The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (25 page)

And with a quick wave, he
disappeared with a little pop.

Simon stared blankly at
the empty spot where the elemental had been, then went back to
digging his furrow. He began whistling thoughtfully through his teeth
as he worked.

That evening, Simon sat in
his chair next to the fireplace and decided to contact Clara. He
hadn't received a signal from her lodestone since he'd returned from
Nottinghill and had assumed that she was busy getting her people back
on track after their losses.

Kronk was sitting on the
floor beside the fireplace, staring at it quietly. He seemed a bit
down since Simon had told him that Aeris would be away for perhaps a
few weeks and the wizard suspected that the little guy was more fond
of his counterpart than he let on.

The wizard muttered the
incantation for Magic Mouth and then settled deeper into his chair
and stared into space.

“
Clara? Can you hear
me?” he asked.

“
Simon? There you
are!” the cleric responded, sounding excited. “My
goodness, it's been so long that I thought you'd forgotten about us.”

“
Forgotten about
you?” Simon said, perplexed. “Of course not. I just
thought that since you hadn't used your lodestone to get my attention
that you were busy with, you know, running the town and stuff.”

There was a pause and then
Clara laughed.

“
My dear friend,”
she said, amused, “you may be in the body of a teenager but
your memory seems to be closer to that of the older man you used to
be. I lost my half of the lodestone, remember? I could have stood in
the middle of town and yelled at the top of my lungs and it would
have been just as useful.”

Simon groaned and covered
his face. Kronk looked up at him curiously.

“
My God, I'm an
idiot,” he said, red-faced. “I totally forgot that.”

He looked at Kronk as he
spoke.

“
My little friend
will dig up another lodestone and, when Aeris returns, I'll send him
down with half of it.”

Kronk nodded vigorously as
Simon spoke and the wizard smiled.

“
Well, that's a
relief,” Clara said. “Things have been interesting around
here but we've had no problems that I've needed you for. So where's
Aeris gone?”

The wizard explained the
air elemental's idea to search for other Changlings and Clara was
enthusiastic in her approval.

“
That's a wonderful
idea,” she said. “Thank you both. We can use all the help
we can get, to be honest. We've started to prepare the fields for the
spring planting and, frankly, we're behind schedule.”

“
I'm glad you
approve,” Simon said. “So what interesting things have
been happening that you wanted to discuss?”

“
Well, it's an
strange coincidence, but we've already welcomed two new members to
our community.”

“
Really?”
Simon replied, startled. “Who are they? And where did they come
from?”

“
They're actually
the answer to my prayers, or part of it anyway. Their names are
Malcolm and Aiden. Malcolm is simply the biggest man I've ever seen.
I thought Richard was large, but this man? He reminds me of an
old-time body builder. He has to be about six and a half feet tall. A
beautiful young black man who keeps his hair in long braids and has
the loveliest smile you've ever seen.”

Simon began to smile.
Clara almost sounded like a schoolgirl with a crush.

“
You have a new
boyfriend, Clara?” he teased her.

“
What? No! Of course
not.” She giggled self-consciously. “Apparently as a
cleric, I'm expected to be celibate. Ah well, we must all make
sacrifices, I suppose. But some of the young women in town are quite
smitten with him. Too bad he's not interested.”

Simon stood up and went to
the counter to get his kettle. He pumped some water into it and hung
it over the fire.

“
Not interested?”
he asked as he began to prepare tea. “Why not?”

“
Well, he and Aiden,
who's almost as large as Malcolm is, are together, if you know what I
mean.”

“
Hmm, well that's
good. I think a stable relationship is probably helpful in this crazy
world we're living in now.”

“
I agree. Anyway,
Aiden is as sweet as his partner. He's Vietnamese, with a mane of
hair most women would kill for. Oddly, the two of them knew each
other before the Change.”

Simon waited for the
kettle to boil, leaning back on the counter as he spoke.

“
That is odd. How'd
that happen?”

“
According to
Malcolm, they were both in high school together, although they only
knew each other in passing, in a small town called Renfrew. Do you
know it?”

“
Sure. I've been
there a few times, back in the old days of technology. It's west of
Nottinghill, I believe.”

“
Exactly. They began
to Change around the same time and found themselves ostracized by
their friends and family. Naturally they gravitated to each other for
mutual support and one thing led to another. Renfrew was leveled by
drakes, not the dragon, and they were the only survivors. Since then
they've wandered, never staying in one place for more than a few
months. Aiden says that something drew them slowly but surely to us.
I'd like to think it was the gods of Light.”

The wizard picked up the
now boiling kettle and poured the water into his teapot.

“
And they're
fighters?”

“
Indeed they are.
Like Richard, they found that after the Change they had skills they
had never had before. They can handle any weapon with ease and our
smith has already made them both armor that they wear like a second
skin.” She sighed. “You know, my friend, even now these
Changes sometimes scare me. We've been altered body and mind by the
gods, without our permission, and then we're thrust out into the
world and basically told to survive. It's...unsettling.”

“
Ha! That's one word
for it,” Simon agreed dryly. “Insane is another. But
we're playing by their rules now, I suppose.”

He sat down with his tea
by the fire again and winked at Kronk, who smiled widely.

“
Are you sure that
these two are trustworthy? I mean, they've walked out of the
wilderness at a rather opportune time, haven't they?”

He sipped his tea and
closed his eyes. He was sore and tired from the day's work, but
pleased with the progress that he and Kronk had made.

