as the birds. I… when I saw what was happening, I dared to make myself known.” He gave Silesti a surreptitious glance. “He met with me and said that if I valued my existence, word would be sent to the true benefactor of the Vraad, meaning you, I suppose, who would decide my fate.”
Dru turned and met Silesti’s gaze. The other grimaced, already reading his decision. Dru avoided Gerrod altogether and studied Lochivan, trying to find the man, not the Tezerenee.
“What did you come here for?”
Lochivan revealed a brief smile. There had still been a few doubts. Not now. He knew this outsider would listen. The clan might still survive. “Help us. Help us to push back the avians and claim the land. You have to do it. This is your home, too. You need our skills; we need your numbers.”
“Is this your offer or your father’s?”
“Mine, of course.”
Gerrod snorted, but did not otherwise interrupt.
“Your offer,” Dru mused, taken by the Tezerenee persistence. “Your offer and any your father might have are rejected. We won’t save this world for you.”
Silesti was smiling now. Both Tezerenee were confused. Dru indicated the masses idle around them. “Do you think that even I could make them fight for the Tezerenee? Do you think they want to fight at all? Does it look as if they do?”
“We will all perish if we remain divided!”
“This is a new… no… this is the true world. It has laws of its own. Have you cast spells? Has your sorcery worked true? I can see by your eyes that it hasn’t.”
“Our numbers-”
“Will be insufficient. Most of this continent is controlled by the Seekers.” Dru’s use of the name raised eyebrows, but no one cut him off. “You’ve fought only one group. Even combined, we don’t yet have the power to face them down. Our day will come, though, if it’s meant to.”
“We have to survive until then!” Lochivan protested, looking to his brother for support.
Gerrod shrugged, but tried. “I think he would be open to suggestions, Master Zeree. Anything to save the clan.”
“If I knew what to do, I would suggest it. I’m still concerned about those I’ve helped to cross. If our survival can include the Tezerenee, I have no objections.” Too many ifs, Dru thought. If the guardians would help them this one time, it would be all he could ask.
For you, it will be permitted, a familiar voice within his head suddenly replied. For you and your efforts, not for such as those.
Dru looked around. The other Vraad stood motionless, all of them watching him. They had also heard the voice, but knew that it had been directed at only one of them.
Why now? Why after I’ve had to do so much have you returned?
A sensation of worry and lack of direction touched him. The guardian was no longer certain of its place in the world. Those who have returned speak less and less with us. Their purpose is much like that which we were created to serve, but they move in ways that we do not understand and, at times, have not cared for. They are our masters and something else. We do not know whether to obey them or not. At least one among us has broken away and others have suggested withdrawing from this plane and waiting to see what it is the faceless ones have planned.
Did your… did the faceless ones send you here?
This is my doing. It breaks the old laws set upon us and when I have aided you I will depart with the rest. You, I felt, were owed something. You are the potential they must see in your race. That much still remains the same from those first days when the founders sought to raise their successors. Therefore, ultimately, I perform my duties.
What will you do? Dru had difficulty believing anything would turn the patriarch from his dreams of conquest.
I have seen in your mind this Lord Barakas of the Tezerenee. He might protest your decision, but he will not protest that of his god.
Is that what you are now? came the second voice from nowhere. Is this how you perform your duties for them? Godhood does sound much more our forte.
The Vraad around Dru stood petrified, listening to a potential argument between entities they could not see or sense, only hear in their minds. As for the master mage, his own imagination allowed him to form images where there were none. He could see the dragon facing off against the wolf, one that, unfortunately, looked too much like Cabal.
This is my doing, the mock dragon informed its counterpart.
I am only here to support you, the wolf said slyly. This is the very thing I desired… to be master, not servant.
I still serve in my way! This is for the completion of the original task set upon us when we still had masters we knew!
My desire, also. Their desire, too, if you will permit.
Though Dru could not sense them, he knew that the other guardians had joined the first two.
All of you are agreed, then? the dragon asked in tentative tones. What was suggested once will be done?
“Dru, what is happening?” Silesti shouted. Everywhere, Vraad were standing and staring into the sky as if that would allow them to see the creatures deciding their fate. They had thought they had come to their new homeland, only to wonder now if they had merely postponed their destruction.
“Be quiet, fool!” Gerrod returned, yet he, too, looked to his companion for answers.
While the Vraad had been talking, the other guardians gathered here had given their assent to whatever plan had been put forth. Dru could understand no other part of what was going on save that there had been a full revolt against the creatures who had once been the unquestioning masters.
Not a revolt, manling, though some would like to believe it so, said the guardian who favored Dru.
The darker one stirred, but it did not respond to its opposite.
The mock dragon continued. Your people must make one last journey to a place where they can grow in strength and mind. Once you have been placed there, we will leave you be. It is not right that we interfere.
Except when necessary, the wolf whispered in Dru’s mind. Only when necessary. It sounded too much like Melenea in tone and personality. He wondered whether it was touching upon his own memories, forming for itself a personality. Only those guardians who had actually spoken with him seemed to radiate any image of self. The rest were like ants, identical in feeling and response despite earlier claims of individuality.
The guardians had made their decision. He would have to return to Nimth immediately and inform those still there, but if-
They know, his guardian interrupted. All Vraad save the Tezerenee now know. Such was how it was decided.
“What do you even need us for?” he shot back, unable to keep the helplessness and the bitterness from his voice. Why had he struggled so hard just for this?
Because if you had not, we would have chosen not to interfere and the Vraad race would have died out, a failure for the second and final time.
Founder law, the wolf chuckled.
“You’ll need me for the Tezerenee,” Dru suggested out loud, so that all could hear. “Barakas will trust me more than anyone else here, even his kin. He’ll know that the Tezerenee can rejoin the Vraad race without fear of reprisal.” Hopefully, he added to himself.
It may be that the guardians had caught the last, for the mock dragon’s tone lightened a bit. It could not be done without you… and this one as well.
Gerrod stirred and what little of his face was visible was pale with fright. “Me?”
You, came the very final reply.
With that, the world blinked, sending Dru, who had almost expected this, and Gerrod, who had not, to a place of carnage… where they found themselves standing before the startled yet fearsome gaze of the Lord Barakas Tezerenee.
