The Dragons of Argent and Silver (Tales from the New Earth #6) (8 page)

The little guy's red eyes widened.

“Oh, I see, master. That is very
clever.”

“I suppose so. It was primitive
compared to the digital stuff we used just before the world came
crashing down around us. It's one of the things that I miss the most
from those days, you know; music.”

“But you hum, master,” the
little guy told him. “You do it all the time when you are
working around the tower.”

He grinned and winked up at Simon.

“It drives Aeris crazy, by the
way.”

“Does it? I'll have to remember
that. Yeah, I guess I do hum but that's all I can do. Even in this
new body, I can't sing worth a damn. A shame but you can't have
everything, I suppose.”

A blast of heat made Simon scurry back
up the steps on his heels and elbows, holding up a hand to shield his
face.

Kronk was blown backwards and rolled
several feet, rumbling a protest.

“Ah, oh my. I do apologize, sir
wizard,” a voice like the hissing of embers said with some
embarrassment.

Simon wiped sudden sweat out of his
eyes and looked blearily at the writhing, shimmering outline of
Incendus, who was hovering an inch above the ground and withering the
grass beneath him.

“Perhaps I should have announced
myself as those pompous airy ones do,” he added with a touch of
condescension.

The wizard pushed himself up to a
seated position, irritated and amused at the same time. He glanced
down at Kronk, who stood up and walked back to the steps, giving the
large burning figure a wide berth. The little guy nodded at him
reassuringly.

“That's okay, Incendus,”
Simon told the fire elemental. “No harm done. Did you find it?”

From the center of his essence,
surrounded by flames, the fiery being pulled out a pale ovoid, the
size and shape of a large watermelon.

“I did indeed. One dragon egg, as
requested.”

He set it down on the ground below the
steps and steam began to rise from the earth beneath it.

“Don't touch it for a few
minutes; it's quite hot.”

“I can see that. Any problems
getting it?”

Incendus snorted a laugh, twin jets of
fire shooting from his nostrils.

“Well, the parents weren't
pleased with me, I can tell you. Fortunately I'm quite a bit faster
than they are, so I was able to snatch the egg and leave before
things got too,” he grinned widely, “hot for me, as it
were.”

Simon chuckled at the pun.

“Good. Well done. I very much
appreciate the favor, Incendus.”

The burning figure made a dismissive
gesture.

“Not at all, not at all. The hunt
was rather dull, I will admit, but capturing the egg made up for it.
Now, what else can I do to assist you?”

Simon was staring at the egg in
fascination. Its leathery, skin-like surface was both interesting and
disgusting at the same time.

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all,”
he said as he looked up at the elemental. “I am beyond grateful
for this, but you are quite free to return to the realm of fire
whenever you wish.”

“As you have never tried to
command me, sir wizard, I am always free to do that, am I not?”

Incendus bent over and took a last long
look at the egg.

“Ugly thing when you get right
down to it, isn't it? Well, whatever you intend to do with it, good
luck. I must tell you that I believe the red dragons are reproducing
at an alarming rate. You might want to keep that in mind going
forward.”

Simon narrowed his eyes and focused on
the elemental.

“What makes you say that?”

“The fact that there were a
half-dozen of these things in that one nest. If that is typical, and
if the several hundred red dragons that exist are mating, then I
invite you to compute the total of new dragonets. Now, I don't know
how long it will take for those young dragons to mature, but even if
it is a decade, you may only have that length of time before those
several hundred become several thousand.”

He shook his head and his expression
darkened.

“A fairly grim prospect, don't
you think?”

“Damn. I hadn't actually done the
numbers in my head,” Simon told him, appalled. “If we
don't find a way to thin out their ranks, we'll be ass-deep in
dragons soon.”

“I agree. Well, let us cross that
bridge when the need arises.”

Incendus bowed with a flourish.

“Do call when you need me again,
Simon O'Toole. I enjoy the little jobs you give me.”

