“Ah, I so enjoy hearing a wizard refer to my kind as people. It warms my heart, or it would if I had one. We are supernatural beings, sir wizard. Our leaders see more than you could possibly imagine. They know that you are planning on fighting the dragons.”
Aethos moved a bit closer to the wizard and lowered his voice.
“Fortunately they do not know specifics, because she who rules the water realm watches as well.”
“Damn, I hadn't considered that,” Simon said, thinking furiously.
“Don't worry, wizard. She has been blocked by your very effective warding.”
Aethos nodded at the tower.
“She and the dragons know that you spied on their operations, because my small brother here was spotted.”
He glanced down at Aeris, who lowered his eyes, looking embarrassed.
“That was sloppy, little one. For a scout as experienced as you to be seen? Very disappointing.”
Aeris didn't answer. He just hung his head and nodded silently.
“Perhaps you'd like him replaced with a more, shall we say, skilled servant?” Aethos asked Simon lightly.
“What? No! There's no way in hell I'm 'replacing' my friend here.”
Aeris looked up at him with wide eyes.
“He was spotted because he allowed me to see through his eyes. It froze him in place for a crucial moment and that's when the primal dragon sensed him.”
“Did you?” Aethos asked Aeris, who nodded again. “I see. Well then, I withdraw my offer. It shows an almost unknown level of trust for one of my people to allow a wizard to see what they see. It speaks well of you,” he said to Simon, “that he permitted it.”
The air elemental backed off a bit and folded his arms. Standing like that, floating above the ground with the grass whirling and twisting beneath him, reminded Simon of a mythical genie.
I wonder if that's where those tales originated, from old memories of air elementals?
“Very well. I speak for my own when I say that we will lend you our support for this battle. Afterward? Well, we'll deal with that when it comes. I know how much this spell-casting costs you, sir wizard, so with your permission, I shall call my brethren here and you may have their names. Consider it a thank you for being so much more admirable than the wizards of old.”
Simon, who was starting to feel a little light-headed, accepted the offer gratefully.
Aethos said nothing for a moment. He simply lowered his head and closed his eyes.
And then the field felt a lot smaller as eight air elementals, each as large or larger than Aethos, appeared with a whoosh of wind and a distant rumble of thunder.
“Take their names, Aeris,” Simon told the little guy, who looked a little calmer.
Each one gave his or her name to Aeris, some speaking in what the wizard assumed was their native tongue. It sounded like a whistling breeze, rising and falling in pitch. Several times the little guy laughed at some comment they made.
When they were finished, the air elementals, like the earthen before them, bowed to Simon and vanished back to their own realm.
Aethos lingered for a moment.
“Do you have a strategy, a plan, sir wizard?” he asked quietly.
“I do, Aethos. Whether it will work is another question. But I do have a plan.”
“Excellent. But don't rule out the direct approach either. Sometimes brute force can work where finesse does not.”
“I agree. I think there will be plenty of that as well.”
“Good. I'm a simple being, after all. Point me at a target and let me go. It works quite well as a rule.”
And with that and a smile, Aethos vanished.
“Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.”
“I agree, master. Aeris, are you all right?”
Aeris looked at them both for a second, then gave himself a bit of a shake and shrugged.
“More or less. I thought for a minute there that I was going to be recalled. Thank you, Simon, for sticking up for me.”
“Friends to the end, Aeris,” Simon told him with a smile. “Friends back each other up. You made no mistakes out there and Aethos needed to know that.”
“Friends. Yes,” the air elemental said reflectively. “Yes, we are, aren't we?”
He smiled a bit shyly at both Simon and Kronk.
“So, all that remains are the fire elementals, yes?” he asked the wizard.
“Yeah. I'm glad that Aethos did me the favor of summoning his people for me. I should have enough strength to get through this last bit, then I'm definitely going to crash. And don't look at me like that,” he added seeing Kronk's look of concern. “I'll be fine. Let's just get it over with, okay?”
“Yes master,” the earthen answered dubiously. “You know best, as always.”
“Yeah right. I know that look. Okay, here we go.”
The fire elementals looked nothing like Simon imagined.
When he raised his staff and cast the first summoning spell, a distant bang, high over theirs head, echoed across the sky.
“That's weird,” the wizard said. “It sounds like an old-time sonic boom. But that's...”
His voice caught in his throat as he saw a distant point of bright yellow dropping like a meteor straight down toward their heads.
“Holy crap! Run!” he shouted and ran back toward the tower, Kronk and Aeris on his heels.
The burning yellow streak of light turned incandescent red just before it hit the ground with an explosive roar. Smoking grass and smoldering dirt flew in all directions at the impact and Simon covered his eyes, coughing at the smoke that blew across the field.
“What the hell,” he said, gasping for breath, “was that?”
“Always overly dramatic, aren't they?” Aeris muttered to Kronk, who nodded and frowned.
“Always. You would think after being left in their own realm for this long, they would have calmed down by now, wouldn't you?”
“Exactly.”
