Lacertus' face locked into place and now Simon was looking at the small features of a rather handsome young man, who was grinning at him cheerfully.
“Sorry. It's been thousands of years since I interacted with a human. In my realm, we don't bother with such things as faces and all that.”
“So you've told me. That's weird.”
“Not to me. Now, can we go? Or are you finally ready to face those two monsters?”
The elemental nodded at the approaching dracoliches.
“Not just yet. Let's go.”
“Where to?”
“The Defiant. Ever been on a ship?”
Lacertus levitated with a crackle of power, like the sound of static electricity, until he was at head height.
“Long ago. It was a galley though. Thirty oars on each side, as I remember it. How many oars on this Defiant of yours?”
Simon laughed for the first time in days.
“None. Once it was powered by technology, now they use magic to propel it.”
“Do they? Marvelous! I definitely want to see that.”
Simon took a moment to brush the grass off of his robe. He'd fallen asleep in a field. He guessed that it used to be pastureland but had grown wild again. He always chose to sleep in the open now unless it was raining. It allowed Lacertus to see the undead dragons approaching from a greater distance. This field was located in what used to be southern France. It was a random location that he'd picked from his atlas.
He grabbed his staff and the bag and looked at the elemental.
“You sure you don't want to hitch a ride?”
Lacertus chuckled and shook his head, little sparks cascading down his body.
“I will follow you. Now that we are bound together, I can follow you anywhere. No offense to your other elemental friends, but my kind do not need to rely on a wizard to travel around the world quickly.”
“Right. Okay, I'm off.”
The elemental looked toward the approaching dracoliches, their wings beating furiously as they tried to catch Simon before he disappeared again.
“Hurry,” Lacertus urged.
“Gate!” Simon said quickly.
He vanished with a crack of imploding air and the elemental watched with glee as the frustrated undead primals roared in fury and banked away, homing in on the wizard's new location.
“Not for much longer,” Lacertus said to the duo as they faded into the distance. “The wizard has me now and I'll figure out how to stop you from tracking him.”
He smiled broadly to himself.
“And when I do, Simon will know that I am the only servant he needs and he'll forget those others. It will be just the two of us. Forever.”
He giggled with pleasure, snapped his fingers and disappeared.
The wizard counted to eleven before he was released from the void and on to the deck of the Defiant. He immediately began coughing as thick, greasy smoke obscured his vision and his eyes watered. He blinked furiously to clear them and squinted, trying to see.
The Defiant's deck was a jumbled mass of twisted wood and metal. The machines that the crew had used to defend the ship were shattered and in pieces. Great holes had been ripped in the deck plating as if the ship had exploded internally.
“What the hell happened here?” he said out loud.
“This ship is sinking.”
Simon turned to look at Lacertus who had appeared behind him.
“Sinking? Are you sure?”
“Of course. Wait here and I'll check below decks for survivors.”
“I can help,” Simon said and immediately tripped over some loose debris.
“You will get yourself killed. Please wait for me. I'll be right back.”
Lacertus disappeared and the wizard sighed in frustration and started coughing again.
He dropped his bag and raised his staff.
“Shield,” he said and felt better immediately as the opaque shield popped into existence and began filtering out the smoke.
Simon grabbed his bag and began picking his way across the deck, looking for clues that could tell him what had happened.
He reached the bow, which was quite a bit higher than the stern, and still couldn't figure it out. There were no signs of a dragon attack; no blackened spots from a dragon's breath, no gouges from claws. What the hell had attacked them?
The one bit of good news was that there were no bodies and Simon hoped that meant that the mages had been able to evacuate the people to safety.
“No one down below,” Lacertus stated as he appeared a few feet away, his foggy body sparking and swirling. “And no remains. I'd guess that they got away safely.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But what happened? This wasn't a dragon attack.”
The elemental looked thoughtfully at the burst deck plates.
“Explosions, do you think?” the wizard asked him.
“I think not. I'd say it was a kraken.”
Simon looked closely at him to see if he was joking, but Lacertus looked quite solemn.
“Are you serious? A kraken?”
“Yes, of course. A giant squid. Very aggressive and destructive. They were quite the scourge back in ancient times. I assume that they live again, like so many other monsters.”
He shook his head, making a tsk-tsk sound in his throat.
“Even with their machines to defend themselves,” he pointed at the wreckage, “the crew would have had little chance against such a creature. A shame, but at least they got away.”
“I hope so. I wonder where they went?”
“Worry about that once you yourself are safe. Have you given the tracking mystery any more thought?”
Simon kicked some shards of metal and a piece of wood out of the way and sat down on the deck, his shield shifting around him. Lacertus easily slipped through the barrier, which the wizard still found disconcerting.
“How do you do that again?” he asked as the magical elemental settled on to the deck next to him.
“Harmonics,” the small figure told him and shrugged. “I don't know how to explain it, as I've told you before, but my people cannot be checked by wards, shields or other magic-based defenses. That's just the way it is.”
“That isn't very reassuring, you know.”
