The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (51 page)

Simon watched the primal
intently. He didn't trust this creature, at all. The dragon could be
telling the truth about the queen; in fact, the wizard was inclined
to believe that he was. But even if they could work together, there
wasn't a chance in hell that Pyrathius would keep any bargain they
made.

“
What is your
answer?” the dragon said impatiently. “We are running out
of time.”

“
Unlike you, I don't
rule over my people,” Simon told him, desperately playing for
time. “I can't just arbitrarily make this allegiance for them.
I'll have to present your offer to them and let them decide for
themselves.”

Pyrathius snorted and a
flicker of flames shot from his nostrils.

“
That is absurd. You
are the most powerful spell-caster among the humans. Your word should
be law.”

“
Well, it isn't. Nor
would I want it to be. The best I can do is tell them what you want
and see what they say.”

The dragon growled and
clenched his fists at his sides, his armor creaking loudly.

“
Very well. I must
leave. I have stayed in one place for too long. When you have your
answer, contact me with your magic. I will answer. Until then, I
intend to stay on the move.”

He made a motion for Simon
to back off and the wizard rose above the castle wall and back to his
original position.

There was a shimmer in the
air, like heat waves rising from the castle itself and then the
massive body of the primal appeared on the battlements again. The
entire structure shuddered and moaned in protest.

“
Do not take too
long to decide, wizard,” the beast rumbled. “If I fall,
you and your world are doomed.”

And with that, the dragon
raised his wings and with one enormous downward flap became airborne.
He rose rapidly into the sky and disappeared into the night.

Simon watched the primal
vanish like a puff of smoke, or a bad dream, and then turned and
hurried back to where he'd left Tamara and Liliana.

They are not going to
believe this, he thought.

Sebastian, Malcolm and
Aiden had joined the two women by the time Simon returned, which was
a relief. He really didn't want to have to tell his story multiple
times; once was enough. Keiko appeared like a ghost out of the
shadows just seconds before he returned.

“
Hey guys,” he
said as he arrived. “How are your people doing?”

“
They're scared,”
Malcolm told him.

He was standing next to
Aiden and the two men were watching Simon anxiously.

“
The few kids that
we have are getting tired and hungry.” The big man's lips
twitched in an almost smile. “They're cranky and want to go
home. Can they?”

Simon looked at each
person in turn and ended with Tamara.

“
They can. You can
start leading everyone back any time now. The primal is gone.”

“
We saw that,”
Liliana said. “What happened?”

“
It's going to take
some explaining, folks. Why don't we wait until the people are back
inside where it's safe, okay?”

Tamara frowned and looked
like she'd object and he added, “The children should be in bed
by now.”

“
You're right,”
the mage agreed at once. “Everyone get back to your groups and
guide them home. You won't need to take the tunnel this time. I'll
teleport back and open the front gates. Simon? Could you join us in
the flesh and stay with them until everyone is safely back inside the
castle walls?”

“
I'd be happy to.”

“
Excellent. Let's
go, people.”

Simon canceled his Magic
Mirror spell and hurried back inside. He put the mirror on the
kitchen table, grabbed his staff and looked at Aeris.

“
Want to tag along?”

“
Of course. Should I
tell Kronk?”

“
No time for that.
Touch my arm. We have to go.”

It took about an hour to
round everyone up and lead them back to Nottinghill. The townspeople
were tired and white-faced with fear and the children, those who
weren't sleeping in their parent's arms, were petulant. Simon walked
with Liliana behind the last group to keep an eye out for stragglers
and any dangers. Aeris followed them and listened quietly.

“
You learned
something from that monster?” the paladin asked him quietly,
watching the people ahead to make sure they couldn't overhear her.

“
A few things,”
he replied. “But I'd rather tell all of you at once and not
have to repeat the story.”

“
Fair enough. But
the fact that you faced that dragon and came away unscathed while it
left of its own accord leads to some interesting speculation.”

“
Does it?”

Simon looked at the woman
in the faint light of the stars. She was marching along in her silver
armor, keeping a watchful eye on the forest around them and the sky
overhead as well. The people were subdued for the most part and he
only heard the muted sound of a few of them talking.

“
What sort of
speculation?”

“
Well, we know that
dragons are intelligent. And the primals even more so. I'm guessing
that you somehow convinced that creature to leave. But how you did so
is beyond me. A threat? A bribe? Did you reason with it? I'll admit
I'm intrigued.”

“
Your reasoning is
sound,” he said with the shadow of a smile. “You know,
you seem to have altered your opinion about them since the last time
they came up in conversation.”

“
What, dragons?”

He nodded.

The paladin stopped
abruptly and Simon stumbled to a halt, caught off-guard.

“
What?”

Liliana held up a warning
hand. When the group in front of them was about twenty yards away,
she began to follow them again.

“
What's going on?”
Simon asked with a curious look at Aeris, who just shrugged.

“
I don't want anyone
eavesdropping,” she said in a voice barely louder than a
whisper. “Because you're right. I have altered the way I think
about dragons. Well, about some dragons anyway.” She glanced at
him. “I changed my outlook about them the day that Esmiralla
paid me a visit.”

Now it was Simon's turn to
stop. He stared at the woman in disbelief.

“
You? You're the one
she's been in contact with?”

Liliana nodded and then
pointed at the group disappearing into the darkness ahead of them.

