The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) Read online

  Tales from the New Earth: Book 2

  The Dragons Revenge

  By

  J. J. Thompson

  Text Copyright © 2015 J. J. Thompson

  All Rights Reserved

  Malice lives in the hearts of all dragons.

  For their souls are black, and know only hunger.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Links

  Chapter 1

  The tower shuddered from its foundation to its roof. Simon was slammed against the railing of the stairs leading to the parapet and almost flipped over it. He grabbed on at the last second and held on grimly until the tower settled down again.

  “Kronk!” he yelled.

  “Yes, master?” the little earth elemental called from the bottom of the stairs.

  “Get down to the basement. See if you can reinforce the foundation. If it starts to crack, the entire tower will collapse!”

  “I will try, master,” Kronk said dubiously. “But I do not have enough power to do much more than stabilize it.”

  Simon thought furiously for a second.

  “Okay. Call your earthen friends, the five that joined you when you built the wall around the tower. They should be able to help.”

  Kronk's eyes widened.

  “Ah, of course! Excellent idea, master. I'm on my way.”

  The little elemental turned and raced down the stairs toward the main floor, while Simon hurried up to the trap door.

  He tore open the bolts and pushed the heavy door upward a few inches, enough to get his eyes above the level of the roof top to look around.

  “What can you see?” an airy voice asked from just behind him.

  “Nothing,” Simon answered shortly. “Where the hell did they come from? I can't...”

  He pulled back and let the heavy reinforced door slam shut again, just as a burst of flame blasted through the small opening and almost burned his face off.

  “Son of a... How could they see me?” he raged.

  He secured the door again, cautiously. The bolts were warm but not hot enough to burn his fingers.

  He looked around at Aeris who was hovering behind him.

  “Come on. Let's try the window in the study.”

  As he ran back down the stairs, he heard the air elemental make a sound of derision.

  “Yes, that won't be obvious at all,” Aeris said sarcastically.

  Simon ignored him and hurried into his study. Several candles were glowing brightly in the darkened room. The shutters were closed and blocked out most of the daylight.

  Another blow shook the tower and the wizard was slammed into his desk. He hopped toward the window, cursing loudly, his thigh throbbing from the collision.

  Once he had opened the window, he reached out gingerly and put his palm on the shutters. They were made of thick wood reinforced with iron strapping, like the trap door to the roof.

  Aeris floated up and hovered next to him. Simon glanced at him and shook his head.

  “It's not warm,” he said under his breath.

  The elemental nodded once but remained silent.

  Simon slowly slid back the bolts on the shutters, wincing a bit when one of them squealed.

  “Gonna have to oil that,” he muttered. Then he pushed the right-side shutter open a few inches and peered outside.

  The sunlight blazed off of the mounds of snow covering the field in front of the tower. It was mid-winter and the day was clear and very cold.

  Simon looked down at the ground below the window and saw puddles of water that were quickly turning to ice. A vast shadow passed by the window with a whoosh of air and he jerked back instinctively.

  No attack came though and he leaned forward again, desperately trying to spot the tower's attackers.

  “Can you see their number?” Aeris asked anxiously.

  “Not yet. I can't even see them.”

  Another flash of darkness raced by the window followed by a screech of fury and Simon slammed the shutter closed again.

  “Damn it,” he said angrily as he slid the bolts back into place. “I can't even get a look at what's attacking us.”

  He headed for the stairs, limping a bit.

  “Now what?” Aeris called after him.

  Simon stopped and looked back at the elemental.

  “Now I walk out the front door and take a real look at them, whatever they are.”

  “What!”

  Simon stumbled down the stairs, gripping the railing tightly just in case. Once on the main floor, he moved to the top of the staircase leading to the basement.

  “Any luck, Kronk?” he called down.

  “Yes master,” the little guy shouted up from below. “We've stabilized the foundation and tightened the bonds in the stone in the rest of the tower. It will take a lot of punishment now.”

  Simon felt a bit of relief. At least his home wasn't going to collapse around him, for the moment anyway.

  “But it would be better to stop the attack sooner rather than later, master,” Kronk added.

  “Yeah, I know that,” Simon called back.

  He turned toward the front door, muttering to himself. Kronk was a good friend but he did tend to state the obvious sometimes.

  A massive roar echoed through the tower and it quivered in response. The daylight glowing through the edges of the sealed windows turned orange for a moment.

  More fire, he thought. Earth elementals or not, this place can't take much more punishment.

  He grabbed the staff that was leaning next to the front door and it trembled and purred in his hand.

  “Good to see you too, Bene-Dunn-Gal,” he murmured to the weapon. “Hope you're up for this. Hope I am too.”

