The Dragons of Ash and Smoke (Tales from the New Earth Book 5) (14 page)

He patted her again and
then moved on to Chief.

The stallion had been
watching impatiently and threw back his head, his keen horns almost
smacking into the ceiling.

“
Don't
be like that,” Simon admonished him. “I said hi to Tammy
first because she was the closest, so don't get all cranky.”

Chief eyed him narrowly
for another moment and then, with a show of reluctance, lowered his
head and allowed Simon to rub his forehead between his horns, his
favorite spot.

“
Have
you been taking care of the girls for me while I was gone?” the
wizard asked him under his breath.

The big horse snuffled
along Simon's chest and then gave him a gentle push with his head,
careful to keep his horns out of the way.

“
I
knew you would,” Simon told him. “Your daughter looks
more beautiful than ever. You did good, buddy.”

Chief turned his head and
looked across at Sunshine and her filly and snorted proudly. Clearly
he agreed.

“
And
how are you ladies doing?” the wizard asked as he stepped
across the aisle to stand in front of the pair.

Sunshine stretched out her
neck and rested her chin on his shoulder, something that she always
seemed to do when greeting Simon. Her daughter, Sunbeam, tried to
copy her mother but couldn't reach the wizard's shoulder.

He quickly obliged by
bending down until the little filly could nuzzle his neck.

“
How
are you, little girl?” he asked her as he stroked her baby-soft
neck. “You're growing like a weed, kiddo. Mom, you should be
proud. Your baby looks good. Really good.”

He spent a few more
minutes with them and then went back to the door and opened it wide.

“
Okay
Kronk,” he said. “Let them out. I'll open the back gate.”

“
Yes
master,” the earthen called back as he entered the stable. “I
will do that now.”

Simon hurried across the
yard to unlock the rear gate. He pulled it open and stood back to let
the horses out into the field behind the tower.

The four of them eagerly
burst out of the stable one by one, Chief in the lead as always. But
for the first time, each of them stopped and gave Simon an
affectionate swipe of their heads or gently nuzzled him with their
soft lips before slipping through the open gate and out to the grassy
pasture beyond.

When they were all out,
Simon looked around for Kronk and saw him standing in the doorway of
the stable.

“
While
they are gone, I will clean out their stalls, master. Why don't you
head out and spend some time beside the lake? It might do you some
good after being kept underground for so long.”

The wizard smiled at the
little guy's thoughtfulness.

“
Okay,
I will. Thanks, Kronk.”

The earthen waved and went
back inside while Simon followed the horses out through the gate and
into the lush field outside of the wall.

Behind the tower was a
small lake. When he'd bought the site, way back before the Night of
Burning, there'd been a little cottage where the tower now stood and
Simon had been overjoyed at finding his summer hideaway. Now it was
his home and his refuge.

He walked across the
field, a mild slope leading down to the lake. Except for the remains
of an old cottage that had been deserted since he'd first moved in,
the small body of water, which he refused to call a pond even though
it was no more than fifty feet across and twice that in width, was
pristine. On this warm spring afternoon, the water was rippled by the
light breeze and glittered in the sunlight.

The horses, as always, ran
together along the length of the lake, throwing back their heads and
showing off to each other. Even little Sunbeam, a bright lemon
streak, copied her elders and kicked up her heels as she ran beside
her mother.

Simon stood knee-deep in
the waving grass and simply enjoyed the moment. He breathed in the
fresh air and, finally, felt the last vestiges of the gloom of the
dwarven city lift from his mind, replaced by the glow of home and
hearth. It was almost intoxicating.

He moved down to the shore
and sat on a small boulder that jutted out of the field, the water to
his right. He ran his fingers through his hair, closed his eyes and
lifted his face to the sun.

Was this how a prisoner,
locked away in some gloomy dungeon, felt when granted his freedom, he
wondered. A part of him felt a pang of guilt at that idea. The
dwarves hadn't been his jailers; they'd been his saviors. Opheilla
had saved his life and had spent months nursing him back to health.
She'd asked for nothing in return and he knew that it would hurt her
cruelly to have her home compared to a jail. And Stanis! He had made
Simon a member of the dwarven community; something that the wizard
was sure was not a common occurrence.

Okay, shut up Simon, he
told himself forcefully. There's enough guilt festering inside of you
without adding to it. The dwarves are at home in the deeps and you
aren't. It's as simple as that. Just stop thinking of their city as
being comparable to a prison, that's all. Besides, if you want to
feel guilty about something real, just remember Clara.

He opened his eyes and
gasped as something touched his neck. But it was only the filly,
delicately nuzzling him and staring with wide eyes.

Simon laughed and
carefully stroked her neck until she was quivering with happiness.
Sunshine wasn't very far away, munching on grass and watching the
interchange with obvious approval. When she'd lost interest a few
minutes later, Sunbeam bolted away and raced across the field to
chase Chief, who obliged by loping just ahead of her and neighing
with amusement.

The wizard smiled at their
antics but was drawn back to thoughts of his fallen friend.

He remembered the day that
Clara had appeared in the clearing in front of his tower. My God, how
long ago was that? Three years? Or was it four? He wasn't sure.

But she had walked out of
the forest, somehow following Aeris' trail back to the tower. He had
made contact with her and her fellow Changlings and had, imprudently
perhaps, mentioned Simon and his tower.

