Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shade (15 page)

The medallion was failing. Shade felt his body lose cohesion. His thoughts darted to the Crystal Dragon, the talisman’s creator, and the thought of whether the drake lord could possibly repair the medallion
before Shade entirely faded. Concentration slipping more by the second, he willed himself away from the palace, away from Penacles . . .

THE GRYPHON LAY
motionless, the only sign that he was not dead a shallow breathing.

And of the one who had seized Shade’s hands from the Gryphon’s head, there was no sign.

VALEA FELT AS IF
she plunged into one senseless nightmare after another. In fleeing from the Tyber Mountains, her initial thoughts had been to find her parents in the last place she knew them to be . . . Penacles. However, into those thoughts had mixed others concerning her original quest and whether her parents or the Gryphon had discovered her intrusion into the libraries.

It was, therefore, not surprising that she might appear in the chamber guarding the tapestry nor that the Gryphon and not her parents might be there. Truly, it would not have surprised her to miss Penacles altogether, considering how haphazardly and desperately her spell had been cast.

But what Valea had not expected to find was the Gryphon sprawled on the floor and a cloaked figure in the midst of some foul magic kneeling over him. She had reacted instinctively, leaping toward the preoccupied intruder and ripping his hands from the Gryphon’s head. Valea hoped that doing so would free the lionbird.

Then, matters had again gone awry. She had stared into a face equally as startled as her own, a face vaguely familiar to her, and once more the world had changed.

When she had blacked out, Valea could not say. The next thing she knew, she awoke in another cavern with the feeling that several hours had passed. There had been no doubt that this was someplace other
than Kivan Grath, for nowhere in Kyl’s sanctum did any chamber glitter so.

That glitter quickly identified just where she
had
materialized. Nerves taut, Valea rose. She recognized a part of the Crystal Dragon’s lair, even if she had never seen it. Valea expected the mysterious drake lord to make his entrance at any moment, but the cavern remained empty.

No . . . not entirely. As Valea became more aware of her surroundings, she noticed what at first her somewhat unfocused mind had taken for a large pile of black cloth. Now the enchantress recognized that cloak and hood of the Gryphon’s assailant.

A part of her told Valea to flee, but instead she moved to the body. Again, there was something familiar about the obscured figure, but Valea could not place her finger on just what.

The cloak utterly covered him. A spell ready, Valea gingerly touched one arm. When nothing happened, she dared seize hold of the arm and slowly turn the body over.

As soon as she saw the face, the enchantress gasped and released the arm. The body slumped onto its back.

The face was a blur.

“Shade!” Valea exclaimed.

Images from the frantic seconds in Penacles surged through her memory. She recalled the face she had seen then.

Once, not all that long ago, Valea had met a ghost . . . literally. The ghost of a man held captive by the Lords of the Dead. The necromancers had offered the ghost a chance for life again, offered him his very body back.

Of course, that body had already had an occupant. Shade.

The ghost had been that of his original self, the last of the Vraad.

The Lords of the Dead had failed in their attempt to usurp Shade’s body for their slave. The ghost had sacrificed himself instead, in part because of Valea.

Valea put a finger to Shade’s murky chin. The point of the finger remained distinct. Only Shade himself was affected by the curse. Even
despite what she had witnessed him doing to the Gryphon, Valea could not help feeling sympathy. Shade had saved her family from the necromancers and in the process had appeared to have some hope of redemption, at least in her eyes.

But her father’s concerns had turned out to be valid after all. The warlock was once again as the world knew him, a featureless threat to all.

She blinked. For no more than a breath, he had looked as faded as one of the phantasms of the Manor. Valea could have sworn that she had seen the floor through him.

It happened again.

Valea pulled back—and belatedly realized that eyes were upon her from elsewhere in the cavern.

The image vanished from the faceted wall just as the enchantress attempted to focus on it. Valea berated herself for not having been intelligent enough to flee while she had had the chance.

“Step aside from him,” ordered a deep voice with just a hint of sibilance.

