“Good. You can come and go as you choose. But, if you don't mind me asking, where are you going?”
“Out of courtesy, I want to travel north to the river and pay my respects to Aquamastis. He is a great one of my people. If I am to reside so close to his claimed territory, I should make myself known to him.”
Simon began to walk back to the tower, Ana and the others by his side.
“Would he be upset if you didn't?” he asked curiously.
“I honestly don't know. I am sure that he doesn't even know I exist. However, in the future we may need his aid. He might be more amenable to a request for help if he knows that one of his own kind is assisting you.”
“Clever,” Aeris said with admiration.
“Not really,” Ana replied. “It is a precautionary move as well. If Aquamastis learns that I have taken up residence here and did not inform him, he may be...irritated. He could take it as an insult that I did not pay my respects.” She shrugged. “Or not. It is very hard to read a being that powerful.”
They reached the front door and Simon sat down on the steps.
“By all means then, feel free to pay him a visit. Give him my regards as well. He certainly came through when I needed him most.”
Ana gave him a sly glance.
“He gained more from your bargain than you did, sir wizard. Surely you must know that? You summoned him to this world and gave him permission to inhabit a major river. In that moment, you as his master, although he would not use that term, freed him to exist on this planet for as long as he wishes. I would say that in Aquamastis' mind, he got the better part of the deal. It is also quite possible that he still believes he owes you for such a gift. When I speak with him, I shall attempt to find out if this is true.” She grimaced. “Carefully, of course. Angering him would be most unwise.”
“Do not take any chances,” Kronk told her quickly. “I know my master would not want you to risk yourself unnecessarily.”
“He's right, Ana. Be careful with Aquamastis.”
“I shall be, Simon. Believe me.”
The water elemental bowed to him and gave the other two a quick wave.
And then, to the wizard's astonishment, she sank into the ground with a tiny splash.
“Whoa! I didn't know she could do that,” he exclaimed.
Aeris snickered.
“And just how do you think she examined the well under your tower, my dear wizard?” he asked, teasing.
Simon rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, whatever.”
He looked at Kronk, who had sat down on the step beside him.
“Do you think that she's in any danger?”
“I cannot say, master. You know how powerful Aquamastis is. Water sprites are...” he glanced at Aeris as if for confirmation, “flighty, is the best word I can think of. They are mercurial. Quick to anger and just as quick to find joy. Very odd bunch, I have to say.”
“Yes, our earthen friend is correct,” Aeris added, bobbing in front of Simon at the bottom of the steps. “Water elementals, the more powerful ones, are legendary for being difficult to deal with. Few of the old wizards back in the days of magic would summon any more powerful than Ana, for that reason. I hope she doesn't irritate him.”
“Great,” Simon muttered. “Something else to worry about.”
He stood up and went inside, resting his staff next to the door.
“I'm going to make some tea and then call Liliana,” he told the trailing elementals. “I'd like to give her some good news for a change.”
“I'll get your mirror, master,” Kronk said brightly and turned toward the stairs. “You left it in your study.”
“Thanks, bud,” the wizard replied.
He pumped some water into the kettle and hung it in the fireplace. Then he stood at the counter and looked at Aeris as the elemental flew up and hovered on the kitchen table.
“With any luck, maybe she's found my spell-book by now,” he said optimistically.
Aeris looked doubtful.
“Let's hope so,” he said. “Between your visitation from the gods and this new spell, it feels like things are starting to speed up. Something might be about to happen.”
Chapter 9
Aeris' prediction was unfortunately accurate.
When Simon attempted to contact Liliana in Moscow, the spell failed. The mirror fogged up but did not connect and eventually cleared up again. That had never happened before.
After looking at the mirror in disbelief for a long moment, the wizard put it down on the kitchen table and stared off into space.
“What happened, master?” Kronk asked, looking perplexed. “The paladin did not want to talk?”
“No, there was no answer. That is so weird.”
Aeris stopped bobbing in place and moved closer to Simon.
“No answer? Oh, that's bad.”
“Bad? Why is it bad? She'd probably busy.”
“My dear wizard, you should know better than that by now,” the air elemental said, sounding exasperated. “How many times have you cast Magic Mirror? Dozens, at least. Correct?”
“Yes. Probably more. What's your point?”
“Have you ever interrupted Clara or one of us when you reached us?”
Simon thought about it.
“Sure, a few times. Once, you were...” He stopped in mid-sentence. “Oh. Oh crap. So what does it mean when I can't reach Liliana?”
A rare expression of sadness twisted the air elemental's face.
“It usually means that the one you are trying to contact is severely injured...or dead,” he said hesitantly.
“Dead? No!”
Simon jumped to his feet and his chair skidded and fell over behind him. He kicked it out of the way as he strode across the room and grabbed his staff.
“Master! What are you doing?”
“Doing? What the hell do you think I'm doing? I've lost enough friends and allies in this war. I'm not losing any more if I can help it.”
He opened the cabinet near the door and grabbed his winter jacket.
