“Efficient,” Liliana said with approval.”
“Always,” Simon agreed.
“Now I'm a bit disappointed,” Malcolm said, pretending to pout. “I didn't get a chance to hit anything!”
“Well, you and Aiden could always go over there and smash those dragon eggs.”
“Not exactly glorious combat, is it?” the big man said to his partner.
“Yeah, but it has to be done.”
“Okay, fine. Let's go and make a few omelets.”
The pair headed off toward the rows of dragon eggs buried in the snow, while Simon and the others hurried back to check on the captives.
Ethmira and some of her archers were kneeling down, administering aid to the humans. They were a pitiable looking group. All were under-dressed and Simon was sure that they were suffering from both malnutrition and frostbite.
“How are they doing?” he asked the elf when they got closer.
“Not good, my friend. We must get them out of this cold immediately and get them medical attention. Several of them may not last much longer.”
“We can do that,” Simon said quickly. He turned to look at the mages.
“You remember what my friend Clara looks like? The cleric?”
“Yes, of course.” Tamara said. “Why?”
“I was wondering if you and Sebastian could Gate these poor people to Nottinghill. Clara said she'd be standing by in case anyone needed healing. Well, these people certainly qualify.”
He looked over to where the two warriors were smashing the dragon eggs. They looked like they were almost finished.
“Malcolm and Aiden can give you a hand. They live there, after all.”
“But what about you?” Sebastian asked. “Aren't you going to join us?”
“When I'm done here. I have a few things I want to talk to the elementals about and I want to poke around a bit and then I'll be along.”
He looked around for a small, floating figure but couldn't find him.
“Aeris, I need you,” he said and the little elemental popped up a few feet away.
“Yes, oh great and mysterious one?” the elemental said with an exaggerated bow.
Sebastian snickered and even Tamara managed a little smile.
“Stop that,” Simon said absently. “Could you find Kassus for me please? I assume the elves are going to want to be transported back to the bottom of the mesa?”
Ethmira looked up from where she was kneeling by a young girl and smiled a thank you.
“Oh and ask Aethos to join me at his leisure too. I want to talk to him about something.”
The air elemental looked at him with a puzzled expression and Simon gave him an intense look and a subtle wink.
“Ah, of course. It shouldn't take long,” Aeris said more respectfully and vanished.
Sebastian trotted over to the warriors. A few minutes later the three of them returned. Malcolm looked pleased with himself.
“Over two hundred eggs, destroyed. So that's a couple hundred of those bastards who will never live to harm anyone.”
“Excellent,” Simon said. He had removed his jacket and put it around a young boy who looked to be no more than twelve. He was shaking like a leaf and was so skinny the wizard thought that he could almost see through him.
“Are we s..s..safe now, sir?” the youngster asked weakly, stuttering with cold.
“You're safe,” Simon told him gently as he tightened the jacket around the frail body. “We're getting you out of here, to somewhere that's warm, far away from this horrible place.”
The boy began to weep and Simon stroked his head.
“Easy, easy. Hang on just a little longer, okay?”
“Okay,” the boy said in the merest of whispers.
“Good man.”
Simon stood up and looked around at all of his friends and allies.
“Time to go, folks. The drakes and dragons are dead. The eggs are destroyed and that contraption,” he nodded at the empty space where the Gate had been, “has been neutralized. I want to thank you all for your help. I think that we've dealt the enemy a serious blow today.”
“I agree,” Ethmira said, gazing warmly at all of them. “My people are happy to have helped and will be pleased to offer our services again in the future.”
The ground shook to a ponderous tread and Simon watched as Kassus and his earthen approached.
“The elves need transportation?” he asked in his gravelly voice.
“If you wouldn't mind,” Simon told him. “Just to the base of the mesa.”
“We do not mind.”
“Thanks. After that, you and your people are free to go. You have our gratitude for what you did today.”
“It was our pleasure, wizard. We will await your call in the future.” He turned his blazing red eyes to look at Ethmira.
“Are you ready, lady elf?”
“We are.”
She gave Simon a brief hug, waved to the others and then the humans watched as the elves were encased in globes of rock and disappeared into the ground.
“You know, I'll never get used to that,” Malcolm said a bit nervously.
“Claustrophobic,” Aiden told Liliana wisely. His partner glared at him and he just grinned back.
“Are you all set to go?” Simon asked Tamara and Sebastian.
“We are. Aiden, you're with my brother. Malcolm, with me please.”
They had divided the captives into two groups of six each and made sure that each was touching the other.
Simon watched as the siblings both chanted the Gate spell.
“Malcolm, one hand on my shoulder, the other on that boy's. Aiden, the same with Sebastian.”
When they were ready, Tamara nodded at the wizard.
“We'll see you back in Nottinghill,” she said, giving him a warm smile for the first time.
“You bet. See you soon.”
And then there was a brief flash of light and Simon was staring at empty space.
“It is good that they're out of this place,” Liliana said. She was standing behind him, staring at the crater in the ground where the primal white dragon used to sit.
