Sharissa turned on the Lady Tezerenee. Her bodyguards readied their blades, but the warrior queen waved the two back. “How did you do all this? Where did you get such power? The effort to create all of this-”
“Was beyond us, yes. Even now, though our power now is greater than it was these last years, this still would have required months of effort. Fortunately, there was one who did have the strength.”
The young Zeree’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “You made Darkhorse do this! You made him do this with my life as the key to his cooperation!”
“We never threatened your life.” Lady Alcia scratched her neck as she spoke. Like Lochivan’s, it was red and dry. Sharissa recalled his mentioning some rash or minor disease spreading through the Tezerenee and wondered if she would suffer that along with everything else.
“Why don’t you quit acting as if I’m a guest?” The sorceress tugged at her collar. It grew surprisingly tight, making her choke. The Matriarch reached forward and pulled Sharissa’s hands away from her throat.
The collar became bearable again.
“Perhaps we should go back inside.”
Sharissa slapped her hand away, which made the bodyguards bristle again. “Why don’t you-What is that?”
Two Tezerenee were dragging a limp figure between them. He was slighter than either and his clothing reminded her of her stepmother’s clothing.
“It would really be best if you… Sharissa! Stop!”
Too late. Sharissa darted past one of her companion’s watchdogs and raced toward the two warriors dragging the still form. “You there! Stop! Now!”
Still holding their captive, the Tezerenee turned to see who was shouting. They looked at the ungraceful figure in white and then at each other. One reached for a blade, but the second shook his head and said something that she could not make out.
Lady Alcia’s people were no doubt right behind her, but Sharissa did not care. She had to see who it was they had and whether the poor soul was still alive. Most of all, she had to see if he was what she thought he was.
As she neared them, the guards looked past her and nodded. When she sought to lift their prize’s head so that she could see his features, no one stopped her. The sound of heavy footfalls grew louder behind her.
There was no denying the visage. There were differences, of course, but his race was not in question. He was an elf.
Judging by the blood and bruises, he had resisted their questioning. Sharissa glanced up at the two guards, but they were untouched by her smoldering eyes.
The elf began to cough. His eyes opened, handsome almond-shaped tears. It took him a moment to focus and, when he did, he seemed surprised.
“Eve-even among the living death there-there is beauty. Impossible to-to believe you have such a heart of stone.”
He had taken her for one of them. “I’m not-”
“You must come back with us now, Lady Sharissa,” a cold female voice said. The Lady Alcia’s bodyguards stood directly on each side of her. Coughing once more, the elf forced his gaze upward, despite the fact that it obviously hurt him to move so much. He eyed the two with interest, then returned his gaze to Sharissa.
“My lady,” the bodyguard urged. “This is not something to concern yourself with.”
As if on cue, the two warriors holding the elf turned their prize away and once more began to drag him away. Sharissa started after them, but the bodyguards held her back.
“He was part of a force of elves that sought to come upon us through stealth and kill us. With the demon’s aid, we detected them and caught them by surprise.”
“You made Darkhorse aid you in killing them?” The sorceress doubted that the story was as Lady Tezerenee had told it. More than likely, the elves had been scouting the citadel, wondering what it was. Still, what was a party of elves doing on the eastern continent when-
“I see by your eyes that you’ve finally come to the realization. I wondered for a time whether or not your mind was functioning well.” Lady Alcia nodded, the smile on her face much akin to the one the patriarch wore when he was pleased with results. “Yes, this is indeed the Dragonrealm, Sharissa.”
“How could you… Darkhorse again! Everything you’ve accomplished is because of him! You still haven’t brought me to him! Is he dead? Injured?”
At a signal from the matriarch, the bodyguards politely but firmly began to guide a struggling Sharissa back toward the citadel. Lady Alcia walked before them, still acting as if she and Sharissa were amiable companions. “How do you kill a thing that does not, by any standards we know, live? He’s been disciplined, but no more than any other disobedient subject has. When he performs well, he is rewarded as well.”
“Rewarded?” Other than freedom, the Tezerenee could have nothing the shadow steed wanted.
“We want him to be a part of the clan’s destiny as much as we want you to be.”
“You want him to save you from the Seekers! Even Darkhorse won’t be enough to hold them back! He’ll probably laugh while the bird people tear your empire down around you!”
“The avians no longer represent a threat… at least, not one that we cannot deal with ourselves.”
Sharissa stretched forward, trying to come alongside the Lady Tezerenee. “What do you mean?”
Alcia considered the question for a time before finally replying, “It might be better to show you.”
“Show me?”
“We brought a few of them in for study. So far, we have not found a cause for their fate.” The matriarch had altered direction. The two bodyguards steered the helpless Sharissa after her. She did not struggle, for once truly wanting to follow. If what Lady Alcia had said was true, then there remained no force capable of withstanding the Tezerenee, especially if Darkhorse was their tool.
“You know,” her host remarked, stopping and turning around so that the two faced one another. “I think this would be an excellent opportunity to show you the true depth of our strength!”
“What do you…” Sharissa began, but Lady Alcia merely snapped her fingers…
… and they were standing in another chamber, a dark, dank place lit by torches. A Tezerenee leaning over a table looked up. Sharissa, still in shock from the unexpected teleport, did not immediately recognize his shadowed visage.
“You did that as if it were nothing! All four of us! But I thought that you-”
“The old ways are returning. It is as if Nimth is part of us again.” A smile, a Tezerenee smile, slowly spread across the striking face. “We are not the near gods of our past, but we are again a sorcerous power to be respected.”
“It’s as if our destiny is being drawn for us by the hands of the founders themselves,” added the figure by the table. “The day promised to us by the Dragon of the Depths has come.”
Sharissa struggled with her captors. “Lochivan!”
“I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me, Sharissa.” Lochivan wore no helm; he seemed actually sad, though she was not so willing to believe him after his betrayal. “I truly think it would have been best if-”
“That will be all, my son.”
“Forgive you, Lochivan? I wouldn’t-”
He vanished before she could finish. Sharissa ended with a scream of frustration instead.
“When you are more willing, the two of you should talk,” the Lady Tezerenee said in a calm voice. She pointed at the table. “For now, this is what should concern you. This is what you wanted to see.”
Sharissa blinked and glanced without care at the thing on the table. An artifact. A statue carved to resemble a Seeker. Of what interest…
“She does not understand. Bring her closer.”
In silent obedience, the two bodyguards brought Sharissa within an arm’s length of the table and its contents.
She gave it another glance… and could not pull herself away from the thing’s contorted form. The careful detail of horror, the avian eyes staring at death. The mouth open in futile rejection of fate. The awkward sprawl of the body.