The Dragons of Ice and Snow (46 page)

Simon gave him all of the
information that Daniel had passed on to him. And then he added what
the strange messenger had told him. Except for one gasp, when the
wizard mentioned the altered dragons, the air elemental listened
quietly.

When he was done, Simon
got up and put the kettle over the fire. He kept glancing into the
mirror, waiting for Aeris' reaction.

“
Well, what do you
think?” he finally asked.

“
What do I think? I
think you just answered a question that I've been asking myself for
the past several hours.”

“
Which is what?”
Simon asked as he put a spoonful of dried tea leaf powder in his cup
and waited for the water to boil.

“
Which is: why did
several dozen red dragons fly over this frigid, desolate landscape at
the break of dawn this morning. My time, that is.”

“
Red dragons? In the
arctic? Whoa, that's suspicious.”

“
You don't say,”
Aeris replied caustically. “Of course it is. Red dragons hate
the cold. I'm still not over the fact that two were convinced to
attack our tower in the middle of winter. To see that many in this
part of the world, flying north if you can believe it, is
astonishing.”

“
So what have you
been doing since you saw them? It's the dead of night where you are.”

“
I've been following
them, of course. It's the most logical course of action. And the
cover of night helps. I doubt if even a dragon could see an invisible
air elemental in the snow in the darkness. At least, I hope not.”

“
Me too. Damn it,
Aeris, be careful! We have no idea what's going on up there. I want
to know desperately, but not enough to sacrifice a friend.”

“
I am being careful,
believe me. I value my skin as much as anyone. But don't you see, my
dear wizard. Finally! Finally I have a direction to follow. A solid
clue about which way to go. This witless wandering has been trying,
as I'm sure you've guessed, but I'm very excited about this new
development. Even more so, now that you've told me about the attack
on the dwarves. It must be connected somehow. And I want to know
how.”

Simon hadn't heard Aeris
this enthusiastic for a long time. It was good that the little guy
felt useful again, but he was afraid he'd become too bold and get
himself caught, or killed.

“
Listen, I'm glad
you're happier. I am. But I'm not kidding here. Watch yourself.
Anything dangerous happens, anything at all, you haul ass out of
there.”

“
An air elemental
does not 'haul ass', oh great and crude wizard. An air elemental is
much more refined than that.”

Simon couldn't help but
laugh at Aeris' haughty tone.

“
Really? Wow, I
didn't know you were all so...dignified. Fine then. If you get into
trouble, sashay your cultured butt out of the danger zone. You hear
me?”

After what sounded
suspiciously like a giggle, Aeris replied, “Yes, fine. I know.
I'm here to do a job. And I will.”

“
Good.”

Simon poured boiling water
into his cup and sat down on his easy chair in front of the fire. The
room was warm but he felt comforted in the homey glow from the
fireplace.

“
Oh and in light of
your sighting of the red dragons, I'm going to start calling you
every twelve hours or so instead of once a day. And don't argue; I'll
do it whether you want me to or not.”

“
That's...actually
not a bad idea,” Aeris said to the wizard's surprise. “Better
safe than sorry, yes?”

“
Absolutely. Okay,
I'll let you get on with it. Take care and we'll talk again soon.”

“
I will.”

“
Stay safe, Aeris,”
Kronk blurted out just as Simon was about to cancel the spell.

“
Kronk? Oh, yes. Of
course I will. Um, you too.”

The wizard severed the
link and put down the mirror, all the while watching the earthen.

“
You're worried
too?” he asked him.

“
A little, master.
Aeris is quite headstrong, as you well know. I wouldn't want his
enthusiasm to get the better of his common sense.”

“
Agreed. Let's just
hope his instinct for self-preservation keeps him safe up there.”

Simon finished his tea,
stretched slowly, feeling his back and joints loosen up and then
picked up the mirror again with a heavy sigh.

“
More calls to make,
master?”

“
I'm afraid so. I
need to tell everyone that we've been in contact with about these new
developments. I haven't heard of another wizard showing up anywhere
in the world, but if one does, perhaps one of our contacts can warn
them about the water elementals.”

“
Master, the odds of
other wizards appearing are long indeed. But for one to develop into
an elementalist like yourself? Highly unlikely.”

“
So you've said
before. But why takes chances? I'll start with Clara and go down the
list.”

And that's what he did. It
took Simon the better part of two hours to get in touch with not only
Clara, but Liliana as well. Then he called

Sydney, Hong Kong and
London to let the small groups of Changlings in those cities know
about their new enemy.

He had expected the others
to get angry or show fear. What he hadn't expected was almost
universal apathy to the news.

One of the leaders of the
London group, Tamara, seemed to sum it up for everyone when she said
that when your cup is already overflowing, what does it matter if you
add more liquid? They would cope as well as they could because they
had to.

Simon found the whole
thing very discouraging.

After all of the casting
he'd done, Kronk insisted that the wizard lie down for a while.

“
It will do no one
any good if you burn yourself out,” he said firmly, tugging at
the bottom of Simon's robe as he sat in front of the fireplace,
feeling numb and a bit disconnected.

“
Go up and get some
sleep, master. I have chores to do and I will not be able to do them
if I have to worry about you at the same time.”

“
The king of the
guilt trips strikes again,” the wizard muttered as he pushed
himself up and headed for the stairs.

He looked back and saw
that the little guy was watching him with his arms crossed, tapping
his foot on the ground. He made a pushing motion toward the stairs.

