The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (60 page)

Good, they would be safe.
After seeing the fire elementals being destroyed one by one, Simon
couldn't bear the thought of either of his little friends getting
killed by the primal.

“
Incendus, come to
me,” he said hurriedly and the fire elemental popped into
existence a few feet away.

“
Gather your
remaining friends and retreat,” he told the elemental urgently.
“You can't hold him back any longer and enough of you have
fallen today.”

“
We are not cowards,
sir wizard. We can hold him for a few more minutes, at least,”
Incendus protested.

“
No! Get out of
here. I know you're brave. After watching you all, everyone who saw
you knows it too. Now retreat please. Live to fight another day.”

The fire elemental bowed
reluctantly.

“
Kill him if you
can, sir wizard. That creature is too powerful and too evil to live.”

“
I'll do my best.
Now go!”

Incendus disappeared like
someone blowing out a candle flame and at the same time, Simon saw
the four remaining elementals that were circling the primal dragon
vanish as well.

Pyrathius lifted his
bloody head and looked around slowly, obviously confused. He
staggered away from the wall of the crater and moved several huge
steps toward Simon. The ground rolled and bucked under his feet.

He glared across the
distance at the wizard and smiled his reptilian grin.

“
You have failed,
human!” he scoffed, his voice echoing around the crater. “And
see, your allies have deserted you. Typical. Now you stand alone.”

He shook his head and fat
drops of green blood rained down and smoked as they splattered to the
ground.

“
You managed to
scratch me though, so I will be gracious and acknowledge that. Now
I'll be done with you and go and squash that stupid little tower of
yours.” The dragon extended his wings in a long, languorous
stretch. “And then I will level your friends' castle. Perhaps I
will feed then.”

He narrowed his glowing,
hellish eyes as he watched Simon, obviously enjoying himself.

“
Humans are not very
tasty but I think I shall enjoy the symbolism.”

Simon's anger had been
growing as Pyrathius spoke and it pushed away both his fear and his
caution. He slammed the end of his staff against the broken ground
and summoned his power.

“
Shatter!” he
shouted.

A crack, small at first
and then growing as it moved, raced across the crater toward the
primal. Rock and broken shards of lava shot up in all directions as
the floor of the volcano shattered like broken glass.

“
What is this?”
the dragon bellowed as his legs began to buckle beneath him. “What
are you doing, worm?”

And then the ground opened
up under him and the enormous creature was engulfed in a huge pool of
molten lava.

“
How does that feel,
you smug bastard?” Simon spat.

The red dragon might love
basking in intense heat, but liquid rock was another matter. The
primal's shrieks proved that the lava could at least hurt it.

“
I will rend you
slowly,” Pyrathius raved as he struggled to pull himself out of
the lake of burning stone. “I will strip the flesh from your
bones and make you suffer! Your torment will be endless!”

Simon was beyond caring
about the dragon's threats. He knew that he should retreat, get out
of range and come up with another strategy. But all he could do was
stand on the edge of the new lava lake and watch the primal thrash
and scream in rage.

He summoned up a shield to
repel the spray of burning droplets that the dragon was flinging in
all directions as he splashed and roiled in the lake. And then he
just stood there and enjoyed the spectacle.

A part of the wizard's
brain was screaming at him to leave, Gate away, run. But his feet
seemed rooted to the ground and he just felt so tired of it all.
Tired of the constant fear, tired of always waiting for the next
attack. Maybe he should just make his stand here and end it, one way
or the other.

Pyrathius finally managed
to drag his massive body out of the lava on the far side of the
crater. Streams of liquid rock poured off of his scales and he was
glowing like a cinder. As far as Simon could tell, the dragon didn't
seem particularly injured, although his scales looked blackened along
the edges and they smoked and spluttered as they cooled.

The primal lifted his
enormous wings and flapped them slowly, flinging sparks and hard bits
of lava all over the crater. He stood on the edge of the lake and
glared across it at Simon.

The wizard realized that
for the moment, he was relatively safe. The dragon couldn't reach him
where he was standing against the wall. The lava lake extended almost
to his feet and the monster would have to swim across it to get at
him. Or fly across, and Pyrathius was simply too large. His wings
would slam into the wall of the crater long before he got to the
wizard. They were at an impasse.

Simon could tell that the
dragon realized this as well. The monster extended his head over the
bubbling lava and hissed like a snake. It was ear-splitting and the
wizard winced and gritted his teeth at the sound.

“
Enjoy your last
moments, wizard,” Pyrathius spat. “You have nowhere to
run and nowhere to hide. Gate back to your little refuge if you wish
and I shall follow. I shall follow you now to the ends of the world.
You have,” The primal paused and slowly smiled, “offended
me and that cannot be borne. So run, little human. Run.”

Simon shook his head and
dust and grit flew in all directions. He slapped his chest and arms
and watched powder rise in a cloud. Then he grounded his staff and
smiled back at the dragon.

“
No, I think I'll
stay right here for now,” he shouted. “I wouldn't want to
miss what's coming next.”

A stray breeze had slipped
through his shield and a touch of dampness, a cool, clean sensation,
had wafted over his face and made him shiver. Something sizzled as it
hit his shield. Then another splatter and another. It was beginning
to rain.

“
Coming next? The
only thing coming for you, human, is a slow and agonizing death. If
you wish to experience it now, simply Gate over here to me and I
shall accommodate you.”

“
Diamond Skin,”
Simon said as he watched Pyrathius.

