The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (41 page)

The
little guy nodded, still looking puzzled.

They
could hear a scraping sound, as if something was being pulled along
the rubble-strewn ground. It would last for a few seconds and then
stop. And then it would start again, over and over. The sound was
getting louder as they waited.

“
Perhaps
Aeris has discovered something and is bringing it back to show you,
master,” Kronk suggested.

“
I
hadn't thought of that. I know he's a lot stronger than he looks; you
both are.”

Simon
shook his head and watched a cloud of dust drift past his face.

“
Well,
whatever it is, it must be heavy to shake off this much dirt from the
ceiling.”

They
both waited silently as the mysterious source of the sound
approached. The wizard had a sudden vision of Aeris dragging an
ancient treasure chest filled with magical tomes or enchanted weapons
in his wake. He grinned a bit in anticipation.

“
Maybe
he could use a hand,” Simon told Kronk. “Whatever he's
found sounds awfully heavy.”

“
Good
point, master. He'd never ask for help, but if we just go ahead and
meet him...”

Simon
began to walk in the direction of the sound.

“
Yeah,
let's go,” he said.

They
had only taken a few steps when Aeris shot out of the tunnel and
zoomed toward them. He wasn't dragging anything.

“
Run!”
he shouted as he flew at them.

Simon
stopped and gaped at him in confusion.

“
What?
Why? What's going on?”

“
No
time to explain. Just run!”

The
air elemental flew by them and shot across the crossroads to the
descending tunnel that Kronk had checked out earlier.

Simon
and the little earthen exchanged a look and then both took off in the
same direction, Simon pounding along while Kronk skittered and slid
around the rubble.

The
rhythmic dragging sound was getting louder and now it was punctuated
by a low blast of air each time it stopped. The wizard was tempted to
slow down and take a look at whatever it was, but Aeris kept urging
them on.

“
Don't
stop, don't look. Just keep running. Maybe the tunnel narrows up
ahead and we can get ahead of it.”

The
light over Simon's head was the only thing that kept him from
stumbling and falling on the rocks under his feet. The tunnel led
downward and the slope was very steep. The wizard tried to focus on
his footing and began to pant heavily.

“
It
does not narrow at any point nearby,” Kronk called to Aeris as
he dodged and tripped down the tunnel, moving like a spring over the
rubble. “But there is a sharp right-hand turn about a hundred
yards ahead.”

“
Okay,”
the air elemental replied from up ahead. He was a small, glowing
figure in the darkness. “That might buy us some time and let
our dear wizard cast a Gate spell.”

“
And
why do I need to do that?” Simon shouted raggedly, his breath
beginning to burn in his lungs.

“
You'll
see soon enough,” Aeris replied loudly. “Just keep
moving.”

And
that was what they did. They raced away from the sound. It seemed to
be falling back a bit, or at least it wasn't getting any louder, but
Simon could not even imagine what would make such noises.

Finally
he noticed that the tunnel was turning to the right and the ground
was leveling out. It became easier to keep his feet, which was
fortunate because his run had become more of a stagger as black spots
swam across his vision.

And
then the tunnel abruptly made a sharp cut to the right and then to
the left, like an s-shaped curve, and it narrowed considerably.

Simon
banged into one wall and fell to his knees, small pebbles cutting
into his skin.

“
I...I
can't run any further, guys,” he gasped as he leaned against
the wall and shakily pushed himself to his feet. There was a hole
torn in his robe where one of his knees had been scraped open.

“
Master,
are you all right?” Kronk asked as he watched Simon attempt to
stagger forward.

“
Never
mind that right now,” Aeris barked. “If you can't run, my
dear wizard, just keep moving. It won't get through this bottleneck
easily, so if you can move down the tunnel another fifty yards or so,
you can Gate us out of here.”

Simon
pushed his sweaty hair off his face and squinted at Aeris as he
regained his balance and started walking. The sound from behind them
was now fairly distant, but already getting louder again.

“
Now
will you tell me why I'm tempting heart failure?” he gasped.
“What the hell are we running from?”

“
Save
your breath,” Aeris said shortly. “We're far from safe.
Come on.”

The
tunnel opened up again but oddly the ground was nearly free of fallen
rocks beyond the bend in the road and Simon could walk almost
normally. His light had faithfully followed him and was still bobbing
along above his head.

They
managed to get another fifty yards at a fairly quick pace as Simon
caught his breath, and then the trio was brought up short.

They
looked ahead and then at each other.

“
Okay,”
Aeris said. “Now we have a problem.”

The
tunnel ended in a blank wall. It hadn't been blocked by a cave-in; it
simply stopped.

“
What
the hell?” Simon said weakly. “Who builds a tunnel to
nowhere?”

“
There
were four tunnels back at the crossroads, master,” Kronk said
as he reached out to stroke the stone wall. “This one may have
been abandoned ages ago. Perhaps the stone is bad further on, making
digging perilous, and they created one of the other tunnels instead.”

“
Oh
great,” Aeris said in disgust. “Blasted dwarves! Why
couldn't they at least have left a sign or something?”

Simon
wiped his face off with his sleeve and slipped Bene-Dunn-Gal off of
his back.

“
Maybe
they did. Those carvings back at the crossroads could have said
anything, including 'Closed for Repairs' or whatever.”

“
Never
mind that,” Aeris said urgently. The distant scraping and
dragging sounds were now getting louder.

