Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shade (11 page)

Kadaria’s face sank deeper into the shadows that formed most of her, but her amusement remained quite evident. “And does he know that the longer he makes use of the ‘gift’ we brought him the nearer he approaches death?”

“He is happy to have his power back. I thought it thus unnecessary to bother him with that detail.”

The necromancer chuckled. “We look forward to welcoming him to our domain.”

“And you are welcome to him.” The duke shifted in impatience. “The lionbird and his wizard friends are no doubt awaiting my appearance. There are a few things I must attend to before the attack is launched. You promise that the hooded one will also not interfere. See to it that he does not. He is the only question mark in my mind.”

“He is a question answered. He has concerns of his own.” She did
not elaborate and Ravos, who knew nothing of the circumstances currently surrounding the sorcerer Shade, did not care. Everything he had learned about the Lords of the Dead had indicated that they were even more interested in keeping the legendary spellcaster contained than he was. From what he gathered, there was something very
personal
involved.

“So be it, then.” The duke did not bid her farewell, but rather simply turned his anxious drake around and headed back toward his mighty force. Whether she stayed or disappeared was of no concern to him. They were allies, but only due to their similar aims. They had made agreements both sides pretended were binding, but Ravos was under no misapprehension that the necromancers wouldn’t seek to betray him if they thought it better suited their goals. He knew that they assumed the same of him. It was a fair enough arrangement in his eyes.

It was fair enough, because he already knew just how and when he would betray them.

THE SKELETAL COPSE
appeared empty, but Kadaria still remained, even if now hidden from mortal eyes. She observed Ravos’s vanishing into the mists and chuckled.

Another shadow separated from the trees, a shadow that took on a vague shape akin to hers, only more masculine. It did not coalesce as much as Kadaria, although she had no difficulty identifying which of her compatriots it was.

The fool of a lizard is not to be trusted to do his task . . .

He will do as much as he feels he needs to in order to achieve his goal, Zorane,
she replied, her lips unmoving.
Then he will plot his betrayal. That is all we require of him.

Zorane radiated satisfaction.
It will all come together. Our dear cousin will pay for his transgressions against us . . .

Kadaria faded, becoming less substantial than even Zorane. The two of them had other matters to which to attend to ensure their success.
The others would be waiting for word.
And more important, through him, we shall reshape the world to our own design . . .

The necromancers departed.

The army marched on.

CHILL WINDS ROARED
through the front chamber of the caverns, but the two male dragons paid no mind. They lay with their snouts facing the entrance and their fiery eyes wary slits observing all before them. Even among their kind, they had the semblance of twins and, indeed, they had been born in the same clutch. The pair were even of like minds, which made them all the more terrifying and powerful guardians to this mountainous abode.

In the gleam of torches set in the walls to their sides, their otherwise dusky green scales glittered with the touch of gold. The tail of the leviathan to the right shifted back and forth slightly, but otherwise the only movement from either was their slow but constant breathing.

Both dragons abruptly raised their heads, their eyes wide, alert, and fearsome. Two toothy mouths gaped open.

Flames shot forth from the pair, bathing the area before them with such heat that the ground there glazed.

As one, the dragons ceased their assault. Wisps of smoke continued to rise from the scorched area, but the reason for their sudden fury remained unseen.

“Faras. Ssgayn,” came a feminine voice echoing throughout the chamber. “You know me.”

For once, the dragons did not act as if a single creature. The one on the left looked hesitant, while the other hissed warily.

Valea materialized in the center of the burned area. The heat would have still been enough to take her breath if not for her magic. She confronted the two titans without fear, even smiling.

“Lady Valea,” rumbled the one on the left.

“Ssgayn. I’ve missed both of you.”

The other dragon still eyed her mistrustfully. “You should not be here, Lady Valea! There hasss been no word of your coming!”

“Doesss it matter?” argued the first dragon. “She isss Lady Valea! He would wish to sssee her!”

