The Dragons of Decay (29 page)

“
So you have run into these
creatures as well,” she said so faintly that Simon could barely
hear her over the wind.

“
You've seen them?” he
asked, startled. “Why didn't you signal me with your
lodestone?”

“
There was nothing you could
have done,” she explained with a negligent shrug. “The
attack was futile. Our new headquarters was secure enough to turn
aside the attack. My people were terrified though and it's been
difficult to motivate them to scour the city for supplies. We were
trapped underground for several days until the storm they used for
cover blew over. It frightened them.”

“
Understandable. I thought
you'd lost a little weight,” he commented, trying to make it
sound like a joke.

Liliana frowned in response.

“
That is irrelevant. Now, about
your news. Your friend, the cleric, and her people are moving south?
Now that is interesting. This new land is more moderate?”

“
Very much so. It's very
fertile as well. The coldest weather it gets is the occasional
frost.”

“
And these...goblins? They are
barred from this Florida?”

“
They are. The state has been
transformed into a very large island and those creatures can't swim.”

A faint smiled crossed Liliana's face
and faded. She looked up at the sky again and blew out a long breath.

“
What is it?” Simon asked
her. “What are you looking for? Dragons?”

“
No, not dragons. The wind has
moved and is blowing from the north. I can feel moisture in the air
and I fear another storm is approaching.”

“
Like the one racing toward us
here.” Simon shook his head. “If I was a suspicious man,
I'd say that it was more than a coincidence.”

“
Well, I'm not that suspicious,
my friend, but I do not believe in coincidence. I think the gods of
Chaos are interfering directly in this, taking advantage of our
weakness in the wintry season to attack us simultaneously.”

Simon whistled between his teeth.

“
Damn,” he muttered.
“That hadn't occurred to me.”

“
And since that may be the
case, your situation has given me an idea.”

“
Okay.”

“
I was wondering,”
Liliana said with uncharacteristic hesitation, “if, assuming my
people agree, if we could join Clara and her people in the south.”

Simon's mouth dropped and the paladin
hurried on.

“
Not permanently, perhaps,”
she said quickly. “That would depend on how well we all got
along. But maybe until the winter passes. We could certainly pull our
own weight and help with the relocation and any rebuilding that needs
to be done. To be honest, the weather here is getting worse all the
time and supplies are scarce. My people are depressed and unhappy.
And now with this latest attack by the wights, they are even more
gloomy.” She sighed and looked directly at Simon. “Some
of them have given up. They are despondent, hopeless. Perhaps a
change of scenery, some warmth and companionship would help them.”

Simon grinned and shook his head.

Liliana stared at him.

“
You disagree?”

“
Far from it. I was actually
going to ask you if you would like to come with us. But I honestly
didn't think you'd agree. I know how much Moscow means to you.”

“
Yes.”

She looked around the deserted
street, her eyes unfocused as if seeing the city as it used to be.

“
I love this place, but it is
not the home that it was. I think that I've been holding on to the
past too tightly. It has chained me to this city. But now those
chains are threatening the people who look to me for protection and
that is unforgivable.”

She shook her head with a look of
regret and stared at Simon again.

“
Let me speak to my people and
see what they have to say. I suspect that they will be quite eager to
leave. Call me back in a few hours and I'll let you know what we've
decided.”

“
Will do. I hope they do decide
to come with us. The future is looking a lot brighter for the folks
from Nottinghill and I really hope your people will share in it.”

“
We'll see. I will talk to you
soon, Simon.”

“
You bet. Good luck.”

The wizard broke the connection and
sat back with a relieved smile. The elementals had been listening
intently.

“
So there's a chance that the
lady paladin and her few people will join the others, master?”
Kronk asked.

“
A good chance, I'd say,”
Simon replied. “Seems they're really depressed about the
incessant cold and lack of supplies. Can't say that I blame them
either.”

“
Well, a few more willing hands
would be welcomed by the lady cleric, I should imagine,” Aeris
said.

“
Maybe. But people are a bit
leery of strangers these days, as you both know. I'm hoping the
novelty of seeing some new faces will help them be accepted by the
folks in Nottinghill.”

“
I am sure that will be the
case, master,” Kronk said, sounding reassuring.

“
Yeah. Listen, could you get my
pack from the basement?” he asked the little guy. “I'm
going to bring the mirror, my spell-book and some food and water with
me when I head out.”

“
Of course, master. Right
away.”

The little guy jumped down to the
floor and hurried toward the stairs.

“
Oh and see if you can find
that canteen too, would you? It'll be next to the sleeping bags in
the dry goods room.”

“
Yes master,” Kronk
called back as he hopped down the steps and disappeared.

Simon set down the mirror and
searched through the cupboards, pulling out several sealed jars of
dried fruit.

“
Anything I can do?”
Aeris asked as he watched.

“
Sure. I wonder if you can go
up and get my spell-book? It's in the study. Oh and the list of
Gating coordinates I left on the desk?”

“
Happy to do my bit,” the
air elemental said with a quick salute and a crooked smile.

He shot off across the room and up
the stairs.

“
I wonder if air elementals
actually invented sarcasm,” Simon murmured to himself absently
as he sorted out the jars.

When the three of them appeared in
Nottinghill, next to the remains of the destroyed town hall, Simon
took a minute to really look around at the little town.

