“Good point,” Liliana told her. “Besides, most of our people are still below ground; if there's an assault on Nottinghill, we'll need as many bodies as we can get to defend it. To be honest though, without the dragons to attack from the sky, I doubt that there is much to fear, at least from any organized force.”
“You're forgetting about the goblins,” Tamara corrected her. “Granted, there are no signs of them within a hundred miles of us, at least not now, but you never know. They were set on us once before, you know.”
The paladin nodded as she ran a finger along her sword hilt.
“True enough. So we'll wait until we all return to send out two more teams to search the Great Barrier Reef and Mount Kilimanjaro. With luck, someone will find Simon and it won't even be necessary.”
“We can only hope,” Tamara replied. “Okay, Liliana and Bastian; you can leave whenever you're ready. Veronique and I have to wait for Malcolm and Aiden, and Sylvie and Lei are waiting for Chao. Plus, I'm going to ask Barnaby to contact Shandon Ironhand to tell him about our missing wizard. Hopefully the king will use his considerable resources to start searching for Simon as well.”
“Let's hope he does,” Sebastian replied. “We could use the extra help. Now, write down the coordinates for me, will you please, and we'll get started.”
His sister scribbled the numbers down on a slip of paper and handed them to him.
“Cool. Liliana, are you ready to feast your eyes upon the Great Pyramid?”
“I doubt that I'll be doing much sightseeing,” the paladin told him with a wry smile, “but I'm ready.”
“Okay, touch my arm and we're off.”
The others watched as Sebastian chanted the Gate spell. He gave his sister a jaunty wave and then invoked the spell. The pair disappeared with a loud thud of imploding air.
“Don't do anything stupid, little brother,” Tamara whispered fervently. “And come back safe.”
Chapter 9
“Whoa, now this is hot,” Sebastian said to Liliana as they appeared at the summit of the Great Pyramid. “But what a view!”
The paladin's armor glowed blindingly in the rays of the early morning sun. The day had just begun in Egypt, but already the heat was rising from the surface of the huge edifice they were standing on, and Liliana felt a trickle of sweat run down her temple.
“I agree on both counts,” she told him as she spun around slowly, scanning the area. “It is going to be blazingly hot in an hour or two.”
She stopped turning and nudged the mage.
“Look. Cairo wasn't immune to the dragons' attacks.”
Sebastian looked to where she was pointing and he scowled at the sight of the wreckage of the ancient city.
“Damn them,” he said fiercely. “Why such malice? Such hatred?”
“It was their nature,” the paladin told him as she took off a glove and wiped moisture from her eyes. “The gods of Chaos made them to be the perfect weapons of their will. We can, I suppose, be thankful that we weren't all wiped out on the Night of Burning. And that Simon was around to help to destroy the primal dragons.”
“Speaking of Simon,” Sebastian said as he examined the surface on which they were standing, “I wonder if he came here when he was on his trip?”
The two of them looked around the top of the pyramid but the surface was constantly blown clean by the desert winds and there was no indication that anyone had set foot on the structure for years.
“No way to tell,” Liliana said after searching futilely for several minutes. “I doubt that he would have stayed up here anyway. The view,” she nodded at the destroyed city, “is grim at best. Can you Gate us down to the base, please?”
“Of course. Let's go.”
The paladin put her hand on Sebastian's arm, while he focused on a point on the ground below them and cast the traveling spell.
A second later they both staggered as they appeared at the bottom of the pyramid. The surface under their feet was covered with a thin layer of dust and sand and both of them noticed footsteps almost at once.
“He was here!” the mage exclaimed excitedly as he pointed at the marks in the sand.
“Easy, my friend,” Liliana cautioned him. “All we see are footprints. We have no idea if other human survivors live out here, or if those markings belong to something that isn't human at all. Be cautious.”
Sebastian calmed down immediately, the paladin's comments cutting through his euphoria.
“You're right. Sorry, but I really am worried about Simon. I thought that maybe we got lucky.”
Liliana smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
“We may have. But we'll take this a step at a time, hmm? The tracks lead in that direction, so let's follow them and see what we can see. I'll take point.”
The mage nodded and Liliana started off, walking slowly and keeping one eye on the tracks and another on their surroundings. Something felt off to her and she kept her left hand on the scabbard of her sword, ready to hold it steady if she needed to draw the weapon.
Sebastian stayed back about ten feet to give the paladin room to fight if she needed it. He was muttering incantations under his breath, preparing spells for casting at a moment's notice. He could memorize a half dozen at a time now and keep them primed for several hours. All he needed to do then was use the word of power to invoke them.
Something else that Simon taught us, he thought poignantly.
They rounded a corner of the pyramid, moving in a counter-clockwise direction and Liliana stopped and pointed up the side of the edifice.
“Look, an opening,” she said over her shoulder. “You don't think our sometimes impetuous friend would have actually gone inside this thing, do you?”
Sebastian moved forward to stand next to her and looked at the ragged hole in the pyramid.
