With his back to her, Lanith could not see Saress's smoldering look.
Aurim tried to contact Yssa, but it was as if her mind had been shut away from his. He finally gave up, realizing that he could tell her nothing of value. They were both helpless.
Or were they? After his success in freeing Darkhorse, who was to say that Yureel's hold was that complete? Perhaps it had been his own distrust of himself that had made him such a pliable puppet. I've got to try again.
You will do nothing! commanded an enraged Yureel in his head. The confident, beguiling attitude the demon displayed for Lanith and the others was actually a mask; his fury had not abated. Your chance is past! If you try again, my fine little human spellcaster, I shall do to your female as I intended to do to my dear twin!
Yureel did not wait to hear if he understood. The demon vanished from the sorcerer's mind, confident, no doubt, that he had made his point. Regrettably, he had. Aurim immediately ceased his attempt. He could not risk Yssa.
"She's a fine addition, I'll admit, imp, but what best use is she? Will she join the Order?
"Her?" Saress snapped. "Never!"
"In this I must agree with your fine lady, my majestic king! No, she is no use to the Order."
Lanith seemed puzzled. "But surely you can—"
"There is a position of greater value for her to fill, oh, yes, indeed," Yureel responded quickly. "She will buy you a victory over your former liege, the dragon man!"
"Now why would she matter to him? Is she one of that green lizard's servants? I didn't know he kept human mages."
The tiny puppet master giggled. "Oh, more than a servant, much more, much more . . . wouldn't you say, Lady Saress?"
Again the king's mistress grew extremely uncomfortable. She evidently knew what Yureel hinted at and it unsettled her greatly. "He values her, yes."
"So highly that he would risk surrender just for her?" the king asked, extremely skeptical.
Yureel gave a comic shrug as he drifted back to his supposed lord. "Surrender . . . possibly. Hesitate too long . . . definitely."
Growling, the horse king reached for the small, hovering figure, but Yureel was too swift. He easily dodged aside, then took up a position nearer poor Yssa. "No more games, imp!" cried the graying conqueror. "Tell me why the damned drake would bother with a human. He's fond of them, but not that fond!"
"Aah, but with this sumptuous lass, he is!" Yureel floated next to Yssa's face. Aurim could see her trying to keep an eye on the foul monster. The tiny figure indicated her visage. "She is rather attractive, wouldn't you say, my grand emperor-to-be?"
"There's no denying that."
"Exotic, yes?"
Lanith studied her for far longer than necessary. Only when Saress cleared her throat did he finally pause. "She looks like one of my people. . but there's definitely something else. Her blood's not pure. She's a mix."
"A mix . . ." Yet another infuriating giggle. "Oh, mixed well, indeed, wouldn't you say, Lady Saress." Using one tiny arm, he dragged Yssa even closer to Lanith. "A strong mix, your glorious majesty . . . strong, because she carries a most royal and . . . draconian . . . bloodline."
Saress gasped, then forcibly pushed all emotion from her countenance. Lanith eyed her, then studied the tiny demon as if the latter had completely lost his senses. "What are you saying? You sound as if you're trying to tell me that this other woman is a . . . is part. . ."
"Part drake, yes."
"Impossible!" The horse king seized Yssa by the shoulders arid looked her over again. Had the bound enchantress been able to use her abilities, the monarch of Zuu would have been no more than a blot on the wall now. "And yet . . . maybe not . there's something about her. . . I've seen draconian females in human form . . ."
"She's far, far more than those little creatures, great and glorious Lanith! More so because she is also the child of the Dragon King himself."
Lanith was clearly skeptical. "How did you discover this fantastic secret?"
"Spies, searching, guesswork . . . a combination of events." The creature glanced surreptitiously at Saress.
Aurim caught the look, then the brief, frightened expression that again crossed the visage of Lanith's mistress. For the first time, Aurim noted some similarities in the women's features.
If what Yureel said was true, could that also mean that Saress was . . . that she was . . just like Yssa?