The hall itself had been leveled by
the wights during their attack. Rough timbers jutted up haphazardly
from the wreckage, covered by ice and crusted snow. The wizard stared
at it sadly, remembering the warmth and sense of companionship he had
always found within. Now it looked like the skeletal remains of some
ancient ice giant.

With a sigh, he turned and looked
across at the small houses of the town. It was perhaps ten o'clock in
the morning and the bitter sunlight blazed up from every surface,
mockingly giving no hint of the storm that even now was racing
southward toward them.

People were busily scurrying from
place to place. Some carried bags or boxes, others joined together to
shift heavier loads. Simon saw a man he recognized as the town
blacksmith carrying an enormous bundle of iron rods over his
shoulder, carefully watching his footing so that he didn't slip
beneath the obviously heavy load.

“
They must have decided on
their destination last night,” Aeris observed as he watched.

Simon nodded silently, looking away
from the people to the walls of the town itself.

“
So much time and effort put
into this place,” he said quietly, the frigid air biting
uncomfortably into his lungs as he spoke.

“
These people put everything
they had into making a new home for themselves, starting over
practically with nothing. And now...”

He shifted his backpack and felt a
deep sadness welling up inside of him. To move away must feel like
giving up to a lot of the people here. And he could understand that
feeling totally.

“
Master, surely it is better to
live than to hopelessly cling to the past?” Kronk asked,
practical as always.

The wizard looked down at him and
smiled.

“
Aren't you a little upset that
the walls and fortifications that you and your people built are going
to be abandoned?”

Kronk shifted his feet and the snow
squeaked beneath him.

“
No, master, not really. We are
going to help them build a new home, are we not? It pleases me to
think of that. After all,” he added with a wave at the
perimeter wall, “stone is just stone. It can always be reshaped
and replaced. I hold no sentiment for it, really.”

“
I wish I had your healthy
perspective, my friend.”

Simon turned and nodded at the blocky
barracks building.

“
Let's go. Clara will be in
there, I suppose. We might as well get this show on the road.”

When the three of them walked into
the building, the scene was one of controlled pandemonium. A stack of
goods was piled ceiling-high in the center of the room, constantly
being added to as people shuffled in and out. Simon ducked out of the
way as he was nudged from behind by a young woman carrying a bundle
of neatly folded clothes.

She grinned at him as she passed and
rolled her eyes. Simon smiled in return and then looked around for
Clara.

“
There she is,” Aeris
said. He was hovering next to the wizard at shoulder height and
pointed at the far end of the room.

The cleric was listening intently to
a group of people who surrounded her, a deep frown on her face. Simon
recognized Malcolm and Aiden because they towered over the others in
the group and he made his way toward them, weaving in and around the
turmoil.

“
Because we all agreed, that's
why,” Simon heard Clara say as he came within earshot.

The cleric was looking at a sheaf of
papers that the wizard recognized as the notes the air elementals had
made of their scouting trips.

“
The coast is a viable area,
there's plenty of fertile ground for crops and the notes make it
clear that oranges and other fruit trees are growing wild there, ripe
for the picking. And besides,” she looked up at Malcolm as she
spoke, “a view of the ocean and the warm waters will lift
everyone's spirits immensely. Right now we need that.”

“
Fine, fine,” the big man
said in his heavy bass voice. “I'm not disagreeing, Clara. I'm
just pointing out options.”

She sighed and seemed to sag a bit.

“
I know that. But we were all
up half the night going around and around this whole discussion. We
voted and the majority ruled. Now, let's just get on with it. We need
to get down there and look around in person first before we start the
actual move.”

“
Ready when you are, boss,”
Simon said loudly with a grin.

The entire group turned to look at
him in surprise and the cleric chuckled.

“
Right on time, as usual. Good
morning, Simon. Are you all set to start this crazy adventure of
ours?”

“
Ready, willing and able,”
he said as he greeted everyone. Malcolm gave him a hearty clout on
the shoulder and Aiden grabbed him to stop the wizard from toppling
over.

“
And hello to you too,”
Simon said, rubbing his arm.

“
Oops. Sorry about that,”
the big man said and he reached down and gently patted the wizard on
the back.

“
Malcolm, try not to knock out
our only means of transportation, would you?” Aiden asked in
exasperation.

Simon winced as he moved his shoulder
but had to laugh at Malcolm's look of dismay.

“
Relax, guys. I'm not quite as
delicate as I look.”

He slipped off his backpack and
pulled out the piece of paper with his list of coordinates on it.

“
Clara, it sounded like you
guys decided that settling along the east coast was the best choice?”

She nodded wearily.

“
It was a long night of loud
discussions, but...”

“
Arguments,” Malcolm said
with a broad grin.

“
Loud discussions,” the
cleric continued. “But in the end, we agreed that it would be
the best place to start over.”

“
Okay.”

Simon went through his list and
tapped a set of numbers.

“
I picked a location off of my
map of Florida on the coast, fairly central, that might suit. Now,
who wants to come along and take a look?”

“
Aiden and I will be coming
with you,” Malcolm said firmly. “Just in case. As will
Clara, obviously. Mark, you wanted to join us?”

A man with short, sandy-colored hair
that Simon vaguely recognized nodded.

“
Mark was an engineer back in
the old days,” Clara told the wizard. “He asked to join
us as an extra set of eyes.”