Unable to see, Ursa stumbled. One of the guards caught her before she could fall, but the near mishap was enough to make Kyl gasp.
“Your sister has been treated well,” General D’Rak remarked. “Your powers more than hers are why we must keep her like this.”
“Do not try to blame me for your evil, wolf raider.”
“’Evil’ is a subjective word. This is war, your majesty. What must be done must be done.”
The contemptuous look the Dragon Emperor gave him did not at all surprise the veteran commander. “Any situation that includes Toma is simply evil...and I think that includes any situation including Orril D’Marr as well. You would do well to watch your step around him, general.”
D’Rak did not reply. Instead, he looked at Rayvas and Ren. Ren nodded and turned to Ursa, while Rayvas attended to Kyl. As the male keeper reached the Dragon Emperor, he pulled out a tiny vial.
“Drake blood proves to be very potent,” Rayvas remarked casually. “Especially that belonging to those related to the imperial bloodline.” He opened the vial. “I think this came from one called Ssgayn.”
Kyl bared his teeth, revealing that, while so very elven in most aspects of his current appearance, he was most definitely still a dragon, too. General D’Rak knew that if Kyl could have moved his head as so little as three inches, he would have bit off Rayvas’s nose and part of his lips.
“Get on with it,” the commander ordered.
“As you wish.”
The keeper poured a tiny bit of the contents into his palm. As he did, he murmured under his breath. Rayvas then released his grip on the vial, which floated next to him. Using the blood, he drew a symbol in his palm.
Kyl watched warily. The general knew that his prisoner expected Rayvas to place the blood on Kyl’s chest or face, a reasonable assumption for anyone who had not seen blood sorcery before. Even then, General D’Rak knew that the calling did not serve each keeper in the same way. Ren had her own methods of utilizing the blood, some of which made Rayvas’s seem quaint by comparison.
Rayvas drew a circle with his free hand. The stopper flew to the vial, sealing it. Rayvas took hold of the vial, then placed it in the pouch at his side from which he had pulled it.
When the hand came out, it held a small, crystalline knife. Eyes still on the pattern, the keeper took the knife and cut into his palm in a manner tracing the pattern.
Kyl’s eyes narrowed as he realized the keeper had no plan to touch him with the blood. Augus D’Rak watched with clinical interest as the pattern --- and the drake blood --- sank into the cut. The general then peered back at Ren, who was in the process of added a small, black powder to the contents of the vial she carried.
That done, the female keeper raised the vial and downed the contents. The general swallowed anxiously. He had tasted the blood of many of his enemies over the years and knew officers who had drunk blood in the belief it strengthened them, but it was different with keepers. Keepers were able to draw the aspects of power inherent in blood, hence why that of some beings and creatures served better than others. Any blood could serve to unleash a keeper’s abilities, but the blood of a spellcaster or magical beast magnified the effects tremendously.
Rayvas and Ren stiffened simultaneously. Both let out a hiss.
Ren touched a finger to the part of the forehead part of Ursa’s helmet. As she did, Rayvas made a circle with his thumb and index finger right before the Dragon Emperor’s gaze.
Now it was Kyl who hissed. In the circle Rayvas created, images formed.
“You share a very strong bond with your sister,” the keeper commented. “I can certainly appreciate that. Where would we be without our sisters, eh? Mine saved my life once, you know.”
“As did mine.”
“Then you can appreciate her world right now,” Rayvas went on. “You can appreciate just how strong she must be right at this moment.”
General D’Rak did not have to see what images flashed by in the tiny circle. He knew that they were drawn from the deep recesses of both drakes’ memories, but with the female fully experiencing them.
Ursa groaned. Rayvas snickered.
“Stop that!” Kyl snapped, referring to the images now passing through.
“You drakes lead a violent life, even by our standards,” the keeper replied. “Must say, I wouldn’t have wanted to go through that slaughter.” Rayvas grinned as he stared at something within the circle. “Oh look! You had a brother you were both close to! Did he really do that? Such a betrayal...”
