The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (26 page)

He stopped and crouched
down to pick up a handful of pebbles. He tossed them one at a time
into the clear water.

“
It has to be an
agent of the dark gods,” he told Aeris. “They have to
kill off all of humanity before they can return, so it makes sense
that this is their doing.”

Aeris was slow to answer
and Simon waited, a bit perplexed.

“
You don't agree?”
he finally asked.

“
Well, I don't
disagree, my dear wizard. But we mustn't be too hasty attributing all
of the world's evils to just the gods of Chaos. There were cruel
people in your old world long before the gods returned.”

“
Hmm, that is true.”

“
Anyway, I have a
feeling that I will discover the culprit soon enough. The ruins have
been fresher the further I travel, so I may just catch up to whoever
is doing this in the next few days.”

Simon stood up, alarmed.

“
Be careful, Aeris,”
he said forcefully. “You have no idea what these destroyers are
capable of. If they are magic-users, you could be in real danger.”

“
How nice to hear
that you care,” Aeris replied with just a hint of his usual
sarcasm.

“
Don't worry, my
dear wizard,” he continued more seriously. “I am moving
invisibly and very high above the ground. I am taking no chances,
believe me.”

“
Well, that's good
to know,” Simon said. He felt a little relieved at the
elemental's caution. “I should have had Kronk make a lodestone
for you so you could contact me when needed.”

“
And where exactly
would I put it?” Aeris answered with some amusement.
“Elementals don't come with pockets, Simon.”

The wizard laughed in
spite of himself.

“
Right. Okay. Well
look, I'm going to get in touch every day from now on, just in case.”

“
Oh goody,”
Aeris replied.

“
Stop that,”
Simon said. “It's just for my own piece of mind. So I'll talk
to you tomorrow. Watch yourself.”

“
I always do,”
the elemental told him.

Simon canceled the spell
and stood looking across the lake at the remnants of an old cottage
that had been built there years ago.

What could be out there
hunting down humans?

True to his word, Simon
got in touch with Aeris every day for the next week, usually late in
the afternoon. The elemental reported that he had found several more
burned houses, always remote residences that had probably been
cottages back in the old days. Each one was a more recent ruin than
the last, but so far he hadn't encountered whoever or whatever was
destroying them.

The wizard was becoming
increasingly anxious the longer Aeris was away. According to the
elemental, he was over a hundred miles to the southwest now and Simon
had decided that the next time they spoke, he would recall Aeris,
whether he wanted to return or not.

Something that far away
wasn't an immediate threat anyway. Or so he hoped.

One thing that had cheered
him up was that he had finally cast the Gate spell for the first time
in months. Kronk had fussed over him and insisted that he only try to
transport himself from one side of the field in front of the tower to
the other.

Simon actually agreed that
the first cast should be a short-range attempt. He remembered the
first time he had cast the spell a year ago. He had ended up in
mid-air and had broken his leg when he'd hit the ground. It wasn't
something that he wanted to repeat.

After a light breakfast,
just tea because he was quite nervous, Simon headed outside with his
spell-book. He left his staff inside. He was a bit afraid that
Bene-Dunn-Gal would overpower the spell and send him headfirst into a
tree.

Kronk had opened the main
gates earlier and the wizard walked out on to the field, looking for
the best spot to begin.

“
Over here, master,”
Kronk called out. He was standing at the edge of the forest across
from the tower. Simon waved and hurried over to meet him.

“
This is where you
should cast the spell, master,” the little guy told him.

Simon looked around,
mystified.

“
Why here?”

Kronk pointed at the
tower.

“
Because, master, if
you aim for the space between the gates and overshoot, you won't slam
into anything.”

“
Overshoot?”
Simon hadn't considered that. “Hmm, good point. Okay, let's try
that.”

“
You
are
ready, aren't you, master?” Kronk asked doubtfully.

“
Of course I'm
ready,” Simon assured him, trying to reassure himself at the
same time. “Why don't you head over? I'll meet you there in a
few minutes.”

I hope, he thought
anxiously.

Kronk tip-tapped away
while Simon opened his spell-book and found the Gate spell. It was
just as complex as it had always been, but now he could hold it in
his mind for more than a few minutes.

He read through the
incantation twice, slipped the book into his robe and took a deep
breath.

“
Okay, wizard,”
he said under his breath. “Don't screw this up.”

He spoke the magical words
in a strong, sure voice, stared at the spot that he wanted to move to
and, with mixed feelings of both fear and exhilaration, ended with
the word of command.

“
Invectis
!”

A
massive force slammed between his shoulder blades and Simon felt his
body fly forward. The world blurred around him and then...he was
standing next to Kronk and looking at him with a broad smile.

“
Ta-da,”
he said in a shaky voice.

“
Master,
you did it!” the little guy said. He sounded more relieved than
pleased.

“
I
did, didn't I?”

Simon
ran his fingers through his hair and wiped a sheen of sweat from his
forehead. His knees were shaking and he felt weak and light-headed.

“
You
look a little pale, master,” Kronk said as he stared up at him.
“Perhaps you should sit down?”

