The Dragons of Decay (15 page)

Simon nodded as he sipped more tea.

“
Good idea. If any repairs have
to be made, do what you need to do. And check in with Clara, would
you? Thank her for me and ask if she needs anything. I'll call her
later, but I'm more anxious to speak with Daniel right now.”

“
Consider it done, master,”
Kronk told him. He jumped off of the table, tip-tapped to the door
and waved. Then he slipped out and slammed the door closed behind
him.

Aeris floated back down the stairs
and looked at the door as he crossed the room.

“
Kronk left?” he asked as
he passed the hand mirror to Simon.

“
Yeah. I sent him down to check
on Nottinghill's defenses. Just a precaution. Thanks, by the way,”
he added as he took the mirror.

“
No problem. I'll clean the
dishes while you speak with your friend.”

At Simon's look, Aeris frowned at
him.

“
Not a word about me being
domestic, if you please. I'm just pulling my weight.”

“
Wouldn't dream of it,”
the wizard said but he couldn't hold back a snicker as Aeris began
pumping water into the sink.

He held up the mirror and chanted the
Magic Mirror spell.

Now, he thought. Let's find out what
else has gone wrong.

The mirror fogged up as Simon cast
the communication spell, keeping Daniel's prematurely aged face in
his mind as he did so.

It took a long, tense moment for the
surface to clear but suddenly his friend appeared, sitting and
reading by candlelight.

The wizard watched him quietly for a
few minutes, smiling. Aged or not, that look of intense concentration
and wisdom hadn't been erased from Daniel's face and probably never
would be. There was something comforting about that.

“
I see you're enjoying your
favorite pastime,” he said with a grin.

His friend looked up and stared
around the room.

“
You should know,” he
replied with faint amusement. “How many books did we share over
the years? Hundreds, I'd guess.”

“
At least. So how are you
doing?”

“
Fine. Fine. You're calling
back a lot later than I'd expected. Learned some patience, have we?”

Simon snorted.

“
Yeah, right. We're talking
about me here, you know.”

They shared a laugh.

“
Okay, so why the delay?”

“
We've had a bit of a
disturbance since you and I last spoke,” Simon said, becoming
serious, and then he proceeded to tell his friend about the wights
attacking his tower and Nottinghill.

Daniel listened, his face
expressionless until the wizard mentioned the townspeople who had
been lost. Then his eyes became dull and sad and he shook his head
with regret.

“
So few of you left and now
more are gone,” he whispered and stared off blankly. “Will
the human race even survive this transition from technology to magic?
I wonder.”

Simon turned his head sharply at a
snapping noise and saw Aeris break another piece of wood before
adding it to the fire. He noticed the wizard watching.

“
Sorry,” he mouthed
silently and Simon just smiled and looked back into the mirror.

“
And now you say that some of
the survivors are thinking of pulling up stakes and moving south?”
Daniel asked.

“
Apparently. And to be honest,
I can't really blame them. I hate winter, as you well know, but
isolation suits me. I enjoy doing research, working on new spells,
practicing my skills and trying to stay sharp. Plus I've got Kronk
and Aeris for company.”

He glanced at the air elemental again
and watched as he floated across from the fireplace to the sink and
poured hot water into it from the kettle.

“
They're good company. But
then, they tell me that wizards were always reclusive. I guess it
comes with the job. The folks from Nottinghill are different though.
Most of them can't use magic. They've been Changed, yes, but only
enough to survive in a world inundated with magical energy. Other
than that, they are pretty much normal people. And these attacks,
plus having to scratch and claw for a living, locking themselves up
in their town to guard against terrors that they can't begin to
understand, all of that is taking its toll. Some of them have had
enough. And I can understand that.”

“
So can I.”

Daniel stared down at his book,
brooding, and Simon took the opportunity to get up, mirror in hand,
and hand Aeris his cup. The elemental nodded his thanks and put it in
the soapy water in the sink.

The wizard pulled one of the kitchen
chairs across the floor and sat down in front of the fire. It wasn't
nearly as comfortable as his old easy chair but the extra warmth was
welcome.

“
I suppose we'll have to see
what they decide to do after everything is back to normal in
Nottinghill,” Simon said as he sat down again. “But
that's a worry for another day. I'm more concerned now with you and
the elves. Have you heard back from the elders yet?”

Daniel got up and the wizard watched
as he walked across the cozy little room until he reached a lovely,
hand-carved bureau. The dark wood was covered with elaborate swirls
and leaf designs. The man opened the bureau, reached in and took out
a small, square mirror and returned to his seat.

And then they were looking at each
other face to face.

“
There you are,” Daniel
said with a smile. And then his gaze sharpened. “You've lost
weight, you know.”

“
Yeah, well, apparently being
in a coma for a week will do that to you,” Simon said dryly.

“
A coma? Hang on, you didn't
mention that!”

“
Sorry, but I'm fine. I took a
fall when I was trying to fight the undead outside of Nottinghill. No
biggie. Clara healed me and I guess she had to let my body rest and
regenerate after that.” Daniel continued to frown and Simon
rolled his eyes. “Relax, I'm fine.”

“
This time,” his friend
said with a touch of anger. “But what about the next time? You
seem to keep forgetting that you aren't the hulking strongman you
used to be. You are delicate now, and don't make that face at me.
You've exchanged one kind of power for another and they couldn't be
more different. Wizards are not warriors, Simon, and you had better
get that through that thick skull of yours or your career as a
magic-user could end up being a damned short one!”

