Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,270

with whatever tortures suited their desires?”

As horrifying as the image might be, Dru could not deny that there were those who would have gladly done exactly as the patriarch had said. Yet he also knew that the Vraad were capable of other things.

“Let the past fade with Nimth, Tezerenee! The time has come for the Vraad race to meld itself into a people, not a vast collection of spoiled and sadistic individuals.”

Dragon warriors, female and male, now surrounded them completely. Barakas glared at them, but did not order them back to their grisly tasks. “We need nothing. The clan will survive!”

“Is this survival?” another voice challenged. Heads turned in simultaneous fashion as the Lady Alcia strode into the center of the circle. She was still the warrior woman, beautiful, elegant, and deadly, but there were signs of exhaustion evident in her visage. “How many of the children you purport to love must die? Anrek and Hyria are among the bodies!” Her cool facade began to crumble away before their eyes.

Dru could not place the names and neither, it appeared, could the patriarch. He brushed them aside by turning back to the fate the Tezerenee would supposedly receive at the hands of their cousins. “We might live longer by returning to the fold, outsider, but what is life when pain is all that you offer?”

“I can’t promise you that the clan will be accepted without conflict. If I did, I would not blame you for turning away and walking off. I’d do the same.”

“Things have changed, Father,” Gerrod offered. “Most of the people have changed, though I doubt forgetting will be possible.”

“That was Rendel’s doing! If I could…” Barakas clamped his mouth shut, the Lady Alcia’s expression warning him of the potential for personal disaster if he carried his anger at his son further.

Dru glanced at Gerrod, who turned his way and shrugged, his shadow features an emotional mystery. Neither of them felt it was the time to discuss Rendel’s demise.

“All this talk is nonsense!” Barakas straightened to his full height. His presence was nearly overwhelming. Everyone stepped back or froze save Dru. He had faced the bearlike Vraad before and would do it again. “Nonsense! We will all perish unless we combine! This is a land we must struggle to tame, a land we must take by force from the monstrosities that abound here! There is no other place for us to go!”

Do not tell him of me yet! the guardian’s voice suddenly warned Dru, speaking only to him. Tell him only that there is another place and it can be reached. The time is not yet right! Let him hear all before…

Before what? Running a hand through the silver band of hair he had given himself what seemed a millennium ago, Dru told Barakas, “There is a land beyond the seas in the east. We have a way of reaching there and a way of ensuring that the Seekers—the avians—do not disturb us. There will be land we can tame and time for us to renew our strength. Relearn our sorcerous skills as well. This is a world where different paths must be taken than those that turned Nimth to the rotting shell it now is.”

Hopeful gazes and encouraging whispers spread through the Tezerenee and the handful of outsiders who had come with them and survived the attack. Barakas seemed to weigh his words.

His answer will be the same, said the guardian to Dru. He has set his own path and can find no way to turn from it without his pride and mastery suffering. There was some hint of surprise in the guardian’s tone. He would rather they all die here, futilely battling to the end. It is a thing I have watched all too often. It is one of the reasons so many hopes failed over the endless aeons.

What can we do?

Stall a few moments more, that is all. He will have his excuse to accept your terms.

What does that mean? the sorcerer asked. Dru received only silence as an answer. A chill ran through him. The guardian was planning a show of strength, so to speak, something more than his eruptive appearance from the earth. That should have been enough by itself. Certainly, it had impressed Dru. Yet he recalled that once he had known the wolf would not attack, he had lost much of his fear and wonder. This guardian planned a lesson of some kind, then… but what?

“You have betrayed your position, Zeree,” the