Protector Of The Grove (Book 2) (23 page)

Justan caught Fist up on everything that had gone on and the ogre was both angered and terrified that someone would send something so deadly against Justan. By the time they were done talking, two hours had passed.

Justan’s wounded hand was throbbing and the energy the honstule had given him had left his limbs. Sir Hilt had switched positions with Qurl and Poz had offered to take Justan’s place, but he’d refused. How could he show weakness now when the others had carried him for four days? It wouldn’t be much longer now anyway. They had traveled over a third of the distance from Sampo to the school and Fist was very close.

“Stop!” shouted Jhonate, coming in from the trees at the side of the road. “Weaponmaster Yntri senses something.”

The elf appeared beside her with his bow drawn, his electrified arrow on the string and crackling with energy as his eyes darted about the area. Justan opened his senses, focusing on his sense of smell. The odor that Yntri had shown him in the forest filled his nostrils, a mix of dozens of animals all in one. A basilisk was near. And under that was another scent, a harsh chemical one. Was it trying to disguise its odor?

Justan didn’t understand it. The nightbeast only had one follower left. Why send it out now? Unless it wasn’t alone.

“Qurl, we need to set Aldie down,” Justan said and they eased the stretcher to the ground. “Yntri! Say something to me through the wristband.”

“
Something is wrong
,” the elf clicked, his face pinched with concern. “
This odor is disruptive
.”

Justan’s eyes settled on Jhonate. She frowned back at him.

“
I am still me
,” she said both aloud and through the ring.

Suddenly the ground between Jhonate and Justan trembled. Yntri fired his arrow at it. The tip barely penetrated the hardened ground. Sparks flew, but the electrical discharge had no effect on the trembling earth.

Cracks appeared as a large chunk of the road was lifted up from below. The basilisk, having taken the form of a thickly muscled kobald, threw the piece of road to the side, Yntri’s arrow still embedded in it. Justan realized that it had dug under the road from the side for the purpose of denying the elf his effective weapon.

The harsh scent grew stronger now, a horrible acidic smell that Justan couldn’t place. The basilisk’s reptilian kobald form came at Justan, shifting as it went, the stone-like scales on the kobald’s skin becoming sharpened spikes. For some reason, its entire body was glistening as if covered in water. Perhaps the ground had been wet.

Qurl and Jhonate rushed to meet it. The Roo-Tan warriors attacked with their Jharro staves. Jhonate sliced at the backs of its knees, while Qurl jabbed at its throat, the tip of his staff becoming pointed and spear-like. Neither attack pierced the basilisk’s hardened hide and it knocked Qurl aside, barreling at Justan.

Justan was ready for it. He had moved away from Aldie and stood with Rage held in both hands. The sword had converted Aldie’s pain and was brimming with power begging to be released. The world slowed.

Justan knew that if he blasted the basilisk in the chest, its pieces would explode outward, striking Jhonate and Yntri who were running behind it. So he swung the sword down and up in a heavy stroke, focusing the majority of the sword’s power in one up-thrust blast. The basilisk didn’t try to dodge, but powered towards him, its reptilian features changing to something more bird-like. Its eyes were bulbous and yellow and foam was bubbling at its mouth.

“Edge, wait!” Hilt shouted.

Justan’s upward swing caught the creature in the abdomen. The resulting blast of energy completely reversed the basilisk’s momentum, knocking it up and off of the ground. The basilisk’s hardened form rocketed into the air and Justan’s vision slowed down even further. He saw a spider web of cracks appear in the creature’s torso. Then the cracks filled with flame.

Justan’s eyes widened and he dove as the basilisk’s body ballooned outward. The beast was high in the air when it erupted into a violent explosion.

Justan felt the shockwave strike him mid-dive like a heavy weight on his back. What passed through his mind in the fraction of a second before he was slammed to the ground was Jhonate. She had been almost directly under the basilisk when it exploded.

