The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (44 page)

The wizard finished his
tea and sat thinking, resting his chin on his hand.

“
That's not a bad
idea, just as long as they are careful to only approach the right
magic-users.”

“
That shouldn't be
hard, Simon,” Aeris told him with some humor. “Since an
evil spell-caster would be surrounded by slaves, not free Changlings,
they would be easy enough to avoid.”

“
Good point. Okay
then. Let me check out a few more cities and rest a bit and I'll
start summoning this afternoon. Good call, Aeris.”

“
Ah, a compliment. I
am truly blessed,” the air elemental said with heavy sarcasm.

“
Stop that,”
Simon told him with a grin. “Now, let's check out Rome.”

Simon found no more signs
of survivors in the other cities he searched. Rome, Madrid, Paris, a
dozen others; none revealed anything more than ruins and lifeless
vistas.

But he did spot more
dragon sign. Above Moscow, he caught a brief glimpse of a stunning
dragon. It was as white as newly fallen snow and flew over the old
Russian capital so quickly that he could do no more than register its
existence before it was out of sight.

Beijing revealed another
dragon, this one very large and dirt brown in color. It was circling
the city but Simon saw no targets on the ground and the dragon wasn't
attacking.

“
Something just
occurred to me,” he said to the elementals during the search.
“There are supposed to be five dragon types in the world,
right?”

“
That is correct,
master,” Kronk told him.

“
Then why have we
been told that there are actually six? Black, white, red, green,
brown and yellow, or gold, I suppose.”

Aeris and Kronk exchanged
looks and the air elemental indicated that the earthen should answer.

“
There are only
five, master. The gold dragon is the queen. She rules all.”

“
Wait, what? They
have a queen?”

“
Of course, master.”
Kronk seemed puzzled. “Where did you think they all came from
in the first place?”

“
I don't know. The
dark gods? The Void? Munchkin Land? I just assumed that they've
always been out there, somewhere.”

“
They've been around
since the beginning, my dear wizard,” Aeris cut in. “But
the gods of Chaos created the queen and she in turn gave birth to the
five primals. Each of them can produce lesser dragons of the same
color and powers.”

Simon was a little
confused.

“
But, if she gave
birth to the primals, and hasn't done anything since, why is she
still around? What good is she?”

Aeris gave one of his
exasperated sighs and Kronk frowned at him.

“
She is the
conduit,” the air elemental said pedantically. “The prime
dragons do not take orders from the dark gods. They may call them
master, but they respond only to the matriarch. She passes along all
commands from the gods to her brood.”

“
Wow. Why didn't I
know that? That's incredibly useful information.”

“
I don't see why,”
Aeris responded. “What use is it?”

Simon gaped at him.

“
Are you kidding me?
If we destroy the queen, we destroy the link between the gods of
Chaos and the prime dragons! They'd be left confused and leaderless.
Prime targets for an attack, I'd say.”

“
Master, I mean no
offense, but that is a terrible idea.”

Simon's elation
evaporated.

“
Why? Cut the head
off of the snake and the body will die, eventually.”

“
These are not
snakes, master. These are dragons, the most powerful creatures that
have ever lived. If you destroy their queen, and she is more powerful
than the five primal dragons combined, you unleash these monsters
entirely. Right now they are confined to certain parts of the world,
trying to wipe out the remnants of humanity, mundane and Changling
alike, correct?”

The wizard nodded,
listening closely.

“
But take away that
compulsion and the dragons will spread across the New Earth at their
own whim. They will attack what they want, when they want. In short,
master, they will become a plague like nothing this world has ever
seen.”

“
I agree,”
Aeris said. “You have a chance, slim as it is, to track down
and destroy the primals one by one, as soon as you find their lairs.
But the only reason they even have lairs at the moment is because
they have been ordered to stay in their own territories. Release them
from that and they will never stay in one place long enough for you
to mount an attack.”

Both elementals became
quiet and waited for Simon to answer.

As difficult as it was to
let go of the idea to attack the queen and stop the dragons in their
tracks, the wizard reluctantly had to agree that the little guys were
right. Their arguments made sense.

“
Oh well, you both
make good points. I would like to know where this gold dragon is
though. If and when we destroy her children, she will have to be
dealt with.”

Aeris burst out laughing.

“
One impossible task
at a time, my dear wizard. Kill the primals first, then worry about
their matriarch.”

After scouting a few more
cities, Simon caught an hour of sleep and then ate lunch. Afterwards,
he sat at the kitchen table and prepared to summon some air
elementals.

Before he began though, he
asked Aeris for his recommendations.

“
So how many of
these scouts do you think we'll need?”

Kronk sat at the edge of
the table, dangling his feet and watching the proceedings with
interest. Aeris floated above the table at eye level. He stroked his
chin at Simon's question and seemed to be doing some mental
calculations.

“
The world is a big
place,” he said slowly, measuring his words. “This
mission will probably take weeks to complete, no matter how many of
my brethren you enlist. But I would say no more than five for each
draconian territory. More than that and they would overlap and waste
their efforts. Less and it would take even longer for them to finish
the job and report back.”

“
So let's see,”
Simon said, ticking points off on his fingers. “Five each for
North America, South America, Europe, the Far East, which would
include Russia and China, and Africa. We can check out Australia and
New Zealand when the first wave of elementals return.”

He whistled at the
magnitude of the task.

“
That's not a lot of
scouts to cover so much territory.”

“
They can do it, my
dear wizard, I assure you.”

He pointed at the atlas
that was lying next to Simon's left arm.

