Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,256

into my home. It seems quite agitated.”

“Something to do with your daughter?”

“It must be. Sirvak wouldn’t say a thing concerning her, but kept speaking of trouble. I—”

Nimth was no more. Dru suffered a brief period of total chaos where he floated in a dark limbo. He had lost his grip on Xiri, somehow and realized that he had never brought her up to Sirvak. Had the familiar left her outside?

His feet touched the cold, hard surface of one of the castle’s floors.

“Sirvak? Xiri?” His eyes refused to focus. “Sirvak? What kind of spell was that? What happened? Xiri?”

After a moment, a delicate hand touched his. “Hush, Dru. I’m right here.”

He blinked, slowly making out vague shapes. The shapes tightened until they were actual forms… walls, doorways, torches, and, to his left, his elfin companion.

“How are you feeling?” she asked in concern. Her eyes were bright, as if she had actually enjoyed the transfer.

“Better than I did when I first arrived. Didn’t you feel the disorientation? A sensation of being held in place for a moment or two?”

“A little. Perhaps it didn’t affect me as much since I’m an elf.” Xiri said the last with a touch of amusement in her voice.

Dru was unable to see the humor. He turned around and looked for the gold and black form of his winged familiar. Sirvak was nowhere in sight.

Sirvak?

Masterrr?

Where are you? Dru let his rising anger wash over the disobedient creature.

I come. The great reluctance with which the familiar responded caught the spellcaster by surprise. He would have questioned Sirvak then, but Xiri chose that moment to desire his attention.

“What is that in there, Dru?” She had drawn closer to him, nearly clinging to his arm. To his surprise, he felt uneasy rather than pleased with her nearness. Stirring himself, he followed her finger, which pointed at the doorway to his work chamber.

“That’s our destination. That’s where the key to crossing the ghost lands into the realm beyond waits. It should—” He broke off and stretched a hand out toward the unimpressive-looking doorway. “It’s open!”

“Of course it is.”

“That’s not what I mean! Sirvak!”

There was no response from the familiar. With a new fear stirring in the pit of his stomach, Dru raced through the unprotected entrance. He had improved on the magical barricade surrounding this, one of the most important of his chambers, and left it active prior to his last departure from the castle. By rights, only he and Sharissa could have entered and neither of them would have removed the spell, even with all the other defenses implanted throughout Dru’s domicile. Did this have anything to do with the dangers that Sirvak had mentioned in his ravings? Where was the familiar? Where was Sharissa, the only other person who had access?

When Dru saw the crumpled figure buried beneath the long cloak, he thought his worst fears had finally caught up to him. Then the sorcerer stared more closely and saw that it was a male body sprawled before them.

Rendel.

From the awkward angle that his body lay in, it was quite impossible that the Tezerenee had survived. Dru stepped closer, cautious because he still did not know what had killed the other Vraad. He also wanted to know how Rendel had gained entrance in the first place.

He touched the body. It was still warm, which was not too surprising since Rendel had only departed the communal city a short time before Dru and Xiri had. The dead Vraad’s expression was that of puzzlement, as if even then he could not believe that something had, in absolute fashion, ensured that he would not return to the shrouded realm. He felt no remorse for the arrogant Tezerenee. As intelligent as Rendel had been, his ego had made him blind to common sense. He could not see the abrupt end his ways would bring him. Nothing had been beyond him, as far as Rendel was concerned.

Dru wondered what it was that the Tezerenee had desired so much that he would grow so careless. If it did lie in the realm beyond the veil, then someone else would someday claim it. Dru hoped he would not be around when that happened. Anything that so obsessed a Tezerenee could only be a danger to all others.

Stepping back from the corpse, he saw the cracked blue crystal, no more than the size of a nut, that lay nestled in the crook of Rendel’s arm. Dru forgot about the body at his feet.

“Serkadion Manee!” He had slim hope