Dru silenced his companion with a curt wave of one hand. “You said ‘bird creatures’? Manlike?”
“Very. They used Tezerenee tactics and Father believed it must be Rendel…”
“Well, you needn’t worry about punishing him for his crimes,” Gerrod broke in. “Rendel is very, very dead.”
Lochivan would have asked for details, but Dru did not have the patience. “We don’t have the time for this! Why did Barakas send you?”
The other Tezerenee looked uncomfortable again, but for different reasons now. “He did not… not exactly. He… he sent me to find out what was happening here and whether we faced annihilation from our own kind as well as the birds. I… when I saw what was happening, I dared to make myself known.” He gave Silesti a surreptitious glance. “He met with me and said that if I valued my existence, word would be sent to the true benefactor of the Vraad, meaning you, I suppose, who would decide my fate.”
Dru turned and met Silesti’s gaze. The other grimaced, already reading his decision. Dru avoided Gerrod altogether and studied Lochivan, trying to find the man, not the Tezerenee.
“What did you come here for?”
Lochivan revealed a brief smile. There had still been a few doubts. Not now. He knew this outsider would listen. The clan might still survive. “Help us. Help us to push back the avians and claim the land. You have to do it. This is your home, too. You need our skills; we need your numbers.”
“Is this your offer or your father’s?”
“Mine, of course.”
Gerrod snorted, but did not otherwise interrupt.
“Your offer,” Dru mused, taken by the Tezerenee persistence. “Your offer and any your father might have are rejected. We won’t save this world for you.”
Silesti was smiling now. Both Tezerenee were confused. Dru indicated the masses idle around them. “Do you think that even I could make them fight for the Tezerenee? Do you think they want to fight at all? Does it look as if they do?”
“We will all perish if we remain divided!”
“This is a new… no… this is the true world. It has laws of its own. Have you cast spells? Has your sorcery worked true? I can see by your eyes that it hasn’t.”
“Our numbers—”
“Will be insufficient. Most of this continent is controlled by the Seekers.” Dru’s use of the name raised eyebrows, but no one cut him off. “You’ve fought only one group. Even combined, we don’t yet have the power to face them down. Our day will come, though, if it’s meant to.”
“We have to survive until then!” Lochivan protested, looking to his brother for support.
Gerrod shrugged, but tried. “I think he would be open to suggestions, Master Zeree. Anything to save the clan.”
“If I knew what to do, I would suggest it. I’m still concerned about those I’ve helped to cross. If our survival can include the Tezerenee, I have no objections.” Too many ifs, Dru thought. If the guardians would help them this one time, it would be all he could ask.
For you, it will be permitted, a familiar voice within his head suddenly replied. For you and your efforts, not for such as those.
Dru looked around. The other Vraad stood motionless, all of them watching him. They had also heard the voice, but knew that it had been directed at only one of them.
Why now? Why after I’ve had to do so much have you returned?
A sensation of worry and lack of direction touched him. The guardian was no longer certain of its place in the world. Those who have returned speak less and less with us. Their purpose is much like that which we were created to serve, but they move in ways that we do not understand and, at times, have not cared for. They are our masters and something else. We do not know whether to obey them or not. At least one among us has broken away and others have suggested withdrawing from this plane and waiting to see what it is the faceless ones have planned.
Did your… did the faceless ones send you here?
This is my doing. It breaks the old laws set upon us and when I have aided you I will depart with the rest. You, I felt, were owed something. You are the potential they must see in your race. That much still remains the same from those first days when the founders sought to raise their successors. Therefore, ultimately, I perform my duties.
What will you do? Dru had difficulty believing anything would turn the patriarch from his dreams of conquest.
I have seen in your mind this Lord Barakas of the Tezerenee. He might protest your decision, but he will not protest that of his god.
Is that what you are now? came the second voice from nowhere. Is this how you perform your duties for them? Godhood does sound much more our forte.
The Vraad around Dru stood petrified, listening to a potential argument between entities they could not see or sense, only hear in their minds. As for the master mage, his own imagination allowed him to form images where there were none. He could see the dragon facing off against the wolf, one that, unfortunately, looked too much like Cabal.
This is my doing, the mock dragon informed its counterpart.
I am only here to support you, the wolf said slyly. This is the very thing I desired… to be master, not servant.
I still serve in my way! This is for the completion of the original task set upon us when we still had masters we knew!
My desire, also. Their desire, too, if you will permit.
Though Dru could not sense them, he knew that the other guardians had joined the first two.
All of you are agreed, then? the dragon asked in tentative tones. What was suggested once will be done?
“Dru, what is happening?” Silesti shouted. Everywhere, Vraad were standing and staring into the sky as if that would allow them to see the creatures deciding their fate. They had thought they had come to their new homeland, only to wonder now if they had merely postponed their destruction.
“Be quiet, fool!” Gerrod returned, yet he, too, looked to his companion for answers.
While the Vraad had been talking, the other guardians gathered here had given their assent to whatever plan had been put forth. Dru could understand no other part of what was going on save that there had been a full revolt against the creatures who had once been the unquestioning masters.
