With a final note, the armored behemoth departed. Darot's captor allowed himself the first sign of emotion, a thin, almost nonexistent smile.

"Everything falls into place . . . " The smile faded, almost as if it had never been. "But I must be careful. He is a tricky one. He may suspect that what is on the surface is not the only act. He may yet realize the full extent of my vengeance . . . "

The first Quel uttered a sound. The human glanced at him, nodding. "Yes, I'll be along in a moment. I've just one more thing to say to the boy."

With his good hand, he reached within his cloak, going behind him. From there he removed a weapon that Darot had not noticed despite its size.

The mace had a crystalline head shaped like a jagged diamond, a head that, as its wielder brought it forward, began to glow as crimson as the Quel's...o...b... The handle had been crafted from what seemed platinum.

"To replace the one lost," he explained cryptically. "Mark it well, child. You see it? You understand it can hurt just with a touch? Nod, if you do."

Darot quickly did.

Lowering the arcane weapon, the pale figure thrust his face within inches of his captive's. Up close, the darkness in the eyes grew staggering. Darot wanted to look away, but knew that if he did, the man would hurt him.

"Try nothing foolish. I won't hesitate to punish you." The human's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Your father would vouch for that. He knows of what I'm capable." A hint of a frown graced his pale features. "Perhaps he's even mentioned me. Orril D'Marr? You might want to remember that name, child . . . after all . . . I killed your brother."

II.

The missive had but two parts to it, both simple but dire in their implications. The first was one word, a location.

Legar.

The second, perhaps more ominous than the remote peninsula, was a symbol, a black, stylized beast's head.

"Looks like a hound," General Marner finally decided. The burly, mustached soldier had officially served as chief officer of the kingdom of Penacles for the past three years, a position in which he still did not feel comfortable despite having more or less filled it for several more years. To him, to many in the fabled City of Knowledge, his role should have belonged to the lanky, red-haired Toos. Toos had been the long-time companion of the king, taking on the role of regent on what he had considered a temporary basis when his lord had sailed overseas to discover his lost origins. During that time, Marner had taken over his commander's position. When the king had returned, Toos had gladly stepped down and so had Marner.

But shortly thereafter, Toos had died, the victim of an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on another. The king had naturally chosen the one with the most experience to replace his old friend and Marner had tried to live up to the reputation of his predecessor.

At the moment, he was dearly wishing that Toos still lived.

Someone had kidnapped the prince from under his prodigious nose.

"The sign is that of a wolf," his monarch responded in a tone which Marner had not heard since the loss of General Toos. Claws swiftly darted forward, shredding the parchment adhered to the door of Darot's chamber by the curved dagger. "To be more specific . . . the wolf G.o.d of the Aramites."

"The Ravager? Wolf raiders? In Penacles?"

The king c.o.c.ked his head toward Marner in a manner akin to a bird of prey eyeing its next meal. The movement was not accidental; the lord of Penacles, after all, resembled much a hawk in appearance.

He was not human, at least, not for the most part. To those who saw him, the king was a cross between man, bird, and lion. He had the visage of the bird, but a regal mane both of feathers and a hair. His arms, when visible, were covered in a downy fur somewhat golden brown in color, although of late a hint of gray had finally touched it. His hands were almost human, but ended in slightly curved fingers from which claws stretched and retracted at his will.

The loose garments he wore-red robe, golden jerkin and pants-gave the pretense of a form wholly manlike. In truth, although the torso was mostly so, save for the fur and the nubs of what would have been wings, the legs were bent backward at the knees. In addition, the specially-made leather boots hid the fact that his feet were both birdlike and feline in design-long, slender, and clawed.

Human, avian, leonine . . . small wonder, when he had washed up near dead and totally devoid of memory on the eastern sh.o.r.es of the vast land called the Dragonrealm that he had taken as his name the most descriptive term for what he was.

The Gryphon.

As the tattered remnants of the note dropped to the carpeted floor, he looked down on his commander. "The room has been searched?"

"From top to bottom. No sign of forcible entry, my lord." Marner glared at two cloth-covered forms. The guards who had been a.s.signed to the prince. "The poor lads were stabbed with their own blades."

"Their attacker was known to them, then." They both knew what that meant, but the Gryphon stated it nonetheless. "One of the curs is in our midst."

