The Queen of Dragons (Tales from the New Earth Book 8)

by J. J. Thompson

  “Very close. Your people have little time left. My sons and I will do our best to turn her from her course, but I fear that she is determined to wipe out your kind once and for all. Her madness is complete now and we may not be able to stop her.”

  “And if you can't?” the wizard asked sharply. “Will you attack her or will you allow her to destroy us all?”

  “I...”

  Argentium raised his noble head and looked up. Simon followed his gaze and saw five tiny dots barely visible against the clear blue sky.

  “They will decide my actions,” the argent dragon told him, his voice thick with emotion. “Aurumallia is their mother, after all, and whether you are human or dragon, that bond is very strong. Yes, she is evil and mad, but is that enough for them to turn on her? I do not know.”

  Simon met the dragon's eyes once more and bowed his head.

  “I understand,” he said. “But if none of you can or will stop her, then we'll have to do it. So pass this message along to the others: stay out of my way. With or without your help, I mean to put her down. And God help any of you if you try to interfere.”

  Argentium's head darted forward until all that Simon could see was the dragon's scaled and scarred face.

  “Are you threatening me?” he hissed, ozone thick on his breath.

  The wizard looked up into the dragon's blue eyes, slitted like a cat's. He didn't flinch even as several of the guards cried out in alarm.

  “Consider it a warning,” he answered coldly. “Your sons may feel some affection toward the creature who seeks to destroy my people, but I assure you that I do not. And you may want to remind them as well that I have faced all five primal dragons, and that I am still here and they aren't.”

  The dragon back-winged to hover further away again. He blinked once in acknowledgment.

  “Very well, I shall pass along your message. Good luck to you, sir wizard.”

  “Good luck to you, argent dragon.”

  Argentium made one great sweep with his wings and rose majestically into the heavens. His silver form flew upward like a dart toward the dragons flying above and Simon watched until he was just a point of light in the sky.

  “Well, that was quite amazing,” Chao said breathlessly as everyone began to recover from the dragon's visit.

  “I have seen dragons at a distance before, of course, but to be in close proximity to one...oh my.”

  The archers were lining up along the wall now that Argentium had left and Simon moved back to stand next to Kassus and give them some room. Tamara watched them for a moment, nodded and then joined him.

  “I wasn't too reassured by that conversation,” she told Simon under her breath. “It's bad enough to have to face the queen, but now we don't even know if those damned children of hers are going to help us or attack us. Bloody hell.”

  “I know. But I also understand Argentium's position. The young dragons are not under his control, obviously. He may have some influence on them, but still, ordering someone to attack their own mother? That would be crossing a line that I doubt he wants to cross.”

  “True. But damn it,” she seethed. “If we at least knew that we'd have a free hand against the queen, then we wouldn't have to keep looking up wondering if a dragon was about to pounce on us. She's earthbound but they aren't. It just complicates an already insane situation.”

  She drew her wand and twirled it absently as she watched the archers, her expression dark and brooding.

  Simon had no reassurance for the mage. She was right; this whole thing could go south very quickly. Unfortunately all they could do was react. There was no planning for something like this.

  “My but those dwarves have been busy, haven't they?” Chao called out.

  Simon and Tamara hurried over and looked down to where the conjurer was pointing.

  “Ah,” the mage said with a pleased expression. “Arbalests, I believe, but big ones. Excellent. The dwarves are endlessly inventive.”

  The dwarves had set up a dozen of the large crossbow-like mechanisms in front of the gates of the castle, six on each side. Even from the heights, Simon could see the razor-sharp bolts gleaming with enchantments already loaded into the weapons.

  “Too bad the ballistae that the dwarves gave us once were destroyed along with the old castle,” Tamara said regretfully. “If all goes well today, I think I'll make a point of asking the king if he'd consider trading for more of them. Even if the dragons aren't a threat in the future, there are other air-born predators roaming the skies now.”

  Simon nodded.

  “Good idea. Griffons, wyverns and God knows what else will always be a danger on this New Earth of ours.”

  Simon looked across the grassy plain that lay in front of the castle. It reminded him of the open area around his own tower, but the fields around Nottinghill had been cleared by hand, both as a defense, to see an enemy coming from some distance, and for crops. The castle's inhabitants hadn't been back long enough to begin planting yet, but he could see where shallow lines had been dug out marking off the areas that various crops would be grown.

  I only hope that they all live long enough to see those plants take root, he thought bleakly.

  “Wake up, my dear wizard,” Aeris said softly.

  Simon looked at him and saw that the elemental was staring beyond the fields to the dark forest beyond.

  “We have company.”

  The distant sound of limbs breaking and the swaying of the trees marked the path of something racing through the forest directly toward the castle.

  “I'll be right back,” Simon told the others.

  He looked down at the group of dwarves below and spotted the unmistakable figure of the king in his ornate armor. He held up his staff and frowned in concentration.

  “Gate,” he said.

  A second of midnight blackness and absolute cold and Simon was standing several yards away from Shandon Ironhand.

  Several of the king's guards jumped back in surprise as he appeared and then reached for their weapons.

