The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) (43 page)

“
Master,
I believe you have avoided mentioning this subject, but I
respectfully ask that we clear this up tonight. Both Aeris and myself
intend to go with you when you challenge the tower. You do know that,
do you not?”

Simon
tried not to smile at the little guy's attempt at assertiveness. At
best, telling Kronk that he looked cute would hurt his feelings. At
worst, he would be insulted, and the wizard would never do that.

“
Look
Kronk, I know you want to help but it's just too danger...”

The
earthen leaped off of the steps, landed on the ground and slammed a
small fist into the dirt. An explosion of soil and rocks flew in all
directions and Simon covered his eyes to protect them from the
debris.

“
What
the hell?” he spluttered as he shook his hair to get rid of the
dirt in it.

He looked
up and waved a hand in front of his face to clear away some floating
dust. And then he gaped at what he saw in the front yard.

Somehow, a
spike of rock six feet high with a wickedly sharp point had thrust
itself up out of the earth. Kronk stood next to it, hands on his hips
and stared at Simon.

“
Imagine,
master, the same thing happening to your enemies. Despite my size, I
am neither young nor a child. I have been in battles before, many of
them, and I will not allow you to take on the tower without me. If
you fall in there, I will be returned to my own realm whether I am
sitting here babysitting your home or fighting by your side. I would
prefer the latter.”

The
earthen spoke with dignity and Simon was actually a little
embarrassed. He knew that he often fell into the trap of thinking of
the elemental as childlike because of how he looked or the simple way
he spoke, but the little guy was right; he was an ancient being and
obviously powerful.

“
Kronk,
I...”

An
incredibly loud sound, like a giant ripping an enormous strip of
paper came from above. Simon looked up just in time to be blinded by
a blue flash of lightning followed by a deafening crash of thunder.

This just
isn't my night, the wizard thought inanely as he held his throbbing
ears and squinted his eyes. What the hell was that?

He coughed
at the thick smell of ozone in the air and more dust floated by on
the light evening breeze. He peered through the dusty fog and saw to
his amazement that the spike of stone that Kronk had created had been
reduced to rubble. Bobbing above it was the glowing figure of Aeris.

“
Since
we seem to be showing off our powers tonight to prove our worth,”
he said calmly as he watched the wizard, “I thought that I'd
crash the party.”

Kronk was
looking up at him but seemed more amused than angry.

“
For
once, your timing is impeccable,” he said to the air elemental.

“
Thanks.
It was worth it just for that compliment alone.”

Both of
them shared a laugh as Simon tried to refocus and clear his head.

“
Are
you all right, master? Forgive me but sometimes a demonstration gets
a person's point across more than just words.”

“
I
agree,” Aeris said as he floated over and hovered next to the
wizard. “How's your head,” he asked.

“
Sore,
thanks. You know, the two of you are a bit of a menace sometimes.”

Kronk
looked a bit crestfallen but Aeris lifted his chin proudly.

“
Good.
You needed reminding that we aren't simply servants or toys. We have
both served wizards who have entered combat. Just because we don't
share all of our war stories doesn't mean that we haven't experienced
war.”

Simon
shook his head again and ran his fingers through his hairs, feeling
bits of grit and dirt in it.

“
Well,
after that little demonstration, I'm going to have to have a midnight
swim to clean my hair. Okay, look guys, I didn't bring up the subject
of you joining me when I go up against the tower for one simply
reason.”

“
You
wanted to keep us safe,” Aeris stated with a roll of his eyes.

“
No.
I didn't talk about it because I was hesitant to ask you to come
along.”

Aeris
stared at him, speechless; a rarity for him.

“
Master,
you want us to join you?” Kronk asked, equally shocked.

“
Of
course I do. Kronk, you made a good point, one that I've made to
myself. If I die in that tower, both of you will be sent back to your
respective homes. You won't be staying here to take care of this
tower. So what does it matter one way or the other? What I didn't
want to do was to ask you to come along and risk your lives too. If
one of you falls, your death will be on me.”

“
No,
my dear wizard, it won't,” Aeris corrected him. “Because
we are both stepping up and volunteering, our lives, and deaths, are
in our own hands. Your conscience is clear. You haven't drafted us,
we've made our own choice.”

“
Exactly,”
Kronk added. “Master, we want this. Do not worry about us; we
will be fine.”

Simon let
out a long, slow breath and nodded.

“
Okay
then, the three of us with stand to battle together. I just hope we
all get through this in one piece.”

“
We'll
be fine, oh great and powerful one,” Aeris assured him.

He looked
around the yard at the hundreds of bits of broken rock and mounds of
dirt.

“
Speaking
of pieces though, any way you can clear this up, Kronk? It's a mess.”

“
Certainly.
Master, go ahead and get your bathing things. I will have the yard
back to normal in a few minutes.”

“
Thanks
a lot.”

Simon
stood up and brushed himself off. He walked up the steps and paused
at the front door to look back at the elementals.

“
Guys?”
he said.

