The Dragons of Decay (14 page)

“
Oh right. Sorry, I forgot.”

He threw back the covers and sat up
on the edge of the bed. There was a quick moment of dizziness and
then it passed and Simon suddenly felt like himself again.

“
I hope everyone had enough to
eat and were able to find places to sleep?”

“
Oh yes, master. We have plenty
of blankets and our stores were sufficient. And Aeris was able to
restock most of our supplies two days ago, once the townspeople had
returned to Nottinghill.”

“
They went back? But, was it
safe for them?”

Aeris nodded at the window and Simon
turned to see sunlight streaming into the room, bringing in heat and
a sense of comfort.

“
The storm passed two days
after you rescued the townspeople,” he said. “The wights
cannot abide the sun. Any survivors retreated to wherever it is that
they go and the bodies of the fallen monsters rotted and disappeared.
After a day, I went south with the group and let down the drawbridge
and opened the gate to let them back into Nottinghill. The wights had
torn things apart and made a mess, but it was entirely random.
Without the living to attack, they are just a mindless horde of
undead.”

He shook his head and shrugged.

“
They will have to rebuild the
town hall though. It was completely leveled during the attack. I
suppose the wights took out their fury at losing their prey on the
building itself. The cleric will have to share quarters with someone
until the spring, but she says that is a small price to pay
considering how much worse it could have been.”

“
No thanks to me,” Simon
said bitterly as he stood up. His legs were a bit wobbly but it
passed quickly. He stared down at his body and grimaced.

“
Looks like I lost some
weight,” he muttered as he ran a hand over his ribs.

“
Lost some weight? Master, you
are skin and bones!” Kronk exclaimed. “You must eat more,
now that you are well again. The cleric told us to make sure that you
do not skip any meals.”

He gave Simon a fierce look and the
wizard had to work hard not to grin at the earthen's firm tone.

“
If you say so,” he
answered mildly. “I have to admit, I'm starving.”

He was only wearing underwear and
wondered briefly who had been keeping him clean and taking care
of...the other necessities. He shrugged and decided not to dwell on
it. Modesty doesn't matter much when you're unconscious, he supposed.

He opened his clothes cupboard, took
out a clean robe, socks and underwear and got dressed.

“
I'll put the kettle on,
master!” Kronk said brightly and jumped down to scurry out of
the room.

Aeris watched him go and then turned
to look at Simon.

“
You came very close to death
this time,” he said seriously, his voice low.

Simon nodded.

“
Yeah, I figured. But I'm
better off than those poor people who died in Nottinghill.” He
hesitated. “Kronk thinks that the wights attacked simply to
draw me out and ambush me. Which means that those people's deaths are
on my hands.”

Aeris snorted and shook his head,
scowling.

“
Our earthen friend is
incorrect,” he said flatly. “Wights and other undead do
not plan. They are not strategists. They are simply mindless monsters
that hunger for human flesh. They did not 'draw you out', my dear
wizard. That was just you being in the wrong place at the wrong
time.”

“
Are you sure?” Simon
asked, desperately grasping at this faint hope.

“
Of course I am. By the Four
Winds, my dear wizard! You carry enough guilt around with you. Don't
add to it when it isn't necessary. Instead, be grateful like your
friend, the cleric, that any survived at all and move on. The winter
is far from over and if we have another storm, we must all be ready
in case there is a second attack.”

He shook his finger at Simon.

“
Planning. That's what should
occupy your mind now, not guilt and recrimination. Now, I'll go down
and heat up the stew that Clara made before she left this morning. Be
careful walking down the stairs; your balance will be a bit off for a
while, according to the cleric.”

And with a decisive nod, Aeris turned
and flew out of the room, leaving Simon standing there, thinking
deeply.

It wasn't my fault, he thought and
felt such a sense of relief that his legs almost collapsed under him.
He grabbed the cupboard and caught his balance.

What Aeris had said made perfect
sense. The wights were simply horrendous killing machines. They
traveled in packs, but certainly they weren't organized. And with
that comforting thought, he did his best to let go of his guilt. The
air elemental was right; they had to make sure that such a disaster
didn't happen again, somehow.

Once he'd made his way downstairs,
Simon immediately went to the cabinet near the door and pulled out
his heavy coat and boots.

“
You are going outside,
master?” Kronk asked. He was adding more wood to the fire and
sounded concerned.

“
Nature calls,” Simon
told him with a rueful smile. “I'll be right back.”

Aeris was stirring the contents of a
large cast-iron pot that was hanging in the fireplace.

“
See that you are,” he
said. “The stew will be hot in a few minutes.”

The wizard grinned. The smell from
the food was already beginning to waft through the room and his
stomach growled loudly in response.

Outside, the sun was bright but it
was very cold. The snow squeaked under his feet as Simon made his way
to the outhouse, dreading the cold seat ahead.

By the time he'd finished and got
back indoors he was shivering, and the blast of heat that hit him as
he entered the tower felt wonderful.

The air was thick with the smell of
stew and Aeris was at the counter, slicing thick slabs off of a fresh
loaf of bread.

“
Clara baked too?” Simon
asked with surprise as he took off his coat and boots.

“
No. This loaf, and two others,
are a gift from Malcolm, with his compliments.”

Aeris laughed as he saw the wizard's
jaw drop.

“
Yes, that was my reaction as
well, but it turns out that the warrior is a tremendous cook,
according to the other man, Aiden. The bread is light and fluffy; a
good trick using whole-wheat flour.”