“Wait, what are you two talking about?” Simon asked as he waved a hand in front of his face. A pall of smoke still hung over the field and the light breeze wasn't having much of an effect on it.
“Is this the fire elemental's way of making an entrance?”
“Exactly, my dear wizard. They are powerful and headstrong and destructive. Untamable for most wizards and highly selective about who they will take orders from.”
“Oh great,” Simon said in exasperation. “And you're just telling me this now?”
A low growl interrupted Aeris' answer and the three of them peered into the slowly-dissipating smoke nervously.
“Wizard, step forward,” growled a voice from the center of the field.
With a loud gulp, Simon gripped his staff firmly, after wiping his palm on his robe, and walked toward the voice.
As he approached, a flickering flame rose up from the ground to hover over the burnt grass. It was taller than he was and wavered and snapped like the fire in his fireplace.
When he got to within a dozen feet, Simon stopped and stared, waiting for some response.
“So, you are the summoner,” the flame said as it continued to burn the ground beneath it. Its voice sounded like someone cracking walnuts together; sharp-edged and unpleasant. Little wisps of smoke drifted out of the earth. “You are the one who has been declared an enemy of the water realm, is that so?”
“That is so,” Simon answered firmly.
There was a pause and the flame simply floated there, crackling and pulsing with heat.
“Excellent!” the flame said suddenly. “I am pleased to hear that. I am Incendus. I speak for my people in this matter. We also are informed by our great leader that you are making war against the dragons, yes?”
“That's true. I am.”
“Ah, it is truly a day of wonders. We have waited long ages for this. We knew, as only the elementals can, that the dark ones would return from the Void eventually. And that they would unleash their servants upon the world
. Dragons, bah!”
Sparks scattered around the intense flame and Simon jumped back in surprise.
“We will join in your fight against these creatures. As you can see, summoning us causes some minor destruction.”
Simon looked at the bare stretch of ground and the ashes where the grass used to be and nodded once.
“Yes, I can see that.”
“And so, I shall give you the names of others of my kind, equal to me in strength of will and power. You may then call us when we are needed.”
The flame jerked forward toward the wizard and he held himself still by sheer force of will. The heat increased and he could feel beads of sweat rolling down his face.
“I hope that we will not have to wait too long for this battle,” it said in a low, ominous tone.
“No more than a few days,” Simon answered quickly. He thought he could smell his robe starting to singe.
“Ah, very good.”
“Aeris,” Simon said and turned to see the air elemental still back near the wall.
“Come over and take down the names that Incendus is going to give you, please.”
“Over there?” Aeris called out.
“Yes, over here! Come on, he won't hurt you.”
He turned to the flame.
“You won't, will you?” he asked under his breath.
A burst of laughter, followed by more sparks, was his only answer.
Aeris slowly floated forward and wrote down the names on his piece of paper It was beginning to smolder by the time he was done and he quickly raced back to stand beside Kronk near the gate.
“Thank you, wizard, for this opportunity. I look forward to seeing you soon.”
“So do I, Incendus. And thank you and your people for answering my call.”
The flame intensified and Simon stumbled back as it turned from red to yellow to a blinding, searing white.
“We would not miss this for anything,” Incendus bellowed and then, with a blast of heat that knocked Simon flat on his back, the elemental was gone. All that was left were bare patches of earth and the smell of cooked grass and dirt.
As Kronk and Aeris rushed forward, Simon stood up, coughing and swatting at little burning patches on his robe.
“Well, that was different,” he said lightly, trying to make the other two smile. It didn't work.
“Yes. It is good to know that they are powerful, master,” Kronk said soberly. “But will they do more harm to friend or foe? That is the thing that I worry about.”
Simon gave the damaged ground a last look and then headed for the tower.
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “You and me both.”
Chapter 26
The plain at the foot of the high mesa was frigid and covered with sheets of ice and thin snow. Wind howled continuously and Simon was finding it hard to be heard.
It was D-day, as the wizard jokingly called it. Dragon day. Three days after his group meeting using the Magic Mirror spells, he was ready.
Well, he thought, 'ready' is a relative term. He was rested, his head was crammed with as many spells as it could hold and his allies were eager to go.
Simon had hosted Malcolm and Aiden overnight. The two warriors had traveled to the tower and had spent a companionable evening with the wizard and Kronk and Aeris. The two men were incessantly cheerful and their mood was contagious.
They'd also had a few ideas about the battle to come, and they and Simon hashed out possible scenarios. It was all hypothetical, of course, and the wizard reminded them that in his two earlier encounters with primals, he had been flying by the seat of his pants and hadn't really had a battle plan.
“But that's why we have confidence in you, sir wizard,” Aiden had told him. “You adapt. You adjust. Sure, you have a plan for the upcoming confrontation, but I have no doubt that if things go sideways, you will find a way to turn it to your advantage.”
Watching the two big men now as the wind whipped snow past them, Simon wasn't so sure. His adapting had been less quick-thinking and more panicked improvisation.