“It is, yes.”
The wizard leaned on his staff, shivering a bit in the cold wind. He had let the young boy keep his jacket and the chill was starting to seep in.
He watched with detached interest as the orbs of light, dozens of them, bobbed and shivered in the breeze. Funny how magic works, he thought.
“So now what?” the paladin asked. “If you stay here much longer, you are going to catch your death.”
“Quite possibly,” Simon agreed. “So, you didn't know any of the captives?”
With a dejected sigh, Liliana shook her head.
“No. I assume my people were used to create new monsters. Oh my friend. That the primal white dragon got away is such a travesty of justice. That monster must not be allowed to live.”
Simon nodded and stared at the lights again.
“So, you want justice? Or revenge?”
“Both? Either? Call it what you will, but wiping that creature off the face of the Earth would be doing all of humanity a favor.”
“I agree. I'm glad to know that you're still resolved though. I may need that.”
“Really? Why?”
The paladin was frowning at Simon's almost detached expression.
“What is wrong with you, my friend?”
“You know, magic's a funny thing,” he said as he watched a glowing orb float by in the breeze.
“Is it?” Liliana asked, sounding puzzled.
“It is. For instance, did you know that I can cast orbs of light just like these ones? I suspect Tamara and her brother can too. They seem to be a standard magical light source.”
“Um, I see. And is that a funny thing?”
“In a way.”
Simon looked around the mesa. The dragons were beginning to freeze into grotesque shapes and the bodies of the drakes reminded him of misshapen bags of garbag
e for some reason.
“Aethos hasn't returned yet. Ah well, I guess he'll turn up sooner or later.”
He looked straight at Liliana and his dreamy expression was replaced with one of cold anger.
The paladin actually took a step back at the sudden change.
She began to speak but Simon made a motion to stop her.
“Yes, magic is funny sometimes,” he said again as he stared at the crater in the ground. “Did you know that, when I leave a room and move some distance away, my magical orbs of light vanish? Isn't that peculiar? It's like they need my presence to keep functioning. Take that away and they die. Strange, huh?”
Liliana was still frowning, but then she looked from Simon to the nearest orb of light and back again.
Her face blanched and she slowly reached over her shoulder and drew her two-handed sword from its sheathe.
“You're quite right, my friend. It is peculiar.”
“Yeah, I thought you'd agree.”
Simon rattled off a string of words so fast that the paladin couldn't understand any of them. He motioned for her to move next to him with one hand, while holding his staff upright with the other.
“Shield!” he barked.
Just in time. The bottom of the crater split open and fell away and a massive head, scaled and fanged like a dragon's but with human features, appeared from underground, eyes blazing. With a shrug of huge shoulders, the rock around it collapsed and the primal white dragon leapt out of the earth and stood straddling the hole. The mesa shook with its coming.
It looked down from its great height, misshapen wings unfurling and began to laugh.
“Ah little wizard,” it said with obvious delight. “I have you now.”
Chapter 28
Simon thought he knew what the primal dragon looked like after its transformation, having seen it through Aeris' eyes. The reality was so much worse.
As tall as a four story building, the creature had morphed into a nightmare. Although he despised them for what they had done to the Earth and his people, the wizard acknowledged that dragons had a certain kind of majesty. They were like icons from old fairy tales with their horned brows and magnificent wings. They soared through the air as if they were born to rule the skies. In short, their forms were exactly what they needed to be. The primal white dragon had mutated into something grotesque.
It stood on two legs like a man, but one foot was a twisted ruin and so it stood tilted to one side. The weathered iron breastplate it wore was rusted and slashed in places. It fit poorly and hampered the creature's movements.
The face was split in a wide grin, but half of the fangs had rotted away and brown ichor dribbled from the corners of its twisted mouth.
However, the wings were the worst. On a dragon, they stretched out like glorious sails, twice the width of the body, looking like pictures Simon had seen in old fantasy books. But the wings jutting from the shoulder-blades of the primal dragon were stunted remnants of their former glory, so small and fragile that it was obvious that the creature would never fly again. It made a mockery of the glory that it must have once had.
As the primal stood awkwardly, looking down at the wizard and the paladin, a waft of air from it made them both gag. Liliana clapped a hand over her mouth and looked a little green. It was the smell. The monster smelled like an open wound that had begun to rot, a sweet-sour stench that reminded Simon over over-ripe tomatoes mixed with vinegar. He swallowed several times to keep from vomiting.
“So this is the famous wizard that my people have been so worried about,” the primal rumbled as it stared at them. It raised a clawed hand and scratched its armored chest. “This insect. I must admit that I am...disappointed.”
The pair stepped back a few paces so they could see that hideous face more clearly.
“Sorry to disappoint,” Simon shouted up at it. “You aren't exactly what I was expecting either, you know.”
The primal stretched out its arms and looked down at its twisted body. They could see several running sores in its armpits. Liliana leaned closer to the wizard.
“What's wrong with it?” she whispered. “It's like it's rotting or something.”