“
No,
I'm fine,” the wizard said. He took a tottering step and then
reconsidered. “Then again, maybe I will sit for a minute.”

He
lowered himself carefully and sat down on the warm grass. He lay back
on his elbows and just breathed deeply.

Kronk
settled down beside him. Simon snuck a look at the elemental and saw
the look of concern on his face.

“
I'm
fine, my friend. Really. And before you say anything, yes, I have to
move carefully with this spell.”

He
thought about the complexity of the Gate spell.

“
This
incantation takes me to the next level, I guess. If I get this right,
consistently, I'll be able to tackle the really useful spells like
Lightning Storm and Meteor.”

He
lay back and closed his eyes.

“
I'm
afraid that we're going to need those soon, Kronk. If Aeris runs into
something big and nasty, master-class spells may be the only thing
that will stop it.”

“
I
understand, master,” the elemental said softly. “But you
are just one person. You can only do your best. You can't save the
world.”

Simon
shivered. Kronk's statement echoed in his mind like prophecy. He
opened his eyes and stared at the small, worried face beside him.

“
Maybe
not,” he said with a knot of fear in his belly. “But the
powers that be may be expecting me to try.”

The
wizard had to sleep for a few hours after casting the Gate spell. He
was frustrated at his body's weakness but knew that pushing it would
lead to a setback, something he couldn't risk doing.

When
he woke again, Simon ate a snack and then walked outside and around
the tower to the lake. Early dragonflies flitted above its calm
surface and he sat on the shore and watched their flashes of blue and
purple with a sense of joy.

Spring,
he thought. Man, I've missed you.

Then
he chanted the Magic Mouth spell while watching the sun flickering on
the water.

“
Aeris?
Are you there?”

“
Simon!
Wait a minute.”

The
wizard sat up, wide-eyed. The air elemental had been whispering; a
first for him.

“
What's
going on?” he asked quickly.

There
was a long moment of silence and Simon waited anxiously for Aeris to
respond.

“
Okay,
I'm here,” the elemental finally answered in a more normal
voice. “Sorry about that. I had to get some distance away from
them before I could speak out loud.”

“
Away
from them? From whom?”

“
Changlings,
Simon.”

“
Changlings?”
The wizard frowned. “What are you talking about? I'm a
Changling.”

Aeris
laughed humorlessly.

“
Not
a Changling like you or Clara and the others. These creatures are
monsters. I ran into a pack of them earlier today. They are the ones
who are hunting humans.”

Simon's
blood ran cold. He couldn't help but remember Sarah and the other
Changlings that he'd run into in Ottawa. They had kept their bodies
swathed in heavy robes to hide whatever they had turned into.

“
What
kind of monsters are we talking about?” he asked.

“
They
are each different,” Aeris told him. “Hideous amalgams of
scales and claws. Some are immense, ten feet tall or more. One is
more like a wolf covered in spines. A few have more than four limbs.
They are horrors, my dear wizard.”

“
How
many?”

“
At
least twenty in this pack alone. But I've come across several trails
that meet and separate, leading me to believe that there are a lot
more than that.”

Simon
stood up and began to pace along the lake shore.

“
So
let me understand this. There are packs of monstrous Changlings
roaming the countryside killing humans indiscriminately? What the
hell is that about?”

“
I
have no idea. But they are not mindless. They speak to each other in
some language that I do not know. I saw them attack a small home and
one of them, the leader I assume, had the pack surround the structure
before they attacked. They are organized. Fortunately there was no
one inside. And then another creature cast a spell and set the
structure on fire.”

Simon
stopped so quickly he almost tripped.

“
Hang
on a minute. You saw one cast a spell?”

“
I
did. That is the truly frightening thing about them. They are
spell-casters, or at least some of them are. As far as I know, the
only other Changlings who can use magic are yourself, Clara and the
four youngsters we saved last year. And that's it. But here we see
that the Changlings who were mutated into monsters can also cast
spells. It worries me, my dear wizard, I must admit.”

Simon
continued his walk around the lake, staring at the ground and
thinking hard as he went.

“
It
worries me too. Is that why we have found so few Changlings who are
human? Because a lot more Changed into those things?”

“
Frightening
thought, isn't it?”

“
That's
an understatement.”

Simon
stopped near the remains of the old cottage and looked across the
lake at his tower. The white stone building gleamed in the bright
sunlight. He felt a sudden sense of grief at the thought of innocent
people being twisted by the dark gods into monstrous creatures.

“
Simon?
What do you want me to do?”

“
Are
you in any danger?”

“
Not
at the moment. Apparently none of these creatures can see me when I'm
invisible, and I've been keeping well behind and above them.”

“
You
mean there are things that
can
see you when you're invisible?” Simon asked with some surprise.

“
Very
few. Usually only high-level magic-users and only when they cast the
See Invisible spell. The monsters here may be casters, but they are
crude and don't seem to have much skill, really.”

“
Good
to know.”

The
wizard leaned on a tree, its leaves just emerging from buds, and
looked at the sad remnants of the old cottage. He'd never met the
people who had once owned the little building. Who had they been? Why
had they abandoned this pretty little spot? His mind wandered for a
bit.