As he began to fly off, Kronk called after him.
“Aeris, why did you not tell the others about Argentium?”
The air elemental came to an abrupt halt in midair and spun around. He looked surprised.
“I beg your pardon?”
The little guy rose to his feet and watched the air elemental closely.
“Why did you not tell Tamara and the others at Nottinghill Castle about the dragon's treachery? He stole the eggs, Aeris, and who knows what he plans to do with them? Plus he left the queen enraged behind him. I would guess that even now she is searching the world, trying to find him. Which means that she could appear anywhere, at any time. And yet you told them nothing? I am puzzled as to why.”
Aeris flew back to the table and touched down lightly. He stood there, hands on hips, staring at the curious expression on the earthen's face.
“You're asking me why? You, the most loyal servant your master has?”
“Our master, Aeris,” Kronk corrected him. “Ours.”
“Yours. Simon has always said that he refuses to play the slave master and would rather be considered an employer. Why you keep insisting on calling him your master is beyond me.”
Kronk folded his arms.
“Aeris, you are in denial. All of us call him our master, except for you. You know the rules as well as anyone and yet because the wizard has been kind enough to treat us as friends, you refuse to acknowledge them. But the fact is that, once summoned, elementals are bound to obey all commands given to them by their summoners. That has always been true and always will be true. Master treats us well and I am very grateful for that. But if he took leave of his senses and asked me to jump down the gullet of the queen dragon, I would have to do it without hesitation.”
He glared at Aeris.
“And so would you, oh independent one. If you do not wish to call him master to his face, so be it. But do not bother fooling yourself in private; it changes nothing.”
Aeris gaped at Kronk for a long moment before finding his voice again.
“Well, well, where did that come from?” he asked as he forced a smile.
“From years of irritation. Now please, answer the question; why did you leave the humans in Nottinghill Castle ignorant of what the argent dragon has done?”
Aeris rubbed his hands over his face, a very human gesture, and shrugged weakly.
“For a rather stupid reason, I suppose. I wanted to wait to give 'our master', as you insist I call him, the report first. He's the one who knows Argentium best, or as well as anyone can know a dragon, and I thought that he should have the chance to deal with the situation before the others heard about it. But now...”
“Now they need to be told,” Kronk said firmly.
Aeris nodded reluctantly.
“Yes, I suppose they do. If Argentium hatches those eggs and they mature into adult dragons, the Chaos lords may get their new servants after all. I personally don't believe that they will become anything but evil extensions of the dark gods.”
“Nor do I,” Kronk agreed. “And I do not think that you should put off telling Tamara and the others any longer. Do you?”
“You want me to go all the way back to Nottinghill Castle?”
“It is the right thing to do, Aeris. And it's been several days. That is too long to wait with news this bad.”
“I guess that's true.”
The air elemental groaned.
“But it's such a boring trip and it takes hours to get there.”
“Stop whining,” Kronk said irritably. “At least you can return to the tower instantly once you pass along your report. And the longer you delay the trip, the longer it will take you. So go, and get it done.”
Aeris straightened up and saluted dramatically.
“Sir, yes sir!” he said crisply. Then he snickered. “Anything else that I can do for you before I go? Shine your shoes? Wipe your nose?”
“Just go, Aeris.”
Still laughing the air elemental waved and shot out of the front door.
Kronk watched him go, laughed quietly to himself and went back to his chores.
Chapter 16
“There had better be a good reason for this,” Malcolm grumbled as he followed Aiden blearily through the cold hallways of Nottinghill Castle.
Both men were disheveled and had dressed hurriedly when a guard had knocked on their door and told them that they had been summoned to the main hall. She hadn't been able to tell them why.
“Tamara sent me to wake you up,” the armored young woman had said. “But she didn't explain why. Excuse me, but I still have to disturb the lady paladin and the sister mages. I sincerely hope that the ladies don't get too angry; I'd rather not be vaporized.”
She shuddered and marched off, her armor clanging loudly as she went.
“It must be two o'clock in the morning,” Malcolm continued to complain as he stumbled along behind his partner. “I need my beauty sleep, you know.”
Aiden sighed and kept walking; he knew that trying to stop the big man from whining was just a waste of time. Malcolm had never been a morning person.
When the warriors entered the hall, they were greeted by Tamara and Sebastian, both of whom were sitting in their usual places at the conference table. All of the torches were lit in their brackets along the walls and a few dozen candles burned brightly in holders on the table.
Both men were surprised to see the shimmering figure of Aeris floating just above the tabletop in front of the mages and Malcolm's complaints stopped immediately.
“Uh oh,” he muttered to Aiden. “This can't be good.”
Tamara waved the pair toward their seats.
“Sorry for the early wake-up call,” she said with a tired smile. “But our friend here brought me some troubling news a little while ago and I thought that everyone should hear about it immediately.”
“I made tea,” Sebastian told them brightly and pointed at three large urns placed along the table. A large bowl of honey and a dozen cups were there as well.
“Thanks,” Malcolm said gratefully. “You're a life saver.”
“So what's happened?” Aiden asked as he poured himself some tea. “Do we finally have some news about Simon?”
