The cave in Silence Gorge was uncomfortably quiet as each person nursed their own thoughts. Old Synan was sitting on the ground with Gaeshi's head resting peacefully on his knee. Lachlan was perched up on a rock and brooded by himself, glaring angrily at Mariko who had sat herself by the cave entrance and picked at her fingernails.

Leif and Sorrel sat together, side by side with their backs against the charred wall. Leif kept his attention fixed on Lachlan and Mariko as if he suspected that at any moment either one of them would start an argument, while Sorrel stared at the blackened wall opposite.

She turned to Synan as the old man gently rocked Gaeshi in his lap, and then peered down at her hands. She could not change what she had done no matter how much guilt she felt. Without a word, she rose and went to the back of the cave.

"Where are you going?"

She paused. "I'm going to find Cloud," she said calmly.

As she turned again, Leif hurried to his feet and was quickly by her side. He put a bandaged hand to her shoulder and she looked up into his eyes.

"Please don't try to stop me, Leif, I've got to find out what's happened to them."

Leif lowered his gaze. Then he smiled and brought forward her sword. "I wasn't going to," he said. "You forgot this."

She pushed it away. "I don't want it," she said. "Not after Gaeshi—"

"Take it!" he ordered, pressing the hilt of the sword into her hand and making her close her grip. "A warrior must always carry their weapon with them, be it sword or staff. You are a warrior, Sorrel."

She smiled a crooked smile and shook her head. Then she gazed up at her brother. "I've waited my whole life to hear you say that. To hear anyone say that. Thank you."

Then, with her sword thrust back into her belt and with Leif's help, she struggled up into the tunnel with the one hope that Cloud would be there at the end of it.

Leif watched his sister go before turning back to the others. It was time to stop brooding and do something. "What's done is done," he said, his tone warning against any argument. "And we'll talk no more of it." His eyes finally settled on the Lamya and he nodded at her. "Mariko, get in here! We need to talk plans."

She got up meekly and he waved her over to where Synan sat. Lachlan joined them and Leif settled down. He glanced at Gaeshi and then away.

"We need to make a plan," he said.

#

As soon as Little Cloud's hand had broken the beam of light, the Grey Men had attacked. They pressed forwards strongly, striking blows with their hands and feet and making no sound but the clicking and rasping of their bones. Even though they carried no weapons, their sheer weight of numbers forced the Elani to defend themselves by standing back to back.

"A good hit to the chest or head seems to work!" Cloud cried, thrusting his blunt knife into the chest area of a grey man and watching as the wraith-like figure disappeared.

By his side, Maemi squealed and ducked, at the same time landing a good wallop to the head of one of them. Pressed against his back, Cloud felt Saoirse stab out with her knife and whisper a triumphant 'yes!' when she found her mark.

He was heartened by his friends' ability to defend themselves and was pleased that none of them seemed unduly panicked. Frightened, yes, but even he was scared.

Figure after figure after figure came at him, and Cloud struck out again and again, each time rewarded by the disappearance of a grey man. He wondered how much longer he could keep it up, the Grey Men all seemed to blend in to one before his eyes and his arm was beginning to ache.

At his back, Saoirse was pushed into him and he fell forwards. A grey man reached out a bony arm and grasped him under the chin, lifting him off his feet. Panic swam in his guts and his throat constricted. He tried to cry for help but couldn't make a sound.

"No you don't!" Saoirse spun round with a kick, so powerful that not only did the figure she hit disappear but the next two behind as well. Cloud dropped and she steadied him back on his feet, smiled at his nod of thanks and with a yell, more confident now, set into the next wave.

Cloud breathed a quick sigh of relief and rubbed his throat. He took the opportunity to take a look at how the others were doing and then started pushing forwards to defend Saoirse's back.

But the Grey Men were still coming.

#

Dust fell from a small tunnel in one of the cavern's stone walls and with a grunt and heave, Sorrel fell out onto the floor. She got to her feet, shook dirt from her hair and brushed down her jacket. She could hear a fight going on, definitely Elani voices, so she grabbed her sword and ran forward.

There, in the middle of the cavern, illuminated by shafts of light, her friends were under attack, though quite from what she couldn't make out. They had split up from each other and fought in pairs or alone, surrounded by ghost like figures.

She saw it took a single hit to defeat the enemy but that there were far too many of them for her friends to ever win. She gnawed her lip and looked for Cloud in the swarm, hoping somehow to catch his attention.

She needn't have worried, Cloud sensed her presence and he looked straight to where she stood, higher up on a rock behind the horde of Grey Men.

Cloud closed his eyes, ignored the enemy, and concentrated his seer skills to find a solution. The world darkened around him, sounds rushed past his ears and other visions assaulted him, but he blocked them all out. He breathed deep, an Elani knocked into him, Saoirse probably, but he ignored it all and suddenly his mind's eye rushed ahead of him, as if he travelled at super speed. His head began to swim and he almost passed out. Then his vision came to an abrupt halt and he saw the solution.

Sorrel saw Cloud open his eyes and point over to a large round boulder she hadn't noticed before. She followed his direction and he cried, "Move the boulder!"

She ran down from the rock she stood on, straight through the Grey Men, carving and sweeping with her sword as she went, straight on until she was at the boulder.

She stood to one side and braced herself, sheathing her sword and focussing all her energies and warrior spirit on the task ahead.

She breathed deep, closed her eyes and pushed forwards suddenly, powerfully. The boulder rocked the smallest amount. She opened her eyes and with an almighty yell continued pushing, her feet struggled to keep her upright. All the muscles in her body bunched and strained and she turned to push her left shoulder against the rock. Her bones felt like they were going to break and a fleeting thought of the bruising she would get went through her mind, but that soon disappeared as slowly the boulder moved.

A crack appeared as the boulder gradually rocked out of the way, then a sliver of light seeped through into the cavern. Sorrel closed her eyes tight and pushed harder. A strange rush of wind came from behind the boulder and as it rolled a little farther a great whoosh of air came tearing past her, pulling at her clothes and hair as if trying to pull her desperately away from the boulder.

She cried out and kept pushing, stopping only when she'd revealed the chamber behind it. The cyclone of air swept the evil Grey Men off their feet and spun them around. It turned, reversed and started to pull them in a vacuum back into the smaller chamber. Wind thundered past her ears.

Cloud clenched his fists triumphantly and as the last of the Grey Men were pulled into the chamber he yelled out an instruction. "Break the stone, Sorrel! The emerald stone!"

She struggled to keep her balance as the pull of the winds still moved around her. She lifted her sword high above her head and with a cry leapt out into the opening where the boulder had been. There, the wind lifted her off her feet and, somehow managing to keep her eyes open, she struck her sword down hard on the emerald.

Chink! The stone smashed under the weight of the sword and as emerald pieces fell to the floor, the winds ceased and the Grey Men were no more.

Sorrel landed heavily on her feet and the impact jolted her knees. She staggered upright and turned to grin at Cloud as he rushed to her side.

"I'm fine," she said, wiping a shaking hand across her forehead. "Absolutely fine."

The other Elani grouped at the entrance to the chamber and they all stared in awed silence at what lay before them.

"Can we go in?" Saoirse asked, her voice hushed.

Sorrel blinked and Cloud nodded dumbly. As the other Elani filtered past them into the chamber, she and Cloud stayed where they were. Side by side and staring at the soft yellow glow that radiated from the piles and piles of gold coins.

"Sorrel..." started Cloud, but she walked slowly forwards into the chamber, amazed such a place could ever exist, and joined her friends.