Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol. III (32 page)

What overwhelmed him was the age. There was no particular thing that indicated it, but staring at his host, Cabe knew that here was the oldest of the present Dragon Kings. Even older than Ice, who had claimed the mantle of age often. It was said that the drake lords tended to live a thousand years at best, mostly because of the violent world of their kind. The warlock doubted that any of the other Dragon Kings were more than seven hundred years old. They might have the potential for long lives, but the drakes always found conflicts to kill themselves in . . . much the way humans did. Unfortunately for the drakes, their kind did not multiply as quickly as Cabe’s race did.

Sharp diamond wings spread. The huge head dipped down so as to better observe the tiny human. “You have ssssought me, Cabe Bedlam, and I have given you an audience. Do you now intend to ssssimply sssstare for that time?”

It did not help that no matter where he looked, all he saw was either the reflected image of the Dragon King’s unique countenance or that of his own, uncertain visage. Each face was distorted. He felt as if they all watched him, awaiting his response.

“Your pardon, Your Majesty. This is, I hope you’ll understand, much to take in.”

“Isss it?” An unreadable look crossed the draconian features.

Try as he might, Cabe could not completely calm himself down. This chamber was by far the most daunting. It served some distinct purpose, a purpose that he could not help but think that the Dragon King was trying to hide from him. All this blazing brilliance, brought forth by the drake lord himself, was meant to distract. The warlock was not certain how he had come to that conclusion, just that it made some sense when he viewed the chamber and its lord as a whole.

“It is,” he finally answered. Clearing his suddenly dry throat, Cabe continued. “You must know, my lord, that even though it was the Quel who led me here, I would have come to request an audience with you regardless.”

“Then you are here about the black plague sssswarming over
my
realm.” The Dragon King shifted. Although he pretended control, his movements looked forced to his human guest, as if the crystalline monarch was trying too hard to appear confident. The drake lord’s entire body spoke of a creature at war within. Even his disinterested tone was too perfect.

What goes on here?
This was not what Cabe had expected. “I am, yes. You should know. It is your summons that brought me here in the first place.”

“My what?”
The reptilian eyes widened. Almost it seemed that fear was the dominant emotion, but Cabe could not believe that was possible. What could frighten the Crystal Dragon?

“Your . . . summons. The vision and the dream.”

“Visions . . . dreams?” Lifting his head high, the glittering leviathan turned his gaze toward the walls. The Dragon King had an apparent fascination for his reflections, but not because of any vanity. The mage watched him closely. Although he had only been in the Dragon King’s presence for a minute or two, Cabe was already beginning to worry about the drake lord’s sanity.

“You didn’t send them?” Cabe asked after a long silence had passed.

Instead of answering his question, the Crystal Dragon quietly ordered, “Tell me of the visions.”

Having few options, the worried spellcaster did that. He described his first experience and how he had shrugged it off. Then Cabe described the dream and how Aurim had also been affected. At that the reptilian monarch glanced his way, but the images soon snared him again. Cabe concluded with the vision he had suffered while recuperating in the hills of Esedi. When his tale was complete, the warlock waited for some comment.

Another long silence ensued, but at last the Crystal Dragon gazed down at him. The look in those great, inhuman orbs was enough to make Cabe Bedlam stiffen. There was sanity in them, but not much.

“I did not ssssummon you, warlock . . . or perhapssss I did.”

“I don’t understand.” Why did it feel like he was always saying that? The frustrated sorcerer wondered if
anyone
understood what happened in the Dragonrealm. Sometimes it was as if life was but a game. A macabre game.

The great dragon unfurled and furled his wings over and over again. The talons of his forepaws gouged deep into the floor. Cabe looked around and realized that the chamber had grown darker.

“No . . . you wouldn’t. No one would, warlock. That issss my bane, the ssssword that hangssss over my head.
No one
understands what I live with.” The cold tones only added to the image of a creature slowly going mad. “I thought of ssssummoning you, Master Bedlam, thought of it but did not.” He looked away from the tiny human and studied the chamber from wall to ceiling. “To thissss place, though, ssssuch a thought wassss good enough.” The Crystal Dragon hissed. “Away with you!”

