The Guardians: Book One of the Restoration Series by Christopher Williams Page B

humans, and you could be in physical danger.” He paused briefly, “Well, good-bye and may fortune smile on you.”
    Flare watched Henotairin leave, feeling a profound loneliness.
    A few moments later, Nathaniel entered. “Sir, I am to escort you to a room, for the night.”
    Flare was led deeper into the palace, through several long hallways, and up two flights of stairs. The block hallways were relatively unadorned, which led him to think that this was the more rarely used part of the palace. The lighting had gotten dimmer, but he hardly noticed. He was much too nervous to more than glance at his surroundings; he kept contemplating having to return to the elves. As he thought of facing the elven royalty, he felt a renewed sense of determination to win his way into the guardians.
    He was so deep into his worrying, that he almost bumped into Nathaniel when the young guard stopped.
    “Sir, this will be your room for tonight. Dale here, will guard the door, and be your escort if you wish to leave the room.” Flare had not even noticed that the second guard had followed them. “Have a good night, Sir,” Nathaniel said, walking back the way they had come.
    Dale took up his position next to the door, and Flare went in. The room was austere in its decoration. The walls and flooring were made of a grey block, with about half of the floor covered by a reddish-brown, oval rug. The bed was along the wall to his left. There was a small window in the far wall, which was covered by dark brown curtains. There was also a small dresser and chair in the corner to his right. Also to his right, was a closed door, which upon further inspection led to a small bathroom.
    Whether, because of Flare having already slept in the afternoon, or due to the fact that he was so nervous, he took several hours to fall asleep.
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
     
     
     
    The next morning, the young guard led Flare to the kitchens for breakfast, and then took him to meet the king. He had not been able to see very much of the castle the previous night, and he was not impressed. The elven castle was open and airy, full of life, both animals and plants. The human castle was closed in, with smaller windows and less life. The walls had been built out of enormous blocks of stone with torches mounted about every ten feet. There were large paintings and murals depicting great kings and courageous heroes. He tried to observe as much as he could, but it quickly became overwhelming.
    They soon entered a grand hallway which had two main exits. For the first time today, Flare was impressed. Small windows had been placed above the doorway and the windows flooded the hall with sunlight. The windows had been designed to reflect the light toward the upper half of the hall, and the effect was stunning. The walls were painted showing the deeds and battles of generations of the Telurian army. The ceiling seemingly had been painted in the far off distant past, and showed not just the great deeds of the Telurians, but also of the elves, dwarves, and other races. Flare recognized several great elven kings and warriors, including his own great, great, great, grandfather King Osturlius.
    King Osturlius had possibly been the most powerful elven king of all time, but had died in disgrace some two thousand years ago. Osturlius had helped win the Demon lord wars, but had later done some evil deed, which had caused the gods to curse the elves. The legend did not tell what Osturlius had done, but the gods had spoken to a priest in the temple, and cursed all elves because of the king’s actions. The king, who had been away from the city, was never heard from again. The curse had been evident almost immediately. Before King Osturlius’s fall, the average elven life span had been between seventeen and eighteen hundred years. But now, an elf was considered old if he reached the age of eight hundred years, and each generation’s life span continued to shrink.
    The hallway was lined with small