The Dragons of Decay (34 page)

“Does it? And what comes next, Lady? What
lies beyond the veil?”

“Eternity, my child. Endless seas of time
and space. Love, adventure, new experiences. There are no words to
describe the worlds that await you.”

He nodded.

“That doesn't sound so bad,” he
admitted to her and she smiled.

“It doesn't, does it? Come along, child.
Walk with me. We have time, in this place, and I wish to show you
something.”

She turned and began to walk away slowly. Simon
followed along passively.

The goddess motioned for him to join her on her
right side and they moved through the tall grass toward the horizon
crowded with stars.

“Tell me something, if it isn't too
impertinent, Lady; what happens to you and the other gods of Light if
you lose this war against the darkness?”

She put a hand on her sword and paced forward,
looking neither right nor left. Her expression darkened slightly and,
even though his emotions were muted, Simon could feel a touch of
something penetrating his mind. Sadness perhaps, or maybe grief.

“We will fade away, as the light fades
before the dark when evening comes to the world. Love, joy, happiness
in all of its forms will leech away from your universe and wither,
like a plant covered over with impenetrable weeds, choking slowly to
death. First on Earth and then, like a cancer, it will spread outward
until nothing remains but horror and despair.”

She shook her glorious head but her expression
remained proud, her shoulders unbent.

“Light cannot exist in such a vacuum, young
one. My kin and I have always strived for a balance between the light
and the dark, between good and evil. We know that each must exist in
harmony for creation to flow as it should and for people to climb to
the heights and achieve greatness. But those who champion Chaos, who
seek strife and suffering, those ones do not understand this and they
never have. They do not realize that when we were created, before
time itself began, it was as counter-weights to each other. In a way,
both sides compliment the other. No, instead they have always sought
to conquer, to make their way dominant. Well, I suppose that they
finally have.”

They continued to walk for a time. Perhaps what
the goddess had said was starting to penetrate his fogged thoughts or
maybe it was simply the old Simon reasserting himself, but the wizard
began to get flashes of memories from the recent past.

“Lady,” he said tentatively. “I
don't quite remember what happened before I showed up...here, but is
something wrong with Kronk? I have an image in my mind of him being
in distress.”

His companion remained silent and Simon was about
to repeat his question when she stopped and nodded toward something
in front of them.

The wizard turned to look and gasped at the vista
ahead.

The grasses ended abruptly and the land dipped
into a large, bowl-shaped depression. In the center of this perfect
circle there was a small lake, its black waters mirroring the stars
above them.

The goddess began to walk down the gentle slope,
the grass now short and fine and he moved to follow her.

They reached the edge of the lake with its
perfectly still surface and she looked at Simon.

“I know you have questions. Here you will
find the answers, or at least some of them. Before you move on, I
felt that your service to us had earned you the right to set your
mind at ease, here on the edge of the Void.”

The wizard frowned as he stared at the black
water.

“What do I do, Lady?” he asked her.

“Simply ask your questions in your mind and
the water will respond as it sees fit. I have no hand in this; the
Maker of us all controls the Waters of Destiny, not us. Ask. Or do
not and continue up that slope,” she pointed across the lake,
“and embrace the next stage of your great journey. The choice
is yours, child.”

And the goddess stepped back and out of Simon's
view. He was left staring in confusion at the water, wondering what
he should do, what questions he needed to ask.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, he thought
irreverently. What the heck do I want to know? Or rather, what do I
need to know?

Kronk. Yes. That was important. I want to see my
friend, if this is the last time I can do so.

In response to his wishes, the waters of the lake
shuddered. A splash, loud but unseen, drew Simon's eyes to the center
of the lake and he saw an image forming there; vague and blurry at
first and then snapping into focus. It filled his vision and he
watched in rapt attention.

He was suddenly seeing...himself. He was seeing
himself as if he was another person, or a video camera that was
recording the scene for posterity. It was surreal and frightening at
the same time.