Cabe’s first inclination was that his audience had come to an abrupt end, but it was not he to whom the drake lord roared the command. Fascinated, the warlock watched as the images all around him faded away. The crystalline walls dulled. They no longer reflected. The illumination also faded, albeit not completely.

“I ssssometimes think it hassss a mind of its own,” the dragon murmured. He continued to stare at the now blank walls. “I ssssometimes think that the chamber controlsss me and not the other way.” The Crystal Dragon laughed in self-mockery. “Ironic if true, would you not say?”

The warlock kept quiet. Noticing the lack of response, the behemoth tilted his head so that he could see his human guest out of the corner of his eye. “It takesss my thoughtsss, Cabe Bedlam, and makessss them reality. I can ssssee anything, any place, any persssson in the Dragonrealm with the aid of thissss chamber. It showssss me the world ssso that I do not have to risssk myself and venture out.

“But there isss another sssside to it. Another side. It issss not ssssatisfied with my direct commandsss, no! It mussst have my deeper thoughtssss, my sssleeping thoughtsss!”

The massive drake stirred. Cabe wanted to step back, but something within told him it would behoove him to stay where he was. He had to maintain a strong front. “So you thought of summoning me but did not.”

The Dragon King quieted at the sound of his voice. Cabe’s calm provided him with an anchor for his sanity. “I thought of you more than once, recalling your part in the sssstruggle with the dragon lord Ice.”

Which might explain why there had been more than one vision.
Perhaps each time the drake had thought of him, a vision had been sent. So he had journeyed here under a misconception. The dragon had not called him, but rather only
thought
about doing so. If he understood his host, then the chamber had taken his desire for Cabe’s aid and acted upon it even after the Dragon King had chosen otherwise.

“I understood some of what I saw, but some of the images made no sense. The men in dragon-scale armor; what does it have to do with the wolf raiders?”

“Nothing!”
snapped the Dragon King. Then, realizing how he had reacted, he withdrew into himself. “Nothing. A twisssting of random thoughtssss and dreamsss. Nothing to concern
you.
”

Perhaps or perhaps not
, Cabe thought. Whether or not it concerned him, it appeared he would receive no clarification from his host and the warlock had no intention of pressing the subject. He had no way of predicting what the Dragon King’s reaction would be then.

“Then you don’t require my aid?”

A pause. “I am the Crystal Dragon.”

He knew what the drake lord’s response was supposed to imply, but the hesitant manner in which it was spoken belied that implication. The Crystal Dragon was trying to hide something and failing miserably. Yet Cabe dared not make mention of that fact. It would be far too easy for his host to take out whatever frustrations and fears he had on the warlock.

“Your Majesty—”

“I have the ssssituation in hand, mage! That issss your ansssswer; be sssatisfied with it!”

“I only had a question, Your Majesty.” When the Dragon King said nothing, Cabe dared push on. “
Was
it you who unleashed this deadly fog upon your own kingdom?”

His first thought was that he had indeed stepped over the line, for the Dragon King rose to his full height and hissed loudly. The chamber grew stifling. The leviathan spread his wings wide; his talons sliced at the air before him. He thrust his head toward the human, stopping only a yard from Cabe. The warlock struggled to maintain his composure even though every fiber screamed for him to run. Cabe did not consider himself a brave soul in the heroic sense of the word. He remained where he was basically because he knew that to run would be futile. Better to face a threat than turn one’s back on it.

“I releasssed it, Cabe Bedlam! I releasssed the foulness upon my own domain and it isss my resssponsssibility!”

“But to even call upon a shadow of Nimth’s dec—”

“Nimth?”
The Crystal Dragon recoiled as if Cabe had just informed him that he carried plague or some other dire disease.

Could he have not known?
It was not a simple task to read those draconian features. There was fear there, but of what only the Crystal Dragon knew. “Yes, Nimth, Your Majesty. A world lost in time, ever dying. There was a race of sorcerers there, a race called the
Vraad.
They—”

“I
know
what they were! I know better than you!” The glittering behemoth shifted yet closer. “I know all there issss to know about their foul ways! Did you think I wanted to do this?” Again, the Dragon King looked away. His stentorian voice grew softer. “I knew what it wassss I would unleash. I have alwayssss lived with that. But it issss only a shadow, assss you mentioned. A shadow! No ssssubstance!” He quieted yet again. “But I fear it will not sssstop them. They will be sssslowed, but not defeated. You are correct to be fearful of it. I dared let it go no further than I did, lessst ssssomething else come through. Things of Nimth wreak only deadly havoc in this world.”

