The Dragons of Ice and Snow (21 page)

Simon was still
overwhelmed by the man. The guardsman was simply the biggest man that
the wizard had ever met. He towered more than six inches over Simon
and was broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped. He was black, with long
braids that hung to his shoulders and a handsome, friendly face.
Right now he looked happier than the wizard had ever seen him.

His partner, Aiden, was
almost as large. He was Vietnamese and his thick dark hair was longer
than Malcolm's. His expression matched that of his friend.

He bowed to the wizard and
smiled down at Clara.

“
Thank you for
allowing us to accompany Simon,” he said cheerfully.

“
Don't thank me. You
know that you are free to do as you please, especially right now when
things are quiet.”

She looked up at both of
them sternly, hands on her hips.

“
We want you back
here in one piece, so don't take any risks. And remember, if Simon
tells you to do something, listen to him. He has more experience
fighting the dragons than anyone, so follow his orders.”

“
Clara, I'm not
their boss,” Simon protested.

“
You are leading
this...expedition. You are the wizard and you know the area better
than they do. So you are in charge.”

Clara's tone was quite
firm and Simon held up his hands in surrender.

“
Fine, fine.
Whatever you say.”

She looked at him and then
up at the grinning guardsmen and burst out laughing.

“
Okay, fine. You
three decide who does what. I'm just worried, that's all.”

“
My friend, your
words are wise, as always,” Malcolm told her, becoming serious.
“Aiden and I are under Simon's command, whether he thinks we
are or not. So don't worry. We live for battle, because that's what
the Change turned us into. But we aren't stupid or impetuous. And we
want to come back.”

Clara looked a little
mollified and nodded weakly.

Aiden stepped forward and
got down on one knee in front of the cleric. Malcolm hastened to do
the same and Simon watched them curiously.

“
Will you give us
your blessing?” the young man asked formally.

The cleric's expression
became solemn and she gently put a hand on both of their heads. Even
kneeling, they were as tall as she was.

“
In the name of the
gods of Light, I bless you and strengthen you. May your swords be
swift, may your aim be true and may your enemies fall before you.”

She stepped back and the
pair rose as one and thanked her.

Simon was fascinated. He'd
never seen Clara act as a pure cleric before. But he had felt the
magic gather around her and flow into the guardsmen and he didn't
doubt her power.

Both Malcolm and Aiden
were wearing full plate armor, gray and functional. Both had shields
slung across their backs, but were armed differently.

Malcolm had a sword on his
left hip while Aiden was armed with a long mace hanging from a loop
on his belt. It had vicious spikes radiating in all directions and
Simon thought that it looked incredibly deadly.

“
We are ready when
you are, sir wizard,” Malcolm said pointedly.

Simon looked up at him and
nodded.

“
Sorry, I was lost
in thought for a moment.”

He reached out and clasped
Clara's hand.

“
I'll do what I can
to make sure they're safe, my friend, but I can't guarantee
anything.”

“
I know that. They
are adults,” she looked at the guardsmen and smiled crookedly,
“barely, and have made their choice. I accept that. Just watch
out for yourself, Simon. We want you back as well.”

“
Thanks.”

Clara stepped back and
Simon looked up at the pair of warriors.

“
Okay guys. Each of
you put a hand on one of my shoulders. And don't squeeze too hard.
I'm a bit fragile.”

They both laughed and
gently put an armored hand on opposite shoulders.

“
Good luck, all of
you,” the cleric said and they all smiled at her.

Then Simon chanted the
Gate spell.

“
Invectis
!”
he said firmly and watched as Clara disappeared, her anxious
expression the last thing he saw as they faded into the void.

The
three men arrived smoothly in the center of the Moscow outpost.
Malcolm and Aiden immediately drew their weapons and fanned out,
moving slowly and looking in all directions.

Simon
could barely see. The torches on the walls had burned out, so he
muttered under his breath and made a gesture and a globe of light
appeared in his hand and rose up to hover several feet over his head.

“
Handy
spell,” Malcolm remarked quietly as he searched the room.

“
That
it is,” the wizard agreed.

He
slipped the staff off of his back and put on his coat. The air was
cold but not freezing and he left the coat open.

Simon
watched, not moving, while the two guardsmen made sure that the area
was clear.

Aiden
ducked into a small doorway in the back and returned, shaking his
head.

“
The
latrine is empty. Some dried blood on the floor but no bodies.”

“
The
same out here,” Malcolm said as they rejoined Simon in the
center of the room.

“
Blood
but no remains.” He looked at the wizard. “You think that
drakes did this?”

“
There's
no way to know. But the front door was covered in deep gouges,
definitely claw marks. A dragon wouldn't be able to get in here
without doing massive damage. Drakes are only about six feet high and
twelve feet long. They could squeeze down that hallway,” he
nodded toward the far end of the room, “and attack. And,”
he hesitated then plowed on, “they eat what they kill. That
would explain the lack of bodies.”

“
Yes
it would,” Malcolm said grimly, exchanging a glance with Aiden.

“
Should
we head toward the entrance?” he asked Simon, obviously
deferring to his leadership.

Simon
grimaced but nodded.

“
No
other choice. If anyone escaped, they went that way. Unfortunately
there is no other exit.”

