Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,248

also gave the plan a look of cooperation. Making others an integral part of the plan would build up their faith in Dru. Unobserved for once, Dru tried to relax. It was a fruitless attempt. There was too much to do and he still worried over the fact that Sharissa had not shown up yet. Dru had expected her to be one of the first. More worries. Would it ever end?

“My father could not have handled it better.” Rendel had come up behind him, but Dru had been too overwrought to notice. Xiri made it a point of switching sides so that she would be farther away from the Tezerenee. “You left out quite a bit, didn’t you?”

“What if I did? Some of it probably would have resulted in your demise… and perhaps ours, too.”

Rendel shrugged. “I meant nothing by it.” He smiled in gracious fashion. “You have only my admiration.”

There was a way that the Tezerenee had about him that demanded questioning by Dru. “You seem very pleased, more so than I would have thought.”

“Why not?” With visible effort, Rendel created an emerald dragon-scale suit with a glittering cloak that moved even when there was no wind. He was greatly satisfied with his results and smiled again. “Despite that thing you call a guardian, I will cross again. I will have what is rightfully mine.”

Dru wished he shared the pale-haired spellcaster’s confidence. Rendel’s words had stirred a nameless fear within him, a fear that the journey to the shrouded realm would be far from simple.

A fear that Nimth itself would not let them leave.

XIX

The night passed, though it was nearly impossible to believe that since the sky remained unchanged. The storm still grew, yet did not unleash its fury. Illumination from the green mass above still kept Nimth bathed in a parody of sunset. Xiri forced Dru to rest and he perhaps succeeded in sleeping an hour, but overall it was no use. Too much preyed on his torn mind. Vraad gathered in greater and greater numbers and still there was no Sharissa. Unable to rest any longer, Dru wandered among his people and asked several of those he knew if they had seen her. Several could not be bothered to remember. In some ways he could not blame them. They wanted to leave Nimth and be done with it. To most Vraad, the only reason to ask the whereabouts of a child of theirs was so that said offspring would not be able to mount a surprise assault on their domain.

Only when he realized that Melenea was also among those still missing did the tall sorcerer have an inkling of why his daughter might not have been able to reach him.

“I have to leave,” he whispered to Xiri. “We have to leave. There is an enchantress called Melenea.” Dru could not recall at the moment whether he had told the elf of his former lover, but that did not matter. Even if he had said something, he needed to say it now. “She’s a Vraad of the worst extremes. Her entire life is built around what she likes to call games, but which others have often called insanity.”

The Tezerenee returned. His eyes burned with anger and not a little fear. The more Vraad who arrived, the less comfortable he felt. Only Dru’s presence and word of honor kept the growing mass from trying to take him.

“Going somewhere? I think not,” Rendel warned, keeping his voice low so that the rest of the Vraad could not hear him. He had remained close by, drawing protection from Dru’s mere presence. An unwelcome, eavesdropping shadow that Dru was regretting. “Not, at least, until I’m across!”

The two faced off. “It’s a fallacy that the Tezerenee understand what caring for a son or daughter means, but that doesn’t give you the right to command me, Rendel!”

“Would you like me to tell them that you plan to abandon them? I doubt whether I’d have to worry much about my hide if I did! It would be you they were after, outsider! You and your sweet pet here!”

Xiri had already proven her bravery time and again, but the covetous look Rendel gave her turned her face pale. Her eyes were daggers as she tried to pretend his implications meant nothing to her.

“They’d still take you, don’t think otherwise! I won’t be bullied, dragon! You don’t want me as your enemy!”

Rendel tried a new tactic. “You were given a purpose when the guardians sent you back