Page 21 of The Emerald Dragon Prince
Saoirse’s eyes went wide. “Not just any dark sorcerer,” she said. “Nazeing.”
The name didn’t mean much to me, but through our bond, I felt Emmerich flinch. More than that, he was suddenly flooded with emotions of dread and anxiety and…embarrassment?
I glanced at him with a curious frown, but instead of answering my unspoken question, Emmerich narrowed the bond between us so that his emotions felt more distant to me.
That only made me frown more. Was my mate trying to hide something from me?
“Who is Nazeing?” Tovey asked, looking around at the rest of us for answers.
Obi gasped. “Nazeing!”
Everyone turned to him in surprise, even Argus. “What do you know of the sorcerer Nazeing?” he asked.
Obi practically bristled with excitement. “He’s the one who made the chain that Father used to sap your powers,” he said. “Rottum mentioned his name when he dragged me off and tried to…well, that never happened, so we don’t have to worry about it. But Nazeing is the name of the sorcerer who is working with Father to win the war. I don’t know why I didn’t make the connection sooner.”
“You have been distracted of late,” Argus said, sending his mate a saucy look.
“Yes,” Saoirse confirmed, clearly impatient with Argus’s flirting. “And woe betide anyone who attempts to challenge Nazeing. You will all be dead before you know it if you cross him.”
Another confused pause followed Saoirse’s dramatic statement.
“I still don’t understand who this Nazeing is,” Tovey said, appealing to Rufus.
“He’s one of the darkest sorcerers who has ever lived,” Rufus answered him. “He was a powerful and promising magician in his younger days. Very clever and studious. Many people thought he would become an advisor to kings, or perhaps some sort of leader in his own right.”
“He was a friend of yours, wasn’t he, Emmerich?” Azurus asked, sending my dragon a puzzled look.
“Er, he was,” Emmerich said. Even though he’d narrowed our bond, I could still feel sheepishness well up in him. He blushed as well, which made him look surprisingly vulnerable instead of powerful and in control, as he usually did.
I studied my dragon with curiosity, trying to guess what sort of connection he and this Nazeing had had.
“What does Nazeing want in this world?” Azurus asked, turning back to Saoirse. “Why would he support King Freslik in his attempt to stay on the throne?”
That was not the question I would have asked at all. I would have asked Emmerich what had happened to turn someone with so much promise into one of the darkest sorcerers of all time.
As it happened, my question might have been answered by the answer Saoirse gave to Azurus. “He wants power,” she said, nearly weeping her answer as she sat back on her heels. “He wants to sow chaos so that he can feed off of it to become more powerful himself. All he cares about is being the most powerful omega in existence.”
Omega? A rush of surprise swept through our confused and restless group.
“The darkest sorcerer of all time is an omega?” Obi asked.
“I would hardly say that he’s the darkest of all time,” Emmerich said, downplaying the danger.
“Whether he is or not,” Osric said, his tone indicating he was ready to take charge of the situation again, “I fully believe that the man is after power. It makes perfect sense that he would aid Freslik. If Freslik stays on the throne, this entire kingdom, possibly this whole world, will be filled with strife and misery. Nazeing could very well feed off of that and use that power to conquer other worlds, possibly even to challenge Queen Gaia.”
“What can we do about it?” Obi asked.
“We have to stop him,” Leo said, tightening his grip on his sword.
“We have to find him first,” I said with a frown. Something told me it would be more difficult to do than it seemed.
“What should we do with her?” Leo asked, pointing his sword at Saoirse. “She can’t stay here, where she’ll be a magnifier for Nazeing’s power.”
“She’ll have to go back to the magical world,” Gildur said, glancing at Selle as if getting his agreement. Selle nodded, and Gildur went on with, “We’ll take her to Mother to see what she wants to do with her, since she’s clearly violated the terms of her previous punishment.”
To all of our surprise, Saoirse burst out with, “Yes! Take me to Queen Gaia! Take me back into the magical world. I don’t care what happens to me there, at least I’ll be safe from Nazeing.”
A shiver passed down my spine as Gildur and Selle stepped forward to grab Saoirse’s arms and help her to her feet. If someone like Lady Saoirse was that enthusiastic about wanting to return to the very person who hadpunished her by taking her power, then Nazeing was someone to be feared indeed.
