The Dragons of Bone and Dust (Tales from the New Earth Book 7) by J. J. Thompson Page B

them together in a madman's heap. How the ugly thing even
managed to reach toward the heavens and not collapse upon itself was
a mystery.
    “ Magic,”
he muttered. “Black magic. Has to be.”
    The tower was surrounded by a
rippling field of distortion that made it hard to make out details,
but he could see greenish lights glowing from crooked windows,
climbing up level upon level. And near the top, where the tower came
to a sharp, defiant point aimed at the sky, were monstrous shapes
that soared and glided around the edifice as if on constant guard:
dracoliches.
    The wizard saw two of the massive
undead dragons and wondered if they were the remains of the two
primals that had pursued him before he'd escaped to the elven realm.
He would have to assume that they were.
    Simon sat back in his chair with a
groan. He had a feeling that he'd have to face one or both of those
creatures one day, and the thought was far from comforting.
    Who lives there, I wonder? The
necromancers? That damned Lacertus? Or something even worse?
    And why build their accursed tower on
the bones of Nottinghill Castle? It seemed so petty and childish. Or
was it a warning, a lesson to everyone who saw it?
    It didn't matter. One day the human
race would tear that thing down and destroy whatever was hiding
inside of it.
    Brave words, wizard, his inner voice
said mockingly. Let's see you do it.
    “ One day,”
he muttered. “One day it will happen. You just wait and see.”
    He dismissed the vision of the black
tower and tried to find the old cruise ship, the Defiant. It had been
home to quite a few people. But he had no luck. That wasn't really a
surprise though; the ship had no permanent home port. If the crew and
the others living on her had been evacuated by the dwarves, they
could have left the ship anywhere. And moving water was a natural
barrier to the Magic Mirror spell anyway.
    Simon then directed his mirror toward
a handful of smaller settlements that he vaguely remembered,
scattered around the world. Each one was deserted and most had been
flattened and torn apart like Nottinghill. It was a tremendously
depressing session and he gave up after a couple of hours.
    If there were any humans left alive
on the planet's surface, he couldn't find them.
    “ So I guess
I'll have to do it the hard way,” he said to the room around
him.
    He stood up abruptly, pushed back his
chair and left the room. The wizard turned left out of the study and
hurried up the stairs to the top floor. He climbed the ladder to the
roof, pushed back the trap door and pulled himself out into the
morning light.
    The rain had passed but dark clouds
raced across the sky, promising more precipitation to come. The wind
was gusty and constantly changing direction. Simon's hair whipped
around his face and his robe fluttered and snapped in the breeze.
    He ignored these distraction and held
out his hand.
    “ Mortis de
Draconis,” he said firmly.
    The staff flashed into existence and
settled into his palm, a comforting and familiar weight.
    “ Morning,”
Simon said to it with a tight smile. “We have some work to do.”
    He held up the staff and winced; he
knew what was coming.
    “ Brethia,
come to me,” he stated in a loud voice.
    There was a dull rumble in the
distance and the daylight seemed to dim.
    “ Here we
go,” he muttered and cringed a bit as he closed his eyes.
    A moment later there was a blinding
flash and the tower shook with a resounding blast of thunder that
made Simon's ears ring.
    “ Damn it, I
hate that,” he said as the echoes faded.
    He leaned the staff against his chest
and rubbed his ears.
    “ Forgive me,
my lord,” a delicate, feminine voice said contritely.
    Simon opened his eyes and saw an air
elemental bobbing in the wind a few feet away.
    “ That's
okay, Brethia. Aeris has told me many times that your ruler likes you
all to make a big entrance.”
    She shrugged a bit wearily and
nodded.
    “ I am afraid
so, my lord. We have petitioned him about