The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) (13 page)

His
leather office chair and sturdy wooden desk were likewise fine and he
happily wiped them down along with the shelving.

The rest
of his home was soon gleaming like new again, thanks to Kronk and
some help from his fellow earthen. Once that task was done, Simon
began the rather more somber job of trying to discover what the world
had become since he had left it.

And so,
the third morning after Aeris had left to search for the horses, the
wizard sat down in his study to reluctantly find out how things had
changed.

He had a
fresh cup of tea beside him and was well-rested. Perhaps it was an
omen, but it had rained all night and continued through the morning.
The gloomy weather suited Simon's mood; he expected nothing good to
come of his efforts.

“
Well,
get on with it, magic man,” he said to himself. “Waiting
won't make things any better.”

He picked
up his late mother's hand mirror, its silver frame now brightly
polished, and stared at his smooth, hairless face in its reflective
surface.

His blue
and brown eyes stared back at him; wide and innocent and always a
shock to the man who lived behind them.

“
Who
are you?” he whispered at himself. “Who are you really?”

He shook
his head irritably and focused on his magic. Soul searching was a
waste of time and he had more important things to do.

“
Nottinghill
Castle,” he said firmly and concentrated on that old edifice,
picturing it the way he'd last seen it several years before.

The
surface of the mirror shivered and warped, becoming foggy, and Simon
waited for the spell to connect to its target. He sipped some tea and
listened to the rain tapping on the windows; always a sad and lonely
sound.

As the misty surface began to clear,
the wizard put down his cup, concentrated on the emerging scene and
held his breath.

“
Oh my God,”
he murmured. “What's happened?”

The castle was a shattered ruin. Its
soaring walls were torn down and the buildings inside the courtyard
were gone. It was such a scene of unwarranted destruction that Simon
couldn't comprehend it.

But rising out of the middle of the
wreckage was a tower. Not a squat, square tower like his, but a
misshapen, soaring monster of a building.

Simon had no way to judge its size;
three hundred feet? Five? Maybe even higher than that. But it looked
as if the builders had taken all of the pieces of Nottinghill Castle
and stuck them together in a madman's heap. How the ugly thing even
managed to reach toward the heavens and not collapse upon itself was
a mystery.

“
Magic,”
he muttered. “Black magic. Has to be.”

The tower was surrounded by a
rippling field of distortion that made it hard to make out details,
but he could see greenish lights glowing from crooked windows,
climbing up level upon level. And near the top, where the tower came
to a sharp, defiant point aimed at the sky, were monstrous shapes
that soared and glided around the edifice as if on constant guard:
dracoliches.

The wizard saw two of the massive
undead dragons and wondered if they were the remains of the two
primals that had pursued him before he'd escaped to the elven realm.
He would have to assume that they were.

Simon sat back in his chair with a
groan. He had a feeling that he'd have to face one or both of those
creatures one day, and the thought was far from comforting.

Who lives there, I wonder? The
necromancers? That damned Lacertus? Or something even worse?

And why build their accursed tower on
the bones of Nottinghill Castle? It seemed so petty and childish. Or
was it a warning, a lesson to everyone who saw it?

It didn't matter. One day the human
race would tear that thing down and destroy whatever was hiding
inside of it.

Brave words, wizard, his inner voice
said mockingly. Let's see you do it.

“
One day,”
he muttered. “One day it will happen. You just wait and see.”

He dismissed the vision of the black
tower and tried to find the old cruise ship, the Defiant. It had been
home to quite a few people. But he had no luck. That wasn't really a
surprise though; the ship had no permanent home port. If the crew and
the others living on her had been evacuated by the dwarves, they
could have left the ship anywhere. And moving water was a natural
barrier to the Magic Mirror spell anyway.

Simon then directed his mirror toward
a handful of smaller settlements that he vaguely remembered,
scattered around the world. Each one was deserted and most had been
flattened and torn apart like Nottinghill. It was a tremendously
depressing session and he gave up after a couple of hours.

If there were any humans left alive
on the planet's surface, he couldn't find them.

“
So I guess
I'll have to do it the hard way,” he said to the room around
him.

He stood up abruptly, pushed back his
chair and left the room. The wizard turned left out of the study and
hurried up the stairs to the top floor. He climbed the ladder to the
roof, pushed back the trap door and pulled himself out into the
morning light.

The rain had passed but dark clouds
raced across the sky, promising more precipitation to come. The wind
was gusty and constantly changing direction. Simon's hair whipped
around his face and his robe fluttered and snapped in the breeze.

He ignored these distraction and held
out his hand.

“
Mortis de
Draconis,” he said firmly.

The staff flashed into existence and
settled into his palm, a comforting and familiar weight.

“
Morning,”
Simon said to it with a tight smile. “We have some work to do.”

He held up the staff and winced; he
knew what was coming.

“
Brethia,
come to me,” he stated in a loud voice.

There was a dull rumble in the
distance and the daylight seemed to dim.

“
Here we
go,” he muttered and cringed a bit as he closed his eyes.

A moment later there was a blinding
flash and the tower shook with a resounding blast of thunder that
made Simon's ears ring.

“
Damn it, I
hate that,” he said as the echoes faded.

