The Dragons of Ice and Snow (3 page)

Simon
nodded convulsively.

“
Okay,
let's go. Anything's better than hiding here until I freeze to death.
Aeris, you lead.”

“
Right.
Follow me. Quietly,” he added with emphasis.

The air
elemental floated slowly forward, weaving carefully around the
machinery and scattered crates in the room. Simon and Kronk followed,
with the wizard trying not to slip on the ice-covered floor.

Kronk's
rocky feet seemed to get a decent grip on the slippery surface and he
moved next to Simon, watching him anxiously.

The
painfully slow progress of the three meant it took them a few minutes
to cross the large warehouse floor, but they finally reached the far
door.

Simon
shoved the thick metal door and winced as the frozen hinges squealed
in the still air.

“
Damn
it,” he whispered.

The door
opened far enough for him to squeeze through and the elementals
followed him.

The next
room was even larger than the last. Simon looked around and noticed
long assembly lines with dozens of boxes scattered all over the
place. Whatever had been built in this plant had been put together in
this room.

The frost covering the floor and the walls was
even thicker in here and his footsteps crunched loudly as he slowly
moved toward some heavy machine and crouched down in its shadow.

“Is there another way out of here?” he
asked Aeris as he slipped Bene-Dunn-Gal over his shoulder and began
rubbing his arms to try to warm them.

“I'll check,” the air elemental
replied and floated off silently.

In the silence of the room, Simon could hear his
own heart beating, throbbing in his ears. A reddish pulse flashed
across his vision at each beat and he realized that he was probably
as frightened as he had ever been in his life.

“Master,” Kronk began. “You have
to get out of here. This cold will be your death if you don't...”

The little guy's voice trailed off as a distant
sound, coming from the opposite side of the warehouse from where
Simon thought the dragon was lurking, intruded on the brooding
silence of the building.

It was the sound of massive wings flapping, their
measured beat approaching rapidly.

Simon groaned.

“Another dragon,” he whispered as he
looked at Kronk. “You were right. That first one was calling
for help.”

Aeris flew back to them and gestured behind him.

“There are double-doors leading to a
courtyard,” he told them in a hushed voice. “The building
seems to have an open area in the center, perhaps it was a garden or
something once. It is covered with a thin layer of snow but is not
too large. Beyond are other doors leading into the far side of the
warehouse, or plant or whatever this place was.”

He glanced upward as the beating wings seemed to
pass directly above them and then faded again.

“It is the only way out of this part of the
building, Simon. Unless you want to try magic, you'll have to leave
in that direction.”

The wizard shook his head stiffly.

“Casting now, with two dragons this close,
would be suicide. Lead us to the doors, Aeris, and I'll try to figure
out our next move.”

“Okay. This way.”

Simon and Kronk moved carefully after the air
elemental, dodging boxes and conveyor belts and trying not to make
too much noise on the frozen floor. They had to stop twice as the
sound of dragon wings got closer and then faded again.

“One of them is patrolling,” the
wizard told the elementals. They nodded silently.

They finally reached the doors leading to the
outside. Both had small windows inset into them and Simon used his
sleeve to wipe off some of the frost that obscured his view.

Just as Aeris had said, there was a small, square
yard beyond the doors. Several little trees, weighed down with snow
and icicles, stood forlornly in what might once have been a garden,
their skinny limbs hanging almost to the ground.

The snow had been cleared by the wind and was
banked along the walls and the ground looked cracked and barren.
Simon thought that it was level enough for him to run across without
slipping. Hopefully.

On the other side of the open area, an identical
pair of doors led into the building again. One was hanging off of its
hinges and the darkness beyond made it impossible to see inside. The
courtyard itself looked to be no more than forty feet across.

Simon hunkered down again as the flapping sound
approached. This time he looked up through the window in time to see
the blazingly white shape of a dragon as it quickly flew into and out
of sight again.

“The beast seems to be circling in a regular
patrol,” he said to the others. “We're going to have to
time it and run as soon as it passes by overhead. Hopefully I'll have
enough time to get across the yard before it comes around again.”

“As good a plan as any, my dear wizard,”
Aeris said.

The three of them waited, Simon shaking constantly
in the cold now, for the white dragon to approach. When it did, the
wizard waited for it to pass and then began counting under his
breath.

“One one thousand, two one thousand,”
he muttered, listening intently.

He reached a count of twenty-five seconds before
the sounds of the dragon reached them again.

“Okay, I think I have enough time to cross
that yard before the dragon comes around again,” he said.

“Are you sure, master?” Kronk asked
him. “You are cold and stiff. You might not be able to run very
well right now.”

“He has a point,” Aeris said soberly.
“If you get caught in the open, things will get very bad, very
quickly.”

Simon chuckled humorlessly.

“Worse than being trapped in this place with
dragons listening and waiting for me to make a mistake? Yeah, thanks,
but I'll take doing something to save myself over acting like a mouse
waiting for a snake to strike.”

The dragon passed overhead.

“I'm going as soon as it flies by again.
Don't you two wait for me. Get across the yard and under cover as
quickly as you can.”

Aeris grinned bleakly.

“We're not going to slow you down, so don't
worry about us,” he said. “Just make sure you move your
ass.”

Simon let out a surprised laugh and then clapped a
hand over his mouth.

The air elemental winked.

“There, that's better. Less doom and gloom,
more optimism, my dear wizard. That will get us all through this.”

The wizard nodded at Aeris' uncharacteristically
cheerful attitude.

He's right, Simon thought. The cold is depressing
me, but we're far from dead.

He slipped Bene-Dunn-Gal off of his back and
gripped it firmly.

Far from dead, or powerless, he added to himself,
feeling a bit more resolute than he had been.

The dragon was approaching.

“Okay, get ready.”

