The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) (31 page)

The wizard walked in
looking considerably more alert and grinned at the elementals.

“
Morning guys. How
was your night?”

“
Good, master. No
problems.”

“
Same,” Aeris
told him. “I spent the night on the roof helping to keep
watch.”

Simon moved to the counter
and washed his hands in the sink. He unwrapped a loaf of bread he'd
baked a few days before, sniffed it, nodded and began slicing it.

“
Did you? Why?
Expecting a zombie attack this soon?”

“
Zombies?”
Aeris frowned. “I don't recall seeing any zombies in your
mirror yesterday.

“
I was kidding,”
Simon told him with a crooked grin. “Seriously though, do you
think that army will be on the move any time soon?”

“
No idea. Who can
fathom the thoughts of a necromancer? Who would want to?”

“
Good point.”

Simon slathered some jam
on his bread and walked over to grab the boiling kettle. He made his
tea and began eating standing at the counter.

The silence stretched out
for a few minutes as the wizard chewed thoughtfully.

Kronk checked on the fire
a final time and then jumped up on to the kitchen table and gave
Aeris a sharp look.

“
Oh, I had an idea
earlier this morning,” the air elemental said abruptly.

Simon finished his
breakfast, brought his tea cup to the table and sat down. He sipped
the sweet liquid, finally feeling fully awake, and watched Aeris
float across from the fireplace and join Kronk.

“
Did you? What was
it?”

“
You need to
strengthen the wards around the tower and the outer wall, especially
that single ward in the basement. As we've seen, the undead are
traveling freely during the day using underground tunnels. It would
be a nasty surprise if we were attacked by a horde of skeletons
erupting from the ground beneath us.”

“
Hmm, that's a very
good point. Thanks, I'll do that today.”

He grabbed a scrap of
paper from the pile that he always kept handy on the table and dug a
pencil out of his pocket.

“
So let's see; I
have to strengthen the wards. I need to summon some scouts to keep an
eye on that necromancer. I have to finish writing that guide to
creating ward stones for Veronique on the Defiant.”

He sighed and rubbed his
eyes, then pushed his heavy mane out of his face.

“
What else?”

“
Master, if I might
make a suggestion?”

“
Certainly.”

“
We saw a group of
undead in London. It might be wise to warn the people of Nottinghill
Castle. They are far to the north of that city but there is still a
danger.”

“
Yes, of course.
Good thought.”

Simon added that to his
note, looked it over and stood up. He put his cup in the sink and
looked at the elementals.

“
Okay, if I could
ask one of you guys to tidy up? I'm going up to summon those scouts.”

“
You go ahead,
Aeris,” Kronk said. “You can give Master some names so
that he doesn't have to cast the Summon spell. He needs to conserve
his strength.”

“
Kronk, I'm fine,”
Simon protested but Aeris was nodding at the earthen.

“
Good point. He's
right, my dear wizard. We have a highly dangerous spell-caster
nearby. We need you at your strongest at all times and those wards
will drain your magic quite a bit.”

“
Fine. I won't
argue. Thanks Kronk. Come on up when you're done.”

“
Yes master, I
will.”

Up in the study, Simon sat
at his desk and opened the atlas that he'd left lying there the night
before.

He flipped the pages until
he found a map of Ontario and then looked at Aeris.

“
Okay, do you know
two of your people who would like this job?”

“
Absolutely. I have
just the ones. Stennos and Osteros. Steady, reliable and just crazy
enough to want a little danger in their lives.”

Simon raised an eyebrow.

“
Seriously?”

“
Yes. They are not
reckless, I assure you, but they are definitely the people for the
job.”

“
If you say so.
Okay, here we go.”

He quickly summoned the
two air elementals who were thrilled to be called to Earth by such a
'great wizard'.

Simon winced at that
phrase and shook his head.

“
Um, thanks,”
he said shortly, not bothering to argue.

Aeris looked away to keep
from laughing.

The wizard tapped the
atlas and Stennos and Osteros moved closer to examine the map.

“
We are
approximately here,” he pointed, “and Ottawa is here. In
the northern end of the city is a tower and in front of it there is a
huge gathering of undead.”

“
Undead?”

The two elementals shared
a look.

“
As you say, sir
wizard,” Osteros said. He seemed to be the more outspoken of
the pair. “Why are they there?”

“
No idea, but there
is a necromancer raising the dead in that tower and we assume that
he's gathering his troops for something major.”

Simon watched as the
elementals absorbed the information. They were practically identical
in appearance to Aeris, although Osteros was more heavily built while
Stennos was slim and wisp-like. Both had humanoid features; Stennos'
face was delicate and youthful and Osteros looked quite jolly, with
chubby cheeks and crinkly eyes. They were, of course, translucent,
but he didn't even notice that anymore after knowing Aeris for so
long.

“
A necromancer?
That's bad.”

“
Which is why you
are here,” Aeris told them impatiently. “My wizard needs
you to keep tabs on whatever that evil caster is up to. If and when
his troops begin to move, we need to know about it immediately.”

“
Yes, of course. We
can certainly do that for you, sir wizard,” Stennos said with a
bow.

