The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (35 page)

Always the mother hen,
Simon thought. He was irritated but decided that he didn't have the
time to argue with the little guy.

“
Okay fine. You're
right. What harm will it do?”

He held up his staff, its
jeweled runes glittering in the sunlight streaming into the tower.

“
Shield,” he
said and the opaque barrier appeared around him and Kronk. He looked
at the earthen, who nodded, satisfied. Then Simon conjured up an
image of Tamara in his mind, making it as detailed as possible.

“
Here we go,”
he said. “Grab hold.”

He felt Kronk's small hand
pull on the hem of his robe.

“
Gate,” Simon
said firmly and they were surrounded by blackness.

The void was total sensory
deprivation. No sight. No sound. No smells of any kind. Just cold;
deep, deep cold.

Death isn't as bad as this
non-place is, the wizard thought as he struggled to keep his focus on
Tamara. At least it wasn't the last time I died. He was almost
distracted by what a silly thought that was.

And then he and Kronk were
standing in an open area, cobblestones under their feet. It was a
gray day in northern England and a cool breeze blew through his
shield and past his body, making him shiver. He began to turn in a
circle, looking for Tamara, but he wasn't given much of a chance.

“
Archers! Fire!”
he heard the mage yell from somewhere to his right. Simon spun around
in time to see a fireball slam into his shield, causing the barrier
to flare with sparks. Arrows smacked into it, disintegrating as they
hit the magical field. He was under attack.

Kronk pulled frantically
on his robe.

“
Gate away, master!”
he cried. “Gate away!”

Simon was reeling. He was
being attacked by friends and was frozen in disbelief.

“
No,” he
snapped as he accepted what was happening. He raised his staff and
sent a pulse of power into his shield to fortify it.

The rain of arrows
continued, sparking and zapping all around him, but the wizard
ignored them. He was looking for Tamara.

“
Hold your fire,”
she called out and he finally spotted the mage. She was standing
twenty yards away, across the courtyard with two people he didn't
recognize; a man and a woman, both of whom were wearing dark robes.
Tamara's sky blue robe was incongruously cheerful considering the
circumstances.

Magic-users, he thought
grimly.

“
Tamara! What the
hell is the big idea? Why are you attacking me?”

The courtyard was wide
open but there were several low buildings scattered around it, closer
to the high castle walls. Simon spotted at least a dozen archers on
these buildings, watching him with bows drawn. He ignored them and
began walking toward the group of spell-casters.

“
Hold it right
there, Simon,” Tamara shouted at him.

“
Or what?” he
called back angrily and kept walking. “You've already tried to
kill me and failed.”

He saw the mage and her
two companions raise shields and smiled coldly. He could feel the
inferior nature of the spells. If he wanted to, he could shatter them
fairly easily.

He moved to within twenty
feet of them and stopped.

“
Explain yourself,”
Simon said furiously. “I thought we were friends.”

Tamara lifted her chin
proudly.

“
I thought we were
too, until my brother was abducted. Yanked away by magic when he was
outside of the castle walls yesterday.”

“
What? Sebastian
abducted? By whom?”

“
Oh, drop the act,
wizard,” the male spell-caster said disdainfully. “We
know that it was you.”

Simon looked at the man.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties, although with Changlings you
never knew. He was completely bald with a rather large nose and beady
little eyes that glared at the wizard. His thin lips were twisted in
a sneer.

The female caster was
quite different. She was small and delicate, with long black hair
that blew in the chilly wind. Young, she appeared Asian and was
watching Simon fearfully. None of the three had a staff or other
weapon.

“
Okay, that's just
nuts,” Simon told them. He focused on Tamara. “What in
God's name would make you think that I would kidnap your brother who
is, by the way, my friend.”

The sound of all of their
shields snapping and arcing echoed across the courtyard, and the
smell of ozone was thick in the air.

Tamara hesitated and then
nodded at the male spell-caster.

“
Octavian is a mage
but also has the rare gift of second sight. He did a scrying after
Sebastian was taken and saw him being held captive, in your tower.”

The man nodded once in
confirmation, scowling at Simon.

“
Are you insane?”
the wizard asked Tamara. “On this guy's word, someone you
barely know, you decided to trick a friend into coming here and
killing him? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“
Barely know? We've
been here for months, ever since we moved up from Australia,”
Octavian said scornfully. “Tamara and I are very good friends.”

From the vague look that
she gave him, Simon guessed that Tamara didn't quite agree with that
assessment.

“
It wasn't just on
his word,” she said heavily, her anger fading. “I used
Magic Mirror to look for Sebastian and I found him, Simon. Well, we
found him, together. In your tower. Chained in the dark in your
cellar. Now tell me why. Why would you do that?”

“
Impossible,
master,” Kronk whispered.

Simon looked down at him
and raised an eyebrow.

“
No one can pass
your wards to see inside the tower, master,” the little guy
elaborated softly.

The wizard nodded and gave
Kronk a tight smile.

“
So you saw
Sebastian inside my tower, did you? And on that basis, you were
willing to kill me?”

Tamara looked confused and
Simon felt something, some sort of energy, twisting around her. It
was separate from her shield; darker, heavier somehow. It seemed to
thin, become ragged and then it snapped back into place just as
Octavian made a small twisting motion with one hand.

Something clicked in
Simon's mind and he thought he knew what was happening. He looked
down at Kronk.

