The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) (22 page)

“
Thanks
guys,” he panted.

He finally hung his staff over his
shoulder properly, then leaned over and rest his hands on his knees
while he concentrated on breathing.

“
I just
realized something,” he said as his heart rate slowed down
enough for him to speak clearly. “I left my pack and sleeping
bag back in the way station. Damn it. That means I have no food, no
water and nothing to sleep on. Great.”

“
We have
more to worry about at the moment,” Aeris reminded him. “I'll
go ahead and make sure the way is clear. Hopefully there's a
defensible spot somewhere along the road where we can hold off the
undead.”

He shot off down the tunnel and Simon
watched him as he disappeared.

“
Hold them
off for what?” he asked Kronk. “My power isn't going to
return until I get to the surface again. If we hole up someplace,
we'll just take a little longer to die, that's all.”

He stood up and began walking down
the steep slope again.

“
Well,
actually I'm the one who will take longer to die,” Simon
corrected himself. “You and Aeris can leave at any time.”

“
I will not
leave you, master,” Kronk said stoutly. “I will protect
you with my life.”

The wizard looked at the little guy
fondly.

“
I know you
will, my friend. But listen; if things go badly and I'm, well, you
know; I want you to survive, alright? Don't throw away your life on a
lost cause.”

“
I will
never leave you, master,” the earthen repeated stubbornly. “You
will not fall before I do; I could not bear it.”

He looked up at Simon as they
descended, a sudden smile on his blocky face.

“
Aeris will
not desert you either, master. For all of his talk, he is loyal. And
between us, I do not believe that even an army of animated corpses
will be able to reach you.”

Simon shook his head silently and
concentrated on his footing. There was no sound behind him, but he
had no doubt that the undead horde was still on their heels. Once you
set them loose, the monsters never stopped until they had either
caught their prey or been destroyed.

“
How in the
hell did they even find us?” he wondered. “No one even
knows I'm back yet, except for you guys and your people. And I trust
the elementals implicitly.”

“
Thank you,
master. I do not know. I hesitate to accept this, but it is possible
that we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“
A
coincidence? Really? That's a bit far-fetched, Kronk.”

“
Maybe not,
master. Remember, it had been several years since you left this
world. The human survivors have retreated below ground. The
necromancers may routinely send down waves of undead to attack the
dwarven cities. This may just be one of those waves.”

Simon gave that idea some thought. He
really had no clue about the number of necromancers that the dark
gods had created or the size of their armies. He'd learned before his
retreat from Lacertus that the black wizards were summoning countless
skeletons from the depths of the oceans. He had to assume that they
had cleaned out every cemetery and burial ground they could find as
well.

Maybe Kronk was right. Maybe they
simply sent a horde of mindless zombies and skeletons every so often
to attack the dwarven cities. After all, what did they have to lose?

“
As horrible
as it sounds, that's almost reassuring,” he told the little
guy. “It would mean that our enemies still don't know that I'm
back. And the longer they remain ignorant of that fact, the better.”

He stepped gingerly over a foot-wide
crack that split the road and watched as the little guy hopped over
it with ease.

“
Look
master; the road is leveling out. You will find it easier to walk
now.”

“
Phew. Thank
God for that. Let's go another hundred yards or so and take a break.
I want to sit down and rest for a minute.

Kronk tilted his head to the side and
narrowed his burning red eyes. He listened silently for a moment and
then nodded.

“
I cannot
hear or sense the enemy yet, master, so I think that you will have a
few minutes to rest up ahead.”

The pair kept walking, each silent
with their own thoughts. Simon's light was faithfully bobbing along
over his head and he was grateful that at least that small magic was
still available to him. Being trapped below ground in complete
darkness was a horrific thought and he pushed it out of his mind with
a shiver.

The usual dwarven runes and random
pictures were etched into the stone walls of the tunnel and he became
lost in thought for a moment, wondering who those ancient dwarves
were that had left their marks in the deep roads. Had they loved it
down here or did they ever wonder about the surface world? What were
they like? Fun loving or serious? Happy? Stern? He'd never know.

“
Look
master, it's Aeris,” Kronk exclaimed. “He looks very
pleased with himself.”

“
What else
is new?” Simon muttered, shaken out of his thoughts.

“
Ah, you're
both still alive. Splendid!”

“
Yeah,
thanks for caring,” the wizard said sharply. “So what are
you smiling about?”

Aeris was indeed grinning from ear to
ear.

“
Well, I
think I have found a solution to our problem. Well, your problem,
actually. I doubt that it will please Kronk, and I'm not really
thrilled by it either.” He shrugged. “But you'll survive,
my dear wizard, and that's the most important thing, isn't it?”

“
What are
you rambling on about?” Kronk rumbled, perplexed.

“
Follow me
and I'll show you. Don't stop here; the undead are coming. I can hear
them back there.”

He pointed up the slope of the road
behind them.

“
Good ears,”
Simon said.

He slipped his staff off of his
shoulder and used it to help him walk more steadily. His legs were
getting a little wobbly.

“
Okay then,
lead on. I can see you're enjoying your mysterious solution.”

“
Maybe a
little,” Aeris agreed with a chuckle. “Come along.”