Simon
could just see the far end of the tunnel where it emerged from the
s-bend and he watched it intently. Something was coming.

“
Cast
your Gate spell, wizard,” the air elemental said in a rush.
“Get us out of here.”

“
But
what are you afraid of? What is it?”

Before
Aeris could answer, Simon saw a cloud of dust suddenly blow out of
the opening at the other end of the tunnel. There was a pause and he
found himself holding his breath.

And
then a blast of sound, a deep-throated scream of rage, shook the
tunnel.

Simon
fell back against the wall behind him and barely kept his feet as
rocks, dust and debris rained down from overhead. The far opening in
the tunnel exploded, rock and dirt flying everywhere and a massive
head, as long as he was tall, thrust out of the darkness.

“
Crap,”
he said in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me.”

It
was a dragon.

“
What the hell is a
dragon doing crawling around underground?” Simon asked Aeris
plaintively. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

“
No idea, my dear
wizard,” the elemental answered tensely as they watched the
distant head shaking back and forth, trying to free itself from the
narrow curve in the tunnel.

“
My guess? Either it
is on its way to attack the dwarves, or it's been sent to kill you.
I'm leaning toward the latter.”

“
That's impossible,”
Kronk said flatly. He had moved to stand between Simon and the dragon
and was watching it with blazing eyes. “No one knows that our
master is down here. The tower is blocked from all magical
eavesdropping.”

“
Yes, I know that,”
Aeris answered shortly He kept his gaze on the approaching menace.
“But we aren't in the tower now, are we? That evil wizard or
even the dark gods themselves could be watching us right now and we'd
never even know it.”

Simon planted his staff
butt-end on the tunnel floor and muttered the Gate spell. He stared
at the dragon as it squirmed and writhed, trying to free its huge
body from the plug it was stuck in, and felt anger begin to dissolve
his fear.

“
But how could it
get down here so quickly, even if it was sent after me? That's what
I'd like to know.”

“
And that's where I
go back to my first conjecture,” Aeris said, as he glanced at
Simon and then back on the distant monster. “Perhaps the gods
have decided to turn their attention to the dwarves. We know that
they hate them as much as they do humans. This creature may already
have been down here, along with who knows how many others, advancing
on the dwarven stronghold when it was redirected to come after you.”

“
Thanks, Aeris.
That's a horrible thought. The dwarves probably won't even know an
attack is coming until the dragons are on them.”

Simon jumped as the dragon
roared again, this time in triumph. It had managed to pull its bulk
from the narrow tunnel, the walls collapsing behind it, and now began
to advance, dragging its body along a few paces, pausing for breath
and then inching along again.

“
Well, at least now
we know where that sound came from,” Simon said bleakly. “We
have to warn the dwarves of a possible attack. We'll Gate back home
and get hold of Clara. She may be able to get in touch with them,
somehow.”

“
Um, any time now
would be good, master,” Kronk said as the dragon moved a few
yards closer.

As if the monster had
heard the little guy's voice, it raised its scaled and spiked head
and glared directly at them. Simon noticed absently that it was a red
dragon.

That means fire, he
thought.

“
Shield,” he
snapped in response to the thought.

Bene-Dunn-Gal brightened
and an opaque bubble popped into existence around the three of them.

Just in time. The dragon
drew back, sucked in a massive breath and belched fire at them from
twenty-five yards away.

The flames smashed into
the shield but dribbled off of it like molten lava. The creature
roared with frustration.

“
Time to get out of
here, my dear wizard,” Aeris said anxiously.

“
Yeah, in a minute.”

Simon stepped toward the
furious monster, his shield moving with him.

“
Before I go, here's
something to remember me by, you bastard!” he shouted at the
scaled horror.

The beast bellowed at him
and Simon glared back at it, enraged.

“
Lightning!”
he cried as he raised Bene-Dunn-Gal and pointed it at the dragon.

A jagged bolt of
electricity, blazing chaotic purple, burst from the staff and shot
down the tunnel. It engulfed the dragon's head and blasted it back
down the path several yards.

There was a sharp stink of
ozone in the air and Simon coughed as he tried to catch his breath.
He peered through a thick cloud of dust and dirt that had cascaded
down from the ceiling.

The dragon lay on its
side, eyes glazed and obviously stunned.

“
Tell your buddies
about that one,” he shouted and the red eyes sluggishly moved
to look at him.

“
Okay, Simon, you've
made your point,” Aeris said hurriedly. “Now can we get
out of here?”

The wizard nodded, chanted
the Gate spell and pictured the main room in his tower. After the
elementals' earlier warning, he made sure the vision was as perfect
as it could be.

Kronk and Aeris moved
closer and grabbed on to his robe.

When he was ready, he
looked at the dragon, which was just getting to its feet again,
weaving and shaking its hideous head, and spoke the word of command.

The world dissolved around
them and they were on their way home.

Back in the tower, Simon
hurriedly put Bene-Dunn-Gal back in its place, patting it in
appreciation. He dumped his backpack on the floor, quickly sat down
at the kitchen table and picked up the hand mirror.

While he chanted the Magic
Mirror spell, Kronk jumped up on the table while Aeris opened the
front door and looked outside.

“
I'm going to make a
pass along the wall,” he said to the earthen, after a quick
look at Simon. “If we've attracted the eye of the gods of
Chaos, I want to make sure that they haven't sent anything against
the tower.”