“A fair decision, Tamara. But let's remember that paladins are notoriously hard to kill and that they can heal others during a battle. Not to mention that the troops are using enchanted weapons, thanks to that talented blacksmith of yours. And Malcolm and Aiden have the benefits of their werewolf blood to help them; faster healing and immunity to poison, something that the dragon queen is apparently loaded with.”
“Oh damn, I'd forgotten about her poisonous spines. That's just loathsome.”
“I prefer the term icky myself.”
Tamara stared at him for a moment and then burst out laughing, with her brother joining in at once.
“Oh, you are a wicked fellow sometimes,” she said when she caught her breath.
“Just trying to lighten the mood,” Simon replied with a grin. “It's never a good idea to get too gloomy before a fight, at least in my experience.”
“Well, you've cured our gloom then, for a few minutes.”
There was a shout from down below them and all three magic-users instantly froze and listened intently. They heard the large front gate squeal as it opened and then bang as it was slammed shut again.
Simon looked at the siblings curiously.
“A visitor?” he asked.
Tamara glanced at her brother.
“Maybe our signal got through?”
“If it did, that would be amazing.”
“Signal? What signal?” the wizard asked blankly.
“Hang on. Listen.”
The ring of iron-shod boots could be heard on the cobblestones below and all three of them, as well as Aeris and Kassus, turned in unison to follow the sound.
It crossed the shadowed courtyard, climbed the steep steps toward the battlements and was suddenly revealed to be the sound of the armored boots of a dwarf.
The dwarf, actually, Simon thought as he watched in total surprise. It was Shandon Ironhand himself, in the flesh.
The dwarven king was wearing his heavy enameled plate armor as if it weighed nothing, and an axe shimmering with enchantments was slung at his hip. His beard, interwoven with precious stones and gold beads, hung to his waist, but it couldn't hide his broad smile as he spotted Simon waiting for him along with the others.
“Aha! My favorite wizard! We meet again at last.”
Shandon stomped forward and embraced Simon so tightly that the wizard was afraid that his ribs would crack again.
“Hi,” he managed to wheeze as the king let him go.
“Oops. Oh my, sorry about that. I keep forgetting how fragile you magical types are. You know, taking in a little exercise on occasion would do you all a world of good. Clear out the cobwebs, that sort of thing.”
He shook a thick finger under Simon's nose.
“Too much thinking dulls the mind and fogs the senses. That's what my old granny used to tell me. Once in a while you just have to go out and hit something. Multiple times! With vigor!”
“Yeah, thanks Shandon,” Simon told him, rubbing his sides gingerly. “I'll keep that in mind.”
“Good. Good. Now, I hear you'll soon be having a bit of a pest problem, hmm?”
He looked from Simon to Tamara and Sebastian as he spoke, ignoring the elementals completely.
“Oh and greetings to you both. Happy to be out of the bowels of the world and back on the surface?”
The mages bowed in unison to the king and both smiled at his question.
“We are forever grateful for your succor when we were desperate,” Tamara told him sincerely. “My people owe their survival and their futures to you and yours, your majesty. But we are more comfortable in the open air than below ground, it's true.”
“Of course you are. And to each his own, I suppose. My own people learned much from your presence among us. A new sense of tolerance and some new respect for magic-users were some of the most important lessons. And magic is how I was able to get your message earlier and reach the castle in time.”
He looked around at the battlements and at the sea of fog below.
“I'm pleased to see your home still standing. To be honest, I was a little afraid that by the time we made it to the surface, all that I would find would be a heap of stone.”
“You managed to contact Kingstone?” Simon asked Tamara. “How? I thought that we were blocked from reaching Shandon's people ever since everyone returned to Nottinghill?”
Before she could answer, the king offered an explanation.
“You were blocked, tis true, for a short time. But as I said, my people have learned some tolerance. Some of the old generation are still griping about sullying ourselves by using magic, but they are in the minority.”
He looked up at Simon with a twinkle in his eye.
“Some of my councilors actually tried to convince me to sever all connections with you and your people, my friend, and banish any and all spell-casters from Kingstone, if you can believe it.”
Simon felt a momentary sadness at the thought of losing contact with the dwarves, and with the king in particular.
“That's horrible,” Sebastian said, obviously shocked. “What did you do?”
“Do?”
Shandon looked surprised at the question.
“Why, I fired them, of course. I'm their bloody king! And they thought that they could school me as if I were some malleable child! Oh no, that wasn't going to happen. I will admit to some satisfaction when I saw the looks on their faces as they realized that I wasn't their puppet. Bah, it was past time for them to retire anyway. We needed some new blood at court, some people with vision. Now, enough of that; I hate talking politics. Where's that damned dragon?”
“That's a good question,” Simon replied as the group turned as one to stare at the fog bank. “My friend here,” he nodded at Kassus, “says that she is on her way, and I have no reason to doubt him.”
“My, you are a big one, aren't you?” the king said, leaning back to look up at the elemental as if he was just noticing him. “Earth elemental, hmm? So, you followed the dragon queen?”