He leaned the staff against his chest
and rubbed his ears.

“
Forgive me,
my lord,” a delicate, feminine voice said contritely.

Simon opened his eyes and saw an air
elemental bobbing in the wind a few feet away.

“
That's
okay, Brethia. Aeris has told me many times that your ruler likes you
all to make a big entrance.”

She shrugged a bit wearily and
nodded.

“
I am afraid
so, my lord. We have petitioned him about changing it, but...”

“
He's
stubborn. Yeah, so I've been told. Anyway, it's no big deal. So how
have you been?”

“
Excellent,
sir wizard. Never better. And I am pleased to see you looking so
well. We've heard so many rumors back home about you and your people
that it is difficult to separate the truth from the fiction.”

“
Really? I
didn't know that you got news about us in your realm. And it's good
to see you too. If you have a minute, I'd like to run something by
you and see what you think.”

The elemental looked at him brightly.

“
Is it a
task, my lord? I will happily perform any task you wish.”

Simon shook a finger at her.

“
Don't
commit to something before you know what it is. You never know what
you're getting yourself into.”

Brethia laughed delicately.

“
I trust
you, sir wizard. All of my people do. You are so unlike the wizards
of old, you know. When we were summoned by them, we always answered
with great reluctance. Some of the horrors they involved us
in...ugh.”

Simon walked over to the parapet and
sat down on the edge of it, hoping his butt wouldn't get too soaked
on the wet stone.

“
So Aeris
has told me. You know, it's just occurred to me that the necromancers
who created the dracoliches and control the undead are wizards as
well; corrupted and evil, but wizards just the same. And wizards are
the only magic-users who can summon supernatural beings. Have any of
them attempted to summon your people or any other elementals?”

“
Attempted
and failed, my lord,” Brethia replied grimly. “The four
rulers of the elemental planes have sealed their realms to such evil.
No elemental can be subverted by the dark ones, and none of us will
serve them.”

“
Really? I
didn't know your leaders could do that.”

“
In truth,
neither did I. They have never had to exercise such powers before. As
I am sure you know, sir wizard, the more powerful of my kind can
choose to resist a summons if they wish, but we small ones cannot. We
are all very relieved that we are now shielded from serving the evil
gods and their servants.”

“
Me too.”

Simon stretched and stood up. Brethia
floated upward until she was looking at him at eye level.

“
So what may
I do for you, my lord?”

The wizard winced internally. He
hated when some of the elementals called him 'lord'. But no matter
how many times he asked them to stop, most of the small ones like
Brethia simply couldn't seem to break the habit.

You've been called worse, he thought
wryly.

“
Well, not
just you actually. I'd like to summon Orriss as well as a few others,
if you think they will come. This job will take quite some time and
the more of your kind we have, the faster it will go.”

The elemental's eyes widened.

“
I am
intrigued, my lord. What sort of job is it?”

“
Scouting,”
Simon told her and smiled at her suddenly eager expression. “The
area where your people shine the most.”

“
In all
modesty, sir wizard, that is true. Is it a big job?”

“
The
biggest. And almost a repeat of something I had you all do a few
years ago. I need a global search for any and all remaining human
survivors. I need to know where they are, how many there are and if
they want or need help. As you may have heard, the dwarves have
evacuated several human settlements, including the one at Nottinghill
Castle. And while I haven't spoken to them since I returned from the
elven realm, I'm sure that they would find room for any other
survivors we can find. If there are any,” he added heavily.

“
Ah, I see.
A noble quest, my lord. I think I can speak for Orriss and the others
when I say that we will gladly perform this task.”

She spun in a quick circle and then
looked curiously at Simon.

“
But where
is Aeris? Surely he would want to be a part of this?”

The wizard smiled and nodded out at
the dense forest that surrounded the tower.

“
He's on a
quest of his own. I have him out searching for my livestock,
especially my horses. They managed to free themselves while I was
gone, which I am very pleased about, and now I'm hoping that he can
find them again. I'm very fond of them.”

“
Oh. Yes, I
agree. I know little about such animals, but they seemed very fond of
you, my lord, as I recall. I hope that he is successful.”

“
So do I.
Now I know Orriss and you by name, and I'm aware that I can only have
ten of your people in my service at one time. So can you think of
seven others who would care to join you in this search? I'd rather
call upon willing volunteers for this.”

Brethia's smile widened.

“
I can think
of several dozen others, my lord. But as you wish. Summon each by
name as I give them to you. It will be more efficient that way.”

Simon groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“
I'm going
to have such a headache after this. Please Brethia, for the sake of
my hearing and my head, pass along my request for your leader to tone
down the entrance dramatics. Once is bad enough, but multiple times?
Ouch.”

She gave him a sympathetic look.

“
I will try
again, my lord. He does hold you in high regard. Perhaps your direct
petition will sway him. We shall see.”

“
Thanks.
Okay then, let's get this over with.”

It only took about fifteen minutes
for Simon to summon the other eight air elementals, but by the end of
it, his ears were ringing, his vision was blurred and the expected
headache was drilling into his skull with a vengeance. He was also
weak at the knees from using so much magic, but he tried to ignore
that for the moment.