Valea spun to face the Dragon King. Even aware of their ability to transform into shapes almost human, she could not help but stare at the towering figure in gleaming armor.

The Crystal Dragon ignored Valea, who was ready to do battle with him, and bent beside Shade. The drake tugged on a small chain hidden by the sorcerer’s collar and pulled free a medallion that radiated complex magic.

“I warned him not to reshape its matrix, but, of course, he wouldn’t listen . . .” The Dragon King passed his hand over the talisman, adjusting the spellwork.

The scene was an incongruous one to Valea. The Crystal Dragon spoke almost as if he and Shade were companions of old. Indeed, the drake sounded more bemused than concerned about what had happened to the hooded warlock.

A new scene stole Valea’s attention. As the Dragon King worked,
Shade’s visage slowly became defined and his body solidified. As if the prone form sensed this, his breathing became less labored.

“You’ve—” Valea could scarcely believe what she was about to say. “You’ve cured him!”

“No . . . as I explained to him . . . thisss isss only a temporary sssolution.”

She did not miss the sudden increase in sibilance, a mark of the drake lord’s concern. Whether that concern was actually for Shade or whatever the Crystal Dragon
desired
of Shade was another story.

Valea remembered where she was. Taking advantage of the Dragon King’s continued distraction, she tried to transport herself away.

Not at all to her shock, her attempt failed.

“You are my guessst,” the lord of Legar quietly declared as he rose. The inhuman orbs fixed upon her. “For asss long asss necessary.”

Before Valea could argue his definition of “guest,” Shade stirred. The Dragon King immediately glanced down at the hooded figure and Valea could not help but instinctively do the same. Only after she had done so did she sense that the Crystal Dragon had tricked her.

Sure enough, the enchantress was once more alone with Shade.

His eyes opened, eyes that remained the one thing still marking him as other than merely human. In their own way, Valea thought that they sparkled more than the cavern walls.

He did not look at her. Instead, Shade stiffened, then thrust one gloved hand before his gaze.

“Safe . . . ,” he muttered bitterly. “For a time.”

Then, as if with that fear his senses came alive, he looked in her direction.

“Valea Bedlam.” Shade’s tone was flat, unrevealing of his true thoughts. “Of course. It was you who interfered.”

Unsure how to take his words, she grew defensive. “You attacked the Gryphon!”

“I meant him no harm. Allowed to proceed to its conclusion, it
would have merely left him asleep.” He pushed himself to a sitting position, then winced. “I cannot say what will happen to him now.”

“What do you mean?”

He ignored her, instead turning to the walls. “I should thank you, I suppose.”

Valea knew it was the Dragon King to whom he spoke. She waited, but the drake did not respond.

“He was here, wasn’t he?” the sorcerer finally asked her.

“Yes. He said that you’d readjusted the matrix on that medallion you wear. He altered it again.”

Shade replaced the talisman beneath his shirt, then, with some effort, managed to get to his feet. He did not ask for Valea’s aid and she did not offer it. This reunion had been one for which she had been waiting, but now all the notions of what she had planned to do when it happened seemed pointless. Nothing had prepared her for this.

“‘He altered it again.’” This time, Shade did not hide his bitterness. “Even this much I could never do.” He laughed harshly. “And yet, the world fears me so.”

“You—you couldn’t help what you did.” Even despite his attitude toward her, Valea could not keep her sympathy for the warlock from returning.

“Are you certain? Do you know which of me is true?”

“I met the true you . . . and he proved what I said.”

He surprised her by looking embarrassed. It was such an ordinary, human reaction that she could do nothing but stare back at him.

“That was me. That is not me now.” Shade clutched at his wrist. “You would do best to leave.”

“I can’t.”

Shade glared at the walls. “She has nothing to do with our bargain!”

Every facet in the walls filled with the eye of the Dragon King. “Did you learn anything in Penaclesss?”

“I was interrupted by the Gryphon . . . and then her.”

The sorcerer left out much and whatever her feelings toward Shade,
Valea saw no value in clarifying the terrible situation for the drake. Still, she hoped that the Gryphon had recovered and wished that somehow she could have left some warning to Troia or at least one of the guards.

