He dropped his hands and gave Aeris a look of desperation.
“Easy there, my dear wizard,” the air elemental said calmly. “What are you talking about? Who are they?”
“Undead,” Simon said, his voice straining. “Undead everywhere. And not just those pathetic skeletons. There were hulking revenants twice the size of a man, hideous wraiths that throbbed with unholy power. And other things even worse. My God, they were terrifying.”
“It was a dream, master. Only a dream.”
“Was it, Kronk? How do we know that? What if the lords of Light were sending me a warning?”
“And what if their black-hearted cousins were messing with your head?” Aeris countered. “You can't know, can you?”
Simon stared at him, blank-faced.
“I...no, you're right. I can't know. But either way, what do we do? How do we prepare, if it was a warning or even if it wasn't?”
The elementals exchanged looks and Aeris reluctantly nodded at Kronk.
“As much as it pains me to say this, maybe our rock-headed friend is right, just this once. Perhaps you should speak with Argentium. After all, you don't actually have to agree to anything he says, do you? Just tell him what your concerns are and see what he thinks.”
The look of surprise on Kronk's face as Aeris agreed with him broke through Simon's momentary sense of panic and he had to smile. It was weak and fleeting but better than fear.
“He got you that time, didn't he?”
“Yes master, he most certainly did.”
“Okay guys, if that's the consensus, I'll speak with the argent dragon.”
Simon frowned and looked at Aeris in confusion.
“How exactly do I get in touch with him anyway?” he asked.
“Find the tallest point of land that you can and call his name,” the air elemental replied matter-of-factly. “How else?”
“Yeah, right. Of course. How stupid of me. Aeris, in case you haven't noticed, there aren't exactly a lot of mountains in this part of the world. The highest point would probably be one of the Gatineau Hills, and they're only a few hundred feet tall.”
“Ah, right. That's a problem. I don't understand the process, but you definitely need to be up quite high to summon Argentium.”
Simon finished his coffee and set down his cup.
Where could he go to get the dragon's attention?
“Master? If I may?”
“Hmm?”
The little guy kicked a cinder back into the fire and looked up at Simon.
“You have recently visited mountains, have you not? Why not just return there, pick out a high point and Gate to it?”
Simon looked at Aeris and then pointed at Kronk.
“See? That's why I've always said that he's the smart one.”
“I don't remember you ever saying that.”
“All the time,” the wizard replied as he stood up. “I say it all the time.”
“Nope, never heard that before.”
Simon grabbed his cup, walked over to the counter and left it in the sink.
“Okay, I'm going to get dressed properly and get going before I lose my nerve,” he told the elementals. “So who's coming along?”
It was cloudy and the wind had a bite to it when Simon appeared in the high meadow where he had left the Haladanin. He looked around but there was no sign of the bear people.
“Huh. I wonder where they went?”
“Possibly the forests, master.”
Kronk was staring down the slopes at the thick growths of trees far below.
“They left their hives up here though,” Aeris pointed out.
He had risen up about twenty feet and was turning in a slow circle.
Simon saw the pyramid-like shapes of the hives and felt some relief. If the bees were being tended to, that meant that Galder and his people were okay. He hoped.
“Good to know. Now,” he looked up at the looming mountains stretching into the leaden sky. “Which one should I choose?”
Kronk swished through the long grass and jumped up and down to get a better look. The wizard knew better than to pick him up or even offer to; the earthen would definitely be offended.
“Whichever one you decide on, master, will be fine. But all of them are windy and capped with snow. Do not forget to cast a shield spell before you go up there. Oh and Diamond Skin, so that you will not freeze.”
“Don't you ever get tired of mothering?” Aeris asked him as he descended to hover near Simon's right shoulder.
“Don't you ever get tired of criticizing others?” Kronk retorted.
“Not especially, no. Keeps you on your toes.”
“I do not have toes. Now hush and let master decide.”
Simon tuned them out as he looked from one peak to the next. None looked very welcoming. He could see streamers of snow blowing from all of them.
Must be freezing up there, he thought with a shiver.
He sighed and shook his hair out of his eyes. He slipped Mortis de Draconis off of his back and planted it firmly on the ground.
“That one,” Simon said and pointed at the mountaintop that rose up almost directly in front of them.
“Ugh. Oh well, if that's your choice, we might as well get on with it.”
The wizard looked at Aeris and raised an eyebrow.
“Why does it matter to you? You don't feel the cold.”
The elemental put his hands on his hips and stared up past the steep mountain slopes to the distant peak.
“I don't know. It just looks formidable, doesn't it? Uninviting.”
“I think it looks lovely,” Kronk said with an almost affectionate tone to his voice.
“Earthen,” Aeris said with a roll of his eyes.
Simon tried to fix the shape of the peak in his mind, focusing on its jagged top and the way the snow blew away in long ribbons.
“Grab on, guys, before I lose my nerve.”
The elementals moved to their usual positions and Simon raised his staff.
“Diamond Skin,” he said, and felt his skin stiffen as the spell took hold. He suddenly looked like a crystalline statue of himself.
