The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) (2 page)

He was standing in the center of a
square, in front of a small fountain that tinkled cheerfully. Its
splashing water trickled down over several tiers and the sounds it
made were the only noises that broke the silence of the place.

Shandon was grinning broadly, hands on
armored hips, as Tamara led her group into the square. Everyone was
looking around wide-eyed and unsure of themselves and the cheerful
greeting helped allay their fears somewhat.

The mage and her brother moved ahead of
the others and approached the king. His guards stood several paces
behind him and watched the newcomers closely. There were six of them,
three males and three females, all wearing black armor and armed with
swords and shields. Each one looked equally formidable.

“
Thank you,”
Tamara replied stiffly. “Are you the representative of the city
council?”

One of the guards growled deep in her
throat and Sebastian jumped.

Shandon just laughed at the question
and shook his head.

“
Forgive my
bodyguard. They are all a little more impressed by my position than I
am. Allow me to introduce myself; Shandon Ironhand, at your service.
Welcome to Kingstone.”

Tamara's eyes widened and her brother
gasped.

“
You're the
king?” she asked faintly.

“
Aye. But
please, call me Shandon, at least when we aren't at court. Our mutual
friend Simon O'Toole always did.”

At the mention of that name, the air
seemed to become cooler and the buildings appeared less welcoming
than they had a moment before.

“
Did he? I'm
happy to hear that. My name is Tamara and this is my brother,
Sebastian. It's a pleasure to meet you.”

The king forced a smile as he pushed
aside old memories.

“
The pleasure
is all mine, lady mage. Oh yes, I know you. I've had a full report on
all of the leaders of your group. I doubt that that will come as a
surprise to you.”

“
It doesn't.
It's a wise precaution and something that I would do myself if I was
in your shoes. Have any of the others arrived yet?”

The dwarf nodded, his thick black beard
rising and falling. It flowed down and over his belt buckle and the
silver clasp glinted as he moved.

“
The crew and
passengers from the Defiant have been here for several days. They
were living in temporary quarters while my people prepared this area
for all of you, and are happily settling into their new homes now.
I'll take you to them when you are ready.”

“
And the
rest?” Sebastian asked with obvious concern.

Shandon's expression became somber and
he looked at the siblings compassionately.

“
We found very
few survivors at the locations your people relayed to us. I suppose
that they are lucky that you managed to discover them at all, using
your scrying spells, but we weren't the only ones hunting them.”

“
Magic Mirror
spells, actually,” Tamara corrected him absently. “You
mean they were found by...”

“
Necromancers,
yes. Those damned casters have been taught some means of sniffing out
the living, probably by their accursed Chaotic masters. Undead
dragons and risen troops are scouring the planet, sniffing out what
remains of your species.”

There was a muttered comment from
behind Shandon and he cocked his head to listen to it. He growled a
replay in dwarvish.

“
I agree with
my bodyguard,” he said to the siblings. “The next
targets, after the hunt for surviving humans is completed, will be my
people. We are already strengthening our defenses, both here in the
capitol and in our other cities as well.”

“
Good to know.
How many other survivors have you found?” Sebastian asked
anxiously.

The mage's obvious concern for his
people seemed to touch the king and he stepped forward and pounded on
his armored chest with his fist.

“
I promise you
that we will not stop looking, though it jeopardizes our own safety,
until all of your people are found, sir mage. As to how many we have
rescued so far?”

He turned and gestured to one of the
guards. She reached into a pouch on her belt, pulled out a tightly
rolled scroll and moved forward to hand it to the king.

Shandon unrolled the parchment and
peered down at it.

“
So, a hundred
and thirty from Nottinghill Castle, fifty-two off of the Defiant,
twenty...”

His muttering switched to the dwarven
tongue and Tamara and Sebastian exchanged amused glances.

“
Ah yes, here
we are,” the dwarf declared. “Counting all of the small
settlements and groups that we have tracked down so far, the total as
of right now is four hundred and seventy-eight. For the moment. I'm
quite sure that a few more will trickle in before we're done.”

Sebastian gaped at him while his sister
gasped.

“
So many?”
Tamara exclaimed, a rare smile of delight crossing her face.

Shandon's answering smile was gentle.

“
No, dear
lady. So few.”

Her face fell and she nodded.

“
True enough.
But these days we count our numbers by the dozens, not the millions.
And I haven't seen more than the population of Nottinghill in one
place since the world was Changed by the return of the old gods.”

“
Of course,
lady mage. I understand. Now,” Shandon clapped his hands
together loudly and several of the people behind the mages yelped.

“
Now let us
go. Your people are tired, I am sure, and want to begin settling into
their new accommodations. Follow me, please.”

The king turned and led the way, his
guards circling him loosely. Tamara and Sebastian waved their people
forward and the entire group slowly moved to follow the dwarves. For
over a hundred souls, they walked with very little sound and any
talking was conducted in whispers.

“
Why do I feel
like I'm walking into a church?” Sebastian murmured to his
sister.

Tamara nodded and looked around at the
solid stone buildings glowering down at them.

“
Probably
because of the setting. I mean, how many of us have ever been
underground? I'm not being ungrateful to Shandon and his people, but
I think we'll miss the sky and the open air pretty quickly down
here.”

“
They may
surprise you,” her brother said as he looked back at the large
group of nervous people. “As a species, we're pretty adaptable.
And it is an amazing city. Maybe it's just the brooding age of the
place that's intimidating.”

“
Maybe. All I
want right now is for everyone to find a place to stay and settle in,
especially the parents and kids. They're our hope for the future.
When they are safe and sound, I'll rest easier.”

