The Dragons of Ice and Snow (19 page)

“
You
are leaving?” the earthen asked her.

“
For
a short time, with Simon's permission, of course.”

“
I've
told you already, I am not your master.”

The
wizard watched Ana until she nodded slowly.

“
Good.
You can come and go as you choose. But, if you don't mind me asking,
where are you going?”

“
Out
of courtesy, I want to travel north to the river and pay my respects
to Aquamastis. He is a great one of my people. If I am to reside so
close to his claimed territory, I should make myself known to him.”

Simon
began to walk back to the tower, Ana and the others by his side.

“
Would
he be upset if you didn't?” he asked curiously.

“
I
honestly don't know. I am sure that he doesn't even know I exist.
However, in the future we may need his aid. He might be more amenable
to a request for help if he knows that one of his own kind is
assisting you.”

“
Clever,”
Aeris said with admiration.

“
Not
really,” Ana replied. “It is a precautionary move as
well. If Aquamastis learns that I have taken up residence here and
did not inform him, he may be...irritated. He could take it as an
insult that I did not pay my respects.” She shrugged. “Or
not. It is very hard to read a being that powerful.”

They
reached the front door and Simon sat down on the steps.

“
By
all means then, feel free to pay him a visit. Give him my regards as
well. He certainly came through when I needed him most.”

Ana
gave him a sly glance.

“
He
gained more from your bargain than you did, sir wizard. Surely you
must know that? You summoned him to this world and gave him
permission to inhabit a major river. In that moment, you as his
master, although he would not use that term, freed him to exist on
this planet for as long as he wishes. I would say that in Aquamastis'
mind, he got the better part of the deal. It is also quite possible
that he still believes he owes you for such a gift. When I speak with
him, I shall attempt to find out if this is true.” She
grimaced. “Carefully, of course. Angering him would be most
unwise.”

“
Do
not take any chances,” Kronk told her quickly. “I know my
master would not want you to risk yourself unnecessarily.”

“
He's
right, Ana. Be careful with Aquamastis.”

“
I
shall be, Simon. Believe me.”

The
water elemental bowed to him and gave the other two a quick wave.

And
then, to the wizard's astonishment, she sank into the ground with a
tiny splash.

“
Whoa!
I didn't know she could do that,” he exclaimed.

Aeris
snickered.

“
And
just how do you think she examined the well under your tower, my dear
wizard?” he asked, teasing.

Simon
rolled his eyes.

“
Yeah,
whatever.”

He
looked at Kronk, who had sat down on the step beside him.

“
Do
you think that she's in any danger?”

“
I
cannot say, master. You know how powerful Aquamastis is. Water
sprites are...” he glanced at Aeris as if for confirmation,
“flighty, is the best word I can think of. They are mercurial.
Quick to anger and just as quick to find joy. Very odd bunch, I have
to say.”

“
Yes,
our earthen friend is correct,” Aeris added, bobbing in front
of Simon at the bottom of the steps. “Water elementals, the
more powerful ones, are legendary for being difficult to deal with.
Few of the old wizards back in the days of magic would summon any
more powerful than Ana, for that reason. I hope she doesn't irritate
him.”

“
Great,”
Simon muttered. “Something else to worry about.”

He
stood up and went inside, resting his staff next to the door.

“
I'm
going to make some tea and then call Liliana,” he told the
trailing elementals. “I'd like to give her some good news for a
change.”

“
I'll
get your mirror, master,” Kronk said brightly and turned toward
the stairs. “You left it in your study.”

“
Thanks,
bud,” the wizard replied.

He
pumped some water into the kettle and hung it in the fireplace. Then
he stood at the counter and looked at Aeris as the elemental flew up
and hovered on the kitchen table.

“
With
any luck, maybe she's found my spell-book by now,” he said
optimistically.

Aeris
looked doubtful.

“
Let's
hope so,” he said. “Between your visitation from the gods
and this new spell, it feels like things are starting to speed up.
Something might be about to happen.”

Aeris' prediction was
unfortunately accurate.

When Simon attempted to
contact Liliana in Moscow, the spell failed. The mirror fogged up but
did not connect and eventually cleared up again. That had never
happened before.

After looking at the
mirror in disbelief for a long moment, the wizard put it down on the
kitchen table and stared off into space.

“
What happened,
master?” Kronk asked, looking perplexed. “The paladin did
not want to talk?”

“
No, there was no
answer. That is so weird.”

Aeris stopped bobbing in
place and moved closer to Simon.

“
No answer? Oh,
that's bad.”

“
Bad? Why is it bad?
She'd probably busy.”

“
My dear wizard, you
should know better than that by now,” the air elemental said,
sounding exasperated. “How many times have you cast Magic
Mirror? Dozens, at least. Correct?”

“
Yes. Probably more.
What's your point?”

“
Have you ever
interrupted Clara or one of us when you reached us?”

Simon thought about it.

“
Sure, a few times.
Once, you were...” He stopped in mid-sentence. “Oh. Oh
crap. So what does it mean when I can't reach Liliana?”

A rare expression of
sadness twisted the air elemental's face.

“
It usually means
that the one you are trying to contact is severely injured...or
dead,” he said hesitantly.

“
Dead? No!”

Simon jumped to his feet
and his chair skidded and fell over behind him. He kicked it out of
the way as he strode across the room and grabbed his staff.

