Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,149

so pleased now. There were too many things to worry about to keep adding to the list, though this was really part of his first and foremost fear, he supposed.

“Sharissa!”

“Here, Father.”

She came to him as more of a mist than the child that he had expected. The billowing silver dress that clung to her proportions reminded him of what he had just tried to force from his mind, that, though only two decades old, his daughter was a woman. For someone three millennia old, two decades seemed hardly enough time to learn to walk.

Tall, though she only came to his chin, Sharissa was not willowy. She had grown to fit her frame, looking exactly as she should have looked if she were a foot shorter. Her hair was silver-blue—natural, as far as Dru knew—and flowed down her backside to a point just below her waist. Like many Vraad, she had crystalline eyes, aquamarine gemstones that shone brightly when she was pleased with something. Her lips were thin, but perpetually curled upward at the ends. Even when Sharissa was angry, it was all she could do to force those lips into a straight line much less a frown.

“What is it, Father? Did something happen at the coming? Was there a duel?”

He stirred. Caught up in dreaming, again! “No, no duel. One, actually, but the Lord Tezerenee put an end to it.”

“That’s no good! A duel should reach a dramatic conclusion on its own!”

Among Dru’s earliest attempts to entertain his daughter had been tales of some of the more interesting duels he had witnessed… and occasionally been part of. Much to his regret, Sharissa had proven to have a Vraadish taste for such things. It was one of the chief reasons she had begged to go to the coming and one of the chief reasons Dru had not taken her. He was thankful that she had listened. By this stage of her powers, she could have easily ignored him and gone on her own.

“Never mind that now! I gave you some duties to perform while I was away.” Those duties had been partly to keep her busy for a time, but some of them had had true purposes. “Did you take care of them?”

Sharissa looked down. “Some of them… I… I was bored with them. I thought I’d finish in a few minutes.” Her eyes were wide with worry. “I only had the ball running for two or three minutes; that’s all!”

Dru forced himself to breathe calmly. “The crystals. That’s what I want to know about. Did you adjust their settings? Did you refocus the spell as I asked?”

“Oh, yes! I did that first because you made it sound the most important!”

“Serkadion Manee be praised!”

Hugging his daughter, Dru felt the first relief he had experienced since before his departure for the coming. If things were as they should be…

“What happened? What about the Lord Tezerenee’s plan? Did something go wrong?”

“I’ll tell you later. For the time being, we have work to do, you and I.” Releasing his daughter, Dru twisted his head around so that he could look Sirvak more or less in the eye. “To your sentinel duties, my friend. Some young drake of the patriarch’s might come looking for me. I want to know before he or they get here. I also want no one else prying into this!”

“Masterrrr.” The familiar stretched, spread its magnificent wings, and flew off. Dru had complete faith in the creature’s abilities; Sirvak was single-minded when it came to its duties. It would monitor and protect the castle better than either the sorcerer or his daughter.

“Come.” He took Sharissa’s hand. “This may literally prove to be a key to our predicament!”

As one, they folded inward and vanished from the theater—only to reappear at their exact starting point a second later.

Sharissa moaned, holding her head as if struck by some unseen assailant. Dru felt little better, finding even his legs unsteady.

“Father… the spell… like yesterday…”

“I know.” Yesterday, Dru had found it necessary to adjust the design of the eastern tower so as to allow for the softening of the soil beneath. From a base of rock, the earth had turned to so much mud. Despite his best efforts, however, the Vraad could not alter the composition of the ground. Mud it had become and mud it was determined to stay. In the end, Dru had been forced to create a bridge and pylon system… and that had taken two attempts. For a time, his spells had