The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) (16 page)

Daniel frowned and his
eyes flitted from one side of the room to the other.

“
Bah. I may be dying
but I'm not a fool, nor have I lost my wits.”

He tried to raise his
voice.

“
Speak up, before
they assume I'm hallucinating. It's about time you got in touch
anyway. You're almost too late, you know.”

Simon smiled as his vision
blurred with tears.

“
Hello, old friend,”
he said and he heard his voice echo around the bedroom.

The elves jumped as one
and looked around again, eyes wide.

Ethmira was the first to
smile. She looked relieved and patted Daniel's hand again
reassuringly.

“
We didn't think you
were crazy, Daniel. We thought you had been dreaming, that's all.”

“
Hmm. A likely
story. Hello Simon. Where the hell have you been?”

“
Cranky as always,”
the wizard replied fondly. “Some things never change.”

“
Some things do,”
Daniel told him.

He tried to push himself
up higher and the elves hurried to adjust his pillows to help him.

“
All right, all
right, don't fuss!” he told them in a cranky voice. “I'm
not quite useless yet.”

“
You don't look
well,” Simon said worriedly.

“
Of course I don't
look well. Father Time has finally caught up with me, old buddy. I'm
officially dying. Lovely, isn't it?”

The wizard sat up in his
chair, his heart suddenly pounding in his ears.

“
Dying?”

“
Yes, dying.”

“
How can you know
that? What do you mean? Damn it, what's...”

His friend made an abrupt
gesture and cut him off. Then Daniel looked down at himself and
hissed irritably.

“
This ridiculous old
body has worn out before its time. My elven friends here have done
what they could, but immortals don't really know how to deal with
aging. It's foreign to them.”

“
We've tried,
Daniel. Believe me.”

He smiled at Ethmira and
nodded, his irritation forgotten.

“
I know, my dear. I
know. I don't blame you or your people. It's my own fault for
returning to Earth and being caught by the time differential.”

He turned his head and
stared straight into Simon's eyes.

“
Ah, there you are.
I like that I can see your image. Your powers have grown.”

“
Maybe they have.
But if so, it hasn't been from use. I haven't cast spells for several
months now.”

Daniel's gaze sharpened.

“
Explain.”

Simon tried to focus on
the recent past and ignore Daniel's horrible statement. It was very
difficult.

He told them about the
merging with Esmiralla. Ethmira had been part of the attack on the
primal red dragon, but hadn't known about his involvement with the
silver dragon. She looked shocked as the story unfolded.

Daniel lay there quietly,
watching Simon but saying nothing. A few times he closed his eyes and
the wizard wondered if he was drifting into sleep. But each time, his
old friend would rally and sit up and listen attentively again.

When he was finished, no
one spoke for a while. The elves just exchanged worried looks and
then waited for Daniel to comment.

He sighed and shook his
head weakly.

“
The road to Hell is
paved with good intentions,” he murmured. “And you can
excuse even the worst sins by claiming they were committed in the
name of the greater good.”

He looked at Simon.

“
The silver dragon
has tarnished herself and her gods by doing what she did. You do
realize that, don't you?”

“
Better than anyone
else, under the circumstances. I have been violated and I no longer
trust her. At all. I'm withholding judgment on Argentium. He seemed
appalled by what Esmiralla did. We'll see how things go in the
future.”

“
Silver and argent
dragons, both returned to the mortal world,” one of the elves,
a slim male with long black hair, said in wonder.

“
Will they take the
fight to the red dragons and the gods of Chaos?” he asked
Simon, wide-eyed.

“
I assume that's why
Esmiralla brought Argentium back from the Void,” he replied.
“But powerful or not, they are still only two dragons against
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of foes. And that's not even counting
the evil gods. In the end, they may not have much of an impact on our
struggle.”

“
Oh, I think they
will,” Daniel said.

When Simon gave him an
inquiring look, he simply smiled mysteriously.

The smile was replaced by
a sudden look of pain and Daniel hissed and clenched his fists.

A female elf bent over him
and muttered several words in elvish. The old face relaxed and Simon
watched as his friend closed his eyes and fell asleep.

“
We keep his pain as
bearable as we can,” Ethmira told Simon sadly. “But we
cannot stop what is coming.”

“
How long?” he
asked hesitantly.

“
Soon. Very soon. I
am sorry to say that this may be the last time you see him alive, my
friend.”

Simon pushed that thought
away.

“
No. I have to see
him in person. Ethmira, I need you to open a portal for me to the
elven realm. Just tell me where it will appear and I'll meet you
there.”

Before she could answer,
the woman who had eased Daniel into sleep interrupted.

“
That is not
possible,” she stated flatly, staring at Simon. “If you
enter our lands, you will have to remain here. Returning to your
world will kill you as surely as it is killing Daniel.”

“
No it won't!”
Simon told her roughly. “I did it once and I was fine. My
wizard physiology ages much more slowly than any normal human. I'll
be okay.”

“
You will not.”

“
Ethmira, who is
this?” Simon asked as he glared at the woman.

“
Simon, this is
Sybell. She is our greatest healer and one of the eldest of us. If
she says that you will die if you come here, then you will die.”

“
But why?” he
asked plaintively.

“
It has to do with
the time differential,” Sybell told him, speaking in a more
reasonable tone. “As you know, it does not flow smoothly.
Sometimes it moves more slowly here than in your world and at other
times, it moves faster. At this moment, it is moving very swiftly
indeed. Your magic allows you to speak with us as if we were all
moving at the same speed, time-wise, but we are not. To put it
simply, by the time you entered this realm, Daniel would be gone.
Years would have passed in the space of a few of your days. We do not
notice, as we do not age, but you would age and die while only a few
days would have passed on Earth. It would be a waste of your gifts,
wizard.”

