The Dragons of Ice and Snow (37 page)

Simon's grin faded and he felt his face
become red with embarrassment. He knew the earthen well enough to
know that he wasn't being judgmental, but his question drained away
any humor that the wizard had found in Aeris' situation.

“You're right, as usual. There
really is nothing funny about what our friend is doing, is there? I'm
sorry, Kronk. Sometimes I'm just an idiot.”

“No master, you are not,”
the little guy said. He moved across the table and patted Simon's
shoulder. “You are simply too close to all of this. You are
being overwhelmed by so many responsibilities that it is difficult to
separate them into their different parts.”

Simon tented his fingers and tapped his
chin thoughtfully.

“Hmm. That's a very good point, I
suppose. I'm going to have to remember to step back occasionally and
look at the big picture.”

“Exactly, master. By the way,
have you spoken to our friend, the lady cleric, since you returned
from the mountains?”

“Yep.”

Simon stretched and hissed at the pain
in his lower back. Too much time sitting and studying was taking its
toll.

“It was just a quick call to let
her know that the wolf's bane is there. She was relieved.”

“Of course. But if I may make a
suggestion, you might want to call her and ask if those...amulets?
Yes, those amulets that she was having made to hold the concoction
are going to be ready on time. The full moon rises in two days.”

“Oh right. Damn, I should have
thought of that. Thanks again.”

The little guy just smiled and jumped
down, heading toward the door.

“Oh, before you go out on
patrol,” Simon said and the elemental turned back to look at
him, wide-eyed.

Simon lowered his voice.

“Any sign of our watery friend
lately?”

Kronk tip-tapped forward.

“None, master. Perhaps she is
simply out enjoying herself.”

“Yeah. And perhaps she isn't.
Just...keep an eye out, would you? Let me know if you see anything, I
don't know, out of the ordinary.”

“I will, master. Have a good
evening.”

And with a wave, the earthen hurried
across the room and out the door, closing it behind him.

Simon sighed loudly and picked up the
hand mirror. Things were starting to move more quickly again. He just
hoped that he could keep up.

Two days later and it was the first
evening of the full moon.

Simon had arrived in Nottinghill a few
hours before sundown and went with Clara to watch while Malcolm and
Aiden allowed themselves to be wrapped in heavy iron chains before
the moon rose.

“Are you sure this is necessary?”
Simon asked them. It was distressing to see the two men trussed up
like animals.

“This enclosure should be able to
hold you, don't you think?” he continued.

Clara said nothing. She had a hand over
her mouth and seemed to be close to tears.

“It is our choice, my friend,”
Malcolm told him. He and Aiden stood still, showing great dignity as
the guards wound lengths of chain around them.

“We will not take even the
smallest risk of doing harm to others,” Aiden said solemnly.
“These are our people, Simon. How could we chance it?”

Both guards, young men whom Simon
vaguely recognized, gave the big men looks of intense respect and
stopped several times to make sure that they were as comfortable as
possible.

When the task was done and the guards
had withdrawn, the wizard knelt down next to the men where they'd
been carefully lowered to the ground and tried to give them a
reassuring smile.

“Well, after tonight, you will be
free men once more.”

He glanced at the cleric where she
stood rigid and mute, watching her friends compassionately.

“Clara will wait in the town hall
until I retrieve the wolf's bane. Once it's ground up and blessed
we'll seal it in the amulets that the blacksmith made and you'll be
free.”

“It's that one thought that has
made this entire episode so much easier to endure, Simon,”
Malcolm told him, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “But the
night is far from over. We have had this disease racing through our
blood for weeks now. Who knows if even these chains will hold us when
the wolf takes over.”

“Have faith, Malcolm,”
Clara finally said. “And you too, Aiden. We will get through
this and be the better for it. You'll see.”

Aiden only shrugged, his face now blank
of emotion.

Malcolm stared at the cleric.