“I think it's quite possible, yes. I mean, if you were visiting the Great Pyramid, wouldn't you want to explore as much of it as you could?”
“We are visiting it,” Liliana told him dryly. “And personally I could do without crawling through its innards. Well, let's move closer and see where these footprints lead us.”
A minute later she cursed under her breath.
“Damn it, you were right. If these are Simon's footprints, then the silly wizard actually climbed up there and went in, alone. Great.”
Sebastian looked at her speculatively.
“Liliana, are you claustrophobic?”
She turned to glare at him and then suddenly laughed, red-faced.
“I guess I am, a little. I always hated elevators and small closets, back in the old days. And as an adult, I always slept with a light on.”
She wiped her face off again and put her glove back on. Then she tapped the mage on the chest with a finger.
“And no jokes about the paladin who's afraid of the dark, thank you. I'm going in there, regardless of childish fears.”
Sebastian put up his hands in mock surrender.
“I have no intention of teasing you about a phobia,” he assured her. “Personally I hate bugs. Not just the nasty ones, but all bugs, even mosquitoes. One of the things I miss the most about the old world is insect repellent.”
Liliana cocked her head to the side and smiled at him in disbelief.
“Seriously? Bugs?”
“Yes, bugs. And that place,” he nodded at the entrance to the pyramid, “is probably crawling with them. But, like you, I'm not going to let my fear stop me from looking for my friend. So lead on and let's get this over with.”
The paladin winked at him.
“Forward then, phobias be damned, and we'll tackle this together.”
Sebastian laughed at her exaggerated tone of bravado and allowed Liliana to climb ahead a dozen feet before he began to do the same. He wasn't looking forward to entering the darkness ahead. It looked like the pyramid was just waiting to swallow them whole.
“Just how long is the Great Wall anyway?” Sylvie asked as she stood looking down at the undulati
ng construct.
It climbed up hills and down into valleys until it was lost to sight in the misty distance. There were many large gaps in it where sections of the wall had collapsed.
“Over five thousand miles,” Chao told her. “Not all of it was intact before the dragons returned, but I don't know how much damage they did to it. I believe that construction started on the oldest sections before the time of Christ.”
Chao, Lei and Sylvie were standing on the wall at its highest point, at least in the section that Simon's original coordinates had brought them to. On either side of the barrier, lush forests and rippling grasslands stretched out as far as the eye could see. It was visually stunning and the mage found herself mesmerized by the view.
“It's gorgeous,” she said with a deep sigh. “So pristine and peaceful.”
“That's because all of the people that used to live here are dead,” Ellas squeaked matter-of-factly.
When the three humans turned to stare at her, she returned their looks with a wide-eyed expression.
“What? It's the truth, isn't it?”
“It may be the truth, Ellas,” Lei said heavily, “but it is also a reminder of everything we've lost. A little tact would be appreciated.”
“Oh pish-posh,” she said as she fluttered in the warm breeze. “The past is past. I prefer to live in the moment, not worry about what happened yesterday. One thing my people know is that you can't correct the mistakes that you have already made. All you can do is try to learn from them and move on.”
“She does have a point,” Sylvie said. “But we made no mistakes to cause the loss of our civilization, Ellas,” she reminded the sprite. “How could anyone have planned for a return of the lords of Chaos and their servants, the evil dragons?”
The tiny, glittering figure danced in the air as she seemed to ponder the mage's question.
“That is true,” she finally admitted. “Ah well, I do suppose one cannot plan for every little eventuality, can one? Such is the nature of our existence.”
Lei growled something unintelligible and turned away to stare off into the distance.
Chao looked at his brother's armored shoulders sympathetically but left him alone to sort out his thoughts. Instead, he decided to focus on their reason for visiting the wall in the first place.
“So if Simon O'Toole actually came here,” he said to Sylvie, “which way do you think he might have gone?”
He scraped the stone beneath them with a sandaled foot.
“The wall is bare of dirt so there are no footprints to tell us if he was ever here or not.”
The mage tapped her lip in thought and then looked at the hovering sprite.
“Ellas, I don't really know anything about your people or their abilities. Do you have a way of tracking someone or some other talent that might help us find our friend?”
The sprite's wings moved in a blur of color as she dipped and fluttered in the strong breeze that blew along the top of the wall.
“Possibly,” she said after pondering for a moment. “Although it isn't a very specific thing. I can find you the nearest human being, but there is no guarantee that it is the wizard that you are seeking.”
“You can do that?” Chao exclaimed in wonder. “Why did you never tell me that? We could have searched for other survivors when we were living in Beijing.”
“You never asked,” Ellas replied simply. “I don't just blurt out my list of talents, you know; I would appear less than modest if I did that.”
The conjurer rolled his eyes and shook his head futilely. The sprite could be maddening sometimes.
“Then could you try that, please?” Sylvie asked politely, trying not to push.
The sprite was obviously a rather impetuous and reactive type of person and the mage guessed that if they said or did the wrong thing, they might lose her cooperation entirely.
Ellas gave Chao a final, rather imperious look and flew closer to Sylvie.
