The Dragons of Decay Read online

  “No, that's all right. It was just a thought.”

  He ate his food quickly and then sat back and sipped his tea.

  “So, any thoughts on the situation with Daniel and the elves?” he asked his friends.

  The pair exchanged looks and Kronk motioned for Aeris to speak first.

  The air elemental seemed reluctant to say anything, which was unusual for him, but nodded slowly.

  “Yes, I suppose I have one. Your idea about your slow aging allowing you to enter the elven realm and return without harm is a good one, my dear wizard.”

  “It is? I'm surprised that you think so.”

  “Why? I may not have thought of it but that doesn't make it any less valid.” He paused and frowned down at the table. “Of course, we don't know that it will work. And the consequences if you are wrong would be...unfortunate.”

  “Yeah, that's one word for it,” Simon said dryly. “But I'm willing to risk it, if that's what it takes. But just for kicks, let's say that I can journey there and back and survive. What can I do against the primal brown dragon and its followers? What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? How many browns are there? Did the leader bring eggs with it when it entered the elven realm? So many questions.”

  He sighed, a long slow exhalation.

  “You are worried, master,” Kronk said, looking at him sadly with those glowing red eyes.

  “More worried that I've ever been, my friend. And not just about Daniel and the elves. What about the consequences if the brown dragons actually do wipe out the elven race? Daniel said that there were hundreds of dragons crisscrossing the skies over there. Maybe thousands. Thousands! How is that even possible? We know that the dragon queen only laid so many eggs back when she birthed the five primal dragons. And that she apportioned out a certain number of eggs for each of them. How many, we don't know. But surely the primal brown dragon wasn't given thousands of eggs? I just don't understand where they are all coming from.”

  There was a moment of silence and then Aeris made a show of clearing his throat.

  “Just spit it out,” Simon told him bluntly.

  “Um, yes. All right. I think that the source of the eggs is fairly simple to figure out, my dear wizard.”

  “It is?”

  Both Simon and Kronk stared at the air elemental and Aeris actually looked a little abashed.

  “Well, don't keep us in suspense,” Kronk told him. “What do you think?”

  “Think? I think that the brown dragons retrieved the eggs from the primals that our wizard destroyed.”

  Seeing Simon's look of surprise, Aeris shook a little finger at him, but smiled a bit at the same time.

  “You really should have destroyed the eggs of the black and green dragons,” he said. “The way you destroyed the white dragon's eggs. I believe that the primal brown dragon or its servants swooped down and made off with those eggs and kept them for itself.”

  “Wait. Can it do that? Wouldn't eggs given to the primal black dragon hatch into more black dragons?”

  “Why would they?” Aeris said with a shrug. “We know that when needed, a primal hatches a new dragon to replace one of its lesser dragons that have fallen due to accident or in battle or whatever. They don't sit on them like hens roosting. They enforce their will on the egg and, just like that, they have a new minion. I think that the eggs are simply neutral; blank slates that await the will of whatever primal chooses to use them.”

  “Crap, that's a lovely thought.”

  Simon sipped his tea and stared blankly past the elementals.

  “You know, that does actually make sense,” he said finally. “And if Daniel says that hundreds, or even thousands, of brown dragons are searching the elven realm for survivors, then maybe the primal actually hatched all of its eggs to use in the hunt. Which means that if it wins, this world will be inundated with masses of blood-thirsty dragons fresh from wiping out the elves and eager to root out all of the surviving humans. Oh great.”

  “A terrifying thought, master.”

  “That is it. Okay, setting that aside for now, because just thinking about it makes me nauseous, what do we know about brown dragons?”

  “I'll get your book, master,” Kronk said quickly and hopped off of the table. He tip-tapped across the room and scurried up the stairs.

  “My book?” Simon said curiously to Aeris.

  “I assume he means that book of fantasy monsters you used to use back in the old world when you played those games of yours.”

  “Oh right. Well, it is surprisingly accurate, considering that the people who wrote it were just basically pulling ideas out of thin air.”

  “Ah but were they?” Aeris asked archly.

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that we already know how the old gods of Light liked to drop clues and hints on the cataclysm to come. Think of all of the ancient spells and runes that your friend Daniel found long before the dragons returned. It is quite possible that these fantasy writers were struck with divine inspiration rather than just having good imaginations.”

  Simon rested his chin in his hands and stared at the elemental.

  “You really are smarter than you look, do you know that?”

  “Well, thank you,” Aeris responded with a smile. Then he scowled. “Wait a second...”

  “I have it, master,” Kronk called out as he hopped down the stairs with the heavy textbook held over his head.

  The wizard grinned at Aeris and reached down to take the book from the earthen, who then hopped back up on to the table.

  “Why are you looking so crabby?” he asked Aeris, who sniffed and ignored him.

  Simon opened the book and flipped through it to the section on mythical beasts. Both of the elementals moved to stand by his shoulders so that they could see better.

  “Dragons. Dragons.”

  The wizard ran a finger down several pages until he found the proper paragraph.

  “Okay, here we go. Hmm, there's not a lot on brown dragons, is there? I guess they weren't that popular with gamers back in the day.”

