The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) (14 page)

“
Are
you all right, master?” Kronk asked him. The little guy had
jumped down from the table and was standing just behind the wizard.

“
I'm
okay, Kronk.”

Simon
stared at the distant marks on the wall and then looked down at
Kronk.

“
I
may have chipped your wall a bit,” he told him with a smile.

The
little guy moved into the doorway and looked across the yard at the
damage.

“
It
is fine, master. If there is any harm done, I will repair it when the
weather becomes warmer.”

He
looked up at Simon.

“
And
now you should sit by the fire and warm up, master,” he said
firmly and gave Simon's legs a gentle push to move him away from the
open door.

Simon
obeyed with a grin, happy that the little guy was in a better mood.
As he walked back to the fireplace, he heard Kronk close the door and
lock it. Aeris was watching him, still hovering above the kitchen
table. He gave Simon a subtle wink as he caught his eye.

The
wizard sat down with a satisfied grunt and leaned forward, stirring
the fire a bit with the poker.

“
That
was amazing, guys,” he told them. “Maybe it was the
modifications I've done to the spell, but I feel no fatigue. At all.
That's unusual.”

“
You are panting,
master,” Kronk said to him as he moved up to the fire.

“
Yes, but it's from
excitement, not from fatigue,” Simon told him with a little
embarrassment. “It was fun to actually cast a spell again.”

He sat back and watched
the fire flicker with strange shapes and patterns. He replayed the
image of the magic missiles shooting across the snow to slam into the
wall.

What had been the
difference from the old spell, besides the color of the missiles and
using both hands? He thought about it for some time, the elementals a
quiet presence next to him.

Finally he turned to look
at Aeris to his right. The elemental had floated quietly from the
table to hover next to his chair.

“
The magic didn't
come from me,” he told him with wonder.

Aeris looked at him
quizzically.

“
I beg your pardon?”
he asked.

“
The power for the
Magic Missile spell. It didn't come from inside me.”

“
Then where did it
come from, master?” Kronk asked, sounding as puzzled as Aeris
seemed to be.

Simon waved his hand in a
vague circle.

“
From the air around
me, I guess. I felt it, being pulled into me and channeled into the
spell. It was as if my skin was absorbing the power from the world
itself.”

Aeris' mouth dropped open
and the wizard almost laughed at his surprised expression.

“
What?” he
asked.

“
What you just
described, Simon. I remember hearing about that once, a long, long
time ago.”

“
You do?”

Simon shifted himself
around in the chair to watch the air elemental more easily.

“
What do you
remember?”

Aeris was frowning in
concentration.

“
It was a discussion
I heard from a group of wizards. I had just reported back to my
mistress from a scouting assignment. She was having a rather heated
argument with an enchanter and...”

“
Whoa, whoa,”
Simon said quickly, interrupting the elemental's memories. “An
enchanter? What's an enchanter?”

With a look of surprise,
Aeris took a moment before answering.

“
You haven't heard
of enchanters before?” he asked.

Simon shook his head.

“
Hmm, well, there
are many types of magic-users, not just wizards, as I'm sure you
know.”

At Simon's blank look,
Aeris looked even more surprised.

“
Really? You didn't
know that? Well then, allow me to increase your knowledge, my dear
wizard.”

He sounded a bit smug and
Simon tried not to smile. Aeris always liked to show his superiority,
at least in his own mind.

“
Wizards are merely
the most powerful of all casters. That is because they can use all
aspects of magic to some degree. But there were others who
specialized in various areas of magical use. Enchanters used their
power to infuse objects with magic. Weapons, armor, clothing, and
many other things could be enchanted.”

“
What kind of
enchantments?” Simon asked.

“
Protective spells,
mostly. Either as shields against magical attack or physical damage.
There were other specializations as well.”

Aeris paused and thought
deeply.

“
Let me think now.
There were mages, of course. Sorcerers, witches, like your neighbor
the herb witch, conjurers, and many others.”

“
Wow, that's
actually amazing,” Simon said as he tucked his blanket more
firmly around his body. He'd felt a momentary chill.

“
It is, isn't it?”

Simon stared thoughtfully
at the fire.

“
I wonder if any of
those types of people exist among the Changlings?” he mused as
he looked through the flames at the dancing shadows beyond.

“
Which Changlings?”

“
Clara's people.
Others whom we haven't even met yet. You know, the new humans.”

“
No idea, but at a
guess I'd say yes.”

Aeris floated over to the
kitchen counter, picked up the kettle sitting there and carried it
back to the fireplace. He hung it over the fire and the wizard nodded
gratefully.

“
After all, as
special as you may be, my dear wizard, you probably aren't unique.”

“
I never thought I
was,” Simon murmured and he settled deeper into his chair and
waited for the kettle to boil.

“
So, getting back to
that conversation you overheard?”

Aeris looked at the wizard
blankly for a moment.

“
Oh, right. Yes, the
one between my mistress and that enchanter. As I recall, they were
having a heated debate on the limitations of magical energy. My
mistress was stating categorically that once a wizard had used up
their magical reserves, they would have to wait and rest before they
could cast any spells again.”

“
And the enchanter
disagreed?”

“
He certainly did. I
believe he actually laughed and called her naïve. He said that
she hadn't yet learned to tap into the deep magic and, until she did,
she would never achieve master wizard status.”

