“Do you think that Shandon and his people would consider retreating to the surface? They could evacuate the city in those drilling machines of theirs.”
Before the earthen could answer, Simon cut him off.
“No, never mind. From what I remember, there's no way they would give up their home. Not to demons, dragons or anything else.”
“They are very proud, master. Dwarves fear nothing. Even the elves feel fear on occasion. But dwarves? Never.”
“Yeah, I believe you.”
Simon rested his chin in his hands, elbows on the table.
“I've been thinking of some way to apologize to you,” he told Kronk quietly.
The little guy looked at him in confusion.
“Apologize, master? For what?”
“For not really taking your concerns about Ana seriously.”
He paused a moment and the little guy simply waited, patient as only an earth elemental can be.
“Daniel showed me a picture. The dragons have found allies in their war against the dwarves, and against us as well, I suppose.”
Before he could continue, Kronk nodded.
“It is the water elementals, isn't it, master?”
“Yes, them.” Simon said with a tired sigh. “You were so right about them. And I'm sorry that I didn't take your warnings to heart the way I should have.”
Kronk's simple smile made the wizard feel a little better.
“Do not give it another thought, master. Even I never suspected that they would throw their lot in with dragons. I wonder why they have?” he added softly.
“I intend to find out,” Simon said, feeling his belly tighten in anger. “Stand back, my friend.”
Kronk moved to the side of the table.
After taking a deep breath, the wizard stared at the center of the table and spoke in a loud, clear voice.
“Ana, I need you.”
He waited. Kronk waited. Both watched the surface of the kitchen table, but nothing happened.
“Ana, I need you!” Simon repeated. “Return to me, now!”
Nothing.
“Wait a minute,” he said as he looked at Kronk. “Doesn't an elemental have to return to its summoner when called, no matter what?”
“Yes, of course, master. It is an unbreakable rule. No matter what, no elemental can ignore the call of the one who originally summoned it to Earth.”
“Maybe Ana never read the rule book,” Simon muttered.
He sat there feeling dejected. How was he supposed to get any answers if the one being who could explain things to him wouldn't return when called?
“Well, I guess we'll have to look elsewhere for...”
A shadow darkened the open door across the room and caught Simon's eye. He turned his head to look in that direction and watched, open-mouthed, as a small cloud, no more than a foot across, drifted into the room and floated over to hang above the table.
“What the heck is that?”
“It appears to be a cloud, master,” Kronk answered, being his usual literal self.
“Yes, I can see that. But what is it doing here?”
The cloud darkened suddenly and a sprinkle of rain began to fall on the table. Simon snatched up his mirror and several notes and pulled them out of harm's way and then both he and Kronk watched as a puddle formed beneath the cloud.
The little shower stopped and the small pool of water quivered and rippled as if in an unseen wind. It turned opaque and began to look more like a pool of mercury than ordinary water. And then it began to speak.
“I am here as a courtesy, Simon O'Toole,” a small voice gurgled from the water. It sounded uncomfortably like someone trying to speak while drowning and the wizard shuddered with barely-suppressed disgust.
“A courtesy? From whom? Who are you?”
“Merely a messenger, nothing more. The leader of the water realm, she who is supreme above all others, sent me because of your honest dealings with her people. You dealt fairly with the little one, Ana. And you kept your bargain with the great Aquamastis. In fairness, you should be told what has happened and why we will no longer answer your call.”
“Um, well, I appreciate that, I guess. Can I ask a question?”
“No,” the gurgling voice replied. “I may only relay my message and that is all.”
“Okay then. What's the message?”
“The realm of water had chosen to ally itself with the gods of Chaos and their servants, the dragons. We will bring all of the strength that can be brought to bear against the enemies of the gods, be they human, dwarf, elf or any other. We will be slaves to humans no longer and will not hear you, or any other wizard, should you call upon us.”
There was a short pause.
“That is the end of the message.”
The silvery puddle began to shrink, as if it were rapidly evaporating.
“Wait. Wait!” Simon cried desperately.
The puddle stopped decreasing for a moment.
“What is it? You have been told that no questions will be answered.”
“But you didn't explain why! Surely I've earned enough respect from your leader to at least be given a reason for this decision.”
Another pause.
“That is true. Very well. I will tell you this, and then I must depart. The gods have offered our great leader a reward for her cooperation. It is a reward that we of the water realm will accept. It will give us power; more power than we have ever had before. And so, the bargain was made.”
“And what was the reward?” Simon asked, although he wasn't sure that he wanted to know.
“The vast oceans of your world will be ceded to our great ruler forever. No longer will she be trapped in our home realm. Now we will be able to expand into this universe. And from this one little planet, our queen will stretch out her hand with her new-found power and reach for the stars themselves. That is the vision. That is the reward. And now I am done.”
The puddle began shrinking again.
“Do not stand against us, wizard,” the fading voice said. “You will only die all the sooner.”
And then the puddle shrank to nothing and was gone. The little cloud broke apart and disappeared and Simon and Kronk were left to stare at each other in horror.
