The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) (34 page)

Simon laughed in surprise.

“
I doubt
that very much, my friend. Aeris will always have to work on his
impulse control, and that's okay, as long as it doesn't put him or
anyone else in danger.”

They settled back into a
companionable silence. Simon glanced at Kronk surreptitiously and
wondered yet again what the little guy thought about when he was
being quiet. His work? The tower? Weeds? All that the wizard knew was
that every elemental that he had met was much more complex than he'd
initially given them credit for, Aeris included.

He sat up abruptly and put his wine
glass down on the small table next to his chair.

“
Master?”
Kronk said. “Is something wrong?”

“
Maybe. It
just occurred to me that all of your kind are more than they appear
to be on the surface,” Simon replied.

He leaned forward and gazed into the
fire, thinking hard.

“
And Aeris
is no different. He can be impulsive, argumentative, headstrong...”

“
All true,
master.”

“
But! But he
is old; very old. So are you. And one thing that I know he's learned
in his long life is that nothing beats experience.”

Kronk stood up and stared at Simon.

“
I do not
understand what you mean, master,” he said, puzzled.

“
I mean that
it's all well and good to go through a plan to try to find its flaws
or dangers, but the best way to know if it is practical is to give it
a dry run, test it out.”

The earthen's blazing red eyes
widened as he finally realized what the wizard was saying.

“
Then you
think...”

“
That he's
gone to Nottinghill Castle to see for himself,” Simon stated.
“Oh crap.”

Kronk looked alarmed and tapped over
to the chair and hopped up on the arm.

“
Recall him,
master,” he urged. “If Aeris is spotted or captured, your
plans will be ruined.”

“
Why do you
never have any faith in me? It's like you don't know me at all.”

Aeris floated down the stairs from
the second floor and moved toward the fireplace, a wide grin on his
face.

Simon sagged back into his chair in
relief. He had been about to leap to his feet and do...something. He
just wasn't sure what that was.

“
So you've
finished thinking about the plan?” he asked the air elemental
as Aeris hovered between the fireplace and the comfy chair at eye
level.

“
No. You
were right. The most practical way to examine tactics and plans for
their flaws is to test them out. So I journeyed to England. Just got
back, actually.”

Kronk, who was in the middle of
sitting down again, stood up and glared at him.

“
What? Are
you mad? Our master and his friends are planning an assault and you
just casually wander over to the target to poke around?”

“
Calm
yourself,” Aeris told him with a broad smile. “You might
burst apart in an explosion of gravel. That would be embarrassing.”

“
I have
never done that,” the little guy said stiffly.

“
Not yet.
One never knows what the future will bring.”

Aeris chuckled. He seemed
inordinately pleased with himself.

“
And
speaking of the future, I believe a rather magnificent battle lies
ahead in yours,” he told Simon.

The wizard picked up his glass and
drained it.

“
Meaning?”

“
Meaning
that the owners of that ridiculous tower have to be either totally
inept or the most arrogant humans to ever walk the Earth. I was able
to breeze past their guards and into the ground floor of that
disgusting place with almost no effort. Personally I'd fire their
captain of the guard. Pitiful.”

Simon pulled up his legs and settled
deeper into his chair. He leaned toward Aeris, his heart racing with
sudden excitement.

“
Tell me,”
he said eagerly.

“
Are you
certain that your scout is reliable?”

“
As certain
as I am about anything in this venture. We're taking a hell of a
risk, but Aeris knows his stuff.”

Simon was sitting in his study the
next morning, staring into his hand mirror. Looking back at him was
Shandon Ironhand.

“
Thanks for
lifting the block on my spell, by the way,” the wizard said.

The king waved away the comment. He
was sitting in his personal library, but he wasn't alone. As soon as
Simon had made contact, Shandon had summoned the human leaders.

Tamara, Sebastian and Liliana were
there, as was Veronique. All of them were standing behind the king's
seat staring at the projection that stood before them; an exact copy
of the wizard.

“
You know, I
am aware that you are many miles away and on the surface,”
Liliana told him. “But I swear that it feels like I could reach
out and touch you.”

“
Well, it's
not something that I'm doing,” Simon told her. “My skill
with this spell has increased through use. Not that long ago, you
would have needed a mirror to speak with me face to face. Now, here
we are.”

“
I like it,”
Sebastian said. “But let's get back to your elemental friend's
report. Could you tell us what he saw one more time?”

“
Of course.
I want everyone to know what we will be facing. If we go through with
it,” he added.

The king frowned at that comment but
remained silent.

“
Aeris said
that the necromancers, or whoever actually constructed that place,
have continued to shore it up since they evicted the former
inhabitants.”

Tamara made a noise in her throat but
shook her head when Simon glanced at her.

“
They've
leveled off the area around the tower and used any stones and debris
to line the walls of the building. How it's all being held together
is a mystery to Aeris. He assumes that it's bound together magically
but that is all that he can say.”

Simon laughed softly and the others
appeared puzzled.