Not a revolt, manling, though some would like to believe it so, said the guardian who favored Dru.
The darker one stirred, but it did not respond to its opposite.
The mock dragon continued. Your people must make one last journey to a place where they can grow in strength and mind. Once you have been placed there, we will leave you be. It is not right that we interfere.
Except when necessary, the wolf whispered in Dru’s mind. Only when necessary. It sounded too much like Melenea in tone and personality. He wondered whether it was touching upon his own memories, forming for itself a personality. Only those guardians who had actually spoken with him seemed to radiate any image of self. The rest were like ants, identical in feeling and response despite earlier claims of individuality.
The guardians had made their decision. He would have to return to Nimth immediately and inform those still there, but if—
They know, his guardian interrupted. All Vraad save the Tezerenee now know. Such was how it was decided.
“What do you even need us for?” he shot back, unable to keep the helplessness and the bitterness from his voice. Why had he struggled so hard just for this?
Because if you had not, we would have chosen not to interfere and the Vraad race would have died out, a failure for the second and final time.
Founder law, the wolf chuckled.
“You’ll need me for the Tezerenee,” Dru suggested out loud, so that all could hear. “Barakas will trust me more than anyone else here, even his kin. He’ll know that the Tezerenee can rejoin the Vraad race without fear of reprisal.” Hopefully, he added to himself.
It may be that the guardians had caught the last, for the mock dragon’s tone lightened a bit. It could not be done without you… and this one
as well.
Gerrod stirred and what little of his face was visible was pale with fright. “Me?”
You, came the very final reply.
With that, the world blinked, sending Dru, who had almost expected this, and Gerrod, who had not, to a place of carnage… where they found themselves standing before the startled yet fearsome gaze of the Lord Barakas Tezerenee.
XXII
“DRU ZEREE. GERROD. I hardly thought to see either of you again.”
“Yes, it’s a pity, isn’t it, Father?” the patriarch’s son retorted.
“You’d do better than to speak that way to me.”
Dru ignored the exchange, surveying the carnage that the surviving clan members had still not succeeded in clearing. Bodies dotted the area, both Vraad and Seeker. Not surprising, the Tezerenee had taken their toll on the attackers. They would not survive a second major assault, however, not as reduced in numbers as they were.
“Lochivan came to you, didn’t he, Zeree?” the Lord Tezerenee asked, his eyes burning as he noted Dru’s interest in his losses. “He has lost his nerve.”
“He’s regained his sanity, O conqueror father!”
“Gerrod, be quiet.” Dru wondered why the guardian had chosen to include the hooded Vraad in the confrontation. For that matter, there was no sign of the guardian itself. He could sense its presence, but it had not yet made itself known to Barakas. Why?
The younger Tezerenee quieted. His father glared at the two, as if actually wondering why they had come. Having silenced, for the time being, the argument, the robed sorcerer chose to press on. “We’ve crossed, Barakas.”
“Obviously.” Several armored figures, now aware of the newcomers, had been drifting toward the trio. More than one pointed at Gerrod. Dru began to understand why the shrouded Vraad was with him. Gerrod was one of them, but had been abandoned back in Nimth. Now, he stood in their midst, facing his father. He served as a beacon, something they recognized from a distance that they knew should not be here.
“Not like you,” Dru continued. “We found a true path, one that allowed us to cross physically. More are coming. The entire Vraad race will soon be across.”
The patriarch’s face was as pale as bone. “You have my congratulations and my growing impatience. Why don’t you tell me why you’re truly here? Terms for surrender? Is that what you want? Do you think we will turn our lives over to those who would love nothing less than our living hides stretched across racks where they could inflict us with whatever tortures suited their desires?”
As horrifying as the image might be, Dru could not deny that there were those who would have gladly done exactly as the patriarch had said. Yet he also knew that the Vraad were capable of other things.
“Let the past fade with Nimth, Tezerenee! The time has come for the Vraad race to meld itself into a people, not a vast collection of spoiled and sadistic individuals.”
Dragon warriors, female and male, now surrounded them completely. Barakas glared at them, but did not order them back to their grisly tasks. “We need nothing. The clan will survive!”
“Is this survival?” another voice challenged. Heads turned in simultaneous fashion as the Lady Alcia strode into the center of the circle. She was still the warrior woman, beautiful, elegant, and deadly, but there were signs of exhaustion evident in her visage. “How many of the children you purport to love must die? Anrek and Hyria are among the bodies!” Her cool facade began to crumble away before their eyes.
Dru could not place the names and neither, it appeared, could the patriarch. He brushed them aside by turning back to the fate the Tezerenee would supposedly receive at the hands of their cousins. “We might live longer by returning to the fold, outsider, but what is life when pain is all that you offer?”
“I can’t promise you that the clan will be accepted without conflict. If I did, I would not blame you for turning away and walking off. I’d do the same.”
“Things have changed, Father,” Gerrod offered. “Most of the people have changed, though I doubt forgetting will be possible.”
“That was Rendel’s doing! If I could…” Barakas clamped his mouth shut, the Lady Alcia’s expression warning him of the potential for personal disaster if he carried his anger at his son further.
