“If, as you've said, the elves have the numbers to defend themselves, then your aid is moot. You will be able to stay in this world and plan your battles against the red dragons without hindrance. That is, in my opinion, the best scenario.”
Simon nodded without comment and gestured for him to continue.
“If the elves do not have enough fighters to have a hope of defeating the dragons, then this situation becomes much more complex. Assuming that you will be able to enter their realm, that is.”
“The way I see it, master,” Kronk piped up. “Even if you can join Daniel and the elves, you on your own will not be enough.”
The wizard raised an eyebrow and the little guy rushed on.
“What I mean is that you are going to be on a whole new world, master. You will have no idea of where the primal brown dragon is, which means that you may have to fight your way through many of its minions to reach it, if you can. And not just dragons but drakes as well.”
“Yeah, I thought of that,” Simon said as he sat back and stretched a bit to loosen his spine. “I figure that I'll summon some air elementals, like Aeris, and get them to scout out the land for me. Hopefully they'll be able to at least give me an idea of where the primal is hiding.”
Both of the elementals shook their heads in unison and he stared at them, amused and confused at the same time.
“What is it?”
“You won't be able to summon aid while you are in the elven realm, my dear wizard.”
“What? Why?”
“That world is closed to elementals, master,” Kronk said simply. “We have never been granted access to it. The elves do not have the ability to summon our kind, so that pathway has never been established. You will be on your own.”
“Oh,” Simon muttered. “Oh crap. Well, that complicates things a bit.”
“Indeed it does. So, there's one problem,” Aeris said tartly. “But the real point is that you simply do not have enough firepower by yourself to make a difference in the battles that you will have to face. If you were able to take some allies with you, of course, that would be a different story. At least it would give you more of a chance of survival.”
Simon got up and put the kettle back over the fire.
“Okay. Believe it or not, I actually agree with you.” he told Aeris. “And don't look so surprised. I want to help the elves, and Daniel, but I'm not really looking for an inventive way to commit suicide. If any of the other Changlings want to join me, and are able to survive the trip, then I'll happily invite them to come along.”
He began making another cup of tea.
“We'll just have to wait until I speak to Daniel again. Hopefully he'll have some firm options for me next time.”
Chapter 5
Simon was still sipping his second cup of tea and chatting quietly with the elementals when he felt a tingling in the pocket of his robe and a warmth against his skin. Someone was using their lodestone to reach him.
He pulled out the three stones he always carried and saw that it was half of the stone that he'd given to Clara.
“Uh-oh,” he exclaimed. He slipped the stones back into his pocket, jumped up and raced for the stairs. The elementals chased after him.
Up in his study, Simon grabbed the hand mirror off of his desk, sat down and cast the Magic Mirror spell urgently. Kronk ran into the room so quickly that his little legs were just a blur. He leaped on to the desk just as Aeris shot across the room to join him there.
“Clara?” Simon called anxiously as he made the connection. “Clara, are you there?”
“Oh, thank the gods.” he heard her reply. “Simon, I know what you've just gone through, but we really need your help.”
“It's yours,” he stated firmly. The mirror cleared and he could see Clara standing in the midst of the blizzard, heavily wrapped in a fur jacket and scarf, squinting at something that he couldn't see.
“What's going on? What do you need?”
“Well, I spoke too soon earlier, I guess.” Her voice stuttered with cold. “There are dozens of wights trying to get into Nottinghill! Maybe more. The ditch around the town has slowed them down, but the damned things climb like cockroaches and are swarming up the wall.”
“My God,” Simon muttered.
“The good news, such as it is, is that your wards are keeping them from climbing directly over the wall. They are concentrating their attacks on both gates where the warding is weakest. Virginia, Anna, Eric and Gerard are manning the rear gate and using their combined power to blast them off of the wall. But the front gate is only protected by Malcolm and Aiden and the other guardsmen. They're using bows to drive them back.”
“Okay, okay. I understand,” Simon said, nodding his head unconsciously.
“The problem is that the arrows only knock the wights to the ground. The barbs aren't blessed, and there's no time for me to do that now, damn it, so the monsters just jump up and attack again.”
She paused and shivered, then tightened the scarf around her neck.
“And they're running out of arrows,” she added.
“Okay, stay right there,” Simon said loudly. “I'll Gate to your location. Hang on,”
“Thank you, my friend,” she replied with relief. “Please hurry.”
Simon broke the connection and put down the mirror. He grabbed his staff and ran out of the room.
Down in the basement, the wizard went into the supply room where he stored his extra clothing and grabbed the long, hooded winter coat, thick gloves and winter boots that he'd left there earlier. After a brief moment, he dug up a set of long underwear too.
Just in case, he thought.
He ran back up the stairs to the main level and quickly got dressed.
Kronk and Aeris were there watching him and, once he was dressed, Simon turned to look at them.
“The other earthen are patrolling the wall, right?”
“Of course, master,” Kronk assured him.
“Good, because I want you two to come with me,” he told them.
Both of them exchanged a glance and Aeris actually smiled.
“A fine decision, my dear wizard,” the air elemental assured him.