  “Easy there, laddies,” Shandon said calmly. “'Tis our friend, the wizard.”

  There was an immediate release of tension among the warriors and a few grinned in embarrassment.

  “You do like to make an entrance,” the king said jovially.

  Apparently the thought of the upcoming battle had energized him and his eyes were bright with excitement.

  “Sorry. I needed to get down here in a hurry.”

  He turned to point at the far edge of the forest.

  “She's coming,” he told Shandon.

  The king stepped forward and stood in front of the line of arbalests, hands on his hips.

  “Are you sure, lad? I don't see any sign of...”

  A sudden ripple could be felt through the ground, a vibration that Simon would normally have thought was the prelude to an earthquake.

  “Ah, never mind,” Shandon corrected himself. “I believe that you're right. Weapon crews! Take your stations!” he bellowed.

  The dwarves almost fell over themselves in their rush to get to their various arbalests.

  “And you, sir wizard, had best get back on top of the battlements. This will not be the best place for a wizard to be standing in a few minutes.”

  “Good luck,” Simon told him.

  The king became serious and squeezed his arm.

  “Aye, to all of us. Now be off with you. I've work to do.”

  Instead of Gating back to Tamara and the others, Simon trotted past the busy dwarves and slipped in through the front gates. They were open just wide enough for people to get in and out, but could also be sealed and locked at a moment's notice.

  Inside of the gates were the castle's human defenders, drawn up in neat rows and awaiting orders. The wizard did a quick head count and guessed that there were perhaps forty warriors armed and ready for battle. There seemed to be an even mix of men and women, each one looking grim-faced and determined.

  All wore new chain mail arm
or that Simon suspected was made by the dwarves. Their weapons and shields also looked pristine and shone with the telltale gleam of magic. The castle's blacksmith had been busy, it seemed.

  “Simon!” Malcolm exclaimed in surprise. “What were you doing out there?”

  The big man was standing between the troops and the gate, looking fairly relaxed, but alert and eager as well.

  Aiden had been speaking with Liliana who, along with Lei, outshone everyone in her paladin's armor.

  All of them look startled at Simon's appearance and he gestured for the four fighters to gather around him.

  “The queen is here,” he said quietly. “We've spotted her advance through the forest. I've already told Shandon and I wanted to give you a heads-up as well. I don't know what you plan to do,” he added as he looked at Malcolm. “But please remember that she is virulently poisonous. You and Aiden may be immune and you paladin's may be as well, but your people are not. So plan accordingly.”

  Malcolm's eyes had lit up at the news of the approaching battle but he became grim-faced at the wizard's warning.

  “Don't worry, Simon. We're aware of her deadliness and so are the troops. Elaine and the other clerics are standing by,” he gestured at some tents set up on the other side of the courtyard, “over there, just in case.”

  “Okay then. I know there's no real planning for something like this, so all I can add is good luck and take care.”

  Simon shook hands with all of them and exchanged a last long look with Liliana.

  “Let's kick her ass,” she said intensely.

  “You bet. See you on the other side.”

  Simon held up his staff.

  “Gate!”

  Back up on top of the wall, he saw that not much had changed. Tamara, Sebastian and Chao were still watching the movement of the distant trees and Simon was surprised to see that the queen hadn't yet emerged from the shelter of the forest.

  “What's happening?” he asked as he hurried over to join the group. “Is she shy suddenly?”

  “Good question,” Tamara replied while keeping an eye on the trees. “She seems to be going in a circle. A very large, very deliberate circle. It's damned peculiar.”

  “What's even more strange,” Chao added with a quick glance at Simon, “is that our 'friends' up there seem to be doing the same thing.”

  The conjurer looked up and everyone else followed suit. The colorful specks that were the six dragons were indeed circling in a tight formation and it looked like they had moved to fly directly over the queen's location.

  “Could they be why she's not advancing?” Sebastian wondered. “I assume that her vision is good enough to see them up there. In fact, it's probably superior to our own. Perhaps she's afraid that if she moves to attack, they will descend upon her to stop her?”

  Simon watched the confusing display as he sought desperately for an explanation.

  “No, it isn't fear,” he assured the others. “The queen isn't afraid of anything, including her own children or Argentium. This is something else, but I'll be damned if I know what.”

  They waited for several minutes but the strange behavior continued.

  “Aeris,” Simon said finally, “are you willing to fly over there and find out what's happening? Stay out of range but see if you can't figure out what she is doing?”

  “Of course!” the elemental exclaimed. “I thought you'd never ask. I'll be back in a few minutes.”

  He zipped off in the direction of the forest, becoming invisible as he went.

  “Handy, having a scout at your fingertips like that,” Tamara said as they waited.

  “When he's in the mood to scout, that is,” Simon told her jokingly. “Aeris isn't always as cooperative as he seems to be today.”

  No one laughed, the atmosphere was much too serious, and the wizard went back to waiting tensely for Aeris to return. As usual he was worried that the elemental would do something rash, as he had several times in the past. But they had to know what was happening, risky or not.

  It only took a few minutes for the air elemental to come back, but he did so in dramatic fashion.