  “Well, I'd say that attitude's changed,” Aeris muttered, his irritation forgotten.

  “I'd say you're right, at least where this former gamer is concerned,” Simon replied bleakly. “Okay, so what have we got here?”

  He mumbled under his breath as he read what little there was on brown dragons. Then he hissed, a look of disgust on his face.

  “What is it, master?”

  “Yuck. Listen to this. 'Besides using their fire breath, a brown dragon's principle weapon is acid. They can belch gallons of corrosive liquid which dissolves anything organic that it touches. Plants, animals, nothing is immune to this acidic attack.' Well, that's delightful,” he added with a shudder.

  “Acid, master? Oh, that is bad,” Kronk said with a look of horror.

  The little guy's reaction was more emotional than usual and he glanced at Aeris with raised eyebrows.

  “Acid dissolves rock,” the air elemental said wisely.

  “Oh, I see. Sorry, Kronk. Didn't mean to shock you. But don't worry; there aren't any brown dragons around here.”

  “Yet,” Aeris added ominously and then grinned wickedly when the earthen glared at him.

  “Stop that, Aeris,” Simon said, a little exasperated. “Let's concentrate on the problem at hand. If I can get to the elven lands and back safely, and maybe even if I can't and I go anyway, the question is; how do I deal with a brown dragon?”

  “Your Diamond Skin spell, master?” Kronk offered tentatively.

  Simon shook his head.

  “If this acid stuff is as corrosive as it sounds, I don't think the skin spell will do more than slow it down for a few seconds. And to be honest, I'd rather not put it to the test.”

  “Well, your standard protection spell is your Shield spell,” Aeris told him. “You actually stood in the stomach of the primal white dragon and it kept you safe.”

  “No, it didn't,” the wizard said with anot
her head shake. “The Diamond Skin spell kept me protected for a short time, but even that was being eaten away while I was in there, which is why I'm sure it won't be effective against the brown dragons' acid attack. The Shield spell filtered the fumes from the air so that I could breathe and added to the skin spell's defense but not for long. I suppose if I added more power to the shield, it could resist acid for a longer period, but then it would cut off all of the air as well, so that's out. Huh. That's a good example right there of how ineffective both spells were when facing acid, even if it was only stomach acid. I need something that lasts longer.”

  The three of them exchanged looks but no one came up with any more ideas.

  “Well, when worse comes to worst, there's always the standard fall-back plan,” Aeris said.

  “Which is?”

  “Duck,” the air elemental said dryly.

  Simon heaved a loud sigh and stood up. He put the kettle over the fire and went to stand by the window, gazing out over the winter landscape.

  “If there is a silver lining here, provided I actually do enter the elven realm, it's that I'll get away from this blasted weather. God, I hate this season.”

  “We know, master,” Kronk told him. “I have a thought though, since we seem to be out of ideas.”

  Simon turned and looked at him enquiringly.

  “Call your allies, master. Clara, Liliana, the siblings in London, the group in Australia. More minds mean more ideas. Perhaps one of them has a solution to the problem?”

  “That's a thought,” Simon said. He leaned on the window ledge, tapping his chin.

  “The problem with that is I guarantee you that Liliana, and probably Tamara and Sebastian as well, will want to join in the fight. If anyone hates dragons as much, if not more, than I do, it's those three.”

  “Well, it is possible that, as magic-users, they also age slowly like you do, my dear wizard,” Aeris said slowly. “I actually hadn't considered that before. Granted, because you channel more magic than they do, your body would age the slowest but still, it is something to think about.”

  Simon made his tea and sat down at the table again.

  “That's a good point.”

  He sipped the sweet, hot liquid and then sat back and ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at it a bit in frustration.

  “There's just so much that we still don't know about magic and casting spells and long-term consequences.”

  He tugged at his hair absently.

  “I mean, why is magic slowly turning my hair pure white, while this,” he tapped his cheek, “is as smooth as a baby's butt? Where's the logic in that?”

  “Only the gods understand all of the intricacies of magic, master,” Kronk told him with a tiny shrug. “Even we elementals are not fully conversant in the ins and outs of using the power.”

  He looked at Aeris who nodded reluctantly.

  “Kronk's right. We air elementals worked more closely with wizards than any of the others and even we only learned what we learned through observation. If I may use terms from your old world of technology, my dear wizard, we know that magic alters the human body at a cellular level. Changlings like yourself and the others are proof of that. You have been mutated by the power into something more than you were. More and different. I cannot stress enough that you are a totally different creature than your old self, right down to your genetic structure. All that remains of that middle-aged power-lifting man that was Simon O'Toole are his memories. You are now something else.”

  This was the first time that Simon had heard magic discussed in scientific terms and he looked at Aeris in surprise.

  “Your people understand genetics?”

  Aeris rolled his eyes dramatically.

  “What exactly do you think we've been doing for the last several thousand years? I've told you before how incredibly boring my home is. Everything is always the same. So, many of us spent our time observing the Earth. We watched humanity rise from the ashes after the gods retreated into the Void and took the magic with them. Oh, that was a sad and painful time for your people, my dear wizard. Struggling to exist without the benefits of magic. Having to learn to fashion tools, build homes, reconstruct society literally from the ground up. And we all had to watch helplessly. There were no wizards to summon us, to seek our aid.”

