The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (20 page)

That afternoon, Simon woke
up abruptly and sat bolt upright in bed. He stared around in sleepy
confusion, wondering what had dragged him from his deep sleep so
forcefully.

His bedroom was empty and
sunlight shone in through the window, giving his surroundings a warm
glow. There was no sound inside of the tower and he rubbed his hands
over his face briskly, trying to wake up.

“
Kronk?” he
shouted as he swung his legs out of bed. “Aeris? Anybody home?”

Apparently not.

Simon staggered to his
feet, found his balance and stretched slowly, feeling his joints
loosen one by one. He felt so much better than he had that morning
and decided that maybe he'd just needed more sleep to shake off the
effects of too much spell work.

Just like back in the day
when I'd pull an all-nighter studying in college, he thought with a
reminiscent smile.

He grabbed a robe randomly
from his cabinet, dark brown, and slipped it on. He began humming as
he slipped on some socks and then froze in place. There it was again.
That feeling, the one that must have woken him up.

He spun in place,
crouching down slightly. Simon was unaware that his hands had begun
glowing with power.

I know that feeling, he
thought, his mind racing. It was the same one I felt down in the new
Nottinghill. Just before...

He raced out of the
bedroom and ran for the stairs.

“
Mortis de
Draconis!” he shouted as he leaped up the steps. “To me!”

With an ease as if it had
done it a thousand times before, the staff appeared in Simon's right
hand in the blink of an eye. He reached the top of the stairs,
swapped the weapon to his other hand and slipped open the bolt to the
trapdoor that led to the roof.

The door was heavy and he
grunted with effort as he pushed it up and over. It swung open and
back and he scrambled out, his heart racing.

Simon moved to the center
of the roof and then looked up. The sky was dotted with small
clusters of clouds racing for the horizon, but was mostly a serene
sea of deep blue. He could see for miles and what he saw sent a
thrill of fear shooting down his spine.

Way up high, perhaps a
thousand feet or more, was a flight of dragons. He squinted as he
tried to count the small, winged specks. Four, five. Damn it. Six.
Six red dragons were circling the tower, but so far away that they
were well beyond his spell range.

“
Master? What are
you doing up here?”

Simon looked at the
trapdoor and saw Kronk pop up from below. He waved him over.

“
I came in to check
on you and found you gone, master,” the little guy said
anxiously. “Is anything wrong?”

“
With me? Nope. I
feel great. Well, except for them,” he added and pointed
straight up.

“
Them?”

Kronk craned his neck to
look up and gasped.

“
Dragons, master?”

“
Yep. Red dragons. I
count six of them.”

Simon moved to the low
wall around the roof and placed his hand on the ward stone. It was
humming inaudibly with power and tingled under his palm. He muttered
a spell, one he hadn't needed to create a shortcut for, and magically
reinforced it.

“
Forgive me that I
didn't spot them first, master,” the little guy said as he
hopped up on to the top of the wall.

“
Don't be silly, my
friend,” Simon said with a thin smile. “You can't be
expected to see everything, plus you have your own duties. I am a bit
concerned that your fellow earthen, the ones guarding my outer wall,
saw nothing.”

Kronk scowled, a very rare
look for him.

“
As am I, master.
Excuse me while I go and inquire about that.”

He jumped down and ran for
the trapdoor.

“
Oh master, just a
thought. Aeris is off scouting, as usual. Perhaps you should recall
him for,” he glanced up at the tiny, circling dragons, “this?
He's very good at noticing details.”

“
Good idea. Thanks,
I will.”

The little guy disappeared
into the tower and Simon leaned on his staff and stared at a point a
few inches above the wall.

“
Aeris, I need you,”
he said and waited tensely for the inevitable.

The air shivered with the
boom of a thunderclap and static electricity made the wizard's hair
stand on end for a moment.

“
Ah, you're up, I
see,” Aeris said as he appeared, floated serenely over the
wall. “Missed me, did you?”

Simon snorted.

“
Yeah, right. So
where were you?”

“
Keeping an eye on
the forest. You made a good point about things changing rapidly, like
our new neighbors to the south, so I thought I'd increase my sweeps
of our border. Just in case.”

“
Good idea.
Unfortunately, while you were sweeping the forest, you missed the
sky.”

“
The sky?”

Aeris frowned and looked
up. His mouth dropped open and then a string of curses, many of which
Simon hadn't ever heard the elemental use before, blasted from his
lips.

“
Whoa, that's
impressive,” the wizard told him when the elemental seemed to
run out of words. “You could make a sailor blush.”

“
Forget about your
sailor fantasies,” Aeris snapped, still glaring up at the
dragons. “When did they get here? And what are they doing?”

“
I have no answer
for either question,” Simon replied. “I woke up suddenly
with a feeling that something was wrong. It was the same foreboding
sensation I had just before I was attacked by that red dragon, the
one that nearly killed me.”

He moved closer to the
edge of the roof and looked down at the outer wall.

“
The earthen didn't
spot the damned things, which concerns me a bit. After all,” he
glanced up at the dragon flight and then at Aeris, “they aren't
exactly hard to see, are they?”

The air elemental looked
angrier than Simon had seen him in years.

“
I agree. I don't
mean to sound critical...”

“
You don't?”

Aeris ignored the comment.

