--The Fourth Realm--

A fanfic taking place in the Realms of the Blood, created by

Anne Bishop whom I worship and pay tribute to every day.

Just kidding. Or so you think.

(Written by the Great and Powerful Keski,

spell checked by Microsoft Works Word Processor)

---

Chapter X

Dangerous Creatures, Part I

---

"But where to begin? That, of course, is nearly as pressing a matter as that about which you seem to be so urgently fervent. If you wish me to aid you, I want more information."

The shadowed man leaned back and blew a delicate smoke ring into the air. All it made Pekren think about was the metaphorical noose about his neck, the noose that tightened with every moment he wasted here. Pekren tugged at the collar of his shirt as the thought grew unpleasantly solid. "That's all I was told."

The shadowed man leaned forward. "Did I just, Pekren, hear you make use of the word 'please'?" He smiled and raised the cigarette to his lips once more. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

"Then you'll do it?"

"Of course I'll do it. He's become a nuisance to me as well."

"Ah--Yes, yes, I should have expected that."

The shadowed man reached out to touch a candle on the table that Pekren had been glancing at every few minutes, wondering why the room must remain dark. The shadowed man barely touched the wick of the candle, (although even that was unnecessary in all actuality, whereas he might have lit the candle with the merest gesture), and it flared to life. Pekren's eyes widened and he leaned back just barely, unable to help himself.

"Do not worry yourself," said the pale young man with flowing silver hair who sat across the table, staring at him with completely white eyes. "That is everyone's initial reaction. I simply felt I should let you see my countenance once before sending you on your way. And I want you to know that Dachrea is not purely populated by animal and human hybrids. There are other, more... interesting creatures as well." He smiled, revealing several rows of tiny, pointed fangs. Pekren stammered incoherently. The man laughed and, suddenly enough to make Pekren's eyes bulge, his hair was black, his eyes had ordinary Hayllian golden irises, and his mouth was closed. When he spoke, though Pekren squinted, his teeth appeared completely ordinary. "Of course, you won't tell anyone of that interesting fact, now, will you? After all, some of those creatures are rather dangerous."

---

Luseik stared at the door.

"Rather cliché, isn't it? It's just like you said, just like a fairy ta—"

"Enough!" Luseik snarled as he turned his head, fast enough to hurt himself, to glare at Satiyen, who whined instinctively and shrank back. "I'm done with jokes! I'm going to get Anna back. Whatever I have to explain, or say, or do—I will. I will."

"I apologize, Prince," Satiyen said, using the proper title afforded a Warlord Prince, as was Luseik.

Prince Luseik fixed Satiyen with a stare so intense Satiyen couldn't help but look at the floor, the walls, anything but Luseik, even though the piercing green eyes kept drawing him back to them. He knew Luseik was rifling through his thoughts as one might rifle through a book, and only thanked the Darkness that the draghan wasn't doing so like the rest of the Blood might—without bothering to take the care necessary to ensure that those thoughts stayed intact. And the method with which Luseik was searching Satiyen's mind made a great deal of difference as well; but then, he'd made himself vulnerable to this kind of inspection the moment he'd agreed to serve a draghan, hadn't he? So he couldn't complain. Instead, he merely waited.

"Don't treat me like a stranger just because I've bared my own slightly more metaphorical fangs at you, Satiyen," Luseik said finally. "With your past, you should know better than anyone else here how painful it is for a Warlord Prince to know that his Queen no longer desires his service."

Satiyen choked. Low blow, you heartless bastard. And you wonder why Anna is pissed off at you.

Luseik had probably heard that as loudly as if Satiyen had shouted it. But the draghan narrowed his eyes, then smiled. Satiyen, for some reason, could not read the smile, but it didn't look hostile.

"I apologize," he said. "I know your memories of that… time… are nothing but painful. It wasn't my place to dredge it up."

"What isn't the place of someone as politically important as you, Prince?" Satiyen said coolly. "I may be the next best thing to a servant to you, but if I may make a suggestion, I think you should watch what you say to your friends, or you won't have any before long."

Luseik's upper lip curled. His eyes narrowed slightly. His green eyes blazed.

