The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) (57 page)

“
Any chance you
could stop doing that with your face? It's kind of freaking me out.”

Lacertus' face locked into
place and now Simon was looking at the small features of a rather
handsome young man, who was grinning at him cheerfully.

“
Sorry. It's been
thousands of years since I interacted with a human. In my realm, we
don't bother with such things as faces and all that.”

“
So you've told me.
That's weird.”

“
Not to me. Now, can
we go? Or are you finally ready to face those two monsters?”

The elemental nodded at
the approaching dracoliches.

“
Not just yet. Let's
go.”

“
Where to?”

“
The Defiant. Ever
been on a ship?”

Lacertus levitated with a
crackle of power, like the sound of static electricity, until he was
at head height.

“
Long ago. It was a
galley though. Thirty oars on each side, as I remember it. How many
oars on this Defiant of yours?”

Simon laughed for the
first time in days.

“
None. Once it was
powered by technology, now they use magic to propel it.”

“
Do they? Marvelous!
I definitely want to see that.”

Simon took a moment to
brush the grass off of his robe. He'd fallen asleep in a field. He
guessed that it used to be pastureland but had grown wild again. He
always chose to sleep in the open now unless it was raining. It
allowed Lacertus to see the undead dragons approaching from a greater
distance. This field was located in what used to be southern France.
It was a random location that he'd picked from his atlas.

He grabbed his staff and
the bag and looked at the elemental.

“
You sure you don't
want to hitch a ride?”

Lacertus chuckled and
shook his head, little sparks cascading down his body.

“
I will follow you.
Now that we are bound together, I can follow you anywhere. No offense
to your other elemental friends, but my kind do not need to rely on a
wizard to travel around the world quickly.”

“
Right. Okay, I'm
off.”

The elemental looked
toward the approaching dracoliches, their wings beating furiously as
they tried to catch Simon before he disappeared again.

“
Hurry,”
Lacertus urged.

“
Gate!” Simon
said quickly.

He vanished with a crack
of imploding air and the elemental watched with glee as the
frustrated undead primals roared in fury and banked away, homing in
on the wizard's new location.

“
Not for much
longer,” Lacertus said to the duo as they faded into the
distance. “The wizard has me now and I'll figure out how to
stop you from tracking him.”

He smiled broadly to
himself.

“
And when I do,
Simon will know that I am the only servant he needs and he'll forget
those others. It will be just the two of us. Forever.”

He giggled with pleasure,
snapped his fingers and disappeared.

The wizard counted to
eleven before he was released from the void and on to the deck of the
Defiant. He immediately began coughing as thick, greasy smoke
obscured his vision and his eyes watered. He blinked furiously to
clear them and squinted, trying to see.

The Defiant's deck was a
jumbled mass of twisted wood and metal. The machines that the crew
had used to defend the ship were shattered and in pieces. Great holes
had been ripped in the deck plating as if the ship had exploded
internally.

“
What the hell
happened here?” he said out loud.

“
This ship is
sinking.”

Simon turned to look at
Lacertus who had appeared behind him.

“
Sinking? Are you
sure?”

“
Of course. Wait
here and I'll check below decks for survivors.”

“
I can help,”
Simon said and immediately tripped over some loose debris.

“
You will get
yourself killed. Please wait for me. I'll be right back.”

Lacertus disappeared and
the wizard sighed in frustration and started coughing again.

He dropped his bag and
raised his staff.

“
Shield,” he
said and felt better immediately as the opaque shield popped into
existence and began filtering out the smoke.

Simon grabbed his bag and
began picking his way across the deck, looking for clues that could
tell him what had happened.

He reached the bow, which
was quite a bit higher than the stern, and still couldn't figure it
out. There were no signs of a dragon attack; no blackened spots from
a dragon's breath, no gouges from claws. What the hell had attacked
them?

The one bit of good news
was that there were no bodies and Simon hoped that meant that the
mages had been able to evacuate the people to safety.

“
No one down below,”
Lacertus stated as he appeared a few feet away, his foggy body
sparking and swirling. “And no remains. I'd guess that they got
away safely.”

“
Yeah, I was
thinking the same thing. But what happened? This wasn't a dragon
attack.”

The elemental looked
thoughtfully at the burst deck plates.

“
Explosions, do you
think?” the wizard asked him.

“
I think not. I'd
say it was a kraken.”

Simon looked closely at
him to see if he was joking, but Lacertus looked quite solemn.

“
Are you serious? A
kraken?”

“
Yes, of course. A
giant squid. Very aggressive and destructive. They were quite the
scourge back in ancient times. I assume that they live again, like so
many other monsters.”

He shook his head, making
a tsk-tsk sound in his throat.

“
Even with their
machines to defend themselves,” he pointed at the wreckage,
“the crew would have had little chance against such a creature.
A shame, but at least they got away.”

“
I hope so. I wonder
where they went?”

“
Worry about that
once you yourself are safe. Have you given the tracking mystery any
more thought?”

Simon kicked some shards
of metal and a piece of wood out of the way and sat down on the deck,
his shield shifting around him. Lacertus easily slipped through the
barrier, which the wizard still found disconcerting.

“
How do you do that
again?” he asked as the magical elemental settled on to the
deck next to him.

