The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) (3 page)

“
So, did you climb
all the way up here just to keep me from rusting?” she asked
lightly as they walked down the steps.

The mage laughed lightly
but kept his eyes on his footing. The stairs were worn and quite
steep.

“
Not exactly, no. I
wanted to keep you updated on the situation with Simon.”

The paladin waited until
they had reached the bottom of the stairs and were crossing the
courtyard before speaking again.

“
Very well. What's
happened? You sound worried.”

A long drawn out sizzling
sound was punctuated by an ear-splitting blast of thunder. At the
same time, the entire castle was lit up by a blinding flash and a
deluge of rain swept over them

The pair raced across the
grounds, managing to get indoors before they were completely soaked.
Sebastian's robe was soggy though and droplets dribbled off of
Liliana's armor.

The mage pushed back his
wet hair and grinned widely.

“
Could have been
worse,” he said cheerfully.

“
True. We could have
actually been hit by that lightning bolt.”

There was a sturdy bench
in the wide hallway just inside the door and Liliana sat down
heavily. She took off a gauntlet and wiped the water from her eyes.

“
Now, what were you
saying about Simon?” she asked.

Sebastian patted his face
on his sleeve and nodded.

“
Right. About that.
Well, I suspect that Keiko may be on to something.”

“
What makes you say
that? We haven't even had a chance to speak with him yet.”

“
And we're not going
to,” the mage told her with a shake of his head. “Simon
refuses to come back to Nottinghill.”

Liliana frowned up at the
mage.

“
What? But why? Does
he suspect something?”

“
Who knows? All I
know is that Tamara called him using the Magic Mirror spell. We
thought that only one of us should be present when she made the
call.”

“
Wise.”

“
Perhaps. At any
rate, when she made contact, it was audio only. Simon blocked the
visual portion of the spell somehow. I didn't even know that was
possible.”

“
Neither did I. And
what did he say?”

“
Oh, it was
innocuous enough. Just said that it was a busy time for him, that
several of his cows were due to give birth and that he was too busy
to make the trip.”

Liliana put her glove back
on and stood up. She watched as droplets of water splattered on to
the stone floor beneath her.

“
You do realize that
he may be speaking the simple truth, don't you? He does have a lot of
responsibilities, after all.”

They began to walk down
the corridor together.

“
Yes, of course we
do. And I think that is the most frustrating part, at least for my
sister. This entire thing is based on speculation and conjecture. We
don't actually have any proof that there's anything wrong with Simon,
at all.”

The hallway turned to the
right and led deeper into the castle. Liliana stopped and looked
closely at her companion.

“
I think I hear a
'but' in there,” she said.

“
But for the first
time ever, Simon actually said no to a request. I don't mean asking
him to come to Nottinghill. It was something else entirely.”

The paladin leaned back
against the dark stone wall and folded her arms.

“
What request?”

“
As you heard from
Malcolm, several of the ballistae are in need of repair and that is
beyond the abilities of our craftsmen. So Tammy asked Simon, while
she was speaking to him earlier, if he would send one of his earth
elemental servants to try and make contact with the dwarves, relay
our problem to them. I know that elementals are banned from the
dwarven capital, but we thought that if the creature could speak with
a patrol outside of the city, we could at least ask them.”

“
I see. Simon could
also simply contact the dwarves himself, if they aren't blocking him.
Apparently that happens on occasion. And? He said no?”

“
Turned us down
flat. Tamara is furious. She says that it was a very flippant answer,
but then my sister is often a bit...overly sensitive.”

Liliana snorted a quick
laugh.

“
That's one way to
put it. Hmm. So Simon won't come to see us and he won't aid the
castle either.”

She pushed herself away
from the wall and nodded to Sebastian.

“
Thank you for the
update. I will give all of this some thought. Sleep on it. With this
weather, I'll be staying over tonight and heading home in the
morning, so we'll speak about this again before I go.”

“
Thanks so much,”
the mage said sincerely. “You're closer to Simon than any of
us, since we lost Clara. Maybe you can think of a way to reach him
that we can't.”

“
The way to reach
him has always been to simply ask,” she told Sebastian grimly.
“If he is denying the last members of the human race his aid, I
doubt if there is anything that I can say or do that will move him.
But we shall see.”

They parted ways and
Liliana walked back to the entrance, opened the door and watched as
the storm raced across the sky. She had a lot to think about.

The next morning, all of
the senior members of the castle met again. The room that had been
set aside for meetings was oval shaped with high, narrow windows and
ancient shields hanging on the walls, coats-of-arms shining and
flashing in the early morning light.

The long, heavy wooden
table was laden with trays of fried eggs, ham, toast and pots of
honey. Several large pitchers of tea and juice were set in the center
of the spread, along with cups, glasses, plates and cutlery.

“
Everyone help
yourselves,” Tamara said loudly once they were all gathered.
“Don't stand on ceremony.”

Malcolm and Aiden didn't
need to be told twice. Liliana watched the men with amusement as they
loaded up their plates. She knew that warriors were always hungry, as
she was herself, but those two were so large that they seemed to
inhale anything edible left near them.

The paladin was more
delicate as she arranged her breakfast. Her sleep had been long and
deep and not entirely uneventful, but she would wait until after she
had eaten before telling the others about it.

Tamara and Sebastian were
speaking quietly to Keiko as they got their breakfast. The tiny woman
was listening intently and nodding occasionally. She barely took any
food and seemed to have the appetite of a bird. Perhaps she was still
suffering from a touch of the flu.

