Kyl gasped and raised a hand to protect himself, but too late he realized that he was not the intended target.
Grath stared round-eyed as the blade sank deep into his chest, too stunned by the swiftness of what had happened to scream.
"Interfering little fool!" growled the renegade.
Bright orange flame enveloped the younger drake. Grath was outlined but a moment as he started to fall . . . then the knife pulled away and flew back to the claws of Toma, leaving the unfortunate drake a sprawled form on the dais.
"You . . . murdered . . . Grath!" Kyl, his eyes darting from the corpse of his brother to the knife nestled in the renegade"s hand, clenched his fists and took yet another wary step toward Toma. "I gave you sssanctuary! I protected you and thisss-"
Duke Toma gently wiped the blood from his blade. He eyed the heir and hissed. "No more gamesss, Your Majesty. Do you think that I do not know what you were planning? Have you forgotten how well I know all of you? I know how you think; I know how you plot. I saw your eyes when you ssspoke to the human. I read the truth in there." Toma toyed with the knife. "I know just how secure my place with you would have been once she was safe in the care of the warlock."
Cabe and Valea had risen, with the mage shielding his less-experienced daughter. Ursa joined them. Watching the duke, the warlock whispered, "Valea, get ready to transport the two of you away when I say to. We don"t dare do it until Toma"s fully occupied. Otherwise, he could easily pull you back."
She looked astounded. "I"m not leaving you, Father!"
"We don"t have time to argue! He-"
"Ha.s.ss heard everything, Cabe Bedlam!" Duke Toma backed away from them all, the knife still at the ready. There was a strained look in his eyes and Cabe, who had already wondered about the renegade"s instability, knew that Toma had nearly reached the brink. He could no longer tolerate the slightest interference with his dreams. Grath"s death was proof of that, and now the duke had even turned on the one being who might have given him succor.
"Ssso much work for nothing . . ." muttered Toma. "So many yearsss wasted on raising an unfit hatchling for what should have been mine in the first place. I had my doubtsss time and time again, but the promissse was still there."
Kyl worked to keep his own temper in check again. "Toma, if you sssurrender now, I will give you a jussst judgment."
"A "just judgment"? With my lissst of crimes? I think not."
It was now or never. Cabe leaned toward his daughter and whispered. "Leave! Now!"
She hesitated for a moment, but knew he was correct to send Ursa and her away. It was fast coming to the point where Toma would talk no more, and that left little other choice but battle. Valea was aware that she especially would be more hindrance against the drake than help. At least she could go for aid.
The only trouble was . . . she did not disappear. Neither did Ursa.
Toma ignored Kyl for the moment and smiled at the two humans from within his false helm. "Did you think I had not consssidered thisss eventuality? I am Toma! I led my father"s forces. I planned his campaigns! How sssimple, then, to consider the possibility that a wavering, would-be ruler would waver the wrong direction or that my foes might come to this very sssanctum! How simple, alssso, to plan ahead, come here, and leave a few sssurprises. You will not be leaving."
Darkhorse! Cabe called in his mind. Darkhorse! I need you!
His silent cry could not go beyond the cavern walls.
"You are alone. Cut off," Toma informed him needlessly.
"What do you hope to gain by this? You"ve lost everything already, Toma! Kyl"s offered you a fair judgment. It"s the best you can do now."
"Not quite." The renegade held up the knife. At first it appeared that he was going to throw it, but then Toma did a strange thing. He took the dark blade by the grip and replaced it in his belt. "There will be a terrible battle in here, yesss. Alas, only one will sssurvive. Toma will have killed the daughter of Cabe Bedlam, but the warlock and his arch foe will die together in a blaze of power that will leave few remains. Caught up in that sorcerous conflagration will also be the perhapsss not ssso trustworthy heir to the throne and the female called Ursa. Only one will sssurvive, a young lad who ha.s.ss alwaysss been more of a favorite to some of the Dragon Kingsss than his own brother."
"What are you babbling about?" hissed Kyl. "What sssort of fanciful ssstory isss that? You have-"
The dragon heir swallowed the rest of his words as a horrific transformation took place. Toma melted, growing smaller. The ma.s.sive dragonhelm crest shriveled to nothing and the helm itself pulled away. A handsome, almost human face took the place of the broad, flat visage of Toma.
Moments later, where the drake duke had been, Grath now stood. In every way, in every movement, Cabe would have sworn that it was Kyl"s brother and not the renegade.
