“I’m coming with you.”
“Hold on to my arm, then.”
He did, holding her a bit tighter than he likely thought. The clan of the dragon, meaning the patriarch, frowned on any show of fear, regardless of the reasons. There were times when she felt pity for the sort of life that Gerrod and Lochivan had endured.
Grimacing, Sharissa transported them to the square.
Her first thought was that it had grown as dark as night even though there were still a few hours of sun left. Then she noted, with much chagrin, that her eyes were squeezed shut.
“Gods! Look at him, Sharissa! Have you ever seen something as grand and startling as that?”
She opened her eyes with care. There were other people around already and all of them were just as entranced by the great beast in the square.
“A horse!” she whispered. A glorious ebony steed! She had always loved her father’s horses, magnificent mounts that he had bred without any use of magic-almost as a challenge to himself. Yet, no horse she had seen could measure up to this creature…
It was this steed that her senses had noticed. It was this animal that emanated the unbelievable power that so disturbed the minds of nearly every Vraad, whatever their sorcerous abilities.
“Where is he? I will not be denied him! I will not again be thrust back into the cursed nothingness I was forced to endure for so long! Where is my friend, Dru Zeree?”
Sharissa knew then what and who this was. He was called Darkhorse and he had, for a time, aided and traveled with her father after the sorcerer had been lost in the ghost lands where Nimth and Barakas’s Dragonrealm had intertwined like two cursed lovers, together yet unable to touch one another. The guardians, in obedience to the millennia-old instructions of their lost masters, had seen the shadow steed as an aberration that could not be allowed to exist here.
In deference to Dru, they had not destroyed him, but rather exiled him… supposedly forever.
They had underestimated the creature.
People shuffled nervously around the square, uncertain as to what the ebony stallion might do. Many of them had abandoned something or another. A few folk were even half-dressed. Even though most of them had not heard of Dark-horse, they recognized sorcery of a kind that was in some ways even greater than what they themselves had once wielded.
“You look like Dru Zeree!” the thundering voice accused the crowd. He pondered this for a moment, then asked, “You are Vraad?” An icy, blue eye focused on one unnerved person after another, finally fixing on the only Vraad there who did not turn away: Sharissa. “Where is my friend?”
“Sharissa!” Lochivan hissed, grabbing hold of her from the side.
She blinked, realizing she had been about to fall forward and wondering what it was about Darkhorse that brought on such a reaction. She had almost thought she was going to fall into him… but that was ridiculous, wasn’t it? Yet the sensation had been strong, even demanding, until Lochivan had stepped in to rescue her.
The demonic stallion tossed his head, such an animallike action that it destroyed some of the uncertainty Sharissa felt. She took a deep breath and stepped up.
“I am Sharissa Zeree, Dru’s daughter.I-”
“Aahh! Little Sharissa!” Darkhorse bellowed with pleasure. His change of manner was so abrupt that Sharissa forgot herself and stood there with her mouth open.
Darkhorse trotted toward her. “Friend Dru spoke of you during our travels! How delightful to see you! How wonderful to find you after an eternity of cursed searching for this place!”
“Careful, Sharissa!” Lochivan whispered. He had one hand on his sword, though she was uncertain as to what he imagined he could do with it. From what little the sorceress knew and what little she had seen, it would take more than a blade to stop this creature.
“Careful, indeed!” Darkhorse snorted in response. His hearing was remarkable. “I would not harm the appendage of my friend Dru!”
“Appendage?” Sharissa was not certain she had heard right.
“Shoot? You were part of him and are now separate, yes? What is that called for your kind?”
“Offspring. Child. Only I was not part of him, but actually the…” She trailed off, thinking how long it might take to explain the process of birth to an entity that did not understand the concept in even the most remote terms.
Several of the onlookers had turned to her, not because of her inability to explain something to Darkhorse, but because she was on speaking terms with the invader. Relief was spreading among them, however. The great sorceress was once more dealing with their problem. This incident would only add to her prestige, a good thing since it was already assumed that she would take her father’s place on the triumvirate should something happen to him.
Darkhorse surveyed his surroundings. “You have altered much in the shape of this place, albeit not where I stand! I feared I might have come to the wrong place, but then I recalled this one area and opened a quicker path to it! There have been so many worlds, so many universes I have searched through!”
He had made no comment concerning the protective spells that the Vraad had enshrouded their city with over time, spells that would have given her pause but did not, it appeared, even deserve acknowledgment on his part.
The intruder sighed, a very human sound that he must have learned from his former companion. Sharissa sensed the longing and the weariness. “Fifteen years is a long time, I imagine,” she said, trying to soothe him. “It can be an eternity.”
He gave her a strange look. “Through your father I have some understanding of the term years, little Shari! Know that when I say I have spent an eternity searching for this place, I am not being facetious or exaggerating! In your fifteen years, I have crossed a thousand thousand lands in as many worlds! Time, I have discovered, does not move the same everywhere and moves not at all in the cursed place friend Dru so aptly called the Void!” Darkhorse twisted his head so that he stared at the heavens. “The sky is more cluttered than the Void could ever be, even if this place were thrown into it! How could I have ever survived such an existence before Dru came?”
The question was not one he expected an answer for. Sharissa waited until the huge creature had calmed before saying, “My father will be happy to see you again. I can take you to him if you want.”
“Little one, that is exactly what I was attempting! Last I knew, friend Dru was in danger and I had been thrust back into a place I hoped never to see-or perhaps not see is closer, I cannot say-again! I thought he might be in the room of worlds in the castle of the old ones, but I could not find the opening to that small universe! I feared those beings who guarded it when last I was here had sealed it, but there is no trace of them… and I could hardly forget the smell of those cursed horrors!”
Lochivan joined Sharissa and leaned close. “Should you not do something about all these people? They look like little children asked to solve a complex thaumaturgical question that has baffled masters! Assure them that all is well.”
She saw the sense of that. Raising her arms, the sorceress called out. “There is no need to worry! There’s no danger, no threat! This one is a friend of my father, and I will vouch for his actions!”
It was a pathetic speech as far as Sharissa was concerned, for it went nowhere toward answering the many questions that must be flowing through the minds of the Vraad who had assembled here. She added, “You will hear more from my father when he has had time to speak with our guest. I promise you that.”
That was still not satisfactory in her mind, but the others seemed willing to live with what she had told them, understanding, perhaps, that they were lucky to know what little they did. The other two members of the triumvirate would be more vocal. Sharissa glanced at Lochivan; Barakas would know soon enough. Whatever friendship she shared with this Tezerenee, he was loyal to his father.
“You’d best go, too. I don’t think I am in any danger, not from everything my father told me about Darkhorse.”
“I should say not!” bellowed the beast.
Looking very, very uncomfortable, Lochivan bowed to both of them. To the young Zeree, he said, “Best I be the one to tell my father. I’m truly sorry, Sharissa, but he should know about this.” He stopped, his words sounding as pathetic to him, no doubt, as Sharissa’s had to her. “Be prepared for him. Dark-horse changes the balance if he stays around. You and I both know that.”
