Her concentration was interrupted for what she considered permanently by the return of the feeling that there was another in the room with her, another by the name of Shade. Erini leapt to her feet, teetering ever so slightly. Nothing. For the space of a breath, she had felt his presence so near that it would not have surprised her to find him staring over her shoulder. Her weary mind succeeded in coming up with an answer that satisfied her for the moment; her erratic senses had no doubt picked up on the traces left behind by his previous visitation. That she had not noted them in the days between now and the time of that incident did not occur to her.
Defeated, Erini slumped onto her bed. The appeal of falling asleep in her clothes renewed itself. Her arms were lead; the weight of the palace seemed to have been placed on her head. She wanted nothing but sleep now. Perhaps after some rest, the princess hoped, she would have some success.
A hesitant knock on her chamber doors stirred her. “You may enter.”
It was Galea. There were rings under her eyes and it looked as if she had just woken up. She had dressed hastily, for her clothes were wrinkled and her hair was in complete disarray. “My lady?”
“What is it, Galea?”
The other woman looked perplexed. “You summoned me, your majesty.”
Had she? Try as she might, Erini could not recall doing so. Perhaps Galea had only dreamt that she had. “I’ve no need of you now, but if you have a moment, I have a message for you from someone important to you.”
From the way her companion’s eyes lit up, the princess knew that Galea had already guessed who that certain someone was. Trying to smooth her hair into something more organized, the robust woman stepped respectfully inside, closing the door behind her. She hurried over to her mistress, unable to hide her anxiousness.
Erini started to speak, then clamped her mouth shut as the feeling of the two of them not being alone threatened to overwhelm her. She glanced quickly around the bedroom.
Galea looked at her in slight confusion. “Is something amiss, my lady?”
“I’m not-” the princess turned to her, intending to calm both Galea’s worries and her own-and found herself staring into eyes that no longer saw, but gazed blindly into the emptiness next to her. “Galea?”
The gentle woman did not move. Erini could not even tell if she was breathing.
It had not been her imagination and in her weariness she had failed to understand that.
“Greetings to your majesty,” a voice uttered indifferently.
Even before her gaze turned on him, she knew it was Shade. He stood near the mirrors, which had turned black and opaque in his presence. Erini idly wondered whether there was something the warlock did not want to see.
Shade slowly strode toward her. His face, though shadowed by the immense hood, was quite distinct this time, a complete change from their accidental meeting. A lock of silver hair hung down across his forehead. Erini shook her head, not believing any of this. Not now! Not after everything else!
“I find I have need of you, Princess Erini. Other matters… well, you wouldn’t understand, I imagine.”
She tried to open her mouth to scream for help, not knowing who or what could save her from this, but her lips seemed sewn shut.
“My apologies, but I have more to say and much to do.” He reached forward, not for her, Erini noticed, but for Galea. The princess reached out to block him, but her movements were uncoordinated for some reason and she only succeeded in falling over herself. As she tried to rise, Erini caught a glimpse of Shade whispering to the other woman. Galea nodded, still deep in the trance.
Darkhorse! Where was Darkhorse? Managing to come to a kneeling position, the novice sorceress tried a spell, any spell, that would alert someone, preferably the ebony stallion, to her predicament.
“Mustn’t do that,” Shade’s hand was suddenly on her shoulder, though the warlock had been elsewhere a moment before. Galea was nowhere to be seen. Tears of frustration tumbled down her cheeks. She looked up into the cursed warlock’s visage and tried to convey her anger with her eyes.
He almost looked sympathetic. His next words even carried a tone of slight remorse with them. “I do not know why I am explaining myself to you. You are my only choice. I have to act now-who can say how long a better choice than you might take to come along? My time is limited and I find I grow more impatient.”
Her eyes narrowed as she pictured Darkhorse confronting and defeating him. Shade smiled knowingly, almost as if he could read those harsh thoughts. “Your savior will not notice your absence for some time to come. At present, he is chasing… me, you might say. Something to keep him busy.” Shade held up the fingers of both hands and counted names off. “The Bedlams sleep. I owe them that much for now. They will sleep for quite some time. Your Melicard has a mighty horde approaching his very doorstep and, counterwise, the Dragon King Silver has an entire city prepared to face him. Poor Drayfitt, my sad benefactor, is dead-an unfortunate accident of his own doing.”
There were still several fingers up as the warlock completed his insane recital. Erini studied them closely, still keeping a faint hope alive. Shade looked from her to the raised fingers and then slowly lowered them. “The rest were merely spares, I’m afraid. There’s no one else.”
He pointed a single finger in her direction and indicated that she should rise. There was no choice in the matter; Erini’s body responded without her cooperation. The hooded warlock nodded in satisfaction.
“I could have taken you in a much more violent manner, princess, but I’m trying to be reasonable. You have no idea how calm I’ve been. I could have leveled this city with your precious Melicard in it. The Dragon King would’ve been annoyed; he so wants to take Talak in one piece. There’s so much I could have done, but things turned out for the best after all, so I suppose there’s no use pursuing the subject.”
Erini could say nothing, do nothing. Only her eyes allowed her any opinion at all. They spoke volumes, mostly concerning the madness of the creature before her.
Shade frowned and purposely looked away, only to find the blackened mirrors confronting his gaze. Turning back to his captive, he smiled again. It was a different sort of smile, though, one tinged with guilt; an emotion Erini found it hard to accept that the warlock would feel under the present circumstances.
“You may survive,” he added, almost hopefully. “If you do, I’ll return you safe and sound to here-or Gordag-Ai if the drakes succeed here. You have my oath on that.”
She gave him one last glare, telling him what she thought of his promises.
The warlock grew oddly unsettled. “We have to go now.”
As Erini struggled futilely to make her body respond, Shade wrapped his seemingly endless cloak about both of them and pulled her toward him. The world seemed to warp around them-and then they were elsewhere.
XX
"Shade!”
Darkhorse struck the wall of the cellar he had materialized in only a few seconds before. As with his previous stops, the only trace of his adversary was a minute trail left behind by the warlock’s method of travel. The previous thread had led him here-but then, the last trail before that and the ones before that had all led him along.
That was the truth of the matter, Darkhorse finally admitted to himself. He had been led along. He had fallen for yet another ploy by the warlock, who had spent each and every lifetime during his curse plotting and planning tricks for the incarnation yet to come, not to mention the hundreds of enemies he had gathered over the centuries.