“A pity,” remarked the Dragon King. “Ssstill, there are other clues . . . I have just uncovered one.”

Shade did not react with jubilance. “We will follow it, but first, she must be returned to her family! Now!”

“She cannot be trusssted not to warn her father. The wizard Bedlam might be willing to abandon even Penacles to Brother Black for her sssake.”

“You’ll do nothing to her.”

“She will be detained for a time . . . that isss all.”

The warlock approached the eyes. “You’ll let her go!”

The eyes vanished. Valea felt a chill. What the Dragon King had said was true; given her freedom, she would go straight to her father and tell him of this stunning alliance.

The lord of Legar could not permit that.

Shade stood with his back to her, as if still awaiting the return of the eyes. Then, without warning, he reached up by his throat. A breath later, he tore the medallion free.

“I want nothing of your bribes, then.”

He tossed the talisman at the walls with all his might. Valea pulled back in expectation of the horrific collision.

The medallion melted into the crystals.

Its face reflected everywhere. The gems glowed with barely contained power that even Valea could only imagine.

Only then did she recall just what would happen to Shade without it. She rushed past him.

“Give it back! Please! He needs it!”

The medallion disappeared. As it did, the Dragon King’s mocking chuckle echoed through the cavern.

“
He
is the only one keeping it from him.” The drake lord’s voice came from behind them. His tone now hinted at triumph.

As the pair turned, the medallion flew from the Crystal Dragon’s palm back to Shade. The sorcerer caught it with a hand pale and slightly translucent. Glaring at the drake, Shade—his face already losing definition—reluctantly put it back on.

“There is no need to keep her,” the sorcerer said insistently once he was fully solid again.

“There is every need. Her father will strive to stop us.”

This caused Shade to hesitate. His Vraad eyes locked with Valea’s human ones.

And to her own amazement, Valea responded, “I won’t tell my father—”

However, even as Shade looked to believe her, the Dragon King interjected, “No. You will not.”

“Don’t—” But Shade’s protest came too late. The chamber flared so bright that Valea had to shield her eyes. She heard Shade shout something, but although there was no other sound, the enchantress could not make out just what it was.

The burning brightness ceased. As Valea’s vision cleared, she saw Shade still stood next to her.

Unfortunately, he was the
only
thing around her that had not changed.

“Where are we?” she finally managed to ask.

Shade looked around. “A place where there may be a clue.”

Hills surrounded them wherever they looked. While not as fantastic a sight as the Tyber Mountains, they were impressive in themselves for their numbers.

Valea’s brow furrowed. “I should know this place.”

“We are northwest of the land of Esedi, northwest of the kingdom of Gordag-Ai.” Shade did not look at all comfortable. “Valea Bedlam, you must depart quickly.”

“What do you—”

“Do it!” he roared.

In the face of his anger, Valea immediately obeyed. However, when she tried to cast a spell, it failed.

“My power! He’s taken it!”

The hooded spellcaster shook his head. “Hardly. Try to raise that rock over to your right.”

She gestured. To her relief, it rose waist-high into the air. Valea let it drop, then eyed Shade quizzically.

“He has bound you to me.”

Shade might have found that answer to his satisfaction, but Valea did not. Angrily striding up to her companion, she seized him by the shoulder. Once, committing such an act toward the legendary Shade would have been beyond her, but Valea had grown tired of being tossed about as if of no consequence. “Bound to you? What are you talking about?”

He started to speak, then suddenly lunged forward and shoved her aside.

As Valea landed, she heard a heavy thump. Shade fell on his back beside her, his arms bound by a thin, silver strand, each end of which was an octagonal weight the size of a hand and made of bronze. By itself, the device should not have been able to hold Shade, but Valea could sense the powerful spellwork on it, spellwork of a style with which she was not familiar.

Shade opened his mouth but other than that remained motionless. Valea, still acting stunned, readied an attack as the sound of heavy steps neared.