“No idea,” he murmured. “Maybe whatever the magic did to it went bad somehow.”
“Yes, I am different now, am I not?” it boomed out, sounding almost pensive. “But oh, I am so much stronger now than I was in my old form. I can use magic now, just like you puny humans.”
It threw back its head and roared with laughter.
“Do you not see, little wizard, what the dark ones have done for me? This gift? I still have all of my strengths, but now I have yours as well. Here, allow me to show you.”
The primal raised a hand straight up over its head. Simon heard it chant something that he didn't recognize and then the monster flung down its arm and pointed a finger straight at him.
Without hesitation, he grabbed Liliana's arm and pulled her.
“Come on!”
He turned and ran toward the large boulders on the western side of the mesa. Above him, a crackle of electricity made his body tingle and then a bolt of lightning slammed into the ground just outside of his shield, sending both of the humans tumbling end over end.
Simon pushed himself groggily to his feet and turned to look up at the primal. Liliana pushed herself up and stood next to him. The shield was holding, for now.
“You see?” the beast said, sounding delighted with itself. “I can summon lightning now, just like you. And fireballs. And many other things. I can even create a stable portal, which even you cannot do, insect.”
“Sounds like it has confidence issues,” the paladin muttered.
“Yeah. Weird, isn't it? Something that old and that powerful is trying to prove that it's better than me. Why does it even care?”
The primal took one enormous step forward, shaking the ground beneath it, and looked around at the bodies of the dragons and drakes.
“I see you and your puny forces have defeated some of my followers. No matter. I am about to do the same to you.”
“What are you talking about?” Simon yelled.
It shrugged its heavy shoulders.
“The tunneling worms that call themselves dwarves. Their capital city is about to fall. You may have destroyed a handful of dragons here today, but there are hundreds of my altered servants who are even now attacking the dwarves in a relentless horde. When some of mine fall, they are simply replaced, but there are no replacements for the fallen worms. They are doomed. Now, does your victory here today still taste as sweet?”
Its yellow eyes blazed and its broken-toothed grin widened.
“I don't think you'll be getting any more replacements, monster,” Simon shouted, his voice thick with anger. He pointed at the mass of broken eggs. “Your eggs are destroyed. Now when a white dragon falls, another will not hatch. Whatever happens to me, your kind is finished.”
The primal turned to look across the plateau and saw the mess that Malcolm and Aiden had left in their wake. Hundreds of shattered egg shells littered the ground and were being scattered by the wind.
“What have you done?” it growled. The useless limp wings on its back fluttered and flapped, as if trying to lift the creature off the ground. It spun around and raised its arms over its head.
“What have you done!” it bellowed and the huge arms swung down, its hands balled into massive fists.
Liliana leaped in one direction and Simon jumped in another. The primal's fists slammed into the ground and actually lifted the wizard off of his feet. He managed to roll as he landed and then skittered to the left and ducked down behind a boulder. He hoped that the paladin was able to find cover as well.
There was a long moment of silence and then the primal began speaking as if talking to itself.
“But what does it matter? I have plenty of servants left. Yes, like me. Stronger, more clever. And once this wizard is no more, there will no longer be a threat. I will not need to replace any more drago
ns. Yes, of course. Doesn't matter.”
Simon listened to the primal's internal debate and something began to dawn on him. The dragon was insane.
Whatever magic had twisted it, changed it into the misshapen beast it had become, must have also altered its brain. The thought was frightening. It meant that the dragon was now totally unpredictable. He couldn't trick it the way he'd tricked the other primals. He had no way to know how it would react.
I'm flying blind, he thought. So what do I do now?
“Come out, little wizard. There is nowhere to run,” the primal rumbled mockingly. “Face me, magic-user to magic-user and at least die like a man and not like a worm.”
Simon didn't answer. He was thinking fast. His shield would fall in a moment and he'd have to recast it. Would the primal sense that? Probably. Maybe he could divert it somehow.
“Oh, so the little paladin chooses to face me instead,” the dragon said, sounding delighted. “I see now which of you is more brave.”
Simone gasped. Liliana! No!
“You killed my people, monster,” he heard her shout somewhere to his right.
The wizard crept around the boulder and peeked out to see what was going on.
The paladin was standing on the far side of the primal, her sword held firmly in both hands. There was a shimmer in the air around her and Simon wondered if it had something to do with her powers. He knew very little about the holy warriors.
The hulking primal had turned and was watching her, its hands on its hips. Its back was facing Simon.
“You turned them into atrocities against nature. And for that, you are going to pay.”
“Against nature?”
The primal rubbed its jaw reflectively.
“Nature is what I will it to be, human. You should be thanking me. I took your little friends and made them part of something greater. Why, they couldn't be happier now! Imagine, part human and part dragon. A rebirth! I would like to offer you the same gift, but I am afraid that you would be too hard to tame, would you not?”
Simon watched Liliana's face darken and felt his stomach twist.
It's baiting you, he thought frantically. Don't let it.
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 116
