Nimth.
He caught sight of the image, stared at the figure of a Vraad, then felt an uncontrollable urge to face the Gate once more.
“Serkadion Manee!”
Within the frame of the Gate, there now stood the entrance to another world. Dru did not have to ask to know it was his own.
His guide left his side and stepped toward the waiting artifact. The shapes on its frame seemed to slow, though they were still not quite in focus.
Less than an arm’s length from the passageway to Dru’s world, the golem halted. It raised one hand, then lowered it in one harsh swing.
Nimth vanished, to be replaced by… nothing. More than nothing. The sorcerer knew what doorway had now been opened. His recognition of the Void was accompanied by a sense of growing dread.
The faceless being who had stood beside him turned then and, indicating the vast emptiness within the Gate, gestured for Dru to step forward.
XVI
There were still angry Vraad moving about what remained of the communal city, but most had departed. Ever distrusting of their brethren, the majority had returned to the safety of their private domains, there to brood and pout at the trick that had been played on them. They would be so engrossed in their self-pity and their eternal plots for vengeance that they would probably never get around to devising their own ways of escaping… something the Tezerenee had proved quite able to do.
It was those few who still remained, still seeking to find some stray ally of the dragon clan or merely desiring to unleash their frustration, who worried Gerrod. Having had one attempt at teleportation misdirected, he was not looking forward to a second try at any point in the near future. Sharissa shared his fear in that respect, which was why the two of them still remained in hiding, despite the occasional passing of a blood-thirsty sorcerer. The room they presently called safety was a tiny storage chamber in a flat, black building on the opposite side of the city from the building where the Lord Barakas had made many of his fine speeches of cooperation, including the one in which he had seemed to promise that all Vraad would indeed be crossing into the new world.
Oddly, it was Dru’s daughter who had finally had enough. She stalked over to her hooded companion and leaned over him, arms crossed. “The great and powerful Tezerenee! To think that I was afraid of you! What have you brought us to? How could you abandon Sirvak?”
Gerrod had no answer for the first question and he had already answered the second one more than a dozen times in the past few minutes alone. That, by no means, prevented Sharissa from asking it again. With her father gone, Sirvak was all she had. She no longer trusted Melenea, which, as far as the young Tezerenee was concerned, was the only good that had come of the whole incident.
“I told you, child! Sirvak flew out one of the windows the moment I snared you! It is likely back in your domain, awaiting us!” He looked up at her, more than matching her glare. “Try and remember that for at least a second or two, will you? I need to think!”
“Maybe one of those grateful folk outside would be willing to help you think! You’ve done nothing but brood since we found this place!”
He started to snap back at her, then saw that she spoke the truth. He was acting much like those he had always despised. The Zeree whelp had not helped his situation, however. He spread his hands wide and replied, “I would welcome whatever masterful plan you have conceived during all the time you’ve been berating me.”
Sharissa clamped her mouth shut and gave him a stare that should have, by rights, burned a hole through his head.
“I thought as much.” Stimulated by both her words and his growing shame, Gerrod pushed himself harder.
“Have you noticed something?” she asked, disturbing the peace he had finally gained.
“Besides the inability on your part to remain silent for more than a breath?”
She ignored his remark. “For all the damage they did to the city, it should have been far worse.”
“I think they’re doing an admirable job.”
“I mean that they’re in the same predicament as we are! They can’t trust their spells!”
Gerrod straightened, feeling very stupid. He had understood that when dealing with Melenea, understood it because he knew she lived near an unstable region. The warlock had not considered it in respect to Nimth as a whole. Sleep. I need sleep! That was why he could not think straight. When was the last time he had slept? “And so? What else does that suggest to you?”
“I don’t know.” Sharissa looked crestfallen.
The Tezerenee slumped again. “Waste of time!”
“At least we could accomplish something if we were back home! I haven’t given up on Father! I know he’s alive somewhere!”
The eternal optimism of the child, Gerrod thought bitterly. It did gall him, however, to sit here, virtually helpless. He was used to acting-not without thought, of course-but what could he do? The business with Melenea was not finished; he knew her too well to think she would simply lie down and wait for the end of Nimth. No, to her thinking, he had made a master move. Now, it was her turn… and, perhaps, that was the fear that kept him sitting in this hole rather than doing his best to find a way to cross. As much as he despised the company of his clan, the shrouded realm did represent continued life and that was the hooded Vraad’s primary goal now that he had the Zeree child.
He had hoped she knew more than she had let on, but such was not the case. The information was there, but…
Fool! His laughter, full and vibrant, brought a panicked look from Sharissa, who could not understand what he found so amusing. She would not have understood how the laughter was both a sign of his relief and his way of mocking himself for being so blind. He stood up and, in his merriment, took Sharissa and hugged her tight. Even after he finally released her, she stood there, stunned into immobility.
It was not his fault entirely. Tunnel vision was a trait that his race could claim as one of their most dominant features. A Vraad who deeply believed in or desperately wanted something would concentrate on that one thing with an obsession that would make them ignore a hundred more reasonable solutions or beliefs. It was what had kept many a feud going for centuries. It was why few Vraad mixed with one another for more than a few years, if that long. It was a stubbornness of sorts, one that made a solution to the eventual death of Nimth and its inhabitants impossible, for that meant putting aside their arrogant belief in themselves and working in cooperation with one another.
“We’re leaving! Somehow, we’re leaving! Even if we have to walk back to your domain!”
“Why? What do you have in mind?” Sharissa was smiling, caught up in his enthusiasm and the dream of returning to the citadel of pearl.
“We’ve both been wrong. You wanted to find a way to bring your father back here. So did I. Why?”
“I… he’s my father!”
Gerrod sighed. “And you worry about him. Fine. Let me rephrase it, then! What was he hoping to accomplish?”
“He hoped to find a different way to cross over to the realm beyond the-oh!”
“He found one! He has to be over there! Why bring him here, something we don’t know how to do, when we can follow him there! If it worked for Master Zeree, then it should work just as easily for us!”
The fear had returned to mar her delicate features. She was not unattractive, he knew, but she had a way of grating on him that the young Tezerenee could not explain even to himself. “What is it now?”
Sharissa described her father’s departure, including his struggle to escape.
Gerrod saw the problem instantly. “Then we shall be careful not to teleport during the change. That leaves us with only two more problems.”
Emboldened once more-and evidently more willing to trust him now that he had made concrete suggestions