  The staff was as long as Simon was tall and covered in a spiral of bronze plating, topped with a glowing red gem. His old friend Daniel had given him the enchanted weapon as a gift and Simon was convinced that the thing was somehow sentient.

  “Is that a good idea?” Aeris asked as he floated down the stairs.

  Simon walked to the front door and stared at it for a long moment.

  “I doubt it,” he answered. “But if I stay hiding in here like a rabbit in its hole, eventually they're going to pull the tower down around my ears.”

  Simon raised the staff and shuffled through the spells in his mind until he found the right one. He squeezed Bene-Dunn-Gal and felt a bite of pain in his palm. The staff needed blood in payment for enhancing his powers, but it still creeped him out when it happened.

  He chanted the incantation to cast the spell and invoked it with the word of command.

  “Invectis!” he barked and felt a tingle of power crawl over his skin.

  He raised his left hand and saw that it looked like it was carved from crystal.

  “Diamond Skin? Good choice,” Aeris said approvingly.

  “Let's hope so,” Simon said and then, taking a deep breath, unbolted the locks on the door and cautiously opened it.

  The sun
reflecting off of the snow blinded him for a moment and he squinted, trying to see through his watering eyes.

  “Careful, Simon,” the elemental warned. “If you die out there, Kronk and I will have to return to our own realms. And I don't want to do that.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Simon said shortly. “Thanks for your heartfelt concern.”

  And he stepped out and stood on the steps in front of the tower.

  The lintel over the steps blocked the view above him but he hoped that it also blocked his presence from whatever was trying to destroy his home.

  He moved to the right, keeping close to the wall and peered upward.

  A huge body flew into view, circling the tower from left to right. It was moving fast, just above the height of the roof, but Simon got a good look at it before it flew out of sight.

  He stumbled back just as a second attacker emerged from the opposite side of the tower and passed in a counter-clockwise direction.

  Yup, there's two of them, he thought. He ducked back into the tower and slammed the door shut. He canceled the Diamond Skin spell, then leaned against the door and closed his eyes, frantically trying to think of a plan of attack.

  “What's going on out there?” Aeris asked insistently. “What is attacking us?”

  Simon opened his eyes and stared at the elemental, who was floating a few feet away at eye level.

  “Dragons,” he said in disbelief. “Two of them.”

  “Dragons? But, but that's impossible! You killed the primal black dragon over two months ago. All of its brood should have died instantly when that happened!”

  “Maybe they did,” the wizard said with a touch of despair. “But these aren't offspring of the black. These are red dragons.”

  Aeris' mouth worked soundlessly. He was obviously speechless and Simon was bleakly amused by this unusual event.

  “Fortunately, they must be young offspring of the primal red, because they're a hell of a lot smaller than that black dragon was.”

  Simon walked unsteadily over to his kitchen table, pulled out a chair and sat down heavily.

  “Smaller?” Aeris said as he followed and came to rest on the center of the table. “Well, that's good news at least. How much smaller?”

  “At a guess, I'd say they're about fifty feet long, not counting their tails.”

  “Fifty feet?” the elemental repeated weakly. “Okay, I think that's bad.”

  “So do I.”

  Simon leaned his staff against the table, wiped off the blood on his palm with a cleaning rag and sighed loudly.

  “How am I supposed to take down one of those things, let alone two? I can't use fire, obviously. The reds thrive on fire, and if the old books are correct, prefer to nest in deserts or near active volcanoes.”

  “Makes you wonder what they are doing here in the middle of winter, doesn't it?”

  Simon stared at Aeris in surprise.

  “Now that's a very good point,” he said. “What would draw out two of those monsters to travel to a snow-covered country, where they can't be very comfortable, and then set them to attack me in particular?”

  The tower shook again and Simon muttered another curse.

  “It must be the gods of Chaos,” Aeris said firmly. “They would have known when you destroyed one of their servants, especially one as important and powerful as the primal black. This is their revenge on you.”

  Simon leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table.

  “You think so? Would these 'gods' want petty revenge on a nobody like me?”

  Aeris snorted.

  “My dear wizard, you may have been a nobody back in your world of technology, but in this new world, I assure you that you are anything but. You are a magic-user, one of the few that we know of. And now you are a dragon slayer. How could they not attempt to destroy you?”

  “Great,” Simon said, feeling a bit hopeless. He ran his fingers through his shoulder-length hair. “Now gods are mad at me. This day just keeps getting better.”

  The tower shuddered again and Simon scowled. He grabbed his staff and leapt to his feet.

  He recast the protection spell and moved to stand in the center of the room. Then he muttered a second incantation and held up Bene-Dunn-Gal.

  Aeris, looking alarmed, flew toward him.

  “Simon, what are you doing?”

  “I'm going to Gate across the field to the forest. I'll be able to see what's going on from there.”

  He grinned faintly at the elemental.

