“Thanks.”
Simon looked at the distant mages. The drakes were approaching them quickly and he concentrated on a spot next to Tamara.
“Gate,” he said.
As he appeared next to the mage, Simon was surprised to see the ground explode a few yards in front of them. Kassus shot out of the earth like a bullet and barreled toward the attacking drakes.
“Simon!” Tamara exclaimed.
She looked pale and her eyes were rather wild.
“You brought the cavalry, I see,” she said as she watched the earthen slam into the nearest drake and tear it into bloody pieces.
“I wish I had friends like those.”
Simon forced a smile.
“You do. Me. Now, I don't know what you think you and your brother were going to accomplish out here, but you failed. And even with Kassus acting as a diversion, you're going to be overrun in a minute. So please, get back to the castle where you belong.”
His tone was a bit sharper than it might have been and the mage glared at him.
“You don't command me, sir wizard,” she told him coolly. “I am not one of your elementals.“
“Technically I don't command them either, but whatever. And it's not an order, Tamara. You and Sebastian are spent and those monsters are too resistant to your spells. Not to mention that there are about fifty of the horrible things. For heaven's sake, look at your brother!”
She turned to look at Sebastian and gasped as she saw him drop to one knee. He had moved away from her during the fight and was now all alone a few dozen yards away.
He was sucking in great breaths as if he'd just run a marathon and, even from where he stood, Simon could hear how painful it sounded.
“Bastian!” Tamara shouted urgently. “Get back to the castle. Right now!”
He glanced over and saw Simon standing next to his sister. With a weak wave, the mage pushed himself to his feet, muttered a spell and disappeared.
Just in time, too, as the spot where he was standing was swarmed by drakes a moment later. They screeched in frustration as their prey vanished and turned their poisonous gaze at Simon and Tamara.
“Your turn,” the wizard told her. “We'll leave Kassus to have his fun. He won't be able to take them all on, but it will keep them busy for a while.”
She nodded and recited the Gate spell. Simon waited until she was safely away before following her. His last sight was of a drake lunging right for him.
I hate snakes, he thought as he appeared back on the battlements. Now more than ever.
“Are you sure you're all right?” he heard Tamara say.
She was standing next to Sebastian and holding on to his elbow to help him stand.
“I'm fine, I'm fine. Honestly, sis, you have to stop fussing. I just overdid it a tad, that's all. Let me sit down for a few minutes and catch my breath and I'll be right as rain.”
With Chao supporting him on one side and Tamara on the other, Sebastian carefully sat on the ground. He noticed Simon watching him and grinned bashfully.
“Messed that up, didn't I?” he asked.
“Not at all, my friend,” Simon reassured him.
He walked over and sat down next to the mage.
“I salute both you and Tamara for trying to head those things off before they reached your people. But those drakes, and the queen herself, aren't like anything you've faced before.”
He made sure that both mages and Chao could hear him as he spoke. They really needed to know what they were up against.
“You saw how the drakes reacted to your spells. Tamara, you did well with the magic missiles, but it was the force of the impact that damaged the creatures, not the magic itself. And Bastian's lightning only stunned them momentarily. They are more resistant to magic than anything I've ever seen before, including the primals. Hopefully we never run into anything completely immune to our powers or we'll really be in trouble.”
“As opposed to what we are now?” Tamara asked with grim humor.
Simon grinned at her, pleased to see that she wasn't angry with him for telling her to retreat from battle.
“Exactly. But this resistance to magic won't save them from physical damage. If magic missiles hurt them and actually killed a few, imagine what the dwarves' arbalests are going to do to them? The enchantment on their bolts may not matter, except to help penetrate their hides, but the razor-sharp edges are going to bite deep. We need to hang back and let our allies help us; that is why they're here, after all.”
“You are entirely too logical sometimes,” Tamara told him. “But you're also right.”
She walked to the front of the battlements and shielded her eyes against the now-bright sun.
“Your friend is having a field day out there,” she said to Simon. “But the drakes seem to be able to learn. They are avoiding him now and coming straight toward the castle.”
Simon joined her and squinted at the distant elemental.
Tamara was right. While incredibly strong and resilient, Kassus wasn't very fast and the surviving drakes were streaming past him while he fought a handful of the creatures. It was hard to tell from the castle walls, but Simon guessed that the elemental had killed perhaps a dozen drakes.
“He's done well,” the wizard said. “Aeris, could you check back on the queen and see if she's producing any more of those damned things? One surprise today is more than enough for me.”
“On my way,” the air elemental said as he quickly flew off.
Simon leaned out over the parapet.
“Ironhand!” he yelled. “They're coming!”
“It's about bloody time!” the king called up. “What are they?”
“Drakes. The queen created them.”
“She's a tricky one, for sure. We're ready for them.”
The wizard waved at the dwarves and moved back to check on Sebastian.
The mage was already standing up again. He was drinking from a canteen that one of the guards had offered him.
“Thanks Charlie,” he said as he returned the container. “Better get back in position. They'll need your bow in a moment.”
