ssself!”
As much as Darkhorse normally delighted in being appreciated, he had no time for such flattery now. “Your master, scaly one! I have need to speak with him!”
“Yesss, forgive me! Your appearance here has excited me! Others have been searching for them!”
“Searching? No one knows where they are?”
“They were not in their room.”
Ssarekai would have said more, but a human female materialized through the trees and rushed to his side. Glancing at Darkhorse with more than a little fear, she whispered to the drake. It was an odd sight. Though humans and drakes intermingled in some places, such as Irillian, there was generally a sense of separation even when they spoke to one another. Here, on the other hand, the woman stood somewhat behind Ssarekai, as if she depended on him for protection from Darkhorse.
Curious things are being done here, the shadow steed thought wryly.
The drake looked upset. His hissing became more evident and his blunted, nearly human tongue darted in and out every now and then as he spoke. “Great Darkhorse, sssomething is amissss! No one can find the massster and mistress! Someone sssays-”
He did not hear what the drake had to say next, for another voice intruded, this one threatening to tear his mind apart, so intensely did it strike him. Ssarekai stepped back, his next words forgotten. Behind him, the female human tried to make herself as small as possible.
Darkhorse!
That was all. His name. His name echoing again and again. Shaking his head, he succeeded in clearing the echoes from his mind, but not from his thoughts.
“Great Darkhorse?” Ssarekai tentatively called.
The eternal paid him no mind. Erini! She was calling for his help! The Dragon King must have struck somehow!
His task here forgotten, the eternal summoned forth a new portal. Had the drakes waited until he was gone before beginning some insidious assault? What?
“Great One?” the drake Ssarekai called again, this time more urgently. His voice went unheeded.
“Stand fast! Those who would touch the friends of Darkhorse must be willing to pay in full for their misdeeds!”
The fearsome statements were out of his mouth before his eyes acknowledged the obvious fact that no one standing within sight appeared to be under attack by so much as a flea. Nothing seemed to be happening at all, save that Darkhorse once again found himself facing a sea of startled looks from every pair of eyes in the room. It was something he was becoming very annoyed about. The stallion was beginning to feel as if he were the intruder, not Shade or the Silver Dragon.
Scanning those around him, Darkhorse spotted Erini. She was staring at him in mild surprise. Confused, the shadow steed turned away from her gaze and focused on Melicard. The king flashed an uncertain smile in his direction.
“While we-appreciate-the sentiment, Darkhorse, I think the time for theatrics is long past.”
Something is dreadfully wrong here! Had it been possible, his face would have turned crimson. “I received a desperate summons for help-from the Princess Erini!”
Melicard looked at his future queen. “Erini?”
The princess shook her head silently. She seemed almost disinterested.
The king turned back to the imposing figure before him and said, “Nothing has happened since you departed a moment ago save that the drakes have moved a little closer and we still await your friends, the Lord and Lady Bedlam. When do they arrive? I would rather not put my faith entirely in my own tricks, not if there are two master spellcasters available.”
“I–I cannot say when they will arrive or if they even ever will. There was no sign of them. Their own people cannot find them!”
“Cannot find them?”
“I fear Shade has struck again!” Darkhorse could not help looking skyward. “I rue that this time should have ever come! He was my friend during many an adventure, but he has also been my sworn foe in times past! This day, however, washes away all the good that he has ever performed! If Cabe and his mate have suffered because of the warlock…” Darkhorse could not finish, unable to find a punishment strong enough to mete out.
The cry had seemed so real. He studied the princess, who idly stood by, waiting for something to happen. Why was she so indifferent now? Even with the lack of true sleep, she was not acting as he would have imagined her to act. The Erini he had met would have continued pushing until unconsciousness took her. This one seemed to hardly care.
There was one other thing that disturbed him-or perhaps it was the absence of something.
Several men came marching into the chamber, Captain Iston in their lead. A gasp escaped Erini and she took a tentative step forward before catching herself and settling back into her look of indifference. Darkhorse’s ice-blue eyes narrowed.
Iston saluted. “My men are ready when you give the signal, your majesty.”
Darkhorse listened to the officer’s words, but his eyes remained fixed on the princess. There was a look of longing growing in her eyes that had nothing to do with Melicard. Her attention appeared to be focused on the captain.
He knew that the princess was a woman of passions, but the shadow steed knew that her love could have never turned so easily. Erini had been prepared to give her life several times over for the sake of her betrothed. This Erini acted as if she had never cared at all.
This Erini?
Forgetting Melicard and the others, he trotted toward the princess. She could not help turning to him, so impressive a sight he was, especially moving toward her with such evident purpose. Strangely, there was a level of fear noticeable in her eyes that also did not match the Erini he had come to know well, even despite what little time they had spent together.
“Your majesty is not looking well,” he rumbled.
“A lack of sleep,” she murmured. It was evident that the woman before him did not want him so near.
“How is your concentration? Will you be able to aid in the cause?”
“I hope so.” Her tone suggested otherwise.
Darkhorse fixed his glittering eyes on hers. Erini tried to struggle, but her will was surprisingly weak and she quickly succumbed.
“I know now what so disturbed me about you! I know now that you could not have summoned my aid!”
Behind him, Melicard moved quickly to stand beside his bride-to-be. He faced Darkhorse with blood in his good eye.
“What are you doing to her? What in the name of the Tybers are you doing?”
“Resolving my own uncertainties about a few things-and cursing myself anew for missing the obvious!” Darkhorse drew Erini toward him, repelling Melicard at the same time. While the king struggled in vain and his men watched in stunned confusion, the shadow steed probed the human before him. He was not surprised at the results.
“This is not your future bride, King Melicard! This woman has no sorcerous ability whatsoever! She who stands before you, though she looks like the Princess Erini, is but a poor creature caught in a spell whose origins can only derive from that master of mayhem, Shade!”
Melicard’s jaw dropped. “Not Erini?”
“No, not the princess! I should have noticed instantly that she projected no sorcerous presence! Princess Erini did not have the skill yet to mask that presence, at least not so completely!”
The false Erini was struggling with the spell that held her. A spellcaster she might not have been, but whoever-and that was likely to be Shade-had ensorcelled her had shrouded her in a few defensive spells. Darkhorse, though, strengthened by his own fury, tore away each of them, until only the illusion remained. While everyone waited-Melicard shaking-the shadow steed removed that last spell, revealing a shorter, slightly stout woman.
