Tales from the New Earth: Volume One

by Thompson, J. J.

  “Simply is? Simply is what?”

  Aeris sighed in frustration.

  “It is there, my dear wizard, to be used. It is neither good nor evil, white or black. It is gray. I believe that if you can tap into the power of this object, you can use it as you see fit.” He shrugged. “Considering that you found it in the lair of an evil wizard, that is hardly surprising.”

  “Huh. Good point. Kronk?”

  “Master, I am not as attuned to magic as my friends here,” he said hesitantly. He looked at Aeris who made an encouraging gesture.

  “What I can say is that considering the image on the medallion, it must have some power related to dragons. The question is, how is it related? Is it made for communication? For offense? Defense? There is no way to know until you decipher those runes.”

  He looked up at Simon.

  “Have you deciphered them, master?”

  The wizard picked up the amulet and ran a fingertip over the writing.

  “Nope. I don't have a clue about what this says. I am suspicious though. Heather was evil. She conspired with dragons. So, an amulet with the picture of a dragon on it that was in her possession makes me nervous. It may have been made to be used by anyone, but I doubt if she used it to grow daisies or make pretty music.”

  “There might be a way to learn what it says, sir wizard,” Ana told him thoughtfully.

  “Really? You know someone who can read these runes?”

  “No, I don't. But you do.”

  Simon looked at her, puzzled.

  “I do? And who is that?”

  “The elves,” she answered simply. “The elves are a fount of knowledge. There is no language that they do not know, no runes that they cannot decipher. You've told me that you had dealings with them before. If that is so, why not ask for their help now?”

  The wizard rested his chin in his palm and looked past the elementals, suddenly reminded of his friend Daniel and feeling a bit guilty. It had been a long time since he'd remembered his best friend. Sure, he'd been busy and his life was crazy, but still.

  “You might be right, but there's one problem. I can't enter the elven lands. And if I could, I couldn't return or I would probably die of old age. Time runs differently between the two worlds. It happened to my friend, Daniel. He retreated to the elvish realm when our world was attacked by the dragons. When he came back to visit me here, he aged decades in minutes. It was...a very sad day for me.”

  “Ah, yes, I see.” The water elemental seemed a bit perplexed. “But why do you have to travel there? Why not simply call them?”

  “Call them,” Simon repeated flatly. “I can't just call them!”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I...”

  Simon's voice trailed away and he sat still, dumbfounded.

  Why couldn't he call Daniel? He had the Magic Mirror spell. If that didn't work, there was the simpler Magic Mouth spell. Why hadn't it ever occurred to him to try to contact the elven realm?

  He looked at Kronk and Aeris and was gratified to see them looking as stunned as he felt.

  “I think,” he said hesitantly, “I just assumed that because time moved at a different rate there, that my communication spells wouldn't work. Or that they couldn't cross the boundaries between Earth and other planes of existence.”

  “I see. To be honest, Simon, I do not know if it will work either, but surely it can't hurt to try?”

  The wizard had to chuckle at her proposal.

  “You're right. It can't hurt to make the attempt. Okay, let's give it a shot.”

  He drank some tea and pushed back his hair nervously. Then Simon picked up his mirror and chanted the spell.

  “Should I try to contact Ethmira or Daniel?” he asked, looking at Kronk and Aeris.

  “You know your old friend much better than the elven maid, master,” the earthen suggested.

  “I agree. Elves are...tricky. Prickly sometimes. Your friend would be a better choice,” Aeris added.

  “Hmm, good point. Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Here goes.”

  Simon pictured Daniel's face, not as he had been once but after he had aged and changed into someone the wizard had barely recognized as his old friend.

  “Invectis!” he said firmly and stared into the suddenly foggy mirror.

  The three elementals hurried to cross the table and stand by Simon's shoulders. He gave them all a nervous smile as they waited.

  The mirror stayed cloudy for several long minutes.

