The Dragon Throne: Knights of the Frost Pt. II (Legends of the Dragonrealm)

by Richard A. Knaak

  “L-Lynnette...”

  Cabe had not given Melicard’s daughter a thought, assuming that she would be safe so long as she remained far from the sinister spirit. Now he realized he had been naive.

  “Please...she’s needed.”

  “Melicard ---”

  “I will be all right! Please!”

  The wizard wasted no more time. With but a thought, he transported himself to where he sensed the princess to be ---

  But instead, Cabe Bedlam found himself on the highest balcony facing the Tyber Mountains. There, he beheld the chain as if through a thick cloud. No matter how hard he tried to pierce the haze, his efforts failed.

  At the same time, Cabe continued to seek out Lynnette, who was not on the balcony as expected. It suddenly occurred to the wizard that he had no idea why she would be here in the first place, considering that he had just seen her deep below. Cabe quickly focused his attention on the lower levels of the palace and, to his surprise, discovered the princess climbing a set of stone steps leading her to the main floor.

  And yet...Cabe still sensed Lynnette nearby.

  But no longer on the balcony. Frowning, the wizard leaned over the rail to see what lay below.

  The great necropolis of Talak greeted his gaze, its grim mausoleums and other structures stretched for quite a distance. Long ago, the first dwellers here had begun carving out the initial tombs from the rock, then later sculpted the uneven landscape to create the spectacle. Kings and queens all the way back to the first were buried here, as were most of the other members of the royal bloodlines. Other sections marked where ministers of state, champions of the realm, honored soldiers, and others had their final resting places.

  Here was also where Erini should have been laid to rest, if not for the mage’s error.

  He squinted as something caught his eye. A trick of the mist, Cabe thought at first before finally seeing it for what it was...and why he had thought Princess Lynnette could be found here.

  It was impossible to ever completely focus on one, much less all the rest. They stood gathered across the necropolis, all facing the same direction.

  All facing the north. The Tybers.

  That there were more ghosts than merely Mal Quorin did not surprise Cabe, but what did was that it appeared that every person laid to rest below had been stirred to waking.

  That same touch that he had mistaken for Lynnette’s magical trace caught his attention again. He looked to the head of the spectral throng and there saw her.

  Her face was turned from him, but Cabe knew it to be Queen Erini. Indeed, the wizard realized that this mystical gathering could not have been possible without her, Talak’s royal lines never known for any magical ability. It had been Erini who had stirred them up so that their strength could be added to her will.

  Cabe eyed the haze over the Tybers, then used his own skills to mark that haze’s advance to the south. Only over Talak had the haze failed to advance and only had it failed because of what the late queen had created here with the aid of those to whom Talak had meant so much.

  “You see them.”

  He had sensed her arrival a breathe before it happened. Without taking his gaze from what was happening, he replied, “Your father doesn’t know.”

  The princess stepped up next to him. “I thought I was imagining it when I stepped out here two nights ago. Something kept calling to me, something that reminded me of Mother.”

  “Did she talk to you?”

  Lynnette frowned. “Yes...and no. It was more of a feeling. Just a sense that she knew what she had to do and that --- and that what Father’s is trying to do will only make it that much harder.”

  Cabe was not certain what that meant. “What about what’s happening out there? Did she give you any clue?”

  “Nothing...nothing I can understand, at least. There was a sense of warning, though, as if she wasn’t certain that she could protect us as she usually did because of this. I’ve been keeping track of my father and brother constantly since, even when I’m not with them. That’s why I followed Father earlier. He’s been acting oddly on and off. It’s been tiring, to keep doing all this, I have to admit...”

  The legion of ghosts continued to eye the north. With some effort, Cabe could sense magical manipulations by the late queen as she strove with the rest to keep the haze at bay. “You seem very calm about all this.”

  “Actually, I am frightened half to death, but Father always taught us to keep our fears under control or else they would control us.”

