The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (27 page)

“
Simon?
Are you still there?”

He
blinked rapidly and pushed away from the tree.

“
Sorry,”
he said. “I was just thinking. Okay, I'm going to leave this up
to you. If you feel safe enough to follow them for a day or two to
see if we can figure out exactly why they're hunting down humans,
then go ahead. If not, I can summon you back home right now.”

Simon
waited for Aeris to make a decision and began to walk back around the
lake at the same time.

“
I
think I'll keep watching them, at least for now,” Aeris finally
replied. He didn't exactly sound thrilled with his choice. “But
I get a very bad feeling from these creatures, so I think I'll only
stay on their trail one more night and return tomorrow.”

The
wizard felt some relief at Aeris' decision.

“
Good.
I'll call you tomorrow morning and summon you back then.”

“
That's
fine. Don't be late with that call, my dear wizard. I really don't
like being around these monsters.”

“
I
won't be. Be damned careful, Aeris.”

“
I
will be, Simon, believe me.”

The
wizard canceled the spell and made his way thoughtfully back to the
tower, considering the information that he had received.

Kronk
and Simon talked about these new Changlings later that night in front
of the fire. The wizard noted with some amusement that their nightly
chats by the fireplace had become a routine. He appreciated the sense
of normalcy it gave to his life.

After
he had told Kronk everything that Aeris had seen, Simon waited while
the little guy digested the information. You didn't try to hurry the
earthen. His thoughts were slow and deliberate, but he almost always
came up with interesting responses to problems.

“
Do
you think it is possible that those Changlings you met in Ottawa are
part of the pack of creatures that Aeris is following, master?”
he finally asked.

Simon
looked at him, wide-eyed. Such a thing hadn't occurred to him.

“
Why?
Do you?”

Kronk
shrugged, a quick motion of his shoulders.

“
I
do not know, master. But if they were evolving into something, I
suppose that it is possible.”

The
fire snapped and sparked and Simon watched an ember jump up and flare
for an instant before falling back into ash.

“
But
that lich, Madam, claimed that she caught Sarah and the others and
turned them into undead.”

The
elemental snorted.

“
That
creature was a liar, master. Nothing she said could be trusted. I
think that it is quite possible that the Changling and her people
survived. The question is, did they survive to become something
monstrous?”

“
Hmm.”

Simon
watched the fire and then leaned forward, picked up a small log from
the pile beside the fireplace and set it carefully on top of the
burning wood.

“
I
have to admit that this information from Aeris disturbs me a great
deal, Kronk. Changlings were supposedly created, not by the dark
gods, but by the gods of Justice. We are supposed to be a counter to
the evil gods, to try to stop them from returning to this world. But
if these monsters
are
Changlings,
then they may have been altered by the gods of Chaos. You see what
that means?”

Kronk
looked up at him and tilted his head to the side slightly.

“
I
think so, master. They are turning the Changlings against each other,
corrupting the power of the gods of Light.”

Leave
it to the little guy to see what Simon was getting at.

“
Exactly,
my friend. And that is terrifying. If true, then these dark gods must
have known what their counterparts were doing and twisted it to their
own purposes. Maybe they've just been playing with us all along.”

Simon
felt a sense of despair settle over him. If his suppositions were
correct, then he was just wasting his time trying to gain more power.
The Chaotic gods were ahead of him and were simply stringing him, and
all the others, along. It was a frightening revelation.

“
Master,
I think you are mistaken,” Kronk said firmly.

“
What?”

“
If
these dark gods were in control from the beginning, then why would
they send those dragons to attack the tower? Why would they send that
lich to Nottinghill to draw you out? Those are not the actions of
beings who are certain of their victory. They are acts of desperation
and fear.”

Simon
stared open-mouthed at his little friend. He was tempted to laugh at
the absurdity of the idea that beings as powerful as the gods of
Chaos would be afraid of any human, let alone him. But Kronk looked
quite serious.

“Do you actually believe that?”
he asked.

“Yes, I do, master,” Kronk
said sincerely. “I have watched you closely over the last few
years. I watched as your power grew last year. I saw you defeat a
primal dragon. You, a human. I would never have believed such a thing
was possible.”

Simon tried to interrupt but the little
guy was having none of it.

“No, master. With all due
respect, I know you will say that you tricked the black. But that
doesn't matter. It is dead. You are not. And then I watched as you
destroyed two more dragons. Not primals, no, but dragons nonetheless.
After you lost your powers due to the treachery of the dark gods, I
watched as you fought your way back. You are close now. Close to
where you were at the height of your powers last year. And that is
all your doing, master.”

Kronk looked at the wizard in
admiration and Simon felt himself getting red.

“You make it sound more
impressive that it was,” the wizard muttered uncomfortably.

“Do I?” Kronk smiled up at
him. “Well, it's been impressive to me, master. I am proud to
serve you. Great things are coming and I have the privilege of being
involved, in a very small way.”

Simon settled into his chair and
allowed the warmth of the fire to wash over him. He wasn't about to
buy in to Kronk's belief that he was going to be the one to stop
those faceless gods watching from the Void. But maybe, just maybe, he
could play a small role in upsetting their plans. That would
definitely be satisfying.

“I'm just going to do what I can,
my friend,” he told the elemental. “If it helps in the
overall battle, so much the better. But I can't look at the big
picture. It's enough that I try to keep my own small piece of the
world as safe as I can.”

“That is all anyone can do,
master,” Kronk said agreeably.

