The silence fell again.
“That's it?” Simon asked, a little exasperated.
“You asked who I am. I replied. What more it there to say?”
Oh, this is going well, he thought. This could get frustrating very quickly.
“That's a good point,” he said. “How about this; I'll tell you something about me and you can tell me something about you. Deal?”
“Intriguing. Very well then, let us try.”
“Fine then. As I said, my name is Simon. I'm a wizard.”
Another silence.
“You should not start off a give and take like this by lying,” the voice said harshly. “There are no wizards. There have been none in over five thousand years.”
“So I've been told. But I'm telling you the truth. After the dragons returned, a few humans were Changed into...something else. Something crafted to survive in an atmosphere rich in magical energy. I guess I drew the short straw and was Changed into a wizard.”
“A wizard. Well now, that could be true. You were drawn to the sphere, after all. It only attracts those capable of using magic. But a wizard! How extraordinary.”
“If you say so,” Simon replied flatly. “Okay, your turn.”
“Fair enough, wizard. But before I share more with you, tell me; where does your allegiance lie? Do you follow the Light or are you an agent of Chaos?”
Simon frowned.
“I follow the old lords of Light. The gods of Chaos have killed many of my friends and allies, and have tried to kill me on several occasions. They destroyed my people and my world. There are no words to describe how much I loathe them.”
“Ah. I can hear the truth in your voice, and I am difficult to deceive. And how do you feel about the dragons who call those dark gods master?”
“I thought that we were doing a give and take,” Simon said sharply. “Sounds like I'm doing all of the giving and you're doing all of the taking.”
“It does, yes. But if I reveal myself, it must be to someone I can trust. One mistake could mean my doom.”
Simon sat back and stared at the black orb. Who could he be talking to? This Esmiralla sounded like someone who was an enemy of Chaos, but how could he know for sure? She, and he felt that the person he was speaking to was a she, could be a dark servant just waiting to ensnare him with this crystal ball. It could be a cursed object; he'd certainly read about such things in old fantasy books. And the elementals had mentioned them too. But those were just stories. This was real.
Life is risk, lad, he told himself as he made his decision.
“I hate them,” he said flatly. “I've been fighting them for several years now and I've been involved in the deaths of four of the primals.”
“Ah.”
The darkness inside the orb began to swirl, little ribbons of light slashing across the blackness like a monochromatic rainbow. A sighing sound, like a lonely desert wind, rose from the crystal ball and made Simon shiver with its sound of loss.
The orb began to brighten, glowing softly at first and then shining brighter than the candles on the desk. It changed color until it shone like gold and music, a distant resonance, made Simon's breath catch in his throat.
So beautiful, he thought. So pure.
The orb seemed to grow, or else he was being drawn into it, and a figure emerged out of the light, a massive outline that towered above him, looking down with eyes as golden as the light around them. It was a dragon.
Simon gasped and frantically reached for a spell, any spell. But his mind was blank and he stood, helplessly, waiting for the monster to strike.
The dragon was twice as large as a lesser dragon and was so different from others of its kind that Simon's fear was washed away by wonder.
It was glittering as if made of metal. Its scales were silver, gleaming with clean light. Its golden eyes stared into his own, not with hatred and hunger, but with warmth and compassion. It was an expression the wizard had never seen on a dragon's face before.
“You have revealed yourself to me, wizard, so now I reveal myself to you. I am Esmiralla, last of the silver dragons.”
The huge head moved forward and the dragon actually bowed to him.
“A...silver dragon? I didn't know that there were any silver dragons.”
The broad wings unfurled slightly and, as they moved, a chiming of scales rang through the air.
“There are not; not anymore. But once we lived, as did the other draconic servants of the Light; gold, bronze, copper, brass. All gone now. All destroyed by the Chaos lords and their accursed servants, the dark dragons. I am the only one to survive.”
She shook her tremendous head and her eyes reflected her pain.
“I wonder, from time to time, if I was left alive as a curse. Or perhaps it is some sort of universal joke played upon me by the cosmos. And yet I live and I live and I live.”
Simon looked around and realized that they were standing inside a huge cavern. He couldn't see the limits of the open space, but the ceiling was only feet above the dragon's head and looked smooth and shiny, as if Esmiralla had worn it away with her head over the centuries. Perhaps she had.
“You've been here for thousands of years?”
“Indeed I have. After all of my people were destroyed, I was instructed by one of the lords of Light to retreat to this,” she looked around listlessly, “prison, shelter, whatever you wish to call it. It was sealed behind me and I fell into an enchanted sleep, to wait hopelessly for a better future.”
Her sadness gave way to a look of amusement.
“Apparently this is it. I suppose even gods have a sense of humor.”
“A poor one, I'd say,” Simon replied critically.
“I cannot argue with that,” Esmiralla agreed.
Simon couldn't believe that such a creature existed. She was what he had always pictured when he thought of dragons. Her silver scales were perfectly formed, her long snout and almond-shaped eyes were symmetrical and smooth. Even the horns that jutted above her brows were beautiful; they were translucent and shone like crystals.
