The Dragons of Decay (51 page)

He drank some lemonade, took a deep
breath and then proceeded to tell all of them exactly what he had
learned in his conversation with Daniel and Ethmira.

When he had finished, he emptied his
glass, refilled it and waited.

The entire group had gone quiet when
Simon had told them about the slaughter of the elders by the dragons
and now it seemed that no one wanted to be the first to speak.

Finally Liliana twitched her
shoulders irritably and looked at each of them.

“
This is tragic news, but all
it does is change the time line. Instead of having weeks or months to
wait before we face the brown dragons, we have days. I for one am
happy to just get on with it.”

Then she turned to Simon and smiled.

“
That means yes, by the way. I
will join in the fight.”

He nodded solemnly.

“
Thank you. I appreciate your
help.”

He watched as Virginia and Anna
looked first at each other and then at Clara as if for guidance. The
cleric could only shrug.

“
If you're looking for my
opinion, I don't have one. It's frightening that you have to make a
life-threatening decision so quickly, but Liliana is right; at least
you won't have to spend a lot of time dreading what is coming. But
the choice is yours alone.”

Gerard and Eric were whispering to
each other, heads bowed and almost touching. After a few minutes they
looked up and realized that the whole group was watching them.

“
Sorry,” Eric said with
an uncomfortable grin. “Just weighing the pros and cons of the
situation.”

The young man's tall, skinny frame
always reminded Simon of a stork and his pale complexion and black
hair and eyes gave him a constantly solemn expression. Now he looked
even more grave than usual.

“
So what do you think?”
Virginia asked both young men, keeping her tone of voice neutral.
“Unlike Liliana, we aren't making an individual decision here.
Either we all decide to go or we all stay. Like the Musketeers, it's
all for one and one for all with us.”

“
Personally I want to know how
safe Nottinghill, the new Nottinghill, is going to be if we never
come back,” Gerard spoke up for the first time. He and Anna
were the smallest of the group and his white blond hair had always
made him look very young to Simon. Now he appeared troubled and he
was flicking his gaze from one face to another.

“
What if we go with Simon and
Liliana and lose, and let's face facts here; we could lose. Will the
town go on without us? Can it? After all, there are only twenty of us
left now, counting the kids. I'm not afraid of dying, not really,”
he added thoughtfully. “But it would be nice to know that our
friends here still had a chance at a future if we never return.”

There was a pause, as if everyone had
stopped to take a breath.

“
Well, that's a depressing
point of view, isn't it?” Anna said, wrinkling her nose. Her
red hair glowed in the morning sun and her freckles were even more
prominent across her nose as she seemed to have caught a bit of a
sunburn. Simon felt a great affection for the small young woman;
every time he saw her he was reminded of an old book he'd read years
ago called Anne of Green Gables. If Anne had been real, he thought,
she'd look like Anna. He wondered for the first time if her parents
had named her after the fabled girl from the east coast.

“
There's every possibility that
we'll come back just fine and in one piece,” she continued.
“After all, Simon here has been instrumental in the deaths of
three primal dragons so far. That's a pretty darned good track
record, as far as I'm concerned.”

Everyone turned to look at him and
Simon knew his face was getting red.

“
Sheer dumb luck for the most
part,” he said in a self-deprecating tone. “I've just
stumbled from one battle to the next. Don't assume my ridiculous good
fortune will last forever.”

Liliana frowned at him. She was
wearing a light tunic and pants, but her sword was hanging on her hip
and she adjusted it as she leaned forward in her chair.

“
You've said something like
that to me before, sir wizard,” she told him with an edge to
her voice. “And quite frankly it makes me uncomfortable. Take
some pride in your accomplishments, man! This golly-gee attitude is,
quite frankly, beginning to get on my nerves.”

Simon stared at her in surprise.

“
What?” he asked faintly
as the rest of the group turned to look at the paladin, an angry
murmur spreading from one person to the next.

Liliana held up her hands abruptly
and glared at them.

“
I don't mean to sound harsh,
but I too have lost people to dragons. Good people. Friends,
comrades. This man,” she pointed at Simon, “has killed
not only dragons, but
primals
!
Do any of you comprehend how extraordinary that is? And yet he still
seems to have difficulty in accepting this.”

Her voice
softened as she looked at the wizard again.

“
Simon,
I don't know if you are simply modest or if you lack confidence. If
it is the former, then I apologize for my remarks. I admire you
greatly. I do. But if you lack confidence, please work through that,
and quickly. You know as well as I do that on the field of battle,
lack of a belief in yourself could get you killed, and everyone else
along with you.”

The angry
expressions were replaced by confused glances and Simon himself
stared at the paladin, wondering if she was right. Did he lack
confidence? Or was it just that he didn't want people to think he was
an arrogant jerk?

Clara
began speaking to the group but he remained lost in thought,
analyzing his own feelings.

Through a
mixture of what he considered luck, sneakiness and maybe some logical
thinking, Simon had beaten the black, green and white primal dragons.
And then he'd just sort of forgotten about it, or put it aside, or
something. Was that a lack of confidence? Or just him being himself
and trying to avoid getting an over-inflated sense of his own
importance?

He looked
over at Liliana and saw that she was still watching him. As he caught
her eye, she gave him a subtle wink and Simon suddenly felt a bit
better.

