The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (16 page)

He walked outside and
overheard Aeris speak to Kronk.

“
I'd
say that was an understatement.”

An hour later, washed and
dressed in clean clothes, Simon sat down at the desk in his study and
picked up his hand mirror. The silver mirror had belonged to his late
mother and it was just about all he had left of her, except for
memories. He examined it fondly and then cleared his throat, trying
to remember the incantation for the Magic Mirror spell.

He chanted the spell,
focused on an image of Liliana, the paladin from Russia, and invoked
the magic.

The mirror's reflective
surface fogged over and he could almost feel the power searching for
its target like a laser beam. He held the paladin's face firmly in
his head and waited patiently.

Slowly the mist rolled
away and a scenic vista took its place.

Liliana was front and
center in the mirror. She was wearing her silver armor and her hair
fluttered in a breeze. She was standing and looking over a wall of
stone. Over her shoulder, Simon could see that she was dozens of
yards above the ground and that the land below her was rugged and
broken.

He guessed that the
paladin was standing on the wall of the castle that she and the other
survivors of Nottinghill had moved into. The weather there was
stormy, with heavy dark clouds scudding across the sky. He could hear
the distant call of gulls coming from the mirror and wondered if the
castle was built near the coast.

Simon took a moment and
looked at his friend.

The last time he'd seen
her, she had survived an attack on the primal brown dragon in the
elven realm, miraculous as that sounded.

She looks good, he
thought.

She kept her dirty-blond
hair short, she'd told him once, so that it wouldn't get in the way
during combat. There were several small scars on her face, but they
were almost invisible and she looked healthy and, for a change, well
fed. There had never been enough food for her and her handful of
people in Moscow.

Her silver armor was, as
always, pristine. It shone as if freshly polished and reflected the
gray skies above her. Simon noticed for the first time that her eyes
were intensely blue, so dark that they were almost black. At the
moment, as he watched, she looked almost innocent, her typical scowl
replaced by a look that could only be described as content. He hoped
that she was.

“
Liliana?
Can you hear me?”

She whirled around, a hand
clapped to the sword on her hip, a dangerous expression twisting her
face.

“
Who
is that?” she snapped, looking in all directions.

“
Why
doesn't anyone recognize my voice these days?” he asked,
amused. “It's me, Simon. How are you?”

“
Simon?”

A broad grin transformed
her face and she suddenly looked like a whole other person.

“
By
the gods! Can it be? The last I heard, you were still healing in the
dwarven capital. Where are you now?”

Simon smiled at her
reaction.

“
I'm
home. Home and back to normal, thanks to a cleric named Opheilla. She
kept me unconscious while she put me back together.”

“
Ah,
very wise,” Liliana said with a knowing nod. “The gods
can heal but for someone as badly wounded as you were, that healing
can take a lot of time.”

“
Tell
me about it. Six frigging months.”

Simon tried not to sound
ungrateful. He was alive and well, which was more than he could have
hoped for.

“
Well,
you haven't missed much, so don't be bitter about it.” Liliana
told him.

She turned and looked out
over the wall again.

“
I'm
not, I'm not. So, I'm guessing that you are in your new home?”

“
I
am, along with as many Changlings as we have been able to find.
Tamara and her brother have done an amazing job of searching out
survivors from around the world and bringing them here; well, the
ones that want to come anyway.”

Simon spun his chair
around to face the window behind his desk. Unlike the sky in the
paladin's part of the world, above his tower was only a sheet of
vibrant blue. It was still fresh and beautiful to him after months
underground.

“
How
are they doing that? Before I was injured, they could Gate but they
couldn't even cast the Magic Mirror spell.”

Liliana rested her armored
forearms on the wall and smiled as she looked out over the stormy
countryside.

“
You're
working on old information, my friend. The elves gave them a copy of
the mirror spell and, in the months since, they're taken their magic
to a whole other level.”

The wizard was intrigued.

“
In
what way?”

“
Well,
I'm not a caster, so I don't know the specifics, but they can home in
on Changlings now by focusing on an area on a map and just allowing
the magic to guide them. It's actually amazing to watch.”

“
Really.
Huh. That sounds great. So how many people are living there now?”

“
At
last count, one hundred and thirty five.” Her smile broadened.
“Including twelve children.”

Simon almost dropped the
mirror as he jumped to his feet.

“
A
hundred and thirty-five? That is fantastic! My God, it must almost
feel crowded there.”

“
To
someone like me who's used to living with a handful of people, it
does,” the paladin replied. “But this old castle is
massive and could easily hold ten times that many with room to spare,
so any time I'm feeling a bit claustrophobic, I just come up here to
the wall and clear my head.”

His heart was still racing
with a mixture of excitement and hope and Simon began slowly pacing
around his study, watching Liliana closely.

“
So
is that why you're there right now?” he asked.

She gave a brief shrug of
her shoulders.

“
Not
really. Sometimes I just like to come up here for the view. It
reminds me a lot of the landscape I grew up in, in Russia. Hilly,
rough terrain, scrub brush. There's something so pure about the wild,
don't you think?”

Simon focused the mirror
on the area beyond Liliana and looked around at the rugged beauty of
it.

