Tales from the New Earth: Volume Two

by J. J. Thompson

  The wizard wondered, not for the first time, if the earthen had any control over their own bodies and how they looked. He'd never asked Kronk though; it just seemed too personal a question.

  “Hello Phen,” he said politely. “How are you today?”

  “Very well, my lord,” she replied, her delicate soprano voice much more pleasant than Kronk's bass tones.

  “Glad to hear it. So what's up? Is there a problem?”

  “I wouldn't call it a problem, my lord. Well, it may be one, I suppose, but I would call it more of a mystery.”

  Simon frowned at her odd reply.

  “Okay then. What's the mystery?”

  “It will be easier to show you than to describe it, my lord. If you would follow me?”

  The wizard looked at Kronk, who could only shrug.

  “I'm intrigued,” Simon told her. “Lead on then and we'll follow you.”

  “Thank you, my lord. It's this way.”

  The trio left the tower just as the sun was setting in the west, the sky ablaze with yellow and red.

  Phen led them across the front yard to the main gate and looked up at Simon.

  “May I ask you to open the gate, my lord? I may not do so.”

  “Yes, of course. Damn, I'd forgotten about my order that none of you sentries can open it. Sorry about that.”

  She smiled and shrugged.

  “It is safer for all if you, Kronk and Aeris are the only ones allowed to freely unlock the gates, my lord. Those of us who patrol the walls do not mind.”

  The wizard slid back the bolts securing the two halves of the gate and Kronk and Phen each grabbed a side and pulled it back.

  “Thanks,” Simon said to them. “Now, what is the mystery, Phen?”

  “It is just to the right of the gate, my lord,” she told him as the three of them stepped through the gateway and walked forward a dozen feet.

  They all turned and Phen pointed at the wall.

  In the lengthening shadows, Simon could clearly see what the earthen was indicating.

  “What the hell is that?” he wondered aloud.

  There was a mark on the wall that was glowing with a ghostly pale light as dusk settled in around them. Simon approached it with the elementals trailing closely behind him and all of them stared at it.

  “I noticed this strange blemish earlier today, my lord, but it wasn't glowing then. I suppose the darkness makes it more visible.”

  “How the heck did you even spot it?” the wizard asked. “There's no way that you would be able to see it from the top of the wall if you just looked down at the ground.”

  “That is so, my lord. But it occurred to me that we haven't really examined the outer surface of the wall lately for any damage; cracks, weathering, that sort of thing.”

  She gave Kronk a quick glance before continuing.

  “No offense to you,” she said to him respectfully, “but we have not seen you check the wall's condition for some time, so I took it upon myself to climb down to the ground and examine the outer surface.”

  “No need to apologize,” Kronk rumbled. “You were correct to do so. But you left the confines of the tower grounds? Without permission?”

  Before Phen could reply, Simon stepped in.

  “None of you are prisoners,” he said firmly, with a frown at Kronk. “You guards are not allowed to open either the front or rear gates for security reasons, but you can certainly leave the grounds if you want to. Especially you earthen, who can so easily climb the walls and are allowed to pass through the wards.”

  Kronk grumbled but nodded.

  “Yes master, of course you are right. And although I have been distracted by other things, I have no excuse for not keeping a closer eye on the wall's condition. I will be more diligent in the future.”

  “Don't worry about it, my friend. You are the hardest working person I know; maybe you should allow Phen and the others to keep up the maintenance of the wall instead of taking it all upon yourself?”

  “I...suppose that I could do that,” the little guy replied reluctantly. “I am not one to let others do my jobs for me, but sharing the load would perhaps be the wiser course.”

  Simon grinned at him and then sobered as he went back to examining the strange mark.

  “You know, it looks like a rune, although not one that I recognize. It looks like it's part of the stone itself, doesn't it? It's not painted or drawn on, nor is it carved into the surface. Weird.”

  “Ah, that is it, master!” Kronk exclaimed.

  He approached the wall and began walking up its surface as though his feet were sticking to it; a skill that Simon always found fascinating to watch.

  The earthen stopped next the mark and peered at it closely.

  “Yes, I was correct, master. This mark is similar in design to the rune that was etched into the stone that strange creature left here for Aeris. The one that turned out to be a trap.”

  “It does? Uh-oh. Does that mean that she left a booby-trap behind?”

  Simon summoned a globe of light as the darkness fell around them and sent it overhead to light up the area around the wall.

  “I do not think so, master. The style is different somehow; more elegant and carefully formed. The other rune was crude in comparison to this one.”

  Kronk scratched his head and looked at Simon.

  “It is very confusing.”

  “Hmm.”

  The wizard stepped up to the mark and extended his hand toward it.

  “Be careful, my lord,” Phen warned him. “It could be dangerous.”

  Simon closed his eyes and let his magical senses take over. He could feel a pulse of energy coming from the rune, but there was no sense of malice or evil in the magic; rather it was cool and contained and barely resonated as he waved his hand over it.

