Chapter 37

  Present Time

  Elliard was a frontier building built by humans, and it’s lay out reflected that. Set within a double ring of defensive walls, the keep was an imposing structure with two towers which served to provide archers with the prime position to use their arrows on an invading force.

  The main doors opened into an entrance hall dominated by the staircase up into the second story. To the left, was a row of smaller chambers, most used for storage. Tucked behind the rise of the staircase, the Lord’s study was a larger chamber with two small anterooms leading off it and served as the business center of the keep.

  On the right, arches opened into the main hall – a space which served as the main chamber of the keep where the household ate, slept, entertained and everything in between. Behind the hall was the kitchen, a large room dominated by a hearth that was as big as other chambers in the keep. A dragon could curl up on the kitchen fire and have room to spare.