The Dragons of Decay (17 page)

She took a deep breath, closed her
eyes for a moment, and then looked at Simon intently.

“
The majority of my people,
myself included, want to abandon Nottinghill.”

Her voice was flat and emotionless,
but Simon could see the pain in her eyes. And even though he was
expecting her to say something about not being happy in the little
town anymore, the announcement still hit him like a punch in the gut.

“
Wow,” he managed to say.
He felt the blood draining from his face and experienced a moment of
dizziness.

“
I am so sorry to drop this on
you so abruptly, Simon, but I couldn't think of an easier way to tell
you.”

“
Yeah, I understand. Cards on
the table, like you said.”

“
Would you like to hear the
reasoning behind the decision?”

“
I can guess, actually.”

He held up his empty right hand and
lifted one finger after another.

“
One is the weather, obviously.
Almost half of the year you can't grow anything. Your people are
stuck indoors, trying to pass the time and becoming increasingly
frustrated.”

“
Bang on the money,”
Clara said with a firm nod.

“
Two, the attack of the wights,
and to a lesser extent the attack by Madam and her undead, have
freaked your people out. The wights especially. If such things become
a regular occurrence every time there's a winter storm, and the
winters do seem to be getting worse every year, how long will the
town be able to hold out?”

“
Exactly.”

“
Three, the loss of your fellow
townspeople. You've gone from a slowly growing population of almost
forty people to twenty souls, including three children. That would
rip the heart out of most people, I'd say.”

Clara only nodded.

“
Four, the children themselves.
They are your future. Hell, they're the future of our race. Yes,
there are pockets of humanity still out there, but they are few and
far between. I would hazard a guess that your people are more worried
about them than themselves at this point.”

The cleric sighed heavily.

“
You see things so clearly,
Simon. You really do. Yes, the children. How long can we protect
them? What kind of a future do they have if we stay in this
inhospitable place?”

“
I know. And lastly, at a guess
I would say that staying in this part of the country is a constant
reminder of everything we've lost as a people. All around there is
nothing but wrack and ruin. Ottawa is a deserted hulk. The closest
towns are graveyards. Everyone's former life and all that they've
lost is on glaring display here. It's got to paint a dark shadow over
even the most cheerful person's soul.”

Aeris gave Simon a sad smile of
approval.

“
Exactly right,” he
whispered.

“
You are so perceptive,”
Clara said. She turned away and quickly wiped her eyes. “Everything
you've said is correct. There are many more reasons, little things
really, but yes, you've summed it up perfectly.”

Now it was the wizard's turn to sigh,
long and loud.

“
It's just such a shame,”
he said heavily. “All the work you've done, the life you've
built for yourselves. All for nothing.”

“
Not for nothing, my friend.
We've learned life skills that will help us along the way. We're
closer than ever as a community. And I'd say that we're all a heck of
a lot tougher than we ever were in our previous, more mundane lives.”

“
I can't argue with that. Or
with your decision. So, where do you all want to go? And when?”

“
The where we are still
debating. The when is as soon as possible. If another storm hits and
brings more wights down on us, we may not survive. So it has to be
soon.”

“
Well, you know I'll help in
any way I can. I'll volunteer right now to be your personal
transport.” He smiled sadly. “Just tell me where to go,
and I'll Gate all of you, and whatever you need to take with you, to
whatever destination you choose.”

Clara's face showed her relief.

“
Oh thank you! I didn't want to
ask, especially since you've just gotten out of bed after being ill
for a week, but that would be a lifesaver, it really would.”

“
My pleasure. But if you don't
mind a bit of advice, if you all really want to leave, then sooner
really is better than later. You're right; another storm could be
just around the corner and you don't want to be caught a second time.
I'm not saying that a wight attack will come with it, but we just
don't know, do we?”

“
That's true,” the cleric
said reflectively. “Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'll
gather everyone up today, as soon as we finish speaking. There are a
few old world maps floating around here somewhere and maybe my atlas
can be dug up from the ruins of the town hall. We'll try to find a
suitable location and then, imposing on your generosity,” she
grinned at him and Simon laughed lightly, “perhaps you can use
the Magic Mirror spell to check out our choice to make sure that it
at least looks safe?”

“
I'll do that, of course. Why
don't you go ahead and have your meeting. Signal me with the
lodestone when you've made your choice, and maybe pick a few
alternates just in case, and then I'll scout them out for you.”

“
Thank you yet again, my
friend,” Clara told him, her expression closer to normal than
it had been earlier, and the lines of stress around her eyes fading.
“I'll make the rounds right away, call a meeting and get back
to you as soon as I can.”

“
All right, Clara. I'll talk to
you later.”

She smiled and waved and Simon broke
the connection. He looked glumly at Aeris.

“
You were right,” he said
tiredly. “They're leaving.”

Kronk returned to the tower about two
hours after Simon had spoken with Clara. The sun was just starting to
go down in the west and the air was getting colder when he burst in
the front door, a gust of wind whipping through the room and making
the candles on the kitchen table and the mantle over the fireplace
flicker and waver.

