The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) (30 page)

“
Look at the edges
of the hole,” Aeris said to Kronk.

“
They appear to
be...writhing? Moving? What is that?”

“
Watch and see.”

A few seconds later the
view became clear and defined and Kronk pulled back from the mirror
in disgust.

He was looking at masses
of humanoid forms. Shambling, screeching, eyes blazing with purple
fire.

“
Undead, master.
Hundreds of undead.”

“
Thousands, Kronk,”
Simon said. “Thousands.”

Kronk seemed confused as
he looked in the mirror again. He frowned but remained silent.

“
What is it?”
Aeris asked. “You seem puzzled.”

“
I am. How did you
see these abominations earlier? Undead cannot exist in direct
sunlight. The pure light of the heavens destroys them utterly.”

Simon nodded and adjusted
the axis of the mirror. The view retreated upward again and then
moved to the left.

“
Remember the
oddness of the Peace Tower I mentioned?”

“
Of course, master.”

“
Look now. This is
how those monsters were able to be above ground during the day.”

The tower had been smashed
by the dragon's attack on the Night of Burning, leaving only jagged
walls that were a third of the height of the original ones. But now,
crude wooden extensions had been attached to those walls and rose up
to a flat surface. On that new roof stood a brazier that burned
brightly in the evening breeze and placed next to it was a metal
stand. The stand, made of twisted, rusty steel rods, held a glass
globe that dripped with lurid purple flames.

“
What is that?”
Kronk asked in wonder.

His question went
unanswered because all three observers changed their focus to the
figure standing behind the globe.

Black, crusty robes
swirling in the wind, the man, if man it was, had his arms raised and
his head thrown back. He was chanting in some strange language with
his eyes closed. His lips were pulled back in a rictus of apparent
ecstasy and he waved a twisted staff as he chanted. It was a very
disturbing scene.

“
What is he?”
Kronk asked, bewildered. “He is using a staff, so he can't be a
mage.”

“
Do you remember
when the lich, Madam, attacked the old town of Nottinghill?”

“
Yes, master. She
was a horrible creature. I remember that time very well indeed.”

Simon nodded, watching the
man in the mirror.

“
Well, back then
Aeris was worried that she wasn't the original source of the evil
creatures that attacked the town. He told me that she might have been
created by a...”

“
Necromancer!”

The earthen answered the
question himself and then stared at Aeris in horror.

“
Him?” He
pointed at the mirror. “You think that he is the necromancer?”

“
There is no doubt
of it,” Aeris answered grimly. “You can't see it now but
earlier today we saw a dome of force covering that hole, filtering
out the sunlight and allowing the caster to continue his
incantations.”

Kronk hunched forward and
looked in the mirror with a scowl.

“
But what is he
doing?”

Simon adjusted the mirror
again and the view zoomed back to the hole. The three of them watched
silently for a moment and then Kronk made a sound of revulsion.

An arm groped out of the
hole, catching hold of the churned up ground at the edge of the
abyss. The appendage was gleaming with bone barely covered with
ragged pale skin. A skeleton wearing a few scraps of rotten clothing
pulled itself out of the hole, empty eye sockets flickering with
purple light.

“
He's raising the
dead,” Aeris said. “Swelling his ranks. The hole must
extend deep underground and branch off in all directions. He is
calling up the dead that have been buried around the countryside.”

“
Oh, this is bad,
master. This is very bad.”

“
You don't say?”
Aeris said sarcastically.

“
Hush,” Simon
told him. “You're right, Kronk. It is very bad. There's no way
to tell how many undead that necromancer has gathered or how long
he's been doing it, but it's a safe bet that there are no living
Changlings left in Ottawa.”

He reached into his
pocket, pulled out the pebble and held it tightly for a moment.

Goodbye Sarah, he thought
sadly. I guess Madam was telling the truth when she said that she had
killed you and raised you as a walking corpse.

“
At least that bitch
is destroyed,” he muttered savagely, reliving the moment when
the lich had been immolated by the rising sun.

“
Master?”

“
Nothing. Okay, now
the big question is; what do we do about,” he trained the
mirror's focus on to the necromancer, “him?”

“
A very good
question. Necromancers are fallen wizards. That is why he is wielding
a staff. His powers rival your own, at the very least. We saw his
shield today. It takes a very strong spell to block out sunlight.
That is a powerful man.”

Aeris looked at the
chanting figure and then stared up at Simon.

“
A necromancer gets
his powers from the dark gods. They alter the body to make it easier
for the caster to absorb magic, which means that they can cast faster
and their powers recharge more quickly.”

“
Lovely. More good
news. Well, right now my immediate concern is all of those undead.
Why is that guy raising so many? What is his end game? Just what the
hell is he doing?”

They watched the scene
again for a few minutes and then Simon canceled the spell and set
down the mirror. He sat back, picked up his cup and finished his tea.

“
Why here?” he
asked eventually.

“
What?”

“
I said, why here?”
Simon repeated, looking at Aeris. “What's so special about
Ottawa? I mean, since the world went all to Hell, this entire area
has become isolated. The people from old Nottinghill are in England
now, so if that necromancer wants to kill humans, he's out of luck.
Why not set up in Beijing or Mexico City? There have got to be some
survivors around those ruined cities.”

“
Hmm, good point.
Why haven't we checked on those places for Changlings?”

Simon rubbed his eyes.

