Legends of the Dragonrealm Volume 2

VII

“Come, come! I grow bored at this! How long will you dawdle there, little Dru?”

Dru did not answer him at first, still caught up in his thoughts. Day had given way to night-a night filled with stars and two moons! — and yet the sorcerer was only beginning to comprehend the patterns of the world around him. Unlike Barakas, he had never intended on charging into the phantom domain, uncaring of what obstacles might lay in the immigrants’ path. Dru knew that even with the tremendous abilities of the creature who floated beside him, there might be dangers too great to combat. His own powers, while they had returned, were unpredictable, even more so than they had of late been back in Nimth.

Shifting form again, Darkness once more tried to berate his companion into movement. Behind the blustery tones were undercurrents of fear and excitement. “You can protest all you want, little Dru, but I have brought you home! Even if you cannot remember it, I can!”

That was the other thing that kept Dru from moving on, the shadowy blot’s insistence that this was Nimth. Even after the sorcerer had given Darkness permission to search his memories again, the entity had argued that he had not made an error. Dru had decided not to push too hard; Darkness had an ego as great as his interior, the latter of which seemed to go on into infinity when the spellcaster stared long enough.

Somewhere along the way, Dru had chosen to think of the creature as male. Perhaps it was the deepness of the blot’s voice or perhaps it was the overbearing arrogance. In some ways, his companion reminded him of Barakas. Knowing that Darkness could pick up the thought, Dru had buried it deep. He suspected Darkness already knew how he felt about the patriarch of the dragon clan.

“I want to try something,” Dru finally said. “When I’m through, then we can move on for a short while.”

“What is a ‘while’?” Darkness pulsated. Despite the light of the two moons and the stars, the lands around them were barely visible. Darkness, however, was blacker than the night, so much so that he almost stood out as a beacon.

Dru knew better than to try to explain time to a creature who dwelled in a place that itself did not comprehend the concept. Instead, he concentrated on a tree before him and muttered a memory-jogging phrase.

The tree should have withered, should have dwindled to a dry husk and crumbled before his eyes. It did nothing, but a black death spread across the grass beneath the sorcerer’s feet. He leaped away, forgoing pride for safety.

“Good! Now we can depart!” Darkness rumbled, ignorant of the failure of the Vraad’s spell.

“Wait!”

“What is it now?”

Kneeling by the blackened, dead blades, Dru tried to inspect the damage in the dim illumination. As he had spoken the fanciful phrase, he had felt the familiar twinge as the essence of Nimth bowed to his overpowering will, but it had been checked by a fierce protesting force from the shrouded realm itself. The sorcerer touched the grass, only to have it disintegrate into a fine powder. Dru cleared his throat at the thought of what might have happened if he had remained standing on the spot.

This world will not bend to us so easily as the last, he concluded nervously. This was not just spell failure; this was a battle of wills, so to speak. He already knew that a second or even a third attempt would gain him the results he had intended, but that was only a pitifully tiny victory. Like Nimth, which had turned mad from the massive abuses of Vraad sorcery, the stronger the spell the more this domain would battle back.

Suddenly, a world-heavy weariness swept over the frustrated Dru. He slumped back, visions of a land swallowing up each and every Vraad dancing about his tired mind.

The entity Darkness shifted closer to him, the two icy orbs staring down at him in what the Vraad vaguely recognized as anxiety for the sorcerer’s well-being.

“You are fading? You lack essence?”

“I’m tired.”

“What is that?”

“It means that I must lay for a time in quiet. Probably until after the sun has returned.” When that was, Dru had no idea. Time felt different somehow, almost as if the shrouded realm moved more swiftly.

The creature seemed annoyed that nothing else would be accomplished for now, but evidently understood that his tiny associate was lacking in many ways. “What shall I do while you lay down?”

“Remain nearby. I cannot protect myself as I thought I would be able to. I’ll have to ask for your aid in case something tries to attack me.”

“They would not dare! Not while I am here!”

Dru winced. “One more thing. Please make as little sound as possible while I sleep… lay down, that is. It will help me to recover my strength sooner.”

“As you wish,” Darkness replied in a rumble only slightly less deafening.

The sorcerer grimaced, but consoled himself in the fact that anything nearby would get as little sleep as he did. Still kneeling, he looked around for a more comfortable place to rest. At the moment, he was too tired to trust another spell, yet there was no area around him that looked inviting. Dru sighed and, pulling his cloak tight around him, simply lay down where he was. He wondered briefly at the sudden intensity of his exhaustion, then drifted off.