She wasn't
unsure of him, he thought. The paladin simply wanted him to have more
faith in his own abilities. A very clever woman.

“
I
don't lack confidence,” he blurted out, breaking into the
conversation. Clara stumbled to a halt in the middle of what seemed
to be a very motivational speech and Simon knew that he was blushing
yet again.

God, I
hate that, he thought.

“
Sorry
Clara. Didn't mean to cut you off. But I just wanted to let you all
know, Liliana most of all, that I
am
confident in myself. But I've known too many arrogant people in my
life to ever want to be perceived that way. I think that's why I
downplay what I've accomplished. And, to be honest, many others,
including a lot of you here right now, have had a hand in bringing
down the primals. I wouldn't ever want to overshadow your
achievements.”

“
That's
exactly what I wanted to hear, my friend,” the paladin said
approvingly. “I am reassured that you are indeed ready to face
whatever is coming. And that's a good thing. Over-confidence is
foolish, of course, but knowing your strengths is an asset.”

“
Okay,
now that we have that sorted out,” Malcolm said gruffly, “what
exactly are you four going to do?”

“
Before
you guys make your decision,” Simon said to Virginia and the
others, “I wanted to mention something that may or may not be
relevant. I tried calling the Changling settlement in Australia
earlier. Clara, I've told you about them? Right, well, there was no
answer. Now they might just be preoccupied or it could be something
more ominous. I don't have the coordinates of their town so I can't
even take a look at their location to make sure they're okay.”

“
You
think it's dragons?” Clara asked worriedly.

“
Frankly,
it could be anything.” He smiled a twisted smile. “I
remember back in the day thinking that Australia was basically a
country designed to kill you. It seemed that everything that walked,
crawled, flew or swam was lethal.”

That made
several people laugh and nod in remembrance.

“
So
who knows what kind of monsters exist there now? The point is, they
could be in trouble and that trouble could head here next. If that's
the case, you four might well be needed here to defend the new town.
Just food for thought. I wanted you to have all the facts before
making your decision.”

“
Well,
thanks for the added pressure, Simon,” Virginia told him with a
strained smile. “Just what we needed. Guys,” she said and
looked at Anna, Eric and Gerard, “I think maybe we should take
a walk and discuss this alone. Yes?”

The others
nodded and as a group they rose and wandered off together, heading
for the main gate of the town.

“
I
don't envy them their choices,” Malcolm said gently as he
watched them walk away. “Hard enough to choose to put yourself
in danger, but they have to choose to put each other in danger as
well.”

“
I
agree,” Clara said as she refilled everyone's glass from a
fresh pitcher of lemonade. “But let's not forget, like
ourselves, they weren't children before the Change. None of us were,
no matter how young we may appear to be now. I think that whatever
they decide, it will be based on rational thought, not emotion.”

“
I
hope so,” Simon said soberly. He drank some lemonade and then
caught Aeris' eye. The elemental was making a subtle gesture away
from the group and apparently wanted to speak privately. He nodded
and stood up.

“
I
forgot something in my tent, folks. Be back in a minute.”

He put
down his glass, smiled at the others and walked toward the mass of
tents.

When they
were far enough away to be unheard, Simon looked at Aeris. Kronk was
trotting along close behind them.

“
So
what's up?” he asked the air elemental.

Aeris
looked around furtively, saw that no one was nearby and then glared
at the wizard.

“
It's
the little matter of your lie to Daniel,” he snapped.

Simon
stumbled to a halt and watched him with raised eyebrows.

“
What
about it?” he asked.

Aeris
looked down at Kronk who simply shook his head silently.

“
Fine
then, I'll ask,” the air elemental said stiffly.

“
We'd
like to know what that was about. And it's not because we're
self-righteous or nosy, my dear wizard. It's because you are going
into battle at less than full power and Daniel doesn't know that. He
may expect more from you than you can give. You have, in my opinion,
set yourself up to fail. And I'd like to know why.”

“
And
myself as well, master. No offense intended.”

Simon ran
his hands over his head, hissed in irritation as he again remembered
that his hair was too short to push back and pointed at his tent.

“
Fine.
Let's talk inside, shall we?”

The tent
was getting quite warm in the late morning sun and, once Simon had
closed the flap, it quickly became stifling. Someone had come in and
removed his bathing things and left a pitcher of water and a glass on
the bureau.

He poured
a glass, feeling sweat begin to roll down his back under his robe,
and sat down heavily on his cot.

“
Okay.
This is just between us, right?”

“
Of
course,” Aeris said at once. He was floating a few feet away in
front of Simon, while Kronk stood close by.

“
Your
secrets are safe with me, master,” the earthen assured him.

“
Right.
Well, things are starting to fit together in my mind. Maybe it's good
that I can run them by you guys and see if they make sense. Kronk, do
you remember the first time you and I saw a dragon?”

“
Certainly,
master. It was some time before Aeris joined us. Ethmira was visiting
for the first time and, soon after she left, the primal black dragon
flew by overhead in pursuit.”

“
Did
it?” Aeris asked in surprise. “You never told me that!”

Kronk
shrugged.

“
Why
would I?” he said in response.

Looking
disgruntled, the air elemental cocked his head at Simon.

“
What
does your first encounter with a dragon have to do with lying to your
friend?”

“
I'm
coming to that. Now, at the time, Ethmira told us that her visit
would be short because dragons could sense the presence of elves,
correct?”