“My lord argent, I...”
“Enough!”
Argentium made a quick motion with his empty front paw and Aeris found himself smashed to the ground by an unseen force.
“What I do now, I do for the future of my race,” Argentium said heavily as the elemental squirmed futilely against the hard-packed earth.
“Tell your master, little one, that I am truly sorry. He is betrayed by me and mine a second time. But also tell him this: do not attempt to find me. Do not try to stop me. If you truly care for him, elemental, warn him. Because I will defend my new charges with all of my power, and not even your wizard will be able to withstand me.”
A blast of air covered the scene with a cloud of dust and grit and Aeris was blinded as the dragon took flight. With the sound of a single mighty flap of his wings, Argentium disappeared into the pale sky and the force that held the elemental against the ground faded in an instant.
Aeris rose up and scanned the skies frantically, searching for any sign of the dragon. But he was gone and the elemental had no idea what direction he had flown off in.
With a crushing feeling of despair, Aeris could only stare at the empty nest numbly. He could not believe what had just happened. Was Argentium so delusional that he believed he could raise a brood of eggs laid by the dragon queen? And that he could instill his own values upon them? It was madness, that's what it was. Sheer madness.
“Aeris!” someone called from above him.
He looked up to see both Brethia and Orriss floating a dozen yards overhead.
“Move!” they both shouted.
“She's coming back!” Brethia added and pointed to the east.
Aeris instinctively flew upwards toward the others and managed to just avoid the dragon queen's jaws for the second time that day. She had leapt at him as she returned to her nest, apparently having given up the pursuit of the other elementals. She'd spotted Aeris and moved to strike. Luckily for him, he was faster.
“What's happened?” Brethia asked as Aeris joined them.
The trio continued to rise until they were well beyond the queen's reach.
“The eggs are gone,” she continued as they watched the dragon poke her head toward her nest, searching for her clutch.
“So Argentium managed to destroy them,” Orriss said with relief. “Excellent. Then it was worth the risk we took.”
Before he could answer, Aeris was struck dumb by an incredible scream of rage and loss. The dragon queen had realized that her eggs were gone and she had thrown back her head to glare up at the elementals, obviously believing them to be the cause.
“Uh-oh,” Orriss commented. “She's angry at us.”
“You don't say?” Brethia said with a roll of her eyes. “But Aeris, where are the remains? I wouldn't have thought that Argentium would be so...neat about things.”
“He wasn't,” Aeris told them, still shaken by what had just happened.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, he didn't destroy the clutch. He took them. All five of them. The eggs survived and the gods alone know what will come of that choice.”
Chapter 6
By some strange cosmic coincidence, both Kronk and Aeris returned to the tower at almost exactly the same time.
They met up in the yard in front of the steps leading into the building, Aeris appearing with Brethia and Orriss accompanied by a rumble of thunder while Kronk popped out of the ground in a shower of loose dirt.
“Hello there,” the little guy said brightly to the three air elementals, who were floating six feet off of the ground. “This is a stroke of luck. How did the hunt for the queen go?”
“You heard about that?” Aeris asked as he landed next to Kronk.
“Of course. Lady Tamara mentioned it. You succeeded?”
“You could say that. I'll wait and tell you and our dear wizard about it at the same time.”
He looked up at his hovering friends.
“You two should get back to your post on the roof. If our wizard wants to question you, he'll summon you, I'm sure.”
They nodded mutely and flew off toward the top of the tower.
“They seem quieter than usual,” Kronk observed.
“They have good reason to be. Frankly, I have no wish to speak right now either, but the wizard will want a full report.”
They began to climb the steps and Kronk looked at Aeris skeptically.
“You? Not wanting to talk? That is new. Something quite extraordinary must have happened.”
“It did,” Aeris replied shortly. “Let's go in.”
They opened the door and entered the tower. The main floor was empty, the fireplace stacked with logs still unlit and the kitchen area clean and unused. The two elementals exchanged puzzled glances.
“Master normally has tea when he is working inside,” Kronk said with a confused frown on his craggy face. “How odd.”
“I'll go up and see if he wants us to get a fire going and make him some,” Aeris told him. “He will probably want something to drink once I give him my news. Come to think of it, he may decide on wine instead. I'll be right back.”
He flew across the room to the stairs and zipped up to the second floor.
Kronk watched him leave and then tip-tapped over to the fireplace to arrange the logs properly. He knew that his master did the best job he could, but he never managed to get the wood stacked just right; the earthen always rearranged things quietly so that he didn't hurt Simon's feelings.
“Hey Kronk,” Aeris called from upstairs. “Is the wizard's staff down there?”
The earthen turned to look at the wall where Mortis de Draconis usually rested and saw only a blank space.
“No, it is not. Oh, that means that master has gone out. Without us? Who will take care of him while he is away from the tower?”
Aeris came flying back down the steps and looked at Kronk incredulously.
“He isn't a child, you know. He's the most powerful magic-user of his race and he's a lot older than he looks. He can take care of himself.”
Kronk ignored him.