There was a great thud. Justan’s torso struck the ground first and he felt his ribs crack just before his head hit.

The next thing Justan was aware of was a ringing in his ears. Wincing, he took mental stock of his situation. His vision was blurry but as he shifted his body, his limbs seemed to be intact. He breathed in and exhaled in pain, holding back a cough. It hurt to breathe. It was likely his ribs were fractured.

Justan
! came Fist’s voice through the bond.
We’re almost to you! We heard a big boom. Are you okay
?

I . . .
Justan pushed himself up. Smoke drifted through the air and he saw several pieces of flaming debris.
Jhonate
!

He looked around and shouted her name, but he couldn’t hear his own voice through the ringing. He sent his thoughts through the ring.
Jhonate
! He didn’t get a response. He couldn’t feel her thoughts.

He scrambled to his feet. The explosion had been bigger than he thought.  Several trees were bent and broken, a few of them burning. Everyone was down. Hilt, Poz, even Stanza had collapsed. The poor horse’s head lolled, her eyes wild. Justan stumbled over to Jhonate’s still form. She had been closest to the blast, but surely his ring had protected her. She was lying face down on the ground and a large chunk of the basilisk was covering her right arm. Flames flickered along the back of her breastplate.

He fell to his knees at her side, forgetting his own pains. He patted out the fire.
Jhonate
! He pulled back her hair and saw a large wound in her scalp that extended from just above her right ear up and across her forehead. There was blood covering her face. So much blood. He had never seen her this injured before. What should he do? He didn’t dare move her.
Hurry, Fist! Jhonate’s hurt
!

Fist said something in response, but Justan didn’t listen. He reached through the ring as far as his small connection with her would allow. He got the sense of a faint heartbeat, but she was unconscious. He needed control of his magic. He needed to be able to heal.

Justan dove through his bond with the Scralag.
Artemis
! He came up against the chill wind of the magical blockage between him and the spirit of his great grandfather.
Artemis. Please! Give me control of my magic. Please. If only for a brief moment I need it now. I need to heal the woman I love. Artemis
!

GO AWAY. I AM NOT NEEDED
! said the Scralag.

Yes you are! Please, Artemis! It is about saving her. Help me protect her
! Justan saw something stir beyond the blockage and for a brief moment, he saw a pair of human eyes peering back at him.

Then Justan felt huge hands grabbing him, lifting him to his feet. He opened his eyes and saw Fist’s large kind face looking back at him, relieved that he was okay. The ogre was wearing black apprentice’s robes with blue and gold stripes on the sleeves. Squirrel sat on Fist’s shoulder wearing one of those embroidered vests Darlan had made for it.

“Fist, it’s Jhonate you need to worry about,” Justan said in a voice he still could not hear through the ringing.

He turned to show the ogre and saw his mother crouched over Jhonate, her brow taut with concentration as threads of black earth magic left her hands and entered Jhonate’s body. Darlan looked so strong in her wizard’s robes, fiery red with a black hem. This was what she belonged doing. Justan felt a great sense of relief. Jhonate would be okay. Surely his mother would save her.

Then Justan felt magic entering his body, not externally, but from within. He looked back at Fist and saw that the ogre was biting his lip, his eyes closed. Justan turned his mage sight inward and looked within himself. He saw the ogre’s magic coming in through the bond. Fist’s strength was in earth magic with lower levels of air and water. From the way Fist weaved the elements, it was obvious to Justan that he was still learning, but his magic worked. The cracks in Justan’s ribs closed.

I’m good at fixing bones
, the ogre said proudly. He then turned his attention on Justan’s other wounds.
The flesh stuff is kind of harder
.

Justan felt like he should do something, perhaps give Fist instruction of some kind, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t thinking right. He watched numbly as Fist mended the tissues in his palm and tried his best to fix the multiple bruises in various other areas of Justan’s body.

It’s okay, Fist
, he sent.
Don’t worry about those
.