"Aye, my lord." Marner removed his hawkcrest helmet and went down on one knee. "I am guilty for my failure in protecting your son. My position . . . my life . . . is forfeit to you, your majesty."

The lionbird waved away his words. "I am growing old when I cannot sniff out a wolf raider. You want to redeem yourself in your own eyes, find the traitor in our midst. I rely on you while I am away."

"Away?" purred a feminine voice from down the corridor. "Away where?"

The Gryphon bit back a curse. He had hoped to be gone before she heard the news. "You shouldn't be up. The healers said-"

"I bore one son on the battlefield, the other during the storm that tore the roof from the eastern half of the palace. I suffered a miscarriage the next time after, but I swear that this child will be born!"

She moved with a natural grace only slightly hindered by her bulging belly. The silken emerald robe played off her tawny, feline fur. A matching pendant on a silver chain rested on her chest. She walked barefooted-as was her way-on slim, tapered feet ending in short, curved claws. Similarly, her hands, lightly furred, ended in longer, sharper ones that, like her mate's, retracted.

Under short brown locks two mildly-pointed ears rose erect. The feline visage was both human enough and exotic enough to have made her one of the most alluring women in the fabled kingdom.

Veiled, catlike eyes narrowed further as she approached the Gryphon. "The staff's been trying to keep me in seclusion. I finally had to threaten my nurse with the promise of a quick trim of her fine long hair . . . " Her claws stretched forth in emphasis. "What's going on, Gryph? Where is our son?"

"Troia-"

"I fought an empire at your side! Don't play games!"

He sighed, never able to hold out against her. "Troia . . . Darot is missing. He's been kidnapped . . . " As he spoke, the Gryphon's form shifted. Gone was the creature of legend, in its place a handsome, regal figure with flowing hair, cleft chin, and an aquiline nose. Around his mate, the king tended toward such a form. "The mark of the letter is that of the wolf raiders . . . "

Few times had he seen the cat woman lose her composure. When she had been forced to slay her treacherous mentor, Lord Petrac, she had broken up after the act. The second, more tragic time, had been when Troia had discovered the murder of her first born.

Then, as now, the act had been that of the Aramites, the dread wolf raiders.

"How? How?" She burst past them, racing into Darot's chambers. The Gryphon and Marner quickly followed after. Troia threw aside the hand-crafted bed sheets, shoved aside the elfwood frame. She flung open and charged into the vast closet.

"Troia!" roared the king.

"He only recently received his life name, too!" Among Troia's people, infants were given a name at birth, then a new one when they had survived at least four years. She had chosen the name 'Darot', after a hero of her race. Darot had gone around proudly for months after being receiving his new name, pretending he was the legendary figure and doing mock battle with amused soldiers.

"Your majesty!" echoed the general.

"Nothing's been touched! The room is as calm as if he still sleeps!" She pointed at the nearby wall, where Darot's favored bow and practice sword hung. To the right, an ebony statue of a shadowy stallion stood, a gift from the king and queen of Talak, who knew that Darot found the subject fascinating. The statue represented the ethereal creature called Darkhorse, an immortal who was ally and friend of sorts to the youth's parents. "Perhaps he's simply wandered off on one of his explorations!" Troia desperately suggested. "Like the time he managed to enter the Libraries!"

The Libraries of Penacleshad existed before the City of Knowledge had risen up around it. There were many legends concerning the Libraries' origins, including the notion that the complex had been built by the ancestors of the modern humans, the Vraad sorcerers. The Libraries were magical and could only be entered through the vast tapestry hanging in the king's personal chambers and guarded by golems. The tapestry, a masterpiece of magic itself, revealed Penacles as it was up to the moment. Whatever alterations took place, the tapestry added them instantaneously.

The Gryphon shook his head. "No, Troia, he can't get in again without my permission. He only pa.s.sed the guardians the first time because he used his blood link to me. They now have different orders." He considered. "Besides, the Librarian will not let him wander about there any more."

The sole figure-perhaps figures, as the Gryphon had never been certain if each to whom he spoke was the same-was that of a bald, gnomish little man in voluminous robes who hid behind a sarcastic and condescending personality the knowledge of the workings of the Libraries. Each time someone entered, they were met by what seemed the same creature, this no matter what corridor it was.

On his one visit, Darot had slipped past the usually adept gnome and had run through the edifice, pulling out book after book to see what was in each. Unfortunately, unless one had a specific question and knew which book held the key, all the pages were blank.

