Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,271

patriarch said, suddenly drawing strength from somewhere. The mood of his people sank as his own rose. They were so used to being controlled that no one even spoke out, even though it was their own future, their own lives, that were at risk. “The Vraad have always subsisted on their magic. All Vraad save the Tezerenee!” Barakas looked triumphant. “Even in a land without danger of foe, you would be unable to survive. None of you know how to exist long without the aid of sorcery! Sickness, hunger, accidents, weather… all factors that you do not understand! If anything, you need us! You need our knowledge, our skills at survival! It might be better asked that instead of we joining you, you join us!”

“Astounding!” Gerrod muttered. “Lochivan had the same arrogant offer! In the face of so much death, you can still be so damned demanding!”

Be ready! came the alert from the guardian. It would say nothing more of what it planned.

The air was filled with the now much too familiar sounds of great wings beating.

“They’re back!” one of the Tezerenee shouted. His voice did not sound eager or determined, but rather almost terrified. For all their battles in Nimth, they had never faced a true foe in so great numbers.

“Barakas—” Dru started.

“This is the time to fight, not flap your mouth, Zeree! You’ll find escape by teleportation impossible; they have some way of countering it with their blasted medallions!”

The Tezerenee were already doing their best to organize for battle. Two flying drakes were brought up. Weapons of every sort materialized in hands. Archers were already positioning themselves. A few confident souls were doing their best to work themselves into a will strong enough to cast competent spells.

Lady Alcia remained behind as her husband ran off to direct his people. “Master Zeree, if you have anything that will aid us, as you seem to indicate, this is the time! If not, you will surely die with us!”

Gerrod whirled on Dru. “What has that blasted bit of living magic put us into? Would it not have been sufficient to merely drop us from a great height and see if we can cast a spell before we splatter on the ground?”

“Just wait.” It was easy to tell them to do that, but believing that they had not been abandoned was almost even impossible for Dru to believe now.

Such a pessimistic lot, the welcome voice said. The time has come for my appearance.

“What was that?” the Lady Tezerenee asked in shock, turning in a vain effort to see something that was not visible. “What is that I sense?”

The Seekers dove from the sky in numbers that boggled even the most hardy of the Vraad. Barakas himself hesitated, visibly overwhelmed. Death had surely come to the Tezerenee. Not even at their best could they hope to fight so many. Aeries from miles had likely added their numbers to the ranks. Seeker tactics did not apparently match those of the humans. The avians intended to destroy the invaders once and for all, not whittle away at their ranks.

The earth erupted. Only Dru knew what was coming. For everyone else, it was as if the world had chosen this particular moment to wipe from its surface the annoying little creatures that sought to wreak such havoc on it. Even Gerrod, who should have had an inkling, looked to his feet, as if the ground beneath him would be the next to open.

Molten earth and rock from the bowels of Barakas’s Dragonrealm—Dru found that even he had fallen prey to the use of the term since there was no other—rose in so furious a geyser that, in its initial explosion, it seemed likely to shower every avian and Vraad in sight.

In the midst of so much chaos, with humans scurrying for cover and Seekers frantically trying to keep themselves high enough above the danger, Dru found himself wondering what the land itself thought of this. It was strangely silent for being so abused. The mind of the land certainly had to know what occurred and how one of its former servants was breaking the rules that it had once imposed when it had been the individual minds of the founding race.

Perhaps it did know. Perhaps the actions of the guardians were not so revolutionary as they thought. From what he had seen, the ancients had been master manipulators.

It was slowly becoming evident to the rest that there was something unique and unnerving about this searing geyser.