“I still bear the gift of my Lord Ravager,” snapped the sorcerer. “And one day it shall glow fiery again with his blessing…” He reluctantly put the crystal away. “…but until that glorious day comes again, I have learned to make due with a different and, admittedly, interesting method of spellwork.”
Morgis hardly cared about what sort of magic the keeper had picked up, but D’Kairn’s prattling garnered the drake warrior time to surreptitiously study the odds… and also try to determine what had happened to Kalena. “And what sort of spellwork have you turned to?”
“Blood magic.”
All thought of escape vanished as the two words sank in. Blood magic. Morgis suddenly recalled Kalena’s horrific tale of the skinned Gnor and the macabre appearance of her human partner. To the drake, it all fit somehow. Both had become part of some monstrous spell created by the fiendish figure before him.
“Blood, you sssay? Didn’t spill enough in the name of your dog god?”
Face an emotionless mask, D’Kairn reached up and pulled from beneath his breastplate a small necklace, the end of which was an ivory-colored stone encased in a silver band. The keeper gently stroked the stone.
The tingling struck Morgis stronger this time. It was all he could do to keep from screaming. He tried to double over, but his guards refused to allow him even that minuscule relief.
“You will refrain from further blasphemous expressions, dragon,” the lupine human commanded. “I want you alive-if not well-for the time being. You have some value to me.”
“H-how fortunate.”
“Not so much as you think. I have utilized the blood of men, of the cat people, of almost every race on this continent. Each offers power of a varying degree for a varying period of time.”
“A Gnor w-would give you much, I sssuspect.”
D’Kairn replaced the necklace within his breast plate, frowning. “Not as much as I would have imagined. The Syrryn actually provide much more.”
Now it was Leonin who tried to reach the sorcerer. “You damned filth! I’ll-”
The Aramite nearest Leonin struck him on the back of his head with a gauntleted hand. Morgis’s partner tumbled forward, groaning.
Morgis hissed harshly, both in response to Leonin’s injury and D’Kairn’s horrific revelation. The Syrryn were bird folk.
Awrak had been a Syrryn.
“You will pay for that…” he muttered to the keeper.
This brought a chuckle from D’Kairn, not a pretty sound or sight. “No, dragon… you will pay. You will pay for all that you did, all that the Gryphon did, all that brought forth the ruination of our empire and severed from those like me the wondrous link to our god! You will pay… and in the process you will help me restore what was ours!”
Morgis had wondered how D’Kairn’s mind had survived so intact after so many of his brethren had lost theirs when the Gryphon had somehow broken their sorcerous ties to the Ravager. Now he understood that his captor’s sanity had not been spared. D’Kairn’s madness was of a different, more deadly sort.
“All the magical power you can gather won’t help you regain your empire, Aramite,” the drake retorted. He indicated the handful of soldiers with the keeper. “And thessse will hardly be enough to police it for you.”
“There will be more of them, dragon, and more keepers again! What I have learned is sufficient to spread to those of my brethren still surviving and each of us will then take on promising apprentices. The blood magic is fairly simple, once you know how best to draw it. I’ve had much time and many subjects, you know.”
Kalena’s visage flashed before Morgis’s eyes, but he said nothing this time. He swore, though, that if D’Kairn had done to her as he had Awrak and the Gnor, the drake would see to it that the keeper met a like fate.
Of course, first he had to escape.
They were interrupted by two more raiders. Morgis’s anger deflated as he realized the odds were even more against him and Leonin. That made ten, in addition to D’Kairn. Even if they somehow managed to overcome the soldiers, the keeper still had some power left in his amulet, enough to keep Morgis from shapeshifting.
“Well?” asked D’Kairn of the newcomers.
“The bird’s disposed of, my lord,” one of them replied. “No sign of the cat, though.”
The keeper shrugged. “No matter. Who will she run to?” He looked directly at Morgis. “We have what we want.”
But the drake paid little mind to the danger to himself. The guards had given him some relief. Kalena had escaped D’Kairn’s foul work.
The keeper snapped his fingers and the guards dragged Morgis over to Leonin. As they did, a husky Aramite with strands of graying hair thrusting out of the bottom of his helm went up to the lupine sorcerer.
“I’ve got three men keeping watch out there now, my lord, but I’d be more comfortable with three more. Just in case there are more following these.”
“As you wish, Captain D’Falc. Your attention to proper duty is commendable and will be recalled when we have taken back that which is ours.”
As the burly captain picked out the three, D’Kairn stepped to an open area near one of the back rooms. The keeper crouched, then with a piece of chalk taken from a belt pouch, began drawing on the stone floor.
“What’s he doin’?” whispered Leonin.
“Preparing to take our blood…”
Leonin spat to the side. “I’ll take his before I let him take mine.”
Morgis felt the same, but neither were truly in a position to do anything. He watched with growing trepidation as D’Kairn worked on his pattern. The drake knew enough about magic and sorcery to understand that the keeper would draw their life forces from their dead bodies, transforming those forces into dark magic. The blood itself was simply the transport, the carrier of those forces.
But what part did the skinning play?
One of the soldiers that Morgis had earlier wounded approached the bound pair with bowls. The contents stank, but nonetheless the stomachs of Morgis and Leonin rumbled for lack of any recent meal.
“Keep your mouth open and keep swallowing,” commanded the wolfhelmed figure.
The hot, coarse contents flowed down Morgis’s gullet. The soup had the consistency of mud and nearly made him choke, but at the same time it strengthened the drake and cleared his weary mind.
After they had both been fed, the soldier gave them each a swig of water, then returned to the campfire. Around them, the other Aramites ate their own meals.
“I thought they were going to kill us,” Leonin remarked. “Why feed us? Makes no sense.”
“The ssstronger we are, the ssstronger our blood. D’Kairn wishes usss to be in prime shape when he sssacrifices usss.”
And it appeared that it would not be long before that happened. The sorcerer now had a complex array of patterns before him and looked quite satisfied. He put the chalk away, then pulled out the necklace.
But at that moment, Captain D’Falc came rushing inside.
“My lord! None of the three guards are at their posts and there’s no sign as to where they might’ve gone!”
“What of those you led out?”
“Just outside, guarding the entrance in case of attack!”
D’Kairn nodded, satisfied with the measure, then eyed Morgis and Leonin. “I thought we had verified that these two and the Syrryn were the only ones.”
“Them and the cat, my lord.”
“Yes… her. Her kind are born predators, aren’t they? She may have decided to stay around after all. No doubt took the men one-by-one from behind. I appear to have underestimated the little vixen.”
“I’ll lead a patrol…” The captain’s fist squeezed tight, as if already holding Kalena by the throat.
“No, I will lead the patrol. I have no time for any more petty interruptions. We shall track down the cat promptly and add her to the collection.” He gave the two prisoners a savage smile. “The more the merrier, eh?”
D’Falc chose six men to come with them, leaving the remaining three to watch Morgis and Leonin. The hunting pack seized torches, then followed the keeper and the captain out.