Simon sat back in his
chair and looked at them all helplessly.

“
Then what do I do?”

“
Say goodbye,
Simon,” Ethmira told him softly. “Sybell, would you wake
Daniel please? Ease his pain for a few minutes and let him speak with
his oldest friend.”

She looked at the handful
of elves that stood around the bed.

“
Please wait
outside,” she asked.

They bowed and left
silently. Several looked at Simon compassionately, but he was totally
focused on Daniel and the healer, Sybell.

Ethmira bowed slightly to
him and followed them out.

Sybell placed a gentle
hand on Daniel's forehead and his eyes fluttered open. She said
something in elvish and looked at Simon.

“
He will be
conscious for only a few moments, wizard. That is all the time that I
can grant him before the pain returns.”

She nodded at him and
walked out.

“
What? What
happened?” Daniel asked as he tried to push himself up on his
pillows. He barely moved.

“
Did I fall asleep?
Well, that was awkward. Sorry about that.”

Simon forced a grin.

“
No problem. I've
always suspected that my conversation could put you to sleep. Seems I
was right.”

Daniel laughed, a thin,
wheezy sound.

“
My secret's out.
And why did my audience withdraw, hmm? Not that I mind. Between you
and me, they get on my nerves a bit. I know that they care, but...”

“
I hear you. Well,
they went out so that you and I could have a moment's privacy.”

Simon suddenly found
himself unable to speak. Instead, tears filled his eyes and ran down
his face, and he found it hard to even see Daniel.

The old head nodded and
his friend's eyes watched him wisely.

“
Ah, I see. So the
hour is nigh, as they say. I'm about to shake off this mortal coil,
etcetera. Huh. Now that the time is here, I'm not sure what to say.”

“
It's not that bad,”
Simon told him thickly. “I remember passing over. It's rather
exciting, actually. The land beyond death is vast and holds endless
possibilities and untold adventures. It certainly doesn't scare me
anymore.”

“
It holds no fear
for me either,” Daniel said with a little smile. “I've
lived with pain for quite some time now. It will be a relief to put
it behind me. But I will admit that knowing death isn't the end
is...liberating.”

“
It isn't fair!”
Simon blurted out. “You're younger than I am. We should have
had years to enjoy this New Earth. Instead you were trapped in that
world and doomed to die long before you should have.”

“
That's the way it
goes,” Daniel said with a feeble shrug. “I've lived a
hell of a lot longer than most mundanes did after the dragons
attacked. I didn't Change, Simon. I knew then that my days were
numbered. And living here has actually been amazing. The things I've
seen, the books I've read and the people I've met have been a wonder.
So don't feel guilty about this and don't regret it. It is what it
is.”

He grimaced and shuddered,
his thin body twisting under the heavy quilt.

“
The pain is
returning. It's time to say goodbye, old friend.” He smiled
fondly at Simon. “It's time to let me go.”

Simon wiped his eyes on
his sleeve and frantically tried to think of something to do, some
way to stop the inevitable. But Daniel began to shake and he knew
that the healer had to come back in and help him.

“
Oh damn.
I...goodbye, Daniel. I've only counted two people as family in my
entire life; my mother and you. I'll miss you more than I can say.”

“
Me too, my friend.
Me too. But who knows? We may meet again one day, on the other side.
Look for me, would you?”

“
I will. You do the
same. We'll have a pint together.”

“
It's a date.”

Daniel writhed again and
motioned Simon away.

The wizard smiled one last
time and passed his hand across the mirror to cancel the spell.

He sat alone in his study,
staring blindly at nothing and thinking about the friend he had just
lost. Then he lurched to his feet and flung the mirror across the
room. It smashed against the stone wall and shards of glass flew in
all directions.

“
God DAMN it!”
he shouted and collapsed into his chair.

He rested his arms on the
desk and lay his head on them. He didn't move for a very long time.

Simon spent several days
numbly going through the motions of living as he mourned Daniel's
passing. When Kronk and Aeris heard the bad news, they were very
supportive. When he wanted to talk, they were there. And when he
needed some quiet time to think, they gave it to him. In retrospect,
they were probably the best companions he could have had during that
difficult time.

But Daniel wouldn't have
wanted his best friend to spend his life grieving and Simon knew
that. And so, after he was able to grudgingly accept the painful
loss, the wizard knew he had to get back to living in the real world.
It was wrenching and hard, but he had a long life ahead of him and
there was a lot to do.

“
Good morning,
master,” Kronk said brightly a few days after the tragedy.

Simon was eating porridge
and sipping tea while reading an old tome on mythical beasts when the
elemental came bounding in the front door carrying a small wicker
basket.

“
What have you got
there?”

“
Fresh eggs, master.
You can have them for lunch. How are you feeling today?” the
little guy continued as he tip-tapped across the room and carefully
jumped up on the kitchen table. He put the basket down gently.

“
Better, thanks,”
Simon told him as he looked up from his book and smiled. “Thank
you for your patience with me the past few days.”

“
No thanks are
necessary, master,” the earthen said with a dismissive gesture.
“Even we elementals mourn the loss of friends. It does not
happen often, but we all know grief. It is important for all sentient
creatures to accept and move on from such a personal loss.”