“
Oh sorry.
My earth elemental friend, Kronk, took him to task for his ignorance
and volunteered to travel to Nottinghill to figure it out. I stopped
him. They can be quite competitive.”

“
Unless the
Chaos lords cut off their servants' supply of magic, I doubt that it
matters,” Tamara said. “The tower will stand no matter
how grotesque they make it. Please go on, Simon.”

“
Certainly.
Now, the biggest surprise that Aeris discovered was that there is no
barrier around the perimeter of the tower; no protective wall, no
ramparts, no moat. Nothing at all.”

“
That's just
stupid,” Shandon said with a sneer. “Are these enemies of
ours children? Your outer defenses allow you to slow an enemy down
long enough to strike at them from a distance, with arrows and other
projectiles. They are leaving themselves wide open to an attack.”

Veronique was standing with one hand
resting on the back of the king's chair. She appeared pensive and was
tapping a finger against the leather. The slight motion caught
Simon's eye.

“
What is
it?” he asked her.

“
Hmm? Oh, I
was just thinking; what if our foes are only pretending to be
ignorant?”

“
What do you
mean?” Liliana asked her.

“
I mean,
what if they deliberately left the front door open to lure us inside?
The lack of an external wall could be a deception, couldn't it?”

“
Maybe,
maybe not,” Simon told her. “Their perimeter isn't
totally open to attack. They do have guards.”

“
Ah, guards.
Well, at least they're covering the basics,” the king said
grudgingly.

“
You
approve?” Tamara asked sharply.

Shandon looked up at her dark
expression.

“
I don't
trust stupid, lady mage. Stupid is unpredictable, stupid is difficult
to defend against, stupid is dangerous. Give me a foe with a sound
grasp of military tactics any day; at least then I can make some
assumptions. If they are at least guarding the base of the tower,
then they are doing something right. It's moderately reassuring.”

“
Anyway,
about the guards,” Simon said loudly to forestall an argument.
“Aeris determined right off that they couldn't detect him while
he was invisible. Considering that we are going to have to depend on
Virginia and the others to hide us in the same way, that's a good
start.”

There were general nods all around.

“
Also, he
says that the patrols themselves are predictable. Both the guards
that are walking the perimeter outside and the others patrolling
inside walk a steady route with no deviation. So we'll be able to
time our entry to their movements and, hopefully, sneak right on by.”

“
We aren't
going to take them out?” Liliana asked. “That's not a
sound strategy, Simon. Leaving an enemy behind you means that they
can take you by surprise later when you are engaged with forces
further up the tower.”

Simon was startled by that idea.

“
Damn, I
didn't think of that. I thought that neutralizing the guards might
warn others if we make too much noise.”

The paladin gave him a subtle wink.

“
We'll be
invisible, remember? We should be able to take them out quietly. Of
course, once inside we'll lose that advantage so we might as well use
it as long as possible.”

“
That's news
to me,” the king said to her. “Is there some sort of
magical dampening field in there?”

“
I have no
idea. But we have agreed to send Virginia, Eric and the others back
outside and out of harm's way once they're gotten us into the tower.”

“
You're
going to give up four such powerful spell-casters?” Shandon
asked in disbelief. “In the name of all the old gods, why?”

Instead of answering, Liliana looked
pointedly at Simon. The king followed her eyes and stared at the
wizard.

“
This was
your idea?”

“
It was,”
he replied levelly. “Liliana and I spoke about it briefly
before I left Kingstone. I want them safely out of there before we
get into the thick of battle.”

“
And your
reason?”

Simon paused to collect his thoughts.
He'd been afraid that the king would object at this point, but it
didn't matter. He wouldn't let those four young people toss away
their lives, and that was all there was to it.

“
I have many
reasons, but I'll tell you what my main one is. The four of them
operate as a unit, as you know. Their magic is practically
nonexistent unless they combine their talents. The problem with that
is, in a fight, even as powerful as they all are together, they have
trouble directing their powers quickly. They aren't telepathic.
Virginia is the leader of the group and she has to direct the others
in a fight.”

Shandon had been frowning but now his
eyes widened as he grasped what Simon was saying.

“
I think I
see. They are unwieldy in combat.”

“
Exactly.
They get in each others' way. Virginia could tell them to attack a
zombie, for example, but then would have to point at that target and
make sure that the other three were concentrating on the same
monster. Good grief, it's awkward even trying to explain it. Anyway,
they'd be great at casting at a distance; on the wall of a castle or
on a hill overlooking a battle, for example. But in close quarters,
no; at best they'd be a distraction for us as we tried to keep them
safe; at worst they'd get the rest of us killed.”

The king nodded as he stroked his
beard.

“
Of course,
of course. Good call, Simon. Have you told them yet?”

“
I haven't
had a chance to speak to anyone but you folks. Your dampening field,
remember? I'm afraid that Liliana or Tamara will have to pass along
the bad news. I don't envy whoever decides to do it.”

“
We both
will,” the paladin said as she looked over at the mage.

Tamara nodded stiffly.

“
Good. Now,
what kind of guards did your elemental scout encounter?” the
king asked.