The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (44 page)

As soon as we passed between them, it
got significantly darker. Ahead we could see a way through wide
enough to swim. After passing a few more stalks, I noticed the way
through was getting narrower, and soon we were passing within a
foot of the long leaves. Toji was swimming just ahead of me, which
is why I saw it when one of the kelp leaves reached out and wrapped
itself around Toji’s foot. I don’t mean he got tangled in it, I
mean, it grabbed him.

Toji’s knives came out, and he started
to cut the grasping leaf when I saw more kelp fronds wrapping
around him.

“
Stay away from the kelp,
it’s grabbing Toji!” I called to the others.

Everyone stopped and looked at Toji,
who was now wrapped up by three fronds, and they were pulling him
toward the kelp tree center mass.

I pulled out my own knife and swam to
Toji’s aid.

“
Be careful, or it will
pull you in as well,” Hydan exclaimed.

I stopped and hovered in the water,
and then said, “OK, then do something!”

Myrka let out a bolt of blue Derkaz
energy, it vaporized the water in its path, which went up as a line
of bubbles now, headed for the surface. Where her beam struck the
kelp it cut right through and severed all three of the fronds which
were holding Toji. As soon as they were cut, the parts gripping
Toji relaxed and he was able to swim free.

“
OK, back out of here,
carefully!” I said to the others, but when we turned around we
found the way back had closed up. The other kelp trees had moved,
narrowing all the ways out behind us.

“
This is Dokkalfar Derkaz
magic!” Myrka hissed.

I frowned, and then said, “Can you
burn us a path?”

Myrka nodded, but said, “However, that
will take a lot of my power, and I will be useless for hours
afterward.”

I spun in the water and looked at
Hydan, “Can you change them to something else?”

Hydan shrugged, “Some of them, maybe,
but this is a large forest, which will take a lot of
power.”

We could now see the kelp trees slowly
moving, closing in on the small pocket of open water where the four
of us were hovering.

“
Suggestions?” I
said.

Toji asked, “Why aren’t they attacking
those fish?” He was pointing at a fish which was colored very
similar to the kelp fronds, and swimming right through them without
the plants reacting.

“
They must be like kelpfish
on Earth or clownfish in an anemone,” I said.

Hydan lifted both eye fins in
surprise, “There is a fish which is a clown on Earth?”

“
Sure,” I answered, “It can
live in the arms of a creature which is deadly to other fish,
something called an anemone.”

“
Clownfish! Do you also
have comedianfish?”

“
Do you think this is the
best time to discuss species of fish?” I said, pointing to the
closing kelp forest.

Hydan smirked at me and said, “Well,
we can discuss funny fish later, I suppose, but for now, gather
around me, these kelpfish have the right idea!”

“
I thought you couldn’t
turn us into something else?” I said but moved toward Hydan with
the others.

Hydan laughed, “We cannot change into
kelpfish, but they can certainly change the way we
look!”

Suddenly all the fish, and other
things around us in the water, and from the bottom, were changing
into kelpfish, and they all swam over to us, creating a giant fish
ball of kelpfish, with us in the center. Then the school started to
slowly swim toward one of the few remaining gaps in the kelp trees,
and we gently swam with them. As we passed through the trees did
not grab at us, we were hidden in the school of fish they
ignored.

Hydan’s school stayed with us all the
way to the far edge of the Kelp forest, where they then turned and
the school broke up as the individual kelpfish headed back into the
forest which was their home. We were back in the sunlight, with
only water and rocky reefs with low growing sea grass and other
plants below us. We could see the sand being disturbed by the flow
of waves building up as they reached the shallows, and the back and
forth movement of the surge as the small plants were pulled toward
the shore, and then back in the direction of the deeper
water.

Our heads broke the surface in a few
more yards, and we looked toward the beach to see what else Morgain
had in store for anyone foolish enough to approach her seat of
power.

The forest beyond the short sandy
beach looked dark and foreboding.

While still watching the dark forest,
I spoke to Myrka, “You said the strange kelp was Dokkalfar magic,
what did you mean?”

“
We, of the Tarvos House,
use Derkaz energy directly, as a power. The Dokkalfar mages go
about things in a completely different way; they use the Derkaz to
corrupt life and turn it to their will. Much of the evil others
attribute to the Derkaz comes from what the Dokkalfar do with the
power. It is the Dokkalfar who are evil, not the power they
use.”

Hydan was quiet, but I could tell from
his expression he had more to add to that subject, this just wasn’t
the time and place. I thought of the bloodthirsty way Myrka went
about life and had to agree with him, the Derkaz seemed to have
corrupted Myrka in other ways.

“
So,” I continued, “We can
expect more things like that kelp, but perhaps in the dark forest
ahead?”

Myrka nodded.

“
And we can’t hide in a
fish ball in those trees,” Hydan noted.

That’s when the pile of rocks walked
out onto the beach.

Trees were bent apart by some massive
strength and mass, and then we saw it, a massive creature made of
stone. His head kind of reminded me of those Moai statues on Easter
Island back in the South Pacific, all angularly carved, but the
body was not the slim form of those statues, it was shaped more
like a big silverback gorilla, though the features were angularly
carved, like the head. There were large sigils carved all over the
thing.

But the biggest difference between
these and the Moai statues was that this thing was
moving!

“
Well, I’ll be a monkey’s
uncle!” I exclaimed.

Myrka frowned, “I do not believe that
is a monkey, it is more akin to a stone ape, and it is extremely
unlikely you are related.”

I answered, “I meant… never mind. How
in the Sam Hill are we going to get past that thing?”

