The Dragons of Decay (33 page)

“
Master,” Kronk said with
obvious effort. “I can only do this for a short time. Get
everyone away from here while you can.”

“
Okay, everybody. Touch a crate
or box and join hands. Aeris, with me. Kronk, I'll chant the spell
and then you come over and join me. Then I'll invoke it and we'll get
the hell out of here.”

Kronk turned his head to look over
his shoulder at Simon, a gentle smile on his glowing face.

“
I cannot do that, master. As
soon as I release the wall, the stone will lose its heat immediately.
The wights will tear through the building in seconds. You will have
to go on without me.”

“
Are you insane?” Aeris
spluttered. “Those creatures will rip you apart, you fool. You
can't stay behind.”

“
I must protect my master,”
Kronk said simply. “As must you. Watch him for me, won't you?
He will not admit it, but our master sometimes needs our guidance.”

Aeris, for once, had no response. He
could only look at his friend, anguish in his face.

Simon and the others began speaking
at once, arguing vehemently against leaving the earthen behind.

“
Please!” Kronk bellowed,
cutting through the babble. “There is no time. I am failing as
we speak. Please master,” he said to Simon, who watched him
through eyes blurred with sudden tears. “Please don't make my
sacrifice be in vain. Go, protect your friends, be the great wizard
that I know you can be. Please.”

Simon's voice caught in his throat.
He could hear the howls of hunger and rage just beyond the walls and
knew that the wights were simply waiting for their chance to renew
the assault. Kronk was right; they had to go.

“
Okay everyone, let's move,”
he said roughly and hurried over to the heap of boxes.

Virginia looked at him, an expression
of contempt on her face. He'd never seen that look before.

“
So you're going to leave him?
Just like that?”

Simon's exhaustion, grief and anger
boiled over and he matched her glare with one of his own.

“
No, not just like that!”
he shouted and she recoiled in shock. “My best friend in this
world is giving his life so that all of us can live. Will you
dishonor his sacrifice by standing here arguing about it? If I didn't
have to worry about you and your people, I'd stay with him and fight
to the end! But I can't.” He felt the tears running down his
face and wiped his hand across his eyes angrily. “I can't,”
he repeated hopelessly.

“
I...yes, I see that. Forgive
me, Simon. I understand.”

She turned to her friends.

“
You heard him; move your
asses. Right now!”

They all jumped and frantically moved
over to the pile of supplies. Aeris stayed with Simon, holding fast
to his sleeve.

The wizard chanted the incantation
quickly, his eyes fixed on the glowing figure of his friend.

“
Kronk, listen,” he said
suddenly. “I have an idea. As soon as we're gone, go deep, like
you did before with me. Get out of sight and I'll summon you as soon
as we arrive down south. Can you do that?”

The strained look on the earthen's
little face was replaced by a surprised smile.

“
Master! That is a wonderful
idea. I will do that. I do not know if it will work but I will try.”

“
Okay then. I'm casting now.
Get ready.”

Kronk just nodded and Simon took a
deep breath.

“
Here we go,” he said to
the little guy. “
Invectis!
”

The world
faded away and the wizard had a brief moment to watch what happened
next. It was a direct view into Hell.

The walls
lost their red glow and Kronk raised his hands as he looked down,
preparing to burrow into the ground. Then the stone around him
literally exploded and a mass of white, undead flesh engulfed him.
Simon tried to scream but it was too late. He and the others were
pulled into the void, and away to safety.

As the group appeared
in Florida, Simon stumbled away from them, looking around
frantically. Aeris was next to him and their eyes met. It was obvious
that the air elemental had seen the same thing that the wizard had.

“
He was
overwhelmed,” Aeris whispered, his face twisted with grief.

“
I know.”
Simon said. Then he hurried away from the others and the helpful
townspeople who moved forward to lend a hand with the supplies. They
had no idea about what had just happened and were talking and
laughing together.

Simon found a bare
patch of ground, an old ant hill poking out of the tall grass, and
fell to his knees in front of it. Aeris moved to hover to his right.

The wizard stared at
the ground, clenched his fists and focused as much of his power as he
could. He knew that there wasn't much left.

“
Kronk, I
need you!” he stated firmly, watching the bare earth intently.

They waited but nothing
happened.

“
Damn it,”
the wizard muttered. “It won't end like this. I won't let it!”

He focused again,
feeling the magic build up inside of him. It was like scraping a bowl
for the last bit of icing, frantically looking for one final taste.
As the power built up, so did Simon's resolve, and his anger.

“
No one
else dies because of me,” he said, hissing in fury through
gritted teeth. “You hear me, you damned gods of Chaos? You're
not going to win, not this time.”

“
My dear
wizard,” Aeris began to say gently. “Don't you think...”

“
No!”
Simon said and slammed his fist into the hard-packed earth. “Not
this time, God damn it! I've lost enough. Not. This. Time.” And
with each world he smashed his fist down, splitting the skin on his
knuckles and leaving splotches of red, like a primitive sacrifice, on
the dried dirt.

“
Kronk,”
he bellowed. ”Come back to me!”

And like an explosion,
all of Simon's remaining power erupted out of him. A blast of silver
light, like an aura of electrical energy, blazed around his frail
body, knocking Aeris tumbling through the air. Blood gushed out of
his nose and ran down from his ears, but the wizard didn't feel it.
All he knew was that he wanted his friend back. All he could feel was
his resolve.

If I die from this,
then I die, was his last thought as darkness claimed him. Maybe it's
better this way.

A face swam out of the night; a shape that glowed
with its own light. As if surfacing from deep water, Simon watched as
the world began to come into focus, its blurred edges slowly becoming
sharp and defined.

