The earthen looked up at Simon.
“The young son attempted to Gate from the work room, where he had summoned me as practice, to his chambers high in the wizard's tower. The spell was beyond him, but perhaps he wanted to show his rather intimidating father that he was more powerful than he actually was. But for whatever reason, he cast the spell. I would guess that he did not picture his target clearly. At any rate, he stumbled on the spell and...ended up entombed in the wall of the work room.”
Simon stared at him in horror.
“Oh my God,” he whispered. “That's awful.”
“It was, master. Part of his leg and an arm were all that could be seen protruding from the wall. I was pulled back into the realm of earth as he died, for he was the one who had summoned me initially. I never saw the father's reaction, but I can only imagine that he was devastated. It was his only child.”
“I mentioned that story, my dear wizard, to prove that this Gating that you are doing willy-nilly is more dangerous than you seem to realize.”
Simon pushed back his hair and nodded solemnly.
“Point taken. Thank you both. And Kronk, I'm sorry you had to relive such a sad memory.”
The earthen kicked a loose stone and it skittered across the road.
“It was very long ago, master. All of those people are long dead. Do not be concerned. And Aeris is correct. You are skilled enough now to cast Gate easily, but always picture your target location clearly. Your miss today was fortunately without consequences.”
“Okay. You've both made your case and I am properly chastised. But we're here in one piece so let's make the best of it.”
Aeris floated off toward one tunnel that rose steadily away from the crossroads. Kronk headed in the opposite direction, where a tunnel dipped quickly and disappeared into the darkness.
Simon stood in the center of the four tunnels and looked around, spotting many more glyphs and pictograms on the walls than he'd seen earlier. One in particular caught his eye and he walked across the road to examine it more closely.
As he approached with the light bobbing along above his head, Simon's eyes widened. It was a crude picture, cut deeply into the stone, of what was obviously a dwarf.
He had a long beard and was wearing armor. He held an axe above his head. But it was what he was fighting that caught the wizard's eye. It was a horrible combination of wolf and man. Jagged teeth and long claws were the prominent features on the furry monster, but it was the fact that it was standing on two legs and lunging at the dwarf that was particularly disturbing.
“A werewolf? Wow. They actually exist?”
He reached out and ran his fingers over the carving and then stepped away, a feeling of revulsion overcoming him.
Simon turned back and moved to the center of the crossroads again. Neither of the elementals were in sight and he took the opportunity to check out the size of the chamber.
He glanced upward and, with a wave of his hand, sent his globe of light up toward the ceiling. It was a lot higher than he'd realized and, once the upper reaches were revealed, Simon saw that the ceiling was also covered with symbols and pictures. Cobwebs coated the carvings and made them hard to see and the wizard recalled his light after a few minutes of fruitless squinting, trying to make out what was inscribed there.
Kronk tip-tapped back up the road and joined Simon. The elemental reported nothing of interest except that the tunnel dropped steeply into the depths beyond the crossroad.
“I wonder what's taking Aeris so long?” the wizard muttered as he tapped a foot impatiently.
“Probably got caught up in exploring, master. That is what the airy ones are best at.”
Simon wiped some dust off of his sleeve and began to answer Kronk and then stopped. Dust wasn't only covering his sleeve, it was sifting down from the ceiling and coating his body, the little earthen and the tunnel itself.
“What the...?” he exclaimed as he waved a cloud of fine grit away from his face.
Kronk looked up at the ceiling with a perplexed frown. The dirt falling on his face didn't bother him at all.
“Something is disturbing the tunnel, master,” he said, stating the obvious.
“Yes, I noticed. But what?”
The little earthen cocked his head to the side and opened his eyes wide.
“Do you hear that, master?” he asked in a hushed voice.
Simon stopped slapping dust off of his robe and stood still, barely breathing.
There was a distant sound, barely audible, that seemed to be coming from the tunnel that Aeris had disappeared into. It was odd, rhythmic.
“It sounds like someone's pulling something, you know?” he said to Kronk.
The little guy nodded, still looking puzzled.
They could hear a scraping sound, as if something was being pulled along the rubble-strewn ground. It would last for a few seconds and then stop. And then it would start again, over and over. The sound was getting louder as they waited.
“Perhaps Aeris has discovered something and is bringing it back to show you, master,” Kronk suggested.
“I hadn't thought of that. I know he's a lot stronger than he looks; you both are.”
Simon shook his head and watched a cloud of dust drift past his face.
“Well, whatever it is, it must be heavy to shake off this much dirt from the ceiling.”
They both waited silently as the mysterious source of the sound approached. The wizard had a sudden vision of Aeris dragging an ancient treasure chest filled with magical tomes or enchanted weapons in his wake. He grinned a bit in anticipation.
“Maybe he could use a hand,” Simon told Kronk. “Whatever he's found sounds awfully heavy.”
“Good point, master. He'd never ask for help, but if we just go ahead and meet him...”
Simon began to walk in the direction of the sound.
“Yeah, let's go,” he said.
They had only taken a few steps when Aeris shot out of the tunnel and zoomed toward them. He wasn't dragging anything.
“Run!” he shouted as he flew at them.