  “I think that your instincts are right, Kronk,” he said as he opened his eyes and looked at the mark. “It's not a trap, that much is clear. And it certainly isn't evil. But where did it come from? If that strange creature didn't leave it here, then who did? And when? You guards are always on watch,” he added as he looked down at Phen.

  “We are, my lord. Always. There is no chance that anyone or anything approached the wall without our noticing. I have no explanation as to how this thing got here.”

  “Should we try to remove it, master?”

  “How exactly would you do that?”

  Kronk bent closer to the rune until his face was almost touching it.

  “Well, it is actually ingrained into the stone of the wall, master, so I suppose we'd have to break the wall around it and remove it in one single piece. I am afraid that would disrupt the wards for a short time, but we can rebuilt the wall easily enough afterwards.”

  He hopped jumped down from the wall and looked up at Simon.

  “Of course, it will leave the tower vulnerable to attack for a while, master. If the mark was left here with that in mind, we would be playing into an enemy's hands by disrupting the wards.”

  Simon stepped back from the wall and extinguished his light. He stared at the glowing symbol for a few minutes, trying to decide on a course of action.

  “Leave it for now,” he said finally. “I don't think bringing down the wards, even for a short time, is the smartest thing to do at the moment, especially with the queen out there somewhere. Phen, I'd like you to keep an eye on this thing, please. And ask the rest of the guards to do the same. If it changes in any way, let me know immediately, would you? Or tell Kronk or Aeris if I'm not available.”

  “Yes, my lord. I shall pass that along to my brethren right away.”

  “Good. Let's head back in. I'm suddenly feeling very exposed out here.”

  The three of them walked over to the front of the gate and Simon stopped to stare off into the darkness in the direction of the forest. The stars were coming out in bunches as the sky turned black and the half-moon was starting to climb above the horizon.

  He shivered as the air cooled; his thin linen
robe wasn't made to keep him warm. Or was it a sudden chill from something else?

  “What is it, master?” Kronk asked from behind him. “Are you all right?”

  “There's something...” Simon muttered.

  The air was still with no hint of wind and the fields and forest were silent. No crickets, no bird or animal noises. It was as if nature itself was holding its breath.

  “Come inside the walls, my lord,” Phen urged him.

  “Something...” Simon repeated. “What is it? A feeling of...”

  Against the darkness of the field and distant trees, a smudge appeared, even blacker than the night. Was it real or just his eyes playing tricks on him?

  “Mortis de Draconis!”

  His staff appeared in his hand and Simon slammed its end against the ground. A burst of light brighter than a flare exploded above the field and hung there, lighting up the entire area. And standing in the center of that light was a small black figure wrapped in layers of dirty rags; a sense of menace rising from it like poisonous fumes.

  “Ah Simon. Home at last I see.”

  Chapter 29

  “She's back!” Phen exclaimed.

  “Master, come inside. Quickly!”

  Simon shook his head silently and stared at the blurry figure. He found it hard to focus on the outline of whatever was hidden under those robes. Was it human? Changling? Or something else entirely.

  “How can I even hear her from here?” he wondered out loud. “She's fifty yards away and she didn't even raise her voice.”

  “Black magic, master,” Kronk warned him. “I can feel it in the air. Please, get inside the walls and decide what to do from there.”

  “Hang on a second. She can't reach us before we're back behind the wards. Let's just see what happens.”

  The little guy grumbled but didn't say anything else.

  Simon waited silently but the distant figure remained still. If he didn't have the large mage light illuminating the area, it would have been easy to mistake the stranger for a bush or a small tree. Except for the feeling of being watched. He could sense that so strongly that it felt like a cold invisible hand had reached out and gripped his face in its dead fingers.

  “Who are you?” he yelled. “What do you want?”

  “Who am I? But don't you remember me? The girl who saved your life so many years ago? It's me, Simon; Sarah.”

  He shivered at her lifeless voice. He could be speaking to a machine for all he knew. Or a dead thing.

  But it was a young woman's voice, all the same. Was it the youngster who had aided him so long ago? Or something else entirely?

  “Sarah? Is it really you? I thought that you and your friends were caught by Madam and her horde of undead.”

  There was a beat of silence, as if the stranger was gathering her thoughts.

  “Madam? No, we were not caught by Madam and her...horde. We still live where we always have. Our powers are growing over time.”

  Was that a warning? A threat? What the hell was going on?

  “I'm glad to hear that. I've worried about you and your leader ever since I escaped from Ottawa back then. What was his name again?”

  “His name?”

  Simon waited but there was no answer forthcoming.

  “Got you,” he whispered with a cold smile.

  “Are you speaking about Bobby?” the woman finally asked. “Bobby is fine. Still overly protective, of course, but fine.”

  “Oh crap.”

  “Was that his name, my lord?” Phen asked quietly.

  “It was. Damn it, that could actually be Sarah out there. Who else would know the name of the boy who protected her back then?”

  “Whoever or whatever she is, master, she tried to kill you with that cursed stone,” Kronk reminded him. “And we can all feel her power. Come inside and deal with her from there. Please.”

