“Well, that was productive,” he told Kronk and Aeris as they began putting things away.
The earthen had stoked the fire while Aeris filled the kettle and Simon lit the candles with a wave of his hand.
“It was indeed. Did you pick up any new information while we were there?” the air elemental asked as he hung the full kettle over the fire.
“Hints. People are uneasy. Well, you heard Liliana. If someone so brave is worried, it makes me nervous. We need some intelligence about what our enemies are up to. I hate flying blind.”
“What sort of intelligence, master?” Kronk asked over his shoulder as he carried several packages of dried meat toward the stairs.
“Well, for starters, where the hell are those necromancers? They've all disappeared; all of them. That's not good. How can we fight something if we don't even know where it is?”
Kronk nodded thoughtfully and headed down to the storage area with the packages.
“Can we help?” Aeris asked. “I mean myself and my people?”
Simon leaned his staff against the wall and picked up a couple of bags of clothing. He nodded slowly, thinking through the idea.
“Maybe. Let's talk about it after I put this stuff away.”
“Go ahead. Your tea should be ready when you come back.”
“Sounds good.”
A short time later, Simon was back downstairs curled into his comfy chair in front of the fireplace. He had changed into a fresh robe and new woolen socks and was sipping a hot cup of tea.
Everything had been put away and the elementals were each sitting on opposite arms of the chair. No one spoke for a while. Simon was tired after the trip and he enjoyed the warmth of the fire, thinking about nothing in particular.
“Have you given it some thought?” Aeris asked eventually.
“What?”
Simon blinked at him sleepily, feeling a bit muddled.
“Oh, right. The help you offered?”
Aeris nodded.
“What help is that?” Kronk asked him.
“Oh, our dear wizard is nervous about the disappearance of the necromancers. I am too, to be fair. So I thought that if we summoned more of my people and sent them out to scout, we might get lucky.”
“Get lucky?” the earthen said dubiously. “That is a bit vague, isn't it? Just tell them to head out into the world and poke around?”
Simon smiled at the little guy, while Aeris looked a little uncomfortable.
“Well yes, I suppose it is. But we do need to know where the necromancers are, don't we? Do you have a better idea?”
“I think I do, yes.”
There was a moment of silence while Kronk's answer filtered into Simon's sleepy brain. He sat up a bit and stared at the earthen.
“What? You think you have a way to track them down?”
“No master, I do not. But you do.”
“And what, pray tell, is that?” Aeris scoffed.
“Argentium. The argent dragon told you that if you should ever need his aid, all you had to do was call on him, master. I would wager that if anyone could find those necromancers, it is he.”
“Do you really think that calling on that creature, after what Esmiralla did to our wizard, is a good idea? You can't trust them!”
“Well now, someone's changed his tune,” Simon said with a little grin.
Aeris glowered at him.
“Yes, I have. I lost my reverence for the silver dragon when she betrayed you for her own benefit.”
“I do not trust her either,” Kronk assured him. “But I am speaking of the argent dragon. Even we earthen know that he sacrificed himself for the greater good. And the three of us saw how he reacted when he learned of Esmiralla's treachery. I think that we can trust him, at least somewhat.”
Simon forced himself to consider asking the great dragon for help. He still did not trust the silver dragon and probably never would. But Kronk was right; Argentium was another matter entirely. For the first time since he'd had contact with the dragon, he wondered what he and Esmiralla had been up to since they had disappeared that fateful night.
Had they taken the fight to the red dragons? Or had they been biding their time, planning, scheming. He simply didn't know enough about how such creatures thought to even hazard a guess.
“I'll think about it, Kronk,” he said carefully. “It's a big decision. Letting those two into our lives again might not be for the best.”
“As you wish, master. It was just a thought, after all.”
“I know. Let me sleep on it.”
Chapter 26
That night Simon had a dream. He dreamt that he was floating high above the world. He could see far, to every corner of the globe. And from every direction, a darkness advanced; creeping forward into every valley and over every hill. Horrific shapes moved within the darkness, choking fumes rose up around it and the world withered as it came.
“No, I have to stop it,” the wizard moaned in his sleep.
He tossed and turned, flinging his blankets to the floor. His body began to glow with a silver aura as he started sweating and panting in the grip of his nightmare.
Simon suddenly gasped and flung up his hands, trying to protect himself from something that only he could see. The entire tower seemed to convulse in response to his fear and the walls cracked and groaned; dust trickling down from the ceiling.
“What is happening?” someone yelled from outside.
Aeris and Kronk burst into the tower and stopped, looking around frantically. A shout from above them was followed by another shudder of the tower. Pieces of calking popped out of the joints in the walls and the building seemed to rise up several inches and then settle into the earth again with a loud groan.
“Master!” Kronk bellowed and raced for the stairs.
Aeris shot by him, flew up the steps and into the bedroom. He stopped and gaped at the wizard.
Simon was floating several feet above his bed. His naked body was engulfed in crackling energy, like lightning running up and down his limbs. He was pulsing with silvery light.
