The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (12 page)

“
Were
you? Well, it's mutual. I know how much you hate your home realm.
Unfortunately, I was stripped of my magic for a while. It was a
difficult time.”

Aeris
floated closer and studied Simon's face,

“
No
doubt. Well, I'm back now. Did you recover Kronk as well?”

Simon
had to smile at the elemental's slightly acerbic tone.

“
Yep,
he's back. He took off to check on the horses.”

“
Of
course he did,” Aeris said sarcastically. “Ah well, back
to normal then.”

He
rose from the table and flitted about the room for a moment.

“
Everything
seems to be in order. Care to tell me how you recovered your magic?”

“
Sure.
But let's go downstairs. I want some tea and I'm a bit tired from
casting two summonings so closely together.”

Aeris
followed him out of the room.

“
Tired?
From casting such simple spells?”

Simon
nodded as he walked down the stairs.

“
Clearly
something had changed with your powers.”

“
Yeah,
you could say that.”

So
Simon made tea and sat near the fire to explain what had happened
over the past few days. Halfway through his explanation, Kronk came
in from the stable and stood next to the fire, steam rising from his
rocky body. He listened intently while the wizard spoke but stayed
silent.

When
he was finished speaking, Simon went and got the shard of crystal
heart from his coat pocket, putting on a glove before touching it. He
showed it to the two elementals who looked at it with fascination.

“
A
dragon's heart,” Aeris murmured. “Imagine that.”

Kronk
stared at the shard and then looked up at Simon.

“
Would
you like me to smooth those edges, master? They are very sharp.”

Simon
sat down and handed the jagged piece to the little guy.

“
Can
you do that?” he asked in surprise.

“
Yes,
of course, master.”

Kronk
rubbed his stony hands lightly around the circumference of the round
crystal. A light glow followed his movements and Simon watched in awe
as the shard became smoother, gleaming with the reflected light of
the fire.

When
he was finished, Kronk handed the piece back to Simon, who examined
it closely.

“
Thank
you, Kronk,” he said. “That was great.”

The
shard looked like a pendant now, almost flat and round with a hole
through the center.

“
I'll
find a strip of leather later so that you can wear it when you leave
the tower, master,” Kronk told him.

The
wizard put the shard in a pocket and smiled at the little earthen.

“
Thanks
again. As always, you are a great help to me.”

Kronk
seemed to puff up a bit at the compliment while Aeris, as usual, made
a disparaging sound.

Simon
turned to him and raised an eyebrow,

Aeris
looked at him innocently.

“
What?”
he asked.

Simon
just rolled his eyes.

“
Nothing.
But now that you're back and apparently feeling frisky, I'd like to
ask you to do something for me.”

Aeris
glanced down at Kronk, who was still smiling, and sniffed.

“
Certainly.
Our rocky little friend isn't the only one who likes being useful.”

Simon
hid a grin at Aeris' obvious competitiveness.

“
Good.
I'm sure that I won't be able to cast Magic Mouth for some time.
It'll take a lot of practice for me to regain that level of
competence. But I'd like to reassure Clara that things are back to
normal, or at least getting there. She was so helpful in telling me
what needed to be done to regain my power and I think that she should
know what's happened.”

Aeris'
expression brightened and Simon remembered that the elemental was
very fond of Virginia and her friends. He'd been instrumental in
saving their lives and had forged a bond with all four of them.

“
I'd
be happy to,” the air elemental said. “I think you're
right. She'll be reassured to know that you are back to your old
self.”

“
Thanks,
Aeris. You can leave whenever you want to. If you want to wait until
tomorrow or...”

“
Oh
no. I'll go now,” Aeris said and floated across the room toward
the door. “I should be back before nightfall.”

He
turned and looked at Simon with a small smile.

“
Try
not to lose your magic again before I return, hmm?”

And
with that, the elemental disappeared with a subdued pop.

Kronk
shook his head as Simon sat back in his chair with a contented sigh.

“
He
is very disrespectful, master. I do not know why you tolerate it.”

The
wizard smiled down at the elemental.

“
Probably
because he's colorful. You and I see eye to eye in most things, while
Aeris is almost always contrary. I think I need that once in a while.
It keeps me on my toes.”

“
If
you say so, master,” Kronk replied dubiously. “I find it
easier to just ignore him when he begins complaining.”

With
a laugh, Simon stretched. He was feeling more and more like his old
self and chatting with Kronk was one of the main reasons.

“
So
do I, Kronk. So do I.”

Over the next week or so,
things began to get back into a routine, now that the elementals were
home again. Aeris had let Clara know that Simon the wizard was back
in business. She was very pleased and passed on her congratulations.

Kronk was in a flurry for
a few days, cleaning the tower, removing the snow from the paths
around the grounds and generally putting the place back into order.

Simon was amused as he
watched the little guy flit here and there, muttering to himself.
Apparently the elemental was amazed that the wizard had managed to
survive for a handful of days without him. Whenever he mentioned
this, Simon would nod meekly and reassure him that he was quite
correct.

Aeris seemed torn between
scorn for Kronk's enthusiastic work ethic and a need to prove that he
was useful as well. A few times, Simon caught the air elemental
tidying up a room or rearranging things in the storage area in the
basement. Aeris would simply look at him mutely and the wizard would
pretend that he hadn't seen anything and move on.