“
I'm back, master,” he
cried as he slammed the door behind him and jumped up to close the
bolts.

Simon was treating himself to some
hot chocolate and smiled at the little guy over the rim of the cup.

“
So you are. How'd it go?”

Kronk tapped across the room and
leaped up on to the kitchen table. He stood in front of the wizard,
cold still radiating from his rocky body.

“
It went well, master. The wall
around Nottinghill is still intact. We did some minor repairs on both
gates and the front drawbridge, but it did not take long. They are as
secure as the earthen can make them again.”

“
Good. Well done, my friend.”

Aeris flew down from upstairs, a
large book in his arms.

“
You may as well look too,”
he was saying as he reached the bottom. “Maybe you can find
some good spots that they haven't even thought of.”

He spotted Kronk as he approached the
table.

“
Oh, you're back. How was it?”

“
Fine, fine. A few small
repairs, nothing major.”

“
Excellent.”

Aeris dropped the book on the table
and Kronk looked at it curiously.

“
The atlas, master?”

“
Yeah.”

Simon slid the book over and opened
it flat on the table.

“
Did you see Clara before you
came back?” he asked.

“
Yes master. I told her how
things went and she expressed her gratitude.” He paused and
looked a bit perplexed. “She was somewhat distracted though.”

“
Distracted by what?”

“
Well, I had to interrupt her,
master. She was in the barracks and the rest of the townspeople were
there as well. They were having a meeting of some sort and there was
quite a bit of loud discussion going on. I got in and out as quickly
as I could so that the lady cleric could return to her business.”

“
How loud?” Aeris asked
him with a pointed look at Simon.

“
Quite loud, actually. There
was a lot of shouting and, um, lively debate.”

“
I'll bet there was,” the
wizard muttered. He gave the atlas a brooding look.

“
What is going on, master?”

“
I think that they're going to
leave Nottinghill,” Simon told him sadly. “I understand
their reasons, but it's such a shame. All the work they're put into
it, all the work
you've
put into it and just like that: gone.”

He let out
a long breath.

That'll
teach me to pass out for a frigging week, he thought bitterly.

But you
aren't involved in this, his inner voice said softly. It is their
choice.

“
It
is sad, master,” Kronk agreed and then echoed the wizard's
thoughts. “But it is their decision to make, isn't it?”

“
I
know. I know.”

He slapped
his two hands down on the atlas.

“
And
since it will probably be the consensus to leave, I thought I'd maybe
look around for a place for them to move to. You know, give them some
options. The final destination will be up to them though.”

He began
flipping through the book and the elementals moved to either side of
it to watch.

“
How
far south is far enough, master?”

“
At
a guess, I'd say far enough that they never have to deal with winter
again.”

Simon
found a detailed map of the old United States and ran a finger down
the middle of the country.

“
It
has to be fertile enough to grow crops, get enough rain and sun, and
rarely get too cold.”

“
What
about that one?” Aeris suggested, tapping on a state.

“
Nevada?”

Simon
stared at him.

“
It's
mostly desert. They won't have to worry about snow but I don't think
there's a lot of water there.”

“
Right,
right,” Aeris nodded as he stared intently at the map.

“
I
was actually thinking about this one,” Simon told them and
pointed.

Kronk
knelt down by the map and read the legend.

“
Florida,
master?”

“
Yup.
I know the northern part of the state gets the occasional frost in
the winter, but they grew a lot of crops there in the old days, so
there is fertile ground. And I know there were a lot of small towns
and communities scattered about. Who knows? Maybe there are still
some survivors down there.”

“
Well,
if the people from Nottinghill agree, there is a way to find out,”
Aeris told him.

At Simon's
questioning look, the air elemental pointed at himself.

“
Just
do what you did once before, and summon some of my kind. A half-dozen
of them could scout that area in a week at most. They would bring
back detailed reports of ideal locations to settle in and any dangers
present. And perhaps news of Changlings too.”

“
Excellent
suggestion,” Simon told him and Aeris grinned, quite pleased
with himself.

“
Okay.
I'll mention it to Clara when I talk to her again.”

The wizard
frowned down at the book and then flipped over another few pages. He
pointed at the map and the elementals peered at it.

“
They
may actually want to go further, maybe Central or South America. If
that's the case, I'll still suggest sending your people down first to
scout, Aeris. We can't have them walking in blind.”

“
Absolutely
not, master. Those people have suffered enough,” Kronk said
firmly.

Aeris
agreed.

“
We
must make the transition as painless as possible, especially for the
children,” he said.

Simon was
a little surprised at the feeling in the air elemental's voice. Aeris
wasn't known to be sentimental but the wizard could tell that he
really cared about the townspeople.

“
Good.
We're all on the same page then,” he said as he closed the
atlas. “Now we'll just have to wait until Clara and the others
decide, one way or another.”

The rest
of the evening the three of them spent discussing the various
scenarios that could come up once the people of Nottinghill made
their decision. In the middle of the talk, Kronk asked a question
that caught Simon by surprise.

“
Are
you thinking of leaving as well, master?” the earthen asked
quizzically.