The warlock slowly nodded. “Yes. Anything to be away from this damnation! What about my erstwhile father?”
The clan master had retreated into his other world again. His dreams had been shattered, and one of the strongest driving forces behind that dream, the Lady Alcia, was dead at his own hands. If anything could have broken the powerful Vraad’s will, this could… and had.
“Hold on to him. We’ll take him along. I can’t leave him in here like this.”
Hinges creaked as the dragons pounded away. Sharissa felt weak probes searching for them. The drakes were going through a change that entailed more than physical transformation. They were being adapted, as the guardians had said, and part of that adaptation was an affinity for the sorcery of this world. Sharissa hoped that the remnants of her party would be gone before the dragons became too skilled.
They stood in a small circle, holding each other’s hands. Sharissa acted as the focus, drawing strength from her companions, even the somnambulant lord of the Tezerenee. Faunon suggested drawing an image from his mind and sending them there, but she lacked the concentration to do so. That left only a blind teleport, risky but their only hope.
“Wait!” Gerrod released her hand and dug into his clothing. He removed a crystal identical to the ones he had given to his companions earlier. “Take this and concentrate on the elf’s thoughts!”
“What will happen?”
“I gave you the other ones because the Quel use them for reading and translating thoughts! They work from a distance, and I thought it would be a good way for me to find you if we got separated. I should have told you, but that’s not important now! If you concentrate on your elf, what he thinks will be transmitted to you!”
She took the crystal and did as he described, finding with joy that Faunon’s thought image was so clear that it was almost as if they were already there. She focused on the location.
The dragons’ probes grew stronger. Inhuman emotions began to seep through, biting at her concentration.
The chamber faded.
The chamber reappeared.
“No!” They fell in a heap, shaken by the reversal. Sharissa felt a mind that she knew to be draconian laugh at them. Do not leave ussss, Sharisssssa Zereeee! Do not take our lordssss from ussss!
From the way Gerrod jerked, she knew he had heard the dragon, also. It was the same one that he had identified as one of his brothers.
The doors burst open, swinging back so hard they crashed into the walls and sent bits of rock flying.
The dragons swarmed toward them, the silver one in the front.
XXI
A dark, fleet phantom burst forth from the ground before the silver dragon.
“Back, lizard! Back or I shall stamp your pretty face into the rock!”
Out of surprise more than anything else, the huge monsters stopped. The silver dragon hissed at Darkhorse and roared, “Awaaaay from ourrr frrriendsss, demon! Awaaay from our tenderrr little frrriends!”
“I think not!” The eternal struck the floor with his front hooves, sending lightning sparks at the foremost drakes. The silver one hissed again and backed away.
“Sharissa! Come to me! You and your companions! Hurry now!”
Their eyes on the leader of the horde, Sharissa and the others rushed to Darkhorse’s side. Gerrod had to lead his father, who simply stared at the dragons and muttered something that sounded like “Tezree” to Sharissa’s ears.
“Be ready!” the shadow steed whispered when they were by him. “If I cannot-”
He never finished. The silver dragon, eyes on the party, caught sight of the great form lying limp across the farmost part of the hall.
“Motherrr!” The outraged roar echoed throughout the citadel.
The silver dragon charged.
“Too late, my friend!” Darkhorse bellowed.
The great hall and its foul inhabitants winked out of existence-to be replaced by a lightly wooded land.
“Praise Dru!” The eternal sank to his knees in the high grass. Sharissa quickly looked around and saw that everyone else was accounted for. She exhaled and hugged Faunon, so relieved was she to find they were safe.
With some reluctance, the two of them finally separated. Gerrod, still guiding his oblivious father around, curtly asked, “And where are we now?”
The area they stood in the midst of was part of a fairly flat region. Far, far to the north, the sorceress thought she could make out a mountain chain, although whether it was the same mountains in which lay the caverns was impossible to tell from this distance. At the moment, she only cared to know if they were safe or not.
“I think I recognize this,” Faunon said, scanning the area again. “I think we may be south of the citadel.”
“Far south?” she asked.
“Far enough.”
“Unless they have the ability to track our magical trail,” the warlock interjected, eyeing the elf in a way that Sharissa did not like. “It was how I ended up in all this madness, tracking the trail he left behind.”
Looking at Darkhorse, Sharissa was horrified to see that he was becoming transparent. “Darkhorse! What’s happening to you?”
“I… fear that I have almost exhausted my… myself. My being. The drag-onlord… was… not lacking in his… his enthusiasm when he punished me!” He eyed Barakas, who stared at the trees without seeing them. “I cannot say I regret his present circumstances! I would wish him worse, but I know you would not care for such hate!”
“I can understand your bitterness, Darkhorse. Don’t think I can’t.”
“Perhaps. That does not matter now. Give me but a moment and I will send you on the final leg of your journey.” The ebony stallion slowly rose, and his form solidified a bit.
She was not certain she understood. “Where are you sending us?”
He snorted. “Where else? Home to your father and his mate!”
“But…” Her eyes met Faunon’s. “But what about you?”
“What about me?” the elf asked, moving closer. In the background, she saw Gerrod turn in open disgust.
“Can you make it back to your people?”
“If I was going there.” He gave her a weary smile. “I thought I was going with you.”
It was what she wanted to hear, but she still could not accept his decision.
“You probably won’t be able to return here! The ocean voyage is deadly!”
“I have no reason to return, Sharissa. The elders were hardly even interested in my expedition. As far as they were concerned, this was the latest in a series of new masters of the land, nothing unusual. They agreed to our going more because they knew we would go anyway than because they really cared.” He cut off any further objections with a long kiss.
Sharissa reluctantly broke away. “Then there’s nothing holding us back. Darkhorse can-”
Gerrod, buried so deep in his cloak that his features were almost indistinguishable, interrupted. “I have a boon to ask of you, Sharissa.”
“What?” Now that it had been decided that they were all leaving, she wanted to be done with the spell. To see her father and stepmother… to live a peaceful existence, at least for a time…
“Take care of my father. In his present state, he is useless to all, even himself. Someone needs to watch over him.”
“And what about you, Vraad?” Faunon asked, turning a critical eye on the warlock. “Where will you be that you cannot care for him?”
“Here. I am not going with you.”
Even the elf was stunned by the answer. Sharissa took a step toward Gerrod, but he retreated a like distance. Finally, she was able to ask, “But why? Why would you want to stay here?”
The sorceress had no way of knowing if he looked her in the eye or not, so dark were the shadows summoned up by the deep hood. “My interests lie here. My studies and such. Besides, my presence will only be a further strain on the powers of the demon horse.” He shrugged, trying to be nonchalant where Sharissa could see by his very posture he was the opposite. “I have nothing I need return to.”