The tower was now warm all
the time, thanks to Kronk, and possibly Aeris, keeping the fire
well-stocked with logs all night. Getting up in the morning was no
longer a freezing experience and Simon was much more comfortable.

It was just as well that
the elementals had returned when they did. The weather took a turn
for the worse and winter storms roared around the tower for days on
end, heaping snow up to the first floor windows and dropping the
outside temperatures to bitter lows.

Simon's visits to the
outhouse were painful, but Kronk at least kept the pathway clear so
that the run from the tower and back was unimpeded.

Fortunately, the wizard's
days were now filled with studying again. His spell-casting ability
was terrible and once the happiness of regaining his magic had faded,
Simon found himself back to being a frustrated novice wizard.

He could only memorize one
spell at a time and only the easiest ones at that.

The first spell Simon cast
for practice, just to prove to himself that he could, was Sparkle. It
created little sparkles in the air like fireworks and was the least
difficult spell that he had.

Trying to be disciplined
in his approach to practicing, Simon spent an entire morning just
memorizing Sparkle, casting it, memorizing it again and on and on. By
the time he was done, the thought of casting the damned spell one
more time almost made him sick.

The frightening part of
his new status as a beginning wizard was his lack of stamina. Spells
used magic, but the magic was drawn from the wizard and left him
fatigued after casting. For the brief time that Simon had known
master-class wizard spells, he rarely felt tired even after casting
several powerful spells in a row.

Now, however, he had to
lie down after his morning's practicing and sleep for several hours.
He felt like he had run a marathon and could barely stumble to his
bedroom.

“
This is
ridiculous,” he complained to Kronk a few days later. After the
Sparkle spell, Simon had begun casting other simple spells.

Stone-Skin was a
protective spell that covered his body with a rough, stony coating.
It was flexible and fairly easy to cast. Unfortunately, after casting
it three times in a row, Simon had passed out.

“
I can barely
function as a wizard now. I think I'm less powerful than I was when I
first learned I could use magic and began casting spells.”

He had glanced in the
mirror that morning, and was shocked to see black circles under his
eyes. His cheeks were sunken in and he had begun trembling at any
chill in the air. In short, he was frail and becoming weaker by the
day.

Kronk listened
sympathetically to Simon's complaints as the wizard sat near the
fireplace wrapped in a thick blanket. When Simon paused to sip some
tea, the elemental tilted his head and stared intently at him.

“
Master, you are
working yourself too hard. You are trying to regain your old skill
more quickly than you should. Take your time, pace yourself or you
will become ill.”

“
I can't,”
Simon replied. “Don't you see, Kronk? I'm the only wizard that
we know of, so far. I have to learn quickly, to be able to fight
back. The evil gods have noticed me. That means that I might be
attacked again. Or worse, they may threaten Clara and her people.
They helped me, after all, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that
those gods know that.”

Kronk stared at him
helplessly and Simon felt a sudden wave of sympathy for him. He was
only saying what he was saying because he cared. But before he could
speak, a voice from behind him cut him off.

“
As much as I
dislike agreeing with him, in this case Kronk is correct.”

Aeris floated into view
and hovered at eye-level near the fireplace.

“
Meaning?”
Simon asked shortly.

“
Meaning, my dear
stubborn young wizard, that you are endangering yourself. And others,
if they must depend on your skills to protect them, as you say
Clara's people must.”

Simon simply watched him
silently, waiting for the elemental to continue.

“
Do you not remember
the story I told you several months ago? About that young wizard from
the old days who tried to cast spells that were too advanced for her
and lost her magic?”

The wizard looked away
from Aeris and into the flames in the fireplace. Now that his memory
was jogged. Simon did recall the tale of the powerless young wizard.
Aeris had said that she could barely move or even feed herself. But
that couldn't be happening to him, could it? He'd just regained his
power.

“
And I told you at
the time,” Aeris continued forcefully, “that she was
lucky to have even survived. Most wizards who overextended themselves
ended up dead.”

He suddenly flitted
forward until he was almost nose to nose with Simon, who pulled back
into the chair in surprise.

“
And you may too,”
Aeris concluded in a terse whisper.

“
But, but, I just
got my powers back! I need to work at them to make them stronger.
Just like in the old days when I trained for power-lifting. Work the
muscles until they ache, then work them some more.”

“
Magical power is
not a muscle, master,” Kronk said softly. “I do not know
as much about it as Aeris does, but I do know that magic misused or
overused can rebound on the caster with tragic results.”

Aeris looked down at Kronk
and nodded once.

“
But then what can I
do?” Simon asked querulously. Even to himself he sounded like a
petulant child and he cleared his throat in embarrassment.

“
I will tell you
what you cannot do, Simon,” Aeris said seriously. “You
cannot cast any spells for at least a week.”

“
A week?”
Simon asked loudly. He sat up abruptly and his blanket fell unnoticed
to the floor.

“
Or two. Possible
longer.”

Before Simon could
protest, Aeris cut him off.

“
At least
,”
he repeated. “Have you seen yourself lately? You have lost
weight. Weight that you do not have in abundance, I might add. You
are gaunt and pale and,” he looked Simon up and down, “shaking
like you have a fever. In short, my dear wizard, you are killing
yourself. And you don't even seem to know it.”