The Dragon's Doom - Ed Greenwood [145]
"Father?" Embra asked hesitantly.
"Lord Blackgult," Tshamarra snapped, "attend us!"
The Golden Griffon's head slowly lifted, and he blinked. "Aye, I hear and heed." He shook himself, and then smiled. "Gods, girl, but I was scared you'd been blown or burned apart right in front of me."
He shook himself again, and was suddenly the brisk, sardonic Blackgult of old. "So, shall we raid the kitchens and pantries properly this time, and get you and your men a good night's sleep or tumble, as you prefer, before you set out down the Vale again? Hey?"
The Lady Talasorn spread her hands. "Seeing as we have privacy here, why don't you two use the Stones together now, to seek the other two Dwaer?"
Embra and Blackgult exchanged glances, lifted eyebrows… then nodded. They went to opposite ends of the chamber, and Embra waved Tshamarra behind her so the Talasorn sorceress wasn't standing between the two Dwaerindim.
The air between the Stones started to sing almost immediately, and that singing somehow carried Embra's murmur clearly to the ears of the others. "Feel it, Father? Power's taken thus, and received thus. Try… yes, 'tis easy, see? Now let me do the scrying, and feed me power when I call for it… yes, yes, that's it… now! Give me power now!"
The singing rose into a whistling snarl and then climbed into a shriek that made Tshamarra wince and cover her ears-as Embra suddenly cried: "More!"
A breath later, Blackgult called, "There! Over there! I saw…"
The singing Died, and Embra nodded. "Yes, definitely another Dwaer. Close by the river, but underground-just underground, perhaps in a cellar. There was other magic around it, something stirring…"
Blackgult said nothing, and it was a moment before Tshamarra glanced in his direction and saw him standing hunched over, trembling. She'd seen a man stand like that years ago, after a sword had thrust through his guts and then been snatched out again. He'd stood swaying thus for some time, feeling his death filling him, ere toppling…
"Embra," she said quietly, laying a hand on her friend's arm. The Lady of Jewels followed her gaze, and watched her father slowly straighten and then look down at the Stone in his hand with a certain surprise. She exchanged glances with Tshamarra, and then strode down the room, the Lady Talasorn right behind her.
"Father," she asked firmly, taking Blackgult's chin in her hand and staring into his eyes, "how fare you?"
He gave her the wry, crooked smile he used so often these days. "As well as can be expected after a defeat that cost me my army, friends, wealth, and barony, and left me hated by thousands of folk who still seek my death; a short but harried career of outlawry; aging right out of the days when women clawed each other to share my bed; the cares of regency; personally battling the Great Serpent a time or two… and being mind-blasted. I get along."
Embra gave him a frown. "Your list is not unfamiliar-but tell me more about this 'mind-blasted.' "
Blackgult glanced at her and then at Tshamarra, and for a flickering moment his eyes seemed to glow green. "Once, in battle, I used a Dwaer to snatch myself away from the midair blast that killed Jhavarr Bowdragon. Calling on the Stone to speed me out of being torn apart, I was trapped in linkage to it when the blast broke over me and, ah, twisted the Dwaer. I can remember, sometimes, what I once was-but there are always mists now, clinging and hiding. My memory-even my thinking-comes and goes, despite the Dwaer-healing since."
His gaze flicked up to Embra, thrust into her like a cool swordthrust, and then dropped away again. " 'Tis gone," he added quietly. "None can restore it, for none can see what was there before. I am… worn down. Feeling old. For the first time I see in myself feebleness, and failure, and forgetting."
Blackgult lifted one hand, regarded it, and then let the newly tamed Dwaer settle into it. "More and more," he said, hefting the Stone, "this seems a toy for younger folk-and the long sleep more and more welcoming." He sighed, looked away, and then back at Embra and Tshamarra.