“I know.” Dru had a theory, but was afraid to tell it to the elf. He could scarcely believe it himself.
The first of the golems, walking a little more confidently now, stepped through the rift and vanished. The others began lining up and marching through two at a time. The sorcerer likened the image before him to a parade of macabre marionettes. In swift fashion, the golems entered the tear, never hesitating. The last crossed into the ancient realm of the creators, leaving only the elf and the Vraad in the ruined square.
“Do we wait?” Xiri asked.
Dru realized he had been hesitating again. This time it was more from awe than fear. Nevertheless, he knew that the longer they waited, the more chance that something might pass that they would miss.
“Follow me.”
She took his hand in her free one. When he looked at her, Xiri smiled uncertainly and said, “I would rather not end up alone in a place I have never been to before.”
He could have assured her that such would not be the place, that they would find themselves near each other in the gardenlike field at the bottom of the hill. He could have told her, but he did not. “Time to cross, then.”
The sensation was akin to what he had felt earlier, a blinding brilliance and the late realization that all sound had ceased during the transfer.
“Rheena!” Xiri froze the moment they entered the world of the citadel. She looked at the birds flying merrily above and the trimmed, grassy field in which they were now standing. “It is so beautiful! As if someone had sculpted it!”
Not far from the truth, as far as Dru was concerned. Seeing it again, with Xiri, made him appreciate it that much more. Had it not been for the presence of the determined golems, he might have lost his fear of this place. They served, however, to remind him of what he might expect.
Unmindful of the beauty around them, the faceless figures strode upward, no longer awkward in their movements despite the climb. The closer they got to the castle, the more confident the creatures moved. It was clear they had some true purpose in mind.
“They know this place.” Xiri was the first to utter what they both had known for some time. “They move as if they are returning home.”
“I think they are.” He recalled the ghostly watchers hunched about the crystal and the pentagram. How many had there been? How many more had existed besides these? He had hardly taken the time to inspect the rest of the massive structure.
“Guardians?” From the tone of her voice, it seemed that the elf wanted him to agree, even though neither of them believed that.
Dru shrugged, trying hard to keep the golems from getting too far ahead. Xiri was now leading him. “I doubt it, though I won’t rule it out. I think the guardians in the ruined city gave evidence to what those things truly are. The exodus to this place only confirms it, as far as I see.”
They were nearly at the top of the hill. The cowled figures were already vanishing through the open gate. Both the Vraad and the elf could see that the golems were spreading out as they entered the edifice. The newcomers appeared quite at home.
“I think that says it all,” Dru whispered. He took a breath before finishing. “I think the masters of the house have finally returned.”
Indeed, there seemed no arguing with the statement. Following the last of the figures into the courtyard, the sorcerer and his companion watched in silent regard as Barakas’s usurped creations entered buildings, climbed stairways, or simply studied their surroundings with eyes that were not there. None of them appeared to care about the two intruders.
Finally regaining control of himself, Dru leaned over and whispered, “The chamber we want is through there.” He pointed in the direction of the building he and Darkhorse had entered on his previous visitation. A number of the featureless beings had already entered.
“There?” Xiri did not sound so certain, still overwhelmed and understandably anxious around the strange figures wandering about. Dru, knowing the forms from his time with the Tezerenee, was, if not comfortable with the golems, at least used to their appearances… or lack thereof.
“It’s where I saw the crystal. In the room of worlds.”
“All right.” She had the knife in her free hand. Dru had thought she had sheathed it at some point, but could no longer recall. He pushed the hand down by the wrist.
“I doubt that will do you much good. It might even be detrimental for us.” He gave her a smile that likely did not reassure her any more than it did him. “I thought I came from the bloodthirsty race, not you.”
“As I said, we have changed since escaping Nimth.” Xiri nonetheless did sheathe the blade. “You have a point about the knife, though, Vraad.”
They moved slowly across the courtyard, partly due to caution and partly due to Xiri’s fascination with the lifelike images sculpted from the shrubbery. “This reminds me of something back in my village,” she whispered, smiling all the while. “There are those among us who can persuade the trees and bushes to take on new and fantastic forms.”
“Is that what the Seekers do?” He recalled the unique aeries of the race, places both constructed and grown. The ones his captor had revealed to him had been stupendous works of art.
“In a sense. Like the Vraad, however, they demand more than request cooperation.” The flat line formed by her mouth was sign enough that she would speak no more on that particular subject.
No one barred their way when they reached the open entrance and so the two entered the long hall. The female elf was awed by the grandness of the inner hallway. She glanced around as if expecting it all to vanish. It was not that the corridor was so richly decorated, but rather that it carried about it a feeling of majesty, a reflection, perhaps, of the builder’s skill.
Dru, only slightly less awed even though he had seen the corridor before, led her farther inside. It was then that the sorcerer noticed a smaller room to the left that he would have been willing to swear had not existed the first time he had entered the castle.
A slave to his curiosity, he stepped closer to the entranceway of the new chamber… and nearly bumped into one of the silent figures as it departed that very room. Dru and Xiri kept a careful eye on the faceless wanderer until it departed through the front doorway. Dru cautiously peered into the chamber… and gasped.
“What is it?” Xiri circled around him so that she could see.
The room was immaculate and glowed with a brilliant illumination. Down to and including the overwhelming figure poised before them, it was identical to the chamber of the dragon lord that he had been nearly tossed into by the Seekers back in the devastated city. Yet, that first chamber was a pale memory in comparison to this one. Here was the dragon lord in all his glory, looking ready to leap into the air. If the other had seemed almost living, Dru was nearly certain this one was. Despite its wary eyes, he could have believed it was merely pausing to consider its next action. Even its muscles, carved taut by that long-dead master sculptor, emphasized the readiness with which the dragon lord waited.
The same statuettes were also there, and better able to view them this time, he realized that they also resembled the figures from the mind message relayed to him by the Seeker leader. One of the tiny artifacts reminded the sorcerer of the figurine that the avian had thrown and broken in anger. Emboldened by their luck so far, Dru stepped inside in order to learn more. Xiri, also very curious as to the purpose of this place, not only followed the Vraad in, but twisted around her companion and walked swiftly to the tiny effigies, her hands out before her as if she intended to pick one up.
“Wait!” He rushed toward her, fully expecting every golem in the citadel to come storming into the chamber, ready to strike the impudent twosome down for their transgressions. If, as he believed, they were the ancient race that had built all of this, they might take special measures for the disturbance of their most precious artifacts. The figurines themselves might be protected by a hundred different spells, all deadly, though it hardly seemed there had been enough time for the faceless ones to have affixed so many magical traps. Dru knew that he might be placing Vraadish paranoia before common sense, but the sorcerer also understood that he and Xiri knew next to nothing about the originators and their power, save that it made the Vraad race look childlike in comparison.
Xiri had stopped at his shout. She realized instantly what he feared and frowned in annoyance. “I know better than to touch something that I have not observed closely first.”
Embarrassed by his own fears, a reddened Dru joined her. He pointed out the similarity of the carvings to both what his captors had discovered and what they themselves had revealed to him. The sorcerer also mentioned