“
Master! What are
you doing?”

“
Doing? What the
hell do you think I'm doing? I've lost enough friends and allies in
this war. I'm not losing any more if I can help it.”

He opened the cabinet near
the door and grabbed his winter jacket.

“
Liliana's people
might be under attack, or worse. They may need help. If she is, well,
dead, then I can at least Gate them to Nottinghill and get them out
of harm's way.”

“
Simon, this is
crazy,” Aeris protested as he flew across the room. He watched
as the wizard rummaged in the cabinet for his gloves.

“
You have no idea
what is waiting for you over there. You could be Gating into a trap.”

“
Yeah, yeah. I know
that. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears.”

“
Of course I do,”
Aeris said firmly and Simon stopped with one arm through his coat and
stared at him.

“
What?”

“
Take off your coat,
sit down at the table and use your Magic Mirror spell to spy out the
paladin's camp. You know where it is, right? And what it looks like?”

Simon simply nodded.

“
Then you can focus
the spell on it to see whatever there is to see. At least you will
know who or what is there now.”

The wizard was breathing
heavily and stood frozen, torn between wanting to rush headlong to
aid his allies and accepting Aeris' common sense.

The two elementals watched
him anxiously as he hesitated, poised on a knife's edge. Then his
shoulder's slumped and he dropped the coat and gloves on the floor.

“
Yeah, you're
right,” he said to Aeris. “I won't do anyone any good if
I get myself killed because I was stupid.”

He returned to the table,
leaned the staff against it, righted his chair and sat down. He wiped
his sweaty forehead on his sleeve, grabbed the mirror and chanted the
incantation for the Magic Mirror spell, keeping a clear picture of
Liliana's retreat firmly in his mind's eye.

This time, the mist on the
mirror dissipated in a few seconds and Simon found himself looking
into a large, dark room lit by torches hanging from the walls.

The two elementals moved
to stand on either side of him and peered at the scene.

“
That is the
paladin's home, master?” Kronk asked quietly.

“
Yeah. It's located
in the basement of an old movie theater. She told me that many years
ago, the owners had reinforced the walls and ceiling of the place for
fear of a nuclear war. It's deep and is supplied by a well and
ventilation shafts that provide fresh air. And it's entrance is
sealed by a door made of two-foot thick steel. A very secure place.”

“
Is it?” Aeris
asked. “Then something must have changed recently. Look.”

The air elemental pointed
at the mirror and Simon directed the spell downwards. There were
splashes of color here and there on the concrete floor. They shone a
deep red in the flickering torchlight.

“
Blood, I think,”
Aeris murmured. “And still fresh by the way it is reflecting
the light.”

“
Damn it!”
Simon hissed. “Damn it. Damn it!”

He closed his eyes and
rubbed them with the fingers of his left hand. Then he looked back in
the mirror, moving the view so that the entire room was scanned
slowly.

“
No bodies,”
he said softly, as if afraid something in the darkened room would
hear him.

From the mirror, they
could hear a distant drip of water, but there was no other sound.

“
Is there more to
the sanctuary than that one room?” Aeris asked.

Simon shook his head.

“
No. See, along that
far wall? The sleeping bags that are rolled up? That's where they
slept. There's a small bathroom off to the left that they dug out and
converted to a sort of primitive latrine, but that's about it.”

“
Where is the
entrance, master?”

Simon moved the view again
and the scene panned to the right. There was a high exit leading to a
dim hallway.

“
Perhaps you should
check that door you told us about, master?” Kronk suggested.

“
Good idea. Let's
see what happened.”

The mirror view shifted
and approached the hallway. It traveled a long way before abruptly
turning to the left. There were small streaks of blood on the floor
and walls.

“
Still no bodies,”
Aeris commented. “I wonder why?”

“
Dragons eat their
prey,” Simon told him bleakly, trying not to imagine such a
thing. Trying and failing.

“
Don't be absurd, my
dear wizard. No dragon could get itself through that hallway.”
Aeris tapped the mirror, making the view shudder. “It isn't a
dwarven tunnel, you know.”

With a slight shock, the
wizard realized that the elemental was right. The tunnel was too
narrow for a dragon. And the walls were smooth and unmarked, except
for the blood.

“
Then what the hell
happened?”

“
That's what we are
trying to discover, is it not?” Aeris answered as he watched
the mirror closely.

The view turned to the
left and a few paces away was the door.

A monstrous thing made of
layers of steel, it lay crumpled to one side, hanging by one twisted
hinge. The surface was slashed by dozens of deep gouges.

“
Now that looks like
something a dragon could do,” Aeris told him.

Beyond the door, a wide
staircase led upward and bright daylight blazed down from above.
Supposedly an old wrecked theater had once hidden the entrance to the
basement. But now it was gone, ripped apart like paper, exposing the
sanctuary's door.

At ground level, the
wooden floor was broken and scattered. A few small blood droplets had
been left here but that was all. There was no sign of movement or
survivors. The place was deserted.

Simon shook the mirror to
break the spell and set it down face-first on the table.

“
Well, I think we
can at least guess what forced open the door of Liliana's hiding
place.”

“
Definitely a
dragon,” Aeris said, his voice thick with emotion. The wizard
stared at him, surprised at the venom in his tone.