Part 73 (2/2)
Only then did he acknowledge his surroundings. The forest of willows, the swampy earth . . . ”Wenslis?”
”Yes, far to the south. We cannot even see the mountains from here.”
He paid no mind to that, more interested in something he had just noticed about their immediate surroundings. ”The storm . . . it's stopped. It's not even raining.”
It always rained in the Storm Lord's domain.
Gwen nodded. ”Yes . . . it ceased almost immediately the moment we appeared here.” She frowned. ”It might mean something . . . and then again it might not. It's too soon to know. They both could be dead. They both could be alive. Whatever the case, only time will tell, for you and I are certainly not going back there.”
Even the clouds had begun to evaporate. Aurim gaped up at a sun rarely seen in this region.
Yssa stirred. Her eyes opened and she saw him. She reached up and kissed Aurim gratefully, only afterward noticing Gwen's presence.
”Lady Bedlam, I-”
Pursing her lips slightly, Gwen said, ”It's all right. We'll speak later. The important thing is that we're safe. I doubt any of the Storm Lord's minions are concerned about us at the moment.”
”Thank you for saving us,” the younger woman said.
”I?” The enchantress shook her head. ”I did very little.”
”Was it him, Mother?” Aurim asked as he helped his love to her feet. ”Shade?”
Yssa frowned. ”Another one?”
”No,” Gwen responded. ”Not another one.” She gazed north, in the direction of the Storm Lord's stronghold. ”The original one . . . I think.”
Aurim looked around. ”Where is he? What happened to him?”
She continued staring north. ”He vanished after he dragged me here. You appeared on your own a moment later, as he promised. I think . . . I think he's gone back there.”
”To the lair? For what?”
”I don't know, Aurim. I have this feeling that he knew everything that would happen, that he might have even planned all of this. Frankly, I'm too tired to care. Shade chose to save us . . . this time.”
”And next time?”
”Forget that for now, Aurim. Can you teleport us home?” She nodded toward Yssa, her eyes softening a bit. ”All of us, I mean?”
He checked. ”I think I can.”
”Then please do so at once. I need to speak to your father and the Gryphon. They have to know what happened in Wenslis.” Her expression grew grim again. ”Everything that happened in Wenslis.”
Aurim nodded. The wizard took his mother in one hand, his beloved in the other and, with a last glance at the dour realm of the Storm Lord, concentrated . . .
HE FOUND THE body exactly where he knew it would be. Reaching down, he dragged it out of the earth. Even in death, the face remained blurred, indistinct.
Shade eyed his dead self, then laid one gloved hand across the face.
The hand glowed gold. The aura spread over the face, the head, then the entire body of the dead Shade. Quickly the aura enveloped the corpse, absorbed it . . . and fed it back to the figure leaning over.
When the last of his twin had been consumed, leaving no trace whatsoever, the warlock straightened. Turning, he surveyed the huge rock collapse caused by the explosion of the crystal. With a wave of his hand, Shade sent tons of rock and the corpses of dead drake warriors flying away, digging through the carnage until he came upon the one he sought.
The Storm Lord lay motionless, but alive. His entire body had been seared by the powerful blast, but, thanks to his great power, the dragon would survive.
One eye opened. It slowly focused on the figure before it. Hatred began to burn in the eye as recognition took place- ”Time to sleep again,” Shade whispered.
The eye struggled . . . then closed. The dragon's breathing grew calm. The inner edges of the huge maw curled slightly upward.
Shade drew his cloak around him. ”Now I am whole,” he said to himself. ”Now I can do what must be done.”
And with that, he disappeared.
THE TEMPEST COVERED the world. Wherever the Storm Lord focused his will, lightning struck and fierce winds blew. Rain poured and thunder crashed. No place was safe from his G.o.dly wrath and the people knew that. From Dragon Kings to Seekers to ground-dwelling Quel to elves to humans-all fell to their knees before his glory.
And from the heavens, the Storm Lord looked down and smiled to himself. All was as it should be. All was perfection.
Just as he had always dreamed it would one day be.
THE STILL LANDS.
Beware Death's shade . . .
I.
SILENCE FILLED THE gray land, but despite that, the young, cloaked woman sensed that she was far from alone. At a glance, the murky, shadowy place only gave hints of dour hills and macabre trees with empty, clutching branches, but whenever she neared any of those landmarks, they seemed to fade away like dreams at waking. Peering over her shoulder, she would see a different background than the one she had walked and yet, if she tried to go back even a step, everything in the direction that she had originally been walking would also change.
Again, the hooded traveler sensed others around her. She focused her mind and what she saw in that brief moment caused her to utter a gasp that sounded like thunder in this still place.
Gray figures, countless grey figures, milled around her, moving with no purpose that she could see. They were young, old, human, drake, elven-even an armored Quel briefly made an appearance. All had the same hollow look.
And just like that, they were gone again-or rather, she could no longer focus on them.
Shaken, she paused to sip from the thinning water sack at her waist. The water had taken on a brackish taste since her arrival, no surprise to her. The young sorceress forced herself to swallow it, then took a bite of a biscuit that, like the water, now had all the consistency and flavor of clay.
As she retied the sack, she could not help but again look herself over. Her once-emerald travel outfit had, here, become a dull, faded green and the brown leather boots looked a dead black. Her skin, already pale, resembled that of a corpse and even her cascading rich, red hair had a coloring more akin to dried blood. Only the streak of silver running down the right remained as bright as ever. Everything else about her was a shadow of what it had been before her coming here, but while it disquieted her, it no longer surprised.
What would one expect in the realm of the dead?
She should not have come here alone. Her father and mother would have been horrified beyond belief that she had attempted this and they were not ones to s.h.i.+rk from danger. Cabe and Gwendolyn Bedlam were the most renowned of spellcasters, the former from a legendary line that had produced both heroes and villains. The two had become instrumental in transforming the collective lands called the Dragonrealm into a continent all but free of the once-sweeping tyranny of the drake lords. Humans now dominated, for good or ill, in most places. Her parents had faced dragons, warlocks, the avian Seekers, demons, and the incessant evil of the wolf raiders without hesitation, but here was one place that they and any sensible being avoided.
But Valea had set herself upon a mission from which she felt no obstacle could deter her. From the dead, a figure had emerged again in the Dragonrealm and the crimson-tressed young woman was certain that she had been marked as the one who had to deal with him. It had begun with dreams and ghosts haunting her own ancient home, a collection of events that tied her to that resurrected danger as none other.
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