Deciding silence was more appropriate than any response he could give, the shadow steed departed immediately-for where, he could not say.
With the imposing presence of Darkhorse gone, Melicard was slowly able to get his thoughts under control. He had sworn that he would make Talak hold, and hold it would. The defenses had never been tested in actual combat, but he tried not to think about that. Ironically, Melicard no longer thought about the potential for destruction. That hundreds of the cursed drakes would die meant little to him. His own people would die as well and the kingdom might fall.
“Captain Iston!” He had come to rely heavily on the foreigner, impressed as he was with the man’s loyalty and experience. If they somehow survived, he would offer the soldier a permanent position on his staff-if Iston still wanted to remain in Talak. Should Darkhorse fail-and the horrid thought refused to die-the complement from Gordag-Ai would likely return to their homeland, having no further ties with his own kingdom.
“Your majesty?” The officer reluctantly abandoned his woman’s side. Melicard felt a twinge within.
“You have your orders. I must ask that you now follow them.”
“Yes, your majesty.”
As an afterthought, the king added, “You may say your farewells before you depart.”
“Thank you.” Iston saluted, took Galea’s hand, and led her away.
Melicard turned to the others. Several already had their orders and these he dismissed immediately. The rest waited, somewhat reassured now that their liege had taken control again.
The king surveyed the horizon. Was it his imagination or was the Dragon King’s host moving more slowly? He grimaced. Wishful thinking, no doubt.
“We have,” he finally began, “only a few hours before havoc reigns. The others know their duties. What I want from each of you are suggestions-or comments on anything I’ve forgotten about. I want anything that will buy us time.” He also wished he had at least one spellcaster. Thanks to the talismans he had kept, despite his own dislike for them since his disfigurement and what little Drayfitt-poor Drayfitt-had succeeded in accomplishing, the king had assumed his palace was fairly safe from the invasions of spell-throwing drakes and such. Now, however, he was not so certain. Darkhorse’s ability to come and go as he pleased did not bother him. Shade’s did, but here was a warlock with the knowledge of millennia. What bothered him was that an agent of the Silver Dragon had worked actively underneath his very nose and there was no doubt that Quorin had been in contact with his true master several times. It would take only one breach in those sorcerous defenses…
“My lord!” A guard stood by the doorway, awaiting permission to enter.
“Yes, what is it?” Were there not enough troubles?
“There is a drake demanding entrance to the city!”
“A drake?” How had they missed that? No doubt an emissary from the Silver Dragon, here to issue the demands of his lord. Best to kill him… no. Best to send him back with a message! “Tell the reptile that his master will never have this city and that I have said his head will hang alongside the banners when we have crushed gaggle of monstrosities!”
“My lord-”
The king knew it was emotion speaking, not thought, but he hardly cared. The audacity of his foe angered him. “You heard me! Go!”
The sentry bowed low, but did not move. He had something he felt had to be said, regardless of the king’s anger. Melicard nodded permission.
“The drake is not at the northern gate, my lord, and he does not appear to be of the clan Silver.”
“No?”
“He claims to have ridden from south.”
South? “The Dagora Forest?”
“That was what he said.”
Melicard did not know whether to laugh or curse. The Green Dragon had sent an emissary, but, considering that Talak and the monarch of the Dagora Forest had clashed in the past, the question was-was he here as an ally or a new foe?
There was only one way to find out.
XXI
Erini was frightened, though she tried as best she could not to show it. She was frightened of many things, but what frightened the princess most was the curious behavior of her captor.
Despite his claims to the contrary, she doubted that Shade’s mind was as complete as he thought it to be. His personality seemed fluid to her, changing from one extreme to another. So close to what he believed would be his triumph, Shade was beginning to recall more and more about his tragic failure-and he insisted on sharing each detail with her, as if trying to purge himself of the memories.
“When men came back to this land,” he was telling her companionably, “and settled, bowing for a time to the will of the first Dragon Kings, I moved back among them. Weaklings! Their ancestors had given in to this world, taking up its magic instead of strengthening their own! There were a few who could do outstanding things with that magic, though, and from them I learned much of what I had dared not attempt for fear of losing myself as my counterparts had.”
Erini, held by his spells in a standing position with her arms outstretched-as if challenging the world, she thought bitterly-did not understand half of what he said. He was talking for himself. As long as it kept her from the fate he had planned, Erini did not object.
“I took many names and many guises in those days, learning what I could. Several times, I renewed my lifespan. Someday, though, I knew that those spells would fail me. I would die and the Vraad would pass from this world forever, a world ours by right.” He smiled coldly. “There were a few others who survived, in a sense, but they had also given themselves over to this world’s nature, becoming less Vraad and more-more-”
Shade rose, seeming to forget his tale completely. It was not the first time he had changed so abruptly. Shade stretched out one arm and caused the blue ball of light floating high above them to increase in intensity. The warlock’s stronghold, little more than shadow prior to this, was revealed to his captive for the first time. Erini was properly awed.
Erini had never seen the throne room of the drake emperor, so it was understandable that she would miss the incredible similarity between that place and this. Grand effigies of people and creatures long dead or vanished lined the walls on each side. Some were so real as to force the princess to look elsewhere, for fear one of them would start staring back at her. Erini was brave, but, even with her limited experience in magic, she could sense the cold presence within each one. These things were alive, although hardly in the sense that most people thought of as living. In some ways, they almost reminded her of Darkhorse, though she hated even considering such a thought.
“My cache. Plundered by those scaly wretches above. This was where I formulated my spell and stored all my notes and special-toys. A Vraad habit. Though I performed my spells among humans and lived in human communities, it was here, in this place, that I first conceived of my notion. It was here that I found and began to travel the path of immortality and true power such as even the Vraad had never dreamed.”
As he spoke, Shade reached into his cloak and removed a rather ordinary-looking tripod. The care with which he handled it told Erini it was anything but ordinary. She watched in helpless frustration as the warlock placed it at her feet.
“The concept came to me early on, but the doing of it escaped me for centuries. I feared I was lost. To understand what I needed, I would have to give myself. Become changed by this world-have I said that already?” Shade looked up from what he was doing, uncertain. There was a slight trace of fear in his tone, as if he were finally realizing that his mind was not as it should be.
While he puzzled over his own question, Erini continued her own struggle. Though she could not move, her mind was still free. Shade needed her mind free yet malleable. The princess desperately tried to capitalize on that, continually summoning up whatever strength she could find within herself and sending out a sorcerous cry for aid that she hoped Darkhorse would detect. It was a slim, almost mad hope, but it was all she had. She lacked the skill and experience she needed to break free of her physical predicament. The warlock knew too many tricks.