Miriam, the castle's only
cleric, was cheerfully joking with Malcolm. She said something that
made the big man squirm and blush like a schoolboy and sent Aiden
into gales of laughter. Liliana smiled in spite of herself and the
current crisis. Any time she was down, being around that couple
always cheered her up.

Virginia and Anna entered
with Eric and Gerard trailing behind them and the paladin greeted
them with a nod as she ate her breakfast. Sitting in armor for any
length of time wasn't all that comfortable, so Liliana stood next to
the table to eat.

The four young people
smiled and said good morning to her and to everyone else. They then
eagerly began to fill their plates and the paladin watched them
speculatively.

The quartet were the most
unusual of all of the castle's inhabitants, in Liliana's opinion.
Kept as virtual slaves by mundane humans for several years after the
dragons had destroyed humanity, they had developed magical abilities
that only functioned if the four of them worked together.

Virginia was a healer and
the leader of the group. She was also as beautiful as a cover model
with her waist-length blond hair and perfect features.

Anna was quite small, with
bright red hair that hung heavily over her shoulders and a sprinkle
of freckles across her nose. She could actually turn members of the
group invisible if they held hands.

Gerard, with his small
frame and shaggy, white-blond hair, looked almost elvish compared to
the others. His large brown eyes darted around the room curiously. He
was inherently cheerful at all times, except when discussing his own
powers. Gerard was the only member of the quartet whose talent was
offensive. He could use magic to smash things with incredible force.
Unfortunately for him, he was a pacifist by nature and he hated that
power.

Eric was the tallest of
the group. He was pale and thin with dark hair and eyes and was
almost always serious. His talent was the ability to cast a force
shield around himself and his friends. The shield was as strong as
any cast by another magic-user, even Simon O'Toole.

Once everyone had settled
in and eaten their breakfast, Tamara stood up and tapped a glass to
get their attention. She was sipping a cup of tea and looked relaxed
and rested.

“
You all know why
we've gathered, correct?”

There was a general
nodding of heads.

“
Good, then I won't
have to explain things again. It's quite worrying that our most
powerful ally has possibly turned his back on us. Now before I get a
chorus of objections, I agree that it's all circumstantial evidence.
Simon is a busy man, of course. He has responsibilities of his own
that have nothing to do with Nottinghill Castle. I know, for example,
that he's assigned several air elementals to track the dragon queen,
in case she approaches too closely to any human habitation, including
ours.”

“
That's a relief,”
Virginia said in her husky voice. She glanced at her three friends.
“We've been discussing options on that front ourselves. I'm
glad to hear that Simon has it covered.”

Tamara nodded.

“
Exactly. So that
proves that he's still taking his duties seriously. Plus there was
the happy discovery, also by Simon and his elementals, that there are
indeed other human settlements out there, including that ridiculous
ship that's sitting off the west coast of Africa.”

There were several
chuckles from the others and Tamara frowned.

“
C'mon Tammy,”
her brother said with a grin. “Doesn't it appeal to the
romantic inside of you that a bunch of people are living on a cruise
ship like pirates from a storybook? And using magic to make it move?
That's awesome.”

“
It's absurd,”
she replied in a clipped voice. “Using the powers of a mage to
keep that bloody boat afloat is...a waste.”

“
I disagree,”
Liliana said abruptly.

Everyone looked at her,
Tamara obviously surprised.

“
You do? Why?”

“
Tactically, it is
sound. Red dragons are reluctant to fly over large bodies of water. I
have been told that the ship, the Defiant is it? Yes. Well, I have
been informed that they only see dragons when they are close to land.
So they spend most of their time, when not resupplying, at least
twenty miles off-shore. Out there all they have to worry about are
the sea monsters.”

She said this last bit so
matter-of-factly that it took a few seconds before anyone responded
to it.

“
Hang on a second,”
Eric said, looking confused. “Sea monsters?”

The paladin smiled an
affirmative.

“
Yes. Sea monsters.
Apparently the New Earth and the magic that permeates our atmosphere
has spawned dangerous creatures in the oceans as well as on land.”

“
Like what?”
Gerard asked eagerly.

“
Oh, I don't know.
Kraken, sea serpents, which are some sort of aquatic dragons that
breathe acid, giant turtles; that sort of thing.”

“
And how do they
survive attacks by things like that?” Anna asked in a
frightened voice.

Virginia put an arm around
her shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“
They have several
mages on board,” Sebastian told her with a gentle smile. “And
they have built catapults that throw enchanted iron balls covered
with spikes that, I'm told, are very effective. They manage.”

Malcolm poured himself
some apple juice and sat back in his chair. He was listening closely.

“
I haven't heard
anything about this,” he said irritably. “Just how long
were you magical types going to wait before you deigned to pass on
this information to the rest of us?”

“
Excuse me?”
Tamara replied sharply. “It's common knowledge.”

The big man returned her
look coolly, but didn't respond.

“
Actually, it
isn't,” Aiden spoke up. “Let me delicately suggest here
that what is common knowledge among magic-users may not be common
knowledge to the rest of us. Perhaps you could, oh I don't know, put
out a release every month or so for the castle's inhabitants on what
is going on in the world?”

Liliana could feel the
tension rise in the room and moved closer to the table. She put down
her plate and then rapped loudly on the wooden surface, getting
everyone's attention.