princess answered.
“Do you think it will still be intact?”
“Spells were in place to ensure its protection.
