The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (7 page)

Now it was his turn to
take her hand in both of his.

“
Thank you. And
thanks to the gods of Order for answering your prayers. I
feel...whole again.”

Clara smiled warmly.

“
On behalf of those
gods, you're welcome. I did nothing.” She became serious again.
“But don't get ahead of yourself. Simon. Remember, you must
find these hearts and destroy them. That may not be as easy as it
sounds.”

He shrugged that off.

“
It doesn't matter.
I'll get it done. After all, I have no choice, do I?”

“
Not if you want to
get your powers back.”

She stood up and Simon
hurried to do the same.

“
If you want to get
back home before it gets dark, I think you'll have to leave now.”

She glanced out the
window.

“
It will be dark in
a couple of hours and I'm sure that you don't want to be riding
through the forest at night. It gets even colder once the sun goes
down.”

“
True enough,”
Simon said and he walked across the room to get his coat.

Clara led the way into the
main hall and both of them stood for a few minutes next to the
roaring fire as they said their goodbyes.

“
You discovered the
Magic Mouth spell on your own, didn't you?” she asked him.

Simon put on his coat and
settled it comfortably before answering.

“
I did, actually.
Why?”

“
Because, once you
regain your magic, I'd like you to give me a call and let me know.”
She smiled. “It will reassure me to know that you are back to
your old self again.”

He grinned as he pulled
his mittens out of his pocket.

“
That will
definitely be on my to-do list.” He hesitated and then tried to
express how much he appreciated her help.

The cleric waved off his
thanks.

“
It was my pleasure,
Simon. And to be honest, as a cleric should be, we need you. We need
you as an ally in this magical new world. I will admit that the
thought of losing you and your magic was frightening.”

Simon looked at her with
surprise. It hadn't occurred to him that Clara actually depended on
him that much. It was a bit scary, but he was deeply honored at the
same time. And he felt a weight of responsibility settle on to his
shoulders.

“
I understand, my
friend. Believe me, I do. I'll call you as soon as I can. And, since
I'll be back to being an apprentice wizard again, I'll be working
hard to research new spells.”

“
Good.”

Clara grinned impishly and
then hugged him.

“
Take care on the
way home. My prayers are with you.”

“
Thanks so much,”
he said as they walked to the door. “For everything. We'll talk
soon.”

And with that, and a wave,
Simon left the hall.

Outside, the cold shocked
him after the warmth inside and he shivered. Chief had finished
eating and snorted at Simon appeared.

“
Yeah, yeah,”
he said to the horse as he removed the halter and put the bridle back
on that large head. He snugged it carefully under Chief's horns.
“We're heading home, big guy.”

Simon tightened the saddle
and climbed up on the horse. He put on his mittens and they turned
and walked slowly toward the main gate.

The streets were empty and
he looked around as they approached the wall.

Clara and her people had
built something to be proud of here and he wanted to be able to help
them protect it. Monsters existed again and it was only a matter of
time before they turned their attention to the little town.

So I'd better find those
dragon hearts and get off my ass and be useful again, he thought
darkly.

He rode through the gate,
waved at the guard who was bundled up in so many layers that he
couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, and then allowed Chief to
break into a trot as they rode up the low hill toward the forest.

They paused at the top and
Simon looked down at the postcard picture of the village below. He
had to smile at the sight and then he turned and chirped at the
stallion, who eagerly began to move, heading for home.

It was full dark when
Simon arrived home, feeling like a solid block of ice. His toes and
fingertips were numb and, when he dismounted outside of the back
gate, he had to hold on to the saddle for a few minutes until he had
stomped his feet enough to regain his mobility.

Even cold and stiff
though, he made sure to settle Chief into his stall and rub him down
after his hard work. Then he made the big stallion a warm mash of
bran with a touch of honey and left him munching contentedly.

The mares had been
thrilled to see them back home and Simon gave them all water and hay
before he finally left the stable.

The tower was secure and
there were no signs of trespassers. He locked the back gate after
checking for footprints and headed inside.

Fortunately there were
still a few embers glowing in the fireplace and he carefully used
some kindling to get a fire started before setting small logs on the
flames. Then he lit candles and went upstairs to change into some
clean clothes.

The upper floor was very
cold and Simon knew that it would take an hour at least for the heat
from the fireplace to spread throughout the tower by way of the
ventilation system in the walls. So, after he got changed, he went
downstairs again, pulled his easy chair in front of the fire, made
some tea and bundled himself in blankets, trying to warm up.

Finally he could feel all
of his extremities and began to feel warm and comfortable again.

He'd been tempted to
search for the remains of the dragon that had crashed into his wall
at its death, but the darkness and frigid temperatures dissuaded him.
Tomorrow, he thought. I can stand being powerless for one more day.

Simon sipped his tea and
stared into the fire, his mind blank of all thought. The crack and
spit of the flames was the only sound in the tower, punctuated by the
occasional howl of wind whipping around outside.

Isn't it quiet, Simon
thought and shivered. He hadn't realized how much life and sound that
Kronk and, to a lesser extent Aeris, had added to his life. If they
were still around, he knew that Kronk would even now be chattering
inanely about his day, while Aeris would drop the occasional
sarcastic comment and Simon would be sitting there trying not to
laugh.