It’s your ears that worry me
, Fist said.
There’s something in your head I can’t do anything about
. The ogre yelled something that Justan couldn’t hear.

Justan turned his inner eye towards his head. He could see what Fist was talking about. There was damage from a concussion. That’s what was causing his hearing loss and likely his difficulty thinking. Strange how he could remember that when the rest of his thinking was so muddied. He was probably in shock, too.

He felt hands grasp either side of his head and watched as someone with a deft grasp of healing magic used minute threads of earth and water mixed with a surprising amount of air magic to soothe the swelling in his brain. Slowly, the ringing went away and Justan began to hear things. There was quite a bit of commotion, with people shouting out instructions. He heard one familiar deep booming voice. Charz was here.

“Is that better, Edge?” asked the man that had healed him and Justan’s eyes flew open. It was Professor Beehn. For some reason the wizard had grown a pencil thin mustache. “Yeah, but-.”

He looked back down at Jhonate. His smile widened as he saw her sitting up and talking to his mother. The wound in her head was healed, her skin unbroken.

Justan rushed in and nearly bowled her over in an embrace. He kissed her lips and cheek and forehead. “Jhonate, you’re okay. I was so worried. There was nothing I could do.”

She grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in for a kiss again. Her green eyes twinkled. “I love you, Justan. Everything was black. I could not move. I could not feel anything. But I heard you. I heard your voice.”

Justan smiled at her and looked around. Most of the fires had guttered out on their own and there were wizards and mages all around tending to the others. How had Fist brought so many? Almost as if in answer, Darlan spoke.

“And doesn’t your mother get a hug?” Darlan asked, her hands on her hips.

Justan stood and helped Jhonate to her feet, then hugged his mother. “Thank you, Mom. Thank you for coming. I missed you.”

“No kiss?” she asked, eyebrows raised. “I pull your future wife back from the brink of death and all I get is a hug?”

Justan laughed. “For that I’ll kiss you full on the lips,” he said and did just that.

Darlan beamed. “You haven’t let me kiss you on the lips since you were six years old.”

“You haven’t deserved it since then,” Justan said.

“What about me?” Fist asked, sounding disappointed.

Justan turned to look at the ogre. “You want a kiss on the lips?”

Fist frowned and Justan embraced him. “Thank you. Thank you for bringing help.”

“You’re my tribe,” the ogre said, squeezing him back, firmly but gentler than usual, not wanting to hurt Justan’s newly healed ribs.

Jhonate winced as she rotated her right arm. There was a tiny pop in her shoulder and she grunted as she started stretching out her neck muscles. “Was I really that far gone?”

“Well, you had a major contusion and a lot of blood loss. Both your eardrums were ruptured. Your right arm was dislocated and broken in several places,” Darlan said. “Let’s just say that if you lived, your recovery would have been quite difficult. As it was, I think that the only thing that saved you was your ring.”

Jhonate’s hand went to the ring on her forefinger. The one Justan had given her the day he’d left for the Mage School. Luckily it still seemed to be intact.

Jhonate wasn’t the only one that had been close to death’s door. The explosion had sent pieces of the basilisk everywhere. Jhonate had been hit by the biggest piece but several of them had taken damage. The force of the blast had torn Aldie’s wound back open and caused Justan’s sword to pierce his leg, cutting an artery. The wizards were still working on him, though they assured Justan that he would recover.

Hilt had broken his collar bone and two ribs. Yntri and Qurl had been blasted into the bushes and impaled by branches. Jhexin had been thrown from Stanza and his leg crushed when she fell on top of him. The poor horse had fractured legs and ribs. Poz was the only one of them relatively unscathed and that was because he was the furthest from the blast at the time. Luckily all the wounds sustained were healable by magic means and the wizards were seeing to them all. The Roo-Tan men didn’t even put up a fight.

“I’m glad we got here when we did,” Professor Beehn told Justan. “A little while later and we would have lost some of you.”