“Of course I will. You only needed to ask. Some people,” she looked back at the conjurer, “have better manners than others.”
Chao wisely held his tongue and Lei, standing several feet behind him, was clearly hiding a wide grin.
“I shall return in a few minutes,” the diminutive creature told Sylvie. “I must do a complete circuit of this entire section of the wall to get an accurate reading.”
And with that rather confusing statement, Ellas shot off into the bright sky, disappearing almost instantly.
“Is she always so...touchy?” the mage asked Chao.
He nodded ruefully.
“Always. But she doesn't mean to be. I'm convinced that it is the nature of her kind. Ellas has a good heart and can usually be cajoled into aiding me. But I will admit, it can be like walking a tightrope at times trying to placate her.”
“She's a pain in the ass, that's what she is,” Lei said bluntly as he looked out over the edge of the wall.
There was a low parapet running along the side but the big man was being careful not to get too close regardless; the barrier barely came up to the middle of his thighs.
“Lei, be careful!” his brother said, wide-eyed. “What if she heard you?”
“So? It wouldn't be the first time she's heard my honest opinion of her. I am a paladin, my brother, and I cannot speak anything but the truth. Unlike yourself, I will not bow and grovel to that irritating little woman, no matter how helpful she ends up being. I do have some pride left.”
Chao just sighed and looked at Sylvie.
“You see? They have always been like this, from the moment I first summoned Ellas. I fear that my brother takes this whole 'honest of speech and pure of heart' paladin thing way too seriously.”
Lei scowled at his brother's back but didn't reply. Instead, he turned away to look at the empty lands that stretched out as far as the eye could see.
“It really brings it home, doesn't it?” he asked after a moment.
“Brings what home?” Chao wondered as he and Sylvie walked over to join the paladin.
The big man stretched out his arm, his silver armor ringing as he moved, and swept it across the landscape.
“This...emptiness. We were over a billion strong, our people, before the massacre. A billion. My mind cannot even comprehend that number, really. But these lands were never empty, deserted, forlorn. There were always people; bustling up and down the length of the wall, walking through the trees out there, gathering in family groups to enjoy each others' company. You were never truly alone back then. I never realized how much I detested solitude until right this minute. Isn't that strange?”
His brother reached out gently to lay a hand on the cold metal covering his arm.
“You are not alone, Lei. I am here. I have always been here and I will always be here.”
The big man looked down at the conjurer and smiled tentatively.
“Always?” he asked, looking younger and more vulnerable than Sylvie would have believed possible.
“Always. Do you think I could have survived all those years in Beijing if you hadn't been with me? I hate solitude as much as you do. No, I would have given up long ago. But you were there and I did not. Don't you give up either.”
Lei finally smiled and carefully patted his brother's small hand.
“As long as you can go on, Chao, I can too. I promise you that.”
“Good.”
The smaller man gave his brother a push that didn't even come close to moving the big man and grinned up at him.
“Now, stop being so gloomy. This is a rescue mission, not a funeral. Simon O'Toole is alive and we will find him. Concentrate on that.”
Lei clapped a hand to the long sword on his hip and bowed slightly to his brother.
“I intend to. Now, if Ellas would just get back here with some good news, we could continue our search.”
Sylvie had listened quietly to the brothers' intense discussion and had found parallels between their relationship and her own with Veronique. There was one notable
difference though; when the Change had come and magic had reentered the world again, she had regained her sight; something she had been born without. After that, nothing could have convinced her to surrender to death.
And Veronique? Well, her sister was a born fighter. Giving up was simply not in her nature. But the love between them was mirrored by the Zhang brothers and she felt a sudden rush of affection for the two men.
We are going to be the best of friends, she thought warmly. I just know it.
She looked at Lei's rather heroic figure and thought that he looked like someone out of a storybook.
His silver armor was almost identical to Liliana's, except for its size, of course. It flashed and glittered in the sunlight as if freshly polished, something that both paladins claimed they never had to do.
“It just doesn't get dirty,” Liliana told her once when Sylvie had asked her.
“Any scratches or dents fade away within hours and it never gets dull. But of course you would expect nothing less of a gift from the gods, would you?”
Both warriors had been directed to their armor in dreams. And their blessed weapons as well.
Sylvie frowned as she just noticed the sword on Lei's hip. Unlike Liliana's more traditional blade, his sword looked like something she had only seen in books.
“Lei? Is your sword different from Liliana's?”
He looked at her in surprise. Obviously the question was unexpected.
“Sorry,” Sylvie said with a smile. “Normally I don't pay much attention to weapons, since I don't use them myself, but it seems...longer? Skinnier? Something like that.”
The paladin stroked his sword hilt almost as one would a beloved pet.
“No need to apologize,” he reassured her. “I just didn't expect that question. But you are correct. The gods, in their wisdom, created my blade to resemble the Chinese swords of olden times. They were called jian. This version is a double-edged sword made to be used with two hands. That is why I do not carry a shield.”
The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8) Page 11
