The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (39 page)

“
How
was your search, Kronk?” he asked, his voice hushed as he
listened to the night. “Did you have to travel far?”

“
Not
far, master,” the earthen replied quietly. “Deep.”

He
stood to the wizard's right. Aeris hovered on the opposite side,
bobbing lightly up and down.

“
Deep?”

Simon
looked down at his little friend.

“
Yes,
master.” Kronk was frowning a bit. “And I discovered
something in my journey that I have never seen before, perhaps
because I was not looking for it.”

“
Really?
What?”

“
A
tunnel. A road really. It spiraled and dipped, running perhaps from
the surface and descending even deeper than I traveled to find the
lodestone.”

Aeris
flew up until he could see Kronk over Simon's shoulder.

“
A
road? Down that far?”

Kronk
nodded silently.

“
Made
by whom?” Simon asked with great interest.

“
The
dwarves, perhaps, master. I know they travel with their drilling
machines now, but in ancient times they used tunnels to reach their
kingdoms. I know this because when the old gods withdrew from this
world, the dwarven machines failed. They were powered with magic,
after all. No magic meant that they had to travel back to their homes
using their old roads.”

“
A
dwarven tunnel. Hmm.”

Simon's
imagination was caught up with the thought of exploring those old
thoroughfares, maybe seeing a dwarven city.

“
I
know that look, my dear wizard,” Aeris said as he peered at
Simon in the darkness. “Your curiosity has been tweaked, hasn't
it?”

Simon
grinned at him.

“
You
know me too well. Yeah, I'll admit it. It would be an awesome sight,
don't you think? An old road built by the dwarves maybe thousands of
years ago?”

“
Why?”
Aeris asked with a dismissive sniff of disdain. “If you want to
see ruins, visit any of the devastated cities in this world since the
dragons returned. There is no need to search any farther than that.”

Simon
sat up and stretched his back, groaning a bit.

“
You
have absolutely no adventure in your soul, do you know that?”

“
Of
course not. I am a practical person, as are all of my people.”

Aeris
looked at Kronk.

“
Even
the earthen prefer useful pursuits to exploring old ruins just for
the fun of it.”

Maybe
it was because of their quiet rivalry, but for whatever reason, Kronk
snorted at Aeris' remark.

“
That
is not always so,” he said seriously. “I found the tunnel
fascinating, to be honest. If I wasn't on a mission from our master,
I would have taken the time to examine it more closely.”

Aeris
rolled his eyes while Simon laughed.

“
Good
for you, my friend,” he said to Kronk. “You at least have
some imagination. I think I'd like to check out this old road.
Tomorrow, after Aeris leaves to bring Clara her lodestone, you can
direct me and I'll take a peek at it using Magic Mirror. Who knows?
If it looks interesting enough, maybe I'll Gate down and take a
closer look.”

“
Not
without me, you don't!” Aeris snapped. “If you do pursue
this foolish idea, please wait until I return before you go. You have
to have at least one level-headed person with you on such an
excursion.”

“
Meaning
that I am not level-headed?” Kronk growled.

“
Exactly.”

“
Guys,
guys,” Simon interrupted the two before a full-blown argument
could flare up. “Relax. If I do decide to go down and poke
around, you will both be coming with me, all right?”

Kronk
settled down with a quiet grumble while Aeris lowered himself down to
the steps with an unsatisfied frown.

I
swear that sometimes it's like babysitting, Simon thought with a
touch of amusement.

The
three of them quieted down again and went back to listening to the
serenity of the night.

Aeris
set off the next morning with the lodestone, warning Simon again not
to leave the tower without him. The exasperated wizard assured him
that both he and Kronk would wait for the air elemental's return.

“
Does
he think that I won't come back if I go anywhere without him?”
he asked Kronk after Aeris had left.

“
He
worries about you, master,” the little guy told him absently as
he spread some seeds. They were in the garden, finishing up putting
in the last of the spring crops.

“
Really?”

Simon
wiped his face with a scrap of cloth. He had sewn himself a pair of
shorts from an old robe and carried the rag in the waist band. A
tingling on his bare shoulders hinted at a burn to come if he didn't
get out of the sun soon. The day was clear and hot.

“
Well,
he should know that I don't need looking after. I can take care of
myself.”

“
Uh-huh,”
Kronk answered in a carefully neutral tone. “You are correct as
always, master.”

When
the wizard looked at him, the earthen studiously stared at the furrow
beneath his feet.

Simon
decided not to comment and instead hurriedly helped Kronk finish the
planting and headed back indoors, out of the sun.

“
You'd
think the gods of Light would have at least given me a body that
tans, wouldn't you?” he complained to the little guy as he
washed up at the kitchen sink. His shoulders stung and had turned a
bright red.

“
I
mean, what was the point in making me this delicate, I'd like to
know.”

Kronk
picked up Simon's discarded shorts and the used towel and carried
them to the laundry basket next to the stairs. The wizard slipped on
a clean robe and winced as the cloth rubbed against his sunburned
skin.

“
Wizards
are delicate, master. Brains over brawn is how they used to describe
themselves.”

