“Really? Now that is interesting.”
Kronk stared off into space, his eyes dimming as he became lost in thought.
“Yes, I'm sure that divine politics is fascinating,” Aeris scoffed. “But can we focus on a solution here, please?”
The little guy gestured at him for silence and Aeris rolled his eyes and levitated above the table, trying to decide what should happen next.
Logically, he thought, I should return to Nottinghill Castle and inform Tamara and the other leaders about what has happened. Collectively they might be able to come up with some sort of plan to rescue Simon. At least he would be doing something.
“Aeris!”
The air elemental yelped and glared down at Kronk.
“Don't do that,” he said sharply. “You startled me.”
“Sorry,” the little guy said. “I think that you should go back to Nottinghill at once and tell them what has happened.”
Aeris snorted a laugh.
“That's just what I was thinking,” he replied.
“Great minds think alike and all that. Also, ask them to speak to their clerics about this.”
Aeris landed on the table again, looking at Kronk in confusion.
“Why?”
“Because we are talking about a god here. Not a great and powerful one, true enough, but a god all the same. They may have insights that mages and even paladins do not. At the very least, they can inform their patrons through prayer or whatever about what has happened. Who knows, maybe the lords of Justice will be feeling generous and respond.”
“Wow, we are truly grasping at straws when we've reached the point of hoping for divine intervention,” Aeris said dryly.
“There has already been divine intervention,” Kronk reminded him. “By an evil little godling named Lacertus. Now get going. Time is now our enemy.”
“Right. I'm off. Hold down the fort while I'm gone.”
“I always do.”
Aeris smiled at his friend and vanished.
Kronk stared at the spot where he had been and let out a long sigh. He had never felt so helpless.
If Malcolm was grumpy at being woken up earlier, he was positively bear-like when it happened again.
“What the hell is so important that it couldn't wait until morning?” he snarled as he stalked into the main hall, Aiden in tow. “Is there a dragon banging on the front gate? A horde of wyverns descending from the sky? The second coming? What?”
“Malcolm, please don't,” Tamara said from her usual seat as she rubbed her temples. “I'm just not in the mood.”
He glared at her and she in turn pointed at the center of the table. Aeris was floating there once again and Malcolm closed his mouth with an audible snap, his eyes wide.
“Uh oh,” Aiden said from behind him. “This can't be good.”
“It's not even close to being good,” Sebastian said from his seat next to his sister. “Let's wait for everyone to come back and we'll let Aeris tell us all about it.”
Liliana stalked into the hall a moment later, still wearing her armor and looking alert and focused. She saw Aeris and narrowed her eyes but simply sat down silently and waited.
Lei and Chao entered soon after, chatting animatedly with Sylvie and Veronique; apparently the four had run into each other on the way to the meeting.
“Ah, our little friend has returned, I see,” Chao said in his soft voice. “I fear that it may be bad news.”
“Your fears are justified,” Tamara said ominously.
She looked around and nodded, then stood up to address the group.
“Chao, you may recall your friends, the drakontes. We won't need them anymore. And after this meeting, Aeris is going to recall his fellow air elementals from their search as well.”
Malcolm's dark expression changed in an instant and he smiled incredulously.
“Simon's been found!” he exclaimed in delight.
“Well, yes and no,” Tamara told him.
“Meaning what, exactly?” Aiden asked with a frown.
“Meaning that yes, we now know where Simon is, but no, don't get too excited because we can't reach him.”
“Wait. Hang on a minute,” Malcolm told her. “There is no place on Earth that you and the other mages here can't reach, as long as you know where it is or what it looks like, right? So what's the problem?”
Tamara shook her head and sat down, looking at her brother plaintively.
“The problem,” Sebastian told him as he stood up in place of his sister, “is that Simon isn't on Earth. In fact, from the sound of it, he isn't anywhere in the known universe.”
The warrior looked puzzled.
“You've lost me,” he said.
“Aeris, would you please tell everyone what you told Tammy and myself when you returned?”
“Yes, sir mage. Of course.”
And Aeris proceeded to relate what he had been told by the mysterious Sarah. It didn't take long, but Malcolm looked like he was ready to burst before the elemental was halfway through it.
When the elemental had finished, the big man surged to his feet and stared around the table.
“Are you seriously telling me that we're going to take the word of some disguised stranger about where Simon is? Really? We don't know this woman, if she really is a woman. How do we know that she's telling the truth? She could be some sort of monster; Aeris never saw her face. Did you?”
“No, sir warrior, I did not.”
“See? Maybe she wasn't this Sarah person at all. Maybe she was something else.”
“Something else?”
Malcolm turned to look down the table at Liliana.
“What else could she have been?” the paladin asked.
“How should I know? But I find it curious that earlier in the day, this woman, or whatever, showed up at the gates of the tower and asked to see Simon. Why would she do that if she already knew where he was, hmm? And, Changling or not, I challenge anyone here to explain to me how any human could get past the wizard's wards. I mean, he trapped and killed a primal dragon inside of them, for God's sake! They aren't just going to be bypassed by someone who wants to have a little chat with Aeris.”