  “I don't think it's working,” Simon said, looking down at Kronk. “Either it can't get through or it's being blocked somehow. I'm sure the elves can do that.”

  “Wait, sir wizard,” Ana said excitedly. “Look! Is the mist fading?”

  Simon hurriedly looked back in the mirror. She was right! The mist was dissipating.

  All of them waited, the wizard holding his breath, for the mirror to clear. When it finally did, Simon gaped at the sight. It was simply one of the most beautiful things that he had ever seen.

  He was peering into a forest glade. Immense trees, as large as redwoods or bigger, with pale yellow leaves and white bark, surrounded a clearing. Flowers were growing rampantly, their colors mixing and flowing in a dazzling display. In the center of the glade was a round, grassy knoll in the midst of which a fountain made of silver splashed and gurgled with clean, sparkling water.

  Simon could almost smell the intoxicating scent of the flowers and a part of him yearned to be in that place.

  And in the middle of all of this riot of color and movement, sitting on a simple stone bench next to the laughing fountain, sat an old man wearing a deep blue robe and reading a scroll. It was Daniel.

  As Simon noticed him, the view in the mirror zoomed in so that he was looking at his friend from no more than a few feet away.

  He paused and looked away from the mirror, clearing his throat and wiping his suddenly moist eyes.

  Why hadn't he tried this before, he wondered. Daniel's advice would have been invaluable over the past year. Just having him to talk to would have been so helpful.

  He looked back at his friend, pushing his self-recriminations to the back of his mind. I have more important things to deal with, he thought.

  “Daniel?” he said hesitantly. “Can you hear me?”

  The old man looked up slowly, his eyes misted with age and something like wisdom.

  “Simon? Is that you?”

  “It's me, old friend. It's me.”

  Daniel put the scroll down beside him and turned his head this way and that.

  “Where are you?” he asked. “Don't tell me you've crossed over! That would be foolishness.”

  “Same old Daniel, if you'll pardon the expression,” Simon said with a chuckle and Daniel's face broke into a wide grin.

  Suddenly he looked as young as the wizard remembered him.

  “Don't be smart with your elders, boy,” he growled. “So, if you aren't here, you are using a communication spell of some sort?”

  “Magic Mirror,” Simon agreed.

  “Ah, perfect. Give me a moment.”

  The wizard watched as Daniel stood up slowly, wincing in obvious pain. He stepped up to the fountain and made a small gesture. The waters instantly became still and placid and the man peered deeply into the reflecting pool.

  And suddenly Simon was meeting his friend's eyes directly.

  Both of them grinned simultaneously and then laughed. Simon felt his heart lift at the meeting and was happier than he had been in ages.

  “So there you are, my friend,” Daniel said, eyes flicking over Simon's features. “I see a lot of white in that mane of yours.”

  Simon ran a hand through his hair self-consciously.

  “Yeah, well, you know. Magic.”

  “Yes, true enough. Ah, I am so happy that you decided to try to contact me. Personally I didn't even know that it was possible.”

  “I didn't either,” Simon said a little shamefaced. “I wish I'd thought of trying it a lo
ng time ago.”

  Daniel shook a crooked finger at him.

  “Now, now. What have I always said? The past is gone. The future is uncertain. All we have...”

  “...is now. Yeah, I remember.”

  “Good. Self-recriminations are poisonous.”

  The man laughed in obvious delight.

  “I cannot believe that we are finally speaking. Ah, it's been so lonely here.”

  Simon frowned.

  “Don't you speak with the elves? Surely you've made some friends there?”

  “Yes, of course. But conversations with elves are, hmm, how can I describe it? Limited, I suppose. As polite and helpful as they've all been, they are immortals and I am not. Their perspective is much grander than mine is. Why, I've met elves who had wizards as friends five or six thousand years ago.” He shook his head ruefully. “Among them I feel like an infant, despite my appearance. I don't know. I just can't seem to get comfortable around them.”

  “What about Ethmira?”

  Daniel smiled gently.