“Forgive me if I trust in you and
Simon more than faith, Clara. Your gods are the ones that helped
bring on this madness. I don't have much in the way of faith when it
comes to them.”

The cleric opened her mouth to protest
and then simply nodded.

“I understand. Well then, come
along, Simon. The sun is almost down and we have things to do.”

“Good luck, guys,” the
wizard said as he stood up. “We'll see you in the morning.”

He winked at Malcolm and Aiden scowled
slightly.

“Stop flirting, you two,”
he growled and then grinned widely.

The tension broke and they laughed
together. Simon waved and left the enclosure. The guards slammed and
barricaded the door behind him.

“And so it begins,” he said
to Clara.

“Yes, it does. Come up to the
hall with me, would you? I wanted to show you the amulets that we
made.”

“Certainly.” Simon looked
toward the west at the horizon blazing red with the setting sun. “We
have a few hours to wait anyway. It won't be dark in the mountains
for a while yet.”

“Ah, I'd forgotten that. You have
time for some tea then.”

Back in her quarters, the cleric made
the tea while Simon examined the two containers that the blacksmith
had created.

They were shaped like small spheres and
unscrewed in the middle into two halves. The spheres each had one of
the men's names engraved on it, written in small, neat script.

The wizard picked one up and rolled it
in his fingers. A thick little ring had been attached at the top to
slip a chain through and the chains themselves were heavy and
sturdy-looking.

When Clara walked in with the tea,
Simon held up one of the amulets.

“Silver?” he asked
curiously.

“Yes. It seemed only proper to
craft them out of the one substance that legend says is toxic to
werewolves. It will reassure both Malcolm and Aiden, as well as the
rest of the town, that they are safe to be around.” She
shrugged a bit and frowned. “Some people are having trouble
believing that this will work. I've held a town meeting and explained
it all to them but, well, people are people. These days, with magic
and mythical creatures being real and all, some of them tend to
overreact to anything strange.”

“Smart move then.”

Simon nodded at two small earthenware
vials that were sitting next to the amulets.

“What are those for?”

The cleric grimaced a bit.

“Blood. Both of the boys were
happy to donate, of course. Seems a bit barbaric to me but it's what
Aethos said we needed. Their names are written on the bottom.”

“Right. I'd almost forgotten
about that.”

Simon accepted his tea with a smile and
they both sat down and enjoyed a quiet moment together.

“How is Sunshine doing, by the
way?” Clara asked after a few moments. “Any problems?
Discomfort?”

“None. Kronk is doting over her
like a mother hen and I check on her a few times a day. She's just
the same as always, although I swear she gives me a look once in a
while as if to say 'what's all the fuss about?'”

The cleric chuckled and sipped her tea.

“That's good to know. Considering
that your three horses may be the only ones left in existence, I'll
admit I'm feeling a little motherly myself.”

Simon looked at her with a small smile.

“So am I, to be honest. But I
doubt that they are the only horses left. When this is all behind us,
whenever that will be, I intend to have Aeris and a few other air
elementals search out locations from the old days where horses were
prevalent. You know, like Alberta, Montana, places like that. Who
knows, we may get lucky.”

“Good idea. I hope so. Besides
the fact that they are beautiful animals, technology no longer works
and most of us can't Gate around like you can. We'll need horses for
transportation and agriculture as our population increases.”

Simon turned his cup slowly on the
table, picturing the future without the fear of dragons looming over
them. He smiled a bit wistfully.

“I agree. That's why I intend to
make finding more of them a priority. Once we deal with the little
problem we've been having with dragons, of course,” he added
with a wry grin.

He finished his tea and glanced at the
window. It was fully dark now. He stood up and walked over to look up
at the sky. The full moon was just beginning to rise among the stars.

“How long before Malcolm and
Aiden begin their transformation?” he asked as he watched the
pale sphere. It looked almost ominous to him now.

Before Clara could answer, there was a
blood-chilling howl that echoed across the shrouded town.

