The Dragons of Ice and Snow (29 page)

The elementals, including
Ana, began avoiding him whenever he was particularly cranky and
eventually Kronk took him aside and mentioned it as diplomatically as
possible.

The wizard was
embarrassed. He hadn't been aware of the black cloud that followed
him everywhere and made a point of apologizing to each of the
elementals in turn and did his best to stay upbeat and positive. It
wasn't easy.

The weather turned warm
and bright and spring became more like summer, even though Simon was
sure that it was no more than late April. But it improved his mood
and made things around the tower more cheerful in general.

The trees burst into new
leaves, bright green grass covered the fields around the tower and
birds filled the air with their song.

Simon stood on the wall
one early morning, looking out at the forest and breathed deeply. How
could anyone not love this time of year, he thought.

He was standing on the
parapet that ran along the inside of the barrier and rested his
elbows on top of the wall. He stared vaguely off into the distance,
unaware that he was smiling contently.

“
You are looking
happy this morning, master,” a voice from his left said.

He glanced down at Kronk,
who was looking up at him with an affectionate grin.

“
Am I? Yes, I
suppose I am happy, my friend.”

The earthen hopped up to
the top of the wall and looked out over the bright green field. Simon
followed his gaze and they stood in companionable silence for a time.

“
I'm guessing that
this is the calm before the storm,” Simon said quietly as a
gentle breeze blew his hair back behind him.

Kronk just nodded
silently.

“
The problem is, I
think I've gone as far as I can go with my studies,” the wizard
continued. “I've crammed my skull with as many spells as I
possibly can. I've had no more 'divine hints' in my dreams that might
lead me to new spells, so I have nothing new to learn. And somehow, I
think that my magic skills won't increase unless I'm actually using
spells in battle. Casting a Fireball spell is easy if you aren't
being threatened. It's only when you cast it in a fight, where you're
moving and using tactics, that you learn more of the nuances of using
magic.”

“
That is very true,
master,” Kronk told him as he watched birds dip and weave above
the forest. “I remember hearing something like that more than
once, when apprentices were being trained.”

He frowned as Simon
watched him, looking like he was chasing a distant memory.

“
I was summoned by a
young wizard once and, while I was in the practice room, his tutor
took him to task about some boasting he had apparently been doing
about his skill as a caster.”

Kronk smiled a bit and
glanced at the wizard.

“
The tutor stood
there, hands on her hips, and glared at the young man. She said
something about being untested in battle and that target dummies
don't fight back.” He lighted lightly. “The apprentice
became quite red, as I recall.”

Simon grinned at him.

“
I can imagine. But
that just confirms what I've been thinking. I can cast that Blizzard
spell and kill all kinds of innocent grass and weeds but until I
confront a dragon and use it for real, it doesn't really matter.”

They became silent and
spent some time just enjoying the day.

Things changed later that
afternoon. Simon was in the basement, picking out some potatoes that
he'd stored there in the autumn, when a vibration in his pocket
caused him to drop the handful he'd chosen.

The potatoes rolled in all
directions and he muttered a curse as he groped for the offending
lodestone. He assumed that Clara was getting in touch for a chat,
which immediately changed his mood. He always enjoyed their talks.

But when he pulled out the
lodestone, from the three that he always carried with him now, he was
in for a surprise.

All of the lodestones were
the size and shape of small eggs, flat on one side where Kronk had
split them in two. Clara's stone was light blue with veins of silver.
Daniel's lodestone was a beautiful clear crystal; it looked like a
frozen teardrop.

But it was the last
lodestone that was vibrating and suddenly warm to the touch. It was a
deep red, roughly cut and shot through with veins of yellow.
Liliana's stone.

Simon felt his stomach
clench with surprise and some fear. It had been weeks since he'd left
Moscow. He'd thought about the paladin many times since then, but had
increasingly begun to believe that she might never get in touch
again.

Perhaps she'd been killed.
Or maybe her vengeance was so all-consuming that she would never ask
for help now, no matter what.

But here she was,
signaling him that she wanted to talk, and Simon found himself
unnerved.

The wizard hastily picked
up the scattered spuds and raced up the stairs. He dumped them into
the kitchen sink, wiped off his hands and then sat down at the table.

He picked up the mirror
and waited a minute for his heart to slow down. He breathed deeply,
trying to calm himself. It wouldn't do any good to speak with the
paladin when he was flustered and out of breath.

As he sat there, working
up the nerve to make the call, Aeris floated into the room from
outside, crossed to the table and stared at him curiously.

“
Calling someone?”
he asked casually and nodded at the mirror.

“
Yeah. Liliana. Her
lodestone just started vibrating.”

Aeris gasped, his eyes
wide.

“
She's finally made
contact? Oh my.”

“
Oh my indeed.”
Simon swallowed, cleared his throat and chanted the Magic Mirror
spell.

He exchanged a nervous
look with the elemental, who smiled thinly at him, and then invoked
the spell.

The mirror fogged over and
Aeris quickly floated around to watch from beside Simon's shoulder.

The mist lifted and a
scene came into focus that made Simon sit up and lean forward,
staring in horror.

Liliana was propped up
against a broken wall. Her legs were splayed out in front of her and
she held her sword in both hands. The end had been snapped off,
leaving a jagged point of metal that gleamed dully.