“So why have you contacted me now, after all this time?” he asked.
The dragon sat down and the floor shook slightly. Her tail slipped around to cover her feet and Simon thought that she looked like a massive cat as she stared down at him.
“I did not contact you, young man. You contacted me. The orb that you found is an artifact created by wizards millennia ago, along with other items; a wand, books of spells, other things.”
“I found those too!” Simon exclaimed. “But the only thing that drew me to it was the crystal ball.”
“That is how it works. If you know any other magic-users, you might want to expose them to those other relics. They are artifacts that can only be used by those who follow the Light and they are quite powerful.”
“Huh. Well, thanks. I'll remember that. So I found the orb and contacted you. Now what? You've been trapped in this cave basically forever. Do I need to, I don't know, dig you out or something?”
Esmiralla laughed, an amazingly gentle sound from such a large creature.
“I am not trapped here, wizard. I have left my sanctuary several times since the evil dragons returned. In fact, I have been in contact with one other human since your race fell. She is one that I knew I could trust with news of my existence. She was the one who told me of you, which is why, when you mentioned your involvement with the fall of the primals, I knew who you were and exposed myself to you.”
“She told you? She who? Someone I know?”
Another gentle laugh.
“I will leave it to you to discover this person's identity. Now, we must sever this connection before our mutual nemesis, the Chaos lords, discover us. Any more questions?”
“Just one right now. I'll ask more later, if we can communicate again in the future. Can we?”
“Of course. The crystal ball can reach me where no other spell will. Just keep the conversations brief. Now, your last question?”
“Yes. I was wondering something. When the dark primal dragons died, their servants, the lesser dragons, all died as well. But you are still alive. Does that mean that you are the primal silver dragon or...?”
Esmiralla laughed, but there was a note of grief mixed in with the sound.
“Alas no. Neither primal nor queen am I. There will be no more silver dragons to brighten the sky. You see, unlike those animals who serve Chaos, we of the Light were never slaves to our primals. We were servants to a certain extent, yes, but individuals with our own wills and desires. That is why it took many years of fighting to destroy us, because each of us had to be hunted down and killed individually.”
“Oh, I see. Well, thanks for that. Would you prefer that I keep your existence a secret?”
“For now, I think that would be for the best. I believe that you have several trusted elemental servants?”
“How do you...?”
“I told you, wizard; I spoke with someone who knows much about you. If you wish to share your knowledge of me with them, that will be acceptable. Once summoned, an elemental's loyalty is unquestioned and unbreakable.”
“I know,” Simon replied with an affectionate smile.
“And now I leave you. Keep hope in your heart, young man. Dark days lie ahead, but in the end, the Light shall prevail.”
The scene began to fade away, like a gentle dream.
“I hope so,” Simon murmured and then, with a jolt, he found himself sitting in his study, staring at the crystal ball again and wondering if he'd actually just spoken with a silver dragon.
Chapter 14
When Kronk came back inside later that day, Simon was downstairs baking bread. The delicious smell wafted through the tower and the little guy smiled as he entered and watched the wizard puttering around the kitchen.
“We have finished the repairs, master,” he said as he hopped up and down on the rug just inside the door, shaking off the rain water.
“Oh good. How did it go?”
“Fine, master.”
The earthen tapped across the floor and jumped up on to the table. He watched as Simon slipped on some thick gloves, opened the oven of the cast iron stove and began pulling out fresh loaves of bread.
“The outer wall is holding up quite well, but we do not like to allow the natural weathering to get too far ahead of us. It saves us major repairs later if we catch it early.”
“Makes sense,” the wizard replied as he put the four bread tins on a towel on the kitchen counter to cool. He shut the oven door, took off his gloves and set the kettle on top of the hot stove to boil.
“No sign of Aeris yet, master?”
“Nope. But it's only been a few hours.”
Simon rinsed out his teacup and added dried tea to it.
“I expect it will take him a few days to find any cattle. I just wonder if they were mutated into something else, like the horses were.”
He folded his arms and frowned in thought.
“It's quite possible that they are now totally unsuitable to be domesticated, if they can even give milk at all. Who knows?”
“That is true, master. But many animals remain exactly the same as they were before the dragons returned. The deer in the forest are basically the same, just slightly larger than they were. The smaller creatures; rabbits, squirrels, foxes, all seem to be in their original form.”
The water boiled quickly on the stove and the wizard nodded as he picked it up and began to make his tea.
“I know. It's so weird how arbitrary the whole thing was. Was there a plan by the Chaos lords? Or did things just Change randomly when exposed to magical energy? I'd really like to know that someday.”
Simon took his tea and sat down in front of the fireplace, sighing contentedly. Kronk jumped down to the floor and then up on to the arm of the chair.
“Well master, you do know that the Changlings were chosen, not mutated at random.”
“Yeah but that's because we were Changed by the gods of Light, not those Chaos bastards,” the wizard said with a scowl. “All the other Changes were brought about by the evil gods.”
He sipped some tea and became thoughtful.