The trio moved down the road, Aeris
leading the others. The tunnel here looked almost the same as all of
the rest of the passageway, except that it appeared to be less
damaged by time and had fewer cobwebs. There was less debris on the
ground as well.

“
Is this a
new section of the deep road?” Simon asked Kronk as they walked
along. “Those carvings seem, I don't know, brighter than the
others I've seen.”

The little guy looked around
speculatively.

“
Perhaps,
master. It is difficult to tell. The tunnel is still very old, but it
could be one of the last lengths to have been cut out of the rock. I
cannot say.”

“
I don't
think it's newer,” Aeris said to them over his shoulder. “I
just think it's better maintained.”

He was floating at chest level,
moving at a walking pace about a dozen feet ahead of them.

“
What makes
you say that?”

The road suddenly dipped again and
the walls on either side widened and then suddenly disappeared.

“
Because I
do believe that,” Aeris said as he stopped abruptly and pointed
downward, “is the city of Kingstone.”

Simon hurried to join him, with Kronk
close on his heels, and he gasped at what he saw.

The ceiling above them continued on
at the same height but the deep road dove into a huge cave, thousands
of feet across. There were massive columns extending from the ceiling
to the floor hundreds feet below them, supporting its great weight.
The wizard couldn't tell if they were natural or made by the dwarves.

The road went down a slope to the
floor of the cave and then disappeared into a maze-like tangle of
high walls that seemed to extend around the entire circumference of
the cavern.

And there in the middle of this maze,
rising tier upon tier almost to the height of the ceiling, was the
capital city.

“
Wow. It's
gorgeous,” Simon exclaimed breathlessly. “And it's huge.”

Walls, thick and high, surrounded the
city. Atop the wall were flickering light that danced in the still
air; torches or lanterns of some sort.

He saw masses of buildings beyond the
walls but the city was still miles away and he couldn't make out many
details.

The palace was easy to see, however.
Soaring above the rest of the city, the castle was made of a
light-colored stone that shone like a beacon in the distance.

“
It actually
glows,” Simon whispered in amazement. “In fact, the
entire city is lit up like a Christmas tree. I never saw it from this
distance before. When I was here the last time, I was brought in
unconscious by the dwarves. And when I left, I only walked a few
hundred yards beyond the front gates before I was able to Gate away.
I still have no idea how the dwarves allowed me to summon enough
power to do that.”

He continued to stare at the city,
enthralled,

“
It looks a
lot different from inside, you know.”

He looked at the elementals
curiously.

“
Shandon
told me once that his people originally lived on the surface and
retreated to the depths because of an ancient catastrophe. Ever since
then, they have lighted up all of their towns and cities, even though
they can see in the infra-red spectrum. Has either of you heard that
story?”

Aeris looked impressed.

“
You were
honored by the dwarven king, my dear wizard. It is rare for them to
share that tale with outsiders. But yes, it is common knowledge among
the elementals that the rock dwellers were driven into the
underground long ago. A tragedy.”

“
I
disagree,” Kronk said stoutly.

He made a sweeping gesture at the
immense cavern spread out before them.

“
The rock
brothers have thrived in the deep places of the world. They have made
a home for themselves here and their civilization has endured. I do
not think that they consider such an accomplishment tragic.”

Aeris shook his head and laughed.

“
Of course
you don't. You are an earthen. You love all of this gloom. Give me
the sun and the open air any day.”

Simon interrupted before a full-blown
argument could break out.

“
Guys,
another time, okay? We still have those undead on our tails. Let's
focus on getting to the city.”

Aeris looked back and pointed.

“
You mean
them?” he asked lightly.

Simon turned around and stumbled back
a few steps. The shambling horde was no more than fifty feet away. He
must have been so fascinated by the distant city that he hadn't heard
them.

“
Oh crap.
Come on, let's move!”

The trio hurried down the slope, the
elementals keeping pace with Simon. Aeris led the way and Kronk
stayed at the rear, keeping an eye on their enemies.

“
Thank the
Four Winds that they cannot run,” Aeris said as he looked back
up the road. “There are more of them than I thought.”

“
Yeah,”
Simon panted. “Slow is good. I keep feeling like I'm in the
middle of some cheesy zombie apocalypse movie. Maybe I should start
beating those bastards over their heads with a shovel.”

The air elemental looked at him with
a frown.

“
I have no
idea what you are talking about, but as long as you aren't panicking,
I suppose that's the important thing.”

Simon fought back the urge to laugh;
he needed to save his breath for the race, even if it was in slow
motion.

“
I think we
are fortunate that no wraiths are leading those undead monsters,
master,” Kronk spoke up from behind them. “They are very
fast and quite clever; unlike those shambling piles of bones behind
us.”

“
You're
right. I'm not sure how the wraiths are created but they seem quite
rare. Fortunately for us.”

The road ahead entered the maze of
jumbled walls and archways. Simon was grateful that his light globe
was still dutifully following along, illuminating their path.

They walked through a soaring arch
and turned to the right. The road seemed to twist and turn like a
snake as it made its way toward Kingstone and Simon found it very
confusing, not to mention exhausting.