Drake lord fought drake lord high above the battle. The Green Dragon had experience on his side, but the Red Dragon was younger and whole of body. The two tumbled through the air, striking with claws, teeth, and magic.
“He’ll keep Red from doing that again!” Cabe called, turning to Aurim.
The younger Bedlam lay prone on the ground, his skin as pale as that of the ghosts. Cabe leapt to his side, all thought of the fight forgotten. He felt Aurim’s throat and found a faint pulse. His son was not among the ghosts, not yet.
Thought of the ghosts made Cabe briefly turn his attention back to the necromancers’ enslaved souls. The wizard shut his eyes again.
The ghosts were gone. Just like that, they were gone.
Erini among them.
Cabe returned his immediate attention to his son, but his thoughts still lingered on the queen’s spirit. She had been a powerful enchantress and perhaps that was why she had shown some will of her own even when summoned by the necromancers. Still, he could not help wondering why she had come to him rather than spend whatever last willful moments she had with Melicard.
Melicard . . .
Cabe made certain that his son was protected from harm, the unseen shield several times that which Aurim had produced. It nearly depleted the elder Bedlam, but still he cast one more spell. He had to know.
The battlefield vanished. Cabe appeared before the startled members of the Talak Royal Guard.
“Where is your king?” he demanded. “I need to speak with Melicard!”
The captain pushed through the other soldiers. “Praise be that you’ve come, wizard! He’s vanished! His Majesty’s vanished!”
“When? How?”
“The ‘how’ can only be by magic! One moment, the king was alone, the next, he was gone . . . but with nowhere to go! He could not have ridden off! All mounts are accounted for and the king could barely ride straight!”
It was as Cabe had feared, but he still needed to know one more thing. “How long ago?”
The captain told him. Not at all to Cabe’s surprise, the king had vanished at approximately the same moment, or more likely a breath or two after, Erini’s spirit had appeared before the mage.
The king of Talak had been taken . . . and it was very likely that the necromancers had him.
But for what reason? Cabe Bedlam asked himself as he quickly tried to tell the distraught officer how to proceed without the king so that the wizard could return to his son and the battle. What reason?
XXV
BLOOD TIES
THE PHOENIX ROSE above the tower, its baleful gaze immediately fixing upon the source of the attack. The guardian sang and the region before it rippled. The founders had created a servant capable of protecting their most precious legacy and protecting it well.
The rippling washed over where the Lords of the Dead had positioned themselves. The necromancers faded into and out of existence with each wave but stood their ground. Behind them, more and more ghosts gathered, adding to the power the Black Dragon already provided the foul sorcerers.
In the tower, Edrin and his twin struggled to keep the mechanism whole and functional. Their featureless masters had vanished, their intention unknown even to the pair.
And below . . . someone else had gone missing.
“WHERE’S THE DRAGON KING?” Valea asked. “He was just here!”
The drake lord’s disappearance did not surprise Shade, who had begun to piece together a few things. He had waited for the Crystal Dragon’s betrayal, aware that the Dragon King was certainly working with the necromancers, at least for the moment. Neither the Lords of the Dead nor the Crystal Dragon had any intention of sharing the potential of the tower, assuming that they survived to claim it.
In the meantime, Shade had to make his own move. But first there was the question of Cabe Bedlam’s daughter.
“Valea, there is something I need you to do.” As she leaned toward him, Shade began casting.
“No!” She countered his spell before he could complete it. “I won’t leave you alone!”
Exasperated, the sorcerer snapped, “You will listen to me or we will die!”
Valea started a retort as a hand touched her shoulder from behind. The enchantress fainted into his arms.
One of the faceless figures—Shade could not help but think that the mind dominating the body was that of the female founder—watched sightlessly as he gently lowered Valea to the floor.
“You know what I plan,” he said to the figure.
The head tilted forward.
“She must be kept safe.”
The figure raised a hand toward him. Shade felt the magic stirring.