Dru glanced at Gerrod, who turned his way and shrugged, his shadow features an emotional mystery. Neither of them felt it was the time to discuss Rendel’s demise.
“All this talk is nonsense!” Barakas straightened to his full height. His presence was nearly overwhelming. Everyone stepped back or froze save Dru. He had faced the bearlike Vraad before and would do it again. “Nonsense! We will all perish unless we combine! This is a land we must struggle to tame, a land we must take by force from the monstrosities that abound here! There is no other place for us to go!”
Do not tell him of me yet! the guardian’s voice suddenly warned Dru, speaking only to him. Tell him only that there is another place and it can be reached. The time is not yet right! Let him hear all before…
Before what? Running a hand through the silver band of hair he had given himself what seemed a millennium ago, Dru told Barakas, “There is a land beyond the seas in the east. We have a way of reaching there and a way of ensuring that the Seekers—the avians—do not disturb us. There will be land we can tame and time for us to renew our strength. Relearn our sorcerous skills as well. This is a world where different paths must be taken than those that turned Nimth to the rotting shell it now is.”
Hopeful gazes and encouraging whispers spread through the Tezerenee and the handful of outsiders who had come with them and survived the attack. Barakas seemed to weigh his words.
His answer will be the same, said the guardian to Dru. He has set his own path and can find no way to turn from it without his pride and mastery suffering. There was some hint of surprise in the guardian’s tone. He would rather they all die here, futilely battling to the end. It is a thing I have watched all too often. It is one of the reasons so many hopes failed over the endless aeons.
What can we do?
Stall a few moments more, that is all. He will have his excuse to accept your terms.
What does that mean? the sorcerer asked. Dru received only silence as an answer. A chill ran through him. The guardian was planning a show of strength, so to speak, something more than his eruptive appearance from the earth. That should have been enough by itself. Certainly, it had impressed Dru. Yet he recalled that once he had known the wolf would not attack, he had lost much of his fear and wonder. This guardian planned a lesson of some kind, then… but what?
“You have betrayed your position, Zeree,” the patriarch said, suddenly drawing strength from somewhere. The mood of his people sank as his own rose. They were so used to being controlled that no one even spoke out, even though it was their own future, their own lives, that were at risk. “The Vraad have always subsisted on their magic. All Vraad save the Tezerenee!” Barakas looked triumphant. “Even in a land without danger of foe, you would be unable to survive. None of you know how to exist long without the aid of sorcery! Sickness, hunger, accidents, weather… all factors that you do not understand! If anything, you need us! You need our knowledge, our skills at survival! It might be better asked that instead of we joining you, you join us!”
“Astounding!” Gerrod muttered. “Lochivan had the same arrogant offer! In the face of so much death, you can still be so damned demanding!”
Be ready! came the alert from the guardian. It would say nothing more of what it planned.
The air was filled with the now much too familiar sounds of great wings beating.
“They’re back!” one of the Tezerenee shouted. His voice did not sound eager or determined, but rather almost terrified. For all their battles in Nimth, they had never faced a true foe in so great numbers.
“Barakas—” Dru started.
“This is the time to fight, not flap your mouth, Zeree! You’ll find escape by teleportation impossible; they have some way of count
ering it with their blasted medallions!”
The Tezerenee were already doing their best to organize for battle. Two flying drakes were brought up. Weapons of every sort materialized in hands. Archers were already positioning themselves. A few confident souls were doing their best to work themselves into a will strong enough to cast competent spells.
Lady Alcia remained behind as her husband ran off to direct his people. “Master Zeree, if you have anything that will aid us, as you seem to indicate, this is the time! If not, you will surely die with us!”
Gerrod whirled on Dru. “What has that blasted bit of living magic put us into? Would it not have been sufficient to merely drop us from a great height and see if we can cast a spell before we splatter on the ground?”
“Just wait.” It was easy to tell them to do that, but believing that they had not been abandoned was almost even impossible for Dru to believe now.
Such a pessimistic lot, the welcome voice said. The time has come for my appearance.
“What was that?” the Lady Tezerenee asked in shock, turning in a vain effort to see something that was not visible. “What is that I sense?”
The Seekers dove from the sky in numbers that boggled even the most hardy of the Vraad. Barakas himself hesitated, visibly overwhelmed. Death had surely come to the Tezerenee. Not even at their best could they hope to fight so many. Aeries from miles had likely added their numbers to the ranks. Seeker tactics did not apparently match those of the humans. The avians intended to destroy the invaders once and for all, not whittle away at their ranks.
The earth erupted. Only Dru knew what was coming. For everyone else, it was as if the world had chosen this particular moment to wipe from its surface the annoying little creatures that sought to wreak such havoc on it. Even Gerrod, who should have had an inkling, looked to his feet, as if the ground beneath him would be the next to open.
Molten earth and rock from the bowels of Barakas’s Dragonrealm—Dru found that even he had fallen prey to the use of the term since there was no other—rose in so furious a geyser that, in its initial explosion, it seemed likely to shower every avian and Vraad in sight.
Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol. II Page 64