“
Harmonics,”
the small figure told him and shrugged. “I don't know how to
explain it, as I've told you before, but my people cannot be checked
by wards, shields or other magic-based defenses. That's just the way
it is.”

“
That isn't very
reassuring, you know.”

“
Would you rather I
made something up? I can if you'd like.”

Simon shook his head and
laughed lightly.

“
Never mind. Hell,
I'm still trying to figure out how I summoned you in the first place,
considering the fact that I've never even heard of a realm of magic.
And considering that my elemental friends never told me about your
people.”

“
No, they wouldn't,”
Lacertus said dryly. “Other elementals don't like us and they
never have. I did explain this as well, sir wizard. We are not as
limited as they are. Earth elementals are attuned to rocks and stone,
water elementals to water and so on. But we, well we are attuned to
magic itself, the one element that permeates everything in this world
now. The people, the animals, the plants, the earth and water. Even
the air. Everything is saturated with magic, thanks to the gods; both
Light and Dark. Which means that I can come and go as I wish.”

He made a little gesture
and a shard of metal rose from the deck and bent in half with a
shrill squeal. It fell to the deck with a clang and now a piece of
wood rose up and shattered into splinters.

“
We magical
elementals can work with metal or wood or water. And the other
elementals hate it.”

“
Hmm, somehow I
doubt that Kronk would hate it. Resent it, perhaps, but the only
thing that I've ever known him to hate are the evil dragons.”

“
How would you
know?” Lacertus asked reasonably. “You only learned of me
and my people when I answered your summons.”

Simon untied his bag, dug
through it and found a package of waxed paper. He opened it and
pulled out a strip of dried meat.

“
How did you do
that, by the way?” he asked as he tore off a hunk and began
chewing.

The elemental shook his
head.

“
I still don't
understand it myself. You are the one that cried out in despair for
aid, or so you told me. How many times had you Gated by then? A
dozen? More?”

“
More. God, I was
exhausted,” Simon mumbled as he swallowed the meat. “Every
time I relocated they were on me in what felt like minutes. I
couldn't stop, I couldn't rest. I felt like I was going to collapse
or lose my mind. I think...”

He bit into the dried beef
and began chewing again.

“
I think that I was
about to make a last stand, while I still had enough strength left to
fight. That's when I, I don't know, called for help.”

He frowned at the
elemental.

“
But I didn't summon
you specifically. It was more like I was calling out to the universe
itself.”

“
Or the gods?”

“
Maybe. Did they
send you?”

“
As I have told you,
I don't know. I only know that one minute I was floating in the ether
of my realm, at one with my fellows, and then I was here, in this
world. Was I sent by the gods? Perhaps. Or perhaps you, wizard, as so
deeply immersed in your magic now that it answered your plea as best
it could and summoned me to aid you. Does it matter? I am here and
fortunately I've been able to muddle your trail enough that the
dracoliches take longer to lock on to you and track you down.”

“
Well, I'm
definitely grateful for that. But someday I'm going to want better
answers than 'I think' or 'maybe'.”

Lacertus grinned at him.

“
Good luck with
that. Personally I think that you should try to figure out how those
damnable undead primals are tracking you in the first place. If we
can counter that, you will be able to get enough of a respite to plan
your counterattack.”

Simon ate several more
strips of meat and then drank some water. He packed up again, stood
up and looked around at the desolate ship.

“
Such a shame. They
had a good home here. Why can't we ever catch a break?”

“
We?”

“
What's left of the
human race. We're on the ropes and the evil just keeps pushing us
down.”

The sky was gray and
oppressive and the ship was settling lower in the restless sea. Now
that he was fed and somewhat rested, Simon felt the rise and fall of
the waves and his stomach started to rebel.

“
We have to go,”
he said abruptly.

Lacertus flew up to eye
level and looked at him quizzically.

“
There's no rush,”
he said. “The primals are still a few hours away, I'm sure.”

“
It's not that. I
get a little,” Simon reddened, “seasick. So if there's no
reason to stay on this ship, which is slowly sinking by the way, then
I have to leave.”

“
Ah, I see. Delicate
stomach. No need to be embarrassed, sir wizard. No one is perfect. So
where to now?”

Simon dropped his bag
again, opened it and pulled out the atlas. He flipped through the
pages randomly and poked a finger at the map that appeared.

“
There,” he
said and peered down at the page. “Huh, well there's a place
I've never been before.”

Lacertus flew around him
and examined the map.

“
Australia? Is that
a country or a small continent?”

“
Both actually.
Well, it was. There's no city or town at the location I'm pointing
at, which is good. So let's go there.”

“
What kind of
weather are we looking at?”

“
No idea. I know
that part of the continent is desert but not all of it. Let's go and
take a look.”

Simon memorized the
coordinates and put the atlas back in his pack. He picked it up and
slung it over his shoulder.

“
Ready?” he
asked the elemental.

“
Always. I recommend
that you keep your shield up, just in case.”

“
Yep. Okay, see you
there.”

Simon disappeared and
Lacertus looked around a final time. There was no sign of the
dracoliches yet and he pondered the wreckage of the ship.

“
I wonder where they
went?” he muttered.

He shrugged, concentrated
on the wizard and Gated away.

“
You know, I think
I've figured out how those undead dragons are tracking me,”
Simon said later that day.