“
Excellent. You both
have my permission to return directly here if you have any news.”

Their eyes widened as
Simon basically gave them leave to bypass the wards of his tower and
they bowed low at the implied trust.

“
We shall not abuse
your graciousness,” Stennos told him.

“
I know you won't.”
Simon glanced at Aeris and smiled. “I've learned to trust your
people. So, you may begin your watch whenever you wish.”

“
We shall begin
immediately, sir wizard.”

Both elementals bowed one
last time and disappeared with twin pops of air.

“
One task done,”
Simon muttered as he checked off his list. He slipped the paper into
his pocket and looked up to see Aeris staring at him.

“
What is it?”

“
Did you really mean
that?” he asked.

Simon frowned at him.

“
Did I mean what?”

“
That you trust my
people? You do remember that I lied to you back when we were still
getting to know each other, don't you?”

“
Of course I
remember. I also remember that you swore an oath to never do so
again. And you invoked the name of your lord when you did it. You
haven't been annihilated lately so I assume you have kept your word.”

Aeris snickered and shook
his head.

“
Not lately, no.
Thank you for that trust. My people really are like any others
though; some trustworthy, some less so. But when you live as long as
we do, you get to know your companions quite well. And I chose those
whom I personally trusted.”

“
I know you did.”

Simon picked up the
mirror.

“
Okay, next on the
list; a call to Nottinghill.”

“
They aren't going
to be happy.”

“
I don't blame
them.”

Simon spoke with Tamara
and Sebastian who were initially quite pleased to hear from him. It
didn't last long.

“
Hordes of undead?”
Tamara asked in disbelief. “
Hordes
?”

“
Yes.
Hordes,” Simon repeated patiently.

She
scowled at his image.

“
Define
a horde.”

“
Err,
more than a hundred, less than infinity?” he answered lamely.
“I don't know, Tamara! A shitload, how about that?”

“
Ah,
now you're speaking my language,” she replied and gave him a
crooked smile.

Simon
chuckled but remained serious.

“
Look,
all I know is that all of the major cities that I explored with Magic
Mirror had these concentrated groups of undead, and all seemed to be
led by what Aeris tells me are necromancers.”

“
What
exactly is a necromancer anyway?” Sebastian asked, sounding a
bit baffled.

Both
of the mages were in their personal library. Sebastian was sitting in
a high-backed chair with his chin in his palm while his sister
responded the way she normally did when presented with a problem; she
began pacing around the room.

“
According
to Aeris, they are evil wizards whose powers have been twisted to
enable them to raise and control the dead. I suppose it's something
like my power over elementals, except that I refuse to lord over them
like some sort of slave master.”

“
Huh.
Interesting.”

Simon
noticed that the young man was dressed as usual in a simple brown
robe while his sister wore a complicated mixture of several colors
with a stiff mantle of silver across her shoulders. It made him look
like a monk and her a queen.

Suits
their personalities, the wizard thought absently.

“
I
wondered what happened to them all.”

Tamara
stopped and stared at her brother.

“
What
happened to who all?” she asked.

“
The
wizards. As far as we know, Simon is the only Changling who became a
wizard. We've met and heard of other mages, clerics, witches and all
of that, but he's unique as far as we know.”

He
sat up and looked directly at Simon.

“
What
if there have been others, but they've been subverted by the dark
gods? Perhaps turned into necromancers?”

“
Oh
damn. I never thought of that,” Simon replied, wide-eyed.

“
It
makes sense,” Aeris whispered.

The
wizard looked away from Sebastian to see Kronk nodding in agreement.

“
If
that's the case, I wonder why they didn't twist me into a puppet to
do their dirty work as well?” he said as he stared into the
mirror again.

“
That's
simply answered,” Sebastian told him. “You've mentioned
it yourself. About the dreams where the gods of Justice made you
aware of their plans for you. Maybe you were the first one chosen to
be a wizard. Or maybe your connection made you immune to the
influence of the evil gods. Whatever the reason, I think you've
solved the mystery of why you are the lone wizard.”

“
That's
horrible,” Simon said and shuddered.

“
Well,
let's not dwell on it,” Tamara said briskly.

She
began pacing again.

“
The
point is, what do we do about all those damned undead.”

She
snorted and glanced at Simon.

“
If
you'll pardon the pun.”

He
rolled his eyes at her and she smirked back at him before continuing
to wander around the room.

“
I
suppose the first thing is for Bastian and me to spy out those
monsters in London on our own.”

She
scowled fiercely.

“
Somehow,
knowing that they've infested my home town makes it much more
personal, you know?”

“
That's
pretty much how I feel about the ones in Ottawa,” Simon told
her. “Even if they weren't so close to my tower, I'd still be
taking it personally.”

“
As
do we,” Sebastian told him.

The
mages promised to keep in touch and Simon broke the connection a few
minutes later.

“
That
went about how I thought it would,” he told Kronk and Aeris.
“Except for that revelation about the wizards becoming
necromancers.”

“
You
do realize how much more dangerous that makes them, don't you?”
Aeris asked him in a grim voice. “Their powers will be on par
with your own. And as we've seen, there are over a dozen of them out
there in the world; perhaps even more.”