  “Yes, that sounds like your father. Speaking of which, he needs your assistance. There was a slight incident after you left. Nothing serious.” The veteran mage saw no reason to bring up the situation concerning the foul specter of Mal Quorin.

  Suddenly, Lynnette looked much younger to him, more the age she actually was. “Something ails Father?” She concentrated. “He’s exhausted!”

  Before Cabe could respond, the princess vanished. He sensed her with her father. With the dark spirit of Mal Quorin cast out, Cabe hoped that there would be no further danger to king and his children.

  Which left the wizard once more concentrating on the ghostly throng and especially the singular spirit at their head. Cabe did not want to upset whatever balance Erini and the other spirits had created and so he instead focused on the area just ahead, where Erini had focused her efforts.

  It struck him that as with so much else he had recently confronted --- even Toma’s monstrous return included --- he had taken the rise of Talak’s ghostly rulers in defense of their realm almost with ease.

  No, the mage thought with some bitterness, more like resignation. Is there nothing in the realm will not thrust upon us?

  He shook off the dark thoughts as concentrated on penetrating the mysterious veil. Cabe had expected resistance, but at first it was as if his mind struck a great stone wall. He could not move forward, could not see or sense anything beyond the murky vision he beheld.

  Yet, in even that Cabe learned much. The magic that formed the mysterious barrier was like nothing he had sensed before. It was not even reminiscent of either Shade or Darkhorse. At the same time, though, there was something familiar about it.

  Not Vraad...not Seeker...but...what?

  Then, he abruptly felt something familiar within the veil. There was no mistaking it. The wizard tensed, wondering what it meant.

  Darkhorse? he called. Darkhorse! Can you hear me?

  There was no actual response, but the shadow steed’s presence grew stronger, closer. Cabe almost expected to see the ebony stallion burst from the haze, but at the last moment, the presence halted. The mage sensed uncertainty, concern.

  He can’t free himself! Cabe did not hesitate. Gritting his teeth, he threw all his effort into strengthening the tentative bond between the eternal and him.

  Cabe screamed as he felt his spirit nearly torn from his body. He stumbled, almost falling over the rail. Cabe knew that if he fell, his protective spells would not be enough to save him from the high plunge.

  Darkhorse’s presence remained strong, but now there was something else behind it, something that had waited in the haze for just this moment.

  Something powerful.

  Gripping the rail tightly, Cabe fought back. His head cleared somewhat. Still, he knew that if this struggle lasted much longer, then he would falter. He had left himself open at a critical point and had thus given his unknown adversary an advantage few had had against the mage in the past.

  Refusing to give in, Cabe worked to readjust his protective spells. He succeeded in rebuilding one and pushing the attacking presence just a bit back. Despite how meager the victory was, it was still a victory. The slight reprieve enabled Cabe to focus better. That, in turn, let him strengthen another of his defense.

  The second presence fell upon him.

  Still vulnerable due to the opening he had created for the false Darkhorse, Cabe could not fight off the second foe in time. The wizard slumped over the rail ---

>   Then, a light touch on his back not only restored his strength, but pushed both intruders from him. Cabe straightened. He put all his power into freeing himself ---

  The attackers recoiled. The second fled back into the

  haze. The first held on for a moment longer, then vanished, taking with it all hint of Darkhorse.

  Despite his victory, Cabe almost fell over the railing. Again, though, his unseen rescuer gently brought him back from the edge.

  Gasping, Cabe turned around.

  For just a moment, the image of Queen Erini caught his eye. Then...it was gone.

  He quickly returned his attention to Talak’s ghostly protectors. The flickering vision of Melicard’s lost queen remained where he had first seen it, but Cabe knew very well that she had been the one to keep him from perishing.

  “Thank you,” he muttered.

  Then, Cabe’s eyes widened as he looked back at the haze and saw that it had crept closer. In protecting him, Erini had briefly weakened Talak’s own defenses. It now held again, but Cabe cursed his own impetuousness for potentially causing disaster.

