Read The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) for Free Online Page A

attacking the tower and all was well. Then the
Magic Mouth spell failed.”
    “ Right, that's
true.” He took a deep breath. “Well, right after we
spoke, I...lost Kronk and Aeris.”
    He spoke flatly but Clara
looked alarmed.
    “ Lost them? You mean
they're..?”
    “ No, no. Nothing
like that. I think they were drawn back into the elemental realms. It
was a shock, to say the least. I tried calling them back but nothing
happened. The spells I used to know were gone from my memory. My
staff wouldn't channel magic anymore and, when I tried to cast one of
my own spells, absolutely nothing happened.”
    He looked away and blinked
rapidly. Losing the elementals still hurt and he felt a sense of loss
that was almost painful.
    Clara put a gentle hand on
his shoulder and squeezed.
    “ You miss them,
don't you?” she asked softly.
    “ More than the
magic, actually,” he said with a shrug. “Kronk
especially. He's been with me almost from the beginning, after the
old world was destroyed. He wasn't a servant; he was a friend.”
    “ Yes, I understand
that.”
    Clara rose again and began
to pace the room slowly, frowning in thought.
    “ I have no idea how
to reverse what has happened to you, Simon,” she said and he
felt a rush of despair.
    “ But,” she
stopped abruptly and looked at him, ”I'm guessing that the gods
I serve might. Now normally I have to wait for them to contact me in
dreams to know their will. But in this case, I'm going to try to
speak to them directly. It's a bit presumptuous on my part, I know,
but they've taken an interest in you and I'm hoping that will
encourage them to listen to my petition.”
    Simon allowed himself a
tiny degree of hope.
    “ What do you need to
do?” he asked.
    “ Pray,” the
cleric said with a little shrug. “How else do you speak with a
god, after all? I wonder if I could ask you to step out into the main
hall for a little while. I need privacy for this.”
    “ Yes, of course,”
Simon said as he scrambled to his feet. He put down his cup and
walked to the door. “Do you need me to do anything?”
    “ Have patience, my
friend,” Clara told him with some amusement. “This isn't
like an old-time phone call. They may take their time answering me,
or they may not answer at all. Relax as best you can and I'll see you
in a while.”
    He nodded, grabbed his
coat from the hook beside the door, and went out into the hall.
    Simon made his way to a
bench that was close to the fire pit, sat down and tried to be
patient, as Clara had suggested. It could take hours, he supposed
and, important or not, you couldn't rush something like this.
    But patience was in short
supply and, after half an hour or so, Simon put on his coat and
stepped outside.
    It was only around two
o'clock and the clear icy-blue sky blazed with sunlight. The wizard
went over to Chief, removed his bridle and put on a halter that he'd
brought along in his saddlebags. The horse whuffled into his neck as
he worked and Simon had to laugh. It was as if Chief thought of
himself as a lapdog instead of a stallion.
    When he was done, Simon
headed toward the main gate. The narrow cobble-stoned street was
swept clean of snow and he was grateful in the intense cold that the
footing wasn't slippery.
    Halfway there he saw a
woman coming from the opposite direction. It was Virginia. She smiled
and waved as she recognized him.
    “ Simon!” she
called. “How are you?”
    When she got closer, she
gave him a warm hug. Wrapped in thick, fur-lined hide the way she
was, Simon felt like he was being hugged by a rather short bear.
    “ The gatekeeper said
that you were in town when I passed by.”
    “ Passed by? Where
are you going in this freezing weather?” he asked curiously.
    Virginia chuckled. She was
quite pretty and Simon found the way her nose scrunched up when she
laughed very endearing.
    “ You can't stay
huddled inside all the time, even in the winter. I like to get out
every day for a walk and some fresh air. Anyway,