“Would you rather I made something up? I can if you'd like.”
Simon shook his head and laughed lightly.
“Never mind. Hell, I'm still trying to figure out how I summoned you in the first place, considering the fact that I've never even heard of a realm of magic. And considering that my elemental friends never told me about your people.”
“No, they wouldn't,” Lacertus said dryly. “Other elementals don't like us and they never have. I did explain this as well, sir wizard. We are not as limited as they are. Earth elementals are attuned to rocks and stone, water elementals to water and so on. But we, well we are attuned to magic itself, the one element that permeates everything in this world now. The people, the animals, the plants, the earth and water. Even the air. Everything is saturated with magic, thanks to the gods; both Light and Dark. Which means that I can come and go as I wish.”
He made a little gesture and a shard of metal rose from the deck and bent in half with a shrill squeal. It fell to the deck with a clang and now a piece of wood rose up and shattered into splinters.
“We magical elementals can work with metal or wood or water. And the other elementals hate it.”
“Hmm, somehow I doubt that Kronk would hate it. Resent it, perhaps, but the only thing that I've ever known him to hate are the evil dragons.”
“How would you know?” Lacertus asked reasonably. “You only learned of me and my people when I answered your summons.”
Simon untied his bag, dug through it and found a package of waxed paper. He opened it and pulled out a strip of dried meat.
“How did you do that, by the way?” he asked as he tore off a hunk and began chewing.
The elemental shook his head.
/>
“I still don't understand it myself. You are the one that cried out in despair for aid, or so you told me. How many times had you Gated by then? A dozen? More?”
“More. God, I was exhausted,” Simon mumbled as he swallowed the meat. “Every time I relocated they were on me in what felt like minutes. I couldn't stop, I couldn't rest. I felt like I was going to collapse or lose my mind. I think...”
He bit into the dried beef and began chewing again.
“I think that I was about to make a last stand, while I still had enough strength left to fight. That's when I, I don't know, called for help.”
He frowned at the elemental.
“But I didn't summon you specifically. It was more like I was calling out to the universe itself.”
“Or the gods?”
“Maybe. Did they send you?”
“As I have told you, I don't know. I only know that one minute I was floating in the ether of my realm, at one with my fellows, and then I was here, in this world. Was I sent by the gods? Perhaps. Or perhaps you, wizard, as so deeply immersed in your magic now that it answered your plea as best it could and summoned me to aid you. Does it matter? I am here and fortunately I've been able to muddle your trail enough that the dracoliches take longer to lock on to you and track you down.”
“Well, I'm definitely grateful for that. But someday I'm going to want better answers than 'I think' or 'maybe'.”
Lacertus grinned at him.
“Good luck with that. Personally I think that you should try to figure out how those damnable undead primals are tracking you in the first place. If we can counter that, you will be able to get enough of a respite to plan your counterattack.”
Simon ate several more strips of meat and then drank some water. He packed up again, stood up and looked around at the desolate ship.
“Such a shame. They had a good home here. Why can't we ever catch a break?”
“We?”
“What's left of the human race. We're on the ropes and the evil just keeps pushing us down.”
The sky was gray and oppressive and the ship was settling lower in the restless sea. Now that he was fed and somewhat rested, Simon felt the rise and fall of the waves and his stomach started to rebel.
“We have to go,” he said abruptly.
Lacertus flew up to eye level and looked at him quizzically.
“There's no rush,” he said. “The primals are still a few hours away, I'm sure.”
“It's not that. I get a little,” Simon reddened, “seasick. So if there's no reason to stay on this ship, which is slowly sinking by the way, then I have to leave.”
“Ah, I see. Delicate stomach. No need to be embarrassed, sir wizard. No one is perfect. So where to now?”
Simon dropped his bag again, opened it and pulled out the atlas. He flipped through the pages randomly and poked a finger at the map that appeared.
“There,” he said and peered down at the page. “Huh, well there's a place I've never been before.”
Lacertus flew around him and examined the map.
“Australia? Is that a country or a small continent?”
“Both actually. Well, it was. There's no city or town at the location I'm pointing at, which is good. So let's go there.”
“What kind of weather are we looking at?”
“No idea. I know that part of the continent is desert but not all of it. Let's go and take a look.”
Simon memorized the coordinates and put the atlas back in his pack. He picked it up and slung it over his shoulder.
“Ready?” he asked the elemental.
“Always. I recommend that you keep your shield up, just in case.”
“Yep. Okay, see you there.”
Simon disappeared and Lacertus looked around a final time. There was no sign of the dracoliches yet and he pondered the wreckage of the ship.
“I wonder where they went?” he muttered.
He shrugged, concentrated on the wizard and Gated away.
“You know, I think I've figured out how those undead dragons are tracking me,” Simon said later that day.
He was sitting beside a small campfire, the cool desert night surrounding him and Lacertus. The darkness echoed with strange calls and distant, mournful howls that made him uneasy.
“Have you really? That's wonderful. Do tell.”
