Free Fortress Draconis by Michael A. Stackpole

these things came from Vorquellynbefore the taint settled over it. Anything from there now would serve to warn our enemies of our presence, and we cannot have that.”
    The youth nodded slowly. “How am I part of this?”
    The blind Vorquelf sighed and turned away from him.
    “Follow me.” As she walked deeper into the cavern, she swept past the edge of one mural and descended from view.
    Will trailed after her quickly and hurried down a narrow stairway that had been crudely hacked from the stone. Glowing lichen marked the top of the passage, though he was in no risk of hitting his head. It twisted right and then left again, descending sharply during the last twenty yards, and opened into another smaller chamber that he figured was roughly below the heart of the room above. Lichen and minerals also provided illumination here, and for the barest of moments, Will envied Oracle her blindness.
    Big, bloody murals covered the walls and ceiling of the chamber. They coiled like rainbow vipers around stalactites and stalagmites. Nothing hung in the air, but the hideous and apocalyptic nature of the images would have clawed themselves free from the paintings were they not anchored to the walls. Men and elves, urZrethi, Gyrkyme, and other races, bestial and otherwise, fought in pitched battles against each other. Bodies and pieces thereof filled holes in the riot of combatants, with some later images being painted over earlier ones.
    In the midst of all this violent chaos, one small section of wall had nothing on it but a human silhouette outlined in gold. Oracle drifted through the room toward it, then tucked her hands in the opposite sleeves of her robe and bowed her head. “This, I believe, is your part in it. Yours is the face meant to be painted here. We do not know for certain if you are the one we seek or, as Resolute allowed, only a link to that person. Determining if you are or not could be dangerous, very dangerous.”
    Will glanced back at where Resolute filled the only exit to the chamber. “I have no choice in the matter?”
    Oracle’s head came up, her face expressionless. “You have choices, always. If this is your destiny, then the next step is crucial.”
    “And if not?”
    “Then your destiny is unknown to me, but I wish you well with it.” She closed her eyes. “It would be best if you were not compelled.”
    Resolute cracked his knuckles.
    Will sighed, mostly because that was the easiest defense against the shiver running up his spine. The magick in the place intrigued and scared him, but wonder washed over the top of his fear. The fact that Oracle, blind as she was, had been capable of doing all she had impressed him, because the only blind he knew were beggars. Beggars were as rats to wolves when measured against thieves, but Oracle would have astounded even the greatest thief Will knew.
    Still, the fear lurked there. “I will ask you my question, Oracle. I know what Resolute will answer, since, for him, my death is never far away. What you will do is learn if I am the one you want, right? And this is going to be deadly dangerous?”
    She smiled slowly. “Only if you are the one we seek. But if you are, we will do all we can to save you.”
    No sigh came to quell the shiver this time. Will turned to look at Resolute. “If I am not, I’m not leaving this place, am I? You didn’t trust Amends. You can’t trust me.”
    The large Vorquelf folded his arms over his chest and shrugged. “Spending the rest of your life here would be better than in the slums of Yslin.”
    However long you’d let me live.Will wanted to feel angry or scared at the prospect of being trapped here or slain, but he could not. Just as he knew the leaf had wanted him to carry it away, somehow he knew his place was here. That almost made him laugh. Every orphan Marcus had taken in harbored the same fantasy. Someday someone would come and reveal to them who they really were, would show them to their rightful place in the world. For him it had been his mother