Ssgayn’s companion snapped at him, although clearly not with any true intent of harm. “We mussst let no one pass!”

“Faras . . .” Valea approached the reluctant beast. “Ask him. Ask if I may have an audience. A brief one.”

“Thisss isss not right.”

“She isss Lady Valea!” Ssgayn said again. “He will want to know she wasss here . . .”

The two argued for a moment more, then Faras finally growled, “Very well.”

Ssgayn shut his eyes. Faras resumed his untrusting observation of the human.

Despite her air of assurance, Valea was not certain that she would be allowed to pass. Still, she had dared seek out the pair’s lord more directly, for this place had defenses far more devious than two dragons and certainly far less caring of any past relationship. Ssgayn and Faras knew her from old, had even been raised alongside her back at the Manor.

Ssgayn opened his eyes again, a strange look in them. Before Valea could judge what that look meant, a figure materialized between the dragons.

“Valea!” In contrast to the guardians, the newcomer literally welcomed her with open arms.

The other female was young, but otherwise there was little similarity between Valea and her. The enchantress was not short, but still the raven-tressed figure before her stood taller and was voluptuous in the best definition of the word. She had the appearance of an elf in regard to her features. Valea had once been very jealous of that perfect face, even if it was as much the creation of magic as nature. However, knowing this golden-clad woman as she did, Valea only felt a rush of pleasure
and relief. She returned the hug with as much vigor as her new companion.

“Ursa!” With all that was going on, it had not dawned on her that she would see her most beloved friend, though that should have been obvious since Ursa was also Kyl’s sister.

Not to mention also sibling to the two dragons still looming over them.

Ursa turned to face the guardians. “I will take her to see him.”

Both dragons’ expressions changed to what could only be relief. Simultaneously, they began to shrink. Their tails dissolved and their wings withered away. They rose up on their hind legs, which straightened. The forelegs shrank more, becoming arms ending in hands.

As Valea eyed Ssgayn, his shriveling visage slid upward. In its wake it left the familiar, half-hidden face beneath the helm of a humanoid drake warrior. The dragon head became the crest, albeit not nearly so elegant a one as a Dragon King would wear.

Faras and Ssgayn bowed low to Valea, then stepped apart to let the two females pass. The warriors now wielded long swords, creations of their magic. Those swords would cease to exist when they transformed back to their original shapes. Whether as a dragon or a warrior, a drake was ever armed.

“We do our duty,” Faras said insistently as Ursa led Valea beyond them.

“The emperor will know that,” the drake female promised with a touch of reassurance.

As soon as they were out of hearing of the pair, Valea murmured, “Surely, they’ve redeemed themselves for their past error. In the end, they chose to remain loyal to Kyl and not Toma . . .”

“He has forgiven them. They may not ever do so themselves.”

Valea said nothing more on the subject, for they began passing other sentinels guarding the caverns of the Dragon Emperor. Many of these already stood in the form of warriors, who pretended not to notice the
scarlet-tressed figure walking beside Ursa. They were all aware of the Bedlams and some of them had even been raised at the Manor themselves.

The enchantress noted among them those that bore no trace of gold in their scaly armor, but rather more a forest green. The imperial clan had been decimated during the previous emperor’s obsessive hunt of a young Cabe Bedlam and had not yet recovered sufficiently. While most of the remaining Dragon Kings had supplied warriors to their new emperor, the majority had come from the Dagora Forest and Lord Green. Valea’s father felt that Green had too much influence on Kyl but had done nothing. The relationship between the wizard and that Dragon King was a troubled one made even more so by their children.

All thought of her brother’s part in that vanished as Valea entered the grand chamber. Much of the cavern greatly predated the Dragon Kings and had been utilized by earlier rulers of the land. One of those had left gigantic stone figures of various beings, some recognizable, some not. Valea could sense the deep magic within each, magic she felt had some specific purpose. Yet, even the eventual collapse of some of those statues due to tremors and time had revealed nothing.