“Shield.”
An opaque globe of energy popped up around him and the elementals.
He narrowed his eyes in anticipation and stared up into the heights.
“Gate.”
Chapter 27
The conditions on the top of the mountain were even worse than Simon imagined. The west wind howled as it tore the snow off of the peak and he knew that if it wasn't for his spells, he might have frozen to death in minutes.
The clouds were so low at this height that he could barely see a hundred feet in any direction and, when he looked down at the green slopes below, he couldn't see anything but swaths of green in the far distance.
“Tell me again why this was a good idea?” he asked, almost yelling at the elementals over the screaming winds.
Aeris carefully let go of the wizard's robe. He'd apparently forgotten that the shield spell blocked the wind as well as much of the cold and he seemed worried that he'd blow away.
Kronk, on the other hand, looked delighted. His craggy little face lit up as he stared at the rugged and broken rock around them and Simon actually heard him laugh a bit as he tapped his feet on the ground.
Well, at least one of us is having a good time, he thought sourly.
“It's not a good idea,” Aeris replied loudly. “It's an act of desperation. And we don't even know if it will work.”
“What? But you said that this was how to contact him!”
“Look, I know what I learned ages ago; if you want to summon a lawful dragon, you climb to the top of a mountain and call them by name. But they aren't pets, my dear wizard. If Argentium chooses to ignore your summons, then that is that.”
Simon shivered. He wasn't cold, although even with the hardened diamond skin coating his body he imagined that he could feel an icy chill. But the atmosphere up here was oppressive. It truly felt like some sort of a
lien landscape.
People weren't meant to stand on the top of mountains was his thought. Leave the peaks to the wind and the sky. And the dragons, he supposed.
“Well, let's see if our 'ally' remembers his given word.”
He raised his staff, looked out into the leaden gray clouds that smothered the mountain and took a deep breath.
“Argentium!” he shouted. “Argentium, I need to speak with you.”
His words were blown away and he stood there with the elementals, trying to hear through the howling wind.
Time seemed to stretch and slow, and the minutes trickled by second by second. Aeris had risen to float above the wizard's head and was slowly turning around and around, searching the sky in all directions.
Kronk had planted his feet firmly and stood with his arms folded, looking like an odd little samurai. Simon looked down at him and almost smiled. However, the situation was simply too grim to find anything amusing.
“I guess he'd not coming,” he said finally, still speaking loudly to be heard above the wind.
“You could call again,” Aeris said as he descended to float at the level of Simon's head.
“Why bother? If he's as powerful as you say he is, he must have heard me.”
The air elemental hesitated and then nodded dejectedly.
“True enough. Well, as I said, I really wasn't thrilled with this idea to begin with. Perhaps this is the better outcome.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Simon looked around again with a grimace.
“No offense, Kronk, but you can have your mountaintops. People don't belong up here.”
“Well, it is not for everyone, master,” the earthen said equably.
“If I could at least see something,” the wizard muttered. “Frigging clouds.”
He gave it another minute and then nodded at the elementals.
“Let's get the hell out of here. I just want to go home and sit in front of the fireplace for about two days.”
Aeris chuckled and even Kronk looked faintly amused, although he did look around wistfully at the barren peak.
They moved closer to grab a part of Simon's robe and waited for him to cast the Gate spell.
He raised his staff and then stopped as Kronk tugged on his robe.
“Master, wait! What is that?”
Simon lowered Mortis de Draconis and looked around.
“What is what? I don't see anything.”
“Neither do I,” Aeris said. “Where, Kronk?”
“I do not see anything, master. But listen. Do you hear that?”
Simon and Aeris strained to hear whatever the little guy was listening to.
At first the wizard could only hear the raging wind. He looked down at Kronk, who nodded encouragingly, and kept listening.
A sharp sound, distant but distinct, cut through the howling blast. And another. Was it...metal?
The sounds became more regular. It was definitely metal on stone. Something was walking, climbing toward them, unseen in the fog of snow and clouds.
“What the hell?” Simon said aloud. “Who is walking around on the top of a mountain?”
“Armor,” Aeris stated firmly. “Definitely someone wearing armor.”
“In this cold? They'd be dead!”
The three of them exchanged sudden looks of horror.
“Or undead. Goddamn it!”
Simon slammed the butt of his staff on to the ground and held out his right hand. A ball of fire exploded into existence in his palm, blazing yellow and red in the colorless atmosphere. He was grateful for the diamond-hard skin protecting his palm.
“Hold, wizard!” a voice thundered out of the snow and wind. “Fear not. I come in peace.”
“Yeah, I'll bet you do,” Simon muttered as he squinted in the direction of the voice.
“Wait, master. Whoever that is sounds familiar.”
“Not to me they don't.”
The heavy footsteps drew closer and Simon raised his hand, ready to strike.
A figure appeared out of the gloom, perhaps thirty feet away. It walked deliberately toward the group, looming larger and larger as it approached.
Armor gleamed even in the thick atmosphere, blazing like silver. Simon was reminded of Liliana in her paladin's armor, but this person, whoever it was, was heavily built, and huge.