“Are you rested yet?”

Dru straightened with a start, turning his head this way and that. The sun was just over the horizon and the sounds of the day were already well into their second movement. Gradually, his eyes focused on the huge, ungodly thing next to him.

Darkness was a contrast to all around him, un life surrounded by life. Even the period in the Void, where the gigantic horror had been the only thing visible other than the helpless Vraad himself, could not compare to the scene now unfolding before Dru. Yesterday, he had been so turned around that he had failed to notice it. Now, though, Darkness’s disturbing form fairly shouted at him. This was the creature who had befriended him.

“Are we to do nothing again? You promised that once you were whole we could move on! I want to see all there is to see! All this solidity!”

The rest had aided in rebuilding Dru’s reserves, but not completely. Nonetheless, the sorcerer himself was now eager to move on, if only to get a better idea of what he might have to face. He also wanted to find the way back, something he now knew still existed. At a vague point in his slumber, it had occurred to his unconscious mind that the fact that he could still draw upon his power in Nimth meant that there was a gap between the two realms. One of them had to be like the tear that he had fallen prey to. This time, though, he would not run. This time, Dru would make use of the rip in reality.

He stood up and looked the Void dweller straight in the two pupilless eyes. “Let us go.”

“At last!” Like a child unleashed from his studies, Darkness bounded forward, a hole of black space frolicking among the trees. Dru heard the frightened cries of birds and watched as many flew into the sky at insane speeds. In the woods themselves, small animals departed with equal haste.

Both amused and dismayed by the entity’s antics, the spellcaster followed close behind.

Dru had tried to map as carefully as he could the translucent sightings, but none that he had studied resembled this one; though, being in a forest, it was possible that he just did not recognize where he was yet. He supposed it did not really matter save that he was interested in locating Rendel and the Tezerenees’ point of arrival. Dru imagined the countless dragon-borne golems, a sea of still, blank-visaged beings who contained no true life of their own, who were merely vessels for the migrating Vraad. The sorcerer shuddered. If-no-when he found the way back, the Tezerenee plan would be abandoned. Barakas might still desire to cross and seize control of a body, if only because of their draconian origins, but none of the others would.

“Something watches us.”

“Where?” Dru could sense nothing, but he knew how faulty his senses might be.

“It is gone now.” Had he shoulders, Darkness would have shrugged off the incident.

Dru would not allow that. “What was it? Where did it go?”

His nebulous companion seemed more interested in a stream that was just coming into sight ahead of them. Darkness had never seen water and was visibly attracted to its fluid nature. Dru was forced to repeat himself, this time in much more demanding tones.

“It was Dru-sized! How does this solid move as it does? It seems almost like me! Look how it races and shapes itself! It went away. It was there and then it was not there.”

It took the Vraad a moment or two to understand that the latter portions of the creature’s comments were in response to his question. “The watcher simply vanished?”

“Yes, yes!” Darkness moved closer to the water. A rough limb extended from its central mass. The limb dipped into the water. “What a truly fascinating sensation! This is the most fun yet! Come feel it, little Dru!”

Dru glanced around, wondering where the unknown watcher had vanished to after its discovery by Darkness. He wished he had asked the entity to alert him more cautiously about intruders. He wished he could trust his own senses better.

Water splashed all over the sorcerer. Darkness was tossing the clear liquid about, awed at how it allowed itself to be scattered all over the area and yet seeming to re-form in the steam. Dru was reminded once more of how childlike the astonishing creature actually was. No, he thought, it would never do to thrust Darkness among the other Vraad. His innocence would be his downfall.

Shaking his head and momentarily putting his present worries aside, Dru wandered over to the stream and kneeled down to drink. He cupped his hands and swallowed mouthful after sweet, cool mouthful, allowing it to dribble down his chin and onto his gray clothing. To his left, Darkness stopped playing, now interested in the novel entertainment his tiny companion was performing for him.

“You are taking it within you! I did not know you could do that! We are much alike!”

Dru paid him no mind. With the acknowledgment of his thirst, he was forced to acknowledge his great hunger as well. It stunned him to think that he had not thought of either since arriving here, almost as if he had not, until his first drink, actually been a part of this realm. The spellcaster stood, eyeing the forest around him. It appeared much more real now; his higher senses now functioned more as they should have. He could even sense the passage that the unseen watcher had taken when it had departed. Darkness had been correct; it had vanished. What it was, however, remained a mystery.