“
Okay, are we done with the
lecture?” Simon asked tartly.

Daniel glowered for a moment and then
nodded once.

“
Good. Now back to my original
question. Can I enter the elven realm and return safely or not?”

His friend ran a hand through his
thick, gray hair and waited a long minute before answering.

“
Yes,” he replied. When
Simon grinned, Daniel made an abrupt gesture and continued. “And
no.”

“
What? Wait a second. Which one
is it?”

“
It's both. Yes, you can enter
the realm and return home safely. But not for long. The time stream
here fluctuates and ripples. It isn't constant. God knows I wish it
were. So the elves can't say 'for every hour spent here, three days
pass on Earth' or whatever. They simply don't know.”

Simon thought hard about that.

“
So what do they think is the
longest I can stay in their world and come back without turning into
a carbon copy of my old friend Daniel?”

Daniel snorted and laughed roughly.

“
Two weeks.”

“
Crap. That's it?”

“
That's it. After two weeks,
the time lines become jumbled, disjointed. They surge and ebb and the
elves simply can't be sure about how much time will pass on Earth.”

“
And how long will I be gone if
I stay for two weeks in the elven realm?”

“
Their best guess? Six months.”

“
Six months!”

Simon gaped at Daniel silently and
his friend's expression became grim.

“
But that doesn't mean that you
will only age six months. You may physically be years older, but
because of your wizardly physiology, it won't really effect you.
Hopefully.”

The wizard sat quietly and thought
about the risks.

“
Do you see now why I think
that this is a bad idea? Because they just don't
know
.
This is a guess, Simon. What if they're wrong? What if the time line
screws up like it did for me, hmm? I was gone for over three years on
Earth, remember? In the elven realm, that should only have been a
month or two. It certainly felt like that to me. But it shifted and
changed and when I returned to our world to meet you, instead of
being young, I aged forty years in a matter of moments. That is how
unstable and arbitrary this whole time thing is. And in my mind, it
isn't worth the risk.”

“
Even
to save the elves? And you?” Simon asked quietly.

Daniel
closed his eyes and seemed, for the first time, to be as old as he
looked.

“
Yes,
old friend. Even to save us. The elves will fight on without you.
They have resources and strengths of their own. They may win without
any outside aid. And if that's true, then your coming here will be a
wasted effort. Why take that chance?”

Aeris
floated over to the table with a steaming cup of tea and Simon smiled
his thanks. He sipped it quietly and thought about the consequences
of his actions, both if he entered the elven realm and if he didn't.

“
And
what about our own world, Simon?” Daniel asked. “What
about the threat to the New Earth? You still have the red dragons
hunting down humans. I would guess that whatever eggs were available
to the primal red dragon have been hatched to bolster its numbers.
And then there's the unknown factor.”

Simon
chuckled.

“
Which
one?”

“
The
dragon queen,” Daniel replied darkly. “She is the most
powerful creature ever created by the gods of Chaos. And she's out
there somewhere, biding her time, awaiting her moment. What if, after
seeing her children fall one by one, she decides to enter the battle?
Do you think that the surviving humans, powerful though some are,
will stand a chance against her without you there?”

“
Nice
guilt trip, my friend,” the wizard said as he set down his cup
on the floor.

“
Not
a guilt trip. Just the facts. You may be playing into the dark gods'
hands by coming here. Think about that.”

“
You
know, I really hate it when you're logical,” Simon said with
mock disgust.

Daniel
laughed, sounding more like his old self.

“
I
know that. Listen, maybe we can reach a compromise. Meet halfway.”

“
How?”

Daniel sat
up straighter and pushed back his sloping shoulders. Simon had to
stifle a smile because he recognized the 'I'm about to do business'
Daniel from the old days.

“
Call
me regularly, every week or so. I'll give you status reports on how
things are going here. And if, God forbid, the elves begin to lose
this war, then you can decide if you want to come over and lend your
aid. Right now, the dragons are scattered, searching for the elves
the old-fashioned way, by sight and smell. They've been stymied by
the elven glamors and can't sense them through magic, so they have to
comb the land trying to find them. Because of this, the elves are
fighting what is essentially a guerrilla war, attacking from ambush,
taking down solitary dragons. And they've had some success. So let's
just wait and see. Is that acceptable to you, my impetuous friend?”

Simon
grinned at him.

“
I'm
not that impetuous, Daniel, but yes, that's acceptable. In fact, it
makes perfect sense. If my time there is limited to two weeks at the
most, then the only way I'll succeed is by attacking the primal brown
dragon itself, not its minions. If the elves locate that monster,
then we can coordinate an attack and take it down together. Cut off
the snake's head and the body dies.”

His old
friend actually sagged with relief.

“
It's
good to see that you've finally started thinking tactically,”
he told the wizard with a gentle smile.

“
Yeah,
better late than never, I suppose. One last thing though. What about
bringing others along? Did the elders mention if I could bring allies
with me, or am I the only one who can travel to the elven realm and
return?”

“
Ah,
I'm glad you reminded me. Their answer was...interesting, to say the
least.”

“
And?
What was it?”

“
Well,
as you know, the elders watch certain events unfolding on Earth and
they tend to focus on those who wield power, like yourself. Wizards
age slower than any other magic-user, so they say that those two
mages from London simply would not survive even two weeks in this
world.”