  But all consideration for Talak went momentarily to the side as what the wizard had experienced penetrated his thoughts.

  “Darkhorse...” Cabe muttered. “and --- what?”

  There was no answer to his question, but he knew where he had to go next.

  Grimacing, he quickly vanished from Talak.

  * * *

  On the edge of a rugged path high on the western edge of one of the mountains north of Talak, Rayvas slumped against the rocky wall. Although he trouble catching his breath, his expression was one of tremendous pleasure.

  “Shut your eyes and concentrate,” Ren remarked. “Clear your thoughts and you will calm.”

  “Easy --- easy for you to say! You ---- you weren’t a part of that!” Despite the protesting words, the keeper remained pleased.

  “I provided you with the stability you needed,” his sister countered, reaching him a hand. “Otherwise, we might both be dead, consumed by the spell.”

  “Well, instead, it’s gone wonderfully!” Accepting the hand, Rayvas used his sister’s strength to help him rise. “Wonderfully! The wizard stepped right into it, so to speak!”

  “But you got greedy. We agreed on just how much would be necessary. You had to try to take more.”

  “I got ‘more’. It wasn’t a waste of time!” He held up a black, glass ball the size of a large nut. “Certainly more than we’ll need.”

  “Do not underestimate the dragon.”

  “I don’t. We have the horse’s essence and now we have this. What next?”

  “Next?” Ren kept her grip tight on her brother’s hand. “We go back. He’s waiting for us.”

  The pleasure faded from Rayvas’s face, but before he could say anything, the scene faded around them. Part of the vast interior of Kivan Grath formed around them.

  The moment they materialized, Rayvas hid the tiny sphere in his outfit.

  Releasing hands, both keepers turned as another figure stepped toward them.

  “Well?” asked General D’Rak.

  “It is done,” Ren replied. “As promised, we were not noticed. After all, we helped create the spell. That helped us cover our efforts.”

  “That last is the only reason this can work. May work.”

  “Are you having more doubts?” Rayvas grinned. “Are you lacking in faith?”

  The general ignored his questions. “Will it be enough, Ren?”

  “Nearly. We have one more element...and then it should be enough.”

  “’Should’? One mistake and we’re all dead. Don’t think for a moment that we can trust D’Marr.”

  “We understand, Father.”

  It was rare for either of his children or him to acknowledge their blood bond outright. General D’Rak eyed Ren. She might have sounded like the more sane of the two, but the fact that both had become keepers like their uncle instead of soldiers as their father had chosem said much about her own instability. Still, the veteran officer knew that both understood the danger to them from this ‘alliance’. They would need to move first when the time for betrayal came.

  “How soon, then? How soon will it be enough?”

  “That depends,” Rayvas responded dryly. “First we have to locate the right candidate. It’s all in the blood, you know. Well, whatever equivalent of blood in this case. After all, not just anyone has what it takes to bring down a reaper wyrm, Father...assuming it actually can be done at all!”

  General D’Rak fought back his impatience. “And have you found some potential candidates?”

  Rayvas started to reply, but Ren silenced him with a hand on his arm. “We have two, but one looks more promising. A very unique melding. Possibly one of a kind.”

  One of a kind?” She had the general’s attention. “In what way?”

  Her brother would not quieted. “Why, she’s half-dragon herself, Father! Half-dragon! Can you imagine it?”

  General Augus D’Rak permitted himself a smile.

  XIV

  Sins of the Past

  Head aching, bones screaming, Shade stirred. With effort, he opened his eyes...to find the round ones of the Seeker leader staring at him.

  His brief frustration at the apparent ease with which she had made the same journey quickly gave way to the realization that the avian should not be here at all. Unlike him, she had willingly leapt into the foul hole.

  And leapt into a place the warlock had hoped never to see again.

  The grey, somewhat indistinct landscape resurrected unsettling memories. Even now, with the whispers gone, with the furtive shadows nowhere to be seen, the sensation that something insidious lurked just out of sight remained.