“
Who is this Sam Hill, and
is he a wizard?” Myrka demanded.

I ignored her and watched the giant
stone golem stalk up the beach, and then head back into the forest,
making its own trail through the trees. I noted that the top of the
thing’s head was nearly as tall as the trees it had knocked
aside.

Now that I looked, I could see other
parts of the forest moving off in the distance, which likely meant
there were more of these behemoths.

“
Now there is something you
don’t see every day,” I muttered. “Any suggestions?”

Myrka nodded, “We can render it to
rubble.”

“
Which would take a lot of
juice,” I noted, though it was half a question.

Toji nodded, and said, “Yes, to
animate something that large would take a lot of magic, and
therefore, a lot of magic to undo.”

Hydan was watching the movement of the
trees in the distance, and said, “And, there seem to be quite a few
of them.”

“
OK,” I said, “If we don’t
want to fight them, then what is another alternative?”

Toji frowned but didn’t
speak.

I looked at Hydan and saw him starting
to smile slightly. “Oh crap, you’re coming up with some insane
scheme, aren’t you?” I asked him. “We can’t have a bunch of monkeys
surround us and hide us from the golems!”

“
No, but we can have
something else hide us!” Hydan exclaimed.

I sighed, “OK, I say, knowing I will
regret this, what can we put around us?”

“
A stone golem!” he replied
pertly.

“
You can make enough of
them to hide us in the middle?” I asked, perplexed.

He shook his wet scaled head and said,
“No, Nick, creating even one in a short period would be taxing, but
we can travel in the belly of one of these existing
beasts!”

“
You want them to eat us!”
I bellowed, and then looked sheepish as I lowered my voice, and
added, “Don’t you think being chewed up by those stone teeth might
dampen our spirits?”

“
No, we will not let one
eat us, I do not believe they have a digestive system, Nick. What
we can do is create a cavity inside their body, get inside and let
them take us where we want to go!”

I thought about that, “Kind of like
the Trojan Horse.”

“
You have been inside a
stone horse?” he asked.

“
No, a long time ago on
Earth the Greek people built a wooden horse, and then hid some
warriors inside so they could sneak into the city of
Troy.”

“
Ah, yes, I remember the
story now; I believe it was done by some of House Dragon,
assaulting one of the Argoth strongholds on Earth. Yes, it will be
something like that, though we won’t have to wait for them to take
our Trojan golem into the walls, it can just walk in on its
own!”

“
Don’t you think it will be
noticed? Isn’t it supposed to patrol the forest, not go to the
fortress?” I asked.

“
It must return at times so
those sigils can be replenished. Something like this, which is on
the move, must use power over time. It makes sense that it would
return to the fortress to reach a mage,” Toji explained.

“
OK, then how do we get in
one without first being crushed?” I posed.

Hydan nodded, “Good
question.”

Toji said, “I think a diversion is in
order, at which point Hydan can get behind it. I think the sigil
controlling its moves is on the back of its head, where it is
protected. You’ll have to figure out how to smash it,
Hydan.”

Hydan started frowning but
nodded.

Toji continued talking, “Once it
stops, you can make your ‘cavity’, and then get inside and create a
new sigil to control the golem.”

I smiled, and added, “At which point
the rest of us get in, seal up the hole, and Bob’s your
uncle!”

“
I have no uncle named
Bob,” Myrka clarified.

Hydan ignored her and replied with a
wide grin, “That works for me,”

Toji then said, “I suggest you stay in
the surf line while I will bring it to the water, this will keep
you concealed until you attack.”

We waited an hour until the behemoth
returned, or perhaps a different one arrived, I wasn’t sure. Then
Toji simply came out of the surf and let the monster see him. It
immediately lumbered toward Toji. Now, I say lumbered, which was
what it looked like, but with legs that big, lumbering was faster
than we could sprint.

Toji immediately turned and dove into
the water, but he didn’t submerge, he started swimming out through
the surf so the monster wouldn’t lose track of him and stop
following. This was nearly Toji’s undoing. That monster kept
coming, and the shallow water didn’t slow him down like it did
Toji. He was on Toji in seconds. I saw my companion’s head turn and
spot the large fist coming down toward him, meant to squash him
into a jellyfish-like consistency.

Toji’s eyes widened and he dove under
the water.

I didn’t know if he was hit or not,
the beast’s fist hit the water, and made a massive splash. Then I
saw Toji’s airborne body, twisting away in the large splash, but he
didn’t look squashed, and he quickly went underwater when he hit
the surface.

Toji immediately headed for the bottom
on landing.

The golem turned, looking for its
prey, and I noticed Hydan had attached himself to its back like
some kind of remora fish. He was currently just clinging to the
monster. Once the thing stopped spinning around, having lost sight
of Toji, it eventually turned and lumbered toward shore.

That gave Hydan a chance to let loose
of one hand hold. He reached back with one arm and a large hammer
appeared, and then he smashed it forward, and above his head, into
the sigil carved at the neck area of the Golem.

The moment it struck the beast paused,
and then tried to reach back to grab Hydan.

Hydan slammed his hammer into the
sigil again, harder.

The stone golem started moving in a
jerky way, still trying to reach back and get to Hydan, which made
the monster look kind of like a crab trying to reach back with its
claws.

Hydan slammed the hammer home in the
petroglyph sigil one more time, and enough of the stone carving
chipped off this time, and the golem froze in position.

A hole appeared in its back, and Hydan
slipped inside. We all started heading for it. Once we got there
Hydan called out, “Give me a moment, I’m making a new petroglyph,
and then I have to power the sigil.”