The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (31 page)

A strong gust of wind bowled the man over driving him towards the ocean waves lapping at the beach. He tried to recover and move away from the water, so she struck him harder and hurried towards him. If her guess was correct, she needed to get him into the salt water if there was any hope to save him or the others.

As he stumbled into the water, Liam screamed in pain. Anna followed the man into the water and continued to batter him with air. In the background, she could hear Reynolvan crying out at her behavior. His fear was that the infection had made her lose her mind as well, but Anna knew this wasn't insanity. Liam had inadvertently given her a clue to a possible cure.

Following him into the water clothed in her light weight blue dress without concern for such unimportant things, the air wizard winced as her feet burned her as well. Her legs and arms were already turning green. She guessed that the moss would induce the unconsciousness that had occurred in Liam's people soon. Her head was still clear, however, and the wizard would continue to fight as long as she could.

“Get anyone affected into the water! Even their clothes need to be soaked in the salt water,” the woman shouted towards Reynolvan before turning to face Liam again. It was a mistake to remove her attention from the water wizard for even a moment as the man was frantic with pain and crashed into the much smaller girl as he tried to get away from the sea.

Fighting to be free of the water and the pain, Liam pushed the wind wizard under the water trying to run past. Her wind failed but she twisted hugging his legs as she coughed up water. Despite his frenzy driven strength, Anna held onto him fighting to keep the man in the water trying not to be drowned in their struggle. Her hands and arms burned with the same pain as he, but she held on long enough for Reynolvan to come to her aid.

Her protector had tossed the blue tunic and pants of the water wizard into the sea before noticing the danger to the lady he had sworn to protect. Crashing into Liam, Reynolvan drove the other two back deeper into the water. Annalicia was half trampled by the men as they fought and she was forced to release Liam as she coughed from the water entering her mouth and nose during the struggle. Stumbling after the two men still wrestling, the petite wind wizard held a hand in front of her mouth coughing hard and looking half drowned.

Water weighed down her dress and plastered it to her skin. Anna fought both it and the crashing waves to follow the two men and help Reynolvan contain the infected wizard. The burning she had felt initially lessened to the point that it was no longer noticeable to her. In the light of the moon, Annalicia held up a hand and thought the green coloring that had affected her was already fading from sight. Her guess had been correct, she thought thankfully. The salt that bound the plants and creatures to the island was apparently also the solution to their crisis.

Liam stopped struggling after a few minutes, but Reynolvan held him back from the much smaller girl until he was sure that the water wizard had returned to his senses. Anna moved closer turning his face into the light of the silver moonlight. The moss had already washed away and even the green coloring under the skin was clearing up quickly. It had been a curse caused by magic apparently and often the nature of such sorcery was that a counter spell or key to a curse would have quick and effective consequences. The speed of the cure was certainly good for them, if not for the plant curse.

Letting his face go and checking his arms, Anna was looking closely as Liam spoke with relief, “The pain’s nearly gone. Is the curse lifted?”

Annalicia frowned slightly thinking it odd that he was asking her, since the man had been the one to warn her of the curse and give her the idea of the cure.

“I think so," she replied after having checked them both in the moonlight. "Though I don’t know what you saw that told you so much about the curse, I gathered that salt water keeps the island’s curse in check. The land may have come from beneath the water during the Cataclysm, but the curse you mentioned must have made those who were cursed desire to stay here as well.

“I was just hoping that the wizard that set this curse left an answer for a cure to it also. The salt you mentioned is in the water and on the sand, so I was just hoping that was the answer and it looks like it is, which is a good thing for you since our healers are still missing.”

Liam noticed the woman’s torn dress and looked ill as he realized that he must have ripped it in his struggle. There was a minor tear along a side seam and near the hem as well. Ripping a piece from the hem area where it had been torn, Anna lay back in the water a moment submerging herself as a last precaution to make sure that she was cleansed of the moss. Pulling her hair back as it came out of the water, she used the strip of cloth to make a wet, silver ponytail that glistened in the moonlight.

Liam looked up at the fires on the beach. “So by staying on the beach we contained the infection.”

“I’m not sure you would have made it into the boats without someone forcing you three anyway. When the moss spread like a quick moving rot across your clothes and took root in your skin, I sent anyone that hadn’t touched the moss to a safe distance away. We stripped the clothing from you three most infected, but then it spread to some of those who tried to help.