The flapping sound got closer and Simon took a
deep breath.

A flash of glittering white overhead and then the
beast had passed.

“Now!” he exclaimed in a terse
whisper.

He grabbed the handle of the door and pushed it
hard with his shoulder. For a heart-stopping moment, the door refused
to budge and then, with a grating, squealing protest of frozen
hinges, it opened just wide enough for the wizard to leap through.

Crap. They may have heard that.

He let go of the thought and began to run,
concentrating on his footing.

Simon was alarmed when he realized that he was
barely moving faster than walking speed. His joints had stiffened up
and his muscles felt like rusty springs, snapping and throbbing at
each footfall.

His run across the courtyard was more of a stagger
but he plowed on anyway. Stopping or retreating now was simply not an
option.

Neither Kronk or Aeris had raced ahead to the open
door as he had told them to do. Simon was irritated but not
surprised. The elementals' loyalty was unquestionable now and he
found himself touched yet again by their concern for his safety over
their own.

Finally, after what felt like hours but was only
seconds, he reached the open door and tumbled inside.

Not a moment too soon. The sound of dragon wings
seemed to fill the air as the patrolling monster swept overhead
again.

The three waited, Simon holding his breath, to see
if they had been spotted.

But the dragon flew smoothly by on its patrol and
the sound of flapping faded again.

“We made it, master!” Kronk said
gleefully in a hushed voice.

“So far,” Aeris added darkly. “But
we're hardly out of danger yet.”

He looked around the room and Simon stood up
slowly and did the same.

This part of the plant/warehouse had been mostly
emptied of whatever it had housed once.

Weapons, the wizard thought. It wouldn't surprise
me if it had been weapons of some sort.

Unlike the other section of the building, there
was a faint tang in the air here. It smelled like a mixture of heavy
engine oil and...

Simon sniffed loudly.

Gunpowder.

On the floor there were smears of grease mixed
with the frost and several frozen puddles. Only a few scattered
boxes, crushed and tossed aside, remained of whatever this room had
once held.

“There,” Aeris said quietly and
pointed.

Across the gloomy, cavernous room, fifty yards or
more, there was a faint outline lit by the external sunlight. A door.

“Okay, guys,” Simon said as he began
to walk toward the exit. He steered clear of the oily patches on the
ground.

“That has to be our way out.”

Kronk and Aeris flanked him on either side and
nodded as he looked at them.

“We'll wait for the patrolling beast to pass
by and make a break for it. There's bound to be some sort of cover
out there to duck behind.”

They reached the door and the wizard glanced at
Aeris, who was shaking his head.

“What?” Simon asked.

“Make a break for it and hope for cover?
That's a ridiculous plan,” the air elemental said caustically.
“Let me go out there and scout out a path before you charge
through the door. Much more sensible, don't you think?”

Before the wizard could reply, from the direction
they had come a bellowing roar shook the air, followed by the sound
of smashing glass and snapping metal.

“Damn it!” Simon said as he spun
around. “Sounds like that dragon's gotten tired of waiting!
It's forcing its way into the building, danger or no danger.”

He looked at Aeris.

“I think we'll go with my plan. There's no
time to scout.”

Aeris looked over his shoulder angrily.

“Is the beast insane? It will be slashed in
a thousand places before it reaches us.”

“I do not think it cares,” Kronk said.
He looked up at Simon.

“If we are going to make a run for it,
master, I think now would be the best time.”

Simon nodded and then listened intently. The
dragon was now making such a racket that he could barely hear his own
thoughts.

“Can either of you hear the patrolling
dragon?” he asked the elementals.

Both of them cocked their heads, but it was a
waste of time. The dragon did indeed sound like it was tearing itself
to pieces as it ripped apart the building in its desperate attempt to
get to the wizard.

“How can we be expected to hear anything
above that noise?” Aeris asked, almost shouting.

“Fine,” Simon yelled. “Then
we're going on the count of three. Remember, just find the nearest
cover and hide until we can get a idea of where that second dragon
is.”

He looked from Aeris to Kronk. Both were watching
him tensely.

“Okay. Here we go. One...two...three!”

On three, Simon smashed through the metal door,
almost falling as it opened easily, as if its hinges had been freshly
oiled. He ran two steps, maybe three and pulled up short as he found
his way blocked.

The sun had blinded him as he left the darkened
building and he took a second to focus on the obstacle ahead.

His eyes widened and his breath caught in his
throat.

It was the head of a dragon.

Simon gaped at the dragon.
It was hunched down, wings tight against its sides, with its chin
resting on the ground. The head, at least eight feet in length, was
scarred and singed, layered with ivory scales. And its two burning
yellow eyes glared at him with a staggering hatred.

The wizard had no spells
prepared. He'd been afraid to tip off the dragon behind them, so he
didn't even have his Shield spell up. In the time it would take to
cast a spell, even using his staff, the dragon would either
incinerate him or blast him with its icy breath. So he did the only
thing that he could: as the dragon's head began to rise and it
started to inhale massive amounts of air prior to its attack, Simon
lifted Bene-Dunn-Gal over his shoulder and flung it like a javelin,
straight down the dragon's throat.

The beast froze, its eyes
widened and a small sound, like a little squeak, ludicrously escaped
from its mouth. And then, from deep inside its gullet, a dull thump,
like a far-off detonation, went off. The neck expanded in a round
bubble and Simon leaped to one side as the dragon's neck literally
exploded, tearing its monstrous head from it body and sending it
bouncing across the frozen ground.

Gallons of greenish blood,
smoking in the frigid air, spewed from its torn neck and Simon stood
in morbid fascination, and watched the huge beast's remains writhe
and twist in its death agonies.

A sudden shove between his
shoulder blades made the wizard stumble forward.