He was standing with Virginia, Anna and the others
in the old barracks building in Nottinghill. And the memory of that
moment crashed into his consciousness with an impact that made him
stagger.

Of course! How could he have forgotten? The wights
had been attacking and Kronk...

Simon looked frantically at the image and then
sagged with relief. There he was.

The little guy had his hands on the stone wall of
the building and was glowing fiercely, molten rock that lived and
moved. He was telling Simon to go, that he had to hold the monsters
back.

The wizard saw his own face twisted with grief and
rage as he accepted his friend's plea. He watched helplessly as the
group faded from sight just as Kronk collapsed in exhaustion. And he
felt the horror of the moment as the wights tore through the walls of
the barracks, grabbed the earthen before he could escape
underground...and ripped him apart.

“Oh God,” Simon muttered and turned
away from the lake. He'd never thought to wonder if the soul could
cry after death, but now he learned that it could.

“Stay your tears, child, and turn back,”
the goddess said, her voice echoing eerily around the little vale.

He looked up but the armored woman was nowhere to
be seen and, if it hadn't been for her voice, he would have thought
that she'd left him.

Reluctantly, Simon turned around. The scene had
changed again. This time he saw himself kneeling on open ground.
Florida, he assumed, but he didn't remember this at all. What was he
doing?

Aeris was with him, calling on him to stop doing
whatever it was that he was attempting. And he saw himself ignoring
the elemental.

He began punching the patch of bare earth in front
of him. Why was he doing that? Simon leaned forward, teetering on the
brink of the lake, straining to see and hear what was happening.

“Kronk, come back to me!” his other
self screamed as he battered the ground with bleeding hands.

And then a wave of crystalline light, silver and
pure, blinded Simon. He blinked rapidly, trying to get the image back
into focus. He stared in confusion then, because that other wizard
was just...gone.

The spot where his other self had been kneeling
was empty. Spots and streaks of blood were splattered on the ground
but that Simon had vanished. In his place stood Kronk and the wizard
gasped at the sight.

The little guy was whole. He looked like his
regular self and he was staring around, obviously disoriented.

“Aeris?” he said in his deep voice, so
out of character with his size. “What happened? Where am I?”

The air elemental, who had been sent flying by the
wave of energy conjured by the missing wizard, stared back at him.

“You're in the new settlement,” he
answered, dazed. “Our dear wizard brought you back, somehow.”

“Back?” Kronk rubbed his stony head,
the sound like rocks grinding together. “He brought me back?
Wait. Yes, I remember. The wights! They...”

He shook his head.

“They destroyed me, Aeris. Master could not
have brought me back. It is not possible.”

“I thought so too. But you are here, so
obviously we were wrong.”

“But how? How did he do it? And where is
he?”

Kronk looked around, searching for the wizard.

“Master?” he yelled. “Master!
Where are you?”

From the right side of the scene, as Simon
watched, Clara walked forward slowly, her hands clenched. She stared
sadly at the two elementals.

“Lady cleric,” Kronk said with a bow.
“Where is my master? He saved me. He must be exhausted now and
he will need me to take care of him.”

Aeris said nothing but something in Clara's face
spoke to him and he turned away, shoulders slumped in grief. His
small, translucent body dipped and bobbed forlornly in the wind.

“He's gone, my friend,” the cleric
said softly. “I felt it as it happened, although I was too far
away to stop it. I probably couldn't have anyway, I suppose.”

“Gone? Where? Has he returned home? Aeris,
come. We must go back to the tower. Master will need us.”

“Oh Kronk,” the air elemental said as
he turned back. “Search your inner self. The connection is
severed. He's gone.”

The earthen stood still and stared at Aeris. His
glowing red eyes dimmed as he frowned and looked beyond the other
elemental, seeking something within himself.

Finally he turned back to look at Clara.

“Dead, my lady? My master is dead?”