“Yes sir,” the young guardsman said.
He rejoined the line of archers standing ready along the battlements while Sebastian smiled reassuringly at Simon.
“Before you ask again, I'm fine. I overdid it in my enthusiasm, but I've learned my lesson and I'll pace myself from now on.”
“Good. And for this battle, I think projectile-based magic will be our best bet,” Simon told him.
Tamara and Chao were listening as well as Sebastian and the conjurer frowned at the term.
“Projectile-based?” he asked. “What kind of spells are those? As you know, my magic is quite different from yours.”
“I'm guessing that Simon means spells like Magic Missile, Ice Spear, Meteor; that sort of thing,” Tamara told him. “Am I right?”
“Exactly. Can either of you cast the more powerful projectile spells?” he asked the siblings.
Sebastian glanced at his sister and she shook her head.
“No, that's your department, my friend,” Tamara admitted. “We've tried using the incantations you gave us, on numerous occasions but, well...”
“We don't have that level of power,” Sebastian admitted frankly. “The last time I tried to cast that Meteor spell, I passed out.”
“And the Ice Spear simply doesn't work for us at all,” Tamara added. “No, we'll stick with Magic Missile and let you unleash the big guns.”
“Gotcha,” Simon told them. “We all need to go with our strengths. And speaking of which, I think that it's time to use one of mine. Excuse me.”
He walked away from the others down along the wall until he was halfway to the corner where Sylvie and Veronique were stationed.
“They're almost within range,” he heard one of the archers shout. “Get ready.”
Simon ignored that. He was quite sure that between the dwarven machines and the human archers, the drakes didn't stand
a chance. What concerned him was the queen herself. They were about to slaughter her drakes and he had a feeling that she would attack when that happened. He doubted that her patience would last much longer, mad thing that she was.
“Incendus, I need you. And bring your friends along with you,” he called out.
There was no dramatic entrance this time, no fireballs from the clear blue sky. Instead, the fire elemental appeared ten feet away from Simon, shaped like a man engulfed in intense flames.
Fortunately the wizard had found an area of the wall far enough away from everyone so that the elemental's blistering heat didn't do any harm. Which was good because another of the beings appeared next to Incendus. And then another. And another.
Seconds later, ten fire elementals burned brightly along the wall. Simon could hear exclamations of surprise both behind him and from the sisters down at the corner, but he stayed focused on Incendus.
“Thank you for returning,” he said gratefully. “And for bringing along some friends.”
The fire elemental laughed, his voice crackling with power.
“You are welcome. And you're fortunate that the rules forbid you from summoning more than ten of my kind at once. I was actually inundated with volunteers when I went home and told them that you wanted additional help.”
Several of his fellows laughed at his comment, but their bodies almost blended together as one and Simon couldn't differentiate one from another.
“So, the battle has begun?”
Simon nodded and pointed at the drakes on the fields below. They were almost within range of the arbalests.
“Ah, I see,” Incendus said as he floated over to the edge of the wall. “And dwarves have joined you. Excellent. Good people, dwarves, for all that they turned on my kind many years ago. Stodgy but honest and fair. Did you want us to deal with those...whatever those snaky things are?”
“No, let's let the dwarves handle it,” Simon told him. “If they can't stop them, then feel free. No, the queen created those drakes as a prelude to her own attack. I brought you back before that happened. She is your primary target.”
“Good. We are all looking forward to it. Simply give the order when you are ready.”
“Thanks, Incendus. And my thanks to all of you for coming as well,” he told the pack of elementals.
They bowed as one and Simon hurried back to Tamara and the others.
“Now that's impressive,” she said, looking past Simon as he rejoined them. “Fire elementals? Wow.”
“I agree,” Chao told him. “They are going to make my friends pale in comparison, provided I even need to summon them after those elementals get done with the dragon queen.”
“Don't worry,” Simon replied grimly. “I have a feeling that she won't go down easily. So any help will be welcome when the main battle begins.”
“Archers! Get ready!” one of the guards called out.
The four spell-casters moved closer to the front of the wall until they could see the scene below without interfering with the line of archers.
“Almost here,” Sebastian muttered as he watched the swarm of drakes slithering toward the castle. “Almost here.”
Simon held his breath.
Now, he thought.
There was a shout in dwarvish from below that he was sure was the voice of the king, and the dozen arbalests shot their bolts almost as one.
The wicked projectiles tore through the approaching drakes, splattering gore everywhere. Bodies exploded, heads were ripped off; it was horrible and awesome in equal measure.
The people watching from on top of the wall cheered and Simon peeked over the edge to observe the dwarves reloading their weapons.
He'd wondered how fast they would be. The answer was, very fast indeed. The arbalests were re-cocked and reloaded in seconds and then each one was fired at will. The drakes never had a chance.
“Relax, everyone,” the lead archer told the others. “Save your arrows. The dwarves have matters well in hand.”
There were a few disappointed grumbles but for the most part everyone looked relieved. They had won the first round.
