Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,370

claws digging through earth, but received no name for the monstrosities—into the lands north, where they could be made to sleep until it was possible to destroy them all.

The image blurred again and she was back in the cavern, but her view kept shifting, as if she were traveling through the system of passages leading deep into the earth. The Seeker’s fear touched her; he did not want to have to show her what lay below, but it was necessary for her understanding.

Faunon was shouting in her ear, trying to stir her, she supposed, but his words were so long and drawn out that they sounded like moans. Everything around her had slowed. Her mind had become attuned to the swift thoughts of the avian, who was desperately trying to communicate as much as possible before—

Pain and then total emptiness rocked her. The baffled sorceress screamed, knowing that what she had felt was death. With great effort, she forced the chilling sensation down and opened her eyes.

The patriarch’s second force had engaged the avians, who were trying to both retreat and fight. Lochivan’s mount flew by, though she only got a glimpse of the Tezerenee himself. Of the Seeker who had been trying to communicate with her, she could see nothing.

“He fell among the drakes yonder,” Faunon informed her, knowing who she sought. “There probably is not too much of him left.”

His cold tone received a vicious glare from her. He stared back at her in defiance. “I saw that he was about to die. I have seen what has happened to those caught up in a linking of minds when one dies. Sometimes the survivor goes mad… or simply drops dead. That was why I was shouting at you!”

“He was telling me… telling me…” Sharissa’s head swam.

“Were you injured?” another voice asked, disturbing her recollection of what the avian had tried to warn her about.

“No, Reegan, I was not.”

“They’re trying to retreat,” the heir apparent informed her. Even though there was still combat going on, he no longer seemed to care. Sharissa was more important. Had it been Faunon or Gerrod, she would have been pleased by the attention. Not from this one, though. Never from Reegan.

“They’re being slaughtered,” she corrected him with grimness.

The attack had been, in the long run, a pathetic last gasp by the bird folk, and now they were paying dearly for it. Darkhorse was still out there, either killing them or—and she felt guilty for hoping it was the former and not the latter—dead from one of their spells. She did not care for what the Seekers were, but her brief contact with them had at least made them worthy of some respect. Knowing they could not hold back the invaders, one of them had tried to at least warn them of some threat.

But what threat?

Mountainsides were no longer safe for the avians. The airdrakes ferreted them out and, in many cases, tore them apart without any command issued by the rider. Some Seekers proved more fatalistic; Sharissa saw one female throw herself upon the nearest warrior, even though it meant exposing her undefended back to the other. She died from a drake’s slash, but not before her own talons took out the throat of her opponent.

Barakas was coordinating the reorganization of the column, leaving the bulk of the fighting to those in the air.

“They must have been desperate to pull such a stupid stunt as this,” Reegan added. “I expected more from them.” He laughed for no reason that Sharissa found humorous.

Faunon shook his head. “They were desperate, yes, but never stupid. Not the bird folk. If they did this for any reason,”—he looked at Sharissa—“we will know about it before long.”

“What’s that?” The patriarch was riding over to them. There was blood on his armor from some encounter. He was in a jovial mood, as if something he had feared lost had been found again. Sharissa noted he was breathing heavier than she would have thought. The battle, as short as it had been, had taken more out of Lord Barakas than she suspected he thought.

This was her chance. As much as she yearned to study the treasures left behind by the founders and those who had followed them, the desire was far outweighed by the knowledge that the caverns also held an apparent evil that frightened even the once-mighty Seekers. It had, if she understood the images thrust upon her by the dead avian, brought about the downfall of their empire.

“Barakas,