  Simon looked back at the two earthen. Their little red eyes were glowing in the dark; all of the light from his magic globe was shining on the middle of the field, making the elementals almost invisible.

  He smiled to reassure them and turned back to look at the distant figure.

  She was standing twenty feet away, a powerful sense of enmity chilling the air around her.

  Kronk exclaimed fearfully while Simon simply froze, like a mouse mesmerized by a snake, waiting for it to strike.

  My God, how did she move so fast?

  He swallowed, his throat suddenly as dry as dust.

  “So now that you're here,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady, “what exactly do you want with me?”

  The light floating above the field outlined the squat, bulky figure, turning her into a formless silhouette in the night.

  “What do I want? I want you to answer a question for me if you would, for old times sake.”

  Had anyone ever sounded so inhuman? What was this all about?

  “I'd be happy to help you, Sarah, if I can,” he replied cautiously. “And perhaps you will do the same for me.”

  The pile of rags seemed taller somehow. Was it growing, filling out? It appeared to be.

  “I? Answer a question for you? I would love to. But what would a world-famous wizard like you need to know?”

  There was a definite touch of amused sarcasm in her voice and Simon was convinced that there was no way that this was the real Sarah.

  “World-famous? Sarah, you know that there aren't enough people left in the world to make anyone that well known.”

  Kronk was frantically whispering a warning from behind him, but Simon couldn't take his eyes off of the stranger. She was as tall as he was now and inching higher. He casually took a small step backwards, inching his way to safety.

  “Yes, your kind is facing extinction, aren't they? Such a shame.”

  Her voice deepened and a new resonance could be heard in it.

  “I know how that feels only too well. My people are almost gone as well, wizard. In a way, that is the reason I am here.”

  Simon took another step back and used his staff to steady himself as he looked up at the now towering creature in front of him. She was almost two feet taller than he was and becoming thicker as well. The robes that concealed her were beginning to tighten under the strain of her growing body and the wizard wondered how long it would be before they split down the middle and revealed whatever horror was hidden inside.

  “Your people?” he asked. “You mean the Changlings in the city?”

  Sarah chuckled, her voice now something out of nightmare.

  “Oh come now. We both know that those pathetic creatures are not my people, just as we know who is responsible for almost wiping out my kind. Don't we?”

  With one enormous step forward, the figure loomed over Simon. An arm, still covered in swathes of cloth, burst out of the robes and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him high in the air. The move was so unexpected and violent that he let go of his staff and it landed a dozen feet away.

  “Where are they?” the monster shrieked. “Where are they?”

  She shook Simon about like a rag doll, and her voice threatened to burst his eardrums. Kronk and Phen cried out, but the wizard couldn't see what they were doing as the world flashed around him and he tried frantically to breathe.

  His large globe of light disappeared and the night engulfed them.

  “Tell me, you wretched beast!” she screamed, still shaking him.

  My God, Simon thought as he began to pass out. Is this how I die? In the hands of some inhuman monster?

  He was suddenly flung to the ground and cried out as he felt at least one rib snap at the violent impact. He sucked in a deep breath and flinched at the stabbing pain from the cracked rib.

  Two pairs of small rough hands grabbed him under his arms and dragged him back toward the open gate; the earthen were pulling him to safety.

  “No, he would not dare interfere,” the swathed creature hissed.

  Somehow she moved away toward the middle of the field without her body making
any motion at all; as if she was floating an inch above the ground. It was inhuman and disturbing to look at.

  Who the hell is she talking about, Simon wondered as he watched her, his body pulsing with pain.

  He ignored it and tried to see what was going on the blackness.

  “Stop it, you guys,” he whispered to Kronk and Phen. “I can't concentrate with you yanking on me like this.”

  “You need to get away from her, master.” Kronk whispered in return. “While she is distracted.”

  “Distracted by what? Just wait a second, would you?”

  The pair stopped dragging him and Simon slowly pushed himself to his feet, setting his pain aside as he focused on what was happening.

  Sarah, or whoever she was, was just a looming streak of black even darker than the night. She was standing a dozen yards away now and the wizard couldn't see enough details to figure out what was going on.

  “What's she doing?” he murmured to Kronk.

  “It is hard to tell, master, but I think that she is looking up at the sky.”

  The sky?

  Whatever she was, Sarah's eyesight was definitely keener that Simon's was. It took the wizard a few seconds as he stared upward to catch sight of several strange, colorful stars. They seemed to be set in an oddly circular pattern and he squinted at them, puzzled.

  I've never seen those before, he thought, his mind still fuzzy after his scuffle with Sarah. Are they new?

  Green, red, amber, purple, white and...silver. Silver!

  He caught his breath as the stars began to drop toward the earth, their colors burning like tails behind them as they fell.

  “No,” Sarah cried in her terrible voice. “No!”

  Faster and faster they fell, leaving glowing contrails behind them as they came, and the wizard felt another surge of fear.

  This is going to be bad, he thought.

  All six stars slammed into the ground simultaneously and Simon was flung on to his back again, pain digging into his abdomen at the impact.