Simon turned quickly and looked at the
cleric.

“Now,” she said bleakly.

The wizard felt the hair stand up on
the back of his neck as a second howl, full of hunger and hatred,
joined the first.

“Oh my God. It sounds so much
worse than I'd imagined,” he said.

Clara nodded mutely, her eyes bright
with unshed tears.

“Okay, I'm not waiting any
longer,” Simon said. He chanted the Gate spell, keeping the
memory of the mountain meadow firmly in his mind.

“See you soon,” he said.

The cleric gave him a tremulous smile.

“Good luck,” she said.

“
Invectis
!”

The
mountains were still bathed in the light of the evening sun when
Simon arrived. He reached over his shoulder and adjusted his staff
and then looked around to make sure that the wolf's bane was still in
full bloom.

The plants
were exactly where he remembered them, waving in the late afternoon
breeze and the wizard calmed down a bit. The horror of actually
hearing his friends howling after they had transformed had affected
him more than he'd realized.

“
Oh
crap,” he said aloud.

He'd been so
rattled that he'd Gated to the mountains without the gloves he knew
he had to wear to handle the toxic flower or a bag to put them in.

“
Frigging
brilliant, Simon,” he told himself in disgust.

He took a
moment to think and then rattled off the Magic Mouth spell.

“
Kronk,
can you hear me?” he said as he walked toward the nearest bunch
of flowers. The light was beginning to fade in earnest now.

“
Master?
Hello! Where are you?”

“
I'm
in the mountains. Look, could you do me a favor? Find me some gloves
and a bag of some sort, would you? I forgot to bring them with me and
I can't collect the wolf's bane safely without them.”

There was a
short pause and Simon pictured the little guy rolling his red eyes.

“
Yes,
of course, master. Give me a few minutes.”

“
Great.
Let me know when you have them and I'll summon you to this location.”

“
I
will, master.”

Simon waited
and passed the time exploring the little meadow. It seemed that no
animals or birds had discovered this little nook filled with life,
but a few bumblebees lumbered along the grass drunkenly, their fat
bodies weaving from side to side. Some unseen insects buzzed by his
ears but nothing bit him and he guessed that mosquitoes didn't live
this high up. If they did, they wouldn't survive without animals to
feed off of.

Good, he
thought. I hate the little blood-suckers.

At the back
of the meadow, where the side of the mountain rose up like a wall,
the wizard discovered a small, clear pool of water. A catch-basin for
rain, he assumed as he squatted down next to it.

The sky was
growing dim, but he could still see well enough to spot the ripples
of tiny insects skating on top of the water. He smiled at the sight.

Where's
there water, there's life, he thought a bit whimsically.

“
Ready,
master,” Kronk said suddenly and Simon stood up quickly.

“
Right.
Hang on a second.”

He walked
over to a clump of flowers, looked off to the side and found a bare
patch of ground. He canceled the communication spell and focused on
the spot where he wanted the earthen to appear.

“
Kronk,
I need you,” he said firmly and a moment later the ground
erupted in a little explosion of dirt, and the earthen climbed out of
the hole.

“
Hello
master,” Kronk said brightly with a broad smile.

He loves
being useful, Simon thought affectionately.

“
Hey
there. Did you find everything all right?”

“
Of
course, master,” the little guy replied and held up a pair of
gardening gloves in one hand and a canvas sack in the other.

“
Perfect.
Thanks so much. I don't know what I'd do without you.”

The
earthen's eyes brightened and his broad smile threatened to split his
face.

“
It
is always my pleasure to serve, master,” he replied.

“
Okay,
we have to wait for moon-rise, I guess,” the wizard said and he
searched the now dark sky for the full moon. But there was no
evidence of it yet.

“
Hmm,
this could take a while,” he muttered.

“
It
will appear in that direction, master,” Kronk said as he
pointed. “It won't be long, perhaps thirty minutes.”