Satiyen returned the glare, but when his teeth were bared, it was slightly more intimidating. And when the low, guttural growl emanated from his wolf's throat, Luseik was forced to back down.

"Fine," he said. He seemed to be searching for something else to say, but failed and spun to face the door. Satiyen grinned smugly in his own wolf-like fashion.

Althemen, silent until now with everyone else, stepped forward. "Look, I don't mean to interrupt your little chat, but can we please get on with the rescuing of my daughter? You might have burned your bridges with her, but I've done no such thing, and I, for one, would very much like to—"

Luseik was at Althemen's throat, his black claws digging viciously into the skin so fast that Althemen was still talking when he realized he was pinned against the wall. He yelped and struggled uselessly. Alnevar started to step forward, then remembered exactly why he hated Althemen and stepped back again, a blank expression on his face; Keski and Satiyen merely watched.

"I don't know what bridges you think I've burned, but I'm pretty sure that saving her from a psychotic dragon will much outweigh whatever inconveniences I've caused her feminine ego."

In an act that startled the three gaping onlookers, Althemen's knee rocketed into Luseik's crotch. Luseik released him instantly and doubled over, howling in pain. Althemen was beyond arm's reach in less than a second. Once he got his bearings, he shot a brief blast of Ebon-Gray strength at Luseik, just enough to make him stagger.

"I don't care how dark your Jewels, how important your social standing, or how pissy your attitude," Althemen snarled, "but if you ever again refer to my daughter as a feminine ego, I will fight you with everything I've got, and that, Prince, is more than I think you'd care to find out." Another blast sent Luseik back fast enough to leave an impression in the wall. Althemen backed off, never taking his wary gaze off of Luseik.

As Althemen passed Alnevar on his way back to the door, he heard Alnevar mutter, "Good job, brother."

Althemen spun to face Alnevar so fast that Alnevar took a startled step back. "You are not my brother," he said, and almost—almost, but not quite—hesitated before adding, "as far as I'm concerned." Something like irony flickered in Althemen's eyes, but Alnevar ignored it and sighed.

"I'm not even going to bother continuing to try and convince you that Tesora was—"

"If you still think this is about Tesora, or your precious wings, then you are more incompetent than I've always believed. Alnevar, Dachrea is not purely populated by animal and human hybrids. There are other, more... interesting creatures as well. And some of those creatures are rather dangerous." And, turning away from a dumbstruck Alnevar, Althemen walked to the door and pushed it open.

---

"If what you have shown me is really how Jewels are created, that they are simply the scales of a dragon, then how can there be any other way to create them?" Anna said. She was still tired, though she'd gotten a quick nap and had a cup of extremely well-made coffee which, to her experienced probes, had held nothing but what it was supposed to have. Still, the feeling of cobwebs draped over her consciousness wouldn't leave. Maybe she needed more than a nap and coffee. Who knew? However tired she felt, she was still coherent, so she could always get sleep later.

(The question is not easy to answer. Otherwise there would have been artificial Jewels long before now, obviously.)

"Well, of course. But how did you answer the question, if it's so difficult?"

(Even the most difficult questions can be answered with the right tools. And as I myself am a dragon, I have the equivalent to an answer key to this particular question. Wouldn't you agree?)

"I see. But you still haven't answered my question."

(If you thought on it, I'm sure you could come up with the answer. What are the Jewels?)

"Dragon scales."

(In aless literalsense, if you please.)

"I always used to think of them as keys. Like they are a small way to access the power of the Darkness itself. People with darker Jewels can access more of that power."

(That is close enough to the truth. Now, if these keys to the Darkness are in fact dragon scales, then what would that make dragons? And continuing from that question, why, dear Anna, should the scales of a dragon be the only object that allows access to the power of the Darkness?)

Anna gaped. "You mean—?"

(I think you understand. Now, I have something I would like you to see. Pekren should be arriving any moment now…)

---

Althemen now led the group; Satiyen followed happily, Keski perched silently on his shoulder; Alnevar followed thoughtfully behind them, lost in his ponderings; and Luseik trailed behind, glowering and fuming silently.

