in turmoil. She still trusted Melenea, but the young Tezerenee’s nearly suicidal rescue of Sirvak, who could serve him no useful purpose, touched her. If there was a grain of truth in anything he had told her…
“What have you done, Tezerenee?” demanded Melenea. She fell against Cabal. The familiar somehow succeeded in regaining and then maintaining its balance, unlike Sharissa, who rolled helplessly on the carpet as the building trembled again and again.
“I only added to an overfilled pot, witch!” He groped for Sharissa, but she succeeded in steering herself away.
Though Melenea failed to understand, Sharissa did. She realized that this stronghold sat near an area that had grown unstable. Her companion had continually utilized her sorcery as if nothing had changed, as if the Vraad were still in full command of Nimth. Gerrod must have known what an effect such a concentration of power would have and how this battle would only serve to aggravate things. It was unlikely that he could have predicted the tremors so precisely, but the clever Tezerenee had probably researched her father’s work enough to know that the potential for some disaster was high.
Above her, Sirvak hovered. The beaked familiar’s wings beat slowly, barely enough to keep the creature aloft. Sirvak appeared not to notice, evidently still more concerned with its mistress and her safety than its own magical existence. “Mistressss! Are you injured?”
“No, Sirvak, I’m not!” Its concern was so genuine she could no longer believe the familiar was a puppet of Gerrod. Either Sirvak had broken free of whatever spell the shadowy Vraad had cast upon it, or it had never been under a spell at all. If the latter was the case, then much of what Melenea had said became questionable.
“Sirvak! Does Gerrod speak the truth?”
“Shari darling, you cannot-”
“He speaks truth!” the flying beast shrieked, purposely drowning out the enchantress. “She is evil! She only loves pain, mistresss! Others’ pain! That is the nature of her gamesss!”
A portion of the ceiling gave way, crashing down very near Sharissa. Reacting instinctively, she rolled away. Her maneuver brought her nearer Melenea.
“Cabal!” the enchantress shouted.
The deadly familiar suddenly stood over Sharissa, its hot, stinking breath bathing her face. She grimaced and tried to drag herself away from the stench.
The wolf laughed. “Play with Cabal!”
“No, Cabal!” Melenea commanded. “Gently!”
Twisting its visage into an expression of annoyance, the massive beast bent its head low and caught Sharissa by the arm. The jaws clamped tight, not enough to cause great pain, but enough to keep the young Zeree from daring to pull free.
“Mistresss!” Sirvak came down low, but the winged familiar dared not attack. Cabal had bitten off its foreleg with the least of efforts; it would not take much more for the huge wolf to snap Sharissa’s arm apart. Any assault by Sirvak would endanger her further.
A burst of thunder deafened the novice sorceress. As she pulled without success, she saw some of the statuettes leap off their pedestals and run off, scampering through doorways and windows before the startled Vraad. The pedestals themselves were melting.
“Bring her, Cabal!”
The familiar tried, but the floor beneath its feet had begun to grow soft, and though it did not yet impair Sharissa’s own progress, the tremendous mass of the monster was enough to make its paws sink. It growled, all the while maintaining its hold on its unwilling companion, and tried to lift one of the paws out. Sharissa ran her free hand across the floor; it felt more like soft butter than marble. Her father had warned her that this sort of thing would happen. Random waves of wild magic, the culmination of centuries of misuse. It would pass eventually, but other waves would come as the days progressed, until there came a time when the area would be forever beyond the control of anyone and nothing would be safe from change.
“Nimth’s blood!” Melenea was wiping at her arm, where the sleeve of her gown now moved of its own volition. It appeared to be attempting to envelop her hand, almost like a mouth. As Sharissa watched, the enchantress, modesty the least of her interests at this point, tore off the crawling garment and threw it to the floor, where it attempted to return to her. Melenea pointed at the gown, fury marring her perfect features. The gown froze, but the new spell only increased the general havoc being caused. The chamber began to tilt to the side.
Sharissa heard a painful crunch! and found herself falling to the floor, her arm freed from Cabal’s toothy grip. Her elbow sank into the floor, but she pulled it free, not suffering from the problems of mass that the familiar did.
Cabal was whining and growling, too maddened to see that its anger and pain were making it sink deeper. Gerrod stood just out of range of its claws and teeth, the shattered pieces of a stool in his hands and a satisfied smile on his half-seen face. While Cabal had been occupied with the task of releasing its limbs, the hooded Vraad had evidently come around the monster’s blind side and, timing his attack perfectly, smashed the wolf’s nose with the stool. It was probably the only attack that would have succeeded in releasing Sharissa without the loss of her arm.
“Mistresss!” Sirvak alighted on the edge of the couch, or what was left of it. The magically formed piece of furniture had sunk halfway into the carpet again, making it more of a lump. Sirvak carefully balanced itself on what remained, the lack of the one forelimb making it more difficult than normal. “Come, mistressss! Trussst Sirvak!”
Sharissa did… now. The beautiful gold and black beast was probably the only one she trusted. Gerrod had succeeded in raising doubts as to Melenea’s interests, but his own were just as debatable. One thing she felt certain of, however, was that Sirvak, even if the familiar had worked with the Tezerenee, was still loyal to her and her father.
“Plaything! You are being naughty!” Cabal had managed to lift one paw out of the soupy floor and was trying to reach her. Of Gerrod there was no trace, and for the first time, she feared for him. He had freed her from the horrible creature before her.
As the massive paw neared her, Sirvak flew from the couch and, paying no heed to its own safety again, attacked the limb with great relish. Cabal took an unsteady swing at the winged attacker, but the horror’s lack of full movement made it impossible for the creature to twist far enough to make contact. Sirvak backed away from the paw until it was obvious that the blue-green wolf had overextended its reach, then moved in close enough to snap at the struggling adversary.
Cabal roared in pain. The toothsome beak of Dru’s creation tore into the limb just above the paw. Sirvak ripped a chunk of flesh from its counterpart and quickly abandoned the attack before the huge monstrosity recovered. It had not been a total payback for the smaller familiar’s loss, but Sirvak’s triumphant cry spoke nearly as much about the extent of the damage inflicted as Cabal’s howl did.
Sharissa felt the floor stiffening. Things were returning to normal, such as that was. She would have to make a decision now. Either she stayed and trusted Melenea or she left and trusted Gerrod the way Sirvak seemed to. It was not a choice that filled her with anticipation. She wished her father was here to make the decision for her.
He may be dead! she berated herself. It was up to her to decide her own fate. When her father had vanished, she had let Gerrod lead her to the Tezerenee. Her first attempts at independence had consisted of refusing to share what she knew with the overbearing patriarch, Barakas. Unfortunately, just as she had been deciding to lead her own life, the young Zeree had found Melenea, someone from her childhood. She had allowed the enchantress to lead her as if Sharissa were still a small child. No more.
The crystals. I have to find the crystals! I can’t leave without them! Only Melenea knew where they were, however. Only Melenea could give her access to the crystals that might lead her to her father. They somehow held the key to passing from Nimth to the realm beyond the veil. Sharissa knew she could not leave this place without them, regardless of the danger that the enchantress possibly represented to her if Gerrod had been telling the truth.
“Damn you! Not again!”
She only barely recognized the Tezerenee’s furious voice before something struck her from behind and sent her facedown into the carpet. Sirvak called out her name.
Someone bundled her up. “We’re leaving! Now!”
Before she could protest, Gerrod brought his cloak around the two of them and started a teleportation spell.
