Loremaster seemed to have aged twenty years as he tottered into the caves with the Elders to announce the selection of Gamba and Azraph. Cami gave a small gasp of despair and held out her arms to the old Halfling, almost as if he were one of the toddlers who were under her care.
The candlestone players froze in place, and the guards lounging around the walls looked uneasily at each other as the silence deepened. Never before had a public announcement been made when prisoners had "disappeared". The guards knew that the Halflings knew, but it almost seemed that the little people had just absorbed the loss and went on, closing around the hole left by the vanished prisoner without comment, like a herd when one of its members is taken by an eagle.
It was this more than anything that had led to the guards laxness. Through the years they had come to regard themselves as little more than shepherds tending sheep. Occasionally they would have to round up a stray or nip the heels of a few stubborn lambs, but otherwise the herd had been remarkably passive, even when they were led to slaughter.
But this was different. A few of the candlestone players dropped their stones in shock and grief. Far more of them, though, closed tight fists around the stones, gripping them with white knuckles and shaking hands. The silence deepened, and the guards fidgeted nervously.
Then the silence was broken by the rattle of feathered wings. Bats were a common sight in the caverns, but this winged creature was no bat. From out of nowhere a small black and white crow was soaring above their heads, flashing back and forth between the walls, like a panicked swift that had strayed down the chimney into the parlor. Its wing beats echoed off the the rocks and it kept up an unearthly keening, quite unlike the "caw" of a frightened crow.
The people in the cavern craned to follow the bird's path, or ducked as it flashed above their heads. The guards cursed in fear. No bird had ever found its way into the caverns.
Then the crow landed on the shoulder of Loremaster and spoke in his ear. In later years the tale would fill the mouth of the crow with prophesies, battle cries, or blessing, but no one really heard what the bird said to Loremaster that night: "You were right not to want to know. I knew; and it will be my shame and my prison for the rest of my life. But the time has come, and now I am free!"
The bird rose, circled and flew out of the cavern, down the tunnel to the river. Cami the halfling ran after it, shouting "Bird! Wait! Come back!"
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