Satiyen caught up with Althemen and strode beside him. "I'm amazed you still have all your limbs," Satiyen said. "Luseik's never failed to respond to a threat like that before."

"Yes, well, most men find themselves at a loss for words when they find someone's knee placed rather forcefully between their legs."

Satiyen laughed. "Yes, well, you have a point there. I just wanted to say thanks."

"Thanks?" Althemen stopped and faced Satiyen. "Thanks? What exactly are you thanking me for?"

Satiyen damped his irritation. Getting frustrated or mad wouldn't help the already high-strung group save Anna any faster. "Look, I know you were just defending Anna, but you're the first person other than Lord Versiver to knock Luseik off his high horse."

Althemen continued walking. "I see."

"I can usually call Luseik my friend, and I like to think it's the same for him, but I always get the feeling that he doesn't see me that way. It always feels as though he looks down on everyone else. I just don't think he'll look down at you for a long time."

"He can spit on my shoes if it makes him happy," Althemen said quietly, closing his eyes as he continued walking, "but like I said, if he is ever again stupid enough to speak of my daughter as a 'feminine ego' I will not hesitate to unleash a power that goes beyond Jewels in order to let him know his mistake." He bit his tongue then, as if he had said too much. He looked at Satiyen, and Satiyen instantly knew that this was a test.

"You know, you were talking very softly just now, and I didn't quite hear what you said."

Althemen smiled, and it was a genuine smile. "Don't worry. It was nothing important."

---

Anna stared down at the object she held in her hands. Pekren, as Akarui had called him, had scurried out the instant she'd taken the thing, reminding her strikingly of a rodent.

(It is beautiful, is it not?)

Anna turned to face the dragon.

"It's—It—The—Yes," she said lamely. A soft snort that could have been construed as a chuckle issued from the dragon.

(Open your inner barriers to it. You can bond with it as you bonded with your current Jewels.)

Anna stared at it for a few more seconds. She could almost feel all the lives, all the human power it had been infused with to make it usable as a Jewel. Screaming, begging for release, but eternally trapped within it. She opened her inner barriers a crack, and, feeling nothing hostile, threw them open. The bond was formed within seconds. It was dark, much darker than her Ebon-Gray, and for a moment, she felt as though it was pulling her consciousness into its deep, tantalizing depths. But then the sensation was gone and she felt nothing. Nothing except for a new river of power she now had access to, a river much darker than her natural Jewels. This… This felt good, as nothing in her entire life had. Nothing except her Birthright Ceremony, when she'd gone in expecting no better then an Opal, and walked away with a Sapphire Jewel. She'd never before or since felt this ecstasy, this unadulterated happiness.

Or this glorious power.

She clutched the object and drank its power into her own body until the dragon's voice pierced her thoughts.

(You may be able to bond with it as with a Jewel,) Akarui said gravely, (but its power is still a danger to you if you do not allow your body to grow accustomed to it.)

"But it feels so wonderful—"

(If you absorb so much power into yourself before growing to accept it, you will be pulled into it as you would by attempting to bond with the Black. It is possible for you to wear and use that as naturally as you do the Ebon-Gray, but not at once, not immediately.)

With this knowledge, Anna broke off her contact with the object. "I—of course," she panted. "I'm sorry."

(You can be excused your mistake. The power is darker than any you have ever glimpsed, no?)

"It's darker than the Black."

(It is darker even than what Witch herself wears.)

"Doesn't Witch wear the—"

(Ebony.)

Anna let the matter drop. "How long will it be before I can—"

(Wait. The Warlord Prince and the others are nearly here.)

"Luseik and the others?"

(Yes.)

"Well, what say we give them a little surprise? I can at least use some of this power, can't I?"

(That won't be necessary. At the very least, they will be several more hours, if they make it here at all.)

"What? Why is that?"

(They have one more challenge before they arrive at their destination.)

"A challenge?"

(They've had several. It is my way of keeping security tight here. Unfortunately, they have wormed their way through every one of them. This last one, though, will give them pause. After all, Dachrea is not purely populated by animal and human hybrids. There are other, more... interesting creatures as well. And some of those creatures are rather dangerous.)