“Where am I?” he asked vaguely as he
tried to identify what he was seeing. He blinked rapidly and things
suddenly sharpened and snapped into clear definition.

He was lying on his back, the sweet grass under
his body wafting its comforting scent past his nostrils. Above him
were only stars in an inky sky, blazing like jewels. Simon frowned up
at them, disturbed by their clarity. They looked too bright, too
close to be real.

He was so focused on the sky that the face that
was staring down at him was almost lost in the heavenly splendor
behind it.

“Are you done star-gazing?” a voice
asked with amusement.

Simon narrowed his eyes and concentrated on that
blurred visage above him. The features became clear and he found
himself looking up at a woman.

“Ah, and there you are, young wizard,”
she said. She laughed with seeming delight, reached down and pulled
him to his feet in one smooth motion.

Simon stood on his own with no sense of dizziness
or disorientation. He couldn't remember how he got there, wherever
there was, or even what had happened in the recent past.

“Where am I?” he repeated, feeling a
bit stupid.

His companion smiled and he looked at her closely.

She looked familiar somehow. Taller than the
wizard, she was wearing bright silver armor and had a gleaming sword
resting on her left hip. Her blond locks cascaded down her back in
waves and her fine features and large blue eyes gave her a beauty
that was breathtaking.

“You are here, young one,” she replied
with a wave indicating their surroundings. “Here, where you are
safe from the depredations of my kin, from their evil intentions.”

Simon turned in a slow circle, trying to get his
bearings.

They were standing in an endless sea of grass. No
trees or plants broke the unending vista and the waving grasses
stretched on into darkness. It was the dead of night, but those
crystalline stars lit the field so brightly that he could easily see
the woman and beyond her for many yards in all directions. He felt
like he'd been transported to the middle of the prairies, except that
he would have expected to see wheat or corn fields. But it was just
tall grass, gently rippling in the warm breeze that caressed them
both.

“I don't recognize this place,” he
told her. “But I feel like I should know you.”

“You should, child. We spoke once before, in
a dream. I gave you a small gift then. Do you not remember?”

Simon actually felt something click in his head,
like two gears had met and engaged, allowing his memory to function
properly. His eyes widened and he sucked in a breath.

“I remember!” he gasped. “I
remember now. You are one of the gods of Light!”

She shrugged and pushed a strand of hair off of
her face.

“Gods. Goddesses. Simply labels used by
those who do not understand us. But yes, if you must call us
something, call us that if you wish. But we are merely those who came
before all others.” She smiled again. “Age has given us
status, it seems. Perhaps that is a benefit? Who can say.”

“Why am I here, Lady?” Simon asked,
feeling the power of the woman like heat beating against his mind.
There was no pain, but it was almost overwhelming. He resisted the
urge to back away from the source.

She seemed to know how he was feeling and made a
reassuring gesture.

“I brought you here to talk, Simon,”
she said softly and the wizard shivered as she used his name.

“I did not expect to ever have the chance to
speak with you directly again, at least not in this life. But
circumstances have made this meeting possible and I took my
opportunity, against the wishes of some of my kin.”

Her laughter tinkled like the ringing of bells and
Simon smiled in response.

“But then I have never been able to follow
the rules that they would impose upon me and they know it. It has
caused a few arguments over the eons, I can tell you.”

“Why have circumstances changed?” the
wizard asked, looking up at the stars again for a moment and feeling
the thrill of their endless light. Had the sky over Earth ever had so
many stars?

“Because you are dead, child,” she
said simply. “Even now your soul is struggling to tear loose
from your mortal realm and fly free. You are between Heaven and
Earth, as it were, and so I have this brief time to visit with you
once more.”

“Dead?”

Simon stumbled back in shock and almost tripped in
the long grass. “What are you saying? I feel fine.” He
frowned and looked down at himself. “Actually, I feel amazing.
Never better.”

“Of course you do,” the goddess
answered with a sigh. “The soul feels no pain, no need. Hunger,
thirst, physical want, all are gone when a mortal passes away. You
are on the verge, young wizard. But you have been such a staunch ally
and so loyal to your people and to us, in a way, that I wanted to
thank you for your service.”

She too looked up at the night sky, a look of
profound sadness twisting her perfect features.

“I fear that with your passing, our cousins,
the dark gods as you call them, are going to win the battle for your
New Earth. You were the most powerful of all of our Changlings and,
without you, I believe that the dragons will eventually overcome the
elves and then the remnants of humanity.”

She shook her head and caught Simon's gaze with
her own.

“We will be left out here, in the dark, and
they will ravage across the stars, plunging your universe into
eternal blackness.”

“What are you talking about?” Simon
asked in frightened confusion. “I'm just one man. There are a
lot of others who will stand against the gods of Chaos and their
servants. What about the elves? They're strong and powerful. Surely
they will be able to hold against the brown dragons?”

“Hold? Yes, they will hold, for a time. But
what are a few years, decades, even centuries to the dragons? The
elves are immortal but they do not reproduce quickly. They will be
worn down and beaten by attrition if nothing else. Time moves
differently in their realm, as you know, and if it takes a generation
to conquer that world, who will care? Our cousins are not patient,
but they will wait for that. After all, they will gain a universe out
of it.”

Simon knew that he should feel more upset about
what he was hearing, particularly the part about him being dead, but
he didn't. His emotions seemed packed in wool and he felt as calm and
even-keeled as he ever had.

“I seem to be taking this whole thing better
than I would have expected,” he ventured to say.

The goddess indicated the night around them.

“It is this place. You are on the border
between life and death. The human soul does feel a sense of peace
here. It makes the transition easier.”