Amazing how two beings not
made of flesh and blood could be so full of life. And more
interesting than most people that Simon had ever met, he thought
dryly.

I miss them, was his
simple thought. If he needed any more incentive to find those dragon
hearts and regain at least some of his magic, that thought was it.

He stood up and added
several more logs to the fire.

Tomorrow, he thought. Cold
and snow notwithstanding, tomorrow he'd start his search. Simon was a
little amused in a sad way to think that even a loner like himself
could miss anyone as much as he missed his two little friends.

What do you know? Simon
O'Toole actually has a heart.

He laughed aloud at the
thought and then stopped as the sound echoed around the room,
emphasizing his solitude.

He pulled his blankets
tightly around him and headed for the stairs.

Yeah, tomorrow.

The next morning, Simon
woke from a troubled sleep to a freezing room. The windows were
frosted over and, when he finally convinced himself to roll out of
bed and make his way across the room, it took a few minutes to force
them open so that he could see outside.

“
Oh gees,” he
muttered. “Can't I ever catch a break?”

It was snowing. No, that
hardly described it. It was an absolute blizzard.

The snow was coming down
sideways in an almost gale-force wind and was so thick that the
wizard could barely see further than a few feet from the tower.

Great, he thought. Then he
sighed in resignation and closed the windows again. This should be
fun.

It took some time to get a
roaring fire started in the fireplace and warm up the tower and Simon
puttered around the kitchen area, making oatmeal and tea for
breakfast while he huddled inside a heavy blanket.

Once he had warmed up and
eaten, he decided that waiting was not an option. The longer he put
off searching for the dragons' hearts, the deeper they would be
buried. And who was to say that it wouldn't snow again tomorrow? And
the day after that?

No. As unpleasant as he
was sure it would be, today would be the day to at least start the
search.

He glanced down at the
robe he was wearing and smiled a slightly twisted smile. And that
meant a change of wardrobe.

Simon picked up a lit
candle by its holder and headed downstairs. In the basement, he lit
several other candles that hung from the walls and looked around.

The cellar was the same
size as the tower above, forty feet square, but on each wall was a
closed door made of heavy, waterproofed oak that led to his storage
rooms.

Although none of the doors
had a label on it, Simon had mentally given them their own names.

There were two that he
called 'Cold Storage' rooms. This was where he kept the harvest from
his crops that he and Kronk had collected during the growing season
and some of the foodstuffs he'd received by trading with Nottinghill.

There were bags of wheat
flour, bushels of apples and corn and many other easily-stored
vegetables. Even so, the two rooms were almost empty because they
were as large as the main room he was standing in.

The third storage room he
called 'Dry Goods' and the only reason it existed was because of his
friend Daniel.

Simon paused and gave
thanks yet again for Daniel's foresight. Through his world-wide
exploration of old tombs and ruins, his friend had discovered that
the end of the modern world was at hand. He had taken over the
building of the tower and paid for it with his own money and the only
thing he'd asked Simon for in return was the chance to visit now and
then.

Well, except for a brief,
and quite sad, visitation in the summer, when Daniel had returned
from the elven lands to speak to Simon, he had never seen the tower.

And now I have this
refuge, Simon thought. All thanks to him.

Daniel had stocked the Dry
Goods room and, at the time, Simon had thought he was crazy. It had
been about a year before his Change began and the world started to
fall apart.

There were sealed,
air-tight barrels of flour, sugar and salt. Resealable bags of
spices. Canvas bags stuffed with fine kindling and many other
practical supplies that Simon would never have thought of.

Daniel had brought in
hundreds of candles and boxes of old-fashioned wooden matches. A
barrel of cooking oil. Tools, including a hammer and a big bin of
nails. A shovel. The list went on.

In fact Simon was still
discovering new items whenever he wandered around the room. Just a
few weeks prior to his current crisis, the wizard had opened a random
box and, to his astonishment, found a sealed bag of gumdrops. Why
they were there, he had no idea. But what a treat they'd been.

He chuckled and shook his
head. God knows what else is in there, he thought as he opened the
door to the final room.

This one he simply called
'The Wardrobe'.

Inside there were large
cedar chests and tall bureaus along each wall. Rolls of fine cloth
that Simon had used to make his robes and undergarments lay piled to
one side in their plastic wrappings. A large box filled with hundreds
of spools of thread and dozens of needles stood beside the cloth.

He looked at them for a
moment and had to smile again. He had never had to sew back in the
old world. All of his clothes had been tailor-made to fit his
muscular, two hundred and fifty pound frame. Of course all that had
changed when things fell apart.

After his Change, Simon
learned to sew by necessity. For some reason, loose-fitting robes
were the only kind of garment he could stand wearing for any length
of time. He eventually decided that wizards simply preferred wearing
that type of clothing and, because he had Changed into one, that was
what he was comfortable with.

It made no sense to him
then and it made none now, but there it was.

But there's no way I'm
wearing a flimsy robe out in that storm, he thought and began
searching through the chests.

They were filled with
clothing of all kinds. Pants and slacks in one chest. Dozens of pairs
of shoes in another. Shirts and coats hanging in the bureaus. The
mystery wasn't that Daniel had stocked the room with clothing. No.
The thing that Simon couldn't get over is that everything was made to
fit the man he'd become, not the large man he had once been.