"Did I do well, Master Bedlam?" asked Toma in Grath"s voice. An uncharacteristic sneer crossed the golden-green features. "I contemplated a masquerade like this in the beginning, but there were many reasonsss why the other path wa.s.ss better." Toma/Grath tilted his head to one side and gave the others an innocent look. "Still, I think that I can easily fool those great drake lords. I have done so before. I"m sure that Lords Green or Blue will even give me sssanctuary when I tell them that I do not trussst my safety at the Manor. For obvious rea.s.ssons, of course."
The knife gave him the power to create such a thorough masquerade. Cabe knew now that there had been a Benjin Traske at one time and that Toma had killed him as he had killed so many before. His present plan had merit, too, for none of the Dragon Kings, not even the Green Dragon, knew Grath well enough to see the difference. Toma had probably studied everyone of importance living in the Manor, all the better to know his enemies. The warlock was certain that, given the opportunity, Toma"s new form would fool the drakes. How the duke planned to rule through illusion for possibly the next few centuries, Cabe did not know. What he did know, however, was that if there was one creature capable of succeeding in such madness, it was Toma.
There was still one question, though. . . .
As if reading his mind, which for Toma might be possible, the false Grath added, "And surely you mussst be wondering how I plan to make all of thisss work."
Toma blinked once. It was, to Cabe"s eyes, a very deliberate blink. Cabe felt a mild tug of the surrounding powers and recalled when the duke had earlier done the same thing.
A signal. He"s summoned someone . . . someone inside!
A peculiar, almost mournful howl echoed through the chamber from within the deeper parts of the cavern system. By the echo, whatever had made the cry was not far. A second wail indicated that it was drawing nearer at an incredible pace.
"What in the name of the Dragon of the Depthsss isss that?" whispered Kyl, so stunned he had temporarily forgotten his rage.
Toma/Grath smiled. It was a smile that told Cabe he should recognize the sound.
The warlock did. It was a cry that he had not heard since a day years ago when he and Gwendolyn had fought a frenzied Gold Dragon. It was the call of a monstrosity, a thing that should not have survived its time in the hatcheries of the drakes but somehow had. Only through a combined effort had it been defeated last time, to go fleeing deep into the vast underground system. Cabe had hoped that it had died there.
A misshapen form lumbered out of the tunnels and into the throne room of the Dragon Emperor. It caught sight of the warlock, and there and then Cabe knew that, as he had remembered it, so had the beast remembered him.
The monster started toward him, jaws wide.
XXI.
DARKHORSE PACED, AND as he did, he eyed the two great dragons guarding the entrance into Kivan Grath. They returned his gaze with steady ones of their own. He knew that this pair would not be stared down, however much that would have been preferable to the other choice. If it came to battle, the eternal was certain that he would be victorious, but any combat would leave him even weaker than he was now. Darkhorse had not yet had the time to recover from his imprisonment; whatever his captors had done with him while he had been a victim of the box had sapped much of his strength.
He did not want to endanger his friends. Better he remain here and do nothing than become a detriment during a possible duel with foul Toma.
What made the situation more worrisome was the silence that greeted Darkhorse every time he attempted to reach Cabe. He was aware that the sanctum of the Dragon Emperor likely had spells that kept whatever was said within a secret, but both dragons had received commands from someone inside. That meant that it was possible to forge a link with Cabe. Certainly, his human friend had intended to send him word of the conditions of Toma"s captives. The warlock knew how much Darkhorse cared for his children; there should have been some word. He was certain of it.
Had there already been a battle? Had Cabe been prevented from summoning him?
Darkhorse ceased his pacing and turned to confront the two mammoth guardians. The dragons studied him with wary eyes.
He tried to look his most impressive. "I must know what is happening in there."
Their responses were the same. Both dragons hissed and readied their claws. The eternal felt each guardian draw power in possible preparation of a magical a.s.sault.
Darkhorse gouged a ravine in the rocky soil beneath him. His pupilless eyes glittered. "Yes, I did not think you would like that statement."
"You will have to pa.s.ss usss to gain entrance, demon sssteed!" snarled the one Cabe had identified as Faras.
Sighing, the shadow steed started toward them at a trot. He tried to ignore the vast reservoirs of power the two behemoths were gathering. Between the two of them, they did have sufficient ability to end his existence. He told himself that he would just have to learn to ignore that particularly unsavory fact. Otherwise, thinking about it might be the death of him. "I still have hope that you might reconsider the necessity of that. . . ."
"HALT!"
At the sound of Duke Toma"s voice, the monstrosity paused. It looked, absurd as the image was, like a puppy that had just been forbidden its favorite chewing bone. As he was to have been that bone, Cabe appreciated the reprieve, but the warlock also knew very well that the drake had not protected him out of any sudden change of heart.
Duke Toma, again resembling himself, looked from the creature to his adversary. "I think he remembers you, Master Bedlam!"