“Liliana's people might be under attack, or worse. They may need help. If she is, well, dead, then I can at least Gate them to Nottinghill and get them out of harm's way.”
“Simon, this is crazy,” Aeris protested as he flew across the room. He watched as the wizard rummaged in the cabinet for his gloves.
“You have no idea what is waiting for you over there. You could be Gating into a trap.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know that. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears.”
“Of course I do,” Aeris said firmly and Simon stopped with one arm through his coat and stared at him.
“What?”
“Take off your coat, sit down at the table and use your Magic Mirror spell to spy out the paladin's camp. You know where it is, right? And what it looks like?”
Simon simply nodded.
“Then you can focus the spell on it to see whatever there is to see. At least you will know who or what is there now.”
The wizard was breathing heavily and stood frozen, torn between wanting to rush headlong to aid his allies and accepting Aeris' common sense.
The two elementals watched him anxiously as he hesitated, poised on a knife's edge. Then his shoulder's slumped and he dropped the coat and gloves on the floor.
“Yeah, you're right,” he said to Aeris. “I won't do anyone any good if I get myself killed because I was stupid.”
He returned to the table, leaned the staff against it, righted his chair and sat down. He wiped his sweaty forehead on his sleeve, grabbed the mirror and chanted the incantation for the Magic Mirror spell, keeping a clear picture of Liliana's retreat firmly in his mind's eye.
This time, the mist on the mirror dissipated in a few seconds and Simon found himself looking into a large, dark room lit by torches hanging from the walls.
The two elementals moved to stand on either side of him and peered at the scene.
“That is the paladin's home, maste
r?” Kronk asked quietly.
“Yeah. It's located in the basement of an old movie theater. She told me that many years ago, the owners had reinforced the walls and ceiling of the place for fear of a nuclear war. It's deep and is supplied by a well and ventilation shafts that provide fresh air. And it's entrance is sealed by a door made of two-foot thick steel. A very secure place.”
“Is it?” Aeris asked. “Then something must have changed recently. Look.”
The air elemental pointed at the mirror and Simon directed the spell downwards. There were splashes of color here and there on the concrete floor. They shone a deep red in the flickering torchlight.
“Blood, I think,” Aeris murmured. “And still fresh by the way it is reflecting the light.”
“Damn it!” Simon hissed. “Damn it. Damn it!”
He closed his eyes and rubbed them with the fingers of his left hand. Then he looked back in the mirror, moving the view so that the entire room was scanned slowly.
“No bodies,” he said softly, as if afraid something in the darkened room would hear him.
From the mirror, they could hear a distant drip of water, but there was no other sound.
“Is there more to the sanctuary than that one room?” Aeris asked.
Simon shook his head.
“No. See, along that far wall? The sleeping bags that are rolled up? That's where they slept. There's a small bathroom off to the left that they dug out and converted to a sort of primitive latrine, but that's about it.”
“Where is the entrance, master?”
Simon moved the view again and the scene panned to the right. There was a high exit leading to a dim hallway.
“Perhaps you should check that door you told us about, master?” Kronk suggested.
“Good idea. Let's see what happened.”
The mirror view shifted and approached the hallway. It traveled a long way before abruptly turning to the left. There were small streaks of blood on the floor and walls.
“Still no bodies,” Aeris commented. “I wonder why?”
“Dragons eat their prey,” Simon told him bleakly, trying not to imagine such a thing. Trying and failing.
“Don't be absurd, my dear wizard. No dragon could get itself through that hallway.” Aeris tapped the mirror, making the view shudder. “It isn't a dwarven tunnel, you know.”
With a slight shock, the wizard realized that the elemental was right. The tunnel was too narrow for a dragon. And the walls were smooth and unmarked, except for the blood.
“Then what the hell happened?”
“That's what we are trying to discover, is it not?” Aeris answered as he watched the mirror closely.
The view turned to the left and a few paces away was the door.
A monstrous thing made of layers of steel, it lay crumpled to one side, hanging by one twisted hinge. The surface was slashed by dozens of deep gouges.
“Now that looks like something a dragon could do,” Aeris told him.
Beyond the door, a wide staircase led upward and bright daylight blazed down from above. Supposedly an old wrecked theater had once hidden the entrance to the basement. But now it was gone, ripped apart like paper, exposing the sanctuary's door.
At ground level, the wooden floor was broken and scattered. A few small blood droplets had been left here but that was all. There was no sign of movement or survivors. The place was deserted.
Simon shook the mirror to break the spell and set it down face-first on the table.
“Well, I think we can at least guess what forced open the door of Liliana's hiding place.”
“Definitely a dragon,” Aeris said, his voice thick with emotion. The wizard stared at him, surprised at the venom in his tone.
“You really hate them, don't you?” he asked impulsively.
Aeris glared at him and then his expression changed and he smiled a little self-consciously.
“Is it that obvious? Yes, I despise them. Destruction for destruction's sake? Slaughter for pleasure? They are less than animals in my eyes, and in the eyes of my people.”
Simon felt a touch of unease at Aeris' reaction. He hated the dragons too, but he didn't think that his feelings were as black and deep as the air elemental's seemed to be.
