Blood of the Earth (32 page)

Jinzeri was standing at the end of long stretch of relatively wide tunnel. He saw them, but didn’t make any move to flee. Instead, he held his ground and watched.

Alexander stopped, wary of the shade, and sent his all around sight down the passage. He saw hundreds of strands of silk hanging from the ceiling, dripping with venom. The ceiling was dotted with tiny glowing worms that were waiting mindlessly for their next meal to become entangled in their lines. The colors of the drops of sticky liquid slowly dripping down the silk threads reminded Alexander of the colors of the deathwalker root.

“Stop,” Alexander said as Hector started moving toward the shade.

Jinzeri smiled before he slipped around a corner and vanished into the darkness.

“We have to find another way around,” Alexander said as a drop of venom splashed against the back of his neck. He looked up and saw that they were standing underneath dozens of glow worms and they were all spinning their strands of silk, droplets of venom slowly drizzling down each one.

He felt cold numbness where the drop had hit him, and it was spreading.

“Retreat,” he said, backing out from under the glow worms. Within two steps he stumbled, unable to command his legs to carry him. He tried to regain his balance but failed, toppling to the ground.

“Alexander,” Isabel cried out, racing to his side.

Hector and Horace picked him up and carried him to a chamber several dozen feet away from the threat of the glow worms and laid him down.

Alexander was aware of his surroundings but he’d lost the ability to move of his own free will. He was completely paralyzed by the fast-acting toxin.

“Alexander,” Isabel said frantically. “Can you hear me?”

He was powerless to respond with words but he could still communicate with Chloe. She spun nervously into a ball of light before regaining her normal form.

“He’s paralyzed, but conscious and aware,” she said. “A drop of glow-worm venom landed on the back of his neck.”

Isabel nodded to Hector and Horace and they carefully rolled him over. An angry red splotch stood out on his neck. She carefully scraped the venom off his skin with her knife, then slathered healing salve over the mark.

“He says the cold has stopped spreading,” Chloe reported.

“All we can do now is wait,” Isabel said. “I don’t want to risk choking him with a healing potion.”

“That’s a remarkably fast-acting toxin,” Jack said. “I suspect Lucky would appreciate a sample, if we could collect some without further risk.”

“I can,” Horace said, “provided you have a suitable container.”

Jack smiled. “Lucky asked me to collect any rare or unusual ingredients we came across and he gave me a number of vials and containers,” he said.

After Jack handed him a small glass vial and a little spoon, Horace concentrated for a moment and then handed them to his invisible magical servant. Jack provided light as the vial and spoon floated down the hall to gather the sticky venom from the puddles on the floor under each strand of glow-worm silk. The stuff had the consistency of honey but it was as clear as water. Within a few minutes the vial was full. Horace handed it to Jack, who carefully wiped it off with a scrap of cloth. He discarded the cloth, then slipped the vial inside a metal tube that Lucky had provided to safeguard dangerous ingredients.

Then they waited, with Chloe providing frequent reports on Alexander’s well-being. After about an hour, he started to regain some feeling in his fingers and toes. An hour after that, he was nearly fully recovered.

“That’s some potent stuff,” he said. “One drop put me down. I suspect a few more would have killed me.”

“How did the shade get through there?” Isabel asked.

“I don’t think he did,” Hector said. “I’ve reexamined his tracks and it looks like he went that way initially, but backtracked in his own footprints and then very carefully stepped on stones to cover his real path out that passage over there.”

“So he tried to walk us into a trap and was waiting for us so he could watch,” Alexander said. “Let’s see if we can catch up with him and at least leave him without a body.”

They continued into the dark by the light of their night-wisp dust, moving slowly and cautiously. The encounter with the glow worms had made them all more wary.

Several hours later the Sovereign Stone pulsed with red light, went back to its normal soft glow, then pulsed again. Alexander stopped dead in his tracks. Everyone looked at him with curiosity.

“Why did it do that?” Isabel asked.

“The Wizard’s Den,” Alexander said. “The sovereigns told me the Stone would pulse with light about a day before the Wizard’s Den opened. This changes things. As soon as we’re done here, we have to get back to Ruatha as quickly as possible.”

“I don’t understand,” Isabel said.

“There are spellbooks in the Wizard’s Den,” Alexander said, “including a banishing spell. Our wizards need to study those books and learn everything they can from them.”

“You mean we could be rid of the shades, once and for all?” Isabel asked.

“And the wraith queen,” Alexander said.

They traveled through the dark for the rest of the day. It was a confusing maze of twisting and turning caverns. Occasionally, they became disoriented or ran into dead ends and had to backtrack. Alexander stopped several times and used his clairvoyance to chart a course but it was difficult because it was so dark. Even with his magical sight, he couldn’t get a clear picture of their environment.

They came upon glow worms a few more times and had to backtrack to avoid them. The time lost was worth it though. Alexander didn’t want to find out what would happen if several drops of the potent poison got on one of them. When they were exhausted, they stopped in a larger chamber and made a small camp. It was cold and dank but they slept well from sheer fatigue, waking some time later, though none of them knew if it was day or night. In this place such a concept had no meaning.

Three hours later, they rounded a corner and saw a glimmer of light in the distance. Alexander wanted to hurry but he knew this was the most likely place for Jinzeri to spring another trap, so they moved with a measured and cautious pace. The cavern passage was broken on one side; a crack in the stone of the mountain wide enough to pass through led into a small valley filled with a lake.

They stepped out onto a stone shelf ten feet above the water of the deep lake and caught their first glimpse of the vitalwood tree.

