Ice shards peppered the narrow ledge where Shane braced himself, shards exploding near his head. He glanced over at Queen Eleanor, her face set with intense concentration as she deflected a barrage of deadly projectiles with a shimmering shield of magic.
"We're too exposed on this outcropping!" Shane shouted over the wind's roar. Ropes creaked ominously as Eldorian commandos scaled the sheer icy facade of the Dread Queen's stronghold hundreds of feet above. "Can you clear us a path!"
Teeth gritted from exertion, Eleanor swirled her glowing scepter, forging a tunnel through the cliff just wide enough to fit the raiding party. Shane fired a traversal bolt, securing their descent. As they plunged into icy darkness, eerie screams echoed all around, the Queen's magic offering scant illumination. They could not see much.
Landing roughly on a frozen slope, Shane helped Eleanor regain her footing as figures materialized from the gloom - Eldorian scouts in white cloaks, with General Lucian at their head looking grave.
"Your Majesty, I bear ill news," he rasped, ice flecking his beard. "We infiltrated the tower undetected but the princess...she is not there."
"Impossible!" Shane breathed as Eleanor paled. This was Vincent's greatest fear confirmed. That his sister was lost forever.
Lucian shook his head angrily. "We searched every cursed nook and fetid cranny. She must be elsewhere in this warren."
Jaw clenched, Eleanor dispersed their glow field into concealing darkness. "Then we press on. The Dread Queen covets baiting traps but we shall spring none!"
Forming up around her, the raiders delved deeper inside the glacial tunnels with weapons drawn. Somewhere ahead lay the answers they desperately sought about Princess Octavia's whereabouts.
What other sadistic secrets lay cocooned inside this frozen hive of evil? They steeled themselves for whatever horrors awaited in the shadowed halls ahead.
Guided by Shane's arc light and Eleanor's sorcerous intuition, the rescue team crept down crystalline corridors laced with dark enchantments. The queen shook her head warily. "Such fell magics permeate this place...it clouds my inner sight."
Shane squeezed her hand reassuringly. "We must be vigilant for ambushes. I shall take point and scan for traps." Activating his monocle, azure beams shone ahead, piercing the magical veil of obstruction.
Before long, Shane detected wards clustered around an arched entryway. He held up a halting fist. "There! Alarm runes guard that passage." He unfurled tool coils from his bandolier. "I can disable them but it will take time."
"I shall conceal our presence then," Eleanor replied, weaving an illusion veil around the group. But minutes later, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Exchanging a tense look with Shane, Eleanor strengthened her cloaking spell as a patrol of wraith knights strode by. The rescue team collectively held their breath until the danger passed.
"Well done, my queen," Shane whispered. "Your skills have expanded impressively." Eleanor smiled proudly at his praise, making sure that no one noticed it.
With the way clear, Shane successfully neutralized the runic wards. "We must be nearing the dungeons," he observed. "Stay vigilant."
Weapons ready, they slipped through into the cavernous gloom. Grim purpose marked their faces. Somewhere ahead lay the captive princess and answers they so desperately sought. Her brother's kingdom and their own now teetered on success or failure of this unauthorized gambit.
Through lucidum light and sorcery they delved ever deeper, a queen and her engineer united against the swelling dark.
Guided by Shane's flickering lucidum torch, the rescue team crept down an endless spiral of stairs hewn into unforgiving ice. The temperature plummeted until even Eleanor's breath emerged in frosted plumes. Still there was no sign of the missing princess.
Wisps of unnatural green flame lit their way at intervals now, casting an eerie glow over the stony faces of the search party. The echo of stones dropped into unseen pits followed their footsteps. They realized that there were loose stones where they were walking.
"Take care where you tread," General Lucian advised tersely. "Parts of this passage appear...insubstantial."
Kneeling, Shane examined the steps ahead which seemed to ripple strangely in the magical light. "An illusion...meant to disguise what lies beneath." He tossed a bolt which sank into bubbling ooze.
"Diabolical," muttered Eleanor. "But we cannot turn back now."
Skirting the concealed pitfalls, the team pressed deeper into the glacial catacombs. The stones groaned and wept around them until Shane froze, spying movement up ahead. Two shadowy forms detached themselves from the darkness - guards in the Dread Queen's livery.
"Intruders!" one cried in alarm before Shane's quarrel silenced him. Spheres of frigid power leapt from Eleanor's hands, encasing the second as they rushed past his frozen form.
"The alarm is raised!" Lucian warned. "We must secure the princess now!"
Redoubling their pace, they descended treacherous stairs no living foot had previously tread. Dread coiled inexorably around Shane's heart - had their daring gambit only condemned them all?
Heart hammering, Shane led the rescue party down the crumbling staircase into a vast chamber filled with venomous green vapors. Squinting through the haze, he spotted a female figure lying motionless on top of a flat stone.
"Princess Octavia!" he shouted, rushing forward only for Lucian to pull him back with a warning hiss. Shane's blood turned to ice at the sight coalescing from the poisoned mists.
There hovered the frost-crowned visage of the Dread Queen herself, darkness writhing about her skeletal form. "Welcome to your doom..." she intoned, bitter amusement twisting her cadaverous features.
As the searchers recoiled, black-clawed wraiths emerged from every crevice to surround them. Eleanor tore a fiery rift through their closest assailants, eyes fixed on their ominous mistress. "Release the princess, hag! Before we add what passes for your soul to these cursed pits!"
The Dread Queen merely cackled, her open mouth gaping with malevolent delight. "Such courage! I expected no less from Eldoria's star-touched queen." Her mocking tone hardened. "But you shall gain only oblivion this day."
As the wraith host closed in with rending claws outstretched, Eleanor signaled her comrades. No further chances remained. With a shared nod to Shane, Eleanor lifted her scepter high, its power melding with Shane's blazing lucidum torch.
A blinding flash erupted, white fire consuming everything. Then darkness reigned. Had their defiance granted victory...or simply doom?
The reeking tunnels held fast their secret.