“Yeah? Well, we'll see about that.”
The wizard finished tying his boots, grabbed his staff and nodded at the others.
“Hang on to me, guys. We've got to move.”
Kronk took hold of the bottom of Simon's coat while Aeris floated over and held on to his sleeve.
Simon raised his staff, cast the Gate spell while keeping Clara's face firmly in mind and uttered the word of command.
“Invectis!”
And a moment later, they were standing in the middle of blowing snow and arctic winds.
“Crap, I hate the winter,” Simon muttered and looked around hurriedly, peering through the whipping ice pellets.
“Simon! Over here,” he heard Clara call and turned in the direction of her voice.
He saw a vague blur through the storm and shuffled toward it. The snow was at least six inches deep.
“Hey there,” he said loudly as he reached her. “Lovely day, isn't it?”
Her lips twitched but her eyes were grave.
“Good to see you,” she told him. “Follow me please.”
The cleric led the way through the wind and snow. Simon could see the shapes of small houses on either side of the snow-covered road and, as they struggled along, two shapes scurried by them, heading in the opposite direction. He couldn't even tell if they were men or women.
The main gate suddenly loomed out of the storm and the wizard saw someone crouched there digging into a large trunk and pulling out handfuls of arrows. The person stood up with a load of ammunition and slipped and slid to the right of the gate where someone else had climbed down a ladder to take the bundle and pass it up to another person standing on the parapet that ran along the inside of the wall.
“Terry!” Clara called out and the man at the bottom of the ladder turned and waved. H
e moved toward them and they met him at the gate.
“How's it going?” the cleric asked, raising her voice over the howling of the wind.
“Well, we're holding them for now,” Terry shouted. He was a young, blond-headed man with a heavy beard that was coated with ice. He was panting and his breath puffed out in white clouds.
“But the ammo is getting scarce, Clara,” he continued. “Another wave of those bastards and we'll be fighting them hand to hand.”
“Damn it,” Simon muttered.
He looked at Aeris, who was hovering in the air just behind him.
“Can you scout out the situation, safely?” he asked. “I need to know how many wights we're dealing with.”
Aeris snorted, the little puff of air blowing him back a few inches.
“Of course I can. Give me a couple of minutes.”
He disappeared and Simon looked at Clara and the guardsman.
“Aeris will give us an accurate idea of the number of our enemies,” he told them. He looked at Terry. “Where are Malcolm and Aiden?
The man pointed at the wall to the left of the gate.
“Up there. Thank God their aim is phenomenal. We'd have been overrun by now but for them.”
“Good. I'm heading up. Kronk,” he said and looked down at the earthen who was standing next to his right leg. “Could you check on Virginia and the others at the back gate? See how they're holding up?”
“My pleasure, master,” the little guy said. He vanished into the ground, leaving a small mound of dirt on top of the snow.
“Handy friends you have there, sir wizard,” Terry told him with a tired grin.
“They are that. Clara, I'll see you in a bit.”
She nodded and gripped his arm tightly for a brief moment.
Simon hurried across the road to the left side of the gate, the snow crunching under his boots. He slipped his staff across his back and began to climb up the ladder carefully; the rungs were coated with ice.
Up on the parapet, the wind smacked into him full force and he squinted as he looked along the wall.
A few feet away he saw Aiden, longbow in hand, lean over the wall, aim carefully and shoot at an unseen target.
“That's got it,” the wizard heard someone yell with a laugh and then saw the massive figure of Malcolm just beyond Aiden, nodding in approval.
The big man spotted Simon and smiled broadly. His dark face and long braids were barely recognizable in the dense storm.
“Wizard!” he called gleefully. “Nice of you to join us.”
Aiden spun around and smiled down at Simon
“Good day, sir wizard. Come to join the hunt?”
“Hunt?” Malcolm said scornfully. “Shooting fish in a barrel is more like it. No sport at all in this.”
Simon was pleased that the men's spirits were high but he wondered if they were taking the situation a little too lightly.
He peered at Aiden through the snow and saw a pinched look underneath the bravado. The man wasn't as calm as he wanted others to think, obviously.
“Yeah, good to see you both. Aeris is out there,” he pointed beyond the wall, “checking out the situation. He'll report back in a bit.”
Simon leaned over the wall and stared down at the moat below.
The deep ditch was hard to make out through the blizzard, but he could see vague shapes moving along the bottom. The moat was a dozen feet deep at least and the drawbridge was raised to cover the front gate. Beneath it, Simon stared intently at fuzzy white blobs that seemed to be creeping up the walls of the moat with slug-like speed. Wights? He leaned further. Wights.
They could move incredibly fast on level ground, but on the slippery wall they moved with glacial slowness. But the climbing monsters crept upward with a deliberate intent that was frightening.
He watched as one reached the bottom of the drawbridge and started to climb up the wooden structure. As it got closer, Simon saw at least a half dozen arrows sticking out of its pallid, emaciated body but the creature ignored its wounds and crawled steadily toward the top of the gate.
