It unfolded before her, revealing what she had known but had hoped was only her panicked imagination.
“Gerrod!”
“Zeree, listen to me! Sirvak tells me that-”
Sirvak! The familiar had betrayed her? How was that possible… unless Gerrod, cunning as Melenea had said, had somehow overwhelmed the beast’s mind, making it a creature of his. “Stay away from me, Tezerenee!”
“Little fool! Your father protected you too well! You have no concept of what Vraad mentalities are like! If you only-”
Sharissa, taking advantage of his pontificating, rushed past him back in the direction of the chamber where she had left Melenea and safety. Not expecting such bold, nonmagical action from her, likely because he assumed her a weak, sobbing child, Gerrod was caught by surprise. His reflexes, a product of his upbringing, were exceptional, however, and he barely missed grabbing hold of her arm.
“Sharissa! No! Come back! Talk to Sirvak!”
She paid him no mind, knowing that the familiar would puppet the hooded Vraad’s words. Her only hope, she decided, lay in Melenea and escape from the castle.
As she reached the doorway, through which Gerrod would not be able to touch her, she felt a tingling in the air around her. The Tezerenee was casting a spell. Without caring where she landed, Sharissa leaped into the room.
“Melenea, I-”
“Shari! Call these vermin off of me!”
The darkdwellers, little more than rags of darkness, flittered about the enchantress, moving in on one side to strike at her as she attempted to defend the other. A few marks on the floor spoke of those who had met their fate at Melenea’s hands.
It made too much sense to Sharissa’s distraught imagination. Through Sirvak, Gerrod must now control the darkdwellers, too. The citadel was no longer secure; even this room, where she thought to have a chance to think, was threatened by the Tezerenee.
“Sharissa!” Gerrod stood at the entranceway, pushing futilely at the barrier. How long that would last, she had no idea. Trying to ignore the threat behind her, she turned her attention to her friend. At her presence, the ebony creatures flew away, reluctant but obedient to her will. The younger sorceress did not question her luck, wishing only to see if her companion was injured or not.
Several scratches marred the ivory skin of Melenea, but the enchantress ignored them, choosing instead to grasp Sharissa’s wrist painfully and pull her closer.
“We leave now! Hold on to me!”
“Zeree! You can’t trust-”
The remainder of Gerrod’s words were lost as the castle ceased to exist around them and Sharissa suddenly found herself in what could only be the domain of Melenea.
Failurefailurefailurefailure…
Gerrod struggled against the mad panic of Sirvak’s mind. The beast had lost control the second its mistress had departed with Melenea. Even as he forced the familiar back to a state of sanity, he himself could not help fearing for the young Zeree. Gerrod was not fond of her, but no one deserved the ministrations of the enchantress… save perhaps Reegan, who would have likely reveled in them.
Sirvak! Listen to me!
He had succeeded in convincing the familiar that an alliance with him was the best hope. The familiar’s fairly quick agreement had stemmed mostly from its knowledge of the Lady Melenea. It was a case of the enemy of my enemy… Whatever the reason, they had hoped to catch Sharissa at a time when she would be willing to listen. Gerrod himself felt bitter about the failure, for that had been strictly his own fault. It called to mind what his father had said earlier and he now began to question the truth of that reprimand.
In the end, it likely did not matter. Gerrod had failed at his task and he could not go back empty-handed. Now, Dru Zeree’s theoretical pathway to the shrouded realm was looking to be his only chance for survival. When the Lord Tezerenee hinted that he would leave a body behind, it was not a jest.
Failure… The familiar was much more calm now, but it still was in no condition to aid in planning. That would fall to Gerrod again.
Though he could not enter the chamber, he had spied upon its occupants for a short time. Sharissa had mentioned Dru’s earlier work involving the sightings and the binding forces of the two worlds. Perhaps there lay the key.
Sirvak! He treated the familiar as he would have treated one of the wyverns back in the clan’s domain. The winged creation responded as if its own master had summoned it.
Listen to me closely, he began, and we may yet save your master and mistress… not to mention myself. He added the last slowly, knowing it was all too true. This is what I think we must do…
IX
Dru woke to a new dawn not even knowing when he had blacked out. The last thing he recalled was the sudden descent of a number of the bird people, creating, in the process, a circle around him. He had tried to act, his mind screeching that he moved in slow motion, but was too late. The blackout occurred then.
His bonds held when he tested them. Attempts at spells left his head pounding at first and then filled with a buzzing that would not depart for several minutes. He gave up after two attempts, knowing that he was very much a helpless prisoner. With escape impossible for now, the sorcerer began to work on satisfying his ever-hungry curiosity. Studying his dusky brown captors in the early morning light, Dru supposed that they were nearly all male. None of them had any special characteristics that were visible, but four of the avians appeared adult even though they were shorter and slighter than their companions. Not knowing any better, he assumed these were the females. If so, the birdlike creatures were great believers in equality, for the four smaller ones worked as hard as the rest and were treated with equal respect.
The avians were little more familiar with this territory than Dru was; it was evident from their jerking movements, their constant vigilance. Territory had been secured, but they were surrounded by unknown lands. Likely, they were also more at home in trees, mountainsides, and, of course, the sky. His captors were in awe of the abandoned city and more than a little afraid of it as well, though they tried to hide both emotions under a mask of arrogance worthy of Barakas. Dru tried to speak to them, but all he received for his attempts were slaps across the face and unintelligible squawks. From their gestures during one of those sessions, he suspected that they had a way of communicating with him, but had debated whether it was necessary to do so. In the end, his captors chose to merely drag him along.
Dru wondered about the beast they had saved him from. Judging by the reaction of the bird creatures, its death was a cause for celebration. Like the killing of a blood enemy, he noted. It would not have surprised him if a war was going on between these two horrific races. From what little experience he had enjoyed so far, neither seemed any better than his own race and bloodshed was quite a favorite pastime of the Vraad.
That they had killed the other figure, the one that the sorcerer assumed must have been one of Barakas’s elves, went without saying. What interested Dru most, despite the danger he was in, was why his captor and members of two other races would come to this place. What did it have that they all wanted so badly? Granted, most of his ideas were pure conjecture, but Dru was fairly certain he was on the right path.
As they grew nearer and nearer to the avians’-and his own, admittedly-goal, Dru wondered what had become of Darkness. A wild notion that his captors had instigated the entity’s odd withdrawal passed quickly from his mind; certainly they would not have left such a threat at their backside. Neither had they been the ones responsible for his horse’s odd actions. The avians had totally ignored the steed other than to initially note its presence. Horses were apparently common here and one wandering loose in the vicinity of the ancient city was beneath their concern. It had, in fact, wandered off at some point after his blackout. The trail it left steered to the north, but that was all Dru knew, unable to track it farther.
Up close, the ruins were even vaster. The outer walls had been more than five times the sorcerer’s height; massive fragments of some still remained standing. The towers, those that had not collapsed, were much taller and