Ursa shook. It was all her guards could do to keep her in place. General D’Rak had to admire her will.
“Ah, there you are, general.”
The keepers did not flinch from their work at the sudden interruption, but D’Rak cursed under his breath. Keeping his face devoid of emotion, he turned to face Orril D’Marr. As usual, two of the towering Quel flanked him.
General D’Rak knew that if the snow-haired officer sought him, it could not be good. Orril D’Marr had thus far had shown a habit of changing plans as the mood struck him.
D’Marr eyed Ren and Ursa for a moment, then proceeded to Rayvas and the Dragon Emperor. D’Rak stepped back and reached for his sword as the younger officer removed the crystal-headed mace ever hanging at his side.
But it was not Rayvas who was D’Marr’s target. Shoving aside the keeper’s hand, D’Marr quickly brought the crystalline head to Kyl’s chest.
To his credit, the Dragon Emperor bit back a cry. However, from behind them, his sister shrieked.
Orril D’Marr smiled, then replaced the mace. Even Rayvas eyed the man with wariness. Rayvas was wild; Orril D’Marr was mad.
“We’ve no need to concern ourselves with the secrets of Kivan Grath at the moment,” the pale officer said to the general. There will be plenty of time for that.”
“But the dragon said ---”
“I don’t care what the dragon said!” D’Marr roared, his reaction so startling that even the Quel jolted. Eyes unblinking, he leaned into the commander’s face. “Nothing matters more than taking the mongrel in his own sanctum! Nothing!”
It was clear that the Gryphon remained D’Marr’s great obsession. D’Rak would have liked to know just what had happened between them, not that as an Aramite --- and as the brother of the former senior keeper --- the general did not also look forward to putting the Gryphon’s head on a spike.
“’Tis too soon...and it would mean dividing our forces in a way that both slows us and leaves us open. The dragon ---”
Orril D’Marr snapped his mouth shut. The vision of fury became a mask of calm, with only the cold eyes radiating the hatred that the general knew drove the man.
D’Marr smiled. “For the last time, have no concern over how things appear. Toma will acquiesce to my desire in this. He has no choice.”
And with that, he quietly strode from the chamber. The general did not move until D’Marr had left, then angrily gestured at Ursa. “Take her back to her chamber! Ren! Rayvas! Attend me!”
For once quieted, his son fell into place behind him. Ren turned over the stricken Ursa to the guards who had accompanied the female drake, then took up a position next to Rayvas.
As he walked, General D’Rak considered D’Marr’s declaration. If what D’Marr said was true, then that meant the young officer wielded far more power than believed. D’Rak had faced Toma long enough to know how driven the undead dragon was as well.
We shall see who plays who, he thought grimly. and then, if the winner is weakened enough...the pack will deal with that as it always does. The pack --- the empire --- will survive no matter what.
XI
Reaper Wyrm
Morning came to the Manor with no word from Shade. Cabe was less concerned with the ageless spellcaster’s possible fate than the effect the mystery was having on his daughter. He had tried to deny the love between the pair even in the face of reality, but seeing her growing concern forced him to admit that he had no power over that
situation.
Still, it was not as if he had not tried to find out. However, no matter what spell the Bedlams had cast, there had been no hint of Shade’s whereabouts.
Despite his concern for Valea, Cabe knew that he also had to concentrate on the unsettling events taking place all over. More worrisome to him than Shade’s vanishing was Darkhorse’s. In the course of the spellwork designed to locate Shade, Cabe had surreptitiously sought to contact Darkhorse in the Hell Plains.
There had been no response. There should have been --- after all, it had only been a short while since Cabe had left the eternal --- and yet not once had there been a hint of a reply. He had not said anything to the family yet, hoping against hope that Darkhorse would prove the wizard’s suspicions wrong by reaching out to them.
