Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,204

to Darkhorse. The phantom steed came to a halt and Dru dismounted. For their purposes, he preferred to continue on foot.

“Worlds within worlds within worlds…” Darkhorse was saying. “What fun it would be if we entered and found a way to yet another! Just imagine if they went on forever!”

“I’d rather not! Nimth is the only world I want… my Nimth,” he added quickly, noting his companion ready to argue the point again. Studying the buildings, Dru settled on the largest, the one whose towers they had seen from beyond the walls. “That’s where I want to go.”

Not waiting for Darkhorse, the sorcerer crossed the courtyard. He heard a chuckle from behind him. “And has impatience now become a virtue?”

Dru ignored him, fairly rushing through the open doorway. The main hall sparkled; he had not doubted it would by this point. From the doorway the sorcerer had just entered, Darkhorse stepped within, his hooves making the same clap-clap sound they had when he had followed Dru and the avians into the one rounded edifice. The sounds echoed throughout the building.

For reasons he could not explain, the Vraad felt ashamed of the harsh noise Darkhorse was making. The castle touched him in an unusual way; Dru felt as though the sounds violated a peace that had reigned here for thousands upon thousands of years. It was a different sensation than what he had felt in the ruined city. There, he had felt the ghosts of memory and the remnants of power. Here was tranquility, a rare thing to a Vraad. If he died, this was where Dru wanted to be laid to rest. Here, he could—

The sorcerer shivered. Beside him now, Darkhorse asked, “Is there something amiss with you?”

“No. Nothing.” Merely, Dru thought, that he had been almost willing to lie down right here and now and wait for death to claim him.

More cautious now, he strode ahead. There were two massive iron doors at the end of the hall, each more than twice as tall as the Vraad. Somehow, he could feel their importance. Behind them were the answers to the endless questions filling his mind. Whether he understood those answers was yet another question, but one Dru was willing to live with for the time being.

Putting a hand out to where the doors came together, the sorcerer pushed gently. The hinges groaned, but access was still denied him. He pushed harder, leaning into the two doors, but was granted no greater success than in the initial attempt.

Putting his shoulder to the crack, Dru angrily threw his weight against the obstructions. For his trouble he received a sore shoulder. Even though there was nothing to indicate that the way was locked, the Vraad could not get the doors to swing back.

“Perhaps if I—” Darkhorse began.

“No!” This was one that the angered spellcaster wanted for himself. Worn beyond his limits, Dru could no longer check his Vraadish temper. It swept over him, a crimson curse that seized control of his body. Shouting words he would not recall later, Dru raised his left hand and brought it down on the massive metal doors.

With a spark that seemed to course from his fist to the entire doorway, the Vraad opened the way. “Opened” was perhaps misleading. What actually happened, if Dru could still believe his eyes, was that the two doors flung back, going the full turn of their hinges and then tearing free of the walls themselves. While the two watched, Dru in dismay and the shadow steed in growing amusement, the doors, now free of all restriction, teetered for a breath… and then fell with a resounding clatter that shattered forever any remaining feeling of tranquility that the spellcaster might have retained.

“Nicely done,” Darkhorse commented wryly. He had quickly developed a knack of sarcasm equal to any Vraad.

“It wasn’t… I didn’t…” Dru gazed at his fist, then at the battered doors.

“Would it be of interest to mention that the boundaries of this place seem to have suffered from your calm, collected solution?”

Dru turned and eyed the walls of the hallway. An intricate system of fine cracks ran along each wall. The ceiling and floor had suffered from a similar network of these skeletal branches, and Dru could see where bits of ceiling had fallen. “I did this?”

“It seemed a reaction to your power. I noted resistance, but you overwhelmed it.”

His madness had defeated the shrouded realm’s resistance… that is, if this was still the shrouded realm. He wondered how well it