"Father!" whispered a horrified Valea. "What is that?"
"Misfit . . ." muttered Ursa, breaking her silence. "Freak of nature . . . they usually don"t live this long. . . ."
It only remotely resembled a dragon. The thing was several times taller than a human, but that was in part because it stood on two legs instead of four. The tail that dragged for several yards behind was all that allowed it to balance. Even still, the monster teetered at times, in great part because its head was far too large for its body. Strange follicles almost resembling whiskers hung down from above its maw. Two spindly, almost useless arms waved back and forth in agitation.
It should have been dead. It should have died of starvation or something after Cabe and Gwen had forced it into the depths of the immense cavern system. Trust my luck that not only did it survive, but Toma found it first!
The renegade was laughing, no doubt in part because of the expression that had crossed the warlock"s countenance when the beast had first started toward him.
"Yesss, I think you recognize each other. He isss more than a dumb bea.s.sst like a riding drake, human. He is very much like usss, a thinking-to a point, that is-creature. Doubt not that he recalls what you did to him and the one who gave him care and purposesss. Doubt not that he remembers well when you took his provider from him."
At the comment, the thing howled. Everyone but Toma was forced to put their hands to their ears until the monster ceased.
The duke silenced his pet with a glare. Had he not known what the creature was capable of, the mage would have felt more sympathetic toward its plight. It craved guidance. It needed someone to command it. Unfortunately, that someone had first been the Gold Dragon and now was the renegade.
"How did you find it?" Cabe asked Toma, not so much because he wanted to know but because he was desperately trying to think of some way to defeat the monster before it literally destroyed him with a glance.
To his relief, Toma was willing to explain. After so many years of silently coordinating his various plots, it was not surprising that the renegade might desire to boast of his success to his enemies. "After the death of my sssire in the Northern Wastes, I returned to this cavern. Although I dared not leave signs of my stay in the upper system, I was still able to spend quite some time here recuperating and thinking." There was a distant look in Toma"s eye. "I know the cavernsss of Kivan Grath better than anyone. I explored their depths a.s.ss no one before me or sssince. There are few sssecrets here that I am not privy to." He pointed at the waiting monstrosity. "Who do you think firssst noted the potential and informed the emperor a.s.ss to the possibilitiesss? I am always looking ahead, plotting for every circ.u.mssstance . . . but then, you know that now, don"t you?"
Kyl moved a step, but Toma"s pet turned and eyed him, causing the young drake to grow still once more. The monster seemed a bit confused by Kyl, Cabe noted. Why that was, he did not know, but it was something definitely worth considering . . . provided that Toma gave him the time to do so.
The duke gave Kyl a mocking smile. "It would be ill-advisssed to move much, Your Majesty. a.s.ssk Master Bedlam. He knows what this creature can do. A magical marvel! A fire-breathing dragon in reverssse! Let him fix his baleful eye on you long enough, and suddenly the world will feel like an inferno. It will be a.s.ss if all the heat of the world isss building up within you and there is nothing you can do to douse those fires. All thisss will happen in but the blink of an eye, too.
"You will burst into flamesss and be consumed from within. A truly novel death, at the very lea.s.sst. Our sssire found him to be a very useful tool, much to the permanent regrets of the traitorousss kings Bronze and Iron."
Everyone knew that something had happened to the two Dragon Kings who had sought to usurp control from their counterpart, Gold. What the emperor had done had been a mystery. The only thing that most knew was that there had been little left of either drake lord. The deaths had, for a time, quelled any further notion of rebellion by the surviving monarchs.
"Ma.s.sster Bedlam!" whispered Ursa in as quiet a voice as possible. "I remember that thing . . . I sssaw it once; heard our sire talk about it. The . . . the creature was blindly obedient to the emperor!"
Blindly obedient? To the Dragon Emperor? A plan, admittedly thin in substance, came to the warlock. At the very least, it would throw Duke Toma"s plans into chaos . . . hopefully all of them, this time.
"The emperor must"ve taken good care of it for it to have survived at all. It must"ve been very loyal to him."
Toma was visibly amused by the continuing conversation. He was clearly prolonging it only to give his foes desperate hope. In the drake"s eyes, he held all the cards.
Cabe hoped that did not prove to be true.
"Only my sssire had greater control over him than I did . . . and now, only I am his ma.s.sster!"
The monster"s attention strayed to Toma while the renegade spoke, but then the head slowly swung toward Kyl again. It was not simply the young drake who seemed to interest him, though, but also Kyl"s proximity to the throne.
"But if Gold-if the Dragon Emperor were here," persisted Cabe, "it might not even look at you."