Simon glanced sharply at the elemental. For a moment he was reminded of Aeris at his most sarcastic.
But Lacertus simply returned his look calmly and the wizard decided that he'd misheard.
“Ever since Esmiralla used blood and an egg in a spell, I've wondered if such material things could be used in other types of magic too. Well, God knows I've spilled enough blood in my battles with the dragons. What if one of those necromancers was able to get his hands on some of it?”
“From where?”
“No idea, but if that happened, it's quite possible that I'm being tracked, not by my magical aura or whatever, but physically.”
Lacertus nodded slowly as he stared into the fire. His foggy form reflected the light of the flames and flickered with flashes of red and yellow.
“You may have hit upon it, sir wizard. But if that is the case, I fear that you will never be free of those monsters. Unless you can alter your physical essence, I don't see how you will break the connection with the undead primals.”
He smiled widely at Simon, a look of almost smug satisfaction on his odd little face.
“Fortunately I will be here to keep you one step ahead of them. I suppose that means that we will be together for a very long time.”
The wizard turned away from Lacertus, an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was something not quite right about the elemental; something almost...predatory.
He shivered and stared up at the cold, remote stars that dotted the desert sky.
“Are you getting a chill, Simon?” Lacertus asked.
“Simon? That's the first time you've used my name,” the wizard told him sharply.
“Is it? Ah, forgive me, sir wizard, I misspoke. You have treated me with such kindness that I almost felt like we were friends.”
“No, that's fine. Whatever you want to call me is okay as long as it isn't master.”
“Oh, I wouldn't do that,” Lacertus muttered. He said it so quietly that Simon was sure that he wasn't meant to hear him.
The wizard pulled his pack closer and casually leaned on it.
“Could you do me a favor and make a circuit of the camp please?” he asked the elemental. “I'm a bit nervous about all of those weird sounds I'm hearing.”
“Are you? Well then, of course I will. Perhaps you should put up a shield, just in case?”
Simon forced a smile.
“I might, but I want to conserve my strength. I'll raise a shield when and if I need one.”
“Wise. Very well, sir wizard. I won't be long.”
Lacertus flew upward and disappeared into the darkness.
Simon quickly opened his pack, dug through it and pulled out his mirror.
He cast the Magic Mirror spell and focused his mind on a single image.
“Ethmira,” he whispered and waited tensely for the foggy surface to clear.
It took a few minutes and Simon kept looking up and around, expecting Lacertus to reappear at any moment.
The mirror's surface cleared and Ethmira's familiar face came into view.
“Simon!” she exclaimed and smiled widely. “How lovely to see you again. I thought that you'd forgotten about us.”
Never,” he assured her. “Listen, I don't have much time. I need a portal opened to the elven realm and I need it quickly. Can you help me?”
“A portal?”
Ethmira looked confused but didn't question him. Maybe it was the sense of urgency in his voice. She thought for a moment and replied solemnly.
“If it is an emergency, then I can have one opened, yes. For you alone? Of course. Our time lines are beginning to sync once again, fortunately. D
o you remember the location near your tower? The one that Daniel and I used before?”
“I remember it very well,” he replied quietly, still scanning the area. “How soon can you create the opening?”
“In Earth time?”
She looked down and Simon heard the sound of a quill pen on paper.
“The next dawn, as the sun rises above the horizon.”
She narrowed her eyes as she noticed the pack he was leaning against.
“You aren't at home?”
“No, I'm just about as far from home as you can get in this world.”
“Well, get home in time for the next sunrise and the portal will open. Do not miss it though. I will have the elders keep it open for as long as possible, but that time will be quite short.”
“I know. Thanks Ethmira. I'll see you soon.”
“I hope so. Simon, I'm guessing that you are in trouble. Be careful, my friend.”
“I'll try.”
He canceled the spell and slipped the mirror back into his bag. He had just enough time to sit back and casually stare into the campfire again when Lacertus reappeared and floated into the firelight.
“No dangers out there,” he reported as he approached Simon and settled on to the ground beside him.
“Good. That's a relief. Thanks.”
“Anything for you, sir wizard.”
The elemental looked up at Simon curiously.
“You look flushed. Are you not feeling well?”
“Flushed? It's probably just a trick of the light. I'm fine. A bit tired, that's all.”
He looked away but the wizard could feel Lacertus still watching him closely.
“Tired? Yes, that's not surprising. You should try to get some sleep, Sim..., I mean sir wizard. I will keep watch.”
“How long until the dragons catch up to us?”
“About three hours. Sleep while you can and I will wake you when it is time to leave.”
“Okay. Thanks Lacertus. I don't know what I'd do without you.”
Simon pushed his pack around so that he could rest his head on it. The sandy soil beneath him was soft enough that he could lie down comfortably.
“I am honored,” the elemental replied smugly.
The wizard closed his eyes and tried to calculate the time difference between where they were and his tower. It had to be about twelve hours, meaning that it was probably late afternoon there now. So dawn back home was at least sixteen hours away.
The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) Page 39