More than one member of the group looked perplexed as they considered Malcolm's words, and Tamara was nodding as she stared at him thoughtfully.
“You make some good points,” she told the warrior. “I may have been too quick to assume the worst. Aeris, can you be sure that the person you spoke to was this Sarah that Simon once met?”
“No, lady. I can't say if it was she or not. I will say that she mentioned that she had met the wizard once before, which is something that I doubt very many people know. And she gave me a stone that is similar to one she passed on to him back then as well.”
“A stone? What sort of stone?”
“She said that it would allow me to communicate with her if I needed her help. It seemed like a generous thing to do at the time. She left it for me outside of the wall that surrounds the tower.”
Like the others, Chao was watching the elemental closely and, as soon as Aeris mentioned the stone and where he found it, the man sat up abruptly.
“Could I see this gift that she gave you, my friend?” he asked politely.
“Yes sir, of course.”
Aeris reached into his own body and withdrew a dark round stone.
“Now that's a handy way to store things,” Sylvie said with a smile.
“Well, lady mage, we elementals don't have pockets,” Aeris quipped.
She laughed, as did several others, and the atmosphere in the room lightened considerably.
“Here it is, sir,” Aeris said as he flew across the table and offered the stone to Chao.
The conjurer drew his fan from his sash and opened it with a musical clash. He held it out flat and gestured at it with his free hand.
“Place it on the fan, if you please,” he asked.
“Certainly.”
Aeris put the stone carefully on the bla
des of the fan and flew backwards.
“What exactly are you doing, Chao?” Veronique asked as she watched, fascinated.
“Perhaps nothing, but I find it rather curious that this Sarah person offered our small friend this object, but left it outside of the protective wards of the tower. Now why do you suppose she did that?”
The others looked puzzled as Chao glanced around and he smiled gently.
“I believe that it is because this stranger was never inside of the tower in the first place,” he stated firmly.
“But...but sir,” Aeris spluttered. “I saw her. She was sitting in a chair no farther away from me than you are now. She reflected the light of my candle. I swear that she was real.”
“Be easy, my friend. I am sure that she was a real being. However, I think that what you saw was an illusion; a projection of some kind. As Malcolm just pointed out, the wizard's wards are incredibly strong; strong enough, in fact, to trap a dragon. I do not know whether your visitor was human or something else, but I do not think that she crossed the warding magic. Rather, I believe that she muddled your mind, hiding both her true form and your fellow elementals from your sight until her message had been given. And she left this,” he held up the fan with the stone resting on it, “outside of the wall because she could not physically transport it within.”
“You are a clever one, do you know that?” Malcolm said in admiration.
“He was always the smart one in the family,” Lei told them with a grin. “Or so our mother told me on numerous occasions.”
Chao gave his brother an amused look.
“Do not give me airs, Lei. This is just a theory. We must test it first.”
He stood up and moved away from the table until he was standing once more in the open space before the great fireplace, where he had summoned both the sprite and the drakontes.
“What are you going to do?” Liliana asked.
She was watching the stone on top of the fan with suspicion, one hand resting lightly on her sword hilt. Out of all of them, she was the only one who was armed.
“I am going to attempt to learn this artifact's nature. What it is, what it does and if it is dangerous. I was given a spell of invocation, a triggering spell if you will, from a creature that I summoned once. He was a gentle soul and could not aid me in the task I wanted him to do, and so he gave me this instead, as a gift. I will admit that, until now, it has not been of much practical use.”
“What sort of creature?” Aiden asked curiously.
“Hard to say. Picture a man-sized being made of green ooze. That could speak. And smelled like vomit. That's about as much of a description as I'll pass along.”
Aiden looked revolted and Malcolm snickered at his reaction.
“Boys? Can we stick to business please,” Tamara told them. “It's late and this is serious.”
“Sorry,” both warriors said in unison.
“Good. Go ahead, Chao.”
“Thank you. Now, let us see what you are, little stone.”
Chapter 18
Once again, Chao began to chant in the lyrical language of the ancient Chinese spell-casters. He spun in slow circles and weaved his hands in intricate designs, all while keeping the small stone balanced on his fan. Those watching were mesmerized by his magic.
“Whoever coined the phrase 'captivated by a spell' must have meant something like this,” Malcolm whispered to Aiden. “It's fascinating.”
His partner nodded silently, as entranced as everyone else was by the ritual.
One person, however, was not hypnotized by the conjurer's spell. Liliana watched every movement through narrowed eyes and she was perhaps the only one who was unsurprised by the results.
Chao's chanting faded away as he finished his incantation and his hand dipped slightly, perhaps accidentally or from exhaustion.
“Whoops,” he said as the stone tumbled to the ground.
There was a small flash and an explosive whooshing sound and then black smoke billowed out from the small rock, as thick and impenetrable as mud.
“Fools!” something howled from within the dense fog. “Meddlers! How dare you interfere!”