  He looked at Kronk for a moment.

  “Think what just one earthen like our friend here could have accomplished if the newly-mundane humans could have summoned him to help them? But they couldn't. It was so incredibly frustrating to watch and not be able to help.”

  Aeris was actually wringing his hands together unconsciously as he spoke, a sign that Simon had learned showed the elemental was emotionally invested in his memories.

  “Wow,” he said. “I had no idea. What about your people, Kronk? Were they watching as well?”

  “Oh yes, master. At first.”

  “What do you mean, at first?”

  The little guy's red eyes dulled as he looked at Simon.

  “It was so...painful to watch, master. We earthen, above all other elementals, want to help. We exist to give aid. To be trapped, locked away from the world of humans when they needed us the most was unendurable. Many of us, myself included, stopped observing mankind altogether. It was a bad time for us.”

  Simon reached out and patted the rocky little shoulder.

  “Yes, I can see that. But try to put that behind you, my friend. Believe me, I would not be here today if it hadn't been for you and your people. And Aeris as well, once we summoned him.”

  “The point, my dear wizard, is that even after all of our observations of humans before and after the old days of magic, we are no closer to truly understanding the complex ways that magic affects the world around us and the people within it. It remains a mystery.”

  Simon finished his tea and picked up the mirror.

  “Well, mystery or not, I've got two days to gather as much information as I can on how to deal with the brown dragons. So I might as well start now. The clock is ticking.”

  Chapter 2

  “You can't be serious,” the woman in the mirror told Simon. “The brown dragons actually invaded the realm of the elves?”

  “I'm quite serious, Liliana,” he replied gravely. “We suspect that they blame the elves for the destruction of the primal white dragon, and maybe the other two primals as well.”

  The paladin muttered under her breath and Simon guessed that it was just as well that he didn't speak Russian.

  “But you can't mean to follow them there,” she finally said with a fierce glare. “I know that the time differential between our world and the elvish lands can be fatal to humans. You're sentencing yourself to death, my friend.”

  “Not necessarily,” Simon told her. “It's quite possible that the magic in my system, the power that has, apparently, slowed down my body's aging process, will allow me to travel there and return safely. Mind you, staying more than several weeks might be harmful, but I might be fine until then.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she listened. The mirror she was using to see the wizard with trembled a bit in her hand.

  “I hear 'possible', 'apparently' and 'might be' in that argument, Simon. I don't think you're as sure of this course of action as you'd like me to believe you are.”

  “I'm not saying I am,” he answered with some irritation. “It's a risk, I grant you, but it's a risk I'm willing to take if it comes to that. The thing is, there are no spell-casters among the elves. No wizards, no mages,” he nodded at her, “no paladins. Elves are magic, they don't cast magic. So right there, their defense against the monsters is limited. If I go and lend my support, it could really help.”

  “Really?” Liliana said skeptically. “One lone wizard against, how many did you say, possibly thousands of dragons? Look, I don't underestimate your power, sir wizard, but even so, you are no match for those kinds of numbers.”

  “One, Liliana,” Simon said emphatically. “One dragon. The primal brown. K
ill it and the others will fall. It really is that simple.”

  The paladin barked a short, humorless laugh.

  “That simple, is it? Just waltz into the elven lands, find the primal brown dragon somewhere in a world covered in vast forests, cast a few spells and bang! Problem solved? Simon, either you are completely naïve or you think that I am. Come clean, sir wizard and stop treating me like an idiot.”

  “I...”

  Simon caught himself and took a deep breath. The paladin was right. He was treating a life and death situation too lightly.

  Time to smarten up, he told himself.

  “You're right. I apologize. It's just that this doom and gloom stuff is easier to swallow if I deal with it less seriously than it is.”

  “Apology accepted,” Liliana said with a little smile. “And I understand that reasoning, believe me. Now let's get back to the original discussion. The elves need help and you want to help them.”

  She leaned back against the rough stone wall behind her with a clank of metal. As usual, the paladin was wearing a full suit of plate armor that shone as if it was highly polished. She treated it as if it was as light as the robes that Simon always wore.

  Liliana was speaking to him from inside a decrepit building somewhere in the center of Moscow. She'd found a new base underground after her last one was invaded by drakes. She had even met up with several Changlings who had somehow survived and made their way to Moscow from little villages and towns, looking for food, clothing and especially shelter from dragons.

  “I do want to help. In fact, I feel like I have to.”

  Simon watched as the woman walked around the large room where she'd taken up residence. The cement walls were cracked and stained. There were several brackets bolted to them with torches spluttering and flickering, throwing off random shadows. He saw her stop and talk quietly to a few people who were sitting on bunks, chatting and laughing in a casual way.

  The wizard was pleased that Liliana finally had some people around her. The small group of Changlings that she had been with when he'd first met her had been slaughtered, used in unholy rites by the primal white dragon. After that, she had become single-minded in her quest for revenge.