The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) (40 page)

He put down his cup and leaned
forward, resting his chin in his palm. He watched the little guy with
interest.

“
What do you
mean, exactly?”

“
Only that I
remember those wizards whom I served long ago speaking of such
things, master. They too battled monsters and other spell-casters. I
recall witnessing a visit between wizards once. My master at the time
was a very old, quite venerated wizard; not a bad sort really,
considering what many others of his kind were like. He welcomed a
rather famous colleague who was renowned for his prowess in battle.
The visitor was expounding on his many victories and being a bit of a
braggart. My master listened attentively and finally interrupted the
boastful man.

“
'What would
you say was your greatest skill in combat?' the old wizard asked.
“'Oh, that's easy,' said the visitor. 'I'm very good with
lightning. In fact, it is my main weapon. Every foe I have ever met
and defeated has fallen to my bolts.'”

“
And what
did your old master say?” Simon asked, caught up in the story.

“
He smiled,
master, and said 'I see. So what happens when you are faced with a
water elemental?' The other wizard looked confused and had no answer.
'Ah, now do you see? You must be ready to adapt to every situation.
If I was an enemy of yours and knew how much you depended upon your
lightning spells, I would summon water elementals to battle you.'
Then he smiled and added, 'Or I would simply douse you with water. A
soaking wet wizard cannot cast an effective lightning spell. Didn't
you know that?'”

“
What did
the visitor say to that?”

“
I do not
recall, master. It was the advice that I remember. But I do recall
that the visiting wizard was killed not long after he spoke with my
old master.”

“
How? With
water?”

Kronk grinned.

“
No master.
Someone dropped a rock on his head.”

Simon burst out laughing and the
earthen joined in.

“
Lesson
learned, my friend. Always keep my wits about me, right?”

“
Exactly,
master. Skill is important for a wizard, of course. But adaptability
is the key to survival.”

“
I'll
remember that. Thanks.”

Simon took Kronk's advice to heart.
Instead of just digging up old spells or concentrating on his
favorites (fireball was his go-to spell), the wizard decided to
challenge himself with a series of tests.

So he began heading into the forest
every day for a few hours. He crept through the undergrowth, ducking
and rolling from tree to tree and casting spells randomly at
imaginary foes. He began to use the skills he'd learned from the
elves again, going so far as to fashion a crude bow and arrows to
practice his archery. He climbed trees and swung from branch to
branch, working to hone his hand/eye coordination.

Aeris found the whole thing both
hilarious and rather demeaning.

“
What
exactly are you trying to prove, my dear wizard?” he asked.

Simon had come back to the tower
after a practice session covered in sweat, limping a bit and
scratched in several places.

He was only wearing a pair of shorts
and some sturdy boots. He gave the elemental a hard look as he left
his bow and quiver by the front door and grabbed a towel he had left
there.

“
Survival,”
the wizard replied shortly and he turned around and left, heading for
a swim.

“
What in the
world is up with him?” Aeris asked Kronk, who was brushing cold
ashes out of the fireplace.

The earthen swept the ashes into a
dustpan and stopped to look up at the air elemental.

“
He wants to
live through the upcoming battle. Why is that so difficult for you to
understand?”

“
He's a
wizard, Kronk, not a warrior. All of this physical exertion is
pointless. He needs to practice his casting, not waste his time
pretending to be something he's not.”

The little guy emptied the dustpan
into a canvas bag and left it beside the fireplace. When it was full,
he would scatter the ashes around the garden.

“
Have you
never heard of a wizard who was also a warrior?” he asked Aeris
as he placed logs in the now-clean grate, ready to be lit when
needed. “I remember several, so you must have known at least
one.”

The air elemental frowned in thought
and floated down to join him.

“
Hmm, yes,
there might have been one or two. But warrior-mages were much more
common. Wizards are just so much more powerful, most of them never
had time to work on any physical skills.”

“
That is
true,” the earthen agreed.

He adjusted the fresh logs until they
were arranged in just the right way.

“
But our
master spent time in the elven realm, without his powers. He's
learned to use at least some types of physical combat. I think that
it is wise for him to want to be ready for anything.”

Kronk gave the fireplace a last
inspection and then headed for the front door. The garden needed his
attention.

“
After all,”
he said to Aeris just before he left the tower, “he doesn't
want to end up soaking wet, does he?”

The air elemental stared after the
earthen with a puzzled expression.

“
Now what
does that mean?” he muttered.

A few days passed and Simon's new
blisters began to heal. The bow that he'd made was fairly rough and
hard on his hands, not to mention being too heavy and wildly
inaccurate. That didn't matter though; he planned to ask for a real
bow and arrows from the folks in Kingstone when they called again.
They could bring them along and give them to him before the battle
began.

He wondered what the others would
think of such a request and smiled to himself. Knowing Tamara, he
doubted that she would be very impressed.

Evenings were now spent with Kronk
and Aeris, and occasionally Brethia. He asked all of them to describe
battles they had heard about back when they'd served the ancient
wizards. One thing Simon had learned was that, with some gentle
encouragement, elementals had phenomenal memories. He ended up taking
pages of notes about situations and encounters that he never would
have thought of on his own.