“Maybe their name says it all. They are chaotic, random. It's quite possible that everything was altered haphazardly. If that is the case, I wonder if these so-called gods are even rational. They might just be insane.”
Kronk shuddered and Simon glanced at him curiously.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, master. Just that the idea of beings that powerful being irrational is not a pleasant one. Evil or not, I do hope that they are not crazy. At least you can fight those who are sane. But gods who do things randomly? How can you even plan a response to something like that?”
The wizard patted the little guy's shoulder reassuringly.
“We'll find a way, Kronk. We will. After all, weak or not, the lords of Light are on our side in this. And they, at least, should know how to counter their dark cousins.”
“Let us hope so, master. Let us indeed hope so.”
Simon moved up to his study after the bread had cooled and he'd wrapped it for later use. He'd hidden the crystal ball again but had decided that as soon as Aeris returned, he'd tell both of his friends about it and about Esmiralla. This whole sneaking around thing did not sit well with him.
In the meantime, he grabbed a book on farming off of his shelf and began to read. Horses he knew, somewhat, but cows? They were a different story. How on earth Daniel had known which books to fill his shelf with was a mystery, but he had and Simon was constantly amazed at the resources he found when he had a need for them.
He flipped through the book, fascinated to learn about bovine physiology. Four stomachs? Really? Yikes.
Some time later, Simon went back downstairs, made a cup of coffee, still thrilled that he was able to do so, and went back up again. Kronk had gone out into the rain and he had the tower to himself.
He sat down in his study, sipped his coffee for a minute and then picked up his mirror. He wasn't sure why he'd been putting off this task, but it was about time he contacted his friend Daniel.
“Magic Mirror,” he said simply and watched the reflective surface fog over. He kept his friend's face fixed firmly in his mind and waited as patiently as he could.
The mirror cleared reluctantly and Simon found himself looking at a bright, sunlit glade. The grass was sprinkled with wildflowers of many colors and they twinkled with dew in the morning sun. It was an idyllic scene and he couldn't help but smile.
A lone figure was sitting in the shade of a huge old tree, resting against the trunk and idly reading a leather-bound book. It was Daniel.
Simon watched his oldest friend with great affection. Prematurely aged when he had traveled from the elven realm to Earth, Daniel's thick white hair hung to his shoulders and his wrinkled face gave him an aura of wisdom. He looked content and healthier than Simon remembered and he was encouraged by the sight.
The figure in the mirror was wearing an ornate, cream-colored robe covered in fine stitching and looked a lot more like a wizard than Simon thought he himself ever would. It suited him very well.
The wizard twitched the mirror and it zoomed in closer on his friend.
Daniel frowned and looked up, examining the glade with his hawk-like gaze.
“Since I don't know anyone else that can communicate with me here using magic, I assume that's it's you, Simon?” he said as he stared at the field in front of him.
“Yeah, it's me. I'm amazed that you can sense me using the Magic Mirror spell now.”
Daniel waved a hand around vaguely.
“It's this place. I've become convinced that the elven realm alters you the longer you stay here. I'll never be a spell-caster, but my ability to feel magic around me has definitely been heightened.”
Daniel smiled widely.
“So how are you? I was told by the elders about your battle with the primal brown dragon.”
The smiled
faded into a look of concern.
“And about you being ambushed by a red dragon. All they knew for certain after that encounter was that you had survived somehow and been taken deep underground by the dwarves. The elvish seers cannot breach the dwarven wards, so I've heard nothing since then.”
“I'm fine now, thanks to Stanis Ironhand and his people,” Simon told him. “They put me into a healing sleep for months and saved my life. I just got back a few days ago.”
Daniel looked skeptical.
“You were in a coma for months?”
“Yep.”
“And now you're fine? Are you sure? Long-term comatose patients seldom return to consciousness unaffected. There are often...side-effects.”
Simon smiled at his friend's concern.
“I know that, Daniel. But those patients were being treated by old-school doctors. I was cared for by a dwarven cleric and her methods were a heck of a lot different. So yes, I'm sure that I'm back to normal.” He chuckled. “Well, as normal as I ever was.”
Daniel laughed as well.
“Good point.”
“So what about you and the elves? How did things go after I defeated the primal brown?”
His old friend put his head back against the tree trunk and looked up at the waving leaves above him with a serene expression.
“Ah, it was glorious, Simon. The lesser dragons fell from the sky like a cursed rain. All of them died. The elves are still finding and burying corpses. I don't know how much time has passed on Earth, but it's only been a few weeks, my time, since I saw you last.”
Simon shook his head, still amazed at the shifting time lines between the two worlds.
“So now what?” he asked. “That realm is safe and you can live in peace. What will you do now?”
Daniel snorted and raised the book he'd been reading.
“Live in peace? While my home world is being ravaged by dragons and Chaos lords? Yeah right. No, I'm doing research, trying to dig back through time to see how the whole thing started.”
“The whole thing? What whole thing? What are you talking about?”
“The divine war between the Light and the Darkness. How did it start? Which side first created the dragons? Do the gods have any weaknesses? All of that.”
The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) Page 17