  The group spotted him zooming across the open field straight at them, yelling at the top of his voice.

  “Get ready, get ready!” Aeris shouted. “She's using magic! Get ready!”

  “What the hell is he screaming about?” Tamara asked, puzzled.

  Simon braced himself as it looked like the elemental was going to smack right into him, but at the last second Aeris came to a dead stop and began gesturing wildly.

  “Why are you all just standing around?” he asked loudly. “They're coming!”

  “Aeris, calm down,” Simon told him firmly.

  He pointed toward the trees.

  “Look, there's nothing...”

  The edge of the forest rippled and from its dark interior came a tide of nightmarish creatures.

  “Bloody hell!” Tamara exclaimed in shock. “What are those things?”

  “Drakes,” Aeris told her. “That's what I was yelling about. She wasn't just moving in a great circle. The queen was using some sort of magic to shed scales off of her body. And as they fell, they became those horrible things.”

  “Gods, they look like miniature versions of her,” Sebastian said in a horrified voice. “And there are dozens of them.”

  He was right. Unlike the drakes that Simon had seen in the past, these creatures were limbless and slithered across the grass like snakes. But they were all ten feet long and scaled and, even from a distance, the watchers could see spines running down their backs.

  “I'll bet they're as poisonous as she is,” he said, sickened. “Apparently the queen may actually be worried enough about her children to let those monsters do her dirty work for her.”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it,” Tamara snarled. “Sebastian, what's your range these days?”

  “For lightning? About a hundred yards, max.”

  “That won't do. We'll have to get closer.”

  Both brother and sister rattled off a spell and dense shields appeared around them.

  “Ready?” Tamara asked, holding her wand tightly at her side.

  “Always,” Sebastian said with a wide smile.

  “Take the right, I'll take the left.”

  They both chanted again and before Simon realized what they were planning, the siblings had Gated away.

  “What?” he gasped. “What are they doing?”

  Chao pointed out across the field.

  “Fighting, apparently,” he said faintly, his face pale with fear.

  The distance from the castle to the edge of the forest was at least as long as two football fields and the drakes weren't even a quarter of the way across it. Their slithering movement wasn't all that efficient, but apparently they couldn't bury like the queen could and had to travel above ground.

  About halfway between the castle and the trees, Simon saw the two mages appear in dark flashes. Sebastian was several yards to his sister's right and both were staring at the approaching monsters.

  “Damn it, they're going to get themselves killed!” the wizard exclaimed. “Why not stay up here and attack those things from a distance?”

  “You heard Tamara,” Chao told him. “They don't have a great enough range. I'm guessing that she doesn't want her people taking on those things in hand to hand combat.”

  “Then she's forgotten about the dwarves,” Simon growled. “I've seen them in battle before. Against those arbalests, the drakes would never even get close to the castle.”

  He watched in frustration as Tamara let loose a volley of magic missiles, while her brother began hitting the drakes with bolts of lightning.

  “Goodness,” Chao said in wonder. “They are doing it! They are tearing those creatures apart.”

  “They're showing off, is that they're doing,” Simon corrected him. “And they aren't really achieving anything. Look. Sebastian's lightning is only stunning the things. They obviously have som
e immunity to the magic. If he doesn't switch to magic missiles, he'll be overrun.”

  Simon watched the battle nervously. Down below he could hear the dwarves cheering for the siblings and he almost smiled.

  Well, this might make spell-casters more acceptable to some of those people, he thought. A hell of a way to convince them though.

  “Oh dear, it looks like they aren't doing as well as I thought they were,” the conjurer said.

  “What?”

  Chao was right. Tamara had killed a handful of drakes and wounded several others, but they and the rest just kept coming. Sebastian was faring even worse. He had killed one drake, but the others hit by his spells only looked stunned and slow. If the pair didn't move, and quickly, they would be swarmed.

  “Can their shields hold?” Chao asked Simon anxiously.

  “Against that many? Not a chance.”

  He stepped back from the smaller man and looked at Kassus. The elemental had been watching silently but his eyes flared red as he met the wizard's gaze.

  “Care to start a fight?” Simon asked and pointed at the distant drakes.

  “I would like that,” the earthen rumbled. “I am a little bored at the moment.”

  “Enjoy.”

  Kassus grinned his crooked grin and walked to the edge of the wall. He looked down, flexed his knees and leaped.

  “Wow,” Chao exclaimed. “Look at that!”

  The earthen hit the ground twenty feet in front of the dwarves and vanished as if he had dived into water. The warriors yelled in surprise and looked up at the battlements.

  Simon looked back at them.

  “Sorry,” he shouted with a wave.

  He couldn't hear what was said amongst the dwarves, but he doubted that it was complimentary.

  “Amazing,” the conjurer said excitedly, still staring at the hole that Kassus had made when he slipped underground.

  Simon just shrugged.

  “Earthen,” he said dryly. “It's what they do.”

  He held up his staff and then hesitated.

  “Stay with Chao, would you?” he asked Aeris. “I'll be right back.”

  The air elemental frowned but nodded.

  “Of course,” he said.