“Wait! First you have to promise me that she will be—”
Mist surrounded Shade, and once again he stood in the main chamber of the tower.
A squat but rock-hard form collided with the hooded sorcerer. Magron grinned in Shade’s murky face.
“Welcome back, lad!”
The dwarf roared as Shade’s hand thrust against his chest and the heavy garments Magron wore became stiffer than iron. Shade shoved his struggling foe off of him.
Edrin glared at him but did not move. “Spellcaster’s tricks! No warrior would be so dishonorable!”
“What do you know about honor?” An urge to reduce both dwarves to ash stirred within Shade. The talisman was gone and Valea was no longer there to keep him in balance. The curse—or the founders’ previous miscalculation, it seemed—was overtaking Shade again. “Do as I say and you’ll live . . . perhaps.”
Edrin hesitated, then said, “Haven’t survived this long bein’ a fool, but times do change. What is it yer wantin’?”
Shade gestured and an array of symbols in the founder script formed before the dwarf. “Do this.”
Edrin’s thick brow rose. “You remember!”
“I needed some reminding. Do it. When you’ve put it all in place, I’ll know.”
“I’ll need my brother.”
“Yes, I know.” Shade had already removed the spell on Magron. The other twin belatedly shoved himself up from the floor and joined Edrin.
“Blasted spellcasters,” Magron mumbled.
The two went to work on re-creating the image that Shade had cast. The hooded warlock glanced around, waiting for the inevitable. The faceless ones had momentarily left, no doubt to deal with the Lords of the Dead, but there was one other for whom Shade waited.
“It cannot be done, not even with their asssissstance,” the Crystal Dragon quietly declared from behind him.
“But you have the one element that they can’t adjust for,” Shade responded, turning to face the drake lord. “You have Darkhorse, a creature from beyond their realm . . . beyond this world.”
“A creature like no other. A magic like no other.” The Crystal Dragon strode closer. “I wondered when you would remember thisss lassst part.”
Shade felt his nerves go taut. More undesired memories returned. “This is not the first time we have made an alliance.”
“No, it isss not. Once before, the tower wasss in our grasssp, but you chose to end our alliance before I could find out where the tower wasss . . . and when I confronted you again, you were asss the realm hasss known you bessst, hero and villain all in one.”
“‘Hero and villain,’” Shade muttered bitterly. “Those are the words of stories sung by bards! The truth is far less attractive, far less savory.” The sorcerer frowned, though he knew that the Dragon King could not see him do so. “You did not simply wait all this time for me, though.”
“’Tis done!” Edrin shouted. “You want this your way, do it afore our masters return! You know we must obey ’em!”
“All isss ssset? Excellent!”
Shade had been quietly preparing his defense against the Crystal Dragon’s predictable betrayal. Yet, when the attack did come that next moment, it struck in such a manner that it caught him by surprise. Shade felt as if every bone in his body liquefied, but as he dropped to the floor, i
t was not that horrific sensation that shocked him.
It was the verification of an awful truth that, even knowing it had to be so, Shade had denied to the end.
“You—are—Vraad!” he croaked, barely even able to keep his head up enough to look at his rival.
“You knew that long ago. Follow it to itsss conclusssion.”
Shade stared sideways at the drake lord. “Reegan’s foul . . . spirit said it! His ‘brothers’! You—your name—it was—”
“Loganosss Tezerenee,” the Crystal Dragon murmured almost nostalgically. “Your dear—ever-obedient to Father—sibling . . . Logan.”
So many memories flooded back, but even then, Shade could not remember the face of his brother Logan. He had been one of the shadows, one of those so obedient to their father that he seemed more an appendage.
“The wizard Bedlam . . . he knowsss the truth. He dissscovered it when we faced the wolf raiders and the awakening legionsss of the Quel sssome yearsss back. Of courssse, he rightly believed that in raising my realm into upheaval, I lossst my mind, my memory.”