Before the wizard could reply, the
elemental disappeared like a snuffed flame, leaving the smell of
ashes and soot behind him.

“So this is a dragon egg,
master,” Kronk muttered as he approached the ovoid.

He put his small hands against the side
of the egg and Simon almost warned him off; the object was still
radiating heat. But he remembered that Kronk wasn't affected by fire
and watched with interest as the earthen ran his hands across the
egg.

“What do you think?” the
wizard asked when the little guy was finished and stepped back.

“Think, master? I think that it
is disgusting and evil and I think that if you did not need it for
this ritual of yours, I would crush it and stomp on it and bury it
deep.”

Simon stared at Kronk in open-mouthed
surprise. The earthen was the most gentle of souls, most of the time.
His reply had caught the wizard off-guard.

“Really? That's so unlike you,”
he said hesitantly to the little guy.

“No, master. Forgive me for
correcting you, but it is not. My people hate evil in all of its
forms and this?” Kronk pointed at the egg, his blocky face
twisted with distaste. “This is potentially a servant of the
gods of Chaos. Pure evil in every way. One day, if allowed to hatch
and mature, it could be a threat to you, master. So I would willingly
destroy it and all of its kind if I could.”

“Um, okay then. Good to know.
Anyway, I guess when it's cooled down enough, we can put it
downstairs with the vial of drake's blood. Now all we need is the
blood from the dragon queen and we're good to go.”

'That is correct,' Esmiralla's internal
voice told him faintly.

“I will take it to the cellar for
you, master,” Kronk said stoutly, overcoming his obvious
aversion to the egg. “Once it is no longer hot.”

“Thanks a lot. Now if only Aeris
and the others could get back from their excursion, we could get on
with this.”

“Hopefully soon, master. Aeris is
stubborn, if nothing else, and he loves a challenge.”

“That's what I'm afraid of,”
Simon told him as he pushed back his hair. “Sometimes that
makes him reckless. Let's hope this isn't one of those times.”

“
She's gaining on
us!” Orriss yelled frantically.

He didn't bother looking
over his shoulder. He fancied that he could feel the dragon queen's
hot breath on his back; certainly he could hear her deafening roars
of insane rage.

“
Just keep flying!”
Aeris called back. “Brethia may only get one chance at this, so
don't panic and disappear.”

“
I won't, I won't.
But she's getting too close!”

The pair of elementals
were racing across the dunes, twisting and diving from hill to hill.
Aeris had finally gotten sick of stalking the dragon and had decided
to lure her into a spot where one of them could get a dram of her
blood. It might not have been the smartest of ideas.

He was aiming for a line
of scrub brush that marked an arroyo ahead. The ground there dipped
suddenly and led to a narrow, high-walled canyon that he hoped would
funnel the worm-like queen in the direction they wanted her to go. At
least, that was the plan.

“
Damn it, Orriss,
keep up!” he shouted angrily over his shoulder. “What
kind of an air elemental are you? You're going to get your slow ass
killed if you don't get moving.”

Although he would never
admit it, Aeris was afraid that the younger elemental would be
destroyed by the mad dragon queen. And if he was, it would be Aeris'
fault as his senior and leader. He couldn't allow that to happen.

He risked a quick look
behind them. The queen was slithering over the sand like a huge
snake, her yellow, crusty scales rasping across the ground with an
ear-splitting squealing sound. Combined with her constant bellows of
rage, the air shivered with noise.

She was about fifty yards
back now and gaining, as Aeris had had to lower his speed to allow
Orriss to keep up. Her enormous red eyes were locked on both of them
and she chased them with a focus that was foreign to the insane
creature. In a way, the elementals had given her a purpose, if only
temporarily.

If my dear wizard could
see us now, he'd have a few choice words for me, Aeris thought with a
wince. I cannot let this situation end in disaster.

Somehow Orriss managed a
burst of speed and shot by Aeris, who barked several words of
encouragement at him.