“
I'm sure, Simon. As
a cleric, I can detect evil thoughts and intent. These two are
precisely what they claim to be.”

“
That's a relief. So
what have they been doing?'

“
Malcolm's already
organized a militia. As he says, there really aren't enough of us to
separate into guardsmen and townsfolk. So he and Aiden are training
everyone in at least the basics of weapon use, primarily bows at the
moment, so that we can all contribute if there is another assault on
Nottinghill.”

She paused and Simon
sipped more tea, waiting.

“
They were quite
taken by your fortifications, by the way. The moat and the walls.
They're both eager to meet you the next time you decide to drop by.”

“
Well, thank them
both,” Simon said as he looked at Kronk. “But my rocky
little friend deserves all the accolades for the town's defensive
structures. I was just a bystander.”

Kronk began to object and
the wizard hushed him with a gesture. At the little guy's look of
indignation. Simon grinned broadly.

“
As you can imagine,
he's trying to duck out of taking credit for his work, but I won't
let him.”

“
Good. Don't,”
Clara said firmly. “Without him and his fellow elementals, we
would be in a very precarious position right now.”

“
Me too, Clara. Me
too. Well, I'm thrilled that you have some more help now. If Aeris
discovers any more Changlings, I'll pass along that information as I
get it.”

“
Thank you, Simon.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that he finds some people who want to
live here. How are your studies coming along, by the way?”

“
Not too bad,
actually. I have several spells permanently memorized now, which is a
relief. Magic Mouth is one of them. My Shield and Stone Skin spells
are firmly locked in as well. For some reason, I can't do the same
for any offensive spells, but I'm not really complaining. Oh, and by
the end of the week, I'm going to try my Gate spell again, once Kronk
and I finish getting the garden prepared for planting. So I may be
the one to deliver that lodestone to you if Aeris isn't back in two
weeks or so.”

“
Now don't overdo
it, sir wizard,” Clara said sternly. “I'm sure you still
have a ways to go before you recover all of your former skills.”

Simon rolled his eyes
while watching Kronk.

“
Don't worry. My
friend here won't allow me to overextend myself. He's quite the
little disciplinarian when it comes to me working too hard on my
magic.”

Kronk nodded, looking
suspiciously smug.

“
Good to know,”
Clara said with a chuckle. “Well, you have a good evening,
Simon, and hopefully we'll talk soon.”

“
You as well, my
friend. Take care.”

Simon canceled the spell,
sat back and stared at the fire while he drank his tea.

“
All is well with
the cleric and her people?” Kronk asked.

“
Hmm? Oh yeah,
they're good.”

Simon passed on the news
of the newest members of Clara's town and the little guy looked
pleased.

“
I'm glad that they
have some protectors again, master,” he said as he stood near
the fire. “The world is becoming a very dangerous place.”

“
No kidding,”
Simon agreed. “I hope that Aeris is being careful on his
scouting trip. I have a feeling that we've barely scratched the
surface when it comes to the evil that is lurking out there on the
New Earth.”

Simon waited two days
before getting in touch with Aeris. The garden was finished and now
he just had to wait for warmer weather before he and Kronk started
planting.

The horses were running by
the lakeside late in the afternoon, while Simon sat on the shore and
watched, when he decided to call Aeris.

He invoked the Magic Mouth
spell easily and lay back on his elbows on the new grass.

“
Aeris? Can you hear
me?”

There was a pause and
Simon watched the horses run and dodge as they played along the
water.

“
Ah, my dear wizard,
there you are.”

“
Here I am. So how's
it going? Find any sign of people yet?”

“
Unfortunately not.
But I've found a few other disturbing signs that I wanted to talk to
you about.”

Simon sat up and hunched
forward. Aeris' tone was unusually serious.

“
Signs? Of what?”

“
Well, I've stumbled
across several small homes here and there, I believe you used to call
them cottages?”

The wizard looked at the
tower over his shoulder. It had started off as a small cottage once
upon a time.

“
Yes, cottages.
And?”

“
And each of them
has been razed to the ground.”

Simon stared blankly
across the lake, seeing Aeris' face in his mind.

“
Razed? How?”

“
Fire. All of them
have been burned to their foundations. And in some of the ruins, I've
found human remains.”

“
Oh gees,”
Simon muttered. “Is there any chance that they were destroyed
by the dragon or its drakes before it was killed?”

“
I'm afraid not,”
Aeris answered with certainty. “The ashes were dry, not soaked
by the snows over the winter. And one of them was still smoldering
when I discovered it. In fact, it was a narrow stream of smoke that
drew my attention to this ruin in the first place.”

Simon stood up and slowly
began to walk along the shore. He reached down, pulled out a stalk of
grass and began sucking on it thoughtfully.

“
So what's your
assessment of the situation? What do you think is happening?”

“
Well, until I find
evidence to the contrary, I believe that a lot more people survived
the return of the dragons than we ever suspected. Some were
undoubtedly mundane humans, others were Changlings. Perhaps some of
these destroyed homes contained both. Who can say? Bones are just
bones, after all.”

The wizard winced at the
mental picture that comment conjured up.

“
Anyway,”
Aeris continued, “I believe that someone or something is
systematically killing any survivors it can find. As I said, not all
of the homes I found were inhabited, so it looks like all structures
are being destroyed indiscriminately, perhaps in the hopes of
catching anyone who is hiding. It's very brutal and quite efficient.”

“
Damn it,”
Simon said to himself. “There aren't enough of us as it is. And
now something is trying to kill us off.”