  “Yes, Ethmira. Thank the gods for her. She is quite old as well, but her youthful exuberance makes it much easier for me to forget that. She's been a comfort, I can tell you.”

  “I'm glad,” Simon told him with some relief. “I'd hate to think that you're unhappy there, considering that it will be your home until...”

  His voice trailed off and he looked away.

  “Until the day I die? Oh, come now, Simon. Don't be so morbid. I'm not kicking the bucket any time soon, I assure you.”

  The wizard looked back at him and they both laughed again.

  “Now, I hope these calls become a frequent occurrence,” Daniel said.

  “Oh, they will. I guarantee it.”

  “Good. But I'm guessing this attempt was made for a specific purpose, yes?”

  “It was.”

  Simon picked up the amulet and held it so that Daniel could see it clearly.

  “I found this pendant, medallion, whatever, in the home of a dark wizard.” He hesitated. “Uh, do you know what happened last year? With my ex-neighbor Heather and the primal green dragon?”

  “Oh yes, I know.” Daniel scowled. “The elves keep a close eye on things in the mortal realm, old friend. Very impressive, the way you defeated that dragon, by the way.”

  “A mixture of trickery and luck,” the wizard said with a shrug.

  Daniel rolled his eyes and Simon grinned.

  “Yeah, you don't agree. I know. Anyway, I found this in her old home today. As you can see, there's a stylized picture of a dragon on one side and some sort of writing on the other. But I can't read it. I was hoping that the elves might be able to help with that.”

  “Looking for more spells to add to your arsenal?” Daniel asked slyly.

  “Always,” was Simon's grim response.

  “Good. Wait a moment.”

  His old friend reached into a pocket of his robe and fished out a scrap of paper and a stick of what looked like charcoal.

  “I'm always jotting down notes these days,” he told Simon with a rueful smile. “I find my memory isn't quite what it used to be.”

  “Well, don't chalk it up to age,” Simon told him reassuringly. “Most days, I can't remember what I had for breakfast.”

  Daniel shook his head, looking amused.

  “Now, hold that amulet steady and I'll copy those runes. We'll see if the elves are as wise as you think they are.”

  For all of his apparent age, Daniel's hand was steady as he wrote and he quickly copied the writing from the amulet.

  “Okay, got it.”

  He examined what he had written and finally shrugged.

  “Certainly it's like nothing I encountered on my travels, back in the day. We'll see if the elders can make something of it.”

  He slipped the paper back into a pocket along with the charcoal and then just stared fondly at Simon for a moment.

  “I'm going to have to start carrying a small mirror with me from now on, just in case you call,” he said. “This standing and looking into a pool of water is hard on my old back.”

  “Are you all right?” Simon asked with quick concern.

  “Fine. Fine. Now, I'm off to speak with the council. It shouldn't take long, one way or another.”

  He stared off into the distance, lips moving.

  “If my knowledge of the time differential is correct, it shouldn't take more than an hour or two to get an answer.”

  “That's great,” Simon said enthusiastically.

  “Which means you should call back in about a week.”

  “What! A week?”

  Daniel laughed at his friend's expression.

  “The flow of time is very different here. You know that,” the man said as his touched his thick white hair.

  “Yes, I know. But I guess I hadn't realized how different. Two hours of time there and a week here. My God.”

  “Crazy, isn't it? Welcome to my reality. Now, try to be patient. Call back in a week and I'll have news one way or the other. And we can have a decent chat. To be honest, this standing and talking is killing my back right now.”

  “Okay, my friend. Thanks for this, by the way. I wish...I wish you were here to fight the good fight with me.”

  “So do I, Simon. More than anything. But hey, now at least you've found a way to get me involved. I haven't been this pumped up for a long time.”

  “I'm glad,” the wizard told him sincerely. “So, I'll let you go and talk with whomever and I'll call back in one week.”

  “You do that.”

  Daniel began to turn away and then stopped to catch Simon's eye again.