  The taint of my cousins remains strong even after their vanquishing, he thought with some wariness. And apparently their legacy may prove to be worse for the realm than the Lords of the Dead were.

  Shade had recognized the traces of dark sorcery that marked the necromancers the moment he had neared the hole. He had understood exactly to where the hole led and what that potentially meant. Yet, the scene --- what there was of it --- was also as he had expected. ‘The Still Lands’, as folklore sometimes termed the Lords’ mysterious domain, was as still as the warlock could ever recall it. Only the structure of it seemed to remain. All of the souls the necromancers had collected --- slices of souls, to be precise --- over countless millennia had departed.

  But not all of them left for whatever afterlife was meant for them, Shade reminded himself. And in not leaving, they have allowed something else to stir...but what?

  The Seeker extended a taloned hand. Shade took it. As he stood, he used his power to search their surroundings more thoroughly. Again, all he sensed were lingering traces of his cousins’ power, not nearly enough to create the troubles the Dragonrealm was facing.

  The Aramites have something bound to this land, bound to my cousins’ power. That has to be it --- but what?

  At that moment, the Seeker let out a quiet warning squawk. Shade did not reveal any visible reaction, instead immediately magnifying his senses and doing another sweep over their vicinity. Yet, still there was nothing.

  The Seeker gestured to a half-seen hillside atop which stood an incomplete building that vaguely reminded Shade of the Manor minus the ancient tree that was a living part of it. The warlock’s first inclination was to transport them to it, but despite not noting any threat, Shade trusted in the avian’s warning.

  Moving quickly the pair reached the base of the hill. Shade expected to climb up to the murky structure, but instead the Seeker reached one hand to the hill itself.

  The surface of the hill gave way like water. A small hole formed that the Seeker swiftly stretched wider and wider until it was large enough for either to enter.

  At that moment, something stirred on the edge of the warlock’s consciousness, something that sent a shiver through his spine. It touched on his most basic nature in a manner that made him
feel like a small, unprotected child.

  The interior of the chamber the Seeker had so easily shaped was as grey as the outside. As Shade had noted in past excursions here, it was as if to him some sculptor --- or perhaps a painter --- had begun to craft his latest project, only to lose interest not even midway through.

  The Seeker quickly sealed the hole. Just as she finished, Shade’s sense of dread grew so great that he had to struggle not to scream.

  Then, the worst passed. The dread gradually faded, finally vanishing.

  The warlock did not bother asking what monstrous danger they had just evaded. Not only had there thus far been no direct means of communication between the two, but Shade doubted that even the Seeker would have been unable to give him a satisfactory answer. The Lords of the Dead had had millennia to create countless monstrosities to serve their dark cause, not the least of which had been their colonies of savage chiropteran Necri. At the time of the Lords’ destruction, Shade had not considered the fact that some of those creatures would survive their masters.

  He had little time to consider the further repercussions that might entail. The Seeker opened the way again, then indicated that he make haste behind her.

  Once more, Shade surveyed the incomplete surroundings. While as usual his memories of his past lives remained fragmented, some facts about the Dragonrealm itself always stayed with him. One significant fact was the truth about the necromancers’ sinister domain...and, in fact, the structure of the Dragonrealm itself. The Lords’ realm was in fact an ancient pocket world created by the founding race, one of many such contained slivers of the true world where the founders had conducted their greatest spellwork --- creating countless races from their own flesh and blood in the desire to find a successor to their dying people. Even the Seeker with Shade was of the same original stock as the warlock’s Vraad ancestry or the humans who were now becoming the dominant race.

  To Shade’s mind, this dank place had likely once housed another people, perhaps even one of the few survivors such as the Quel or the Jaruu. Both had preceded the Vraad, from whom the necromancers had also been a part. The Lords had somehow come across it and, over the millennia, removed any trace of its origin.