Aeris picked up the now
bubbling kettle and took it back to the counter.

“
I remember being
quite curious about this 'deep magic' the enchanter spoke of,”
he said as he proceeded to make Simon a cup of tea. “I'd
thought until that time that magic was magic, but that comment got my
attention.”

The air elemental carried
the cup of tea to Simon, who accepted it gratefully.

“
You're welcome. At
any rate, that is the last I ever heard of this deep magic. But now I
wonder if the gods haven't found a way to allow you to tap into this
source of power instead of using your own magic.”

“
You never asked the
wizard you were bound to what this magic was?” Simon asked as
he sipped the hot brew.

Aeris looked a bit
shocked.

“
Of course not. She
would have been offended to learn that I had been listening to a
conversation between my betters.”

“
Your betters? What
does that mean?”

Aeris remained silent,
apparently irritated by that long ago memory.

“
We've told you
before, master, how we elementals were treated by the old wizards,”
Kronk spoke up.

Simon looked down at him.

“
But Aeris makes it
sound like you were no better than slaves.”

“
Worse than slaves,
master. We were...”

The earth elemental
shrugged, obviously at a loss to explain.

“
We were
nonentities, my dear wizard,” Aeris said bitterly. “Furniture
was treated better than those summoned by wizards. We came, we
obeyed, we were dismissed. And that was all there was to it.”

He seemed to be trying to
force a smile.

“
Do you wonder that
we're so concerned for your continued good health? You are the only
wizard I've ever known to treat me, and I suspect Kronk as well, as
people.”

“
You are people!”
Simon averred forcefully. He set down his cup on the floor beside him
and stared from one small figure to the other.

“
You know, I'm just
as glad that I never knew any of those old-timer wizards. They sound
like horrible people.”

“
Different times,
master,” Kronk said simply. “They were taught that we
were useful and so we were used. It sounds like you are still
bitter,” he said looking up at Aeris. “For my part, those
people are long dead and brooding about the past does no one any
good.”

Aeris frowned but Simon
had to smile at the little earthen.

“
You know something,
Kronk? You've got a very level head on your shoulders.”

“
I am simply
practical, master. We live in the here and now, do we not?”

Simon picked up his tea
again and sat back with a sigh.

“
We do indeed, my
friend. And I for one am grateful for it.”

Weeks passed and the worst
of the winter weather began to wane. Simon slowly and very carefully
exercised his magical muscles and soon was able to memorize two
spells at once.

After that, things began
to improve rapidly. The altered spells did not tire him out at all
and his practice sessions were only limited by his having to memorize
both spells before he cast them. It was a bit tedious, but he'd
learned his lesson and didn't push it.

Simon guessed that it was
around early March or so when he achieved his next breakthrough.
After clearing it with the elementals, who were both very encouraged
by his progress, he cast the Magic Mouth spell for the first time in
months.

Like almost all of his
other spells, he'd altered the communication spell and easily
memorized and cast it. There was no effort at all.

He focused on his memory
of Clara's face as he invoked the spell and then hesitated a moment,
afraid that it hadn't worked.

“
Clara?” he
said tentatively. Both Kronk and Aeris were watching him as he sat in
his study, staring through the window at the blue sky beyond.

“
Simon? My goodness,
is that you?”

It was definitely the
cleric's voice. She sounded both surprised and thrilled to hear from
him.

“
Yep, it's me all
right. I've finally reached the stage where we can talk at a distance
again. So how are you?”

“
Oh, I'm just fine,
my friend. Better, now that I can hear how well you sound.”

“
Do I?” Simon
asked. “Well, thanks. I wanted to try out the spell and I
really wanted to see how you and the villagers are doing. Aeris gives
me reports, but it's not the same as hearing it directly.”

“
I understand.”

There was a moment's
pause.

“
We're doing well,
all things considered. It's been a hard winter, but our supplies have
held out and except for a rather severe strain of the flu that had
half the village down for two weeks or so, everything is proceeding
as it should. We are encouraged by the warmer weather. Maybe we'll
have an early spring. That would be a blessing.”

“
I'm with you there.
This winter's been a hard one.”

Simon glanced idly at the
elementals and smiled at their expressions. Obviously they were
trying to interpret the one-sided conversation.

“
I do have some
rather excellent news, my friend,” Clara said. She sounded a
bit excited.

“
Good news? Great. I
could use some.”

“
All right then,
here it is. About a week ago, we were visited by some old friends.”

Simon sat up and listened
attentively.

“
Old friends?”

“
What old friends?”
Aeris asked in surprise.

The wizard motioned for
him to shush and Aeris folded his arms, glowering at him.

“
The dwarves.
They're back. You remember when they had to retreat during the fight
with the dragon?”

Simon winced. He'd been
afraid that all of the dwarves who had come to volunteer to battle
the primal black with him had been killed.

“
I remember it very
well, I'm sorry to say.”

“
Don't be sorry,
Simon,” Clara said sternly. “They chose to help. And the
good news is that although several were severely burned, there were
no fatalities. Shandon Ironhand, the son of the dwarven king,
journeyed here with a few of his people. They brought us some
much-needed iron and other metals and we traded some of our grain for
it.”