  “Oh, by the way, there is one thing that I can tell you about that amulet of yours.”

  “Really?” The wizard stared at him, surprised. “What's that?”

  “That engraving of a dragon on one side? It's not stylized or some artist's fantasy. It's a picture of an actual dragon.”

  “You're kidding!” Simon looked at the snaky figure in his hand. “What kind of dragon looks like that?”

  “Don't worry, they're extinct. But I saw an illustration like it during my studies here. That's a picture of a gold dragon, one of the lost guardians of the Light. They were betrayed and slaughtered by the evil dragons in the distant past.”

  “Then what the heck is it doing on this amulet?”

  “No idea. Let's see if I can find out. Talk to you in a week, my friend. Take care. It was good to see you again.”

  “And you, Daniel. I wish you luck.”

  The old man waved and walked out the image on the mirror.

  Simon shook it to break the spell and put it back down on the table. He looked at the elementals, aware that he was grinning foolishly.

  “Well, what do you know?” he told them. “It worked!”

  Chapter 13

  The week that Simon had to wait to speak to Daniel again passed quickly. He was spending as much time and strength as he could, trying to lock the Blizzard spell into his memory permanently, along with as many other spells that could be used in battle as he could manage.

  He was finally able to keep five in his mind at all times, along with his utility spells, like Light, Gate and Shield.

  They were Blizzard, Fireball, Steel Skin (he'd improved his Stone Skin spell), Ice Spear and Magic Missile.

  It took four days of intense practice, massive headaches and several arguments with Kronk, who kept trying to get him to eat and sleep more, until he succeeded. After that, he bowed to the little guy's wishes and spent a day in bed, exhausted.

  There was no word from Liliana, which didn't come as a complete surprise to him. She did want to be left alone for the moment.

  Simon called Clara once, to bring her up to speed, and she was thrilled for him that he'd managed to speak to Daniel. He knew she worried that he spent too much time alone.

  Listening to Kronk and Aeris argue, while Ana tried to play peace-keeper, sometimes made him wish that was true.

&n
bsp; Before he knew it, a week had gone by and Simon was back sitting at his kitchen table, tea cup at hand and the elementals crowded around him.

  He cast Magic Mirror eagerly and then waited.

  This time, the spell connected much more quickly and Simon found himself staring into Daniel's face. Obviously his friend was looking back at him through another mirror.

  “And there you are,” the man said with a broad smile. “I was beginning to get a little worried.”

  “But you said a week,” Simon protested.

  “I know, I know. Relax. The time flow is imprecise. I spoke to the elders several hours ago, my time. Well, at least it gave me a chance to dig up a mirror. It's amazing how little ego the elves have. Mirrors are rare here. Probably because they're all so naturally attractive.”

  “They are that.”

  “Anyway, let me see here.”

  Daniel dug into a pocket and it gave Simon a chance to see a part of the room that his friend was sitting in.

  Books. Shelf after shelf of books was all that he could see.

  “Are you in a library?” he asked curiously.

  “What?”

  Daniel stopped searching his pockets, looked over his shoulder and then chuckled.

  “No, these are my rooms. Here, take a look.”

  He turned the mirror around so that Simon and the elementals got a slow panning view of his quarters.

  The walls were indeed covered with shelves. There were hundreds of books, scrolls and tablets. Odd objects like crystal balls, small silver and gold statues, pieces of strangely shaped stones and other things were scattered about on small tables.

  At one end of the room was a large canopied bed covered with a bright comforter. Many pictures, all of which depicted scenes of nature, hung on the small sections of the walls that weren't covered with shelving.

  All in all, Simon thought, a comfortable and homey place.

  “I like it,” he told his friend when Daniel's face came back into view. “I hope you do too.”

  “Oh absolutely,” the man said, glancing around fondly. “The elves have been very kind to me. And very indulgent. They rounded up these reference books and scrolls from far and wide, when I expressed an interest in doing some research.”