The Dragons of Decay (12 page)

“
Holy
crap!” he exclaimed. “Where the hell are we?”

“
Shh!
Master, keep your voice down.” Kronk whispered urgently. “When
the wave of wights slammed into you, you fell into the moat. Your
shield cushioned your fall, but when you hit the ground, you were
knocked out and the barrier dissolved.”

“
Oh.
Oh right. I kind of remember that. A bit.”

Simon
slowly moved his hands along his body feeling for wounds and tried
flexing his arms and legs. Everything seemed to be working and his
headache was diminishing, but he was still almost entombed in solid
rock.

“
So
how did we get to wherever we are now?”

“
The
creatures poured down the side of the moat and were going to engulf
you, so I did the only thing I could think of, master. I brought you
underground. I am sorry if the space is small but I had no time to do
any better.”

“
You
did that? Gees, Kronk, don't apologize! You saved my life.”

There was
a short pause and Simon imagined the little guy shrugging his
shoulders.

“
I
did my duty, master. That is all.”

“
This
is above and beyond the call of duty, my friend. So, how deep are
we?”

“
Perhaps
fifty feet, master. As I pulled you downward, I could feel those
horrible creatures digging above us, so I moved us down into very
hard rock. There is no chance that they can reach you here, at least
not for some time.”

“
Then
why are we whispering?”

“
I
remember stories of these wights, master. Their hearing is very keen.
They could be above us even now, trying to track you. We should be
cautious.”

Something
hard was digging into Simon's back and he shifted until he could
reach around and move it. It was his staff. He felt a sense of relief
as he touched it.

“
Thank
God I didn't lose the staff,” he murmured. “Now the big
question; how long have I been out?”

Another
moment of silence.

“
About
two hours, master,” Kronk told him softly.

“
What!”

Simon
reared up, slammed his head into the ceiling and flopped back on to
the hard ground again. Flashes of light like fireworks shot across
his vision and he moaned in agony.

“
Master!
Are you all right?”

The wizard
waited until the flashes faded to red swirls before answering. His
blood was pounding in his ears and he felt like his skull was
expanding and contracting with his every heart beat.

“
Not
really,” he finally managed to gasp. “Two hours, Kronk?
The defenders of Nottinghill were running out of arrows. God knows
what's happened since then.”

“
I'm
sorry, master. I couldn't wake you up! I tried and tried but...”

“
Stop.
Don't blame yourself. Blame me,” Simon told him bitterly. “The
cocky young wizard strolling through a blinding snowstorm so sure
that he was going to save the day. God, I'm such a jerk.”

“
You
are not, master,” the earthen said firmly. “You were
doing the right thing.”

“
Yeah,
the right thing in absolutely the wrong way. Well, we don't have time
for regrets right now. I have to know what's going on up there.”

He tried
to think through his pain. It wasn't easy.

“
What
happened to Aeris?”

“
No
idea, master. I was too busy getting you to safety to look for him.”

“
Okay.
The air in here is getting a bit thin. Hang on to me. I'm getting us
out of here.”

Simon felt
Kronk take a firm hold of his coat and chanted the Gate spell. He
pictured his target, head throbbing through it all and cast the
spell.

A moment
later he was lying on the floor next to his kitchen table. Kronk
stood beside his shoulder, a smile of obvious relief on his craggy
little face.

“
You
did it, master! We're home.”

“
No
time to celebrate just yet,” the wizard said as he struggled to
his feet.

His knees
were wobbly and he staggered to the closest kitchen chair and
collapsed into it. He stared at the center of the table and rubbed
his eyes, trying to clear his bleary vision. Kronk jumped up to stand
next to him.

“
Aeris,
I need you,” he said as firmly as he could.

A pause
and then with a harsh crack of thunder, the air elemental appeared
hovering above the tabletop.

He looked
around in obvious astonishment and then gaped at Simon.

“
You're
alive!” he exclaimed and a look of delight came over his face.
Seeing Kronk's sly expression, Aeris caught himself and sniffed. “Of
course I knew that. If you had died, I would have been pulled back to
my own plane.”

“
Yeah,
I'm alive. Barely,” Simon replied as he slumped down in his
chair. “Thanks to our mutual friend here,” he added with
a smile at Kronk. “But forget about me. What's going on at
Nottinghill?”

Aeris
looked grave.

“
They're
on the run, my dear wizard. The guards ran out of arrows about an
hour ago and the wights swarmed over the gates.”

Simon
leaped to his feet, staggered back and landed on his butt on the
floor.

“
What?”
he asked weakly as Kronk jumped down and scurried over, looking
concerned.

“
You
heard me.”

Aeris
floated off of the table and hovered in front of the wizard.

“
Malcolm,
Aiden and the others held them back to buy the townspeople some time.
Virginia and her group pulled back when I told them what had happened
and now they're all barricaded in the town hall. Those damnable
wights are tearing at the walls as we speak. They won't hold them
back much longer.”

Simon got
to his feet again and stood swaying.

“
Grab
on,” he told the elementals. “We have to go, right now.”

“
Master,
I think you may have a concussion,” Kronk cautioned him.

