The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (25 page)

He put it back into the
drawer and stared at it, puzzled. Why this though? There was a wand
back in that box in Russia that he should have been more attracted
to, but it held no interest for him.

Well, I do have my staff,
he thought with a shrug. Still, a crystal ball? Really?

He patted the thing,
closed the drawer and got dressed, still at a loss.

Downstairs, Kronk was
adding a log to the fire and Simon smiled at him gratefully. The
dampness in the air made it cool and the heat from the blazing
fireplace was very welcome.

“
Good morning,
master. It is wet outside today.”

“
Morning, Kronk.
Yeah, I noticed. Where's Aeris?”

The earthen reached up and
tapped the kettle hanging over the fire. He was standing in the
middle of the flames.

“
He filled this and
then went outside, master. I do not know where he went, but I am sure
that he will be back soon.”

“
That's fine. I was
just curious.”

Worried about using up his
limited supply of coffee too quickly, Simon made tea instead and had
a bowl of oatmeal sweetened with honey.

“
Wish we had a cow,”
he muttered as he ate. “Oatmeal isn't oatmeal without milk. And
butter on my toast would be a nice change.”

He sucked on his lower lip
for a moment.

“
If I could figure
out a way to make it, that is.”

Kronk finished waiting for
his body to cool down after standing inside the fireplace and then
hopped up on to the table.

“
So why do you not
get one, master?” he asked practically.

“
I beg your pardon?”
Simon asked him blankly.

“
Get a cow, master.
Or several. There are wild cattle roaming the fields all over the New
Earth, I am sure. I do not think the horses would mind sharing their
pasture.”

Simon sat there feeling
like an idiot.

“
Oh for God's sake.
I am so stupid.”

“
You are not,
master,” Kronk averred. “You are a wizard and you were
raised in a city, were you not? Then of course it might not occur to
you to seek out a cow if you wanted milk or butter. Why would it? But
with this new reality we live in, we must go about things the
old-fashioned way.” He paused and smiled brightly. “I
like cows.”

“
You like cows?”
Simon asked. “Really?”

“
Oh yes, master.
Cows, horses, all domesticated animals. I especially liked dogs. Even
back in ancient times, your people had dogs.”

“
Dogs,” the
wizard repeated wistfully. “I like them too, Kronk. We always
had dogs when I was growing up. Cats as well. My mother adored having
pets around the house. It really seemed to help her after my father
passed away and she was raising me alone.”

“
Then you should
have one now, master. Perhaps make a list; a wish list. Write down
all of the things that you would like and then, make it so.”

“
Just like that?”
Simon asked, amused.

“
Yes master, just
like that. You are a wizard. You can make your dreams a reality if
you choose to.” Kronk winked at him. “Especially little
dreams like having a cow or a dog.”

Simon burst out laughing.

“
Okay, my friend,
I'll think about it.”

“
Think about what?”

Aeris popped into the
room, a few drops of water trickling through him to drip on to the
floor.

“
Getting a pet. So
where did you go?” Simon asked absently as he finished his
breakfast.

“
Just did a quick
circuit of the forest around the tower. Never hurts to be careful.”

“
I agree. Good
thought.”

The wizard got up, put his
bowl in the sink and then picked up his cup.

“
Anything out
there?” he asked as he leaned back on the counter drinking his
tea.

“
Wet leaves, wet
grass and a wet squirrel. The way it chittered at me, I don't think
it likes the smell of damp fur, even its own.”

Simon snorted a laugh,
almost choking on a mouthful of hot liquid.

“Okay then. Do me a favor?”

Aeris nodded.

“There were a lot of farms to the
south and west of here. Could you do a scout and see if you can find
any cows? Milk cows in particular? You can tell they give milk by...”

“I am well aware of the
difference between cows, my dear wizard,” the air elemental
said loftily. “I don't need a biology lesson.”

“Fine, professor. If you find
any, come on back and let me know. We'll see if we can't add a few to
our herd of livestock. That should give Chief and the girls a bit of
a surprise.”

Both elementals chuckled and Aeris
suddenly looked eager.

“Ah, finally, a real job. I'll be
happy to do it.” He flew to the door. “Time frame?”

Simon thought about it for a moment.

“I'd rather you didn't stay out
overnight, so if you have no luck today, come home and set out again
tomorrow. We'll continue like that for now.”

“Sounds good. I'd rather be in
the tower after dark anyway, if we're going to have flights of
dragons flying over our heads on a regular basis.”

“Oh my, let us hope it does not
come to that,” Kronk said with mild alarm.

Aeris rolled his eyes, waved at them
both and disappeared with a quiet pop.

“You know, I've noticed that
sometimes he opens the door to leave and sometimes he does that short
teleport trick,” Simon said to Kronk.

He moved over to the sink and began
pumping water into it.

“Any idea why?”

“Laziness?” the earthen
replied with a shrug. “Who can say, master. I know that the
airy ones can't teleport over large distances. Aeris can port back
home at any time from any distance because you gave him permission to
do so, but that is a special case.”

“Yeah, so you guys once told me.
I was just curious, that's all.”

He poured the last of the hot water
from the kettle into the sink and began to wash the dishes.

Kronk hopped down to the floor and
hurried to the front door.

“So where are you off to?”
Simon asked.

“It is repair day, master,”
the little guy said as he reached the door. “There are several
cracks in the base of the tower as well as some weathering on the
outside wall. My brethren and I will take care of those.”

Simon nodded at the fat droplets of
water banging into the windows.

“You won't have a problem doing
that in the rain?”

