Don Bassingthwaite - The Grieving Tree

There’d been no warning this time from Tetkashtai. Her creator’s terror had gone beyond rising and falling. The borders of Dandra’s mind were battered by a constant storm of yellow-green light and wailing screams. The eerie silence of the caves, the ghost’s frigid attack, Dah’mir’s sudden appearance-they were all the same to Tetkashtai.

And yet …

Dandra could see. She could hear. For the first time, it seemed that Dah’mir’s power hadn’t taken her completely. She couldn’t move, couldn’t lower the guttering torch still held above her head, could barely summon the focus to think, but she was at least aware of what was happening.

Ekhaas’s voice rose in a scream of horror as she faced Dah’mir for the first time. Geth shouted, a wordless mingling of shock and fear, and ripped Wrath back out of its sheath, raising sword and gauntlet in a barrier of cold metal. Ashi had her sword out, too. Dandra felt the hunter grab her shoulder and the short corridor whirled briefly as she was pulled back to safety, to the very edge of the stairs back down into the caves. At the top step, however, Ashi stiffened and Dandra knew why.

Bone-chilling cold swept up from below, carrying with it a seething, grasping anger. The effect of Ekhaas’s song on Taruuzh’s ghost had worn off-or had been shattered by Dah’mir’s appearance. Taruuzh’s terrible moans drifted up the stairs. There would be no easy escape back into the caverns!

Dandra stared at a wall, caught between the stairs on her left and unseen combat on her right. She could see nothing, but she could hear. Ashi’s hand left Dandra’s shoulder and there was the sharp sound of flesh slapping flesh. Ekhaas’s scream fell silent. Geth snarled. Dah’mir’s scales made a fast, dry hiss as the dragon turned, shifted, moved-

No! Dandra yelled. What’s happening? She tried to reach out with kesh , to touch Ashi, but all she found was Tetkashtai’s storm of madness.

Let me in, Dandra! Let me in! Words emerged from the storm for a moment and Tetkashtai thrust herself along the kesh , trying to breach the defenses Dandra had thrown up to hold her back. Apparently Dah’mir’s power had found no hold on the presence, either. Dandra hurled her back again, desperately pinching off the tentative connection of kesh for her own safety.

In spite of her efforts, her head turned anyway as if some primitive part of her unconscious sought out Dah’mir instinctively. It was a strange feeling to find her head moving without her control. The short length of the tunnel swung back into view-just in time for her to see Dah’mir thrust a foreleg through the ruined doorway and rake blindly at those inside. As the others cried out and pressed back, Dandra could only watch. It seemed that she could see every scale on the dragon’s leg. Embedded in his thick hide, dragonshards-two bright, one dulled like a soot-darkened lantern-made glittering streaks in the shadows.

Geth darted forward and slashed at the flailing foreleg. Wrath bit deep. Dah’mir roared and dark blood sprayed Geth. He slammed his leg against the wall, trying to crush the flea that had bitten him, but Geth leaped away. The dragon snatched back his leg.

“What’s he doing here?” Ashi gasped. “How did he find us?”

Dah’mir’s eyes returned to the shattered door. They shone with anger. “A dragon knows the value of a dragonmark!” he hissed.

Chain, Dandra realized. The bounty hunter must have located them for Dah’mir. She cursed silently, then felt a burst of fear as Dah’mir’s lips curled back and the sour, stinging smell of this breath gusted through the hall. They were an easy target for the devastating spray of his acid!

Geth stepped in front of all of them, Wrath’s twilight blade held across his body. “Use your acid and you destroy the sword,” he said. His gauntleted hand pointed back behind him. “The sword and Dandra.”

Dah’mir’s eyes narrowed and his lips twisted. “Do you think you’d still be alive if I hadn’t thought of that? Dark lords of Khyber, the unsolvable Riddle of Taruuzh-answered by a shifter! I thought I knew all the secrets of Taruuzh Kraat, but you’ve surprised me. I should have known there was some power about that sword the first time I felt its bite.” His eyes flashed. “Give the sword to me!”

The air itself seemed to darken with the intensity of his presence. His will engulfed her-engulfed all of them. It dragged Dandra’s gaze to Wrath and she felt an urge to take the ancient sword away from the shifter and present it to Dah’mir. On the edge of her vision, she saw both Ekhaas and Ashi struggling against the same urge.

In her gut, she knew that she shouldn’t have been able to resist the command any more than she should have been able to resist the dominating fascination of the dragon’s presence. And yet she did. Her arms and legs tried to move, but didn’t. Dah’mir’s power seemed to break before it reached the core of her being, like waves dashing against rocks, like a storm surge driven into a swamp-

Like a song lost in screaming. Like a focused will broken by insanity.

Tetkashtai , she said in amazement. Her creator answered only with another wail, but in her mind’s eye, Dandra could see Tetkashtai’s light churning as it absorbed Dah’mir’s power. Tetkashtai’s madness was protecting her. Madness, she guessed as well, must have also been what allowed Medala to stand at her new master’s side without succumbing to him. She felt a kind of awe rising inside her. Madness, the power of Xoriat, drew kalashtar in and trapped them. Once they had themselves succumbed to madness, they were Xoriat’s servants. It was simple. It was brilliant.

She stood on the threshold, struggling to hold back Tetkashtai’s terrified madness, protected by it, yet powerless. Dandra felt a rising terror of her own. Light of il-Yannah, give me strength! she whispered.

With a low cry, Ekhaas lost her struggle. She staggered forward, reaching for Geth. The shifter’s eyes never left Dah’mir, though. His face twisted and the Gatekeeper collar around his neck seemed sharp and distinct in the torchlight, as if it was more real than anything else amid the nightmare of Dah’mir’s power. “You’ll never have this sword!” Geth snarled.

The intensity of Dah’mir’s presence snapped. Ekhaas stumbled, then looked up, stunned. Dah’mir’s displeasure rumbled out of his belly-and was cut short by a cold, echoing moan from the depths of the caves. The dragon’s eyes opened wide, then narrowed. “What have you woken in the caves?” he asked. “No wonder you don’t retreat!”

At Dandra’s side, Ashi bared her teeth and spat at him. Dah’mir’s lips twitched. “A defiant gesture, Ashi. I’ll tell the Bonetree clan about it so they can add it to their stories of your treachery!” His gaze fixed on the sword. “That sword is a lhesh shaarat , isn’t it?”

Geth kept his mouth closed. So did Ekhaas.

Somewhere out on the great chamber beyond Dah’mir, there was a rush of heavy, running footsteps, and voices called out “Master!” and “Dah’mir!”

“Vennet! Tzaryan!” Dah’mir sat back a little bit. “Come forward and bring the prisoners. I’m sure they’d like to say hello their friends.” Cruel playfulness flickered in his eyes as he glanced back into the tunnel. “Let’s see just how strong your will is, Geth.”

Dah’mir’s first roar had come while they were still in the tunnel approaching the great chamber. Vennet had let out a cry of “Master!” and Robrand had called out an order for a faster pace. The ogres surrounding them had broken into a shambling run, the guards watching over the prisoners simply scooping up their charges and carrying them along. With the dragon’s second roar, Singe’s stomach had risen in fear, any hopes of finding a way to warn Dandra crushed.