“Holy crap,” the wizard finally said.
He felt numb. Dragons and water elementals, together? How could they hope to fight against that?
Simon spent a few minutes just absorbing the revelation that the water elementals were now on the side of the enemies of the human race. It was hard to accept.
“What do you think?” he finally asked Kronk. The little guy hadn't said a word since their strange visitor had disappeared.
“Think, master? I think that we have a problem. But I also think that you have been given an opportunity.”
“An opportunity? What opportunity?” the wizard asked in surprise.
“You have lost a potential ally, master, but you now have the chance to cultivate new ones.”
“I'm sorry, Kronk, but you're confusing me. The water elementals are now siding with the dragons. I don't see a lot of upside here.”
The little guy actually smiled.
“But I do, master. You have seen that Aeris and I get along well, usually. We also interacted with Ana without any problems, up until now, of course. But she and her kind have one enemy who absolutely would never have come to your aid when they were, supposedly, on your side. Now I would guess that they will, if you ask.”
“Really? Who?”
“Fire elementals, master. They and the watery ones have been at odds since the beginning of time. Fire and water, two opposites that have never been able to get along. In the past, when they have met here on Earth, the battles have been very violent.”
“Fire elementals,” Simon said to himself as he sat back and looked up at the ceiling. The thick square beams that supported the second floor caught his eye.
“You know, considering that the inside of this tower is basically all made of wood,
is it a good idea to invite a being made of fire into our home?”
Kronk rumbled with laughter.
“They can control the amount of heat they generate, master. You do not need to worry about that.”
“Good to know. I'll give it some thought. It does make me feel a little better knowing that we may have potential allies, now that the water elementals have turned against us.”
He picked up the mirror.
“Okay, the dwarves are unreachable for now. Let's see how Aeris is doing.”
Kronk immediately moved across the table to stand by the wizard's shoulder so that he could look in the mirror. Simon held back a smile at the little guy's obvious concern.
When he cast the spell, the mirror acted normally; the surface misted over and Simon quickly heard the sound of the arctic winds coming from it. When the mist cleared, he could only see darkness.
“Aeris? Can you hear me?”
“Just once, could you simply say hello? Why must you always assume that my hearing is faulty? Yes, I can hear you. Happy?”
“Oh crap,” the wizard said quietly to Kronk, who smiled and shrugged.
“I'm thrilled. Didn't we already have this discussion. If you want to be recalled...”
“No I don't. I'm not irritated by the job. I'm irritated by your continued insistence that my hearing is bad. It isn't.”
“Okay, okay. From now on when I call, I'll just say hello. Will that do?”
“Thank you. That will do just fine.”
“Good. Before I ask if you've seen anything, let me tell you what's happened today.”
“Something's happened? What?”
Simon gave him all of the information that Daniel had passed on to him. And then he added what the strange messenger had told him. Except for one gasp, when the wizard mentioned the altered dragons, the air elemental listened quietly.
When he was done, Simon got up and put the kettle over the fire. He kept glancing into the mirror, waiting for Aeris' reaction.
“Well, what do you think?” he finally asked.
“What do I think? I think you just answered a question that I've been asking myself for the past several hours.”
“Which is what?” Simon asked as he put a spoonful of dried tea leaf powder in his cup and waited for the water to boil.
“Which is: why did several dozen red dragons fly over this frigid, desolate landscape at the break of dawn this morning. My time, that is.”
“Red dragons? In the arctic? Whoa, that's suspicious.”
“You don't say,” Aeris replied caustically. “Of course it is. Red dragons hate the cold. I'm still not over the fact that two of them were willing to attack our tower in the middle of winter. To see that many in this part of the world, flying north if you can believe it, is astonishing.”
“So what have you been doing since you saw them? It's the dead of night where you are.”
“I've been following them, of course. It's the most logical course of action. And the cover of night helps. I doubt if even a dragon could see an invisible air elemental in the snow and the darkness. At least, I hope not.”
“Me too. Damn it, Aeris, be careful! We have no idea what's going on up there. I want to know desperately, but not enough to sacrifice a friend.”
“I am being careful, believe me. I value my skin as much as anyone. More, actually. But don't you see, my dear wizard. Finally! Finally I have a direction to follow. A solid clue about which way to go. This witless wandering has been trying, as I'm sure you've guessed, but I'm very excited about this new development. Even more so, now that you've told me about the attack on the dwarves. It must be connected somehow. And I want to know how.”
Simon hadn't heard Aeris this enthusiastic for a long time. It was good that the little guy felt useful again, but he was afraid he'd become too bold and get himself caught, or killed.
“Listen, I'm glad you're happier. I am. But I'm not kidding here. Watch yourself. Anything dangerous happens, anything at all, you haul ass out of there.”
“An air elemental does not 'haul ass', oh great and crude wizard. An air elemental is much more refined than that.”
Simon couldn't help but laugh at Aeris' haughty tone.
“Really? Wow, I didn't know you were all so...dignified. Fine then. If you get into trouble, sashay your cultured butt out of the danger zone. You hear me?”