“What is happening?” Kronk asked as he ran into the room. “Master?”
A sobbing groan came from the levitating wizard and he covered his face with his hands.
“He can't hear you. He's dreaming,” Aeris told the earthen. “And whatever he's dreaming about, it's obviously horrible.”
“Then we must wake him!” Kronk said and moved forward.
“Wait! Are you insane? If you touch him, he could lash out in his sleep and kill you.”
“Master would never hurt me,” the little guy said stoutly.
Simon jerked and twitched and dropped a few inches. The tower creaked alarmingly.
“Not awake he wouldn't. But he's asleep, Kronk. He's not in his right mind.”
The earthen stared at Simon and reached out toward him.
“Then what can we do? This nightmare could harm him. And it may bring the tower down around us.”
“Hang on! I have an idea.”
Aeris shot out of the room and Kronk was left alone, helplessly watching Simon's suffering.
“Hold on, master. Hold on!” he cried.
Another shout from the wizard drew Kronk forward. He wanted to ease his master's pain but he didn't know how. Aeris was right though. Asleep, Simon's power could destroy even an earth elemental and he would never even know he'd done it.
Less than a minute passed and Aeris zoomed back in the bedroom carrying a large pot by its handle.
“What are you doing with that?” Kronk asked, puzzled.
“Waking him up. Stand back and wish me luck.”
“But...”
Aeris flew upward until he was floating over Simon. He lifted the pot and poured out its contents.
Several gallons of ice cold water splashed down on to the floating wizard and a burst of silver light flung the elemental backwards violently. Aeris slammed into the ceiling. The empty pot flew from his hands and banged and rolled throug
h the doorway and out of the room.
Darkness and silence followed the violent reaction of the wizard and both elementals collected themselves slowly. Aeris flew down to stand next to Kronk and they caught each others eyes.
“Did it work?” Aeris wondered.
Before the earthen could answer, the bed creaked and Simon groaned.
“Why the hell am I soaking wet?” he mumbled in confusion.
“Master! You're awake.”
A spark of white appeared in the gloom and a magical light grew out of it and rose up to hover near the ceiling.
“Kronk?”
The wizard was sitting up in bed, his long hair plastered to his face and head. His skin glittered with beads of water and he was shaking with cold.
“What happened?” he asked through chattering teeth. “Is this some sort of a joke?”
“You are chilled, master. One moment and I will get you a towel.”
While the little guy rummaged around in the chest of drawers, Simon rolled out of bed and stood up, his skinny legs shaking.
“My bed is soaked. Aeris? Was this your idea?”
“You're welcome,” the air elemental replied dryly. “You were in the grip of a nightmare, my dear wizard.”
He gestured at the room around them.
“In your sleep, you were actually damaging the tower. It seemed prudent to wake you up.”
“You couldn't just yell or shake me?”
“You didn't hear us yelling. And frankly, the magical energy you were emitting looked a tad too dangerous to touch, so I decided that cold water might be the best option.”
“Aha!” Kronk said and pulled a thick white towel out of a drawer.
He hurried over and handed it to Simon, who took it gratefully and began drying off.
“Thanks Kronk. Wow, I was using magic in my sleep? That's something new.”
“Stress perhaps,” Aeris said as he surveyed the room. “Kronk, you'll have to check the walls when you get a chance. I think I see a few new cracks.”
“Yes I will, as soon as master has recovered.”
Simon finished drying himself off and hurried to his wardrobe to grab the thickest robe he could find. He slipped it over his head, tightened the belt and began searching in his drawers for some socks.
“What time is it anyway?” he asked as he slipped them on quickly.
“Almost dawn,” Aeris told him. “The clouds are thick this morning, so it's darker than usual at this time of day. I feel rain in the air.”
“Lovely.”
Simon padded over to the bed and stripped the sheets off of it. He sighed tiredly and looked at Aeris.
“They're soaked.”
“Well, what of it? Would you rather I had let you bring down the tower on your head? You have clean sheets to replace them after the mattress dries out.”
He flew over and patted the bed.
“And it's barely damp. It should be dry in a few hours. Here, give me those, oh whiny one.”
“Hey, be nice,” Simon said as he handed over the sheets. “It's a bit of a shock to be woken up by a bucket of cold water, you know.”
“It was a pot actually, but I'm sure it is. Could you hand me that blanket too? I'll hang it down in the cellar. It will just get wet again if I use the clothesline outside.”
Simon picked up the blanket, folded it and gave it to Aeris.
The elemental winked at him and left the room, so small compared to the bundle of bedclothes that they looked like they were flying by themselves.
The wizard felt a little better knowing that Aeris had been teasing him, but he was still muddled.
“Master, perhaps some coffee and something to eat?”
“Yeah, I guess so. I won't be getting any more sleep for a while. Lead the way, Kronk.”
Downstairs, while the earthen stoked the fire, Simon readied his coffee and tried to remember what exactly he'd been dreaming about that had make him react the way that he did.