No wonder you shake every time Yureel mentions Yssa's heritage— Aurim paused in mid-thought, the demon's revelation finally sinking in. Yssa was not quite human. Not human. It did not startle him as much as he might have expected, but then, he had grown up with drakes. He saw them as few others did, as a race as beautiful and terrible as any other. They were people like himself and many of them, when compared to some humans such as Lanith or even his own grandfather, Azran, were better. The Dragon Emperor's own sister, Ursa, was his sister Valea's close friend.
"Part drake . . . part animal . . ." Lanith released her, disgust growing. "Well, she may be of use, then, if the Dragon King will acknowledge her."
"He will, my lord, oh, he will."
"He'll not surrender his kingdom for her, though." The would-be conqueror walked around Yssa, studying her again, but his mind was clearly focused on other matters than her appearance. "No, but as you've indicated, he'll probably hesitate if he does care for her. He'll be afraid she'll be injured—"
"Or tortured," added Yureel with a giggle.
—and that will cost him. It could cut the war down by half. Then we could turn toward Gordag-Ai as originally planned. They'll fall in half the time it'll take to conquer Dagora, especially if that drake Sssaleese can keep his pledge . . ."
Aurim did not follow the last but what he did follow made him even more anxious. He knew the Dragon King Green well enough to realize that what Yureel said was true. For someone he really cared for, especially one of his own, the drake lord would hesitate and that hesitation, manipulated by the horse king and the demon, might very well prove the fatal stroke.
"Magnificent!" Lanith suddenly cried. He laughed and, without warning, reached out to pet Yureel. The tiny figure remained still, although Aurim caught a hint of contempt in the inhuman eyes. "Magnificent! Once my former liege the drake has fallen, all his wondrous magical treasures will find better use in my hands! His fall will also reduce the power of his brethren, who'll realize too late that they should've aided him, the stupid lizards!"
"With Dagora yours, my great and splendid king, there will be no way they can even hope to stop you . . ."
Aurim doubted that. He still believed that Lanith could not succeed in the end; the continent would never be his. It was true, though, that if Dagora fell to him, any chance of putting an early end to the horse king's campaign would fade.
And we can't have that, now can we, little Aurim? My epic is far from complete!
Yureel's chilling voice echoing in his head was enough to make the sorcerer cringe.
I think you've had enough fun for now. Recall that her life is in your hands! She is a valuable tool against the drake, but I will sacrifice her if I have to, Aurim Bedlam! And in case you've forgotten—The spellcaster's left hand suddenly thrust itself upward, stopping only an inch or two before his face. The fingers formed a tight fist. —I'm still very much in control!
"Imp! I want to return to the field! Belfour’ll have the troops over the northern ridge by now, what with the Order's help. That means that we're getting damnably close to the center of the drake's domain and he'll defend it harder than any other place we've taken yet. Now's the time to remind him of his darling daughter!"
Contact between Aurim and Yureel ceased, but the hand remained where it was. A reminder. "Most definitely, Emperor Lanith, most definitely! I'll have Aurim whisk us there in but a breath! If anyone asks, you can say that he transported you here because of a matter of urgency. It would not be the first time you've made such use of your little sorcerers."
"I don't need to explain my comin
gs and goings to anyone, imp . . . but it would be best to return before Belfour and the others get too nervous. Saress, you know the half-breed best; I want you with her for now in case she manages some trick." Without waiting for a reply, the horse king turned again to Yureel. "My mount is still missing, imp. What've you done about finding him again? I've had to commandeer one of my aide's mounts for now."
The demon did not even hesitate. "Worry not about him for the time being, my lord. Your great victory is near at hand. I'll keep an eye out for your steed, I promise you. I want to find him nearly as much as you do."
"All right. Then let's get back to the field. Now."
"As you command." And to Aurim, "Send them."