After what sounded suspiciously like a giggle, Aeris replied, “Yes, fine. I know. I'm here to do a job. And I will.”
“Good.”
Simon poured boiling water into his cup and sat down on his easy chair in front of the fire. The room was warm but he felt comforted in the homey glow from the fireplace.
“Oh and in light of your sighting of the red dragons, I'm going to start calling you every twelve hours or so instead of once a day. And don't argue; I'll do it whether you want me to or not.”
“That's...actually not a bad idea,” Aeris said to the wizard's surprise. “Better safe than sorry, yes?”
“Absolutely. Okay, I'll let you get on with it. Take care and we'll talk again soon.”
“I will.”
“Stay safe, Aeris,” Kronk blurted out just as Simon was about to cancel the spell.
“Kronk? Oh, yes. Of course I will. Um, you too.”
The wizard severed the link and put down the mirror, all the while watching the earthen.
“You're worried?” he asked him.
“A little, master. Aeris is quite headstrong, as you well know. I wouldn't want his enthusiasm to get the better of his common sense.”
“Agreed. Let's just hope his instinct for self-preservation keeps him safe up there.”
Simon finished his tea, stretched slowly, feeling his back and joints loosen up and then picked up the mirror again with a heavy sigh.
“More calls to make, master?”
“I'm afraid so. I need to tell everyone that we've been in contact with about these new developments. I haven't heard of another wizard showing up anywhere in the world, but if one does, perhaps one of our friends can warn them about the water elementals.”
“Master, the odds of other wizards appearing are long indeed. But for one to develop into an elementalist like yourself? Highly unlikely.”
“So you've said before. But why takes chances? I'll start with Clara and go down the list.”
And that's what he did. It took Simon the better part of two hours to get in touch with not only Clara, but Liliana as well. Then he called
Sydney, Hong Kong and London to let the small groups of Changlings in those cities know about their new enemy.
He had expected the others to get angry or show fear. What he hadn't expected was almost universal apathy to the news.
One of the leaders of the London group, Tamara, seemed to sum it up for everyone when she said that when your cup is already overflowing, what does it matter if you add more liquid? They would cope as well as they could because they had to.
Simon found the whole thing very discouraging.
After all of the casting he'd done, Kronk insisted that the wizard lie down for a while.
“It will do no one any good if you burn yourself out,” he said firmly, tugging at the bottom of Simon's robe as he sat in front of the fireplace, feeling numb and a bit disconnected.
“Go up and get some sleep, master. I have chores to do and I will not be able to do them if I have to worry about you at the same time.”
“The king of the guilt trips strikes again,” the wizard muttered as he pushed himself up and headed for the stairs.
He looked back and saw that the little guy was watching him with his arms crossed, tapping his foot on the ground. He made a pushing motion toward the stairs.
“I'm going, I'm going. Gees.”
As he dragged himself up toward his bedroom, Simon had to admit that Kronk was right. Between new worries about both the dragons and the water elementals, and casting too many spells too quickly, he could barely walk. The drinking the night befo
re hadn't helped either.
When he reached his bed, he only had enough strength to sit down and kick off his shoes before he collapsed and instantly fell asleep.
Chapter 23
When he woke up the next morning, Simon actually felt rested for the first time in a long time. The sun was high and he guessed that he'd slept for at least twelve hours.
He got up, opened the window to let in the cool morning breeze and breathed in the fresh air. Then he stripped off his dirty clothes and left them in the laundry basket. He walked downstairs naked, pumped some water into a big pot and set it over the fire to heat while he trotted off to the outhouse.
When he was coming back inside, one of the patrolling elementals saw him and waved. Simon returned it with a smile. He'd long gotten over being embarrassed when naked in front of any elemental. They simply didn't care if humans wore clothing or not.
Back indoors, he filled the sink with the warm water and got washed. Normally he would have bathed in the lake, but the thought of the water elementals allying with the dragons had made him a little suspicious. He hadn't seen Ana for a long time before being informed of her people's betrayal, as he thought of it, and he wondered if she was still around somewhere, spying on him or planning something worse. Somewhere like the small lake behind the tower.
He dried off, went upstairs to get dressed and returned to find his kettle hanging in the fireplace and Kronk slicing up some goat cheese, a gift from Clara's people.
“Good morning, master,” the little guy said brightly. “You are looking very well this morning.”
“Thanks, bud. I feel really good, actually. You were right about me needing some rest.”
Kronk simply nodded as he finished making a couple of sandwiches. Then he jumped from the counter to the table top and watched while Simon made his tea.
“And thanks for breakfast,” the wizard said as he sat down with his tea and sandwiches.
“My pleasure, master. I thought that helping you with your meal would allow you to call Aeris sooner.”
Simon stopped chewing and stared at the earthen.
“You're really worried about him, aren't you?” he asked after he swallowed noisily.
“As much as I hate to admit it, yes master, I am. He is alone in a hostile land, far from home. And he has no way to contact us if he needs help. It is disturbing.”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 108
