hung over the Vraad communal city. She wondered what could draw together such a force. Only an epic unleashing of sorcery could create such a magic storm. Her father’s research had taught her enough to realize that. The cross-over might be enough, but she doubted that. No, something else was happening in the city.
A tiny figure cutting valiantly through the rising winds caught her attention briefly before vanishing into the clouds. Sharissa blinked and looked again. Nimth still had wildlife, as twisted as much as the world itself, but this figure had looked familiar. Likely, she assumed after a minute or two of useless searching, it had been her own desires that had made her believe she had seen Sirvak. The familiar was lost to her. Sirvak was now a puppet of the unsettling Gerrod. The hooded Tezerenee had no doubt taken the small beast and every bit of lore her father had collected and brought them back to the patriarch as an offering. At this late stage, there was no reason for him to come searching for her; the Tezerenee hardly needed her for their cross-over.
Behind her, Cabal began to growl.
“What is it?” she asked, turning at the same time.
The familiar stood, its imposing form nearly making the sorceress gasp. Like all else she had seen after her arrival here, she had forgotten exactly how huge the beast was. It towered over her. One paw the size of her head scratched at the floor. Cabal sniffed the air and continued to growl, curling its lip back as it did. Though the familiar looked at its charge as it snarled, Sharissa knew it was not her the beast challenged.
A swift black and gold figure burst through the window, shrieking a challenge as it soared toward the sinister lupine familiar.
“Sirvak!”
A gloved hand covered her mouth. “We are here to save you from yourself, Zeree! Don’t let your pet die for the sake of your innocence and ignorance!”
Gerrod! Sharissa fought wildly, locating and kicking the Tezerenee’s shin. Startled by her viciousness, Gerrod almost released her. He cursed loudly and said something else she could not catch.
Savage cries alerted her to the battle taking place. Sharissa stared in horror as Sirvak took on Cabal. The tinier familiar looked pathetic in comparison to Melenea’s behemoth and she was filled with fear that Sirvak would be torn apart as easily as Cabal might have torn apart one of the drapes. Somehow, though, the winged creature easily dodged the wolf’s initial attack and, in fact, struck the huge beast a powerful blow to the head. Jagged scars now decorated Cabal’s left side. It roared at the insignificant little annoyance buzzing about its head.
“Don’t fight me, Zeree!” Gerrod hissed. “Think for a change!”
Sharissa ignored him and continued to struggle. With great effort, she twisted her right hand free and unleashed the quickest, simplest spell that might serve her against her would-be attacker.
The Tezerenee lost control as a brilliant flash blinded him. Sharissa pulled away immediately. She had to find Melenea. The enchantress would be more of a match for the hooded kidnapper. Sharissa knew that her odds against Gerrod could only worsen if she continued to battle him alone.
Leaving, however, proved far more difficult than she had hoped. Cabal’s huge frame blocked the doorway, and in its combat with Sirvak, it was not unlikely that the beast would accidentally crush her.
“The dragon take you, you stupid-” Gerrod’s hood had fallen back and the anger Sharissa read on his patrician visage urged her to take her chances with the doorway.
“Mistress! No! Listen to Sirvak!”
The imploring tone made her pause and she looked up at her father’s familiar… only to watch in horror as the winged creature, evidently caught up in its concern for her, forgot its own safety.
Cabal’s mighty jaws caught the smaller familiar’s right foreleg. The blue-green wolf bit hard. Sirvak shrieked in agony and quickly pulled away.
The tattered remnants of Sirvak’s leg hung uselessly. Cabal laughed and swallowed the limb.
“Good meat,” it rumbled. “Come and let me taste more.”
“You will taste your own blood!” Sirvak howled back. The wounded animal started to shimmer, a sign that it was about to make use of its own sorcery.
“Sirvak! No!” Gerrod ceased his assault on Sharissa, though she made no use of the advantage, also caught up in the struggle of the two familiars.
Cabal, meanwhile, was preparing its own magical attack. The lupine form wavered, as if not quite real. Two forces stretched out and met between the beasts. Being constructs, the familiars used the most basic sorceries in attack. Basic, but very, very dangerous. Sharissa knew that Sirvak was capable of destroying a good portion of Melenea’s home and assumed that Cabal was of at least equal ability. Despite her belief that her father’s creation now obeyed a new master, she could not help fearing for it. Wounded, Sirvak might not be a match for Melenea’s creature.
Her hesitation cost Sharissa her freedom. Gerrod caught her again, this time in a grip she knew would be unbreakable. He pulled her head back so that she was forced to look him in the eye. “Despite yourself, Zeree, we are going to save you from that witch you think is your friend! Did your father never tell you about why he demanded she never see either of you again?”
“I neither know nor care what you’re talking about!” Sharissa tried to spit in the Tezerenee’s face, but he turned her head away in time.
“You will… someday!”
“What have we here? Cabal! How did they get inside so easily?”
“Melenea!” Gerrod snarled under his breath, disgust emphasized in each syllable of the beautiful enchantress’s name.
At its mistress’s appearance, the huge familiar backed away. Its breath came in harsh gasps, as if its sorcerous battle had taken a toll not noticeable until now. Sirvak, too, looked fatigued, Sharissa noted, but that might have been from the wound that, while sealed by the winged familiar’s own powers, still must have pained it dearly.
“I’ll thank you to release my guest, Tezerenee.”
“And leave her to you? I think not. Even a naive fool like this deserves better than your tender care!”
The stunning sorceress laughed, a melodious sound that, had he not known her reputation so well, might have lessened Gerrod’s guard. “And she should trust your care? I think Sharissa knows who her friends are.” Clad in a glistening silk robe that did nothing to hide her body, Melenea strode toward Cabal, placing an arm around the blue-green wolf’s neck. “I’ve only done my best for her. I’m probably the only one who can save her father.”
“Did you find something?” Even with Gerrod’s arm around her, Sharissa forgot her predicament as visions of her father’s rescue blossomed in her mind.
“I most certainly did, Shari sweet.”
“Don’t listen to her!” the hooded figure whispered in frantic tones. “The only thing she has waiting for you is a slow and painful death after she’s done toying with you! Ask Sirvak what she’s like!”
“Ask away! Shari knows that you control the poor beast.” Melenea’s visage expressed her deep pity for Sirvak’s fate. “I’m afraid you can probably never trust the familiar again. It will have to be destroyed, I imagine.”
Sirvak squawked. “No, mistress! Sirvak is good! Sirvak wants only to protect you!”
With a speed worthy of Sharissa’s swiftest steed, Melenea reached out and pointed at the flying familiar. Sirvak shrieked in agony and started to glow blue. Sharissa gasped and struggled with renewed urgency.
“I’ll regret this; I know I will!” she heard Gerrod mutter. Suddenly she was being pushed aside by the warlock, who pointed at the writhing black and gold familiar and mouthed something. Sharissa fell against the couch she had been sleeping on and stared in amazement as Gerrod actually worked to save Sirvak’s existence. There was no reason why he should do so. Whatever knowledge her father’s creation carried could have easily been supplied by his notes, which the Tezerenee surely had access to.
“Cabal!”
At the mention of its name by its mistress, the hulking figure charged directly toward the shrouded Vraad. Caught off guard, Gerrod tried to shield himself. Sharissa, for reasons not entirely clear to her, struck even as the monstrous familiar leaped into the air, jaws wide open.
As if caught by a net that was not there, Cabal stopped in midair, struggled futilely with the nothingness surrounding it, and finally fell to the floor with a howl of frustration and pain.
The citadel shook.
“I knew it!” Gerrod stumbled toward her, trying to reach out. Sharissa remained where she was, her thoughts