“I did, your majesty,” Kassus replied politely in his gravelly voice. “Her path is erratic, however, so I do not know when she will arrive.”
“A break for us, then,” Shandon said with satisfaction. “It will give my people a chance to set up a warm welcome for her.”
At that moment, they heard a chorus of yells echoing up from the fog.
Tamara gripped her wand tighter and Simon slipped his staff off of his shoulder.
“Easy now,” the king said, holding up his hands. “Those are the warriors that I brought with me. They are setting up our little surprise down there.”
He listened to the cacophony rising up through the mist and sighed loudly.
“They aren't exactly quiet though, are they? Ah well, what they lack in subtlety, they make up for in enthusiasm.”
“Hey! Tamara!”
Someone was yelling up from the courtyard.
The mage walked over to the edge of the wall and looked down.
“Malcolm? What is it?” she shouted.
“What the hell is going on out there?”
Tamara looked over her shoulder at the king and grinned.
“Our dwarven friends are getting ready to spring a surprise on the queen. Just ignore the noise.”
“A surprise? Excellent! I like the sound of that.”
She waved at him and walked back to rejoin the group.
“A little warning next time, your majesty?” she asked. “My people are a bit skittish at the moment.”
“Aye, I'll try to remember that. So, if your mage, Barnaby is it? If your mage was correct when he left his message, this may be the last battle we have to fight with a dragon. I hope that's true.”
He looked at Simon for confirmation, but the wizard could only shrug in response.
“I hope so too, but who can say? Even if we defeat the queen this day, the lords of Chaos are still out there in the Void trying to break into this plane. And we all know that their favorite servants
were the dragons. Perhaps they will be able to find a way to resurrect them in the future. But I'm not going to worry about that now. Today we face the dragon queen and that's all that I am focused on.”
“Well said. Well said indeed.”
Shandon stepped up to the wizard and offered his hand.
“I'm off to join my people. Good luck today, Simon. I expect you to survive this battle to drink a victory cup with me later, all right?”
The wizard shook his hand warmly.
“I'll see what I can do. Thank you, Shandon, for coming to our aid. We owe you and your people more than we can ever repay.”
“What are friends for?” the king asked simply.
He nodded to Tamara and Sebastian and strode off, his metal soles raising sparks at every step.
“Well, it's good to know that we aren't completely alone in this,” Tamara said as they listened to the king's footsteps fade in the distance.
“I agree,” her brother replied. “But I wonder what sort of surprise he was talking about?”
“Knowing dwarves,” Simon said as he strained to see through the fog, “it will be something nasty.”
As time passed and they waited for the fog to lift, Simon slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out the old dog-eared notebook that he had been so desperately searching for at home. He flipped though it absently, muttering to himself, until he was startled out of his revery by a tap on the shoulder.
Tamara smiled at him as he jumped, and she glanced at the book.
“Some last minute studying?” she asked. “I would have thought that you would be beyond that by now.”
He chuckled and slipped the book back into his pocket.
“The day I'm beyond the need to learn is the day they bury me six feet under,” he told her. “No, I was double-checking on a spell that I discovered just a couple of years ago when I was idly skimming through the notes that my old friend Daniel left me.”
“Ah yes, Daniel. Such a shame that he couldn't have been here for you,” she said sympathetically. “For all of us, actually. He was a very wise man.”
“That he was. But he found several spells in his travels that I'm guessing he didn't really understand and he just jotted them down for future reference. Sadly, he never Changed so he couldn't use magic. He would have made a hell of a wizard.”
“What kind of spells?”
Simon watched as a guard walked by on patrol, thinking about his oldest friend for a brief moment.
“Mostly useless ones, in my opinion. The Sparkles spell, for example, is just ridiculous.”
“Sparkles?”
Tamara looked puzzled.
“What on Earth does that do?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. It creates a shower of colorful sparks. That's why I christened it Sparkles. Absolutely useless. And yet, back in the distant past, some wizard or mage came up with the silly thing. Can you imagine their reaction the first time they cast it? I only hope they didn't spend months or years in trial and error to invent that!”
The mage laughed in delight. She and Simon were standing alone except for Aeris, who was hovering at the edge of the wall, looking off into the mist, and Kassus, who was standing like a statue again, his burning eyes the only thing proving that he was even alive.
Sebastian was strolling around the perimeter, checking on the others mages. Simon guessed that he was just bored. A person can only stay on high alert for a limited amount of time before they begin to lose focus.
“I think that it's delightful,” Tamara told him. “Perhaps that ancient spell-caster created the spell for his or her children. Or for their own amusement. Who knows?”
“Seems like a waste of time to me, but whatever. Anyway, I found a spell that was almost the opposite of Sparkles. It was so complicated that Daniel had written bits and pieces of it throughout the notebook. I'm not sure why though. Each part of the incantation on its own is useless, and I seem to remember dismissing them back when I was new at the whole wizarding thing. I think that I was premature though. I understand the spell now, and I thought that it might come in handy in this fight, but it won't.”
“Why not?”