Gwen and the children rested for the moment. Cabe’s wife had given their daughter a soothing tea. Still, the reprieve was surely to a short one, he knew. The wizard had hoped Darkhorse could help him, but if the eternal was lost himself, then that only left ---
Cabe Bedlam...
“Gryphon.”
Cabe...something has recently happened...can you come here? It has to do with the students.
The Gryphon said no more and the fact that he would not even explain over the mental link said volumes to Cabe. The others are sleeping. Do you need Gwen or any of them?
No...you for now. If it goes as I suspect, they will have to learn soon, though.
The wizard nodded to the empty air. I’m coming.
Focusing on Penacles and the Gryphon in particular, Cabe transported himself. It was a spell he had cast countless times, one that he could do with barely a thought.
Which was why when he did not materialize in the palace --- or anywhere at that moment --- Cabe knew that someone or something very powerful had interfered.
Images began swirling around him. Dense forest. Volcanic basins. A field full of wild horses. Several locations that went by so swiftly Cabe could not even tell what they were.
And in the midst of all of it, the wizard sensed whoever had been waiting for him to cast his spell now attempted to shut the trap. A monstrous clawed paw --- a dragon’s paw --- reached out from between the multiple locations and sought to engulf him. Cabe knew that what he saw was only a representation of his attacker’s physical presence, but it startled him nevertheless. What shook him even more was the cadaverous nature of the claw, revealing a necromantic side to the spellwork itself.
His first thought turned to the Lords of the Dead again and whether Shade had been wrong after all. Yet, he also sensed something distinctly different from their foul power, something actually vaguely familiar in an awful way.
As the paw folded around him, he acted. Whatever sought him obviously knew something of his powers, but that hardly meant that Cabe had no chance of escape. Cabe did not try to force completion of his spell as most would have done. Instead, he reversed it, sending him back to the Manor.
At least, that was what Cabe had hoped for.
He did succeed in ripping himself free of the closing paw, but then the images of a thousand and more locations enveloped him again. Cabe felt him tossed toward one potential destination after another, but never actually reaching them. To his frustration, not once did the palace offer itself as a choice.
Then, suddenly he stood in the midst of the racing herd of wild horses. Towering equines with long, fluttering manes veered as best they could around the wizard, but only a quick shield mentally cast by Cabe prevented him from ending up being trampled by the sheer numbers.
Cabe barely had time to register his location as near the Zuu, legendary for their horse breeding, before the landscape shifted and again the an endless array of images flew past him.
He suddenly sensed the dragon’s presence encroaching fast. Once more, there was that unsettling feeling of familiarity about the creature, feeling made even worse by the macabre nature of Cabe’s foe. This was no mere dragon; this was a thing undead, what the tomes described as a reaper wyrm.
Cabe had slain more than his share of dragons. His family, both past and present, were responsible for many more. The tomes said little more about the horrific creatures, so rare were they even in a land ruled for millennia by the drake lords. If this one had a past tie to Cabe or his family, the wizard would pursue that if and only if he managed to escape the trap.
Clearly it had been biding its time, waiting for him to try to teleport to somewhere. Whether it had been focusing on Penacles, Cabe could not say. Most who knew of it knew that the Manor --- the Bedlam sanctum --- was a place nearly impervious to intrusive spells. An enemy would have to wait for Cabe to leave its safety before being able to attempt anything against him.
He abruptly dropped into another destination. The many winding hills dotted with forest suggested he was near Gordag-Ai in the northwest of the continent, perhaps even within the kingdom of the dwarves. There was no sign of the reclusive race to verify that, though, the dwarves’ actual realm deep underground.
What there was, however, was a pack of more than a dozen armored riders atop huge, almost leonine beasts that also had lupine traits to them. With the materializing riders came a gust of cold, cold wind that verified what Cabe already knew just by looking at the thick white coats of the mounts and the icy dusting on the familiar black armor of the riders. This new attack originated from the Wastes. Now some of the pieces of the puzzle came together...and yet, at the same time, Cabe realized that the puzzle itself was much more complex than he had initially assumed.