The valley was actually a deep pit in the mountain with stone walls rising hundreds of feet on all sides. It was only about three hundred feet across at its widest point and there were no other entrances. In the middle of the deep blue waters of the lake was a small island, fifty or sixty feet across, with lush green grass blanketing its surface. The vitalwood tree stood directly in the center of the island.

Alexander had seen the colors of dragons, wizards, and fairies … but this surpassed them all. It radiated vital life energy in waves of undulating power. Physically, it looked like a giant oak tree with lush, broad leaves and thousands of pure white flowers all in bloom. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring—for a long time they just stood there, taking in the sheer majesty of the tree. It was a thing of such beauty that Alexander felt a deep sense of gratitude for the privilege of simply looking at it.

Chloe buzzed into a ball of light, floating higher into the air as she did.

“My kind came to the world of time and substance from the realm of light to frolic under the shade of the vitalwood. I never fully understood why until now. I can only imagine an entire forest of such magnificent trees covering the world.”

“For the first time in my entire life, I think I’m actually at a loss for words,” Jack said.

Alexander took Isabel’s hand.

He could not only see the aura of the tree, he could actually feel it. It permeated him with calm tranquility, a feeling of belonging and acceptance that he had only found before in Isabel’s love. In the presence of the vitalwood tree, everything felt right with the world.

Before them, at the edge of the stone shelf, a being of pure white light coalesced out of nothingness, taking form and substance between them and the tree.

“I am Selaphiel,” he said. “You may not pass.”

He stood ten feet tall in the form of a man, but that’s where the similarity ended. His skin was pure white and he glowed so brightly that no one, save Alexander, could look directly at him. He had no hair and wore no clothes, nor carried any weapons, yet it was obvious that he was more than a match for any power they had at their disposal.

“I am Alexander Reishi,” Alexander said, drawing the Sovereign Stone from under his tunic. “I have come for three drops of nectar from the vitalwood tree and nothing more. I have seen a great many things, but nothing of such surpassing beauty as this tree. I will do no harm, but I must have the nectar to save the one I love.”

“I have been charged by one of your ancestors with protecting this tree,” Selaphiel said. “For millennia, I have watched over her, waiting for the day when she would choose to spread her seed into the world again. Why should I grant you what you seek?”

“Because my need is driven by love,” Alexander said.

“And yet there is darkness within the one you would save,” Selaphiel said, turning to Isabel, “although, there is also light.”

“We wish to banish the darkness from her,” Alexander said. “The Reishi Sovereigns have told me of a potion that can save her, but it requires the nectar of the vitalwood tree.”

Selaphiel turned to Chloe as if Alexander was of little consequence. “You are a long way from home, Chloe.”

“As are you, Selaphiel,” Chloe said, flitting up to within a few feet of his face.

“You have bound yourself to this mortal,” he said.

She nodded.

“So you will be coming home soon.”

“Yes.”

“And he is worthy of your love?” he asked.

“He is,” she said.

Selaphiel thought for a moment.

“I will permit you to gather the nectar he has requested, but the mortals must not pass,” he said.

She looked to Alexander. He nodded, smiling.

“Bargain struck,” Chloe said.

She spun into a ball of light at the same moment that Selaphiel’s entire body pulsed pure white.

“Darkness nears,” he said. “Jinzeri, I can smell you. Show yourself.”

The shade stepped out of the crack in the stone wall and scanned the scene. When he saw the tree, his face contorted in a mixture of rage and lust—rage that such a thing of beauty existed and lust to destroy it.

Selaphiel looked from Jinzeri to Isabel.

“This demon is bound to the darkness within you,” he said.

“She gave birth to me,” Jinzeri said mockingly. “Of course, Alexander here helped. Without him, she would never have been a viable conduit between the netherworld and the world of time and substance. And my favorite part—Alexander did it all for love.” He tipped his head back and laughed. “He has doomed the world, and all for love,” he said, still laughing.

“The world has not fallen yet,” Selaphiel said, “and you will not be here to see the day when it does.”

“Are you threatening me, Selaphiel?” Jinzeri said. “You know the price of what you suggest. You cannot banish me without relinquishing your post.”

“I could just kill you,” Alexander said.

“When will you learn?” Jinzeri said. “You can’t kill me … because I’m already dead.”

“Maybe I can’t kill you, but I can leave you without a body,” Alexander said.

Jinzeri shrugged, “I’ll find another.” He turned back to Selaphiel as if dismissing any threat Alexander posed.

“If you banish me, who will guard the tree and all it represents?” Jinzeri asked in a knowing sort of way.

“I can place the tree beyond your reach, beyond anyone’s reach,” Selaphiel said.

“For a time, perhaps,” Jinzeri said. “But my brothers and I are patient. Now that I know where it is, we will finish the job we started so long ago.”

Selaphiel pulsed with light and Alexander saw an undercurrent of rage undulate through his puissant colors. Alexander’s mind raced. He was missing a vital piece of information and he knew better than most the value of complete information. He also knew that the time for words would soon end. Above all, he needed what he’d come for.

“Gather some nectar for me, Little One,” Alexander said silently to Chloe. She spun into a ball of light and vanished into the aether.

“You remember that time, don’t you, Selaphiel?” Jinzeri taunted. “Soot and ash blotted out the sun for an entire season. The wail of anguish that tore through the world at the death of the vitalwood forest brought despair to all. It was a delicious triumph, or it would have been had it not been for this one tree.”

“You failed then and you will fail now,” Selaphiel said. “The forest will be reborn and you will be cast down into the darkness where you belong.”

“Go ahead, then,” Jinzeri said. “Banish me. I’ll find my way out again. I always do.” Jinzeri waited a moment with feigned expectation. When Selaphiel took no action, he laughed derisively.