“
Now keep going,”
he added loudly. “Get through those bushes and go invisible.
I'll do the rest.”

Orriss waved at him
silently, saving his energy for the race and Aeris lagged a bit more
to give the young one his chance to get clear.

A wave of heat suddenly
engulfed him and Aeris cursed under his breath as he realized that
the queen had gotten close enough to belch fire at him. Her fiery
breath was even deadlier than a normal dragon's would be. Plus, the
line of erect quills that sprang up between her eyes and ran all the
way down her spine were hollow and filled with a murderous poison.
Fortunately, air elementals were immune to any poison or disease, but
the queen's flames could still kill him.

He accelerated to keep
ahead of her and watched with some relief as Orriss disappeared
through the scrub brush ahead. Finally. Now it was up to him to keep
the mad dragon's attention while Brethia did her job. He hoped this
scheme worked because the thought of repeating all of this made him
feel almost physically ill.

He looked back again,
afraid that the queen might be losing interest in the chase, but he
need not have worried. Her gaze was chillingly locked on him, her
eternal rage given a target.

Now for the final push, he
said to himself and reached for the last of his strength. He crested
the low hill ahead, burst through the dry brittle plants and dropped
down into the arroyo. A hollow to his left appeared empty as he shot
by it, but he knew that Brethia was in there, invisibly waiting for
the queen to pass.

The deep, narrow canyon
ran a long way, at least a mile. It was an anomaly that Aeris
couldn't explain, but it had given him his idea when they had
stumbled upon it two days earlier as they'd followed the queen.

“
Wait. You want me
to what?” Brethia had asked in surprise.

The three had been
hovering over the arroyo, the queen a distant blur on the horizon.

“
Take her blood.
Look, it's pretty straightforward. Orriss and I can get her angry and
lead her to this canyon, ditch, whatever you want to call it. It's
deep and narrow enough to funnel her in a straight line along its
length, so she won't stray off-course, which is what has been
defeating our efforts to get some blood up until now, right? All you
have to do is hide off to one side,” he pointed to one end of
the arroyo, “that small depression near the entrance will do
nicely. Take a sample as she passes and that will be that. She won't
even feel it.”

Both Brethia and Orriss
had listened dubiously but had agreed to the plan. Neither had any
better ideas and they had been stalking the queen for far too long as
it was.

Please let this work,
Aeris muttered as he zoomed down the narrow canyon. Please, please
let this work.

He waited until he was
several dozen yards into the ancient waterway, if that's what it was,
before looking back. He was just in time to see the massive, scarred
body of the dragon queen surge into the canyon, actually becoming
airborne for a few seconds due to her tremendous speed. It was a
magnificent, horrific sight and Aeris felt a rush of fear as he tried
to increase his own velocity and stay out of the reach of the
monster.

She landed with an
earth-shaking crash, dirt and debris flying in all directions and
sending a cloud of dust shooting down the canyon. The cloud engulfed
Aeris and he was blinded in an instant.

He had no choice. Without
his sense of sight and with an enraged giant wyrm on his tail, Aeris
knew that he wouldn't survive more than a few seconds if he became
disoriented. So he did the only thing he could do; he turned
invisible and shot straight up out of the arroyo to safety.

It was very close though.
He actually felt the searing, magical breath of the queen on his back
and heard her immense stomach gurgling as he flew out of range. It
was one of the most terrifying situations he'd ever been through and
not something he intended to repeat.

When he was about two
hundred feet above the ground, Aeris became visible again and looked
down.

The mad queen had already
traversed the arroyo and was racing off mindlessly toward the
horizon, probably still unaware that her prey had escaped. Aeris felt
a momentary pang of sympathy for her endless plight and then looked
around for Brethia and Orriss.

He saw both of them
ascending to join him and he saw twin expressions of satisfaction on
their faces. He felt a swoop of hope as he waited for them; maybe the
plan had worked. At least they were all still alive.