“
It's a big world,
Aeris. Even your fellow air elementals that I sent out to scout
couldn't cover every square mile of it. It will be years, maybe
decades, before we locate all of the remaining pockets of humanity.
If we survive, of course.”

“
Master? Perhaps
this city of yours isn't really special.”

“
Meaning what?”

“
Meaning that we do
not know that the evil spell-caster in Ottawa is alone. What if there
are many just like him in strategic locations around the world?
You've destroyed the dark gods' primal dragons; perhaps this is their
next plan to exterminate your race? They must use what was available
in ancient times. They cannot create something new. And one of their
conduits into this world were the necromancers.”

Both Simon and Aeris
stared at the earthen with wide eyes. Kronk looked back at them and
shrugged meekly.

“
It was just a
thought,” he said in a subdued voice.

“
Kronk, I think you
are a genius,” Aeris told him in a strained voice. “By
the way, write that down; I may never use that phrase again.”

Simon laughed in spite of
himself but he nodded in agreement.

“
You may have hit
the nail on the head, my friend. Damn, that never occurred to me. I
am so myopic. I was thinking locally when I should have be thinking
globally.”

He jumped to his feet,
grabbed the mirror and raced across the room.

“
Where are you
going?” Aeris called after him.

“
To get my atlas,”
the wizard shouted back as he ran up the stairs.

Several hours later, Simon
sat at his desk in his study and ticked off another name listed on a
large piece of paper. He stared red-eyed at it and then sagged limply
into his chair with an exhausted sigh.

The candles on the desk
had burned down to nubs and he wearily waved a hand and summoned a
mage light.

“
Well, that's it
then,” he told the elementals who were standing side-by-side
next to the open atlas. “Kronk was right.”

Simon had decided to use
the coordinates in his atlas to spy out the major cities on each
continent. London, Paris, Beijing, New York, Mexico City, the list
extended to twenty cities. There were more that he wanted to check on
but he was simply too exhausted and his power was almost drained.
He'd barely been strong enough to summon a light.

Every city was infested
with undead. Every single one.

“
We are so screwed,”
he said with a groan.

He closed his eyes and
rested his head against the back of his chair.

“
It's rare that I
agree with such a sweeping statement, but in this case you may be
right,” Aeris said.

He closed the atlas and
looked at Kronk.

“
When exactly did
you become so clever?”

“
There is nothing
clever about it,” the earthen said as he watched Simon
worriedly. “It just made sense. Ottawa is fairly central to
this part of the country, so that is why the dark gods have chosen it
as one of the sites for their necromancers. The other cities are
similarly placed. Plus a larger city would have more available
graves. The evil magic-users must still have bodies to imbue with
dark magic, after all.”

“
Makes sense
indeed,” Simon agreed, eyes still closed. “I'm also
guessing, not to sound too full of myself or anything, that having my
home base located so close to the city would be icing on the cake for
the lords of Chaos. When that necromancer decides to move, I'm
guessing that this tower will be his first target.”

“
Now there's a
cheerful thought,” Aeris said dryly. “However, before
that happens, if it happens, might I suggest that you get some sleep
to build up your power again? And in the morning, you might want to
call for help.”

“
Help?”

Simon opened his eyes and
leaned forward, staring blearily at the air elemental.

“
Help from whom?”

“
One or more of my
people. You need someone to keep an eye on that horde of undead in
the city, just in case. Who better than a trained scout?”

The wizard yawned and
clapped a hand over his mouth.

“
Sorry. Yeah, that
is a good idea. As long as they stay a reasonable distance away, so
they won't be detected by that necromancer, we'll at least get an
early warning when the undead start to move.”

“
Exactly.”

“
Okay. Thanks for
your help, guys.”

Simon stood up slowly and
grunted. His butt was asleep. It obviously had more sense than he
did.

“
See you both in the
morning.”

“
Sleep well,
master.”

Rolling out of bed the
next morning was a struggle. Simon was so comfortable, curled into a
warm ball with his blanket and sheets wrapped around him, that the
only thing that eventually forced him out on to the cold floor was
his pushy bladder.

He dressed quickly, eyes
barely open, and stumbled downstairs.

“
Good morning, my
dear wizard. Would you like...”

Simon waved vaguely,
fumbled with the front door and staggered outside.

“
Was it something I
said?” Aeris said as he floated across from the kitchen counter
to the fireplace with the full kettle.

Kronk was arranging logs
on the embers.

“
Master needs to use
the outhouse,” he replied irritably. “Leave him be.”

“
Don't be so
crabby,” Aeris told him as he hung up the kettle. “I was
just asking.”

“
It is the way you
ask, not what you ask.”

The little guy stepped
into the flames and pushed a few pieces of wood around until they
were arranged to his satisfaction. He stepped out again and stood on
the stone floor waiting for his body to cool off.

“
Do not forget to
mention the ward,” he said, looking up at Aeris who was
hovering beside the kettle.

“
I won't forget,”
the air elemental said with a roll of his eyes. “Why don't you
tell him?”

“
Because your people
are the experts when it comes to magic, not mine. Your opinion in
these matters carries more weight.”

Aeris looked down at him
quizzically.

“
Don't sell yourself
short. He's known you a lot longer than he's known me. He values your
opinion too, you know.”

“
Yes, on some
things. But this should come from you.”

They heard Simon clumsily
opening the latch on the door, exchanged a look and became silent.