“
I
think he's right,” Aeris said as he flew up to hover near the
wizard's shoulder. “Your eyes are glazed and your speech is
slurred.”

“
I
don't care! We'll worry about that later. Now grab hold or I'm
leaving without you!”

They
quickly held on to Simon's coat, which was dripping with water in the
warmth of the tower, and he cast the Gate spell again. This time he
pictured the central fire pit of the town hall, with himself a few
feet away from it. Then he invoked the spell, knees shaking, and the
three were pulled into the Void.

They
appeared in the midst of chaos. Around them, people were yelling and
screaming. The few children born in Nottinghill were crying and, in
the center of it all, Simon saw Clara calling loudly for calm.

He and the
elementals went unnoticed at first and it gave Simon a chance to look
around.

The walls
of the building were shuddering as the sounds of screeching and
clawing, obviously from the attacking wights, echoed through the
large hall. He spotted Malcolm and Aiden standing side by side facing
the reinforced front door and felt a momentary sense of relief.

So they're
still alive, he thought, thankful for the first time that their
blood, tainted by the bite of a werewolf, had made them damned hard
to kill.

The pair
were bleeding from several deep scratches on their arms and faces but
their expressions were grim and resolute. Nothing was getting past
them while they could still stand.

Behind the
warriors, Virginia, Anna, Eric and Gerard stood in a line, holding
each others' hands. They looked pale and exhausted and Anna, the
smallest of the group, was leaning against Eric, trying to stay
upright.

With his
wizard's senses, Simon could feel the power emanating from the four
young people. It permeated the walls of the hall, strengthening them.
They were using their power to shield each other, but extending it to
the perimeter of the building. He could tell that their magic was the
only thing keeping the wights from tearing the place apart.

Clara's
calls for calm finally got through and the panicked screaming died
down. The outside attack sounded even louder and more terrifying now.

“
If
anyone else is wounded, step forward,” the cleric said tiredly.
“If not, I'm going to heal the guards while I still have the
strength. Get the children close to the fire pit and form a wall
around them. Those devils will not reach them while any of us live.”

Simon
counted no more than twenty survivors and felt the beginnings of
despair.

Twenty out
of what, almost forty souls, he thought. God, I failed them.

The adults
shuffled around, moving the youngsters, just three little children,
close to the pit. Suddenly someone, Simon wasn't sure who, spotted
him.

“
It's
the wizard!” a woman shouted and everyone, even the group
guarding the door, turned as one and looked at him.

“
By
the gods! Simon, you're alive,” Clara exclaimed and hurried
over to him, limping from an unseen wound.

He
attempted to smile and almost keeled over. Aeris moved quickly to
grab his shoulder, demonstrating just how strong he really was, while
Kronk braced his legs from below.

“
Yeah,
more or less,” he told her as the cleric hugged him fiercely.

“
What
happened?” she asked. “You went out into the storm and
that was the last we saw of you. We feared the worst.”

“
There's
no time to explain right now,” he told her, squinting to keep
her in focus. “We need to get you all out of here to a place of
safety.”

“
Where?
Where can we go that those hell-spawn can't follow us?” a large
man that Simon vaguely recognized as the town's blacksmith asked
dispiritedly. He was holding a massive hammer that was stained black
with undead blood.

“
My
tower,” Simon told him and the others. “I can Gate six of
you at a time, so we'll have to make four trips, but you'll be safe
for now.”

“
Simon,
can you do that?” Clara asked as she looked at him closely.
“You can barely stand.”

“
I'll
do it crawling then,” he answered bleakly. “Who cares?
You folks are what is important.”

He looked
at the children, none older than three and then at the adults around
them.

“
I'll
take the kids first with one parent each.”

There was
a momentary hesitation and then a tremendous bang reverberated
through the building, making them all jump.

“
Damn
it all, what are you waiting for?” Malcolm bellowed from across
the room. “Grab the kids and go!”

At once,
the children were scooped up and the three parents hurried to stand
next to Simon.

“
You
two come along,” he said to the elementals. “You can see
to our guests' needs while I keep transporting the rest.”

Thankfully
neither one argued. They just held on to his coat and waited.

Simon held
out a hand to a desperate young woman who was gripping her little
girl to her chest, eyes wide and terrified.

“
Take
my hand,” he told her gently, “Someone hold on to her
shoulder and everyone else grab the hand of the person next to you.”

When they
were all firmly connected, Simon smiled at Clara, chanted the Gate
spell and took them away.

Kronk and
Aeris quickly began to organize the survivors once they arrived in
the tower. The sense of relief from the three parents was palpable
and they began thanking Simon hysterically.

“
No
need, folks. My friends will help with food and whatever else you
need. I have to get back.”

He chanted
the incantation again, nodded to the elementals and Gated out.

Each
casting of the Gate spell drew more and more energy from the wizard
and it was only the desperate nature of the situation that kept him
on his feet. But by the time he had returned for the final group,
Simon could barely see or speak.

He
appeared in the hall and fell to his knees. Malcolm, Aiden and the
group of four magic-users led by Virginia had insisted that they be
taken out last, so that they could hold the building against the
wights.

Aiden
hurried over and knelt down beside the wizard.