He could do nothing but obey Yureel. If there had been any hope before, certainly there was none now, not for him, Yssa, his family, or certainly the Green Dragon. Yureel had all of them dancing, even those who did not realize it. Only Darkhorse was free of his sinister twin's machinations.
The only question was . . . could Darkhorse return from wherever Aurim had sent him?
Chapter Seventeen
What happened to me? was Darkhorse's first question. He tried to focus, but the sudden shift in location had left him disoriented. It had certainly not been his own doing; between Yureel and Aurim, Darkhorse had been securely and efficiently imprisoned—
Aurim? It seemed the only conceivable answer. Somehow the captive sorcerer had managed to overcome Yureel's control, if momentarily, and been able to send Darkhorse away. That had to be the answer; nothing else made more sense. Perhaps with Yureel so occupied with absorbing his twin, the foul little monster had allowed his mastery of the human to slip just that precious little.
Where had Aurim sent him, though? For the first time since arriving, Darkhorse focused on his surroundings. Aurim Bedlam was a clever person. It had to be somewhere where the sorcerer trusted him to be safe.
Then again . . .
Where by the emptiness of the Void am I? It was like no place the shadow steed had ever visited either in the Dragonrealm or beyond. He was beyond the world of the Dragonrealm; that was immediately obvious.
Everything around him seemed unclear, as if his sight were failing him. That was not the case, though. Even up close, the peculiar plants—if they were plants—remained slightly unfocused. He shifted toward one and prodded it with a primitive appendage. The plant, a bluish, a cucumber-shaped thing with hairlike leaves, immediately quivered. A moment later a piercing bell sound shook Darkhorse so much that he immediately retreated from the alien object.
The cucumber plant's reaction set off another similar plant nearby. That, in turn, caused yet a third, then a fourth, to also peal like bells. The uproar shook Darkhorse to his very being, but there seemed to be nowhere to turn. Each direction he looked, similar plants blocked his path . . . and more and more of them were reacting to the first one.
The clamor grew maddening. Darkhorse could not have held together a form even if he had had the strength, so jarring was the noise. He finally gathered himself together as best he could, peered up at what he supposed passed for the sky but looked more like congealed fog, and flung himself upward.
The atmosphere was almost as thick as it looked, but slowly Darkhorse made headway. Somewhere above him was the way out of this peculiar realm. All he needed was a little time to locate it.
Something brown, round, and twice his size darted past him in the thick mist. Although it did not return, Darkhorse decided to push harder, not wanting to encounter any more of the strange world's inhabitants. Past experience had taught him never to assume that any creature was harmless.
The noise below grew faint, but before the eternal could relax, a second brown thing darted by. This time Darkhorse caught sight of a wicked appendage resembling a cross between a claw and a tongue. The glimpse encouraged him to yet greater effort. He did not like the notion of seeing whether or not he was immune to the dangers of this world. His friends needed him.
With what power he had at his command, Darkhorse probed the very fabric of the bizarre world, seeking any trace of a way out. Every place he had visited had some weak point that could be used to journey elsewhere. There might be an infinity of alternate realms, but they were all linked in some way. Once he escaped this one, he could begin a thorough search for the way home.
The fact that the shadow steed had never visited this world before reminded him of just how powerful Aurim was. As Cabe had always insisted, it was only the boy's will that held him back. With only minor control over his power, he had performed a feat the likes of which few master sorcerers were capable. Of course, the younger Bedlam's desperate gamble had provided Darkhorse with a new quandary. This world was unfamiliar to Darkhorse, which meant that the next one might be, too. Exactly how far from the Dragonrealm had the sorcerer thrown him? The shadow steed did not claim to know all of the infinite variety of realms, that being impossible, but he did know quite a few. This one was not remotely similar to any he had visited.
He abandoned his musings as two discoveries vied for his attention. The first concerned his path out of this realm, a tiny thread in the fabric of his present location that hinted of an escape route. Only a search would reveal the truth.
The second discovery concerned the fact that one of the winged brown things had decided Darkhorse was worth investigating.