“I'll give you a hint: the name of the spell is Armageddon.”
The mage stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Seriously? But that sounds horrible. Does it do what I think it does?”
Simon slipped the book out of his pocket again and stared at its leather cover.
“Well, if my translation is correct, then I believe that casting it would destroy everything in a radius of about a mile.”
He put the book away and looked soberly at Tamara.
“Including the caster. It's a one-shot deal.”
“Simon! God, tell me you aren't thinking of using that. It's crazy.”
“Don't worry, I agree. Totally impractical. If the blast radius is even greater than I think it is, then it could actually flatten the castle and everyone in it along with the queen. I'm not willing to take that chance.”
“Meaning you might if you were sure that we would be safe? Simon, we're going to need you after this is all over. Killing yourself to cast a spell is unacceptable.”
She glared at him and he held up his hands in mock surrender.
“Relax, I don't have a death wish. Forget about it and let's concentrate on more practical solutions.”
Tamara slipped her wand into her belt and stretched gracefully. She sighed as she looked down the length of the wall.
“Why didn't we think of putting some chairs or benches up here? Even a bench made of stone would help my sore back. Shandon may be right; maybe I need to start to exercise on a regular basis.”
“I think our fairly weak constitutions come with the job” Simon told her. “Magic-users and muscles are mutually exclusive.”
The mage put her hands on the small of her back and began to massage the area.
“A shame, if that's true. I have the stamina of an octogenarian.”
“Well, you're quite an attractive retiree then,” Simon said gallantly.
“Flatterer. Oh, look who's finally decided to join us.”
The wizard turned toward the stairs and saw Chao climbing up slowly. He was breathing loudly enough for them to hear him from twenty yards away.
Simon lowered his voice and nodded at the fragile-looking man.
“See? Comes with the job,” he murmured to Tamara.
“Damn. You may be right.”
She smiled at the conjurer as he joined them.
“Any luck?”
He nodded and held up a hand, breathing deeply.
“One moment until I catch my breath, please. Those stairs are a little bit steep, aren't they?”
Tamara and Simon exchanged a quick look and the wizard bit his lip to keep from laughing.
“They certainly are,” the mage agreed. “Take your time.”
Another minute passed before Chao was able to speak easily. He patted his forehead on his sleeve and looked at them apologetically.
“There, that's better. Sorry. Now, in answer to your question, I was indeed fortunate enough to secure aid. However, how many of my friends will come when I call for them is something I do not know. We shall see. They are just waiting for my signal.”
Before Simon could ask about the man's friends, Aeris turned around to look at the conjurer.
“You might want to think about giving that signal now, sir,” he said nervously.
“Why is that?”
“Listen.”
The group fell silent and immediately heard a heavy, rhythmic sound echoing out from the fog.
“Oh crap,” Simon said softly. “Wings.”
Chapter 32
Everyone hurried to the front of the wall and stared out at the fog. It swirled and writhed like a living thing and then, with a blast of wind that pushed them all back several steps, dissolved as if by magic.
Hovering magnificently in front of the wall, no more than forty feet away, was the argen
t dragon. His immense wings seemed to stretch as wide as the castle itself and his silver scales flashed in the now-bright morning sunlight.
Chao cried out in shock, obviously having never been this close to a dragon before. But he bravely found his footing against the stiff breeze created by Argentium's wings and stared boldly into his jewel-like blue eyes.
Tamara made no sound. She stood still, her robe fluttering in the wind. Simon tried to read her expression, but he wasn't sure if it was hope or fear that lightly stamped her features. Perhaps it was a combination of both.
As for himself, the wizard had almost fallen over backwards at the sudden blast of air. But a large, rough hand had caught him in the small of the back and allowed him to find his footing.
“Thanks Kassus,” Simon said as he pushed the hair out of his eyes.
“My pleasure, sir wizard. I believe that the battle may be imminent. What do you want me to do?”
Argentium remained silently hovering in front of the castle, his head dipping as if he was examining the structure itself.
“Wait here for now,” Simon told the earthen as he kept a watchful eye on the dragon. “We can't make any moves until we see where you are needed the most.”
Kassus nodded calmly.
“As you say. I shall wait.”
He became still again and Simon walked back to the parapet.
Aeris flew over and floated by his shoulder.
“Here we go,” he said softly.
Simon winked at him and leaned on his staff as he caught the dragon's gaze.
“Welcome to Nottinghill Castle,” he called out.
Argentium's huge eyes glinted with amusement.
“Thank you,” he replied in his unearthly voice. “It is a fine edifice. It reminds me of castles of old. Proud and strong. Unfortunately I don't have time for a tour; Aurumallia is on her way.”
A jingling of armor made Simon look around. He saw the guards who had been patrolling the perimeter begin to gather around Tamara.
All of them were armed with bows, and quivers holding many arrows hung from their belts. The wizard hoped that the arrowheads had been enchanted or they would have no effect on the magical hide of the queen.
“How close is she?” Simon asked loudly over the sound of the dragon's wings.
The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8) Page 41