Toma now only looked annoyed at his comments. Cabe dared not look at Kyl, for fear that the renegade would realize what he was attempting to do. The drake duke folded his arms and stared at the warlock. "I think that this missserable attempt to drag out the last few momentsss of your lives has come to an end, human." He had eyes for no one other than Cabe. "I think that it isss time to end our long and colorful a.s.sociation, don"t you?"
The renegade turned to the monstrous creature, who seemed to shiver in antic.i.p.ation.
"Stop!" roared a commanding voice that echoed throughout the caverns. "I, your emperor, command it!"
Even Toma could not help but turn.
Cabe thanked the Dragon of the Depths and whatever else might be watching out for Kyl and the others. The heir had picked up on what the warlock had been hinting at . . . picked up on it and taken it further than Cabe could have believed possible.
Kyl no longer stood near the throne. Instead, impossible as it was to believe, there loomed before them a dragon as had not been seen in years. To Cabe, it was as if time itself had stepped backward, resurrecting for all to see the glory of the Dragon Emperors in the form of the drake lord Gold.
He had confronted the emperor only in the final moments, when that glory had been, in great part, tarnished by madness. Kyl, on the other hand, was a sleek, gleaming leviathan, the epitome of glory and command.
For several seconds, even Toma was speechless. He gaped at the dazzling sight, then recalled himself. Hissing loudly, the duke whirled to his pet beast and pointed at the sun-drenched form atop the dais. "Slay him!"
In response, the monster emitted a mournful howl. Duke Toma stepped back as if slapped. The creature took a few tentative steps toward Kyl, then paused to glance at the renegade.
It remembers the Dragon Emperor as its guardian! It did not matter that this was not the same dragon. Kyl was similar enough in form that even Cabe had had to look twice to see the differences. Toma"s pet had evidently sensed the kinship from the beginning. Moreover, to it, the throne represented the emperor, the one who had given it a place. The beast was understandably torn in its loyalties. Kyl had solidified that impression by taking on the form of his sire.
The heir had done something more than simply copy the appearance of his father. Cabe doubted that Kyl had ever so completely changed form before. What everyone saw now was the form that the drake, had he not been influenced by human presence, would have certainly worn when he had reached adulthood. What stood before them was truly Kyl, emperor of the drake race.
It was a realization that did not sit well with Toma.
"What are you waiting for, you misssguided monstrosssity? That isss not the one who gave you purpose! That isss an enemy of hisss in disguise! I am the only one you can trussst here!"
The beast wavered, again unleashing its mournful howl.
"How horrible!" whispered Valea. Cabe glanced at her, thinking that she meant the misshapen drake, but his daughter"s eyes were fixed on Kyl. It occurred to him then that Valea had never considered the heir"s other form. Not truthfully. She had no doubt realized that as one of the drake race Kyl had another form, but imagining it and seeing it were two entirely different things. Kyl was a handsome dragon, but he was still a dragon and not the exotic young man the witch had grown up knowing. It mattered not that she had seen Ursa change, either. Ursa was not Kyl.
"You will obey me," roared the heir to Toma"s pet. "Obey me and I will protect you."
That was all the monster evidently needed to hear, for it started to trot toward the dais much the way a small, lost animal that has finally found its mother might have.
No one betrayed Duke Toma. Grath had learned that, much to his misfortune. The renegade evidently intended Kyl to learn that, too, for the warlock barely had time to act as he saw Toma pull the deadly blade from his belt and stretch his arm back in order to throw it at the heir, who was preoccupied with guiding the monster to him.
As quick as Cabe was, Ursa was even quicker. She leapt toward the turned Toma, already shifting her form. Yet, if the female drake had hoped to catch the renegade off guard, she had not counted on Toma"s propensity for survival. Somehow, the drake always had some response ready, even if circ.u.mstances warranted it to be a swift one.
Toma barely succeeded in maintaining a hold on his blade. There was, much to Cabe"s relief, no time for the duke to turn the knife directly on the attacking drake, but he was still able to bring down the hard handle on the side of her head. As she had not yet completely altered her form, her head lacked the scaly armor and thick skull of a dragon. More importantly, the spark that flew off when blade met skull was clear proof that the dark knife was ensorcelled on many levels.
Ursa struck the floor already unconscious. All vestiges of her change dwindled away, leaving her in the human form she had always so much preferred.
"Ssstupid, ussseless female!" sneered Toma.
Unable to act before without possibly harming the brave drake, Cabe attacked the moment Ursa was out of his line of sight. The spell was not an intricate one; the warlock"s only intention was to permanently part Toma from his blade. The weapon was the key to much of the renegade"s work, including, Cabe suspected, the spell that surrounded the cavern.