“I must ask my brethren if any of them saw him leave. Perhaps he told them where he was going.”
The little guy raced out of the door and Aeris watched him go with a faint smile.
“I truly believe that if that earthen could have children, he would,” he muttered. “Unbelievable.”
Kronk was back in a few minutes, wringing his hands as he tip-tapped into the room.
“He left about four hours ago, apparently,” he told Aeris, who was floating above the kitchen table in his usual spot.
The earthen leaped up to the tabletop to join him.
“Any idea to where?”
“None. The one he spoke to said that master told him to keep the tower secure but that was all. Oh, this is bad. I can feel it. Something has happened.”
“Kronk, will you stop that please?” Aeris asked.
The little guy had begun pacing back and forth on the table. It sounded like someone quickly knocking repeatedly on a wooden door.
He ignored Aeris and kept at it.
“Why would he just leave? And where would he go? He certainly didn't come to Nottinghill Castle four hours ago. And he can't Gate to Kingstone. Where else is there?”
He stopped and looked at Aeris, apparently waiting for an answer.
“There's an entire world out there,” the air elemental reminded him. “His atlas was lying on the desk in the study. Closed, unfortunately. So maybe he had an urge to just get away for a few hours. And why shouldn't he? Even wizards can't stay locked away in their towers forever.”
Kronk tapped his chin and gave that some thought.
“Possibly. Yes, that is possible. Master loves nature, after all. But still, to go alone like that? It is very dangerous to travel the world now, even for him.”
Aeris floated to the tabletop and sat down. He looked at the earthen quizzically and Kronk tilted his head in return.
“Wh
y are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
“Because I was just thinking that, with the wizard off somewhere, I might share my news with you first. Strangely enough, your reactions often mirror his for some reason. And to be honest, I have no idea how he is going to react when I tell him.”
“Tell him what?” Kronk wondered.
He walked over and sat down next to Aeris.
“What exactly happened today?”
The air elemental drew up his knees and wrapped his arms around them; it was something that Kronk had often seen his master do and he wondered if Aeris was aware that he was mimicking the wizard. Probably not.
“Today was not a good day,” Aeris told him slowly, staring at the far wall. “Today was either the end of something or the beginning of something; I'm not sure which. And I'm not sure that whichever it was, was for the best or the worst. Not at all.”
“You are being cryptic,” Kronk told him. “And it isn't helpful. Just tell me what happened on your search for the dragon's nest. All three of you returned, so at least you weren't injured.”
“Not physically, no. But I think that my faith in creatures who serve the Light has been shaken, perhaps irreparably. Again it depends on what happens next.”
Kronk shook a blocky finger at him.
“Cryptic,” he repeated.
“Right, right. Okay then, this is what happened. Feel free to gasp and curse in all the right places as I tell the story.”
“I never curse,” the little guy said primly. “Now get on with it.”
Aeris told the story simply, just as it had happened without embellishment. Kronk listened closely without interruption, his blazing eyes fixed firmly on the air elemental, his craggy face expressionless.
When he was finished, Aeris rested his chin on his knees, again mirroring the wizard, and sighed loudly.
“And now Argentium has possession of the five dragon eggs. The queen has lost whatever was left of her mind and, I'm guessing, will be tearing this world apart trying to find her children again. Let us hope that no humans get in her way as she does so. But what happens now? Can the argent dragon actually hatch and raise those dragons as anything but evil?”
He looked at Kronk.
“Argentium seems to think that they will be born as blank slates and that he can instill his own Lawful values upon them. I'm not so sure.”
“Blood will always run true,” Kronk said slowly as he mulled that idea over.
“Exactly. Wishful thinking and good intentions cannot change the soul of a truly evil being, and those hatchlings are the offspring of the Chaotic dragon queen. Their blood will be tainted from the start. No, this can only end badly for him and, more importantly, for the rest of us. What was Argentium thinking?”
Kronk stood up and resumed his pacing.
“I doubt that he was thinking anything,” he said absently as he frowned in thought. “It sounds like he made an emotional decision in the heat of the moment. But now he is committed, unless he chooses to destroy the eggs before they hatch.”
“He won't,” Aeris said flatly as he rose up to float a few inches above the table. “You should have heard his voice when he told me that he was taking them. He was serious about defending them, even against our wizard. No, Simon has been betrayed again by a Lawful dragon. That's why my faith in the Light is more tenuous than it has ever been.”
“Do not lose faith,” Kronk told him sharply.
He stopped abruptly to give Aeris a stern look.
“Our people, yours and mine, take our direction from Lawful values and have done so since the Great Rebellion. Never forget that.”
“Shh! Don't mention that!” Aeris hissed at him. “We are forbidden to speak of those times.”
“In front of outsiders,” Kronk reminded him. “And our master is not here, so relax. We are safe. But the only way the elemental races survived was to embrace the values of the Light. The gods of Order helped to negotiate our peace and it has held for countless years ever since. You cannot allow the actions of Argentium to shake your faith now. Stand firm, my friend, and we will find a way through this to a happy conclusion.”
