Free Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shade by Richard A. Knaak Page B

searched through every legend concerning demons, artifacts, and such in the hopes that some might have a basis in fact that he could use. Indeed, it was by his folly that he had returned to the Dragonrealm the shadowy stallion Darkhorse and the warlock Shade from where the former had exiled them in the hope of saving the land from the featureless spellcaster.
    But more relevant to this horrific moment was that during his search, Melicard had come across fragments of tales concerning what even he had originally thought only superstition. They had referred to a power beyond death that, when the king realized that it did exist, he had shunned out of fear of what he might unleash.
    “The Lords of the Dead  . . . ,” Melicard whispered to himself.
    The sinister necromancers of lore were after his son . . . and the king believed he knew just why.

V

THE ARTIFACT
    SHADE GRIPPED his left hand—or rather, tried to do so. Instead, his right slipped through and at the same time an unnerving feeling of vertigo struck him again. The hooded sorcerer curled up in a ball and waited for it to pass, assuming that it would.
    A moment of intense hatred for those who thought they knew best for him flooded through Shade. He felt the urge to strike out at the Bedlams, the Gryphon, Darkhorse.
    “No!” the spellcaster grated under his breath. “That is not me ! They are not to blame . . . not to blame . . .”
    The unreasoning hatred faded, but Shade knew that he had to be wary of its return. It was another change in his curse; he no longer had to die in order to swing from good to ill.
    I must find the tower . . .
    He had not spoken with his “rescuer” since that first encounter. The Crystal Dragon had lived up to his reputation as the most unknown of the Dragon Kings. The drake lord had provided Shade with food and drink—both appearing without warning before the weary spellcaster—and then left him alone. At that point, Shade had been sorely tempted to see if he could leave but then had wondered just where he would go. At the very least, he had been curious about why the Dragon King had not tried to destroy him.
    Of course, that had been before this latest episode. As the agonysubsided and Shade’s left hand solidified again, the spellcaster knew that he could not delay any longer. True, he risked casting himself into a mountain or the sea, but he was fast running out of time.
    The image of the beautiful woman with silver-blue hair returned to his thoughts. How had the drake lord known of her ? She had died long, long before this Dragon King had been hatched, although she had known the first of his line. The fact that the Crystal Dragon was aware of her meant that he also knew far more about Shade than the sorcerer liked to think.
    “Sharissa . . . ,” he whispered, almost afraid to speak her name in this place. He stared at his hand again and saw that it remained stable. Shade began concentrating.
    However, before the sorcerer could gather his thoughts enough to try a spell, he sensed that he was no longer alone. Glancing up at the walls, he saw everywhere the eye of the Dragon King observing him.
    “Have I entertained you?” the hooded sorcerer said mockingly. “Is this why you’ve brought me here? Is that why you used her image to lure me to your lair?”
    “What you sssaw wasss shaped from your own desiresss and ssseen only by you. It wasss meant to be sssomething important, sssomething you could not ignore.”
    Which meant to Shade that the Dragon King had not chosen Sharissa; the sorcerer had. On the one hand, Shade was glad to know that he had been wrong, but on the other, it showed how much he still dwelled on a woman lost to him ages ago. A woman who had never cared for him as he had for her.
    A painful twinge coursed through his right hand. The appendage did not fade, but the threat was there. Shade concentrated and the pain dwindled.
    He looked up again just in time to see the eye disappear. The