Aside from hunger, other functions were now demanding their due. Dru spent more than an hour near the stream, the bulk of time involving the picking of berries from a lengthy expanse of bushes and fruit from a tree overshadowing the stream just south of his original location. Darkness took everything as part of his continual game of discovery, much to the Vraad’s annoyance.

When he was at last ready to depart, Dru had a destination in mind. The intruder had been in the woods to the north and the stream originated from somewhere in the same direction. That meant that there might be civilization there. There was also a distant chain of mountains that Dru hoped might be the ones Barakas had mentioned once or twice. Rendel would be there, directing efforts on this side of the veil, so the tall Vraad assumed.

Their journey that day was uneventful, something Dru felt very grateful about. While he walked, the sorcerer continually investigated the binding structure of this world. With his higher senses, he surveyed the lines of force running gridlike throughout everything. It was a much more basic, more stable pattern than Nimth’s spirals, stronger, too. This was indeed a world that would resist the coming of the Vraad.

A chill wind came up at that point, a wind in Dru’s mind. The uncomfortable idea of a land consciously resisting outside invaders stirred. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of such a mad concept. The idea retreated, but did not leave. Dru threw himself back into the trek and his studies and was able to at least temporarily bury the unnerving theory.

Surprisingly, it was Darkness who called for a halt as the sun neared the evening horizon. The entity was unusually subdued. “I would have us stop here, Dru.”

The sorcerer was all for stopping himself-the berries and fruit from the stream insufficient for an entire day’s activity-but he wondered at his huge companion’s change of attitude. “Is there something wrong, Darkness?”

“I must…” The creature was at a loss for the proper words. “This form is not right for this world. I do not fit in. I am not part of the world.”

It was the same feeling Dru had had earlier, but he had not thought Darkness would suffer from anything similar. “What do you plan to do?”

“I think… I think it will be as close to your sleep as I can come. I wish to make myself over into something acceptable.”

“How long will it take?”

The blot pulsated. “I cannot say. I have never done anything like this… ah, how your land affects me! I never want to return to the foul emptiness again!”

That was the last Darkness spoke. As the Vraad watched, the huge, pulsating hole drew within itself, becoming more compact. The sorcerer had had enough trouble dealing with a hole that also had mass; he wondered what new miracle Darkness would present to him… and how long it would take. With the creature’s notions of time, or lack thereof, it might be years before the transformation completed itself. Dru could hardly wait years, but his companion had not given him an opportunity to say so.

He had no choice, anyway, not now. Whatever Darkness had decided to do, he was doing it. Dru was left to fend for himself and hope that the wait would not be for the rest of his life.

It occurred to him then how much he had come to depend on his unusual ally, both for protection and friendship.

Food became his own priority. He wanted something solid, something that would give him the energy he needed. Throughout the day’s travels, he had picked at berries that seemed safe enough. There was no denying the bounty of this land. It was merely a matter of the Vraad taking what he wanted, and that was surely an easy enough thought for one who had grown up on that very principle. It had only been his uncertainty that had prevented him from attempting sorcery. Now, however, Dru was willing to take risks, if only because his stomach now controlled his reactions.

His first thought was to merely conjure up a sumptuous feast, table and wine included, but a part of his mind fairly shrieked at such a wasteful display of power. It was a sensation that Dru had felt ever since his arrival here, but not to such a degree. He dropped the notion instantly, suspecting that it would not have worked out the way he wanted it to, regardless.

“Am I to starve, then?” he muttered. His mind turned to other methods. Perhaps it was the intensity of his sorcery that created the problem. If so, the safest use of his power might be a mere summoning spell, something that would allow him to bring a bird or small animal near enough so that he could capture and kill it. Dru could not cook, but he hoped that a second minor spell would prepare his feast for him. He grimaced at the image of himself physically preparing a bird for eating. No Vraad dirtied themselves with such menial tasks, but then, no Vraad had ever been in his position before. If it came down to it, he would do what he had to do; that was one Vraadish conceit Dru adhered to.

The first elements of the spell went smoothly. Dru worked slowly, hoping that by doing so he would ease his spell into completion. Then, the resistance began, first softly, then harder as the Vraad lost his patience and began to batter it. A wind rose, but Dru scarcely noticed it.