Aeris looked bemused.
“I don't believe that you've ever called me your friend before,” he said with a hesitant smile.
“Have I not? Well, that is only because I assumed it was obvious. But you are that to me, Aeris. And I have enough faith in the Light and our master for both of us, so hang on to that if you must. Argentium has made a mistake, one that could shake the foundations of the world, but what of his masters? How will they react?”
Aeris dropped down to the tabletop again and looked at Kronk curiously.
“His masters? He doesn't have any masters. He is the last of his people, Kronk, after the heroic death of Esmiralla last year.”
The air elemental caught himself as he spoke and turned to stare blindly across the room.
“Perhaps that is why he did it,” he muttered to himself. “Because of his loneliness and despair? Yes, that could be the answer.”
“It doesn't matter why he did it,” Kronk told him harshly. “We cannot do anything about the argent dragon right now. We must concentrate on finding our master and giving him the news. He will decide what we must do next.”
“And how will he react, do you think?”
The little guy pondered that question for a moment.
“Well, he will be angry, of course, but I doubt that he will race off to confront Argentium. If nothing else, our master knows that the dragon is almost as powerful as the primals were. Plus, they are a part of each other in a strange way. Remember, it was master's stolen organ that Esmiralla used in her spell to bring the argent dragon back to life.”
“How could I forget? Such a betrayal. Stealing someone's kidney? Without their consent? Oh, he was bitterly angry for months after that.”
“Understandably so. But he eventually forgave her, I think, and he mourned her passing in his own way when she gave her life to bring down the dark tower. As for Argentium, I know that master has a deep respect for the lawful dragon as a person, as well as a healthy dose of caution for him as a force of nature. No, master will not charge into battle upon hearing the news about the eggs. He will want to speak with the argent dragon first.”
Aeris nodded and looked relieved.
“Good. I hope you're right. The dragon's masters that you were speaking of are the gods of Law, I assume?”
Kronk nodded once.
“Yes, I thought as much,” Aeris continued. “I wonder if they will attempt to communicate with Argentium and convince him to abandon his plans for the eggs?”
Kronk sat down again with a thump and looked quizzically at Aeris.
“And if they do contact him and he says no? What then? They do not have enough power, while they are battling the dark gods, to enforce their will upon him. It would be a futile gesture at best. That is, assuming that Argentium would even accept a message from them, which is doubtful.”
“In any case, I guess you're right,” Aeris told him. “We need to find our wizard and see what he says about this mess. We can't do anything without his permission and, just between you and me, he does have a steady head on top of those skinny shoulders of his.”
Kronk snorted irritably as he sprang to his feet.
“Be nice, Aeris. Yes, we must find him. But how? How do we begin? Where do we start looking?”
“For now, we wait. Now hear me out,” he added quickly as Kronk opened his mouth to object. “It's only been a few hours and he might return tonight. If he does and we've all scattered in a panic to look for him, I have a feeling that Simon O'Toole will be...less than amused, let's say. He'll think that we're treating him like a child, again, and I personally don't want to deal with another one of his lectures on how much we baby him. They are lengthy and loud and besides, he's correct.”
Kronk glowered at the air elemental and then slumped a bit.
“You are right, Aeris. We do, well, I
do, treat him like spun glass on occasion. But it is only because I worry so much.”
“I know you do, and so does he, Kronk. But he isn't helpless and, if he's chosen to spread his wings a bit, who are we to argue with him? Let's let him have a night to travel and do whatever it is that he is doing, all right? In the morning, if he hasn't returned, I'll head off to Nottinghill Castle myself to enlist the aid of the mages. Their spells will be of great help in searching for him. Assuming that it will be necessary, of course.”
Kronk nodded dejectedly.
“That is the best course of action, I suppose. But if he has not come home by dawn, you must go for help at once!”
“Relax Kronk,” Aeris said and put a hand to his chest. “I swear that I will, okay? In the meantime, I'll speak with Brethia and Orriss. If a search is necessary, there are only the three of us who can move at speed to look for him physically. No one except Simon can summon any more of my kind, so we are all that there is.”
“You do that. I will tidy up the tower to make sure that it is prepared for master's return.”
With that assertion, Kronk gave Aeris a last worried look and hopped off of the table.
The air elemental watched as the little guy tapped away across the floor and up the stairs and smiled fondly when the earthen was out of sight. He truly hoped that the wizard was not in trouble; it would break Kronk's nonexistent heart if anything were to happen to him.
Mine too, he thought in a moment of honesty.
He shivered as the thought of Simon lying injured somewhere flitted through his mind.
But surely that couldn't happen, he reasoned. After all, with a single word he could Gate back home and be taken care of. No, no, he was on some hare-brained adventure and would be back when he got hungry.
And I'll have a few choice words to say to him about stupid risks, Aeris added as an afterthought.
Pleased with his own reassurance, the air elemental flew out of the door and upward toward the roof.
Unfortunately for Aeris' peace of mind, and Kronk's overactive imagination, Simon O'Toole did not return that evening, nor the next morning.
The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8) Page 7