Shade waited for more, but the Crystal Dragon did not go on. Rather, he gestured to the two dwarves. The eyes of Edrin and Magron glazed over.
“How did . . . you survive . . . Logan? How did you . . . remember when the others . . . could not?”
“The founders left more placesss—places—behind than any realized, Gerrod. The magic of the cavern I made my domain brought back my former life . . . and revealed the travesty I had become!” The drake lord laughed harshly. “How our father yearned for the power of the dragon! What an irony! What a grand jessst!”
As the last word slipped out, the Crystal Dragon hissed angrily. Shade understood then that Logan Tezerenee was a presence barely in control of the Dragon King’s body. Even now, the reptilian nature of a drake lord threatened to overwhelm what remained of the Vraad within.
Shade inhaled, then, with all his will, called out, “You will . . . not . . . what you want is lost to you . . . forever, Logan! This—this device will not bring you . . . back!”
He had the Crystal Dragon’s attention. The glittering drake lord returned to him. Kneeling down, the former Vraad eyed his brother with fiery orbs. “What do you mean? You sought thisss—this to return you to your original form, Gerrod!”
“No . . . I only . . . wanted to end . . . my curse!”
The drake lord pulled back. “You lie! You would not want to do that! You would not simply come here to die!”
But Shade had. That was the terrible truth that even the sorcerer had not recalled until a short time ago. After centuries of maintaining his existence while seeking to avoid the land’s desires, he had uncovered the tower. By then so very desperate, he had seen it as the one manner by which he would cheat the land. Not merely death, but absolute dissolution.
The Crystal Dragon clutched at his own chest. Only then did Cabe notice a peculiar dullness in one spot. Striving hard, he sensed what had been kept hidden from him earlier.
Secreted in the Dragon King’s hide was some creation of the Lords of the Dead.
“You cannot—you could not—leave your cavern! To do so . . . would mean you would lose . . . lose yourself . . . lose what was left of . . . a Tezerenee! You would be as the—the others . . .” Shade managed to raise his head higher. “But to accept a gift from the Lords? Madness—unless—”
A mirthless grin spread across the helmed visage. “Yes . . . again, the eternal. His unique energies will enable me to manipulate our cousins’ ‘gift’ long enough for me to accomplish what I desire.”
“It will . . . not work! This is not what the . . . mechanism does—”
The Crystal Dragon turned from him. “Do not bluff a Vraad, brother.”
“L-Logan—”
“Not now . . . but soon again, I will be.” One hand clenched tight. “After so long, I will be.”
The Dragon King pulled at his chest. Shade could not see what he did but assumed that the drake lord had removed the Lords’ token. The drake lord raised one palm high.
“Now, we summon the eternal and—”
“All comes to fruition as I planned it,” said Kadaria, her voice coming through the Crystal Dragon.
Shade felt the spell on him ease. At the same time, he saw the glitter of the Dragon King’s hide fade. A dark dullness swiftly spread across the mail armor.
The Crystal Dragon’s body withered. Despite the silence, Shade could sense his agony.
Little more than bone and hide, the drake collapsed. A stubborn spark of life remained, but not enough to do more than keep the onetime Vraad barely breathing.
We are a family of fools, Shade bitterly thought as he fought to rise. Always assuming that we can betray the other first . . .
A shadow formed over the stricken drake. Kadaria, her face half-hidden, smiled at Shade. He knew that this was but a projection yet still could sense the incredible power now at her command.
“My darling cousin,” she cooed. “Did he treat you badly?”
Perhaps Kadaria thought that she spoke seductively, but Shade only wanted to recoil at her voice. He knew better than most what the necromancers had become and what they would make of the world. More important, Shade understood that this particular Lord had a dread fascination with him.
“We knew that he planned all along to use Darkhorse’s singular energies. He thought that he could keep the truth from us. We let him toy with the talisman all he wanted so that he would believe that he understood it, but poor Logan, he didn’t.”