Chao stumbled back and fell against the fireplace, narrowly avoiding tripping into the roaring fire. His brother leaped to his feet and surged forward, ready to defend him with his bare hands.
It was unnecessary. With a ringing battle cry, Liliana jumped up from her chair. She vaulted to the top of the long, heavy table and drew her sword with one smooth movement. It flared with silver light, dazzling the group.
The paladin took a single step toward the black cloud, pushed off from the table and leaped straight at it, holding her sword ahead of her like the point of a spear.
An unearthly scream of rage and fear trembled through the air as the blessed weapon pierced the cloud and cut through whatever was inside of it like it was made of paper.
Liliana rolled gracefully as she hit the floor and spun around, sword held high for a second stroke.
But the black miasma shivered and broke apart, the demonic howls fading as quickly as they had begun. The danger was past.
“Holy crap,” Malcolm exclaimed, wide-eyed. “What the hell was that?”
Lei reached his brother and helped him up, fussing over him until the smaller man pushed him away gently.
“That, my friend, was a trap,” Chao said to the warrior. “I rather suspected that it might be, but I hadn't expected such a...vigorous reaction to my spell.”
He turned to look at Liliana, who had sheathed her sword and was down on one knee on the floor next to a sooty black smudge; all that was left of the small stone.
“Thank you, lady paladin,” he said with a graceful bow. “You saved my life.”
She looked up and smiled.
“I doubt that, but you're welcome” she replied. “I was just lucky. I found what you had said earlier, about the stone being left outside of the gate at Simon's tower, suspicious and wanted to be ready. Just in case. Unfortunately,” she pointed at the burn mark on the wooden floor, “we'll probably never know exactly what that was. It barely left any residue behind and I can't begin to guess what sort of curse was laid on that stone.”
“It was a curse, lady?” Aeris asked as he flew down the length of the table.
The elemental had been as shocked as everyone else and it had taken him a moment to recover.
“Undoubtedly,” she told him.
She pushed herself to her feet.
“But we cannot know who created it or for what reason. That Sarah person, whoever or whatever she was, obviously knew that Simon was missing. So, why would she leave a cursed stone for him? Did she expect him to return shortly? Was that story about him being imprisoned just a ruse? Why? What was the purpose?
She glanced one last time at the black mark and walked back to her seat, sitting down with a heavy sigh.
“I must admit that I am at a loss to answer any of those questions,” she finished and then lapsed into a brooding silence.
The brothers returned to their seats as well, while the rest of the group sat down again.
“I am going to go out on a limb here,” Aiden spoke up, “and say that whoever you saw in the tower, Aeris, was not the Sarah that Simon met years ago. I suspect that it was something much more sinister.”
“Perhaps so, sir,” the elemental replied as he moved back to the center of the table. “I do remember the wizard telling us that he believed Sarah and the other Changlings had been caught by a pack of undead, led by a lich that he destroyed a few years ago. Sadly, I think now that he might have been correct.”
“A lich?”
Chao and his brother exchanged glances.
“My goodness, your wizard has had some adventures, hasn't he?” the conjurer exclaimed. “It makes the years we spent alone in Beijing seem almost tame in comparison.”
“He's been busy, that's true,” Aeris told him with a wry smile. “And it hasn't been boring for those of us who serve him either.
”
“Finally admitting that you serve Simon?” Sebastian teased him.
The air elemental shrugged in resignation.
“Yes, of course I serve him, sir mage, but I am not a servant, if you see what I mean. And those are the wizard's words, not mine. Anyway, now we are back where we started from; not knowing where Simon O'Toole is.”
“Damn it, that's true,” Malcolm said angrily. “So where do we go from here?”
“Back to the drawing board, I suppose,” Tamara told him. “We let the drakontes and the elementals continue their search and we carry on. What else can we do?”
“Well, we can worry about Argentium and what he's doing with those damned eggs,” Veronique said suddenly.
She and her sister had sat quietly while events unfolded around them, and no one had noticed each of them readying spells when the stone had exploded.
Now though, Veronique stood up and leaned forward on her hands, looking up and down the table.
“We seem to have taken the news about the argent dragon stealing the last five dragon eggs quite casually since Aeris told us about it. Now, I understand that you are all concerned about the whereabouts of Simon; Sylvie and I are as well. But can we not also talk about the elephant in the room? If that foolish dragon manages to hatch those eggs and they grow into five new primals, then to use the vernacular, my friends; we are screwed.”
Sylvie laughed quietly at her sister's choice of words but stood up as well.
“Veronique is correct. We have been discussing this for hours; since Aeris' last visit, in fact. I am quite fond of Simon, but I am even more fond of this planet, and the remnants of the human race. That dragon must be stopped. Or, at the very least, those eggs must be destroyed. It won't do us much good to find our lost friend only to lose our world.”
The room became quiet as both sisters sat down again. All that could be heard was the crackling of the burning logs in the fireplace and, suddenly, the distant crowing of a rooster.
Malcolm chuckled.
“Sounds like someone brought the chickens back home from Kingstone,” he said.
Tamara stretched and covered a yawn.
The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8) Page 22