“
I'm going, I'm
going. Gees.”

As he dragged himself up
toward his bedroom, Simon had to admit that Kronk was right. Between
new worries about both the dragons and the water elementals, and
casting too many spells too quickly, he could barely walk. The
drinking the night before hadn't helped either.

When he reached his bed,
he only had enough strength to sit down and kick off his shoes before
he collapsed and instantly fell asleep.

When he woke up the next
morning, Simon actually felt rested for the first time in a long
time. The sun was high and he guessed that he'd slept for at least
twelve hours.

He got up, opened the
window to let in the cool morning breeze and breathed in the fresh
air. Then he stripped off his dirty clothes and left them in the
laundry basket. He walked downstairs naked, pumped some water into a
big pot and set it over the fire to heat while he trotted off to the
outhouse.

When he was coming back
inside, one of the patrolling elementals saw him and waved. Simon
returned it with a smile. He'd long gotten over being embarrassed
when naked in front of any elemental. They simply didn't care if
humans wore clothing or not.

Back indoors, he filled
the sink with the warm water and got washed. Normally he would have
bathed in the lake, but the thought of the water elementals allying
with the dragons had made him a little suspicious. He hadn't seen Ana
for a long time before being informed of her people's betrayal, as he
thought of it, and he wondered if she was still around somewhere,
spying on him or planning something worse. Somewhere like the small
lake behind the tower.

He dried off, went
upstairs to get dressed and returned to find his kettle hanging in
the fireplace and Kronk slicing up some goat cheese, a gift from
Clara's people.

“
Good morning,
master,” the little guy said brightly. “You are looking
very well this morning.”

“
Thanks, bud. I feel
really good, actually. You were right about me needing some rest.”

Kronk simply nodded as he
finished making a couple of sandwiches. Then he jumped from the
counter to the table top and watched while Simon made his tea.

“
And thanks for
breakfast,” the wizard said as he sat down with his tea and
sandwiches.

“
My pleasure,
master. I thought that helping you with your meal would allow you to
call Aeris sooner.”

Simon stopped chewing and
stared at the earthen.

“
You're really
worried about him, aren't you?” he asked after he swallowed
noisily.

“
As much as I hate
to admit it, yes master, I am. He is alone in a hostile land, far
from home. And he has no way to contact us if he needs help. It is
disturbing.”

“
I'm with you there.
You know, it's too bad that you guys can't simply pop back to
whomever it was that summoned you, instead of waiting for them to
call you back.”

“
Not possible,
master. It would give the elemental too much power. And be
presumptuous. A servant may never put his own needs or desires above
that of his master.”

The wizard drank some tea
after he finished his second sandwich and rolled his eyes.

“
Here we go again
with the whole 'master/servant' thing. You know I hate that.”

“
I know that,
master. I was not speaking of you directly. I know I am free to come
and go as I choose. But the magic doesn't care about that. The rules
are the rules. Only the original summoner may recall an elemental
instantly across vast distances. That fact is irrefutable.”

Simon put his empty cup
down abruptly and stared, open-mouthed, at Kronk.

“
My God, you are
brilliant, do you know that? Abso-frigging-lutely brilliant.”

“
I am?” Kronk
said, looking puzzled. “How am I brilliant, master? I did
nothing.”

“
Oh yes you did. You
just reminded me of something.”

He grabbed a piece of
scrap paper from the pile on the table and a pencil and started
doodling. Sometimes it helped him to think.

“
Okay, so the water
elementals have allied with the dark gods, correct?”

“
Correct, master.”

“
But I know the
rules, as you just reminded me, enough to know that no elemental can
come into this world unless they are summoned.”

“
Also correct,
master,” Kronk agreed, still watching the wizard quizzically.

“
So who's summoning
the water elementals?”

The little guy began to
speak and then caught himself. It was his turn to gawk at Simon.

The wizard grinned at him.

“
Can you see where
I'm going with this?”

“
I think so, master.
If you destroy the summoner, the elementals will be drawn back to
their own realm.”

“
Exactly. I don't
know who is doing the summoning, but it's quite possible that they
have a renegade wizard on their side. Maybe the dark gods Changed
someone. They did it once before, with Heather, so maybe they're up
to their old tricks.”

“
Possible, master.
Quite possible.”

Kronk picked up the hand
mirror and held it out to the wizard.

“
Perhaps you can
discuss this with Aeris?” he asked pointedly.

Simon chuckled at the
little guy's obviousness.

“
Okay, okay. I'll
call him.”

He took the mirror from
the earthen, looked into it and cast the Magic Mirror spell, keeping
Aeris' face in mind as he did so.

The surface fogged up and,
while he waited, Simon glanced out of the closest window.

“
How early is it?”
he asked Kronk.

“
About two hours
after sunrise, master,” he replied. “Why?”

“
Just wondering if
it's still daylight where Aeris is. It's probably getting dark there
now, but there should still be some light left.”

The mirror cleared up and
Simon stared at a very different scene than he had expected.

He could see a wall of
jagged black rock, covered with streaks of hoarfrost. There was no
sign of Aeris and the wizard assumed that he was invisible.

“
Hello? Are you
there?” he asked quietly.

“
Oh, thank goodness
you didn't shout,” came the elemental's whispered reply.

“
Why? What's going
on?”

“
It will be easier
if you see for yourself, my dear wizard. Pull back your view and look
at this entire area.”