The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (15 page)

The wizard let out the
breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

“
So they're okay.
That's a relief.”

Clara chuckled.

“
They are more than
okay. Shandon wanted me to pass along his apologies for leaving the
battle. And he also made what I consider to be a rather generous
offer.”

“
Offer?”

He looked at Aeris who
seemed ready to burst with curiosity.

“
What kind of
offer?” he asked as he looked away from the air elemental.
Aeris' expression was so comical, Simon was having trouble holding in
his laughter.

“
Well, they know
that we have to deal with all five prime dragons. Four now, actually.
He's impressed that you killed the black, by the way.”

“
Just luck, really.”

“
Hmm, I doubt that.
At any rate, he's offered to transport you and a small party anywhere
you need to go in the world, via one of their tunneling machines.
Just tell me whenever you want to travel and I'll relay it to him
when I see him.”

Simon sat back with a
thump. He was amazed at the offer. He'd had no idea of how he was
going to travel to confront the other dragons, if and when he was
ready to do so. The dwarf's offer was priceless.

“
Thank him for me
when you see him next, won't you?”

“
Of course I will.
In fact, I already have. Dwarves are a secretive bunch and he must
really admire you to let you into one of their machines.”

“
Then he's easily
impressed,” Simon replied, his face getting hot.

“
Again, I doubt
that. You really don't take enough credit for your achievements,
Simon. Do you know that?”

The cleric sounded a
little irritated.

“
It was a group
effort, Clara. So how often are you going to be seeing the dwarves?”

“
They say roughly
every four to six weeks. Any time you need a ride, let me know. You
may have to wait a few weeks but that's the best they can do.”

“
It's more than
generous of them. So, besides that momentous news, how are our four
young Changlings doing? Virginia and the others?”

The rest of the
conversation concentrated on the village and what news there was.
When Simon broke the connection, it was after promising to travel to
Nottinghill as soon as the snow had melted enough to make the journey
at least a bit comfortable.

When he was done, he
looked at Kronk and Aeris again. Simon forestalled the impending
outburst by the air elemental by telling them all the news
immediately. By the time he was done, Aeris' mood had turned to one
of wonder.

“
Dwarves offering to
do you favors?” he said to Simon. “Extraordinary. By all
accounts, they are almost xenophobic in how they relate to other
races.”

“
Yeah, I got that
impression the first time Clara told me they were trading,
cautiously, last year. Nice that they've come around.”

“
Well, you certainly
won't need their services for quite some time,” Kronk said
sternly as he stood watching Simon with his hands planted firmly on
his hips.

“
Meaning?”
Simon asked.

“
Meaning that unless
you've achieved master-class status as a wizard and haven't told us,
you are in no condition to face a dragon, let alone one of the
primals.”

“
Yes, thank you,
Kronk. I'm well aware of my limitations at the moment,” Simon
told him acerbically.

“
Just making sure,
master. Cart before the horse and all that.”

Simon rolled his eyes,
stood up and walked over to the work table.

“
All the more reason
to keep up my studies and my practice. One day soon, if I don't go to
find the remaining four prime dragons, they'll come looking for me.”

The winter was almost over
when Simon felt ready to travel to Nottinghill. There were still
mounds of snow piled under trees in the forest, but the field in
front of the tower was clear and the ice on the lake out back was
nearly gone.

A few strands of grass
were poking their green tips tentatively out of the thawing ground
and the wizard was cheered immeasurably every time he saw the vibrant
color sticking out through the brown earth.

His magical skill had
leaped forward and he was now able to memorize four spells at once.
Along the way, he'd modified all of his spells and discovered several
new ones including Shield and Fire Wall. Both spells were
modifications of other spells and looked useful, especially the
Shield spell.

Simon knew when he'd
passed the 'delicate' phase of his training. It was when Kronk and
Aeris had finally allowed him to pick up Bene-Dunn-Gal, his staff.
Although he'd been itching to use the weapon to augment his powers,
the elementals were having none of it.

“
That would be
cheating, master,” Kronk had told him firmly.

“
I quite agree,”
Aeris said. “That...thing is dangerous at the best of times.
But in your current state, it could easily take control of your magic
and then where would you be?”

Simon had called them a
few names under his breath but had bowed to their protests.

So when the pair had
announced that he had progressed far enough in his training to use
the staff safely, the wizard felt like he'd been handed a gift.

“
Well, here we are,”
he'd said to the staff that morning. It leaned against the wall
beside the door as it had for months, inert. Simon allowed his eyes
to slowly run the length of the weapon, admiring its workmanship.

His friend Daniel had
given him the spell to summon Bene-Dunn-Gal, but the wizard wondered
yet again where the staff had come from. Who had created it? How long
ago? Aeris claimed that only a highly skilled artificer could have
made such a powerful magical object and Simon wondered what the staff
had been used for and by whom.

He reached out with a
trembling hand and picked up the weapon. The bronze metal that
spiraled up its length was cool and smooth to the touch. Simon had
been afraid that Bene-Dunn-Gal would feel the same way it had after
he'd lost his magic; heavy and dead, a piece of wood and metal and
nothing more.

But as he lifted it, the
staff warmed under his touch and a faint glow shone through the
bronze. A whisper of sound, like faint music, rose out of the weapon
and carried faintly across the room.

“
I believe it is
happy to see you, master,” Kronk said as he watched carefully.

