Free The Dragons Revenge (Tales from the New Earth #2) by J.J. Thompson Page A

goes nothing.”
    He raised the hammer and
slammed it down on the flat end of the chisel. The crystal rang out
like a peal of bells and the chisel shot out of his hand and spun
across the room to land in a corner.
    Simon felt the vibration
of his strike shoot up his arm and send painful tingles throughout
his entire body. He held on to the hammer with an effort and waited
for the shaking to subside.
    “ Well, that didn't
work,” Ethmira commented, unnecessarily, he thought.
    “ No, it didn't, did
it?” he said with a touch of sarcasm.
    She shot him a look and he
shrugged, embarrassed.
    “ At least we know
it's harder than it looks,” Simon said.
    He peered at the spike he
had hit and couldn't find even a scratch.
    “ Any other ideas?”
the elf asked. She sounded genuinely curious and Simon could only
shrug again.
    “ Not right off hand.
You?”
    “ Perhaps,” she
answered thoughtfully, tapping her lower lip with a forefinger.
    “ Although it looks
like crystal, it obviously isn't,” she continued. “I'd
guess that it is closer in structure to diamonds.”
    Simon put his hands on the
table and leaned in close to the reddish heart.
    “ That's a good
guess. The question is, how do you destroy a diamond?”
    Ethmira began to pace back
and forth a few steps, frowning at the floor as she walked.
    “ I believe there are
two ways to crack a diamond,” she said, still pacing. “One
you just tried; hitting it sharply with an edged tool to break it.
That didn't work. The other way is to strike it with something as
hard as itself.”
    “ As hard as itself?”
    Simon chuckled and Ethmira
stopped and looked at him curiously.
    “ Sorry,” he
said. “But since I don't have any large diamonds just lying
around in a drawer someplace, I think we're out of luck.”
    Now it was the elf's turn
to laugh.
    “ But Simon, you do
have just such a thing.”
    “ I do?”
    She nodded at the pulsing
hearts and suddenly he realized what she meant.
    “ Of course!”
he exclaimed with a wide grin. “The only thing as strong as one
heart is another one. Why didn't I think of that?”
    “ You would have,
Simon,” Ethmira said in a friendly manner. “In time. Now
the bigger question is, how do we smash one heart against the other
with enough force to shatter them both?”
    Both of them silently
contemplated the pair of glittering, pulsing hearts for a few
minutes, trying to think of a solution.
    How do you use a crystal
that weighs about twenty pounds to shatter another one just like it?
    Simon could think of only
one way, but it seemed a bit stupid and he waited for Ethmira to
voice her own ideas.
    Unfortunately the elf
remained silently puzzled and finally Simon cleared his throat to get
her attention.
    “ You have an idea?”
she asked hopefully.
    “ Well, yeah. I do.
But it might sound a little silly, to be honest.”
    Ethmira made a reassuring
gesture.
    “ Simon, at this
point, silly could be just what we need. Please don't think I was
judging you earlier when you tried to break the heart with that tool.
It was an honest attempt, after all. I didn't believe it would work,
true, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth trying.”
    The wizard had to smile.
Obviously the elf could read him better than he thought.
    “ Okay then, here it
is. If we place one of the things at the base of the tower, and brace
it so that it doesn't move, couldn't we just drop the other one on
top of it from the roof? I mean, it might take a few tries to hit it,
but we certainly have the time.”
    Ethmira stared at him for
a long moment and Simon could feel his face getting hot.
    At last she smiled broadly
and shook her head.
    “ Yeah,” he
said, looking away and feeling stupid. “I know it's a dumb idea
but...”
    “ Simon, that's
brilliant!”
    He stared at her in
surprise.
    “ What?”
    “ Brilliant. Why
didn't I think of that? It's so obvious.”
    “ You would have. In
time,” he told her with a mischievous grin.
    The elf laughed.
    “