Managing to stand, the hooded sorcerer stared at what had once been his brother when both had been mortal. The spark still persisted, the fanatical determination of Clan Tezerenee keeping the drake lord from properly accepting death.
“Better he pass this way than lose himself, don’t you think?” Kadaria floated toward Shade. “Repulsive creatures, the Dragon Kings. He’ll be grateful in the end.”
“Your plan is no less mad than his.”
Kadaria chuckled, then faded away.
Shade hesitated. The Dragon King lay dying. The dwarves were still frozen.
The mechanism beckoned.
“They are fools,” he murmured. “The land has this all planned.”
And as Shade spoke, the phoenix—wings wrapped tight—formed before him.
It is time to accept your fate. It is time to serve as you were meant to, the guardian said.
“As you must?”
He had not expected his simple retort to have any effect, but the phoenix drew back, the avian eyes briefly glaring. Only then did Shade think what it must have been like for this glorious creature to serve for so long in this hidden place.
The fury passed. The phoenix raised his beak and sang. Fiery tendrils of magic played about the chamber.
Shade felt something else come into play that had nothing to do with the phoenix or its unseen masters. He looked down at the body again.
The malevolent dullness covering the Crystal Dragon spread rapidly throughout the chamber. It caught the phoenix unaware. The guardian tried to rise above the floor, but too late. The same dullness covered it. The phoenix folded its wings together and lowered its head as if going to sleep.
Kadaria’s laughter rose high again.
VOICES WHISPERED IN Valea’s head. At first, she wanted to ignore them, but as they insinuated themselves deeper and deeper, the enchantress realized that she wanted to wake up.
What the voices said remained beyond her ken; she only knew that they were demanding. Valea was not certain that she wanted to acquiesce to whatever their demands were but used their presence to push herself closer and closer to true waking.
Then, another voice, a quieter voice, broke through. He needs you, Valea . . . he needs you . . .
“Er—Erini?” Cabe’s daughter opened her eyes to see the pale queen leaning over her. The blond woman wore a gentle if melancholy smile.
Erini vanished. Indeed, Valea could not even say if the queen had eve
r been there. How could she have, the enchantress wondered. Surely she was back in Talak.
Wasn’t she?
The words came to her. He needs you . . .
“Shade!” Valea concentrated—
But it was not the main chamber in which she materialized. Instead, Valea discovered herself far beyond the tower and facing a familiar figure.
“King Melicard?”
Although clad for war, the king of Talak no longer carried any weapon, not even a sword or dagger. He looked gaunt, almost a ghost. Even as she thought the last, Valea sensed other things flitting past the edge of her vision. She quickly shut her eyes and observed her surroundings through other senses.
There were hundreds of ghosts, hundreds of spirits that only the necromancers could have gathered. Small wonder that they had been able to strike at the tower’s masters. The Lords of the Dead had planned well.
“She . . . calls me,” Melicard rasped, eyes hollow. “She showed me the way here . . . wherever here is . . .”
Valea looked at him again. “Who?”
He raised a hand to touch the elfwood portion of his face. “My Erini. They killed her . . . but she still called me.”
“They did what?” Valea gripped the king by his arm. Only up close did she see his terrible wounds. “Your Majesty! You need help!” Valea knew that the elfwood made Melicard resistant to magical aid. He had clearly been given some mundane medical treatment but required much more.
The king, gaze still focused inward, muttered, “She wanted me to protect the children . . . but I can only protect them . . . from here . . . or everything’s gone . . .”
His words did not make complete sense to her. Valea only understood that Erini was dead—dead—but that the king claimed she had brought him here. That reminded her of her brief belief that Erini had awakened her. Perhaps it had been no delusion after all. There were ghosts everywhere.
She remembered again what she had thought the queen had said. It was not Shade whom the enchantress needed to help, but rather King Melicard.
Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shade Page 28