“I’m so grateful you did. I . . .” Justan’s eyes widened and he looked Beehn up and down. The new mustache wasn’t the only change in the wizard. “You’re standing!”

Beehn laughed. “I thought it strange that you didn’t notice right away.”

“Well I was worried about everything else at the time!” Justan embraced the man and pulled back to look at him again. Beehn looked like he’d lost some weight as well. “But I thought your condition wasn’t fixable.” When the plant golem had broken Wizard Beehn’s back, his magic power had increased dramatically, but the other wizards told him he’d never walk again.

“Well, I found that bonding with a gnome warrior will do odd things to a man’s physiology,” he said, with a mischievous smile and when Justan stared at him incredulously, Beehn looked to Fist. “You kept it a surprise! Good for you. I didn’t think you could do it.”

“Justan didn’t push me too hard,” the ogre said with a grin.

“So, wait. You bonded to a gnome warrior? How?” Justan turned his head and saw Alfred helping Charz load up everyone’s possessions into the back of an enormous wagon. “Alfred?”

“Yes,” said Beehn. “I went into the library one day about a month ago and I saw him sitting at a table surrounded by a pile of books like he was trying to cram information into his mind. He had such a worried look on his face. I went over to him and we started chatting. He was sure that he’d been losing his intelligence since Master Latva died. Every day he’d been finding himself thinking more and more about nothing but battle. As we talked, it was odd, but I felt this kind of pressure in my head. My heart started beating faster and Alfred’s eyes went big and suddenly he spoke to me. In my head.”

“Amazing,” Justan said, smiling back at the man. He couldn’t think of a better person for it to happen to. “Usually the bond happens suddenly. The first time two people meet.”

“Alfred said the same thing,” Beehn replied. “But he also says the most driving requirement is a mutual need. It was strange. While Alfred was telling me about how he was losing his mental faculties, I was thinking about how I was losing my physical ones. The council business had been stressful and I was gaining weight. I was feeling tired all the time and my chest would ache if I did anything too strenuous. It was bad. But after the bond happened I started feeling better immediately. Then a couple of weeks ago I woke up to find that I could feel my legs.”

“That’s great. I’m so happy for you.” Justan said.

Justan’s mother cleared her throat and said with a sweet smile, “Dear son, I’ve noticed you’ve been glossing over one small, perhaps insignificant point.” Darlan’s smile vanished. “What the hell exploded, nearly killing you all?”

“Uh, well-,” Justan said, trying to think something up quick. What could he say that wouldn’t lead to conversation about the nightbeast? He’d had a much better story made up before this happened.

“It was a basilisk, Sherl,” said Hilt. “As for why it exploded . . . I’m not quite sure of the answer to that one.”

Darlan’s eyes widened. “A basilisk? Here? Attacking my son?”

Justan winced. He knew his mother and she had grabbed hold of the problem now. All he could do was hope to control the flow of the conversation. “Uh, so why did it explode anyway? I expected my sword to blow it to pieces, but not like that. Yntri, do you think it had something to do with that strange smell?”

The elf frowned and clicked, “
The smell was wrong. Similar to the slime of trolls, but it was not something of nature. This was made by man. I have smelled things like it long ago when the grove was attacked. Men used fiery liquids to burn the trees, but I have smelled nothing that turned a basilisk into a . . .”
Yntri searched for a word in his language that described it. “
Boom
.”

Darlan watched the elf speak with a deepening frown and Justan realized that it wasn’t working. She didn’t know Yntri’s language so that wouldn’t hold her attention. He was relieved when Jhonate started speaking.

“This was intentional,” she said, her arms folded in front of her. Then she messed everything up. “Why else would the nightbeast send a lone basilisk? After all the others we killed it had to know we would destroy the beast. I think it covered the basilisk in this liquid, thinking Edge would be killed in the explosion.” 

“Nightbeast?” Darlan said and Justan swallowed. This had fallen apart quickly. “You’re being followed by one of the monsters of legend?”