Simon stopped and gaped at him in confusion.
“What? Why? What's going on?”
“No time to explain. Just run!”
The air elemental flew by them and shot across the crossroads to the descending tunnel that Kronk had checked out earlier.
Simon and the little earthen exchanged a look and then both took off in the same direction, Simon pounding along while Kronk skittered and slid around the rubble.
The rhythmic dragging sound was getting louder and now it was punctuated by a low blast of air each time it stopped. The wizard was tempted to slow down and take a look at whatever it was, but Aeris kept urging them on.
“Don't stop, don't look. Just keep running. Maybe the tunnel narrows up ahead and we can get ahead of it.”
The light over Simon's head was the only thing that kept him from stumbling and falling on the rocks under his feet. The tunnel led downward and the slope was very steep. The wizard tried to focus on his footing and began to pant heavily.
“It does not narrow at any point nearby,” Kronk called to Aeris as he dodged and tripped down the tunnel, moving like a spring over the rubble. “But there is a sharp right-hand turn about a hundred yards ahead.”
“Okay,” the air elemental replied from up ahead. He was a small, glowing figure in the darkness. “That might buy us some time and let our dear wizard cast a Gate spell.”
“And why do I need to do that?” Simon shouted raggedly, his breath beginning to burn in his lungs.
“You'll see soon enough,” Aeris replied loudly. “Just keep moving.”
And that was what they did. They raced away from the sound. It seemed to be falling back a bit, or at least it wasn't getting any louder, but Simon could not even imagine what would make such noises.
Finally he noticed that the tunnel was turning to the right and the ground was leveling out. It became easier to keep his feet, which was fortunate because hi
s run had become more of a stagger as black spots swam across his vision.
And then the tunnel abruptly made a sharp cut to the right and then to the left, like an s-shaped curve, and it narrowed considerably.
Simon banged into one wall and fell to his knees, small pebbles cutting into his skin.
“I...I can't run any further, guys,” he gasped as he leaned against the wall and shakily pushed himself to his feet. There was a hole torn in his robe where one of his knees had been scraped open.
“Master, are you all right?” Kronk asked as he watched Simon attempt to stagger forward.
“Never mind that right now,” Aeris barked. “If you can't run, my dear wizard, just keep moving. It won't get through this bottleneck easily, so if you can move down the tunnel another fifty yards or so, you can Gate us out of here.”
Simon pushed his sweaty hair off his face and squinted at Aeris as he regained his balance and started walking. The sound from behind them was now fairly distant, but already getting louder again.
“Now will you tell me why I'm tempting heart failure?” he gasped. “What the hell are we running from?”
“Save your breath,” Aeris said shortly. “We're far from safe. Come on.”
The tunnel opened up again but oddly the ground was nearly free of fallen rocks beyond the bend in the road and Simon could walk almost normally. His light had faithfully followed him and was still bobbing along above his head.
They managed to get another fifty yards at a fairly quick pace as Simon caught his breath, and then the trio was brought up short.
They looked ahead and then at each other.
“Okay,” Aeris said. “Now we have a problem.”
The tunnel ended in a blank wall. It hadn't been blocked by a cave-in; it simply stopped.
“What the hell?” Simon said weakly. “Who builds a tunnel to nowhere?”
“There were four tunnels back at the crossroads, master,” Kronk said as he reached out to stroke the stone wall. “This one may have been abandoned ages ago. Perhaps the stone is bad further on, making digging perilous, and they created one of the other tunnels instead.”
“Oh great,” Aeris said in disgust. “Blasted dwarves! Why couldn't they at least have left a sign or something?”
Simon wiped his face off with his sleeve and slipped Bene-Dunn-Gal off of his back.
“Maybe they did. Those carvings back at the crossroads could have said anything, including 'Closed for Repairs' or whatever.”
“Never mind that,” Aeris said urgently. The distant scraping and dragging sounds were now getting louder.
Simon could just see the far end of the tunnel where it emerged from the s-bend and he watched it intently. Something was coming.
“Cast your Gate spell, wizard,” the air elemental said in a rush. “Get us out of here.”
“But what are you afraid of? What is it?”
Before Aeris could answer, Simon saw a cloud of dust suddenly blow out of the opening at the other end of the tunnel. There was a pause and he found himself holding his breath.
And then a blast of sound, a deep-throated scream of rage, shook the tunnel.
Simon fell back against the wall behind him and barely kept his feet as rocks, dust and debris rained down from overhead. The far opening in the tunnel exploded, rock and dirt flying everywhere and a massive head, as long as he was tall, thrust out of the darkness.
“Crap,” he said in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me.”
It was a dragon.
Chapter 20
“What the hell is a dragon doing crawling around underground?” Simon asked Aeris plaintively. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
“No idea, my dear wizard,” the elemental answered tensely as they watched the distant head shaking back and forth, trying to free itself from the narrow curve in the tunnel.
“My guess? Either it is on its way to attack the dwarves, or it's been sent to kill you. I'm leaning toward the latter.”
“That's impossible,” Kronk said flatly. He had moved to stand between Simon and the dragon and was watching it with blazing eyes. “No one knows that our master is down here. The tower is blocked from all magical eavesdropping.”
