“They are a fair match, witch. She may be his salvation. She is also a latent sorceress.”
Cabe put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. She reached up and placed her own on his. The warlock smiled sadly, as if acknowledging the end of a beautiful time. “You seem to know quite a bit, Darkhorse. Maybe you could tell us how you know so much.”
He did. Drayfitt’s abilities came as no surprise to Cabe, though the elder’s actions in the name of his king did. Cabe had only met the man briefly, but he had come to respect him. Both spellcasters knew of Melicard’s crusade and his overzealous advisor, Mal Quorin, but spies had reported nothing except the usual raids, though those had become fewer in the last couple years.
Of Shade and the plots of the Silver Dragon, they knew nothing, and what Darkhorse conveyed to them stunned both Bedlams. To Lady Gwen, it was the culmination of fears she had always harbored about the hooded warlock; to Cabe, it was a tragic conclusion to someone he had both befriended and pitied. That the true Shade might be a less than savory being saddened him further.
“I’d always assumed he was a basically decent man behind that curse.”
“A fairy tale! This is true life! Shade is a Vraad and, with few exceptions, they were arrogant and amoral! The world did not weep at their passing, so I’m given to understand! It amazes me that you and yours could be descendents of their kind.”
“Cabe.” Gwen squeezed his hand tight. “If all he says is true-”
“I would not-”
She cut him off. “As all he says must be true, then we have been purposely led astray. Someone has been lulling us into a false sense of security.”
The warlock nodded. “The Silver Dragon or Melicard; more likely it’s his counselor, Quorin. I wonder if the lord of Dagora knows anything. He’s been extremely quiet himself.”
Growing unsettled, Darkhorse stamped the ground with his hoof. The words that fled his mouth had almost become an automatic ritual. “I was a fool! I should have come to you the moment freedom was mine! It may already be too late!”
Cabe grimaced. “It doesn’t do any good to continually condemn yourself; I did that enough to know. What we have to do now is contact the Green Dragon and, with his aid, discover why there seems to be a curtain of silence between us and the north. You said that there may be a pact between the Dragon King Silver and Shade. Do you have any idea what that pact might entail?”
“I suspect part of it might have to do with a book-Shade’s notes on his vile spells-but that book is dust, thanks to me. Without it, Shade will have to plan from scratch. At one point, he seemed to recall everything, but I think that must have proved a temporary state, else why his search?”
“Then you think he plans to recreate the original spell-but why if the curse is lifted?”
“It may not be lifted. Even if it has been, where would that leave him? Friend Bedlam, if Shade sought immortality long ago, why would he not seek it again?”
The warlock’s mate, who had remained silent during this part of the exchange, turned to Darkhorse. “I worry about Talak. It sounds like a volatile situation. Do we dare let it continue that way?”
Darkhorse saw what she feared. Now would be a perfect time for the drakes to strike at Talak. “I would go back there now, since I owe the Princess Erini for my freedom, but I lack the strength and will to form a proper portal.”
“Let me see.” Gwen reached out with her hands, standing as if she were trying to ward off the stallion. Darkhorse could feel her probe as it danced over his essence, stopping here and there as she sought the cause of his weakness. When she was through with her examination, the Lady Bedlam lowered her arms and nodded to herself.
“There is a thin link between you and… someone else.”
Incredulous, he searched for himself. His own probe was less efficient than hers, suffering as it did the way all of his abilities suffered, but he eventually found what she had located. Darkhorse laughed at the thin, magical strand, invisible and insubstantial, but virtually impossible to sever.
“Drayfitt’s link! That’s twice! Curse the mage! Am I never to be free of him?”
“Is it the same?” Lady Gwen asked. “Most links are forged in the same manner, but not this one.”
Darkhorse inspected it again. “No… and it explains my weakness. I have become-a source-of strength for Drayfitt. The link is draining me slowly, but… this is too haphazard. I think the Princess Erini did this to me unintentionally.”
“Sever it now,” Cabe suggested.
“He cannot. If he does, he loses what Drayfitt has already.” Gwen made a face. “You might say that the old sorcerer is stealing Darkhorse’s essence, his being.”
“I am being devoured alive, is what you’re saying!”
“Essentially.”
Cabe looked disgusted. “How can we stop it?”
“Killing Drayfitt is one way. With the link, all that he stole will return to its original place. Darkhorse might even gain something.”
“I want nothing of Drayfitt’s! I am not a ghoul-or a murderer!”
Lady Bedlam paced. “Nathan never taught me anything like this; I think he was as disgusted with the concept as you are, Cabe. Yet…”
“Yet what?” Darkhorse grew anxious. He enjoyed existence and planned to continue to enjoy it, despite the increasing odds against doing so.
“If you can persuade him to break the link from his end-”
“Why should he be able to do that when I cannot?”
“He forged the original.” She looked at Darkhorse as he thought she must look at her children when they asked an obvious question.
“Forgive me, Lady of the Amber! I have not suffered so many calamities in centuries! I fear I am not taking them well! The frustration of being kept in check while Shade-”
Gwen cut him off. “Forget your apologies, eternal. Perhaps you’re not quite the demon I cannot help thinking you are, but you always seem to be the harbinger of disaster. For the sake of my family and the peace of the lands, I want Shade stopped-even if that means dealing with you. I don’t say that I’m right, but I’d feel the children especially safer with you far from here.”
Darkhorse tilted his head to one side and looked at the two spellcasters, finishing up with Gwen. “Humans are a strange, convoluted people, and you, Lady Bedlam, are a prime example. There is a part of you that would accept friendship with me, but there is a part of you… I need not go on. When this is over-if it ever is-we must talk again.”
More to turn the conversation to a safer course than because it was necessary to say, Cabe interjected, “If you need Drayfitt to break the link, then that means you’ll have to go to him.”
“I am aware of that. The thought does not stir joy within me. Drayfitt is not in Talak, I believe. That leaves the city virtually under Mal Quorin’s control.”
“We’ll take care of that. It might be time for the master warlock Cabe Bedlam and his lovely bride, the powerful enchantress-enchantress of my heart! — Lady Gwen, to visit the city-state in typical sorcerous style.”
His wife gave him a coy look. “Materialize on the steps of the palace?”
“Probably not a good idea. If it was that easy, the Dragon Kings would have done it long ago. I was thinking more at the city gates with a great fanfare and fireworks-all illusion, of course.”
“What reason do we give, husband?”
“An offer of peace. Melicard was always good enough to hear such things out. There is still a good man beneath that horrible face.”
“Princess Erini has brought much of that man out to the surface,” Darkhorse added. “She would make a good ally, providing they do marry. Very well. I will leave now, then, since you seem to have things in hand! My relief is beyond measure-but what of the children while you two are gone?”
“Even Shade needed permission to enter this place. The children will be safe here.”
Darkhorse did not ask the other question. But can you trust the children? he had wondered, thinking of the taller of the two hatchlings. What would this Kyl be like when he was mature? Already, he seemed too much a reflection of his sire.