“I'm afraid so, Kronk. I felt him. He
summoned all of the power that remained within himself to call you
back. But I think it was his willingness to do whatever he had to, to
make any sacrifice, that sealed his fate. In essence, he took your
place, stepped into the Void so that you could live. He is...no
more.”

“No,” Kronk said abruptly. “No,
he cannot do that. He mustn't do that! I am merely a servant. My life
is nothing compared to his.”

“He didn't think that was true, my friend,”
Clara said. She knelt down so that her head was closer to the
earthen's.

“He valued you, Kronk. You weren't his
servant; you were his friend. He did for you what you had done for
him, and he did it willingly. Do not let your grief make you forget
that or his sacrifice will have truly been in vain.”

“I...”

Kronk turned away and moved to stand next to the
bare spot of ground that was still marked with bloody fist-prints. He
bent over and laid his small hand on one.

“Master,” he said brokenly. “Why?”

“Kronk?”

Aeris flew down to hover next to him.

“We have to go. I can feel the call to
return home. We can't stay here any longer.”

“We cannot leave!” Kronk said harshly
as he spun to glare at the air elemental. “Master died so that
I could live. He wanted to help these people.” He waved at
Clara. “We must stay and continue to do what we can for them,
in his honor.”

“Don't you think I know that?” Aeris
replied, almost shouting. “But you know how magic works. Simon
was our tether to this world. Without him we have no anchor, no way
to hold on. And there is no other wizard who can summon us back. We
can fight it as much as we want to but, like it or not, we are
leaving.”

Kronk raised his arms over his head, trembling
from head to toe. He looked like he was holding back a bellow of rage
but, after a moment, it subsided and he dropped his arms and nodded
in resignation.

“I know. You are right.”

He looked at Clara who was still kneeling down and
watching him compassionately. He walked over to her and reached up
with one of his hands.

The cleric smiled gently and took the small hand
in hers.

“Lady, we cannot stay. I want you to know
that, if I could, I would remain and help you rebuild your home.”

Aeris joined them and the earthen glanced at him.

“And I know that my friend here would do the
same.”

“I would.”

Clara nodded, her face streaked with tears.

“We all know that. You have both done so
much for us. And Simon,” her voice broke and she had to clear
her throat several times before continuing.

“Simon gave everything he had for us. Not
just the people here, but whatever is left of humanity in this world.
He destroyed three primal dragons, defended us from unspeakable
monsters, pushed himself to the edge of exhaustion time and time
again. And even now, at the end, his last act was to sacrifice
himself for a friend.”

Kronk bowed his head.

“We will do our best to continue that fight,
my friends,” she said. ”If we are given the time to do
so, we will fortify this town, rebuild our strength and train
ourselves and, maybe one day, we will take the fight to the dragons
ourselves. That way, Simon's legacy and his memory will continue. And
who knows?” she added with a strained smile. “We might
actually win.”

“Perhaps you will, lady cleric,” Aeris
told her. “Perhaps you will.”

“I am glad that you will remember him,”
Kronk said quietly. “We will too. Down through the ages, the
earth elementals will hold him in our thoughts; the wizard who
treated us as people and not just as servants. It will be a glowing
tale to be told again and again.”

“My people will do the same,” Aeris
averred. “He was...my friend,” he told Clara, his voice
tinged with wonder. “The first wizard in all of creation to
befriend elementals. How could we not honor him for that?”

Kronk patted the cleric's hand and she smiled down
at him. Then he turned away and he and Aeris looked at each other.

“I will remember you too, you know,”
the earthen said.

“Well, you'd better!” Aeris told him
firmly and then smiled. “Good bye, Kronk. I cannot hold on any
longer. And farewell, my lady. It was an honor to have known you.”

“Thank you, Aeris. You were...”

She stopped speaking and covered her eyes. Both
elementals were gone.

The images faded from the water's
surface and Simon was left staring at the black lake, his thoughts a
confused jumble.