He was watching Aeris and was surprised when the elemental shook his head.
“Not exactly, sir, no,” he replied. “It's...”
Tamara held up her hand and the elemental stopped speaking.
“Let's wait for the whole gang to get here, shall we?” she asked. “There's no point in repeating the same thing over and over again.”
“As you say, lady mage,” Aeris told her politely.
Aiden thought that the elemental seemed unusually subdued. It made him nervous.
Malcolm added three teaspoons of honey to his tea and took a seat next to Aiden. He sipped the hot liquid and sat back with a groan.
“My back is killing me,” he whispered to Aiden. “I think I might have gotten a chill from walking along that riverbank for an hour in full armor.”
His partner rolled his eyes and shook his head silently.
“What? I'm just saying that maybe I'm getting sick, that's all.”
“Mal, you're a hypochondriac, do you know that? How many times do I have to remind you that, with the werewolf blood that runs through our veins, we can't get sick? I know you're tired; we all are. I know that you're worried about our absent friend; we all are. But please, could you stop complaining for just a few minutes? That would be great, thanks.”
The big man stared open-mouthed at Aiden for a long moment and then grinned widely.
“Well now, that was a long time coming. Fine, I'll shut up. You do realize that you are too patient with me sometimes, don't you?”
Aiden laughed quietly.
“Yes, that's true; you don't deserve me. Now shush and let's wait for everyone else to arrive.”
The rest of the group trickled in over several minutes. Veronique and Sylvie came in looking almost rested
and greeted the others brightly.
Liliana entered silently, nodded once to everyone and sat down, graceful for someone wearing full armor.
And finally Lei and Chao joined them. Like Malcolm and Aiden, Lei was wearing a simple tunic and leather trousers, while his brother had donned a plain gray robe. Both looked tired but alert and smiled at the rest of the group.
“Okay, I suppose that's everyone,” Tamara said once they had all helped themselves to tea and found a seat.
She looked down the table at the group.
“As you can see, our friend Aeris has joined us. He has news that he believes was worth the long trip across the ocean.”
“Is it about Simon?” Veronique asked, her voice a mixture of hope and concern.
Tamara gestured at the elemental.
“I'll let our guest speak for himself. Aeris, if you would?”
The elemental bowed respectfully and flew to the center of the table. He rose up high enough for the group to see him clearly and silently turned in a complete circle, catching each person's eyes once as he did so.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began. “First, let me apologize for disturbing your rest. I know that all of you must be tired from your recent travels and I would have preferred passing along my information during the day. However, I am afraid that I may have put this off for too long as it is, unfortunately, and so I have returned as quickly as I could to tell you what I should have said earlier.”
Malcolm frowned as he tried to work out what he had just heard.
“Aeris,” he interrupted. “Please speak plainly; my brain is a little too foggy right now to absorb anything overly complicated.”
Sebastian grinned down the table at the big man, while the air elemental took the complaint in stride.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “I just meant that I should have told all of you this news as soon as I realized that my wizard was missing.”
“Ah, that's better. I actually understood that,” Malcolm said gratefully. “Carry on.”
“Thank you. Very well, this is what I need to tell you. I was sent out by Simon O'Toole to search for the eggs of the dragon queen. You were all told about them, I believe?”
There was a general murmur of acknowledgment from around the table and Aeris continued.
“Excellent. I will not bother explaining the mechanics of it, but along with two of my fellow air elementals, I was able to discover the eggs in a desert in what was once the United States.”
“A desert?” Tamara said abruptly. “Do you happen to know where in the U.S. this desert is?”
Aeris tapped his chin as he tried to remember.
“It had a rather ominous name, now that I think about it,” he said with a frown. “What was it? Dead Gorge? No, that wasn't it. Morbid Basin? No, not quite.”
“Death Valley?” the mage asked quietly.
“Why yes, that was it! Death Valley. Nasty place, you know. Dry soil, burnt vegetation. Dragons do love the heat though, don't they?”
Tamara became still and her eyes widened.
“Sorry, was it something I said?” the elemental asked as he noticed her change of expression.
She didn't answer. Instead, Tamara picked up the atlas that still lay on the table nearby.
“Ah, the wizard's book,” Aeris exclaimed as he saw it. “You wish to look up this desert, lady mage?”
“Not exactly, no. Sebastian, help me with this, won't you? I'm horrible at reading maps.”
“Of course,” her brother said.
He got up from his chair and moved around to stand next to Tamara.
“I'm guessing that you want to know how far it is from Death Valley to the Grand Canyon?”
Something clicked inside of his brain and Aeris gaped at the siblings.
“Just a moment,” he said in a strained voice. “Isn't the Grand Canyon one of the locations that my wizard looked up in that book?”
“It is,” Tamara said as she watched her brother flip through the atlas. “And I don't think that it's too far from where you say you found the eggs. Speaking of which, go on with your story, Aeris. I'd like to know what happened to you and the others.”
“Yes, of course. Where was I? Oh right. The desert.”
He looked around and saw that everyone except for Sebastian was staring at him intently.