The summoning went out. The sorcerer felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning, but at least the spell had held. There had to be another way, however. Continually fighting against the land each time he attempted to use his powers would drain him. He could not rely on Darkness for everything, especially now.

He heard the animal well before it came into sight. A large creature, far larger than he had wanted to call. If it was a predator, Dru had doubts about his survival. The renewed fear over his own mortality froze the Vraad for a moment, allowing the oncoming beast to step close enough to see.

It was a horse. Dru’s horse, in fact.

The steed snorted and trotted closer, visibly pleased to have found its master. The sorcerer was at least as pleased and hugged the animal tight. It was a childish notion, but here was the only other creature from his home, the only link he really had to his citadel, Sharissa, and even Sirvak. More importantly, it was proof positive that had he remained where he was, he could have easily passed through to the shrouded realm. Surely, Dru pondered as he calmed the excited horse, the path worked both ways. He just had to keep going until he found one… that is, if Rendel and the Tezerenee monstrosities were not to be found.

“Good boy,” the Vraad whispered. He stroked the steed’s backside, smoothing out its coat. As his hand went across again, it froze midway back.

Where were the saddle and bridle?

Dru carefully inspected the horse’s mouth. There were no bloody marks that indicated the animal had pulled itself loose. Nor were there signs that the saddle had been dragged off as the steed had moved through the woods. There was only one explanation that fit what the spellcaster saw before him; someone had removed the saddle.

A quick scan of the darkening landscape brought no answers. He could not see a stranger simply removing the saddle and letting a horse as fine as this one run free. It now seemed too coincidental, too, that Dru’s spell had summoned his very own animal.

His senses touched nothing out of the ordinary in the trees and bushes, yet Dru was almost certain that he was under the scrutiny of others.

The horse chose at that moment to pull away and trot back toward the direction it had originally come. Physically, the Vraad was no match for him. Used to controlling the steed by power alone, he fought fruitlessly to keep it from going any farther.

“Come back here, you misbegotten-” Sharissa had always had the way with animals. They tolerated, even liked Dru, but obeyed more because they had never had much choice.

He turned briefly to see if there was any change in Darkness, but the entity was still rolled up into some sort of obscene ball, pulsating all the while. Unwilling to lose the massive horse a second time, Dru reluctantly followed after it. He was not certain as to what he would do, but he had to do something.

It had never left his mind that this might be part of some trap. Yet, the value of the steed, for travel alone, pushed him on. If worse came to worst, he would unleash his sorcery and damn the agony it caused him afterward. A strong enough will would put down the protests of the land. He was, after all, a Vraad.

The horse continued to evade him, turning to the northeast as it somehow trotted through the wooded area without so much as a pause. Dru stumbled after it, hampered by both the clutching branches and the continual rise of the earth. He was near a hill or a ridge. The trees had obscured this fact. It could not be a high one since he had always had a fair view of the regions in the distant north, but it was high enough to tire him further than the day’s trek already had. His determination did not waver; in fact, Dru actually began to look forward to any challenge before him. His growing anger would fuel his will. Anyone seeking to cross his path would be in for a terrible awakening.

At last, he came near the top of the formation. The horse vanished over the other side, which told Dru that it was a hill, for he could hear the steed’s steps as it continued on its way. The Vraad reached the uppermost edge and took his first look at what lay on the other side.

What had been a fairly low hill on his side was a vast ridge on the other. Dru gazed down at a valley that had once likely been fertile, but had given way to dust over the centuries. That, however, was not nearly so interesting as what stood within perhaps half a mile from his present location.

A city! Not a leviathan stretching out to the horizon, but a large city nonetheless.

Dru squinted, correcting his first observation. The ruins of a city. Even from where he stood it was evident that the place was in disarray. Several towers had crumbled and the walls were little more than a jumbled mass of rock. Once, it had been a sprawling place covering a hill at least as great as the one he stood on. It was perhaps more of a vast citadel, for Dru could see that each and every building within was connected. Most were round, like spheres buried partly in the sand, but there were rectangular structures as well and even a courtyard barely visible.

Despite its ragged appearance, he knew it to have once been a place of power. The builders had been on a level equal to that of Vraad, which stirred up the question of what had happened to them. Why was this place now abandoned?