Weapons drawn, the wolf raiders charged him. By themselves, they were a minor danger, but Cabe knew the Aramites well enough to understand that they would hardly rely on such a simple assault against a skilled spellcaster.
Cabe was not a man who enjoyed killing. Nor was he like the Gryphon, whose generations as a soldier and a mercenary before assuming the mantle of ruler had given him a pragmatic attitude when it came to battle. An enemy was an enemy and thus needed to be vanquished promptly whenever possible. Cabe could appreciate that notion and had even acted similarly in the past, but where he could avoid dealing death, he did.
Thus it was that the ground ahead of the first three riders softened beneath their mounts’ paws so quickly that the creatures were immediately ensnared. The beasts struggle to no avail, their riders cursing and kicking their mounts’ sides to try to get them to move on. That caused one of the furious animals to try to snap at the human on its back. Cabe recognized that the furred behemoths only tolerated the Aramites, not served them.
Several of the other monsters leapt over the area the wizard had affected. Landing on solid ground, they closed on Cabe.
With what seemed only a glance to anyone watching him, he sent thousands of leaves from the nearby oaks and other trees flying at the oncoming danger. The leaves became a blinding whirlwind that enveloped the next four nearest riders and mounts.
Something struck Cabe hard from behind. Despite his constant shield spells, the blow was powerful enough to send him stumbling forward. He had expected the charge to be a feint, but the fact that the actual attack had caught him so off guard despite his precautions said something about the magical strength of whatever hunted him.
Whirling, Cabe faced a horror that might have disturbed him more if not for already being aware of the wyrm. A towering thing outwardly composed of ice raised a thick fist as it approached. By itself, a construct of frozen water might not have seemed so frightening, but it was what lay within that gave the new monster its ghastly nature.
Acting as a bizarre skeleton of sorts for the ice creature was the frozen, still screaming corpse of an elf. The eyes stared up at the sky as the golem closed on Cabe. The mage had confronted such constructs when entering the Northern Wastes. They had been a particular affectation of the Ice Dragon, the foreboding realm’s long dead master.
That, of course, made him wonder whether the reaper wyrm was indeed the Ice Dragon. Everything so far pointed at that, but Cabe had long ago
learned not to take things at face value.
He snapped his fingers. A spark flew from the fingers to the golem. As it did, it became a full fire that engulfed the creature.
Cabe tried to transport himself back to the Manor.
The reaper wyrm acted. The mage felt a dark power surround him, a power that sought to seep into Cabe’s body and into his very soul.
Cabe reinforced his shields. The golem had also been a feint. Even having suspected that twist also, Cabe still barely managed to fight off the insidious intrusion.
The landscape changed yet again. Cabe tried to focus on one of the new images, not caring exactly what location it was so long as it gave him a stable place.
The sea greeted him. Cabe estimated he was somewhere south of Irillian by the Sea.
His reprieve proved to be a very short one. He sensed the wyrm’s approach and understood only then that the fiend had been expecting this move by the wizard. The wyrm’s dark magic closed around Cabe again.
Now at last we come full circle...
The voice’s hatred shook Cabe. He could only think of one dragon who could hate him so, even counting the previous emperor himself. Yet, to believe that such evil could return to haunt him and his family ---
No...you are mine... came a different voice.
Suddenly, the sea faded. Cabe spun through an emptiness that reminded him of the Void, the blank, endless dimension from which Darkhorse had come. The sensation lasted only moments before Cabe found himself falling from high in the sky. The wizard fought to stop is descent, but barely slowed it. His magic worked, but slowly and with less effect. It was as if something was drawing his power from him, but he could not see the wyrm being able to do that. Cabe’s shields still held strong enough that the undead beast could not have penetrated them enough. It would’ve needed a stronger link to the mage, something as strong as a blood tie or more.
The Dragon Throne: Knights of the Frost Pt. II (Legends of the Dragonrealm) Page 4