“
You
make a good point. Personally, I prefer forests and lakes, but then
in this part of the country, you can't seem to travel more than a few
miles without finding a lake or a river. It's what you're used to, I
suppose.”

Liliana looked dreamily
out over the wall, the wind whipping her hair in all directions.

“
So
now that you're back, when are you coming for a visit?” she
asked abruptly.

“
Soon.
I only got back yesterday, so I thought I'd get used to being above
ground again before traveling any great distance.”

“
Good
idea. What was it like?” the paladin asked curiously.

“
What,
living with the dwarves?” Simon asked.

She nodded silently.

“
It
was...different. They're so, I'm not sure of the right word. Rigid?
Solid? Something like that. Like the rock around them, I guess.
Strong. Close-minded about a lot of things, especially magic-users
like myself, but still generous and loyal. It was educational. They
brought me back literally from the brink of death, you know, and for
that I will always be grateful. If they ever need me, all they have
to do is ask and I will be there.”

He paused and chuckled
softly.

“
But
I have to admit, l couldn't live down there for an extended period.
Maybe it's just as well that I was comatose for most of my stay;
otherwise I might have gone nuts. I need the sky above me, and the
smell of life around me. The deep is fine for the dwarves, but give
me the open air, always.”

Liliana took in a deep
breath and stood up straight.

“
I
have to agree. The idea of living below the Earth seems more like a
prison than a paradise to me. But then, neither of us is a dwarf, so
how can we know what it's really like for them?”

“
Exactly.
By the way, since I've got you on the line, so to speak, how is
everyone from Nottinghill doing? I was going to call Malcolm or Aiden
and maybe Tamara or Sebastian after that, but since you're all living
in the same place, maybe you can fill me in?”

“
Of
course.”

Liliana began to walk
along the wall and Simon now got a good view of just how large the
place was.

The walkway was a dozen
feet wide, made of large square blocks of stone fitted closely
together. The edge of the wall was crenelated and waist-high,
allowing guards to shoot down on attackers if necessary. The stone
was dark gray and the mortar holding the blocks together shone in
white lines, making a criss-cross pattern. Ahead of the paladin the
wall turned to the left. The corner was rounded and a heavy brazier
sat in the middle of it. Simon assumed that was it used during the
winter to help keep patrols warm.

“
It's
a big place,” he commented. “How many rooms?”

Liliana shrugged, clearly
unconcerned.

“
No
idea. Hundreds, at least. The place seems to go on and on. Just when
I think I've explored all of it, I'll stumble over another suite of
rooms or a small library hidden away.” She hesitated, then
continued. “Don't tell anyone I said this, but it's almost like
living in a fairy tale castle. The place feels magical somehow. Makes
me remember those long lost dreams from my childhood.”

Simon had to smile at this
revelation. It sounded so unlike the tough woman that he knew, he was
almost convinced that the place must indeed be enchanted. He was wise
enough not to say this to Liliana though.

“
Interesting,”
he said instead. “I can't wait to visit. So, about the
survivors?”

“
Ah
yes, I almost forgot.”

She reached the corner of
the wall and stood looking out over a different section of the
country. Simon had been right. A mile or so away were the crashing
breakers of the ocean. The water was wild and violent, the shore
rugged. There were no gentle sandy beaches here; the water smashed
into solid, jagged rock. It looked forbidding.

“
You
heard about Clara?” Liliana asked as she watched the distant
water.

Simon rubbed his eyes with
his free hand.

“
Yes,
I did,” he answered shortly.

“
I
rather thought you had. I did not know her very well, Simon, but she
seemed like an excellent leader for her people. And a good friend.
You have my condolences.”

“
Thanks.”

He opened a window,
letting the sweet air perfumed with the smell of tree sap and damp
earth blow by him. Clara would have been so happy to see the spring.

“
The
rest of the townspeople made it through the red dragon attack with
only minor wounds,” she continued as she leaned against the
wall and folded her arms.

“
Malcolm
and Aiden have taken over the leadership of the group, voted in by
the survivors. They are all doing well. Tamara and Sebastian, the
mages from London who discovered this refuge, lead their own people,
about forty or so at last count. And from Australia we have the trio
of Keiko, Octavian and Miriam, two mages and a cleric.”

She smiled and shook her
head.

“
What?”
Simon asked.

“
Oh
nothing. It's just that Octavian is a little testy at times. Seems to
think he's more wizard than mage. Honestly though, he simply doesn't
have your abilities or magical strength. Anyway, they brought their
people, about thirty in all, with them when they decided to move here
about three months back. The red dragon attacks were relentless down
there; apparently the monsters have claimed Australia and won't abide
any humans in their territory, not that they wouldn't have attacked
anyway, but they seemed particularly vicious against this group.”

That got Simon's
attention.

“
Really?
Now that's interesting.”

Liliana squinted into the
wind.

“
Why?
The dragons hate us, end of story. It's their task to purge humanity
from the world, isn't it? And they've done a fine job,” she
added bitterly.

“
I
know that, but perhaps the dragons are being extra aggressive down
there for a reason. Maybe they're protecting something.”