“’Tis madness,” the dwarf growled.
“Hush...” Darkhorse tried to think of matters in respect to how Cabe Bedlam would deal with them. Thus far, he believed that he had done as the wizard would have chosen, but tremendous risk remained. “Yes, Dwar is your name. You are Dwar...but when he absorbs you again, Dwar will be his name. His alone.”
The false Shade froze in mid-spin. The eyes regarded Darkhorse’s own. “I see what you do! I am smart like you! Even smarter! I have some of his memories.” He patted his chest, an indication to Darkhorse that Dwar meant the original Shade. “You want to trick me!”
“Where is the trickery? You are Dwar! You will not exist when he draws you back into him! He will then be Dwar! Is that not simple? Is that not true?”
“Yes...no...true...” Dwar growled. It was an unearthly sound that reminded the shadow steed too much of Yureel. “A trick...but not a trick...he will take me...I will be Dwar no more...”
“No more...” echoed Darkhorse. “I know. I nearly suffered that fate, although from another fragment who escaped earlier.”
“Yes...he hunted that one so long, but the other was elusive. The Void is great, so very great.” The eyes glittered brighter. “I will do as that one did! I will hide in the Void!”
This earned a snort from Darkhorse. “Think you that he has not learned? Is his power not great and deadly?” The ebony stallion kept emphasizing the huge mass as a separate entity now, knowing that the longer the two talked, the more this Dwar would see himself as so very distinct. “Does he not already begin to search for you?”
The false Shade shuddered. “I can feel him...he knows something is wrong...he knows I do not think exactly like him anymore.”
“I know the feeling well. Hear me, Dwar. You pulled me back into the Void using your bond to him...but you were supposed to do more, were you not?”
“Yes...we were to return to him immediately. I wanted to...to pause, though...”
“You understood already that we would both be quickly absorbed. He knew I could not be trusted to do as he said. Better to gain my knowledge and perhaps find a way then to escape the Void.” Darkhorse snorted. “And you would simply have been absorbed for no longer being necessary.”
“Yes...he would have been both of us...we would have been nothing...nothing...”
He suddenly looked behind him. Darkhorse followed his gaze, both having sensed the same thing.
Several black shapes formed in the emptiness far beyond them, black shapes that Darkhorse had no trouble identifying even from a distance.
Master Thurn uttered something, then murmured, “Are those the same as you pair?”
“Yes...but without any hope of us reasoning with them. They are freshly created, with no mind of their own!”
Darkhorse had feared that the mass would react to having both fragments betray him by sending just such pieces after them. The mass—no longer Dwar even to the shadow steed—calculated that these other fragments would seize the rebellious ones and bring them back before any inkling of independence stirred within.
With a guttural sound, Dwar abruptly vanished...or at least attempted to do so. Instead, four slightly smaller fragments with only vaguely humanoid shapes formed around him and seized his limbs. Without preamble, they started to tear Dwar apart, quickly reducing his arms and legs into rubbery tentacles.
Darkhorse opened up his torso. Master Thurn dropped inside him with an epithet. That done, the shadow steed raced toward Dwar. While he knew he could still not trust his counterpart, the other renegade fragment was his best hope of putting an end to all this. Otherwise, the mass would always seek after Darkhorse, in the process endangering innocents such as the dwarf.
He kicked at the nearest of Dwar’s opponents, the combination of his physical strength and his focused power shattering the enemy fragment into several tiny pieces that instantly sought to began gathering together again. As with Dwar, none of the new fragments had his millennia of experience nor his concentrated power. Still, their numbers alone threatened to overwhelm the ebony stallion and his counterpart.
Master Thurn shouted something. As Darkhorse kicked at a second foe, he adjusted things so as to hear the dwarf.
“A weapon! Give me a damned weapon! I’ll not sit inside here like an infant—”
Before Darkhorse could respond, two more humanoid fragments formed by him. They immediately began pulling at the shadow steed from opposite ends, stretching him out.
A third attacker took shape near his center. It began trying to rip into Darkhorse’s torso...seeking, he realized, Master Thurn. The mass knew that if it captured the dwarf, it could again use him as a pawn against the ebony stallion.
Darkhorse reluctantly ejected Master Thurn from his body. Simultaneously, the shadow steed reshaped one of his limbs and then flung it toward the dwarf.
By the time it reached Master Thurn, the limb had become an ink-black ax. Darkhorse could not trust anything to be more effective as a weapon against their adversaries than a piece of himself.
Master Thurn saw the weapon and grabbed for it. He hefted it just as another servant of the mass materialized in front of him.
The dwarf expertly cut through the shadow creature’s torso, severing the top half from the bottom. As the two parts sought to merge again, Master Thurn chopped off the ‘arms’, then sent the rest of the upper torso flying with a final whack of the flat of the ax head.
While this happened, Darkhorse focused his power on the ends under attack. Raw energy shot through his two nearest adversaries, quickly engulfing them.
Darkhorse felt their agony as his spell reduced them to nothing. It was as if he had tried to burn himself. When Yureel had finally destroyed himself rather than face eternal imprisonment, the reverberations had shaken Darkhorse more than he had let Cabe and the others know. Still, the ebony stallion knew that he now had to accept their suffering lest he and his companions fall.
