“While we-appreciate-the sentiment, Darkhorse, I think the time for theatrics is long past.”
Something is dreadfully wrong here! Had it been possible, his face would have turned crimson. “I received a desperate summons for help-from the Princess Erini!”
Melicard looked at his future queen. “Erini?”
The princess shook her head silently. She seemed almost disinterested.
The king turned back to the imposing figure before him and said, “Nothing has happened since you departed a moment ago save that the drakes have moved a little closer and we still await your friends, the Lord and Lady Bedlam. When do they arrive? I would rather not put my faith entirely in my own tricks, not if there are two master spellcasters available.”
“I–I cannot say when they will arrive or if they even ever will. There was no sign of them. Their own people cannot find them!”
“Cannot find them?”
“I fear Shade has struck again!” Darkhorse could not help looking skyward. “I rue that this time should have ever come! He was my friend during many an adventure, but he has also been my sworn foe in times past! This day, however, washes away all the good that he has ever performed! If Cabe and his mate have suffered because of the warlock…” Darkhorse could not finish, unable to find a punishment strong enough to mete out.
The cry had seemed so real. He studied the princess, who idly stood by, waiting for something to happen. Why was she so indifferent now? Even with the lack of true sleep, she was not acting as he would have imagined her to act. The Erini he had met would have continued pushing until unconsciousness took her. This one seemed to hardly care.
There was one other thing that disturbed him-or perhaps it was the absence of something.
Several men came marching into the chamber, Captain Iston in their lead. A gasp escaped Erini and she took a tentative step forward before catching herself and settling back into her look of indifference. Darkhorse’s ice-blue eyes narrowed.
Iston saluted. “My men are ready when you give the signal, your majesty.”
Darkhorse listened to the officer’s words, but his eyes remained fixed on the princess. There was a look of longing growing in her eyes that had nothing to do with Melicard. Her attention appeared to be focused on the captain.
He knew that the princess was a woman of passions, but the shadow steed knew that her love could have never turned so easily. Erini had been prepared to give her life several times over for the sake of her betrothed. This Erini acted as if she had never cared at all.
This Erini?
Forgetting Melicard and the others, he trotted toward the princess. She could not help turning to him, so impressive a sight he was, especially moving toward her with such evident purpose. Strangely, there was a level of fear noticeable in her eyes that also did not match the Erini he had come to know well, even despite what little time they had spent together.
“Your majesty is not looking well,” he rumbled.
“A lack of sleep,” she murmured. It was evident that the woman before him did not want him so near.
“How is your concentration? Will you be able to aid in the cause?”
“I hope so.” Her tone suggested otherwise.
Darkhorse fixed his glittering eyes on hers. Erini tried to struggle, but her will was surprisingly weak and she quickly succumbed.
“I know now what so disturbed me about you! I know now that you could not have summoned my aid!”
Behind him, Melicard moved quickly to stand beside his bride-to-be. He faced Darkhorse with blood in his good eye.
“What are you doing to her? What in the name of the Tybers are you doing?”
“Resolving my own uncertainties about a few things-and cursing myself anew for missing the obvious!” Darkhorse drew Erini toward him, repelling Melicard at the same time. While the king struggled in vain and his men watched in stunned confusion, the shadow steed probed the human before him. He was not surprised at the results.
“This is not your future bride, King Melicard! This woman has no sorcerous ability whatsoever! She who stands before you, though she looks like the Princess Erini, is but a poor creature caught in a spell whose origins can only derive from that master of mayhem, Shade!”
Melicard’s jaw dropped. “Not Erini?”
“No, not the princess! I should have noticed instantly that she projected no sorcerous presence! Princess Erini did not have the skill yet to mask that presence, at least not so completely!”
The false Erini was struggling with the spell that held her. A spellcaster she might not have been, but whoever-and that was likely to be Shade-had ensorcelled her had shrouded her in a few defensive spells. Darkhorse, though, strengthened by his own fury, tore away each of them, until only the illusion remained. While everyone waited-Melicard shaking-the shadow steed removed that last spell, revealing a shorter, slightly stout woman.
“Galea!” Captain Iston surged forth, trying to reach the woman. Darkhorse nodded imperceptibly. The female’s deepest emotions had forced themselves to the surface the moment the officer had entered the room. Only strong love or hate was capable of that and Darkhorse knew enough to tell which was which. He released the confused Galea, who turned to her soldier and buried herself in his arms. A quick glance into her thoughts had already revealed that she knew nothing.
“Erini! Where’s Erini?” Melicard demanded of him.
“I do not know, your majesty! When the summons reached me, I paid its point of origin no attention, assuming that since little time had passed, she must be in the palace with you!” The ebony stallion laughed madly, mocking his own stupidity and carelessness. “Every turn! Every direction! He trips me each time and I continue to take the falls!”
The king’s split visage became a grim mask. Staring at some point in space, he calmly and quietly commanded, “Find her, Child of the Void. Find my queen and save her. I don’t care what the cost might be. Start now.”
“Now?” Darkhorse studied the human incredulously. “I cannot search for her now, though a part of me screams to do just that! Talak is endangered and the life of one being cannot outweigh the fate of an entire kingdom!”
“I have no need of you. We will hold. We will hold until the end of everything, if necessary. Go! I refuse your help! Will that free you of your obligation?”
The shadow steed stamped a hoof against the marble floor. He knew what the king was doing and liked it not at all. All of Talak! “King Melicard… I cannot do this-”
“Get out of my sight, then, demon! I want nothing of you if you will not do this for me!”
Melicard’s subordinates were finding everything else to do other than stare at their ranting monarch. Darkhorse knew that the king’s ravings were only an act. An act of love.
Sighing, Melicard visibly pulled himself together. “We will still be here when you return. As I have said, Talak has long been prepared for such an invasion-even if most of my forces are scattered elsewhere.”
They would be arguing until the Silver Dragon himself burst through the chamber doors, Darkhorse finally realized. There was no changing the king’s mind. The eternal knew that accepting the human’s decision was not the correct thing to do, but it was too close to his own desires for him to fight it. He felt he owed much to Erini for releasing him-and much more because there was a quality about her that he had found in so few others, making it all the more admirable. There was no one name for it and he did not care to think of one. What mattered was the princess.
“Very well,” he finally replied, his words as close to a whisper as he could manage.
The look he received from Melicard was a mixture of gratitude and relief.
“I do not even know where to look.” That was somewhat of a lie. Darkhorse did know where to look; the only trouble was that there were too many places and certainly not enough time.
“You do what you can.” With that final statement, the king turned away, momentarily unable to continue.