The horse had paused at the bottom of the incline, gazing up at its master with an almost impatient look. Despite the height, there was a path that allowed one fairly easy access to the valley. Dru knew he was supposed to follow the animal and knew also that whoever had sent it wanted him to know that the sorcerer was being purposely guided. That spoke of someone who wished to converse, not to kill.

“And shall we enter the dragon’s maw?” Dru whispered nonsensically to himself.

He thought of Darkness, who might revive and find him missing. Separating was perhaps not the most prudent of choices in this land, but Dru’s inquisitive, arrogant nature would not let him miss this opportunity. Even with his skills hampered, he felt more assured. Someone obviously wished to speak to him and his mind interpreted that as a need for his aid. Being Vraad, it appealed to him, eradicating all other possibilities, including a few which likely would have been seen to bear more merit, had Dru thought them through.

He started down the hill, his eyes focused more often on the decaying citadel than the path he took. Twice he almost tripped, which would have ended with him rolling the rest of the way, but luck was always with him.

At the bottom, he almost tripped again, but this time because the body in his path was so much the color of the earth it lay half-buried in, that he almost did not see it in time.

Dru’s entire situation altered in the single breath it took the sorcerer to recognize the form for what it was. Near him, the horse waited silently. It no longer seemed impatient, but rather expectant.

The Vraad reached down and touched the corpse. It lay on its stomach, but he could tell it was manlike at least. Nearly as tall as the spellcaster, it had worn finely crafted cloth garments that crumbled when his fingers ran across them. To Dru’s shock and wonder, the body, too, crumbled, collapsing within itself and blowing away with the breeze. Nothing remained after the first few seconds save a collection of fragments, mostly decor from the clothing.

How old? Dru wondered. How old and in what way would one have to die to be preserved like this?

The ravaged city no longer seemed such a wondrous place to visit. The sorcerer wiped dust from his eyes and glanced back up the way he had come. It would not be too terrible a climb…

The sun was little more than a tired remnant of its once-glorious self. Climbing the hill might not be so terrible, but could he find his way back to his companion? Even granting that Darkness stood out even in the… the true darkness… he was still too far away for Dru to locate immediately. In the dark, the spellcaster might wander off in the wrong direction.

“Serkadion Manee!” Dru cursed his own stupidity. His powers and senses now functioned, at least somewhat. It would be a simple matter of focusing on-

Something snagged his left foot and threatened to topple him to the ground. Dru looked down to see the foot, up to and including the ankle, sink beneath the rocky surface. The grip that held him was tight enough to cut off circulation. His first attempt to free himself was to kick at the slowly encroaching ground. When his mind registered the idiocy of that act, the Vraad threw caution to the wind and summoned forth his powers as best he could. Whether they worked sufficiently or not, he would strike at the underground nemesis with everything within him.

The earth shook violently and the hillside threatened to collapse on the sorcerer. It was not the result Dru had intended and he wondered whether he had hastened his own death. Then whatever had hold of him lost its grip and the startled spellcaster fell back, arms akimbo as he sought uselessly to halt his descent. Dru stuck the ground hard.

A huge, monstrous shape rose out of the earth, filling Dru’s vision. The Vraad looked into a visage of savagery, a long-snouted, red-orbed beast that seemed to glitter. The creature was covered with a natural body armor and stood on two bulky legs. It had clawed appendages large enough to grasp him by the neck and rip his head off, if it so decided.

The terror let loose with a maddened hooting noise that threatened to pierce Dru’s eardrums. It raised a claw, obviously intending to rend the sprawled Vraad’s midsection. The harried sorcerer desperately sought for control, hoping to make one last strike with his haphazard skills. The claws came down.

A black aura surrounded the attacking beast. It let out one frightened hoot, and toppled toward its intended victim.

Dru had, at the very least, enough sense to roll away from the collapsing figure. He had no idea what had happened, save that he had escaped death again-with help from someone or something. The sorcerer ended his rolling by returning to his feet, crouched low in case of a second assault. There was none.

Cautiously approaching his would-be killer, Dru frowned. The creature blended into the region around him with the exception of little spots of glitter buried in the folds of its armor. Suspicions already forming, Dru carefully prodded the huge corpse.

It collapsed the way the first had.

At the same time, the Vraad heard the flutter of wings. He looked up.

More than a dozen copies of the avian horror that had tried to kill him back in Nimth hovered overhead. The largest of them wore a medallion about its neck and cradled the artifact with one of its hands. Dru had no doubt that this was what had killed the armored creature.

It was now focused on him.