Both Kronk
and Aeris looked at him curiously.

“
Thank
you. I have to admit, knowing that you'll be there to back me up
makes me a lot more confident about the upcoming battle.”

He smiled
at them both and entered the tower.

“
Told
you so,” he heard Aeris say.

Simon
chuckled and went looking for soap and a towel. The two of them had
it planned all along. He should have known.

“
Okay,
I think I'm wasting my time.”

Simon was
standing in the bright sunlight in the field in front of his tower,
trying to hit a target he'd pinned to a tree ten yards away; he
wasn't having much success.

“
Finally
giving up?” Aeris asked pertly.

It had
been several days since he and Kronk had convinced Simon to take them
along when he joined the assault on the dark tower. Since then, the
wizard had tried to hone his skill with the bow. It had not gone
well.

“
I'm
not giving up,” Simon snapped at him. “It's just that...”

“
It's
a waste of time” Aeris said, finishing his sentence.

He was
observing from a few feet away and now he gestured at the homemade
bow dismissively.

“
I
agree. Look, my dear wizard, even if you were using a perfectly made
bow, what good would it do you?”

Simon
stuck the end of the bow into the ground and leaned on it.

“
What
do you mean?”

“
You
will be fighting
inside
!”
the elemental exclaimed. “Probably in close quarters. The bow
was your alternative if you exhausted your well of magical energy,
correct? But do you honestly think that your enemies are going to
stand there, let you pull out an arrow, aim at them and let fly and
do nothing? Sometimes I worry about you, I truly do.”

Simon
tossed the bow aside and scowled at the elemental.

“
Could
you try not to sound so condescending, please? Not only is it
irritating, but it's worthless. I welcome input but when you start
getting snarky, I tune you out.”

He walked
over and grabbed the bow and then marched past Aeris.

“
I'm
going for a swim. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't come along,
thanks.”

The
elemental muttered something but Simon ignored him. He wasn't in the
mood for an argument.

Back
inside, he left the bow and quiver next to the front door, picked up
a towel and left the tower. It was too damned hot for target practice
anyway.

As he
walked through the back gate, Simon met Kronk trotting toward him.
The little guy waved.

“
Master!
Going for a swim?”

“
I
think I need to cool off,” the wizard replied as Kronk turned
to hurry along beside him. “I just had a bit of a run-in with
Aeris. My fault really, but sometimes he just pushes my buttons, you
know?”

“
I
know that very well, master. What was it this time?”

Simon
appreciated the earthen's sympathetic tone and explained about the
bow problem.

“
Well,
while I hate to agree with him on anything, master, in this instance
I believe that Aeris was right.”

Simon
slipped off his shorts, dropped his towel on top of them and waded
into the lake. The water was cool enough to be refreshing and he
sighed with pleasure as he moved out far enough to sit down on the
sandy bottom with just his head above the calm surface.

“
I
know that,” he said to Kronk.

The entire
area was still and quiet except for the siren songs of the cicadas.

“
I
guess I'll just fall back on my staff combat training if it comes to
that. Ethmira insisted that learning to shoot a bow wasn't enough and
that I should practice with at least one handheld weapon. And since
I've always got my staff with me when I go into battle, we agreed to
focus on that. It wasn't very extensive, but I can at least swing the
thing without smacking myself on the head.”

“
A
very wise elf, master.”

“
That
she is.”

He pushed
off of the bottom and let himself float on the surface of the water.

“
Enjoy
yourself, master. I have weeding to attend to.”

“
Thanks
Kronk,” Simon called out as he looked straight up at the pale
blue sky.

At least the skin on his fingers
would have a chance to heal now that he'd stopped using a bow, he
thought as he closed his eyes.

“
Simon!”

The wizard jerked backwards at the
sound of someone calling his name and sucked water up his nose. He
frantically found his feet and stood up, thankful that he hadn't
floated out to a deeper part of the lake.

As he cough and spat, Simon realized
that he'd fallen asleep, he didn't know for how long, and he was too
busy trying to catch his breath to care.

Once he'd calmed down and was
breathing almost normally again, he pushed his mass of soaked hair
off of his face and looked around.

The lake was still calm and the area
was still quiet. Neither Kronk nor Aeris were anywhere to be seen and
Simon wondered if he had just heard someone's voice in a dream.

“
Simon, hello.”

The wizard relaxed and smiled as he
recognized Tamara's voice.

“
Hey there,” he said as
he waded to the shore and picked up his towel.

“
How are you, Tamara?”

“
Good, thanks. Sorry for
startling you. I was afraid that you might drown there for a second.”

Simon laughed as he vigorously
toweled off his hair.

“
Well, you certainly woke me
up. So what can I do for you?”

“
It's on,” the mage told
him simply.

The wizard stopped drying off and
stared across the lake, in the direction of the disembodied voice.

“
You mean..?”

“
Yes, the attack is a go. Two
days from now, just after dark. We'll meet you at that bay to the
north of Nottinghill Castle, the one that Bastian mentioned. Do you
remember it?”