The following morning, Simon was up
early. His sleep had been disturbed by his concern for Aeris. He had
a feeling that the air elemental's self-confidence could get him into
trouble.

And so he was up shortly after dawn. He
surprised Kronk by appearing in the stable and helping him feed and
water the horses. He shoveled up the manure into the wheelbarrow and
pushed it around the back of the building to dump it on the pile.

After getting washed up, Simon went
upstairs to his study and, on a whim, grabbed an old gaming book at
random and read through it idly. When he reached a page that listed
wizard spells, he scanned through it with some surprise.

So many of the spells that the game
players had made up were almost the same as actual real spells, he
thought in wonder.

He frowned as he read through the list.
Then he stood up and slowly walked downstairs, reading as he went,
and absently began to make some tea.

When Kronk walked in some time later,
he found the wizard nose-deep in the book, muttering to himself as he
read.

“Interesting reading, master?”
he asked as he hopped up on to the kitchen table.

“Hmm?” Simon looked up from
the book and stared vaguely at the little guy. “Did you say
something?”

Kronk tip-tapped across the table and
nodded at the book.

“I asked if the book was
interesting, master,” he said with a smile. “Obviously it
is.”

Simon blinked a few times and then
grinned in a slightly dazed way.

“Yeah, you could say that. Take a
look.”

The elemental moved around to stand by
Simon's shoulder and followed the wizard's finger as he traced the
list of spells set out in a table.

“Over half of these spells are
real,” he told the little guy in amazement. “Isn't that
wild?”

“Why, master?” Kronk asked
curiously. “It is a spell list, is it not?”

“Yes, but they're spells that
were made up back in the days of technology. None of these spells
worked back then. They were used in games.” At the elemental's
blank look, Simon tapped the book in exasperation. “They came
up with real spells! How did they do that?”

Slowly, Kronk's eyes widened.

“Oh, I see!” he said and
leaned forward to look closely at the spells printed in the book.

“Magic Missile. Fireball.
Lightning. So many others.”

He looked wonderingly at Simon.

“How did they know?”

“That's just it; I have no idea.
But look.”

The wizard pointed at the Magic Missile
spell and at the page number next to it. He flipped rapidly through
the book until he found that page and spread the book wide so that
Kronk could see what was there.

“Look at the incantation,”
he said, his voice thin with intensity.

Kronk peered at the words written
plainly in English. Then he looked up at Simon with wide eyes.

“It's the proper spell,” he
whispered.

“I know,” Simon agreed. His
knuckles were white as he gripped the edges of the book.

“What book is that, master? Where
did you get it?”

Simon closed the book and showed Kronk
the cover.

A colorful mixture of pastels
illustrated a rather childish picture of a wizard. He had a long,
white beard and had his hands raised. His blue robe swirled around
him and some unidentifiable monster was rearing up in front of him.

“Not a very good picture, is it?”
the elemental said with a frown.

“Yeah, I know. It looks like a
kid's book.”

Kronk was examining the cover.

“But what is it called? And who
wrote it?”

Simon checked the spine of the book,
but it was blank. Then he opened the cover and looked at the first
few pages.

“Okay, that's weird,” he
said, puzzled. “There's no title, no author name and no
publishing information. Usually there's a copyright notice here
somewhere, but there's nothing.”

The wizard set the tome down, finished
his tea and stared at the book. He pulled at his lower lip
thoughtfully.

“You know, I don't remember
buying this thing. In fact, I don't even remember packing it up with
the rest of my books when I moved my library here, a few months
before the modern world was destroyed.”

Kronk ran his little hands over the
book slowly, as if testing its texture. He finally stood up and
looked at Simon, his expression unreadable.

“We need Aeris,” he said
shortly.

Simon raised an eyebrow.

“We do? Why?”

The elemental gave the book a little
kick.

“Because, master, I think you
have been given a gift. I think the gods of Light are being sneaky,
again, and helping you under the very noses of their evil cousins.”

“Wait. You're saying you think
the
gods
gave me this? Just
like that?”

“
No
master, not just like that. You do not have so many books that you
would not have seen this one before now. I think that they have been
waiting for their opportunity, waiting for the gods of Chaos to be
distracted before sneaking this by them.”

Simon got up
and poured himself more tea. He leaned back on the counter and looked
at Kronk, without really seeing him.

“
Distracted,”
he mused aloud. “Distracted like maybe during that attack on
Nottinghill by Madam and her undead followers?”

Kronk smiled
tightly.

“
Exactly,
master.”

The wizard
sat down again and opened the book. He found the list of spells and
ran his finger down them.

“
But
then why are only half of these spells real ones?”

The
elemental looked at the list.

“
Why
do you think that only some of them are real, master?”

“
Well,
because, you know. I've never heard of some of these. Invisibility?
Really? Featherfall? What the heck is that?”

Kronk
chuckled, a deep rumbling in his chest and Simon looked at him with
surprise.

“
Wait
a second,” he said. “You're saying that they're
all
real?”

“
I'm
not sure about all of them, master. That is why you need to speak to
Aeris. He knows much more about magic than I do. But I have heard of
an Invisibility spell. And I have seen the Featherfall spell used. It
was useful but was also used as a practice spell for young wizards.”

Simon leaned
forward on his forearms and frowned down at the open book.

“
So
what does it do?”

“
Just
as it sounds, master,” Kronk answered with a shrug. “It
protects the caster if they should fall from a great height. It was
also a favorite for those young trainee wizards for getting from the
top of a tall building to the ground.”