“
Really?
Goblins don't like bright lights? Now that's interesting,” he
said to Aeris on one such occasion.

“
Well, they
do mainly live underground,” the air elemental replied. “But
unlike the dwarves, they do not adapt to daylight very well. I
remember one wizard who spoke of a battle where she simply conjured
up bright flashes of light whenever goblins would attack and they
would be left dazed and vulnerable.”

The normally cynical Aeris had become
quite enthusiastic about the nightly meetings. He enjoyed telling
stories, as all air elementals did, and drawing upon old memories
that he had thought useless seemed to invigorate him. It didn't hurt
that Simon was grateful for every story.

“
Good to
know,” Simon said as he jotted that fact down. “I have no
idea whether or not we'll face many goblins in there, but I'm sure
that it's possible.”

“
It works on
trolls as well, master, at least for a moment or two,” Kronk
piped up.

Aeris glared at him and the little
guy stared back, puzzled.

“
Well, it
does,” he added defensively. “Why are you looking at me
like that?”

“
Like what?
I was just going to say that. But he is correct, my dear wizard.
Trolls also aren't fond of bright lights; they are only dazed for a
short time. It is, however, a good way to interrupt an attack.”

“
Also good
to know. Thanks guys.”

Brethia had been the servant of a
particularly famous old time wizard named Sheila. When Simon had
heard that, he'd laughed.

“
Why is that
funny, my lord?” the elemental asked with some confusion.

Simon was quick to reassure her.

“
Sorry
Brethia, I'm not laughing at you. It's just that Sheila is such a
common name, or at least it was back before the world changed. I
would have expected a legendary wizard to be named Merlin or Gandalf
or whatever, not Sheila.”

“
You mean,
like Simon?” Aeris asked slyly.

The wizard laughed at the dig.

“
Touch
é
,”
he said.

Brethia and Aeris were floating above
the desk in Simon's study. It was late and only a few candles were
lit around the room. Kronk had left earlier. He'd started checking
the outside gates every night to make sure they were properly sealed,
but he couldn't explain why. 'Just a feeling' was his only answer
every time Simon asked.

The wizard was sitting behind the
desk, pencil in hand as he listened to the two air elementals. Their
stories seemed endless and he had gotten into the habit of jotting
down anything of interest that they said in passing. Now he wrote
down the name 'Sheila'.

“
So what
exactly was she like, this great wizard?” Simon asked.

Brethia hesitated and glanced at
Aeris.

“
Did you
ever hear of her?”

“
Hear of
her? My goodness, who hasn't? Sheila was...”

He paused and gestured as if reaching
for something.

“
Amazing.
Spectacular. Supreme.”

He seemed to run out of superlatives
and shrugged at Simon.

“
There are
no words that properly do her justice. I had no idea that you knew
her,” he added to Brethia.

“
I rarely
speak of it,” she replied simply. “It sounds too much
like boasting, and I dislike braggarts. Besides, the memories have
been of no real use to me until now.”

“
Well, I
have a feeling that they'd be of use to me,” Simon told her
encouragingly. “Could you share a few, please? Start with why
you both make her sound so incredible. Was she powerful? Innovative?
What exactly did she do that made her such a legend?”

“
I would be
happy to, sir wizard.”

Brethia landed on the desk and sat
down gracefully. She tucked her legs underneath herself and looked
thoughtfully into the distance. Simon was still intrigued at how
feminine the elemental looked and acted compared to Aeris. Since the
elementals didn't procreate, he still couldn't understand why they
appeared to have two sexes. And the few times he'd brought up the
subject, it seemed that they had no answers either.

“
Sheila was
just a regular person when she first summoned me,” Brethia
began. “A young wizard in training. In fact, I was her very
first elemental servant. Perhaps that was why she became fond of me
and kept me around for so many years. She had a gift for magic, of
course, as any aspiring wizard must have. But it was more than that.
Her magic was instinctive, reactive. She became the first wizard ever
who was able to use spells without incantations. Such a thing was
unheard of and set her apart from all of her fellows.”

“
Just a
minute, Brethia,” Simon interrupted. “I'm sorry but was
it really that rare? I mean, I can do that.”

“
Yes, my
lord, I know that. You are the only other wizard that I have known
who has had that ability. I have heard of others, but met only the
two of you personally. You and Sheila are similar in many ways, I
think.”

Aeris stared at Simon, wide-eyed.

“
By the Four
Winds, that never occurred to me! She's right. Goodness, has my
memory failed me so much that I took that skill for granted?”

“
Well, you
are a million years old,” Simon teased. “Anyone that
ancient would start to have memory lapses, don't you think?”

Aeris looked at him sourly and then
grudgingly smiled.

“
Touch
é
indeed,” he murmured.

“
Please
go on, Brethia,” Simon said.

“
Yes,
my lord. Sheila was not just a natural at using magic, she was an
innovator. She discovered and developed many spells that became
standards for wizards and other spell-casters. The Meteor spell was
one of them, as was a spell she rather humorously called Mud.”

“
Mud?
What kind of spell was that?”

Brethia
smiled as she remembered.