  “Hold down the fort,” he told him.

  “Oh, funny,” Aeris said sarcastically.

  The wizard chuckled.

  “Invectis!” he said sharply and disappeared.

  Simon staggered and almost fell as he reappeared in the forest at the edge of the field across from his tower.

  The snow was knee-deep here and he was grateful that the Diamond Skin spell made him immune to the bone-chilling cold.

  He stumbled forward, the icy crust snapping and squealing under his feet. His robe got caught in the underbrush hidden beneath the snow and he almost fell on his face.

  “Damn it,” he whispered in exasperation. “Could I catch a break please?”

  He finally got to the tree line and peeked around the bole of a large maple, naked of leaves and as hard as iron.

  Simon stared at the sight of the dragons swirling around his home. Their wings were as wide as their bodies were long and, as he watched, one of the beast's wings brushed against the tower as it circled and the structure shivered.

  So that's why the place feels like they're trying to tear it down, he thought. It's just their wings touching the tower. Which probably meant that if they wanted to, they could destroy his home at any time.

  “Great,” he said to himself. “So how do I drive away two dragons?”

  The serpentine figures gleamed redly in the bright sunlight. Every time they passed one another, flying in opposite directions, the dragons would snap and shoot small flames at each other.

  Simon watched this with interest and remembered that dragons were solitary creatures who were very territorial.

  “They can't stand each other,” he said aloud. “Now, how can I use that?”

  He watched intently and noticed that the dragons would dip below the top of the tower as they circled it. For a few brief seconds, they were out of each other's sight. And that gave the wizard an idea.

  If I can get closer without being spotted, maybe I can instigate something.

  And then he shivered as one of the reptilian creatures screamed in fury and blew a blast of fire at the building.

  “Yeah, if I don't get eaten first,” he muttered.

  He looked at the wall surrounding the tower. It was covered with snow and heavy with thick icicles. He had opened the gates earlier just before the attack began and now he stared speculatively at the opening.

  If I can translocate into the shadows inside the open gates, they shouldn't be able to see me. Maybe.

  He looked up at the dragons again.

  Oh Simon, you really are crazy, he thought. But I don't think that I have much of a choice.

  He took a deep breath of the biting air and held up his staff as he muttered the Gate spell again.

  “Invectis,” he whispered and felt a tremendous shove between his shoulder-blades and suddenly found himself standing between the open gates.

  He quickly squatted down and cowered in their shadow, looking up anxiously.

  The dragons continued to circle and belch gouts of fire at the tower.

  Why don't they just tear it down, he wondered. It occurred to him that the beasts might not be that smart, not like the primal black that he had actually spoken to before their final battle.

  The thought was encouraging. Maybe his plan would work. The dumber they were, the better.

  If I can just time it right, when they can't see each other...

  The spells shuffled through his head like a deck of cards and he pulled out the one he nee
ded.

  “Okay, Bene-Dunn-Gal,” he murmured to the staff. “We'd better get this right or I'll have two very pissed-off dragons on my ass.”

  He intoned the spell and waited, the power hovering around him like a loaded gun ready to fire.

  Simon counted under his breath, trying to learn the pacing of the swirling dragons' movements.

  About ten seconds, he thought. That's how long it took for them to circle the tower once. Oh, that's a small window.

  He swallowed, gripped the staff and pointed up at the place he hoped his target would appear.

  He waited for a dragon to pass and began counting.

  When he counted down from three to two, he muttered, “Invectis,” and held his breath.

  A burst of fire erupted from the tip of the staff and shot straight up.

  Please be right, please be right...

  A dragon shot around the corner of the tower and the fireball slammed into it, knocking it sideways, up and over the roof.

  Holy crap, Simon thought. That wasn't what I expected.

  The dragon bellowed with fury and the wizard cowered closer to the wall, waiting for it to strike.

  But the creature didn't attack him. It caught itself in mid-air and spun around with astonishing agility. Then it swooped back toward the tower and sent a blast of flame directly at its counterpart.

  The second dragon was caught directly in the chest by the unexpected attack and flung dozens of feet across the sky toward the lake. It back-winged as it recovered, its roars of rage making the air quiver.

  Simon dropped his staff and clapped his hands over his ears. The sound of the suddenly battling dragons was ear-numbing.

  Well, that worked, he thought with surprise. But now what happens?

  The dragon who had attacked first began to flap strongly straight up, distancing itself from its companion, who darted upward, chasing it into the heights.

  Simon stepped out of the shadow of the gate and stared up at them, watching in awe as they dipped and weaved across the sky, bright bursts of fire criss-crossing like small fireworks going off.

  “I wonder how long it will take them to work out their anger,” a voice next to him asked.

  The wizard glanced at Aeris, who had emerged from the tower to hover nearby.