“
Do me a favor,”
he said under his breath. “I'm going to have to move fast in a
moment. I want you to go deep and wait for me to summon you home,
okay?”

Fortunately the little guy
didn't question him, the way that Aeris would. Instead he nodded,
whispered “Good luck, master,” and disappeared into the
ground.

“
Where have you sent
your servant?” Octavian asked suspiciously. “Spying on
us, is he?”

Simon ignored him.

“
I'm curious,
Tamara. Let's say that you'd managed to kill me. Then what? You
rescue your brother and then sit here in your castle until the
dragons come to finish you off? Don't you think that you might need
my help with that?”

“
Bah. We don't need
help from a treacherous dog like you,” Octavian snarled.
“Between myself, Tamara and Keiko, we can withstand a dragon
attack.”

“
I wasn't talking to
you,” Simon snapped at him. “Tamara?”

His friend was watching
him with a increasingly puzzled look on her face. Her hands were
clasped tightly together, the knuckles shining white through her
skin. And in her eyes, there was something out of place. Deep within
was a hint of desperation, something that Simon had never seen in
this strong woman before.

The wizard nodded and
smiled at her.

“
What are you
grinning at?” Octavian spat at him. “You are about to die
for your attack on a fellow magic-user.”

“
Oh shut up,”
Simon said, suddenly losing all patience. “No one is dying
today.” He caught the man's eyes. “Well, I'm not anyway.”

Time to move, he thought.

Simon slammed the butt of
his staff on to the ground and sent a burst of brilliant energy
arching through the air. The three shields of his opponents exploded
with loud bangs, sparks cascading all around them. Tamara, Octavian
and the woman, Keiko, collapsed, falling to their knees and shouting
in pain. Before the watching archers could react, Simon dropped his
own shield, ran over to the dazed trio and grabbed Tamara's arm.

“
Gate!” he
shouted as he heard the chilling sound of arrows whistling towards
him.

Darkness sucked them away
and he focused on his tower, hoping that he hadn't let go of Tamara
in the void.

He staggered into daylight
moments later, thankfully with his friend's arm still in his grasp.

“
Where did you get
to?”

Simon looked around and
spotted Aeris floating down the stairs.

“
I was just looking
for you,” he added. “Wait. Is that the mage, Tamara?”

“
Yes, it's her. Help
me get her to the couch, would you?”

Displaying his surprising
strength, Aeris took one of Tamara's arms and helped to guide the
dazed mage to the couch. They sat her down and watched as she stared
at her lap blankly.

“
Could you make some
tea?” Simon asked the elemental, who was looking at the woman
in concern.

He nodded and quickly flew
across the room to the kitchen area.

Meanwhile, the wizard
knelt down, took both of Tamara's hands in his own and squeezed them
gently.

“
Tamara? Hey, how
are you doing?”

She slowly looked up at
him, her sapphire-blue eyes dull and sunken, the diagonal scar across
her pale face glowing vividly.

“
Doing?”

She shook her head and her
short blond hair bounced around her face. She seemed to gather
herself with an effort and then frowned in confusion.

“
Wait. What's going
on? Simon?”

She pulled away and looked
around the room.

“
Where are we?”

“
In my tower. I
brought you here to get you out of the range of the hostile spell you
were under.”

Tamara stood up abruptly
and walked away several steps. Then she turned around, looking at the
room, noting the details. She spotted Aeris, who nodded to her as he
set the kettle over the fire.

“
This is so weird,”
she said finally. “I feel like I've been asleep for a week. Did
I,” she hesitated and then rushed on, “did I just try to
kill you?”

Simon grinned.

“
Yeah, pretty much.
Thankfully, Kronk suggested that I raise my shield before I Gated
over to the castle. Oh, speaking of which...”

He looked at the bare
floor a few feet away,

“
Kronk, come home,”
he said firmly.

There was a gentle rumble
and the tower creaked slightly. And then the little guy slowly faded
into view , smiling when he saw that Simon was okay.

“
Thank you, master.
It worked, I see.”

“
It did, yes.”

“
Would someone
please tell me what is going on?” Aeris asked plaintively from
the kitchen counter.

“
I second that,”
Tamara said with the shadow of a smile.

She walked back to the
couch and sat down heavily.

“
I feel like I've
been sleep-walking for days. Simon, you said you brought me here to
break the spell I was under? What spell?”

The wizard leaned his
staff against the wall near the door and then crossed the room to
join Aeris.

“
You called me
earlier, in case you don't remember. I was out in the back pasture at
the time. You said that there was a problem and asked me to come to
you right away, which I did.”

He took out two cups and
Aeris handed him the tin of tea.

Simon grinned over at the
mage.

“
When a friend tells
me they need help, I don't question it, I just go. Kronk got me to
cast Shield before we left, which is just as well because as soon as
I arrived at the castle, you attacked me along with about a dozen
archers.”

Tamara covered her face
and then rubbed her eyes.

“
Oh my God,”
she said weakly. “I can't believe I did that. You might have
been killed!”

“
I'm sure that was
Octavian's intent,” Simon said dryly.

The kettle boiled quickly
and Aeris picked it up and flew over to fill both cups. Simon smiled
his thanks and went back to the couch. He gave Tamara her tea and
then sat down again.

“
But he didn't
succeed. I don't know what spell he was using to control you, but it
was obviously using a lot of his energy. He couldn't even attack me
directly. Neither did that woman, Keiko. Hmm, I wonder why?”