Dwar made use of Darkhorse’s aid to focus his two freed limbs on his remaining foes. They swiftly wrapped around the duo. With monstrous ease, Dwar absorbed both attacking fragments. They perished radiating the same sense of agony that Darkhorse had felt course through his adversaries. But the shadow steed sensed that, in Dwar’s case, the other renegade fragment reveled in the destruction he caused.
“I am Dwar!” he roared with a laugh as the last bits of his adversaries melted away. “Only I!”
Darkhorse had no time to concern himself with Dwar’s unsettling reaction, the shadow steed this time forced to do just as his counterpart had to the last of his own opponents. He wrapped himself around the struggling fragment, then swallowed it whole before scattering its essence throughout his body. However, even despite the speed with which he completed the dreadful act, the agony he sensed from the perishing servant proved as strong as that suffered by the previous ones.
Master Thurn continued to float above him, the veteran warrior now surrounded by bits and pieces of attackers that continued to try to regroup. The dwarf did his best to keep them at bay by cutting through the largest pieces, then battering them away in different directions.
But Darkhorse knew that the trio had thus far only delayed things. He needed to do something drastic to keep them from imminent defeat. There was only choice left to him. It would mean having to trust Master Thurn to Dwar, not a comforting thought at all.
Still... “Dwar! To me! We must deal with all of them at once!”
“Yes...yes...yes...” the hooded form soared over to him. “What is it? Whst will we do?”
“First, I need you to protect him,” Darkhorse replied, indicated Master Thurn with his head. “Do it now! Cover him, then wait for my word!”
Dwar’s icy eyes observed the warrior, who, despite his tremendous efforts, was now nearly surrounded by attackers.
“Go!” the shadow steed commanded angrily.
<
br /> Dwar’s eyes glittered, but he obeyed. Darkhorse watched as he reached Master Thurn, then took the measure of their adversaries. Servants of the mass now formed in every direction, their creator willing to expend extensive energy to trap Darkhorse in particular. The mass knew that it would easily recoup all its energy simply by being where it had always been. The temporary sacrifices were thus worth it in order to gain Darkhorse’s valuable knowledge and skills.
The shadow steed could not say with any certainty that the thing that had spawned Yureel and Dwar would actually succeed in making enough use of what it learned and absorbed from Darkhorse, but the danger could not be denied. Darkhorse had to hurry.
“Dwar!” he shouted. “I said to over him!”
“Now just a moment—” Master Thurn managed before the false cloak Dwar had earlier crafted enveloped him.
The servants of the mass converged.
Darkhorse concentrated, drawing all his power to the very center of his core. By doing so, he directed forces to press against one another that could not long withstand such violent activity.
May this work... was his last thought.
Darkhorse exploded...his destruction washing over the oncoming creatures and obliterating them.
VIII
Master Thurn gasped as he was dumped unceremoniously face first on the ground. He took an instinctive sniff of the soil and realized that he had been dumped very near home.
That would have pleased him immensely if not for the fact that the demon Darkhorse had called Dwar loomed over him.
“So much life...” Dwar murmured. “So much to see...so much to taste...so much to play with and absorb...”
The dwarf did not like the sound of that one bit. Gaze on Dwar, Master Thurn sought for the ax Darkhorse had created, but could not find it. Finally, he risked looking for where the weapon had fallen.
It was too far away...and Dwar now paid attention to him.
“So much to learn...so easier to absorb...” He tapped his chest. “He taught us so much...”
Dwar reached for him.
The area shook. A tempest arose, one in which Master Thurn and Dwar were the center.
The ax Darkhorse had given the dwarf flew from his tight grip. As that happened, a blob of ink materialized between Master Thurn and Dwar. The blob swelled into a churning form that in the space of a few seconds then formed a familiar—and to the dwarf, a welcome—figure.
“A-away from him...” gasped Darkhorse. “You will not...not have him...”
Dwar cocked his head. “I was only thinking of it...I would not...I would not...”
Darkhorse eye his the other, then looked at the dwarf. “Master Thurn, I leave you here. Do not look back. Is that understood?”
“What do you mean? What’re you intending?”
The shadow steed ignored him. “He will hunt us, Dwar. He will always hunt us. You know that. If you wish to keep that from happening, then we need to take the battle to him!”
“Yes...yes...yes...” Dwar glanced over his shoulder, as if fearful that they were already being pursued. “We must stop him, but how must we stop him?”
“There is a way, but we must return to the Void to see it done.”
The hooded form’s icy eyes narrowed. “Yes...as you say...”
Darkhorse backed up a few steps, then spoke to Master Thurn. “Do not forget your ax when you leave. You may need it.”
“My ax?” Before the veteran warrior could react further, the shadow steed briefly glowed a deep azure. Before them, a large portal opened up.
“You see this, Dwar? You see how I can do this? So can you!”
Dwar edged up to it. “So strong! So big! Yes! I can do this! I am Dwar! I am as strong as you! Stronger!”