“It's weird,” he said to Kronk as he sliced some bread. The baker at the castle was amazing and he'd picked up two loaves while he was there.
“All I can recall from my dream, nightmare, whatever, are weird flashes. I think there was a dragon, maybe more than one. And there was a battle of some kind. But the worst thing was this feeling of...suffocating. It was like I was drowning in deep water.”
He shivered and pulled his robe tightly around him.
“Horrible.”
“It sounds very frightening, master,” Kronk agreed. “But surely you have had bad dreams before? Why would this one affect you so much that you used your magic?”
“You got me,” Simon replied. “But I don't like it. I don't believe in predictions and stuff, but I have this terrible feeling of menace, of someone or something approaching in the distance, creeping toward us.”
“Well, the walls are manned, master. Nothing will be able to sneak up on us before we are warned of its presence.”
“Let's hope you're right.”
Simon toasted his bread over the fire, smothered it with blueberry jam, the last of his preserves from the previous year, and began to eat. As he was chewing and thinking, there was a sound of pattering against the windows.
“Here comes the rain,” he said absently. “Perfectly suited to my mood.”
Aeris flew up from the basement and across the room to the kitchen table.
“The wet bedclothes are hung up,” he announced rather proudly.
“Wonderful.”
The air elemental looked over at Kronk as he added a log to the fire and moved it around until he was satisfied with its positioning.
“Sarcasm? From you?” Aeris asked, a little surprised.
“Me? Hardly. But it is something that you would say to me, is it not?”
“Guys? Please, no arguing. I'm just not in the mood,” Simon said irritably.
“Who's arguing? I'm not arguing. Kronk, are we arguing?”
The earthen tapped over to the table and jumped up.
“No, we are not arguing. Did you think we were arguing, master?”
Simon swallowed the last of his toast and put his hands over his ears.
“All right! Stop that.”
The elementals both grinned at him and he smiled grudgingly in return.
“You two are going to drive me nuts one day, I swear.”
“How will we know?” Aeris asked innocently.
Simon threw a crust of bread at him and the elemental dodged it with ease.
There was a brilliant flash of light from outside that lit up the room for a second.
“Oh great. Not just rain but a storm,” the wizard moaned.
His next sentence was drowned out by a clap of thunder.
“What did you say?” Aeris asked him.
“It doesn't matter. Anyway, now that I'm fully awake, or close enough, let's talk about our most pressing problem.”
He picked up his cup, walked over to the comfy chair in front of the fireplace and sat down heavily. He tucked his feet underneath him and began sipping his coffee.
“Which one?” Aeris wondered as he flew over to sit down on an arm of the chair. “We do have a list of problems, you know.”
“Tell me about it. I'm talking about the missing necromancers. Do you still think that I should send out a bunch of air elementals to do a wide-ranging search?”
Aeris crossed his legs and rose to float an inch above the chair. He watched pensively as Kronk jumped from the table to the floor and then tip-tapped over to the fireplace.
“I don't really see another alternative, do you?” he asked Simon soberly. “If any of those evil wizards were spotted out in the world, then we would at least have a place to start searching, but they haven't been. What else can we do?”
“Well, there is Kronk's idea.”
“To call upon the argent dragon for help?” Aeris scoffed. “Really? Oh please. We've learned to our sorrow that the silver dragon can't be trusted. Why should Argentium be
any different?”
Kronk sat down in front of the fire with a gentle thump, facing Simon, and stared speculatively at the air elemental.
“Are you still so bitter over your disillusionment with Esmiralla that you have closed your mind entirely? We do not know that the argent dragon is as treacherous as she was.”
“We don't know that he isn't, do we? Are you willing to take that chance?”
The little guy nodded toward Simon.
“It is not my decision. It is our master's.”
Aeris looked at the wizard.
“And? What do you think?”
“Don't look at me like that,” Simon replied.
He rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms over his head, groaning a bit.
“I have to go with my gut on this one, guys. We've used your people to scout before, Aeris. They did a great job, but they also missed so much.”
“Well, come now. It's a big world,” Aeris protested. “If you'd given them another six months or so, or summoned more of them, they would have had more success.”
“I can't have more than ten elementals from each realm working for me at a time,” Simon reminded him. “And I'm not blaming you or your people for making any mistakes. I'm just saying that we are in a different situation now. We simply don't have the time to do a global search for these necromancers. I need to know...”
He stopped in mid-sentence and stared at Kronk with wide eyes.
“Master? What is it?”
“Oh my God,” Simon whispered. “I think I just remembered what I was dreaming about last night.”
Aeris stood up and watch him intently.
“What was it?” he asked carefully.
“I think...I think it was the end of the world.”
Simon put his hands over his face and shook his head in denial.
“It was horrible,” he said, his voice muffled. “They were crawling out of every hole, every grave, every stinking crypt. Thousands of them, hundreds of thousands, covering the Earth like ants or locusts. But that can't happen, can it? I mean, something like that isn't possible, right?”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume Two Page 73