Kronk laughed lightly.

“No master. Such things do not
bother us.”

“Okay then. Have fun.”

“We will, master.”

Kronk left and slammed the door closed
behind himself, leaving the wizard alone to finish washing his
dishes. He cleaned off the table and counter, swept the floor and
then, with an approving nod at the tidiness of the kitchen, headed
upstairs.

Simon realized that he had been
presented with a golden opportunity to examine the crystal ball that
he'd smuggled in from Russia. He felt a guilty sense of unease as he
retrieved the ball from his sock drawer and took it into the study.
He remembered his mother saying once that if you are doing something
that makes you feel guilty, it's probably because what you are doing
is wrong.

Yeah, thanks Mom, he thought wryly. Way
to make me feel bad.

He lit all of the candles in the room
with a tiny pulse of magic and looked at the pounding rain outside
with a shrug. Lousy weather.

Simon sat down at his desk, placed the
crystal ball in the middle of it and stared at it, chin in hand.

The crystal gathered the light of the
candles around the room into itself and glowed warmly. Simon could
only see the room warped by the curve of the surface in the glass and
nothing more. No visions and no surprises.

“Okay, you're pretty,” he
muttered. “But so what?”

He focused his magical senses on the
object and then sat up and extended his arms, holding his open palms
on either side of the ball.

What are you? What can you do? Why am I
drawn to you? Simon's mind hummed with questions and he closed his
eyes, trying to sense something, anything, emanating from the orb.

Finally he sat back with an exasperated
sigh. Nothing. He could feel nothing at all and he rubbed his eyes
tiredly before opening them and staring at the crystal ball again.

Simon pushed himself back from the desk
so quickly that he flipped his chair over and barely managed to stay
on his feet. He staggered and caught himself on the window ledge
behind him.

The crystal ball had turned black. It
was a solid orb of darkness, seeming to draw in all of the light from
around it, like a miniature black hole set in the center of the room.

“What the hell?” he said in
a strained voice.

“Ah, so there is someone out
there.”

The voice that shivered out of the ball
was powerful, humming around the room. But it was not ominous or
threatening. It sounded almost...amused.

There was a long moment of silence as
Simon waited for something to happen. But whoever, or whatever, was
watching or listening at the other end of the orb remained silent.

“Who are you?” he finally
asked, mustering up his courage.

“Who are
you
?”
the voice replied. “You called me, after all.”

“
I
did not. I just found this crystal ball and, I don't know, activated
it accidentally. That's all.”

“
As
I said, you called me. So identify yourself, or let me go.”

Simon set his chair upright and rolled it back to the desk. He sat
down, watching the black orb the entire time, and then leaned
forward.

“
Okay
then. My name is Simon O'Toole. And you are?”

“
Esmiralla.”

The silence fell again.

“
That's
it?” Simon asked, a little exasperated.

“
You
asked who I am. I replied. What more it there to say?”

Oh, this is going well, he thought. This could get frustrating very
quickly.

“
That's
a good point,” he said. “How about this; I'll tell you
something about me and you can tell me something about you. Deal?”

“
Intriguing.
Very well then, let us try.”

“
Fine
then. As I said, my name is Simon. I'm a wizard.”

Another silence.

“
You
should not start off a give and take like this by lying,” the
voice said harshly. “There are no wizards. There have been none
in over five thousand years.”

“
So
I've been told. But I'm telling you the truth. After the dragons
returned, a few humans were Changed into...something else. Something
crafted to survive in an atmosphere rich in magical energy. I guess I
drew the short straw and was Changed into a wizard.”

“
A
wizard. Well now, that could be true. You were drawn to the sphere,
after all. It only attracts those capable of using magic. But a
wizard! How extraordinary.”

“
If
you say so,” Simon replied flatly. “Okay, your turn.”

“
Fair
enough, wizard. But before I share more with you, tell me; where does
your allegiance lie? Do you follow the Light or are you an agent of
Chaos?”

Simon frowned.

“
I
follow the old lords of Light. The gods of Chaos have killed many of
my friends and allies, and have tried to kill me on several
occasions. They destroyed my people and my world. There are no words
to describe how much I loathe them.”

“
Ah.
I can hear the truth in your voice, and I am difficult to deceive.
And how do you feel about the dragons who call those dark gods
master?”

“
I
thought that we were doing a give and take,” Simon said
sharply. “Sounds like I'm doing all of the giving and you're
doing all of the taking.”

“
It
does, yes. But if I reveal myself, it must be to someone I can trust.
One mistake could mean my doom.”

Simon sat back and stared at the black orb. Who could he be talking
to? This Esmiralla sounded like someone who was an enemy of Chaos,
but how could he know for sure? She, and he felt that the person he
was speaking to was a she, could be a dark servant just waiting to
ensnare him with this crystal ball. It could be a cursed object; he'd
certainly read about such things in old fantasy books. And the
elementals had mentioned them too. But those were just stories. This
was real.

Life is risk, lad, he told himself as he made his decision.

“
I
hate them,” he said flatly. “I've been fighting them for
several years now and I've been involved in the deaths of four of the
primals.”

“
Ah.”

The darkness inside the orb began to swirl, little ribbons of light
slashing across the blackness like a monochromatic rainbow. A sighing
sound, like a lonely desert wind, rose from the crystal ball and made
Simon shiver with its sound of loss.

The orb began to brighten, glowing softly at first and then shining
brighter than the candles on the desk. It changed color until it
shone like gold and music, a distant resonance, made Simon's breath
catch in his throat.