Dreams of Steel - Part 6

Should I continue to use the word "emery," or should I switch it to "stone"?  I honestly had no idea what emery was when I read it, so I had to look it up.  I assume most other Americans don't know it either, but I could be mistaken.  If emery is a common word in Spain, it seems like using "stone" would be more appropriate, but if he's going for more unique language I want to leave it as is.  Hmm....

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"What will we do?" asked the youngest of the captains.

"I know what I will do now!" exclaimed another officer, Pianmos of Malabashi, and he lunged at the chest of the Sword.

"Stop, fool!" the others warned.

But Pianmos opened the trunk, took up the Sword of Fire and brandished it over his head with a shout of triumph.  Even a few minutes later, no one present could agree on what had happened:  a glow, a crackle, a spontaneous flare, perhaps a ray of light that entered through the window.  When they uncovered their ears and turned to look, Pianmos lay on the ground, with hands and face burnt, and from his body rose wisps of smoke. Zemal, still sheathed, rested on the purple rug surrounding the bed.

At that moment the heavy door frames opened.  All eyes turned.  There were three men in the doorway that brought with them the cold shudders of dawn on their black cloaks.  The three seemed one and the same:  skinny, heads shaven and veined, hands resting on staffs that lengthened their thin fingers, feet bare and calloused.

"It’s the Pinakles..." whispered the captains among themselves.

Although they had never seen them, everyone knew that they were the priests in charge of guarding Zemal at the death of its owners.  It was said that they dwelt somewhere in Áinar, at more than ten days' journey by road.  How could they have appeared there at the right time?  Could it be that Kartine, the goddess of destiny, had revealed the precise moment of Hairón’s death even before he became sick?

"We see that someone has tried to desecrate Zemal," one of them said, with a voice of emery.

"Nobody can take the Sword of Fire if it is not their rightful place," continued the second.

"And we shall reveal that rightful position only at the temple of Tarimán, in Koras, the first day of the month of Kamaldanil," finished the third.

The first of the Pinakles knelt, took the Sword of Fire by the sheath, and put it under his cloak.  Then the three Pinakles turned their backs to the captains of the Red Horde and went back from where they had come without anyone blocking their way.

Aperión, Kratos, Ghiem and Siharmas, the four greatest masters, watched on.  A new contest for the Sword of Fire had just been left open.  Only one and a half months remained until the first of Kamaldanil. Which of them or of the other Tahedoráns of Tramórea would be the chosen one?