Simon
grumbled as he gulped down some water. The well water was always
clean and ice-cold.

“
Whatever.”

He
sat down at the kitchen table and waited for Kronk to jump up and
join him.

“
Now,
describe this underground road for me.”

He
picked up the hand mirror and caught sight of his smooth hairless
face with its overly-large eyes. His nose was burned too and he
sighed.

“
Yes
master.”

Kronk
picked up a pencil and a sheet of paper from the stack Simon always
kept on the table. He began to draw and the wizard watched,
fascinated.

“
I
saw some carvings at an intersection, master. Right along the corners
on the wall. Perhaps they were directions, or simply the names of the
roads themselves. I do not know. But I memorized them, just in case.”

“
Just
in case I decided to foolishly explore those roads?” Simon
asked, regaining his good humor.

“
I
would never presume to say something like that, master,” the
little guy said as he carefully drew the symbols.

“
I
know, my friend. But feel free to think it.”

Kronk
finished and handed the sheet to Simon.

The
writing was blocky with sharp edges and very few curves. It
looked...solid.

“
Now
master, picture two tunnels meeting in a four-way intersection. They
are cut square in the rock, approximately ten feet wide and twenty
high. The surface is rutted as if carts or wagons had been pulled
along it for centuries. The stone is very dark, with a few veins of
crystal shot through it.”

Simon
was nodding as he studied the writing.

“
Is
there any light down there?”

“
Yes
master. Perhaps every ten yards or so there is a symbol.”

Kronk
quickly drew a circle, inside of which he placed a hammer, head down.

“
These
symbols glow, not very brightly, but there is enough light for you to
see. They also radiate warmth somehow.” At Simon's inquiring
looked, the little guy added, “Dwarves see heat as well as
light, master. Very useful for living underground.”

“
Interesting.
I didn't know that.”

Simon
held up the mirror and muttered the Magic Mirror spell. Then he tried
to picture the tunnels exactly as Kronk had described them, glancing
a few times at the drawings as he did so. When he felt he had a
fairly accurate idea of how it might look, he uttered the word of
command.

The
mirror fogged over and Kronk moved to Simon's side to watch.

“
I
may not have given it a good enough image,” the wizard told him
as the misty surface remained unchanged for a few long minutes.

“
Try
to focus on that lighted symbol in your mind, master. It may help the
spell find the tunnel.”

Simon
nodded silently and stared at the circle and hammer.

“
It's
working, master!” Kronk exclaimed.

The
mist faded from the mirror. Simon watched as the tunnel appeared
almost exactly as his little friend had described it. The walls were
marked with not just writing, but carvings of small figures, perhaps
dwarves, as well as animals and birds. The surface of the tunnel
floor was rutted and chunks of rock and gravel littered the road. It
looked ancient.

“
Good
job, Kronk,” Simon said with a grin.

The
earthen smiled as well as he gazed into the mirror.

“
I
am glad I could help, master. If you are going to Gate there though,
I recommend casting your Light spell when you arrive. It really isn't
very bright, is it?”

It
was, in fact, gloomy. Simon could see the location, but it was
shadowed and hazy and he had to squint to peer through the
semi-darkness.

“
Good
idea. I'm glad it's locked into my brain permanently. Handy spell
that.”

Kronk
hopped down to the floor and tip-tapped to the stairs.

“
I
agree, master. But I think I'll put together a few torches, just in
case. Better to be prepared.”

Simon
watched him head downstairs.

Practical,
he thought. He's always so practical. Thank goodness.

When
Kronk returned with a bundle of sticks that he had dipped in pitch
and wrapped with burlap, Simon was just locking a few spells into his
memory. He wrinkled his nose at the strong smell of tar.

“
Will
those things burn well?” he asked as the elemental dropped them
by the door.

“
Yes,
master. Bright and long. I have made such things before.”

“
Oh.
Good. Well, I have the Light spell,” he said, tapping his
forehead, “and I've memorized a couple of others that might be
useful. Now all we have to do is wait for Aeris.”

He
picked up the mirror while Kronk jumped back up to the table and
joined him.

The
tunnel was still in view and Simon looked at it speculatively.

“
What's
it like down there? Hot? Cold? Wet? Dry?”

“
It
is warm, master. The underground gets hotter the deeper you travel,
but the depth of the tunnel is not so great that the heat is
unbearable for you.”

He
stared at the image and tilted his head slightly.

“
The
air is very dry down there. It might be well to bring a bottle of
water with you, master.”

“
Yeah,
good idea.”

Simon
stood up and went to search through his kitchen cabinets. After
digging around for a few minutes, he pulled out a thermos and looked
at it in surprise.

“
Hey,
look at this. I didn't even know I had one of these. Hmm, I'm going
to have to do an inventory of these cabinets one day.”

“
It
is a water bottle, master?” Kronk asked as he watched Simon
rinse out the thermos.

“
Better,
my friend. It keeps liquid inside either hot or cold depending on
what you put in it.”

He
filled the bottle and then crossed the room to grab his small
backpack from a cupboard.

“
I
suppose I'd better have lunch before we go,” Simon said as he
slipped the thermos into his pack and dropped it by the door.