Sebastian gave her a teasing grin.

“
So much for
that 'screw you' attitude I remember so well, dear sister.”

She glared back and then chuckled
reluctantly.

“
Touch
é.”

The walk to the
area that the dwarves had set aside for the former inhabitants of
Nottinghill Castle only took a few minutes. Shandon strode ahead and,
when they entered another, smaller square, stopped and spun around.
He waited until everyone had bunched up in front of him, beamed at
them and spread out his arms.

“
Look around
you, my friends. This is your new home.”

Everyone stared at him in surprise, the
abrupt statement catching them off-guard. Then they did as they were
told and began turning around and examining their surroundings.

The square where they were gathered was
smaller than the one where they'd met the king, but it too had a
fountain bubbling merrily in the center of it. This fount had a
statue of a tall woman wearing a simple robe hanging off of one
shoulder standing in it, water pouring from a jug she held under an
arm.

“
Who is that?”
Tamara asked Shandon and nodded at the fountain. “She doesn't
look dwarvish.”

The king looked at the statue and
smiled.

“
She isn't.
Nor is she human or elvish. That is the Earth Mother. My people are
not religious, lady mage, but we believe that our race was created by
one of the old gods. We call her the Mother of the Earth, Gaellestra
in our tongue. She is greatly revered here.”

“
Gaellestra,”
Tamara repeated slowly as she walked up to the fountain and stared at
the delicate, unearthly visage of the statue.

“
I like it.”

“
I am sure
that she is relieved to hear you say that,” Shandon said
gravely.

He winked when Tamara looked back at
him and she laughed. Sebastian did as well but he was more interested
in looking around at the buildings that bordered the square.

They were multi-leveled, like low
apartments, with balconies that jutted out from each floor. For dark
stone structures, they looked reassuringly homey to the humans.

“
All of the
buildings that you can see,” Shandon told the group loudly as
he spun in a slow circle, “are empty. They have been repaired
and cleaned for you. Each one is furnished, but once you all claim
the ones you want, my people will take requests for specific pieces
of furniture. So off you go now and choose which ones you wish to
call home.”

The group stayed huddled together for a
few moments. People were clearly waiting for someone to make the
first move. Finally, one of the women with a young child holding on
to her skirt stepped away from the rest. She reached down and took
her son's hand.

“
Come along,
Chris. Let's go and find our new home!”

The little boy looked up at her
quizzically and then pointed toward the nearest building.

“
There,
Momma?” he asked brightly.

“
Excellent
choice. Lead the way, little man,” she told him with a proud
smile.

The child hooted joyfully and took off
across the square. His mother looked back at the group and two other
women, one with a daughter about the same age as the boy, hurried to
join her.

“
We can't let
you and Chris have all the fun, Julia,” one said with an eager
grin. “Come on, let's go house hunting.”

As the trio hurried off after the
little boy, the rest of the refugees from Nottinghill finally pushed
aside their indecisiveness and spread out, trying to decide which
building they'd like to explore.

“
It's good to
see them with some enthusiasm again,” Sebastian said as he
watched his people. “Leaving yet another home was a hard blow
for them.”

“
It was a blow
to all of us,” a deep voice rumbled from his left.

The mage turned and saw Malcolm and
Aiden, the two warriors who had commanded the castle's guardsmen,
walking toward him.

Tamara put her hands on her hips and
looked up at the big man.

“
I didn't
think anything could bother you,” she teased.

Malcolm was the tallest man in the
entire group and was heavily muscled. Aiden, his partner, was also
big but not quite as heavy-set. Both men were good-natured and
pleasant, which was fortunate because their Change had given them
amazing skills in weaponry and warfare. They had been infected by a
werewolf attack a few years earlier, which they controlled by wearing
magical amulets. But the side-effect was that they healed very
quickly and were immune to poison and disease.

Yes, Tamara thought as she watched the
pair. Thank God they are so kind and even-tempered, for all our
sakes.

“
Losing our
home bothers me, and him,” Malcolm growled as he poked a thumb
at Aiden. “We were happy at Nottinghill Castle. Hell, we were
happy in the old town of Nottinghill. What are we going to call this
place? Nottinghill 3.0?”

She snorted but had to agree.

“
I didn't live
in either of the original towns,” she said as the two warriors
stood close by and looked around at the brooding buildings. “But
I'm sure that they were a little less...intimidating than this
place.”

She lowered her voice so that the king
wouldn't hear her and be insulted. Tamara was beyond grateful to the
dwarves for their aid and had no wish to offend them.

Aiden seemed to pick up on her thought
and glanced at Shandon, who was speaking with one of his guards,
before answering.

“
They were,”
he said quietly. “But this is only a temporary situation. With
any luck, we'll return to the castle one day soon and get back to our
old lives.”

“
Really? You
actually believe that?” Tamara scoffed. “The world above
is inundated with undead monsters and dragons. How the hell are a
handful of us, even if our numbers reach five hundred, supposed to
fight back against that?”

Sebastian's eyes widened and he nodded
at something over his sister's shoulder. She turned quickly and saw
that Shandon had approached quietly and was looking up at her with a
defiant glint in his eyes.

“
Because you
are not alone, lady mage,” he said stoutly. “You have
allies now. The dwarves may not dwell aboveground , but we will not
hang back while that evil infestation goes unchecked. We will strike
back at it whenever and wherever we can. And we hope that our human
friends will join us in that effort.”

“
We will,”
Malcolm growled before Tamara could answer. “Just point us at a
target and set us loose.”