How confident she'd been,
the wizard reflected with a smile. Of course those two large warriors
with her had probably had something to do with that. What had they
been called?

He frowned in
concentration until their names floated up from the recesses of his
brain. Ah yes, Richard and Michael. Big, strong and loyal, they'd
been Simon's first exposure to armored warriors and they had been
impressive. His smile faded. They were both long dead now, killed by
Madam and her legion of walking corpses.

Ah but back then, they had
all been so alive. How pleased he'd been to have had his first human
visitors. And Clara. Clara.

Simon bowed his head and
turned to watch the little ripples dance across the water.

She'd
worn her hair long at the time and it had made her look much younger
than she was. And yet she'd called
him
young man. It made him laugh even now. That had been the beginning;
the start of their friendship. They'd endured everything this crazy
New Earth had thrown at them; walking corpses, ghouls, wights, even
werewolves, and had come out the other side intact, or nearly so. To
have her die in such a way, by dragon-fire, betrayed by one of her
own; well, the word unfair was far too inadequate to use, no matter
how true it was.

His
lips pulled back in an unconscious snarl as he though of Henry, the
traitor.

I'll
find you one day, you bastard, Simon said silently. You won't be able
to hide from me or my vengeance forever.

He
shook his head after a moment, the rage retreating. Clara wouldn't
approve of revenge, that he knew. Perhaps it would be best to just
leave the traitorous little coward to his fate. With the world the
way it was now, he was probably dead already.

With a tremendous effort,
he pushed away all of his dark thoughts and just tried to enjoy the
day. He stood up and began to walk slowly around the circumference of
the lake, occasionally checking on the horses and just drinking in
the beauty surrounding him.

Once he'd reached the
other side of the lake, Simon squatted down next to the water and
peered into the shallows. Tiny minnows darted and swam like living
bullets just beneath the surface and he watched them with wonder, as
if they were something he'd never seen before.

“
You're
deep in thought,” a voice said to him. It was coming from just
over the lake itself and the wizard looked up to see Aeris hovering
above the rippling surface, watching him.

“
Hey
Aeris. Yeah, I guess I am.” Simon stood up and stretched. “All
done your chores?”

The elemental twitched his
shoulders, his opaque form bobbing in the breeze.

“
More
or less. According to Kronk's standards, I'm never done, at least not
to his satisfaction. But on this momentous day, I've done as much as
I intend to. We haven't seen you for months and I have no intention
of using all of my time on your first day back dusting shelves.”

He flew closer and placed
his small fists on his hips.

“
So
how are you feeling now? More like your old self?”

“
Definitely.”

Simon began walking again
and Aeris floated along beside his left shoulder.

“
I'm
still putting the pieces back together in my mind; you know, all of
the past that you and me and Kronk have shared, stuff like that. I
mean, my stay with the dwarves has already started to feel more like
a dream than a real memory. Weird, huh?”

Aeris thought silently for
a few paces.

“
Not
really,” he replied with a frown. “You have been through
a lot of trauma, my dear wizard. Let's remember that you did actually
die once already. And then, with the dragon attack, you almost
repeated that experience. You spent six months in an induced coma and
then had to spend another month recovering your strength. You've
battled four primal dragons, monsters by the score and you have lost
close friends, many of them. I'd be more alarmed if you weren't
bothered by it all.”

He gave Simon an admiring
glance.

“
But
you are made of much tougher stuff than I ever gave you credit for.
Perhaps these memories need to take on a more distant tone for you to
cope with them. That may be your mind's method of healing;
compartmentalize the bad things and emphasize the good.”

Simon had stopped to
listen to the air elemental and now began walking again, thinking
through Aeris' words.

“
You
know, that may actually be close to the truth. A few minutes ago I
was experiencing a moment of rage, when I thought of the guy who
betrayed the people of Nottinghill and got Clara killed. And then, I
don't know, it's like my mind took that memory and stuck it in a
drawer somewhere deep inside my head and the anger just disappeared.”

Aeris nodded vigorously.

“
Exactly.
You cope with these traumatic events better than any wizard I've ever
known, and I knew many. You can, oh what is the best way to describe
it...distance yourself, I guess, from the horrors and focus on the
positives. But you don't forget the bad things, you simply keep them
at arm's length where they won't affect your judgment.” Aeris
smiled at him. “A very healthy way of dealing with your new
life, my dear wizard.”

“
Well,
if it is, it's a total fluke. It's just the way the old Simon O'Toole
dealt with life, I suppose. He, well I, was never one to get ruffled
by life's currents and eddies. I just rolled with the punches and
kept going.”

He watched the horses
grazing in the distance, their manes and tails flowing in the wind.
It brought him a sense of peace.

“
You
know, that might be the greatest advantage of all for a Changling, or
at least for me. I have an adult's maturity inside this adolescent
body. I don't react to dangers and emergencies the way I would have
back when I was a teen. Even losing Clara, not to mention all of the
other good people that have fallen over the past couple of years.
Once upon a time, I would have probably curled up in a corner
somewhere, unable to cope. Now? Now I just move forward and deal with
things.”

He glanced at Aeris and
saw that the elemental was watching him with undisguised affection, a
look very unlike him.

“
What?”
Simon asked.

“
Nothing.
Really. It's just that it's good to have you back, that's all. As
much as I like Kronk, and don't tell him I said that, without you in
residence the tower had lost its purpose.” He waved at the
squat, block-like structure across the field.