“
What are you
doing?” the primal asked suspiciously. “That stupid
little spell won't save you from my claws and fangs. Surely even a
human like you knows that.”

“”
Yeah, I do,”
the wizard muttered. “I just don't want to drown.”

And then all hell broke
loose.

Kronk and Aeris watched
from the lip of the crater. Technically they were obeying Simon's
order to leave, but it was a very slow retreat.

They couldn't see much
through the thick fumes and blazing redness of the large lake of
lava, but Pyrathius was easy enough to see and they could hear his
side of the conversation with their master.

“
I do not
understand,” the earthen said anxiously. “Why doesn't
master Gate out of there? The dragon cannot reach him. He has the
time.”

“
No idea,”
Aeris said as he floated beside Kronk. “Too stubborn, maybe.
You know how he is.”

“
No, that is not
it,” the little guy replied stoutly. “He has a plan. That
has to be it. But what?”

He looked at his
companion.

“
I should go back
down there. He may need my help.”

“
Your help?”
Aeris said with a snort of derision. “Kassus and the others
couldn't help him against that monster. What could you possibly do?”

“
I don't know. I
don't know.”

Kronk began wringing his
hands as he stared down into the inferno below. Aeris watched him and
then he sighed and his shoulders slumped.

“
I want to help him
too, Kronk,” he admitted softly. “But there really is
nothing that we can do, except watch and wait.”

“
You won't have to
wait much longer,” someone said from behind them and the pair
turned around quickly and gaped at the newcomer.

An elemental, the same
height as the two of them, stood rippling and flowing on the crust of
the volcano.

“
Anaposus!”
Kronk exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“
How did you return
to this world?” Aeris asked as he glared at her. “Who
would trust a member of the traitorous water elemental race?”

She returned their hostile
looks calmly.

“
Your master, of
course. Who else can summon an elemental?”

“
The primal
dragons,” Aeris growled. “As the primal white did once
before.”

“
No, they cannot.
That was a special case, as you well know. The primal white mutated
himself to be able to use wizard-level magic. This primal,” she
nodded down at Pyrathius as he paced along the edge of the lava,
“does not have that ability.”

“
And why would our
dear wizard call upon you?”

“
To act as an
intermediary; an envoy. Neither of us knew if I would be successful
and I still do not know if my efforts will be enough to stop that
nightmarish thing down there, but your master...”

Her voice faded for a
moment and then she suddenly smiled with such joy that even Aeris
felt her happiness.

“
Our
master,” she corrected herself, “felt that we should try.
And now I would recommend that you brace yourselves.”

“
For what?”
Kronk asked, puzzled.

“
Don't you know that
old saying?” she asked him with an impish smile. “That
fire and water don't mix?”

“
What...”

An enormous explosion
interrupted the earthen's question and he and the other two
elementals were flung violently through the air, away from the
volcano which was suddenly a chaotic storm of fire and super-heated
steam.

Just before the explosion,
inside the crater, Simon channeled as much magic as he could pull out
of the air around him into his shield. A second later, a massive
humanoid shape, almost as large as Pyrathius himself, appeared above
the lake of fire. The shape sparkled and threw off rainbow streams of
reflected light.

“
What is this?”
the primal raged as he threw back his wings, preparing to launch
himself skyward.

“
Your end,” a
voice of staggering power answered him. And the enormous water
elemental, Aquamastis, keeper of the Ottawa River, repaid his debt to
Simon. His form collapsed and hundreds of tons of cold water dropped
directly on to the bubbling cauldron of lava.

It was only later that the
wizard was able to piece together the sequence of events that
followed. All he saw was a blinding flash of white and red and, as he
was lifted from his feet, he desperately pictured the one place in
the world that always meant home.

“
Gate!” he
wheezed, his breath knocked out of him by the blast, and he fell into
the void and unconsciousness at the same time.

I wonder if we won, was
his final thought.

When he groped upward into
daylight again, Simon found himself lying on his back, staring up at
large wooden beams. He was bathed in sunlight and squinted,
momentarily blinded.

Where am I?

Before he moved, the
wizard carefully moved each limb, feeling for injuries. Everything
seemed to be working as it should, even though his Diamond Skin and
Shield spells had collapsed.

He sat up slowly and
looked around. He sighed and smiled to himself. Home. He was home.
His robe was singed and had several holes burnt into it and his
staff, lying by his right arm, looked a little charred. But
considering how badly things could have turned out, the damage was
minimal.

Simon pushed himself to
his feet. He picked up the staff and left it near the door, then
staggered over to the kitchen table and sat down at it heavily.

What happened? he
wondered. His memory was fuzzy. He remembered Aquamastis appearing,
which had been both a surprise and a relief, an explosion of light
and sound and then nothing. Did the primal survive? How were his
friends? What about Kronk and the others?

“
Kronk!” he
blurted out in sudden fear. Was the little guy okay? “Kronk, I
need you!”

The kitchen table
shuddered and scraped across the floor several inches and then the
earthen was standing on it, staring at the wizard.

“
Master! You are
home!”

He skittered across the
table and touched Simon's hand.

“
Are you injured?”

“
I'm fine, my
friend. Better than I have any right to be. What about you? You look
a little cooked.”

The earthen grinned as he
looked down at his sooty body.

“
I am all right,
master. When the volcano exploded, we were thrown a long way.”
He suddenly looked worried. “I have not seen Aeris or Ana since
then. I hope that they are unharmed.”