He hunched over a bit and tightened the heavy coat across his shoulders, sliding the staff over a bit to seat it more comfortably along his spine. Malcolm and Aiden were wearing heavy plate mail and massive, two-handed swords hung across their backs. The bitter cold didn't seem to bother them at all and Simon envied their toughness.
Personally, he had begun shaking the moment they Gated to their current location. Kronk and Aeris waited nearby, speaking together quietly. The wizard looked at them fondly for a moment, but with a hard edge of concern as well. He was asking Aeris to put himself in a dangerous situation again and, even though the air elemental was willing, if he got hurt, it would be Simon's fault.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned awkwardly. The ground was flat but slippery and his boots didn't grip very well.
“Any idea how long we have to wait for the elves?”
Simon shrugged as he looked at Liliana. He had Gated to Moscow to pick her up and then to London to meet Tamara and Sebastian. The brother and sister mages were talking, each making sharp hand gestures, but the screaming wind carried away their voices and he couldn't hear what the subject was that made them look so intense.
“Soon. According to Daniel anyway. Their time-line is so different than ours that it's hard to pinpoint exact times but they should be here...”
He stopped in mid-sentence and squinted into the wind. Then he grinned and lifted his chin in that direction.
“Speak of the devil and here they are.”
The paladin spun around and watched, wide-eyed, as row after row of elven archers appeared out of the icy wastes.
The tall, slim figures were all wearing brown and green leather armor with longbows across their shoulders and quivers of arrows on their hips. At their head, a beautiful elvish woman led the way, her golden brown hair hanging in a braid down her back.
As they approached, the elf met Simon's eyes and smiled widely. She hurried forward and clasped his hand in hers.
“Hello, my friend. Rather an odd place to hold a reunion, don't you think?”
Simon smiled at Ethmira, his lips stiff with cold.
“I have to agree. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
He looked at the disciplined group of elves and back at his friend.
“They know the risks, don't they? I mean, we're talking about dragons here, not to mention the fact that there's a mutated primal dragon up there casting spells. Have they been told?”
“Relax, Simon. Yes, every one is a volunteer. You know our background and the reasons that elves detest dragons. We've all just been waiting for a chance to strike back at them.”
She looked up at the cliffs rising hundreds of feet above them.
“Granted, a more pleasant location for a battle would have been preferable, but it is what it is.”
Simon took a moment to introduce Ethmira to everyone. Even Tamara seemed impressed by the business-like appearance of the elven archers and her brother was a little tongue-tied when he tried to say hello.
His sister rolled her eyes as Sebastian stuttered and she and Simon exchanged an amused glance.
The wizard wasn't surprised at the mage's reaction. Ethmira was quite possibly the most beautiful woman that he had ever met. She tended to overwhelm others when they were first introduced.
Malcolm and Aiden, on the other hand, greeted her enthusiastically, broad smiles on their faces. Simon watched as the elvish maiden took in their armor and weapons at a glance and he could see that she approved.
When introductions were finished, they all looked at Simon expectantly.
“Okay folks,” he said loudly, glad that his heavy gloves hid his trembling hands. “It's been almost a week since Aeris discovered the horror show up above. We don't know if anything's changed since then and we need intel.”
He looked down at the hovering elemental and raised an eyebrow. Aeris nodded once gravely.
; “My friend here has volunteered to go up and take a quick look around. Now, the last time he did that, he was spotted. But that was because he allowed me to see through his eyes and stayed in one spot too long. Today, he is going to do a fast in and out. No lingering. Just look at the situation and return. That's it.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ethmira asked. “You do not have to, you know.”
Aeris bowed to her.
“Thank you, lady, but yes. This is what I do. And I cannot allow our dear wizard and yourselves to go in blind. That could be disastrous. But I appreciate your concern.”
Simon got down on one knee so that he was almost face to face with both Aeris and Kronk.
“She's right, you know,” he said under his breath. “If you want to pass on this one, I'll understand.”
“Of course not,” the air elemental said with a sniff. “I'm quite capable of scouting out a simple little mountain. Honestly, between you and Kronk, you're like the parents I never had. I'll be fine.”
The wizard stood up. He nodded solemnly.
“Any time then.”
Aeris looked around at everyone, smiled and vanished.
“Any idea how long this will take?” Tamara asked. She was wearing a fur-lined jacket with a hood pulled over her head, but Simon could see that she was shivering.
“Not long. It will give me a chance to summon the rest of our forces.”
“Good. I really hate the cold.”
He grinned at her.
“Me too. Let's hope we can get in and out and in front of a warm fire quickly.”
Simon walked away from the group, Kronk trotting along behind him, his little feet squeaking on the hard snow.
The elves had broken ranks and were talking amongst themselves, while both Malcolm and Aiden had gathered the other humans together and began chatting amiably, obviously trying to keep their spirits up. It seemed to be working.
“Okay, bud,” he said to Kronk when they had walked off about fifty feet. “Time to call in your big brothers and sisters.”
“Yes, master. I know,” the earthen replied, sounding a little more excited than usual. “You do have the list of names with you, don't you?”
“Of course I do. Gees, what a question.”
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 113
