Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,217

and started a teleportation spell. Sharissa knew she should warn him about something, but the pain at the back of her head made it impossible to recall exactly what it was that the hooded figure had to beware of. By then, it was already too late. She felt the chamber shift around them, melt away, and become another place.

“Dragon’s blood! This isn’t where I wanted to go!”

“You’re… you’re lucky to have made it at all,” she managed to gasp out. “We might have ended up in the shrouded realm… or some place even farther away!”

Gerrod’s laugh was bitter. “That might have been better for both of us! Look about you!”

“I can’t… wait… my eyes are clearing.” The blow, obviously her unwanted companion’s doing, had blurred her vision. The teleport spell had not helped matters. Fortunately, as the pain eased, her eyesight returned to normal. “Where have we… Serkadion Manee!”

“I think Father’s betrayal has angered the rest of the Vraad.” The sardonic tone in Gerrod’s voice was unmistakable.

They stood in what had once been the courtyard of the Vraad communal city, a place where only days before the race had first started to gather for the coming. It was a city now ravaged by those who had created it and who, Sharissa suspected, would likely greet a Tezerenee and the daughter of the patriarch’s supposed ally with even deadlier fury.

XIV

BARAKAS, LORD AND patriarch of the Tezerenee, the clan of the dragon, gazed at what would be the beginning of his new empire. Gone were the ways of old Nimth, when he had been forced to share the world with so many arrogant and maddening outsiders. Now, only a handful of outsiders remained, all manageable. Most of those were female, too, for the patriarch knew that to start any new civilization required new blood. He had kept his clan to certain numbers because of the restrictions of space in Nimth. That was no longer necessary.

“Those mountains over there.” He gestured at the same peaks Rendel, days ago, had set out for. “I want them explored.”

Reegan looked abashed. “We have no flying drakes and our powers work haphazardly, sire.”

“Do not state the obvious with me, Reegan. I have trained you to do what you must to obey my commands. See to it that what I say is done.” Though Barakas almost looked peaceful, his eldest son, reading into the patriarch’s eyes, bowed quickly and rushed off to see what suggestions some of his brethren might have.

Lady Alcia, stepping away from a conversation with someone who was either a daughter or a niece—Barakas felt it unnecessary to try to keep track of all of his people as long as they did what they were told—joined her husband as he surveyed the fields and forest around them.

“You seem flushed with excitement,” she murmured.

“I have a world to conquer. I have my people to obey me. What more could one ask for?”

“Your son?”

Barakas looked at her in distaste. “Which one, my bride? Rendel, who betrayed us once he was on this side of the veil, or Gerrod, who failed to do anything I asked of him?”

“I can’t say anything concerning Rendel, but Gerrod did as he was commanded. You never paid attention to that fact, however. It may interest you to know that I ran across Gerrod before I returned from our old keep. Even though time was running out, he was determined to find Dru Zeree’s daughter, as you commanded, despite the fact that he believed she was a ‘guest’ of Melenea.”

“I waited as long as possible, Alcia. You saw how they were acting. Any longer and we might not have crossed in time.” The patriarch’s attention wandered to where Lochivan was trying to look busy. He still feared his father’s wrath, though there was nothing he or the others could have done to prevent the disappearance of the golems. That had been Rendel’s province. “Lochivan!”

“Father!” Despite the fear, the Lord Tezerenee’s son rushed to his side and knelt. “You have a task for me?”

“This will be our initial camp. Begin expanding our perimeter. We need drakes, too. If you—”

Both Lochivan and the Lady Alcia looked at the patriarch, curious as to why he had stopped speaking.

“There!” Barakas pointed a finger at one of the nearby treetops. A horrible, agonized shriek filled the ears and souls of the assembled Tezerenee, all of whom turned to stare in the direction of the cry as if mesmerized by the strident sound.

A winged figure, now only a corpse,