without his permission.
Useless conjecture, he reprimanded himself. Best to keep his eyes upon the ruins around him, just in case there was some threat that Darkhorse did not notice in time. What he would do if such happened was beyond him; Dru trusted his own abilities as much as he trusted the Seekers not to attempt one last ploy.
“How odd!” The shadow steed’s booming words bounced again and again throughout the devastated city.
“What is it?” Dru peered around, looking for Seekers or elves or anything to justify his companion’s cry.
“I saw a figure, but only as a vague form! It was built akin to you, but that was all I could tell.”
An elf, perhaps. Yet, what was there about an elf that Darkhorse found so disquieting? “Why do you find that odd?”
“Because I could sense nothing from him. No presence. No… existence.”
“An illusion?”
Darkhorse evidently knew the term now, for he shook his head with great vehemence. “Not an illusion. I think I would sense the… the sorcery… at least.”
“Where was it?” The Vraad cursed whatever fickle trait made him miss everything that happened until it came crashing down on him.
“Directly ahead. It stood on our very path.”
The sorcerer reached down to his belt, wishing he had a sword. While spells had always been a way of life, he, like many Vraad, dabbled in the physical, especially when it involved violence toward another. Dru was adept with many blades and had even killed one rival in a duel using nothing but a sword. “I was looking ahead. I didn’t see anything up there.”
“Beyond the tall structure leaning to one side.”
The “tall structure” was a tower, far in the distance, that had partially fallen onto a smaller building on the other side of the street they were following. The only thing that it now revealed to the sorcerer was that they might have trouble getting around it unless they took a different path. Darkhorse’s vision was evidently much more efficient than his own. The Vraad was not quite desperate enough to start experimenting with his eyes.
A low grumble from his stomach informed him of other matters he would also soon have to deal with if he hoped to continue on. The Seekers had fed him, but only small portions of some vile meat that tasted as if it had been stored in salt and left to age for a few years. All that could be said for it was that it had assuaged his hunger for a time.
Darkhorse continued on the route he had chosen, despite the mysterious appearance. The demon steed was confident in his ability to handle whatever threats confronted them and so was becoming more and more lost in his ongoing game of discovery. A statue that had somehow stood the test of time made him pause for a moment. It was unremarkable save that it was whole. Like the stone behemoth that the sorcerer had come across while a prisoner of the avians, this, too, was a dragon. In fact, it was identical to the other save in size. There were a few other statues and some had recognizable attributes, though they were, for the most part, cluttered together and broken. One was a wolf and another a human garbed in a robe. The rest were too broken up to identify readily, though Dru imagined he saw the gryphon and a cat in the pile.
They eventually reached a point where the Vraad saw that his fears about the fallen tower were true; the opening it left was too small for the sorcerer, much less the huge stallion.
Darkhorse was in the process of locating a new path free of blockage when they came across the elf.
She was young in appearance-though with elves that meant as much as it did with the Vraad-athletic in build, and had straight silver hair that would have reached her waist had she been standing. This elf would stand no more, however, for she was dead, a needle spear that had pierced her chest a certain sign as to who her murderers had been. Dru wondered how long ago she had died; the blood had congealed, but she still appeared too close to life to have perished very long ago.
“What is that?” Darkhorse asked innocently, curious as to this new form.
“An elf.” The sorcerer recalled his one-time desire to capture an elf so that he could dissect it. That desire, that Dru, turned his stomach now. “There have been none in Nimth for thousands and thousands of years.”
“Obviously there are. She is here.”
Dru held back from commenting, having no desire at present to argue about whether this was Nimth or not. He dismounted and looked over the corpse for any clues, any bits of information that would better help him understand his situation. Unfortunately, the elf had nothing with her save her clothing and a tiny knife. The Vraad took the knife gratefully. As tiny as it was, it was still a physical weapon.
At last satisfied that he would find nothing more, Dru mounted up again, saying to Darkhorse, “The things that killed her have a habit of rising from the earth. It would be an excellent idea to keep an eye out… just in case.”
“As you say, little Dru.”
The sorcerer, about to suggest that they move on, shivered as something cold seemed to brush by him. He twisted back, scanning the area around him, but saw nothing. Dru was too experienced to think that he had imagined the sensation. “Darkhorse, was there something near us?”
“One of the concentrations of power passed through us. I think it wanted to know more.”
“It wanted to know?”
“It exists, after a fashion. Much the way you think of me.”
Dru gripped his companion’s mane tight. “It thinks? Why didn’t you say something before? I-”
“I did not know until it actually crossed me. Then I felt its thirst for knowledge-fascinating! Your world never ceases to amaze me! Shall we go forward again?”
“I don’t-” Dru was unable to finish his sentence, for Darkhorse pushed ahead immediately after asking the question, despite whatever opinion his friend might have had. The sorcerer clamped his mouth shut and opened his senses as much as they allowed. Oddly, there was no resistance this time, possibly because he was now attempting to work with the land. In a vague way, the Vraad felt the massive concentrations of power around him and how they moved with purpose, though their patterns might have once appeared random. Dru knew he could not be far from the place that Darkhorse had spoken of. Whether he found anything there…
“You are so very quiet, friend Dru! Are you whole!”
A feeling of unease was gradually creeping over the weary spellcaster. It was as if every bit of rubble had eyes and ears and was following each move the duo made.
“I feel like a blind lamb about to enter the den of a pack of silent, starving wolves.”
Wolves.
Dru gave a start. Darkhorse also tensed. “They are concentrating more and more in one location!”
The Vraad nodded, sensing an overwhelming level of raw power ahead of them. Though other structures still blocked their view, he knew that what he and the ebony stallion sought was very, very near… and it was there that the power concentrated.
Wolves.
There it was again! As if the wind itself had spoken!
“Something happens, friend Dru! Prepare yourself!”
Prepare himself? The sorcerer wanted to know how. His senses warned him that the danger lay everywhere, including above and below him. With his present distrust of his skills, how could he even consider fighting back against…
Against the ruins of the city.
It began with a tremor far worse in intensity than that which had signaled the rise of the underdwellers, the armored monstrosities from below. No, whatever caused the ground to quiver so, if it was not an actual earthquake, was far greater than them.
A building before them exploded, but the fragments, instead of raining down upon the two, flew high into the air above where the edifice had stood. Rubble from the streets flew up after them, joining together and forming great clusters. Nothing was spared; mortar, bits of marble from shattered statues, even vast pieces of the tower they had bypassed… all gathered together.
Beneath the Vraad, Darkhorse shied. There was a limit, evidently, to even his bravery. Had he turned and charged off madly, Dru would have urged him on. As it was, neither of them took up the option of flight. The form slowly taking on vague shape had them almost entranced. It stood taller than the great domed building where the