Simon walked over and sat down at the
table. There was a steaming cup of tea waiting for him and he sipped
it, closing his eyes for a moment, savoring the flavor and the
comfort that came with it.

Aeris served him a bowl of stew,
brought the bread over and then moved to the center of the table.
Kronk jumped up and joined him there.

“
Wow, this is amazing,”
Simon told them as he ate. The stew was full of vegetables, venison
and thick gravy and was just what his starved body was craving.

“”
I'm glad you like it,
master,” Kronk said, looking delighted. “The lady made a
lot so you will have food for several days. But please eat slowly.
Your body has not had solid food for some time.”

“
Clara managed to feed you some
broth while you were unconscious,” Aeris said as he watched
Simon eat. “But I don't think a person can survive too long on
a diet like that.”

“
Yeah, that's true,” the
wizard said as he dipped some bread into the stew. The air elemental
had been right; the bread was very light and delicious.

After he had eaten as much as his
stomach could hold, Simon sat back with a contented sigh and smiled
at the elementals.

“
Thanks, guys. That was
amazing.”

He finished his tea, got up and made
a second cup and sat down again.

“
How are the people in
Nottinghill coping with what happened?” he asked seriously.
“They've lost almost half of their population. Friends, loved
ones. It has to have had an effect on them.”

Aeris seemed to ponder the question
for a moment, tapping his chin reflectively.

“
I'm no expert on human
emotions, my dear wizard,” he finally answered slowly. “But
while they are grateful to be alive, they seem dispirited,
lackluster. They are cleaning up, getting back to normal, but it is
almost as if they are going through the motions.”

Simon listened with growing alarm.
He'd found before that Aeris' observations, sarcasm aside, were very
often spot on.

“
In fact,” the air
elemental continued, “there are rumblings about abandoning the
town altogether.”

“
What?” Simon exclaimed,
choking on a mouthful of tea. “Abandoning Nottinghill? And
going where? It's the middle of the bloody winter!”

“
South,” Aeris told him
and shrugged. “None of us like the winter, of course. But
remember, until the next generation gets old enough, the adults alive
now were raised in your old technological world. In cold weather,
they had amusements to take their minds off of being stuck indoors.
People are reminiscing about things like 'television' and 'the
internet', whatever they may be. In this weather, except for reading
books or making conversation, basically people go to sleep at
nightfall, wake up the next morning and go through the day the same
as they had the day before.”

He shrugged again.

“
Boredom, my dear wizard, plus
depression, can be a killer if it lasts long enough.”

Simon nodded thoughtfully, while
Kronk simply listened without comment.

“
Yes, I can see that. But where
would they go? How far south?”

“
Far enough to escape the
winter entirely. A few have pointed out that there is a whole world
out there for the taking. They want to move somewhere that they can
grow crops all year long. They want to be able to spend their days
outside and not worry about the harsh weather. And,” Aeris gave
the wizard a twisted smile, “where they don't have to worry
that the next winter storm will bring a horde of wights down upon
them.”

Simon sipped his tea and frowned down
at the table.

Move south. Interesting idea, he
thought. After all, why should they stay this far north? He
understood why Liliana and her people stayed in Moscow; they were
connected to their home city. But Ottawa was leveled almost
completely. There was no real tie there. And a lot of the folks in
Nottinghill were from towns and villages a long way from the capital.
Yeah, why would they even want to stay?

“
They don't feel any fondness
toward Nottinghill itself?” he asked with some confusion. After
all, he was quite fond of his own home. “I mean, they built the
town from almost nothing, grew the first crops, had three children
there. Surely they feel some connection to the place?”

“
Perhaps they did, once,”
Aeris replied. He glanced at Kronk and back at the wizard. “But
it isn't the same anymore, is it? After the attack by the wights and
the people they lost, not to mention those who fell back when Madam
assaulted the town, Nottinghill is not the same place at all. Instead
of a refuge, I believe that some now see it more as a prison,
especially in the winter.”

“
Huh. Now that is a good
point,” Simon said. He was saddened to think that the little
town that he'd been so involved with could be abandoned. But of
course it wasn't his decision to make.

“
I'll have to let that sink in
for a bit,” he told them. “Meanwhile, I want to catch up.
I've been out of touch for a whole week, so I'd say that's given
Daniel enough time to talk to the elders about my chances of
traveling to the elven realm to lend a hand.”

“
Master, you are much too weak
to even think of such a thing!” Kronk exclaimed.

“
Yes, Kronk. I know that,”
the wizard replied. “But considering the time differential, if
I
can
go there, I
could probably take a few weeks to regain my strength and only a day
or two would pass on Daniel's side.”

“
Ah yes, of course you are
right, master,” the earthen said with relief.

Simon smiled at him and began to get
up.

“
I'd better go up and get my
mirror,” he said, but Aeris stopped him with a firm gesture.

“
Sit. Rest. I'll get the
mirror,” he said shortly and shot off toward the stairs.

“
Um, okay then.”

Simon sat down with a smile. Kronk
watched as the air elemental flew up the stairs and then winked at
him.

“
He worries too, master,”
the little guy whispered.

“
I know, my friend. Listen, do
me a favor, would you?”

“
Anything, master. You know
that.”

“
Okay. Would you head down to
Nottinghill and take a look at their walls and gates? It's so cold
out there that people might be a little lax in making sure that
everything is secure.”

“
Ah. Certainly, master. I
should have thought of that. May I take a few of my friends with me?
I will leave three to patrol the wall, just in case.”