“Yes, I know that,” Aeris answered shortly He kept his gaze on the approaching menace. “But we aren't in the tower now, are we? That evil wizard or even the dark gods themselves could be watching us right now and we'd never even know it.”
Simon planted his staff butt-end on the tunnel floor and muttered the Gate spell. He stared at the dragon as it squirmed and writhed, trying to free its huge body from the plug it was stuck in, and felt anger begin to dissolve his fear.
“But how could it get down here so quickly, even if it was sent after me? That's what I'd like to know.”
“And that's where I go back to my first conjecture,” Aeris said, as he glanced at Simon and then back on the distant monster. “Perhaps the gods have decided to turn their attention to the dwarves. We know that they hate them as much as they do humans. This creature may already have been down here, along with who knows how many others, advancing on the dwarven stronghold when it was redirected to come after you.”
“Thanks, Aeris. That's a horrible thought. The dwarves probably won't even know an attack is coming until the dragons are on them.”
Simon jumped as the dragon roared again, this time in triumph. It had managed to pull its bulk from the narrow tunnel, the walls collapsing behind it, and now began to advance, dragging its body along a few paces, pausing for breath and then inching along again.
“Well, at least now we know where that sound came from,” Simon said bleakly. “We have to warn the dwarves of a possible attack. We'll Gate back home and get hold of Clara. She may be able to get in touch with them, somehow.”
“Um, any time now would be good, master,” Kronk said as the dragon moved a few yards closer.
As if the monster had heard the little guy's voice, it raised its scaled and spiked head and glared directly at them. Simon noticed absently that it was a red dragon.
That means fire, he thought.
“Shield,” he snapped in response to the thought.
Bene-Dunn-Gal brightened and an opaque bubble popped into existence around the three of them.
Just in time. The dragon drew back, sucked in a massive breath and belched fire at them from twenty-five yards away.
The flames smashed into the shield but dribbled off of it like molten lava. The creature roared with frustration.
“Time to get out of here, my dear wizard,” Aeris said anxiously.
“Yeah, in a minute.”
Simon stepped toward the furious monster, his shield moving with him.
“Before I go, here's something to remember me by, you bastard!” he shouted at the scaled horror.
The beast bellowed at him and Simon glared back at it, enraged.
“Lightning!” he cried as he raised Bene-Dunn-Gal and pointed it at the dragon.
A jagged bolt of electricity, blazing chaotic purple, burst from the staff and shot down the tunnel. It engulfed the dragon's head and blasted it back down the path several yards.
There was a sharp stink of ozone in the air and Simon coughed as he tried to catch his breath. He peered through a thick cloud of dust and dirt that had cascaded down from the ceiling.
The dragon lay on its side, eyes glazed and obviously stunned.
“Tell your buddies about that one,” he shouted and the red eyes sluggishly moved to look at him.
“Okay, Simon, you've made your point,” Aeris said hurriedly. “Now can we get out of here?”
The wizard nodded, chanted the Gate spell and pictured the main room in his tower. After the elementals' earlier warning, he made sure the vision was as perfect as it could be.
Kronk and Aeris moved closer and grabbed on to his robe.
When he was ready, he looked at the dragon, which was just getting to its feet again, weaving and shaking its hideous head, and spoke
the word of command.
The world dissolved around them and they were on their way home.
Back in the tower, Simon hurriedly put Bene-Dunn-Gal back in its place, patting it in appreciation. He dumped his backpack on the floor, quickly sat down at the kitchen table and picked up the hand mirror.
While he chanted the Magic Mirror spell, Kronk jumped up on the table while Aeris opened the front door and looked outside.
“I'm going to make a pass along the wall,” he said to the earthen, after a quick look at Simon. “If we've attracted the eye of the gods of Chaos, I want to make sure that they haven't sent anything against the tower.”
Kronk nodded, also watching Simon.
“Good idea,” he said and Aeris zipped out the door as the wizard finished his spell.
He stared intently into the mirror and Kronk moved closer and peered into it as well.
“Clara, are you there?” Simon asked as he watched the mist form on the mirror's surface.
“Simon? Good afternoon.”
The cleric appeared in the mirror. She was standing on the wall surrounding the town, her short brown hair blowing in the wind.
“It's nice to hear from you so soon. Aeris told me about your proposed exploration of a dwarven tunnel. Are you back so soon?”
Without her own mirror, Clara couldn't see where the wizard was calling from.
“I'm back, yes. I called to warn you.”
Simon told her what had just happened far below ground and she frowned in concentration as she listened.
“Dragons? Underground? By the gods, I never expected to hear something like that! And Aeris believes they might be about to attack the dwarves?”
Simon nodded, forgetting that she couldn't see him.
“He does,” he added quickly. “And, barring another explanation, I tend to agree. There is no other reason for something that big and awkward to be crawling through tunnels underground. I mean, the damned thing got stuck as it tried to attack me.”
The cleric smiled a bit and then turned to look out over the wall. She seemed to be contemplating the distant horizon.
“Could this involve my people?” she asked, tapping the parapet nervously in front of her. “Or you, for that matter.”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 69