Cabe took a deep breath. He had to tell the Crystal Dragon. Only the lord of Legar could possibly send Plool back. It would not solve the problem of the wolf raiders, but it would prevent the Vraad from possibly causing further chaos. That, they did not need. If Plool could have been trusted, Cabe might have held his tongue, but Plool could
not
be and the warlock knew that.

“You . . . did let something through, Your Majesty. Someone, I should say.”

The dragon’s eyes narrowed. There was the slightest tremor in his voice, a tremor that shocked the mage despite all he had already noted about his terrible host.
“What . . . did . . . you . . . say?”

“A creature . . . a man . . . of Nimth came through when you opened the way. A . . .” Would the Dragon King know enough about the history of Nimth? So far, it sounded as if he might know even more than the warlock did. “A Vraad sorcerer.”

“You
lie!
The Vraad are dead and forgotten! I know! I—” The gleaming titan’s denial ended in a roar that echoed again and again throughout the chamber. Cabe was forced to cover his ears. This time, he was certain that the Dragon King had lost permanent control. This time, there would be no escaping the obvious madness of the drake lord.

Yet . . . yet, the Crystal Dragon
did
calm. It was as if a different creature were abruptly there before Cabe, a creature more cold, fatalistic.

Like the Ice Dragon?
He hoped it was not so. One of the few reasons that the Dragonrealm was not a dead, frozen waste was the leviathan before him. If the Crystal Dragon was now mad in the same manner as his counterpart to the far north had been, then the wolf raiders might become the least of the continent’s worries.

“Wheeeerrre? Where issss it?” A scarlet, forked tongue flickered forth. “Where isss the Vraad?”

Cabe was regretting his idea now. He did not want to hand even someone like Plool over to the dragon; yet he had committed himself. “The Quel have him. If you could send him back . . .”

“Ssssend it back? Sssend the monstrosity back?” The Dragon King’s maw snapped shut. He closed his eyes for a brief time. When he finally opened them, the Dragon King nodded and said, “You are correct, of coursssse, Cabe Bedlam. That would be for the best. Requiring little in effort, yesss.”

“Can you take him from the Quel?” The warlock was startled to find himself asking such a question. He had grown up always believing that if any one of the present Dragon Kings was omnipotent, it was the Crystal Dragon. A few Quel should have required the least of his power.

Here the titan recovered his aplomb a bit. “I do not have to take him. They will
give
him to me.”

The chamber gleamed. The crystalline walls were alive with not only the Dragon King’s reflection but the mage’s as well. The drake lord stared at one of the walls and suddenly the reflections melted away, becoming other images. They were images of another cavern, a place where a single Quel toyed with a device. The vision of the Quel was repeated from a thousand different angles and distances, but mixed in with those images was a more important one that Cabe focused on. The sphere that held Plool.

He frowned. It had a reddish tinge to it. It was the same sort of reddish tinge he associated with heat. Were they trying to
burn
the Vraad alive?

The shimmering leviathan leaned toward that particular vision. “He isss mine.”

A host of identical Quel jumped as if bitten. A legion of startled, identical countenances looked around in panic. Cabe took some small satisfaction. He had no more sympathy for the Quel plight.

The Crystal Dragon spoke again. “You will give him to me.”

The images faded away. Cabe blinked as he watched his own face multiply over and over across the chamber walls. No matter where he looked, he saw only his own uncomprehending visage.

“Hold out your handssss, mage.”

Cabe obeyed.

“You hold the doorway to damnation.”

In the warlock’s hands was the very sphere that Plool had led him to atop the hill. It had not been taken by the Quel, the Crystal Dragon had summoned it back to him. He tensed, fearful that his grip might slip and send the fragile-looking artifact to the hard floor. If the door was broken,
all
of Nimth would flow into the Dragonrealm.