“
If I can make use
of your book, I can direct each of them to a specific chunk of the
map. That way, we'll know that they won't be searching the same
territory twice.”

“
Master,”
Kronk spoke up. “Are you sure you can do this at one sitting?
Summoning so many elementals will be exhausting for you.”

“
I know, my friend,”
Simon answered with a smile. “And I'll probably sleep the clock
around when I'm done, but I'm sure I can do it. After all, I seem to
have an affinity for elemental magic.”

“
That's because you
are an elementalist,” Aeris told him. “As I've mentioned
before. So, to use one of your own sayings, shall we get this show on
the road?”

Simon took a deep breath
and nodded. The Summoning spell was one that he had firmly ingrained
into his memory.

“
Okay, guys,”
he said and swallowed heavily. His throat was suddenly as dry as
sand. “Here we go.”

Later, all that Simon
would remember about that epic day of summoning was the procession of
nearly identical air elementals, each of whom bowed low when he
called them forth and then disappeared after getting their
instructions and coordinates from Aeris.

By the time he was done,
the wizard was literally reeling in his seat.

“
Okay,” he
said after the last elemental disappeared, heading for Africa, “my
butt's asleep and I have to use the outhouse. Then I'm going to
crash. Unless a dragon comes knocking, please let me sleep.”

Simon was as good as his
word. He woke up the next day in the late afternoon and only stayed
up long enough to eat a large meal and get cleaned up before going
back to bed again. The next morning though, he was up early feeling
alert and well rested.

The day had dawned bright
and clear and the wizard spent several hours swimming and lolling in
the lake. The horses ran along the shore and each one in turn would
wade into the water to pay him a visit. He found their presence both
reassuring and amusing. Apparently they were afraid he was going to
drown or something.

They really are more
intelligent than they used to be, he thought idly as he watched Chief
wade back to shore and shake the water from his coat, his razor-sharp
horns gleaming in the morning sunlight.

I wonder if they're ever
going to mate, was his next thought. He had seen no other horses,
Changed or otherwise, in his travels and Clara and her people had
none. Perhaps these three were the last. If so, it would be a shame
if the Change had rendered them sterile. But so far, there was no
hint that the mares or Chief were interested in each other that way.

Oh well, maybe Changed
horses matured later than mundane ones did in the past, Simon thought
with little hope. We'll just have to wait and see.

After his swim, Simon met the
elementals in his study. He'd told them that it was time to contact
the dwarves and see what had happened since his warning about the
dragons.

The wizard held up his mirror, cast the
spell while keeping the dwarf leader's face firmly in his mind and
then waited.

“I wonder if they found the
dragons?” Aeris said quietly. “I'd guess that there are a
lot of tunnels down in the deep earth.”

“That's true,” Kronk told
him. He was watching the mirror closely. “But I am sure the
dwarves know every one of them. It is their natural environment,
after all, not the dragons.”

“Good point.”

The mirror remained foggy for so long
that Simon was beginning to wonder if the spell had failed somehow.
But eventually the glass began to clear and the wizard could see the
outline of someone's head. The face was in shadow but he had to
assume it was Shandon Ironhand.

“Hello? Ironhand? It's me, Simon
O'Toole.”

There was a grunt and then Simon heard
a rustling sound, followed by a loud snap. A sudden flame appeared
beside the darkened figure and he gasped as the lit candle revealed
the dwarf's face.

Ironhand's features looked like he had
run face-first into a steel beam. Both eyes were black, his nose was
canted to one side, obviously broken and various cuts and scrapes
covered his skin. In his partly-open mouth Simon saw several gaps
where he'd lost some teeth.

“Wizard, is it?” the dwarf
said in a low, slurred voice. “Well, well. Took your time
calling, didn't you?” He sighed. “Not that I blame you.
You surface dwellers never did care much for the fate of my people.
Should have known better than to rely on you now.”

Simon was staring at the mirror in
shock.

“What are you talking about?”
he asked. “You told me to call back in a few days. Well, it's
been a few days. What the hell happened to you? What's going on?”

Ironhand squinted and looked confused.
Simon realized that the dwarf didn't have a mirror, so he couldn't
see him.

“A few days? Is that all? Huh,
what do you know about that? With all the fighting and the running
and the dying, a dwarf loses track of time. In that case, you have my
apologies. After all, 'twas you that warned us in the first place. I
am grateful for that. Some of my people will survive, at least.”

“Survive? Ironhand, what's
happened? Tell me, please.”

The dwarf leaned back against the rocky
wall behind him and Simon realized that he was sitting in one of the
tunnels. He pulled the view of the mirror back a few feet and saw
that Ironhand was sitting with his legs stretched out in front of
him. One of them was splinted and wrapped in dirty bandages.

“What happened?” Ironhand
closed his eyes wearily. “Yes, I suppose you deserve to know.
After your warning, I gathered my warriors, with my father's blessing
of course, and set out to find these crawling dragons of yours. It
took many hours but we finally ran into one of the beasties.”

His eyes opened wide and he grinned a
gap-toothed smile.

“Ah, it was a glorious battle.
Glorious! The dragon was sitting like a huge toad in the middle of
one of the wider tunnels. I split my forces and we attacked from both
sides. The men sang their battle songs and the dragon roared its
fury. Yes, my friend. Blood flowed that day, both ours and that
dragon's. But we were victorious! I lost six brave souls, but the
dragon perished. We sang their souls to their rest, took the head of
the creature and set off back home to tell of our deeds.”

Ironhand's eyes closed again and he
muttered to himself, shaking his head.