Not realizing this unique fact, Darot had gone along looking for one that had something inside . . . in the process leaving a lengthy trail of scattered tomes behind him.

The queen suddenly grabbed for the headboard of her son's bed, slipping onto the latter and gasping for breath. Despite the ease of the previous two births, Troia had been suffering during this last pregnancy, so much so that the Gryphon had ordered her to bed rest.

"It's to be a son . . . " he heard her whisper. "Another son . . . but not to replace the previous! Not like last time!"

The Gryphon came to her side, helped her sit. General Marner vanished from the room, returning with a mug of water.

As he leaned toward his mate, the Gryphon's countenance changed again, reverting to the fearsome avian who has been the death of many Aramites before, including those who had slain his eldest, Demion. In a voice tinged with hatred for the ones who would perform such horrendous acts, he whispered to her and himself, "No . . . not like last time . . . "

III.

To reach the southwestern peninsula from Penacles by normal means took weeks and the Gryphon suspected that the kidnappers had not simply ridden off and hoped to be there before him. They were already at their destination, of that he was certain. The wolf raiders were warriors, true, but they, too, relied on magic at times. To travel such a long distance, they would need a simple but ma.s.sive spell, one that could be utilized to enable a large force to ride through at once.

A blink hole.

Cold Styx hovered in the night sky as he raced along astride his favored beige steed, following a trail visible only to the object in his hand. The traces of magic would have been impossible to note even for many versed in the arts, but the Gryphon had picked up many tricks and secrets during his long, adventurous life. One of those now helped him see the faint trail of energy left by the artifact that the Aramites would have needed to create the hole.

He had ridden around the area of the city all evening, knowing that somewhere out here the villains had accepted their precious cargo from the traitor and had then departed. The spells protecting Penacles from Dragon Kings also worked against blink holes created by kidnappers. They would have been forced to enter physically through the city gates, which should have drawn some suspicion. Therefore, it was more likely that they had waited outside for their cohort to perform the actual deed, then bring Darot to them.

More than those who now held his young son prisoner, the Gryphon wanted the fiend who had betrayed an oath to accomplish the perfidious act. He hoped Marner would find the perpetrator by the time he returned-a.s.suming he returned.

"No . . . " the Gryphon muttered. "We will return."

Even in a land filled with shapeshifting dragon lords, demonic steeds, and more, the Gryphon could not and would not ride out undisguised, even at night. Two hundred-plus years of seeking freedom for those oppressed by the Dragon Kings had made him nearly as legendary as the Bedlam family, the most renown line of wizards and sorcerers. In his role as monarch, he had ruled over more than five generations of humanity, which surely marked his appearance in the eyes of his subjects. Maintaining the transformation that he used when around Troia was more of a strain than even she knew, but for love of her he suffered through it. Away from the palace, though, the Gryphon instead relied on illusion. However, even such a spell demanded a constant stress on his magical abilities, meaning that he would have to rely most on his strength and battle skills should some new situation arise. But such a reliance bothered the Gryphon not in the least, for he was more a warrior than wizard, anyway, and it was those skills he would need most when confronting the wolf raiders.

On a wooded hillside barely a mile from the walls of the city, he abruptly reined his mount to a halt. The night wind ruffled his feathered mane. The Gryphon c.o.c.ked his head, eyeing the path before him.

He extended his hand, letting sit on his open palm the object that had led him to this point.

In the dim moonlight, the crimson gem suddenly flared bright.

Ahead of the king, the empty air rippled as if due to the advent of a ghost.

The unsettling effect vanished almost the moment it appeared, but the Gryphon had seen enough. The image had been faint, but still a telltale sign that a blink hole had recently opened here. The portal had been removed, but the residual traces left were just enough for him to use.

Placing the crystal in the pouch at his side, the Gryphon used what limited magic remained to him to bind the residue to his power. He urged it to resume its past casting, become once more what its creator had desired.

And suddenly a gap opened up, a shimmering tear in the fabric of reality. It widened, not only large enough for horse and rider, but for a small force of soldiers.

"One or a hundred," the Gryphon murmured. "I'll take you all down if so much as a scratch mars my son . . . "

With that, he urged his steed into the portal.