“
Yes, I think it
is,” Simon said with a smile. The staff weighed nothing now and
he raised it up and twirled it once like he was twirling a baton.
Then he laughed with mingled happiness and relief.

For the next few days,
Simon used the staff while casting his spells. And just as he
remembered it doing before, Bene-Dunn-Gal augmented his powers,
increasing the strength of the spells and their duration. It still
took a drop of blood from his palm for each cast, something that made
Aeris shudder, but it was a small price to pay for the added boost in
spell power.

And now the wizard was
finally setting off to see Clara and the villagers. The day was
bright and warm, relatively speaking, he had the staff strapped to
his back and he was ready to go. Or at least he hoped so.

Kronk had decided to stay
home and take care of the mares, since Simon would be riding Chief
again, and generally watch over the place. Aeris would accompany the
wizard; he was always happy to travel to Nottinghill to see his four
young Changling friends.

As Simon led the big
stallion around the tower from the stable and prepared to mount, he
looked down at Kronk, who'd followed him, and would close and lock
the gate after he was gone.

“
Are you sure you
don't want to come?” the wizard asked the little guy one last
time.

“
Yes, master, quite
sure,” Kronk answered dutifully. He sounded slightly tired of
the question. “If you decide to stay overnight, which I think
you should, then you will know that everything here is being taken
care of and you can enjoy your visit.”

“
I suppose that's
true,” Simon agreed and then grunted as he pulled himself up on
to the saddle. “But even if Aeris and I do decide to stay over,
we'll be home bright and early tomorrow. Maybe I'll give you a call
with the Magic Mouth spell before we start back.”

Kronk's expression
brightened.

“
Oh, that would be
considerate, master. That way I can put on the kettle before you get
back.”

Simon laughed and, with a
wave, turned Chief's head toward the forest across the clearing and
headed out, with Aeris floating in his wake.

The journey took almost
two hours, twice as long as usual. There were several very large,
high drifts of snow that hadn't melted much yet and the wizard had to
detour around them each time.

Although it was still
chilly, Simon removed his gloves and opened his jacket as the day
went on. The sun was quite hot and he found himself sweating about
halfway to their destination.

“
Better overdressed
than under, I say,” Aeris told him pertly when Simon complained
about the heat. “You're still regaining your strength and it's
best not to take chances.”

“
Yes, mother,”
Simon replied grumpily as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

Aeris just sighed and
didn't answer.

But when they finally
emerged from the woods on to the little rise that overlooked
Nottinghill, Simon shivered and buttoned up his coat. The wind, that
the shelter of the forest had saved them from, cut through him on the
exposed slope and he flipped his hood up over his head as well.

The town looked much as it
had the last time the wizard had visited. But except for some mounds
of snow that had been shoveled into piles along the inside of the
wall, Nottinghill looked almost clear of winter's touch.

In front of the main gate,
Simon could see that the ground was churned up and frozen from, he
assumed, hunters leaving to find prey to help feed the town.
Strangely, he couldn't see any movement in town. He wondered if the
brisk, chilly wind was keeping people inside.

He looked up at the sun
and guessed that it was just after noon, so perhaps folks were having
lunch.

Vaguely uneasy, Simon
chirped at Chief and the stallion carefully made his way down the
mild slope.

They swung around to the
left to approach Nottinghill on the main gate side. Simon and Aeris
exchanged looks of surprise when they noticed that the gates were
closed. That wasn't normal.

“
What do you think
is going on?” Simon asked the elemental.

Aeris was frowning at the
closed gates.

“
I have no idea,”
he said as he floated along beside the wizard. “I've never seen
those doors closed in daylight before.”

The wizard shrugged.
“Well, we'll find out soon enough.”

When they got to about
thirty feet of the gates, a hidden voice rang out.

“
Halt! Who goes
there?”

Simon pulled back on the
reins and stopped Chief abruptly. He looked at Aeris.

“
Who goes there? Are
they kidding?”

The elemental looked like
he didn't know whether to laugh or become angry. He settled for
confusion.

“
No clue, my dear
wizard. Do they have a lot of visitors that we don't know about? How
many wizards come by that ride a bi-corn and have an elemental with
them?”

Simon looked up at the
wall but could see no one.

“
Well, I might as
well humor her,” he told Aeris quietly. The voice had been that
of a woman.

“
It's Simon
O'Toole,” he shouted and pushed back the hood of his coat.

“
And Aeris!”
the elemental called out.

Simon had to stifle a
laugh at the elemental's self-important tone.

“
Simon O'Toole?”

A head popped up above the
wall to the right of the gates. “Oh damn, it is you!”

Simon recognized the guard
that had been on duty the last time he'd visited. He hadn't caught
her name.

“
Sorry about that,”
she continued. “It's hard to see with all this glare.”

The wizard realized that
the thin, crusty snow was reflecting the mid-day sun and understood
that the guard had been blinded by it.

“
No problem,”
he told her with a smile. He shivered a bit at the fierce bite of the
wind. “Uh, any chance that we can come in?”

The guard jumped slightly.

“
Oh, of course, of
course. Just give me a moment to open the gates.”

Her head disappeared and
Simon waited as patiently as he could.

“
I'm still not sure
why the gates are closed,” he muttered to Aeris.

“
Your guess is as
good as mine,” the elemental replied, brow still furrowed.