“Cripes, he's ten feet tall,” he said to the elementals.
Maybe not ten feet, but the stranger definitely towered over Simon.
The wizard had thought his friend Malcolm was the largest man that he would ever meet. He had been wrong.
“Stop where you are!” the wizard yelled.
Surprisingly, the armored figure obeyed and halted his advance. He stood about a dozen feet away from the edge of the flickering, sparking shield, unmoving and menacing.
Simon examined the man, if indeed it was a man.
He was covered in silvery plate armor from head to foot. A visor covered his face, featureless except for two eye-holes that stared straight at the wizard. The armor was intricately etched with beautiful patterns that followed its curves in graceful swirls. Although it was undamaged, it looked like something forged ages ago.
The figure held a massive sword in one mailed hand, long and keen enough to easily slice a person in half. A cloak was attached at his shoulders, shockingly blue in the white and gray landscape, flapping and fluttering around it, long enough to cover the man to his ankles.
Narrowing his eyes in concentration, Simon saw snowflakes melt in puffs of steam as they hit the sword blade. It was magical.
Crap, he thought. What is this thing?
“Who are you? What do you want?” he shouted, trying to sound menacing and failing.
There was no immediate answer from the armored stranger.
“Speak up,” Aeris called out, surprising Simon. “Identify yourself and your reasons for being here.”
“Reasons?” the man answered. His voice was a rumbling bass.
“Do I need a reason to roam the free mountains? Do you claim ownership of these lands, wizard?”
“How do you know I'm a wizard?” Simon replied in surprise.
The stranger raised his sword and pointed at the ball of fire snapping and blowing in Simon's hand. Then he moved the weapon lower and indicated the elementals.
“You command these creatures and control the element of fire. Only a wizard can do such things.”
Simon looked down at the flames and closed his hand. The fireball disappeared with a sharp hiss.
“Good point,” he told the stranger. “And you're right. The mountain is free territory. But why would anyone wander this high up in the frigid cold? And you're wearing armor. You can understand my caution, surely?”
The stranger appeared to consider Simon's words. Then he nodded once and sheathed his blade in one smooth motion.
“I understand. But I do not wander the wastes and the lonely places of the world on a whim. I seek solitude because it helps me to think. And it is beautiful, is it not?”
“Um, I guess so. A bit deadly for my taste, but hey, to each his own.”
“Yes.”
The stranger's cloak flapped loudly and wrapped itself around his body for a moment before rising up behind him like wings. Simon watched it move like a living thing. It was almost hypnotic.
“So you choose to wander the wilds. Then your meeting us here is just a coincidence?”
A deep rumble of laughter echoed from inside the stranger's helmet.
“Not at all. You did summon me, after all.”
Simon's eyes widened in surprise.
“Argentium? Is that you?”
The armored figure raised his hands and lifted off his helmet. Long straight hair, as silvery bright as his armor, cascaded down and over his shoulders. Piercing blue eyes caught Simon's gaze like twin laser beams, feeling almost like a physical blow.
The dragon's face, in human form, was flawless. Androgynous but masculine at the same time, he was simply the
most perfectly formed man that Simon had ever seen.
And yet there was an ethereal, remote quality to the argent dragon that made him obviously inhuman and the wizard found himself simultaneously attracted and repulsed by him.
“Yes, it is I. I heard your call but it took me some time to reach this place.”
“But why appear in human form?”
“I like it,” the man said simply. “Riding the winds is a joy beyond measure, but being earthbound allows me to focus, concentrate on things. I was speaking truly when I said that I sought solitude.”
Simon was finding it difficult to take his eyes off of the man. There was a weird fascination about him, knowing that Argentium was a dragon as well as a man. It was strange and remarkable.
“And what of Esmiralla?”
“What of her?” Argentium replied with obvious indifference. “She continues the fight, destroying red dragons where and when she finds them. It is her duty, after all, and I have also commanded it. She is rapidly becoming a terror in the skies to our enemies. So, she is performing satisfactorily.”
“You aren't concerned for her safety? The red dragons are mating now, which I assume you know. She might face two of them at a time.”
Argentium tucked his helmet under his arm and shrugged.
“She already has, several times. It is of no consequence. There is no red dragon still alive that can stand up to Esmiralla. Only the primal would have been a threat to her, and he is dead.”
“Then the danger from the red dragons has passed?” Aeris asked eagerly.
The man looked directly at the air elemental and smiled for the first time.
“Ah, another one who rides the currents above the clouds. We are kindred spirits, are we not, small one?”
Aeris stared at Argentium in obvious surprise and then gave him a respectful bow.
“You honor me, my lord argent. But you are as far above me as the stars are above this mountain.”
The argent dragon's smile widened.
“You do yourself a disservice, small one. But to answer your question, the danger has indeed passed; mostly.”
He turned his eyes to Simon.
“I have some news to share with you, sir wizard. Some good, some rather dire.”
Uh-oh, Simon thought.
Tales from the New Earth: Volume Two Page 74