“What I don't understand,” the wizard continued slowly, “is what happened after the dragon, or dragons, ripped open the door. What attacked Liliana and her people?”
“Drakes, master. It had to have been drakes.”
Simon looked at Kronk.
“Drakes? But drakes live with the primal dragons, don't they? They cover them like a second skin.”
“Yes master, that is true. But I am sure that if a dragon requested it, a primal would allow it to use drakes for some special task, such as getting at humans that were out of a dragon's reach.”
“Of course,” Simon said. He covered his eyes as he tried not to think of the last few minutes of life for the Moscow survivors. “And drakes consume their prey, don't they?”
“I'm afraid so,” Aeris said gently.
The wizard drew in a long breath and picked up the mirror again. He cast the communication spell once more, staring at his reflection as it fogged over. His brown and blue eyes were wide with shock and looked much too young.
“Clara?” he said aloud. “Are you there?”
“The cleric?” Aeris muttered to Kronk.
The little earthen shrugged and peered at the mirror.
“Simon! Good morning,” they heard the cheerful voice of the leader of Nottinghill. The mirror cleared and they saw her sitting on her favorite sofa, reading.
“How are you today?” she asked.
“Not too good, actually,” Simon told her grimly. “Not too good at all. Clara, I'd like to ask you for a favor.”
The cleric had put aside her book and sat up alertly.
“Of course. Anything for you, my friend. You know that.”
They watched her stand up and hurry into her bedroom to pick up a mirror. Her image swam and shifted and then Clara was looking out of the mirror at them.
“What's wrong? What's happened?”
Simon hesitated, trying to collect his thoughts.
“The outpost in Moscow has been overrun,” he told her flatly. “I couldn't reach Liliana, so I checked it out in the mirror. The place has been ripped open and there's blood everywhere. We think it was dragons.”
Clara's face went white.
“You're sure? Yes, of course you are. Damn them.”
She put a clenched fist over her mouth, biting down on her knuckles.
“Why can't they just leave us alone? Survival is hard enough without those monsters preying on us constantly.”
She looked lost for a moment and Simon felt his heart go out to her. She had enough to worry about, watching over her little town, helping her people the best she could.
“I'm so sorry for bringing you this bad news, my friend,” he told her guiltily.
She sniffed loudly and shook her head.
“This isn't your fault, Simon. By the gods, if it wasn't for you, how many of us would be dead and buried by now?”
She wiped a hand roughly across her eyes and met his look firmly.
“Now, you asked for a favor. Name it.”
“Feel free to say no to this, but I want to Gate to Moscow and check things out for myself.”
She began to protest and then subsided with a resigned nod.
“Yes, that makes sense. There is only so much you can learn from your Magic Mirror spell. It's incredibly dangerous though, Simon.”
“Yeah, I know that.”
He looked at the elementals with a wry smile.
“As I'm sure my two friends here are dying to point out. That's why I'd like to take some back-up.”
“Back-up? What sort of back-up?”
He hesitated a moment and then spoke quickly.
“I'd like to borrow your two guardsmen, Malcolm and Aiden. If they're amenable, that is.”
Clara l
ooked at him in confused surprise.
“Really? I mean, I'm sure that they'd love to help. I'm convinced that neither of the big oafs knows the meaning of the word fear. But Simon,” she frowned out of the mirror at him, “even with enchanted armor and weapons, they won't do much good against a dragon.”
“Oh no, I know that, Clara,” the wizard said quickly. “That's not why I want them. We think that the dragons might have forced opened the entrance to the outpost, but then they sent in drakes to attack Liliana and her people. I'm fairly certain that your two men would be a match for one of them.”
“Drakes?”
The cleric's face twisted with revulsion.
“Monsters,” she said and looked saddened again. “They were overcome by drakes? How horrible.”
There was a moment of silence and Simon waited for the cleric to make a decision.
“You realize going in there right now is crazy, right?” Aeris hissed at him.
The wizard gestured for him to be quiet and the elemental folded his arms and scowled.
“I certainly won't order them to join you, Simon. That's not my role here,” Clara said finally. “But things are quiet in the village right now. We haven't seen any sign of danger for quite some time, so I'm sure those two are itching for something to do. I think I can guarantee you that they will want to go. I'll ask them right now, actually, and fill them in on what's happened. Gate down as soon as you like and tell them in person though and they can decide then.”
“Thanks, Clara. I'll do that. I'm sorry to start your day with such terrible news,” he said regretfully.
“Me too, Simon. But this is the New Earth, isn't it? Horrors stalk us at every turn. We either learn to deal with them or accept the consequences.”
“And neither of us will do that, will we?” he asked her with a sad smile.
“No, we certainly will not. I'll see you when you arrive, my friend.”
Simon nodded and broke the spell. And then he sat back and waited for the inevitable storm of protests.
“Master, what are you thinking?” Kronk said, aghast. “You can't mean to just Gate to that place. What if it is a trap?”
“Kronk, we've already seen it,” he said patiently. “There's no one there. It's clear.”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 90