“
Let's keep them in
sight, shall we?” she said and then hurried to close the gap
between them and the townspeople.

The wizard followed in a
daze. He should have known it was her. Somehow it made sense that a
good creature like the silver dragon would contact a paladin, a
warrior fighting on the side of justice and the Light.

When they were a dozen
yards behind the people again, Liliana slowed down to a walk.

“
How long?”
Simon asked, his voice muted. “How long ago was it that she
first contacted you?”

“
Hard to say,”
she replied with a frown. “We met in dreams at first, the same
way that the gods of Light speak to me occasionally. Our first
meeting in the flesh was on that terrible day that the minions of the
primal white dragon broke into my refuge. They abducted my people to
use in the primal's hideous experiments. Do you remember?”

Simon thought back to that
event. He had Gated to Moscow when he couldn't get in touch with
Liliana. He'd found their underground shelter empty, signs of battle
everywhere and claw marks on the doors. Malcolm and Aiden had been
with him. And just before they had spied the paladin returning from
chasing after the drakes that had attacked her people, the wizard had
seen something. A dragon. At the time he thought that it had been a
white dragon. But now...

“
I remember spotting
a dragon a few minutes before I saw you coming back from your hunt
for your people. Was that Esmiralla?”

Liliana smiled faintly.

“
You have a good
memory, my friend. Yes, it was. She came to tell me what had happened
and what the primal white dragon was up to. At the time, she asked me
to keep her existence a secret. I obliged. When you called to tell us
that the dragon queen had risen and about the source of your
information being the silver dragon, I played dumb. But I think
perhaps the time for secrets has passed.”

“
It's too bad that
you didn't tell us about her a lot sooner,” Simon said with a
touch of bitterness in his voice. “Maybe we could have avoided
some of our losses if she'd been around to help us. Like loosing
Clara.”

Liliana's expression was
deeply compassionate.

“
She is only one
dragon, Simon. The last of her kind. She cannot be in all places at
once. And if she falls, there will be none to replace her. I doubt
that she would have been able to save Clara anyway. I know that
sounds harsh, but it's true. I loved her too, you know.”

He sighed heavily and
nodded, looking ahead. They were approaching the castle. Someone had
set out torches on both sides of the huge gate to help guide them
home.

Simon shivered. The night
was cool and he wanted to be back inside where it was warm.

“
I know that.
But...ah well, what does it matter? What's done is done. Let's
concentrate on the job at hand and get these folks to their rest and
then I'll tell you and the others about my conversation with
Pyrathius.”

When the people were all
safely back inside the castle and the gates closed and sealed, Tamara
gathered the leaders in her quarters. She had a large meeting room
off of her sitting room with a table more than large enough for
everyone to sit at. Someone from the kitchens had set out plates of
fruit and jugs of juice and tea and the group helped themselves.

The room blazed with many
candles and a large, ancient fireplace was throwing off heat from a
blazing heap of logs. Paintings of unknown nobles covered the walls
and Simon felt like he'd taken a step back in time to the
middle-ages. It was a weird sensation.

“
Nice place,”
Aeris whispered in his ear. He was floating just above the wizard's
right shoulder.

Simon smiled wanly as he
waited for the meeting to start.

“
I know we're all
tired,” Tamara said after everyone had settled down. “But
I'm guessing that the group wants to know what happened with the red
dragon. Simon? Can you tell us now?”

The wizard was sitting at
one end of the table sipping tea. He glanced around at the expectant
expressions, rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“
Before we begin,”
he said, “I'd like to ask Liliana to tell you all what she told
me earlier.”

The paladin raised an
eyebrow but didn't protest.

“
As you wish. Cards
on the table time, I guess.”

She proceeded to tell all
of them about her contact with Esmiralla. It wasn't a very long story
and when she was done, there was very little protest about her
secrecy. Simon was quite surprised.

“
If you trust her
then that's good enough for me,” Aiden said firmly.

“
And me,”
Keiko agreed in her small voice. Her posture was very stiff and she
kept staring down at the tabletop.

It seemed to be the
general consensus.

“
Good. I just wanted
that out of the way before I started,” Simon told them. “So,
this is what Pyrathius had to say.”

He'd been right. No one
could quite believe it when he told them what the primal red wanted.

“
Let me get this
straight,” Tamara said when he'd finished speaking. “That
monster wants to fight
with
us?”

“
To
defeat the queen, yes,” the wizard replied. “After that,
all bets are off. He tried to get me to believe that we could make a
peace between us when we were done, but I personally think that's
B.S..”

“
Of course it is.
You can't trust them!” Sebastian exclaimed. “They want us
all dead. Red dragon. Yellow dragon. Who cares? We're bugs to them
and in the end, they just want to squash us.”

He was more agitated than
Simon had ever seen him before. His hands were shaking and he was
bone white.

Tamara was sitting at the
head of the table and her brother was seated to her right. She
reached out and put a hand on his arm.

“
Easy, Bastian. Stay
calm. You're still recuperating. Don't overexcite yourself.”

Sebastian stared at her a
bit wildly and seemed to catch himself. He sat back and closed his
eyes for a moment while he took a slow deep breath and visibly
relaxed. Then he tried to smile at his sister.

“
I'm okay, Tammy.
Sorry. Fell apart there a bit, didn't I?”

“
You're fine. Just
fine.”

She looked around the
table.

“
Opinions?”