“Now what?” Tamara wondered as she watched the last drake writhe and bleed out.
Her answer was immediate and frightening. A bellow of rage rolled out of the forest with enough force to shake the castle walls.
While several people cried out, Simon turned to look at the mage.
“Now the queen enters the fray.”
Chapter 33
There was an explosion of green and brown at the edge of the forest. Trees and underbrush were pulverized as the dragon queen burst from the woods in all of her horrific glory.
“By my ancestors, she's big,” Chao whispered in awe.
“Big doesn't begin to cover it,” Sebastian added, his eyes as large as saucers. “How long is she? A hundred feet? More? Gods, how can something that big and heavy be that fast?”
“Magic, my friend,” Simon said grimly as he watched the last of the dragon's golden coils slip out of the wreckage behind her.
From where they were standing, the queen looked even more like a snake than a dragon. But there were differences that were uniquely hers.
Her wicked spines that dripped venom constantly could be seen even at a distance. They started growing from between her eyes and followed in a line all the way to the tip of her tail. A pair of thick, fleshy whiskers grew from her snout and writhed like tentacles. And her legs, mere stumps compared to the limbs of other dragons, seemed almost useless. The forward pair supported the weight of her great head and neck, but her back legs, protruding a mere dozen feet from the end of her body, could barely touch the ground.
“Do you know something?” Chao said the group. “She looks very much like our ancient depictions of dragons. I wonder if my ancestors encountered her, way back in the mists of time.”
“Undoubtedly,” Simon told him. “Or they heard stories of her from the older races, the dwarves and elves. As far as I know, she is unique, so I can't believe those old paintings of dragons that look like her are just a coincidence.”
“Yes, it's a fascinating subject, gentlemen,” Tamara said sarcastically. “But can we focus on the here and now please? How the hell do we stop her if she is as resistant to magic as those damnable drakes were?”
“The old fashioned way,” the wizard replied grimly. “We beat the hell out of her. She is immortal, not invulnerable. Those arbalest bolts will hurt. Arrows too. Their enchantments will let them pierce her hide. Our main problem is her size. Can we do enough damage to something that large to stop her? Especially since she will not be just standing still and letting us turn her into a pincushion.”
“Your little friend is returning,” Sebastian said as he watched the distant dragon. “And in a hurry again too.”
Simon just managed to see Aeris before the elemental reached the wall. His transparent body was hard to make out, especially when he was moving at great speed.
“There are no more drakes out there, my dear wizard,” Aeris reported as he rejoined them. “But something is happening with our friends overhead.”
“It is?”
Everyone turned their eyes upward to seek out the circling dragons, only to discover that they weren't all flying in formation any longer. A shining speck of silver was descending at tremendous speed, directly toward the dragon queen.
“It's Argentium!” Sebastian exclaimed excitedly. “Is he going to attack her?”
“I doubt it,” Simon replied. “From the way he spoke earlier, a battle is the last thing that he or the others want to engage in.”
The queen reacted to the approaching dragon by rearing up exactly as a snake would, her coils tightening beneath her to support her tremendous weight.
Her high-pitched hissing was as loud as a steam whistle and her jaws gaped open, rows of wicked teeth gleaming in the sunlight.
The argent dragon spread his wings at the last moment and he landed exactly in the middle of the open groun
d between the queen and the castle.
The two leviathans eyed each other silently for several moments, while those watching from the walls spoke in whispers, speculating about what was going to happen.
While they had a moment of respite, Simon walked away from the others and gestured for Aeris to join him.
“What is it?” the elemental asked.
“Nothing that important, but it just occurred to me that if I leave our mutual friend back at home instead of letting him join us in what could be the final battle between mankind and dragons, he'll never forgive me.”
Aeris grinned widely.
“You know that he'd forgive you for anything. But you're right, it would be a kindness not to let him miss it.”
“I'm glad that you agree.”
Simon stared at an open space on the ground a few feet away.
“Kronk, I need you,” he said firmly.
A small vibration could be felt under his feet and then the earthen appeared, pulling himself up out of the stone of the wall.
He looked up at Simon and Aeris and smiled with delight.
“Master! You remembered me! Oh, I am pleased.”
“Of course I remembered you, old friend,” the wizard said as he went down on one knee.
He reached out and Kronk placed a hand on his palm.
“I thought that you might want to be here for this confrontation with the queen. It just didn't seem fair to leave you behind.”
“Thank you, master. I appreciate your concern. Aeris, have you been behaving yourself?”
“Yes Mom,” the air elemental said, rolling his eyes. “Good to see you too, by the way.”
“Don't start, you two,” Simon warned them, trying to sound stern. “This is way too serious a situation. And that reminds me; since I'm summoning earthen, what the hell happened to Kassus?”
He stood up with some help from his staff and motioned for Kronk to join Aeris behind him.
“Kassus, come to me,” he said.
Like Kronk, the large earthen appeared to climb out of the solid stone wall. The shaking that accompanied him was much more pronounced however, and everyone looked around to see what had caused it.
The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8) Page 43