Aiden followed Simon's gaze and whipped an arrow out of the quiver hanging on his hip. He aimed his bow and shot in one smooth, economical motion.
The arrow slammed into the wight's face, right between its dead, red eyes and it was flung off of the drawbridge to tumble back into the moat. It made no sound at all.
“Nice shot,” Malcolm said and clouted his partner on the shoulder.
Aiden laughed shortly and then his face took on a serious expression.
“This has been fun and all, but what happens when we run out of arrows?”
He pointed beyond Malcolm to the other side of the gate and Simon could just see a handful of figures standing on the opposite parapet.
“There's just us two and those four over there who are trained in combat. We sent another three to the back gate along with our four magical friends, but that's all we have to defend the town.”
Malcolm's smile faded as Aiden spoke and he nodded reluctantly.
“He'd got a point,” he said soberly. “Aiden and I have enchanted blades, which hopefully will work against the undead. The others do as well, but they simply aren't as well trained yet.”
He sighed and his foggy breath blew away in the incessant wind.
“We've been working with them, but everyone has other duties as well, so their skills aren't where we'd like them to be.”
“They will stand though,” Aiden said firmly. “Those damned beasts will have to go through all of us before they can get into the town.”
“Aye,” Malcolm said with a scowl. “That they will.”
The pair suddenly fitted arrows to their bows, turned as one and let the missiles fly.
Simon looked down and saw two more pale bodies falling back into the ditch below.
“Nice,” he said with a smile. “If you had enough arrows and could keep doing that, all we'd have to do is wait out this blasted storm.”
“Wishful thinking,” Aiden said with a shrug. “Speaking of which, any idea how long this blizzard is going to last?”
Simon wiped his eyes. Tears were leaking down his face from the bitter wind and icy snow and kept blurring his vision.
“According to my air elemental friend, another couple of days. Too long, I'm afraid.”
“Lovely,” Malcolm grumbled. “To be honest, we can't hold out that long, Simon. Even if we had the arrows, eventually exhaustion would set in and we'd lose our focus. Personally, I'd rather face those monsters in a stand-up fight before that happens.”
Before Simon could find something reassuring to say, Aeris popped up in between him and Aiden.
“Whoa!” Aiden exclaimed and stumbled backward. Malcolm steadied him and laughed at his partner's reaction.
“Skittish?” he teased and Aiden glared at him.
Simon chuckled and then looked at the elemental.
“What's the word?” he asked anxiously.
“Well, good and bad news, I think,” Aeris said looking from one face to another. “I counted at least thirty of the monsters out there. They're bunched up at the bottom of the trench and climbing over each other as they try to reach the gate. Disgusting,” he added with a grimace.
“Is that the good news or the bad news?” Aiden asked with a frown.
“That is the bad news. The good news is that they are spending as much time tearing at each other as they are in trying to climb over the wall. Wights, and undead in general, hate everything, including each other. I think the fact that they can't reach you is frustrating them. If such creatures can become frustrated, that is.”
“So,” Simon said, thinking quickly, “they're all bunched up below the drawbridge?”
“They are.”
The wizard smiled.
“Perfect. I was afraid that they'd be scattered all around the perimeter and I'd have to hunt them down one by one.”
He looked at Malcolm and Aiden grimly.
“Not an idea I
relish in the middle of a blizzard.”
“You don't mean that you're going out there?” Aiden asked in disbelief.
“Only way,” Simon told him. “I can't see the bottom of the moat from up here. I'll have to get down to ground level to get a decent shot at them.”
“Master!”
All of them turned in time to see Kronk hop up from the ladder on to the parapet.
“Ah, there you are,” Simon said. “How are things at the back gate?”
“Fine, master. Virginia and the rest of her group are continuing to batter the wights off of the wall as they reach the top of the gate.”
“Is that effective?” Malcolm asked him skeptically. “I mean, our arrows aren't having much effect.”
“It is taking its toll,” the earthen told him. “Every time they use their power to smash an undead from its perch, it takes damage. I checked below the gate, carefully,” he said quickly with a glance at Simon, “and there are several wights lying there in pieces. They are still moving, but cannot attack without arms and legs.”
“Yuck! That's gross!” Aiden exclaimed.
“Behold, the brave warrior,” Malcolm said, with a loud laugh.
“Hey mister, a stand up fight is one thing. But tearing things apart piece by piece? That's just disgusting.”
Kronk gave a little shrug.
“But effective. Someone will have to go down there when the battle is over and set flames to the pieces though, or they may remain a threat.”
“Lovely,” Aiden muttered and swallowed convulsively.
“You know, there's something I don't understand,” Malcolm said after he'd stopped chuckling.
“Only one thing?” Aiden asked tartly.
“Don't be mean. No, what I don't get is why? Why are these things doing this? I mean, they're just mindless walking corpses essentially, yes?”
“Basically,” Aeris answered.
He looked at Simon who shook his head.
“Don't look at me. I'll bow to your expertise on this subject.”
“Really? My, my, what a special day. Anyway, yes, wights are related to the undead who attacked Nottinghill in the past. You weren't here at the time, I believe?”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 125