“We found the eggs, five of them, buried in the hot sand. One of my companions, a fairly young elemental, was almost swallowed by the queen for getting too close to her nest.”
“My God,” Malcolm said in surprise. “What the hell was she doing in the States? Wasn't she on the other side of the planet just a few months ago? Simon and his elementals were keeping tabs on her, weren't they?”
“They were, yes,” Tamara told him. “Ah, but she's a cunning one, this mad dragon. I'd hazard a guess and say that she traveled halfway around the world to throw off any pursuit, so that she could lay her eggs secretly. And she almost got away with it too.”
“Almost, lady,” Aeris agreed. “If it had not been for one of my kind discovering her on a routine patrol, she would have succeeded in hatching five new primals to serve the dark gods. In fact, that might still happen.”
“Wait a second,” Aiden spoke up, sounding confused. “You mean you didn't destroy the eggs, Aeris? Why not?”
“I'm coming to that, sir. If I might be allowed to finish my story?”
Tamara looked amused by the elemental's slightly sarcastic remark and gestured for him to continue.
“Thank you. As I said, we found the eggs, and the queen, and were trying to think of a way to lure her far enough from her nest for one of us to have the opportunity to smash the eggs. And that is when the argent dragon appeared.”
Everyone perked up at that and Liliana leaned forward on her forearms, listening even more closely.
“Argentium? Really?” Malcolm exclaimed with a wide smile. “That's awesome. We haven't seen him in, well, a long time. He showed up to help?”
“So we assumed, sir warrior,” Aeris told him. “Certainly he led us to believe that he wanted to destroy the evil brood.”
“Uh-oh,” Sebastian said as he looked up from the atlas. “I don't think I like that sound of that.”
“Neither do I,” his sister agreed. “What happened, Aeris?”
“He...”
The elemental hesitated and then shook his head regretfully.
“He used us, lady. Used my companions and myself to lure away the queen while he plundered her nest. But he did not smash the eggs to a pulp. No. Instead, he scooped them up and told us that he could not destroy what he considered to be the last hope for his race's survival. He intends to hatch the eggs and raise them to revere the Light, instead of the Darkness.”
Aeris looked plaintively at Tamara.
“I believe that to be a fool's hope, lady mage. The polluted offspring of an evil dragon will never turn away from Chaos. Perhaps Argentium has gone mad in his solitude, or perhaps he is simply more foolish than a being of his age and power has any right to be. But either way, he now possesses the queen's eggs and I can only suppose that she is rampaging across the Earth trying to find them.”
He looked around at his audience and bowed respectfully.
“That is my story, ladies and gentlemen. So now you know that an insane dragon of monstrous strength and sly cunning stalks the world. I hope that you will all take great care on your journeys from now on.”
The silence that followed Aeris' news was broken by the sound of Sebastian's finger tapping on the open pages of the atlas.
“Less than four hundred miles,” he said ominously. “There is less than four hundred miles separating Death Valley and the Grand Canyon. The dragon queen could have covered that distance in a few hours.”
“Is it likely though?” Chao spoke up for the first time in his gentle voice. “How would that monster even know about the wizard and where he was? It seems improbable to say the least to believe that they collided even accidentally.�
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“Is that why you all look so worried?” Aeris asked, glancing about. “You think that Simon O'Toole ran into the queen? I'm sorry but I highly doubt that.”
“Why do you say that?”
Aeris looked at Liliana, who had asked the question.
“Because I am still here, lady paladin. The queen would have destroyed my wizard if she had somehow met him out in the world, and I would have been sent back to my own realm. But that has not happened, which means that Simon O'Toole is still alive, somewhere. I cannot begin to guess what has happened to him, but he did not meet his end in a confrontation with the dragon queen.”
“Ah, thank you, Aeris. That is reassuring. And we do have some good news for you as well. Chao,” she nodded at the conjurer, “has summoned some creatures that are even now out searching for your wizard. With any luck, between your people and his helpers, we may at least get some idea of what happened to our mutual friend.”
“Creatures? What sort of creatures?” Aeris asked, intrigued.
Chao described his flock of flying snakes and the elemental looked delighted.
“Ah, drakontes! How marvelous that you have the power to summon them,” he said excitedly. “I have not seen their kind in, oh my, thousands of years. I rather feared that they had become extinct.”
“Drakontes? Is that what they are called?” Chao asked.
“It is, sir. Very intelligent creatures. My people are quite fond of them. And even though they bear some resemblance to serpents and dragons, they are related to neither and are not evil. It is good to know that some have joined in the search for my wizard.”
Aeris spun around abruptly and flew down the table to look at the atlas in front of Tamara.
“Speaking of searching, would you show me this Grand Canyon, lady mage?”
“Of course.”
Tamara opened the book and flipped through a few pages. She found the relevant map and tapped on a location.
“It's there, Aeris. Are you thinking of taking a look?”
He nodded as he scanned the map.
“Yes. The two other air elementals that are on this world are out searching right now, but I've been trying to decide just where to start my own investigation. This seems as good a place to begin as any.”
The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8) Page 20