General Marner drew a line through the second name on his list of suspects. He had nine in all, those whose alibis had not been available at the time of the initial investigation. The second and eighth now had cleared themselves of possible wrongdoing.

He lifted up the parchment, eyeing the rest. One or more of them had aided in the kidnapping.

"Well?" asked a voice from the door. "Did you find the vermin?"

Quickly rising, the general rasped, "Your majesty! The king specifically ordered you back to bed-"

"My son is missing." Troia said it in such a way that Marner could think of no further reprimand. Had he been in her situation, would he have simply let everyone else take charge?

"I want to help you," the cat woman muttered. "I need to help you."

He frowned. "My lady, your infant-"

"Is due in another month. Don't worry yourself, Marner. I don't plan armed combat. I just want to offer . . . my senses."

"I'm afraid I don't-"

She maneuvered herself to a chair in his spartan quarters. Marner, still feeling like an interloper, had only a few personal items in the chambers that had served the indomitable Toos for generations. In the back of his mind, Marner kept expecting the fiery-haired, foxlike mercenary to return to his post even despite the small matter of his death.

The queen's deep eyes drew the officer to her. Like many of the soldiers directly serving the palace, Marner was infatuated by his mistress. It was a respectful infatuation, of course, everyone knowing their proper place. The pendant she wore had actually been presented by Marner and some of the soldiers under him on her last birth anniversary. To a man, each would have given their life for the queen.

Correction. There was one who likely would have preferred to give the life of the queen for his own.

"I grew up fighting the Aramites, Marner. For all the history my husband shares with them, mine was, in many ways, a more intense, more personal struggle."

"Your majesty, I still don't know-"

She raised a hand to silence him. "My people are hunters, creatures of the forest. We live by scent as much as anything else."

The general blinked. "Are you trying to tell me-"

The veiled eyes drew him nearer. Marner stirred in discomfort, improper emotions stirring. "Yes. I know the stench of wolf raider. It's very unique. I've been distracted, but that's changed. Send each of them before me, general." Troia smiled grimly, revealing an entrancing set of teeth-pointed teeth. "I'll do whatever I have to to sniff our traitor out."

IV.

The blink hole had deposited the Gryphon in the midst of a gra.s.s-filled landscape. In the dark of night, he could not at first get his bearings, but after a short ride, it became obvious just where the kidnappers had exited.

He could not see the city itself, but the gradually ripening equine smell wafting from the south was enough to identify the region as near the kingdom of Zuu, famous for its horses. His illusory visage twisted into an expression of frustration; Penacles and Zuu, while not enemies, were also not on friendly terms. The latter was one of the few kingdoms employing wizards of its own and while none approached even the Gryphon's level of mastery, any notice of his presence by one could cause a costly delay.

The kidnappers would have faced the same risk, which made him wonder why they had chosen to open the portal so far from their obvious destination. One explanation could have been a lack of magic upon which to call; the Aramites likely had no true sorcerers among them. Most of the keepers, as they were called, had perished during the war when suddenly cut off from the seductive power of their G.o.d.

But one had survived, albeit touched by madness. He it had been who had first led the wolf raiders to Legar, to what they had hoped a new base and a new source of magic. That keeper had died, as had most of the Aramites, when the Crystal Dragon, lord of Legar, had unleashed a spell that had shaken the earth, bringing it down on both the invaders and the subterranean Quel infesting the region.

Legar had been quiet since then, even its enigmatic master silent. The Gryphon's spies and secretive spells had revealed nothing. It had been as if the land had become a complete wasteland, devoid of life.

The perfect domain for a wolf raider.

He rode for as long as he could during the night, finally forced to stop for the sake of his horse. Secreting himself in a small valley, the Gryphon rested as best he could. Each time he shut his eyes, the images of his sons filled his thoughts. Darot was almost the exact image of his elder brother, which only served to remind the Gryphon of how much the first loss had touched him.

It had taken years, but he had gained his vengeance. The Aramite officer who had been responsible had died in the destruction of Legar. That had not erased the pain, but it had given some sense of justice. Few times had the Gryphon lost control of himself, but few adversaries had touched him the way Orril D'Marr had.

His eyes shot open. "Orril D'Marr . . . "

No . . . that path led to insanity. The cold, calculating young wolf raider lay crushed under tons of rock and earth. He could have no more survived than the scores of other Aramites who had fallen prey to the Dragon King's desperate act.

It had to be someone else . . .