The drakes had remained as ignorant as any of their predecessors as to the statues’ true reason for existing, but Kyl had been determined to show them a respect that his sire had not. All damage to the figures had been meticulously repaired using manual methods. Aware of the statues’ inherent magic, the new emperor had not wanted to risk stirring forces that might be beyond his control. Still, he had wanted his sanctum to be refreshed as just one indication of a new era.

Yet, obviously more representative of that new era was the young emperor himself. As ominous and breathtaking as the lifelike effigies could be, or in some cases so vague as to stir the darkest imagination, it was the figure seated on the great stone throne whom Valea Bedlam found the most arresting part of the scene.

As Ursa was elven beauty perfected, so Kyl appeared the most handsome of that race’s heroes. Tall, dark, with sleek features and captivating
eyes that widened much too eagerly in her presence, the Dragon Emperor could have had nearly any maiden he desired.

Unfortunately for him, he desired the one who would never have him . . . Valea.

She curtseyed before him. “Emperor . . .”

A hiss of exasperation deflated some of the majestic image. “Valea . . . pleassse . . . Kyl to you.”

“As you wish.”

The vast stone chair dwarfed him, yet until her cool greeting, he had not looked small in it. Kyl did not need to utilize the armored appearance his subjects and the lesser kings did; he was of a newer generation that could better fashion their guises. Females had long been apt casters of elven and human forms, but they sacrificed most of their magic doing it. Kyl, however, wielded the might of a Dragon King even looking as he did.

Valea recalled Faras and Ssgayn from when they had been young and realized with a start that, while never as able as Kyl, they had lost much of what ability they had had in shapeshifting. To protect their brother and king, they had focused their magic into their duty, not their forms.

Kyl looked to his sister. “Leave us.”

Ursa looked sad to separate from Valea, but she bowed her head to the emperor and departed. The enchantress watched her depart, sorry that in keeping away from Kyl, she had kept away from her best friend.

“You could sssee her more often,” Kyl muttered.

“I shouldn’t be here at all.”

“There isss no animosssity between your family and me, Valea. Your father and mother have forgiven me for ssseeking to use you . . . and I believed you had, also. Only I ssstill find myssself wanting for that travesssty.”

A younger Kyl had sought to make Valea his so that her not-inconsiderable power would be at his beck and call when he became ruler of his kind. Not only had he come to regret that misdeed, but too late he had realized his true affections.

Valea did not love Kyl, although once she had been deeply infatuated. It hardly would have mattered if she had, for neither her father nor the drakes would have let such a match stand. The two races
could
produce young—as her parents already knew far too well—but the animosity between humans and their former masters remained great, even despite certain alliances.

“I considered materializing before you despite the danger,” she said as if the previous conversation had never taken place. “Because I wanted to speak about something private, but I thought better of it. I realized that to do so would insult your position.”

His expression changed from bitterness to confusion to a hint of relief. “I would have understood, Valea.”

“But the others wouldn’t have.”

He glanced to the side, as if someone might suddenly appear there. The various Dragon Kings had ambassadors to his court, ambassadors who each sought to become his most trusted adviser. Fortunately, although not completely without danger to the peace, Lord Green still held sway.

“No,” the emperor finally replied. “There are ssso many thingsss that
no one
can completely underssstand.”

Determined not to press on any other subject no matter how curious she was, Valea approached the high dais upon which the throne stood. She expected Kyl to remain seated, but to her surprise, he leapt up and rushed to meet her at the foot of the dais.

“I will not stand on ceremony with you,” Kyl murmured, forcing the sibilance from his voice. “You are a friend and I will help you in whatever way I can.”

She almost took the hand offered but thought against it. Still, Valea smiled gratefully. “Thank you. And if there’s any way of keeping my visit from my father’s knowledge for a time, I would appreciate it.”

“Keep a secret from the wizard Bedlam?”

“I know it’s more than I can ask.”

Kyl shook his head. “Have you not noticed already that we are very much alone?”