Her armor was drenched
with greenish blood and slashed in numerous places. She was staring
blankly at something beyond Simon's vision and he made a gesture that
pulled back the view to show more of the area where she lay.

A hulk, gray and armored,
was sprawled several feet away from the paladin. The wizard
recognized it as a drake. Its whitish-gray hide was covered with
gaping wounds and its eyes gazed unseeingly at Liliana. The tip of
her sword jutted out from its sloping forehead.

Simon brought the view
back tightly on the armored figure and he hissed as he saw the extent
of her wounds. If it wasn't for her slow, gasping breaths and the
occasional blink of her eyes, he would have assumed that she was
dead.

“
Liliana? Can you
hear me? It's Simon.”

For a moment, there was no
movement from the paladin. But she finally raised her head slowly and
looked around.

“
Ah, sir wizard. You
got my signal, I see.”

“
I did. What's
happened? Wait, that was a stupid question. Are you in danger? What
can I do?”

The ghost of a smile
flickered across her face.

“
Do? Nothing, I
think. I am being stalked by another one of these.”

She nodded once at the
body of the drake.

“
They hunt in packs.
I made the mistake of miscounting this bunch. I thought there were
only four of them. Heh. It turns out that there were a pair following
behind the others. They split up and this one jumped me.”

She paused to take a deep
breath and then began coughing. Simon watched in horror as she spit
out a mouthful of blood.

“
As you can see, I
disposed of this beast,” she said once she'd caught her breath.
“Unfortunately, its partner is still out there, searching. It
will find me soon enough. If I was given the time, I could heal
myself. But I do not believe that I'll be given that opportunity.”

Simon leaped to his feet.

“
Hang on, Liliana.
I'm coming now.”

She sat up and then gasped
in pain.

“
Don't be absurd,
wizard. It is too late for me. By the time you get here, I will
probably be dead, either from my wounds or that last drake. Or both.
I just wanted to speak with someone one last time. It seems such
a...waste to die unknown and alone, don't you think? I wanted at
least one person to know that I had lived, and how I died.”

“
No! Don't talk like
that! I can be there in a few minutes. I can Gate you out and Clara
can heal you.”

“
That I will not
allow,” the paladin said in a weak but firm voice. “I
will not leave my home, even at the cost of my life. Moscow is under
my protection, and I will protect her until the end.”

Simon picked up his
spell-book and slipped it into a pocket. Then he strode across the
room and grabbed his staff.

“
Fine. Then you'd
better be good at healing, because I'm going to give you the time to
do that.”

“
What? What are
you...”

“
See you soon,”
he said and tossed the mirror on to his sofa. Then he quickly chanted
the Gate spell.

“
Simon! What are you
doing?” Aeris cried.

“
What I have to,”
he replied shortly. “Wish me luck.”

He invoked the spell and
the room began to fade.

“
But...” was
the last thing he heard from Aeris before the world went black.

As the black of the void
faded into the world of sight and sound again, Simon gagged at the
stench of rotting, putrid flesh.

He was standing within a
few feet of the body of the drake. For some reason, the corpse was
rotting quickly and the open wounds were green and running with
sticky fluids. The smell was gut-churning.

He looked around quickly
and spotted Liliana. As he hurried toward her, the paladin raised her
sword, as if she had been drifting out of consciousness and was
startled by his movement.

When she recognized him,
Liliana let her weapon drop again and looked at him in pained
disbelief.

“
You're here,”
she said faintly.

“
Of course I'm
here,” he said, trying to smile. “Did you think I'd just
leave you to die? I don't do that to my friends.”

He knelt down next to her
and dropped his staff while he examined her wounds.

They looked bad. The worst
was a deep cut across her stomach where the armor had been ripped
away. It was still leaking blood and Liliana had her hand pressed
tightly against it.

Simon looked around. The
paladin had made her stand in the remnants of a destroyed building.
Part of the roof covered her where she lay, while the rest had been
burned away. The ground was covered in rubble, pieces of broken
cement and pools of melted glass. There was nothing he could use to
stop the bleeding and he growled in frustration.

He bent down and tore a
strip of cloth off of the bottom of his robe about six inches wide.
He folded it quickly and then held it up so that the paladin could
see it.

“
Would you lift your
hand for a second? I'll put this over the wound. It should at least
slow the bleeding a bit.”

“
Ah, thank you. That
will help.”

She dropped her bloody
hand and Simon squatted down next to her and gently covered the
injury with the folded-up piece of cloth, trying not to stare at the
raw lips of the open wound.

Liliana put her hand on
top of the bandage and sighed with obvious relief.

“
That is much
better. Thank you.”

Simon nodded and then
looked at the dead drake.

“
Have you heard
anything from the other beast?”

“
Not yet, but I am
sure that it's close. Their sense of smell is excellent. It will
easily follow the trail of the one that I killed.”

“
No sign of
dragons?”

She leaned her head
against the wall and closed her eyes.

“
None. The drakes
were set loose and left to hunt. As far as the dragons are concerned,
I'd guess that they think I'll be taken care of by their servants.
They may be right.”

“
They aren't,”
Simon said angrily and she opened her eyes in surprise at his
vehemence.

“
We need you,
Liliana. This city, this world, needs you. I have few enough allies
in my fight with the damned dragons and I've lost too many as it is.
I'm not losing any more.”

She nodded slowly, her
eyes searching his.