He sensed it just below him, its pace far slower than that of the first one. It flew in an oval pattern that drew tighter with each circuit. Darkhorse estimated that it would likely attack after three more revolutions, which meant perhaps two, maybe three minutes at most. That gave him very little time to investigate the path ahead. If it was a false trail, he might uselessly push himself against it and waste his preciously small reserves of strength just before the thing decided to attack.
Darkhorse did not even contemplate trying to absorb the creature. Not only did the notion revolt him, but somehow he suspected that doing so would be more to his detriment. This realm was unsettling. If necessary, he might take the beast, but only as a last resort. What it might want to do with him, he did not even want to know.
Seeing beyond the thread proved more difficult a task than he anticipated. Like the sky itself, the edge of this realm felt thick and uncooperative. Darkhorse increased the intensity of his probe; the thing below him had already completed one and a half revolutions and gave signs of preparing to rise. Dark- horse did not doubt it intended to attack.
The barrier gave. Beyond the edge he sensed the hints of other worlds, other dimensions. The eternal had no time to consider which path might be best; the beast below had abruptly turned from its pattern and now rose toward him at a speed Darkhorse would not have thought possible in the thick atmosphere. He caught sight of a pair of the wicked appendages focused at him. What had looked at first like a tongue now extended ahead of the beast at a rate even swifter than the creature's own speed.
Unwilling to meet it with his weakened skills, Darkhorse followed the thread out of the misty realm.
The world of the brown thing flickered, then transformed into a sunburnt, arid plain where everything held a reddish tinge. A massive crimson sun filled more than a third of the sky. There was no sign of life, past or present, and very few landmarks save the occasional worn mound of rock.
The shadow steed paused to recover. Fortunately, the path behind him had closed the moment he had passed through. Darkhorse could sense no trace of his pursuer.
An inhospitable world, he noted as he gathered his strength for the next part of the journey. So many dimensions he visited were like that. A few of them even made the Void seem interesting. This one threatened to be an addition to that list.
After what might have been hours . . . the massive orb did not seem to move so it was difficult to say . . . Darkhorse finally began his search for a new route. Unfortunately, although he soon found many threads worth following, none of the paths seemed familiar to him. The shadow steed at last chose one that resembled a world he had c
rossed long ago. While it was not the one he knew, sometimes similar realms were closely linked to one another. Sometimes.
Darkhorse still bore no resemblance to the animal from which he had taken his name. He had decided to conserve his energy until he managed to return to the Dragonrealm. There, the eternal knew places where he could take the time to recuperate. Out here, where he was not even familiar with the landscape, Darkhorse did not want to trust that he could stay in one location long enough without risking himself to something like the brown, clawed creature.
Hoping for the best, the shadow steed opened the path to the next dimension and flew through. He landed this time in a world much like that of the Dragonrealm save that all the colors seemed to be wrong. The sky was light green, the clouds were pink, and the landscape itself, a wild, grassy field, was colored what could best be called golden blue. In the distance, Darkhorse could hear what sounded like birds, but he saw no trace of them, not even a tree where they might have perched.
Seems calm enough. The eternal was not lulled, though. The former lands of the Dragon King Brown were proof enough of how lethal calm could be. Nonetheless, Darkhorse needed rest.
The oddly colored field went on forever. In fact, the more Darkhorse stared, the more he was convinced that he was seeing much, much farther than should have been possible. Perhaps this was a larger world than the one he was used to. He was tempted to explore it a little, but each minute he delayed his return meant further possible danger to his friends.
He suddenly realized that he was being watched.
Unhindered yet by a set form, Darkhorse shifted his eyes to the back so that he could see his watchers. A flurry of yellow burst from the grass behind him, scattering in many directions. The creatures that had been watching him looked for all the world like huge toads with legs and wings. Some flew off, others ran away on their four gangly legs. However, one of the creatures still remained, its eyes more intent than those of its fellows.
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