They
began to walk toward the hallway.

“
Foolish,
having a refuge with no back door,” Aiden muttered.

Malcolm
glared at him and he shrugged.

“
Well
it is, and you know it. I'm not disrespecting the people here, but it
was short-sighted.”

“
Yes,
it was,” Simon said, forestalling an argument. “I'm no
tactician, but I wish I'd mentioned that to Liliana. Perhaps they
could have found a better refuge.”

Malcolm
nodded reluctantly but said nothing. Once they'd reached the hallway,
he motioned for Simon to stay behind him and led the way forward.

They
advanced slowly, the subtle squeak of armor and leather sounding very
loud in the enclosed space. The blood had dried on the concrete floor
and Simon did his best not to look at it or to imagine the last
moments of the people who had lived here.

They
turned to the left and saw the broken door lying twisted and slashed.
Its metal plating gleamed in the light of the wizard's spell.

Malcolm
moved forward and knelt beside the thick door. He ran his hand over
the deep gouges, the metal grating unpleasantly under his mailed
fingers.

“
If
a dragon didn't do this, then I can't think of anything else that
could,” he said, his hushed voice echoing along the hallway.

Aiden
brushed by Simon and examined the door as well.

“
The
slashes are over an inch wide,” he said in disbelief. “Whatever
it was, it was huge.”

Simon
looked past them at the steps leading up toward the ground floor.
Sunlight still beamed in from above but it was growing darker as he
watched. He knew that dusk was approaching.

“
Guys,
it's going to be dark soon. I think we'd better get upstairs and look
around while we can.”

He
made a small circular movement with a forefinger and the globe of
light disappeared with a little pop.

“
Good
point,” Malcolm said. “With your permission, Aiden and I
will go first.”

The
wizard nodded with a tight smile and the two warriors began to climb
the stairs, step by step. Simon moved to stand at the bottom of the
stairway and watched them anxiously.

He
counted thirty steps on the staircase and waited impatiently until
the two guardsmen had reached the top before slowly following them.

Aiden
turned and looked down at him. He gave Simon a thumbs-up and the
wizard hurried up to join them.

At
the top, Simon stopped and looked around, the two warriors on either
side of him.

As
the mirror had shown him, the roof had been torn clean off of the old
theater and the blue sky, dotted with swiftly moving clouds, was open
above them.

“
My
God,” Aiden whispered. “The sheer power it would take to
rip off the roof of this place is staggering.”

Malcolm
nodded mutely, obviously more interested in their surroundings. He
moved to the right and motioned for his partner to head in the
opposite direction. Simon stood still and examined the floor, trying
to identify which way the survivors, if any, could have gone.

There
were smudged tracks and a few bootprints, but nothing to indicate if
any were fresh. The dirt that must have rained down on the floor when
the roof had been torn apart had muddled any existing evidence and
all that he could see were scuff marks.

He
moved forward toward what must have been the front entrance of the
theater. The doors had fallen away, whether through recent violence
or from the original dragon attack on the Night of Burning four years
earlier, but there was an obvious path from the door to the stairs
and he assumed that if anyone had made it out, they would have run
that way.

There
were wooden beams, misshapen pieces of metal and other bits of debris
strewn across the floor and the path to the door twisted and turned
somewhat to avoid these obstacles. Simon followed it slowly, watching
the ground and straining to see any sign of recent footprints.

Several
feet from the doorway, he stopped dead as if he'd walked into an
invisible wall.

“
Guys?”
he called out, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. “Could
you come over here please?”

Simon
heard the sharp sound of metal on metal as Malcolm and Aiden hurried
toward him from the depths of the building.

“
What
is it, sir wizard?” Malcolm asked as the two of them
approached.

Simon
just nodded at the ground in front of the gaping doorway. The
guardsmen moved up to stand next to him and stared.

Aiden
gasped while Malcolm muttered a curse.

“
Well,
now we know, don't we?” Simon said simply.

There
was a large paw print pressed into the dirt, reminiscent of a dog's
track, but over half a foot across. At the front edge were the clear
marks of four claws that had dug into the concrete floor and left
shallow grooves behind.

“
Drakes?”
Aiden asked under his breath.

“
Drakes,”
Simon answered, his voice bleak. “Damn it.”

Malcolm
pushed past Simon carefully and moved to stand next to the entrance.
He peered outside, looking around carefully.

“
It
looks clear,” he said and turned to the wizard. “Do you
want to continue looking or should we...”

A
ear-splitting scream from somewhere overhead cut him off and the
three of them immediately ducked down and looked up instinctively.

A
flash of white, almost silver in the dying rays of the sun, shot
across the sky over the theater; there and gone so quickly that Simon
barely saw it.

“
Dragon!”
he hissed.

“
No
kidding,” Aiden said as he looked up wide-eyed.

“
Did
it see us?” Malcolm asked, watching the sky.

“
Wait.
If it did, it will come back for another pass,” Simon told
them.

They
stayed crouched down, the guardsmen balancing their armored bodies by
keeping one hand flat on the ground, and waited.

The
cry was not repeated and they could hear no sound of dragon-wings.
After a few minutes, Simon stood up cautiously and the others
followed.

“
I
think we dodged a bullet that time,” he said, feeling a bit
shaky.