“
But you might want
to add to your guardians by summoning a few of my people. We are,
after all, trained to scout, to notice the details and the little
things. If you had had some air elementals on your wall today, I
assure you that those damned dragons would have been spotted long
before their presence woke you up.”

He raised an eyebrow as he
looked at Simon.

“
I don't know how
you can sense dragons, by the way, but that is an excellent trait to
have.”

Leaning against the wall,
Simon looked up and watched the circling dragons. At the height they
were flying, they soared with hardly any effort, their wings barely
moving. They were beautiful, he had to admit. Too bad they wanted him
eviscerated.

“
I know,and before
you ask, I have no idea how I can do that either.”

“
My guess? The lords
of Light. Their gifts are often subtle and unknown until needed.”

Simon looked at Aeris and
pursed his lips.

“
Hmm. I hadn't
thought of that. Good call. You may be right, considering the many
times they've had to put me back together. Maybe they slipped a
little upgrade in there the last time they adjusted my spark plugs.”

Aeris looked back at him
in mild confusion.

“
I don't have any
idea what that means, but yes, perhaps they granted you this gift
while you were being healed by the dwarves.”

Simon laughed lightly and
then sobered as he began watching the dragons again.

“
Care to take a
guess as to what those things are doing up there?”

Aeris made a small sound
in his throat and stared at the distant, ominous shapes.

“
It could be
anything. Of course they know where you live. After all, you were
stripped of your powers a couple of years ago by two red dragons.”

Simon touched the shard of
dragon bone that hung on a chain around his neck. It kept the dragons
from draining his magic, as they had once before. Not surprisingly,
it had survived the red dragon attack that had almost killed him.

“
True enough. And
what a lesser dragon knows is known to its primal master.”

“
Exactly. And so,
since they know you are here, there are only a few possible motives
for this encroachment into your territory.”

Simon leaned against the
wall and listened attentively.

“
Shoot,” he
said with a nod.

“
Okay. First, it may
be a reconnaissance. Yes, they know that you are here but that is
about it. This may be a test of your defenses. You know, see if you
bolstered your magical wards, added to the tower, whatever.”

“
Makes sense.”

“
Yes. Secondly, it
could actually be the prelude to an attack.” Aeris looked up
again. “There are six of the beasts, after all. It would be a
serious battle if they decided to try to breach your defenses and
kill you. We have to assume that they know that you are recently back
from a long period of healing and are, perhaps, not at one hundred
percent power yet. The primal might consider this the perfect time
for an offensive move against you.”

“
Maybe, but how
would the dragons know that I was out of commission for months? Or
that I'm just back now?”

Aeris shrugged.

“
No idea. But when
dealing with an enemy, always assume that they know more than they
do. That way, you cover every eventuality.”

“
Huh. I like that
idea. Thinking that your enemy is stupid could easily get you
killed.”

“
And has done so to
countless numbers over the ages. We should always learn from the
past.”

Simon had to grin at the
elemental.

“
You know something?
You really are smarter than you look. Behind that cynical facade is a
rather keen mind.”

Aeris sniffed and looked
up at the dragons.

“
I'll ignore that
first comment and thank you for the compliment. Yes, when we are
trained back in our own realm, the air elementals are taught tactics
along with scouting techniques. Some of us seem to have a knack for
the, what was it called? Ah yes, the long view. History is a good
teacher, if you are willing to learn from it.”

“
Oh, you're back,”
Kronk rumbled as he popped up from below.

“
I am. Where were
you?” Aeris asked him as the earthen hurried to join them.

“
I wanted to know
why my brethren missed the approach of that dragon flight,” the
little guy said as he hopped up on to the wall.

“
And? What did they
say?” Simon asked him, trying not to sound accusatory.

Kronk gave the circling
dragons a worried glance and then looked at the wizard with a long
face.

“
They said...well,
they apologized. They are more focused on the grounds and forest
encircling the tower, master. I'm sorry, but it is in our nature to
be drawn to the Earth and the things that grow there. They are
mortified that they missed something as obvious as six dragons, but
they have made no excuses and leave their punishment in your hands.”

“
Punishment?”
Simon stared at him. “That's ridiculous. There won't be any
punishment for this. You and your people aren't slaves, Kronk.
Cripes, how many times do we have to dance the same dance? They made
a mistake. So what? They are all volunteers, after all. No harm
done, valuable lesson learned, right?”

The little guy looked
intently at the wizard for a long moment and then nodded.

“
Thank you, master.
They will learn, I promise you that. But I did have an idea to
perhaps aid in the security of the tower.”

Simon watched the dragons
as he listened.

“
I'm all ears, my
friend.”

“
Since Aeris' people
are more or less crafted as scouts, I thought that if you assigned
one or two to stay up here and keep an eye on the skies, that might
keep the tower better protected.”

Both Simon and Aeris
looked at Kronk. The air elemental's mouth dropped open and he seem
speechless; a very rare occurrence.

“
Wait a second,”
he finally replied. “You are suggesting that our wizard summon
some of my people to help? Kronk, are you feeling well?”

“
It is only
logical,” the earthen said with a frown at Aeris' teasing.
“Your people are more in tune with the air and sky. If one had
been up here today, we would have had an early warning of the
dragons' approach.”

“
I agree. I'm just
impressed that you can see the bigger picture.”

“
Is it not more
important to keep master safe than to let egos get in the way?”
Kronk asked him archly.

Simon had to laugh as
Aeris flailed around for an answer.