“Yes...” The ebony stallion approached the hole. “Come! We cannot hesitate!”
Darkhorse leapt into the portal. Dwar paused. He looked back at Master Thurn, who wished that he had the ax.
Then, Dwar followed after Darkhorse.
The portal faded away.
Master Thurn backed away. As he did, he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. His ax.
No...not actually his ax. The one that Darkhorse had created from his own essence. The dwarf considered leaving it where it was, but something drew him to it. There was no sign of his own beloved ax, which meant that the shadow steed had to have meant this.
With a little wariness, Master Thurn plucked up the ax.
The weapon shimmered.
Master Thurn gaped...
IX
Darkhorse quickly surveyed their surroundings—or lack thereof—and calmed slightly. He had cast them as near to the pulsating mass as he could while still hoping he had their nearness masked. How long they would remain hidden, though, was a question he could not answer.
“What do we do?” asked Dwar.
“You sensed how I made that larger portal? You can make one?”
“Yes, yes! I can do that!”
The ebony stallion nodded. “We must work in rapid succession and make many of these! Do you think you can?”
“I am Dwar! Of course I can! Better than you!”
Darkhorse refrained from responding to the last. Instead, he began explaining more details.
As the shadow steed’s plan became clear to him, Dwar chuckled.
It was a sound that sent shivers through Darkhorse, although he gave outward sign.
It fed constantly as it directed its severed segments in their search for the two renegade bits. The same gathering of energies that made it so strong also demanded that it continually feed to support itself. Without the constant feeding, it could not exist, anymore.
But it was certain that it could escape that endless fate at last. The segment that had spawned from the other segment that had escaped it had vast knowledge of those crowded places beyond here and how best to reach them. How jealous the mass was that these insignificant bits could do what it could not. Yet, from what it had sensed in the one calling itself Darkhorse, there was a trick the mass could use to both be here and be there while still maintaining utter control of any and all bits of itself.
The ‘Dwar’ name had already faded from its interest. All that concerned it for the moment was gathering the renegade fragments. Crowded places all over awaited it, crowded places that had only teased it before. It had never been able to control a segment that had entered a crowded place longer than a few moments. That had enabled it to gather some minor toys, but nothing more.
But with the Darkhorse segment’s knowledge...
Suddenly, it sensed the return of the two renegade fragments to the Void. It immediately drew the hunting segments back to it, setting them in different ‘locations’. It then waited. When the two renegade bits neared, the other segments would help force them into it. All of the fragments would be reabsorbed and it would begin seeing to freeing itself from this never-ending emptiness.
And then...all those crowded places and their enticing toys would become its with which to play...
Hoping that Dwar understood his part, Darkhorse teleported himself to the center of the Void. A shiver ran through him as he materialized in front of the turbulent mass. He sensed movement elsewhere, puppet segments acting as the mass commanded.
Where are you, Dwar? he wondered desperately. Dwar should have materialized already. Had Darkhorse’s companion suspected the truth?
Then, he felt Dwar nearby. Darkhorse snorted in relief...relief that vanished a moment later as several servants of the mass materialized around the region.
But as they appeared, Darkhorse sensed Dwar cast the first spell of the plan.
Good! Darkhorse immediately repeated Dwar’s effort. A huge portal—called a blink hole by the creatures of the Dragonrealm—opened up before him. Its interior was a swirling array of colorful, po
werful energies. It was so vast that it actually obscured sight of the mass.
Without hesitation, Darkhorse opened another, equally vast blink hole right behind the first.
As he finished, three humanoid shapes formed around him...or rather, where he had just hovered. Darkhorse had planned his movements with just this danger in mind. He could only hope that Dwar had followed his advice and done the same.
His first hint that his companion had obeyed was the sense of not just a second blink hole taking shape behind Dwar’s first creation, but then a third huge portal being cast by the renegade fragment forming at just the location Darkhorse had earlier suggested.
The shadow steed shaped his own third, then created a fourth behind that one. The effort put a strain on him, but still he immediately faded away before the pursuing fragments could catch him. He then appeared in his next planned spot, where he cast two more gigantic blink holes.
But as the shadow steed vanished from that spot, he noted a lack of a similar continuation of portals from Dwar. Fearful what that might mean, Darkhorse reached out with his thoughts for the other. Dwar!
Darkhorse! Help!
Cursing, the shadow steed teleported himself. He needed Dwar to be able to continue one more set. The plan was almost complete. They nearly had the mass surrounded.
He materialized where he sensed Dwar to be—
The renegade fragment, his body swollen from clearly having absorbed several of the mass’s servants, swarmed over him.
But Darkhorse immediately split in two, the components flying wide from one another. Dwar swallowed empty space instead.
The halves slipped around Dwar. The moment they met, they reformed the shadow steed.
“I am sorry, Dwar,” Darkhorse muttered. “I had hoped you’d wait a little longer. I had hoped...”
He kicked Dwar hard, the full force of his powers focused in his attack. Caught unaware, Dwar went spinning madly in the direction of the huge mass. He flew with such speed that there was no possibility that he would be able to stop himself before he collided.
Legends of the Dragonrealm Page 23