“This curse is quick and unrelenting,” the woman stated with a frown. “Any ship that might come here only needs to walk into those ruins and they’ll be consumed as well.”

Nodding at the dire prediction, Liam replied, “With a little help, maybe I can help take care of that now that we know how to cure the curse. If we wait until morning, it would probably be easier.

“Has the other team come back? You said our healers are still missing.”

Annalicia couldn't conceal a look of worry at his question. “Collin led back everyone but Sebastian and Yara. He said that they were separated before being driven from the jungle. Apparently the plants could move and attack them. Something pulled the two deeper into the jungle but, even with a nature wizard, they couldn’t fight any deeper.”

“Did they run into this strange infection curse?”

Shaking her head, the silver haired girl still looked worried as she replied, “No, the jungle fought them with thorns, vines and even threw nuts at them, but there was no moss infection. It could be just localized here at the fort. Still I worry that Sebastian and Yara might be trapped in the middle of the jungle or worse.”

“I heard a massive thunder clap while we were in the fort. The only one I know among us that can use lightning is Bas. If he was putting up that kind of fight, I doubt any plant could have stood up to it,” Liam stated confidently.

“You have a lot of confidence in a mere battle mage,” Anna replied with a weary smile. The green of her eyes seemed to shine like bright gems in the darkness drawing his attention to her. With a cloudless night, the first moon, Epsilon’s light sparkled on the waves all around them. The Sea Dragon anchored a few hundred feet out was a dark shadow in the glimmering waves from this side.

Smiling in amusement at her, Liam faced those magical, green eyes and stated, “He may be a battle mage, but the word ‘mere’ hardly belongs to anything Sebastian does. His creativity and ability to observe magic puts him on a par with the best wizards I’ve ever met.”

Chapter 17- Concealing Truths

Annalicia had wearily pulled herself from the water followed closely by the two wizards. Her clothes were torn and clinging to her body. She could almost feel Reynolvan's disapproving judgment, but they were all worn down by the long day. Knowing that she hardly looked like a proper lady, the wizard just didn't care. She was too relieved that the curse was broken.

Being barefoot and in a torn, wet dress was much better than succumbing to a curse that would have made her into some mindless shrub wandering around the doomed fort. Catching sight of Frell left in nothing but her underclothes, she felt for the poor woman; but again it was better to be embarrassed than turning into a plant.

She led the way to the other camp which had been separated from those quarantined closer to the ruins. Collin and Nara had returned with the remnants of Sebastian's team, but the battle mage wouldn't return until later. His pretty, blond healer in tow, they were soon all reunited.

Stories were exchanged, but they all came to the same conclusion. In the morning, she joined her power with Liam as well as other wind and water wizards to form a spell capable of dropping a deluge of salted sea water onto the ruins of the fort. In sight, the moss along the path to the ruins appeared to melt and disappear as the water struck it. Using her wind riding spell afterwards, Annalicia noted the change to the ruins. The moss receded leaving bare stone and the remains of the dead animated by the curse. Bones and putrid meat, rusted armor and weapons could be seen from a distance. She thought that they might have missed some of the cursed creatures in the jungle beyond the fort, but their magic had limits.

Warnings would be given once they returned to inhabited lands and she hoped that no one else would be so unlucky again.

The sounds of his breathing and footsteps seemed too loud in the night. Turas' red light reigned over Yalan. Given the name of the war god of the legends, the second moon moved between its brother moons. While Epsilon with its silver light was the first, Turas dominated even while his brother declined. A few hours before dawn the last brother, Gelinas, would take the last shift casting moonlight similar to the first; though there was the hint of the yellow light of dawn in its cast as well.

Karlaan had chosen this time because the city was quieter now. Those who frequented bars were drunk enough to forget a single wanderer in the street, while those who needed to rise with the sun were long asleep. Those who policed the night were often more likely the type to sit somewhere quiet than to actually walk the streets that they were supposed to cover, but the city militia could still surprise him if he wasn't careful, the young man supposed.

He found the house that was his target and tested the front door only to find it locked. Grunting quietly in amusement, Karlaan thought it odd that Yalan had to lock its doors. There were places where farmers opened their homes to travelers and strangers. Towns often had doors without locks at all and just had knobs that could turn to keep animals from finding their way in without help.

Yalan had too many people and they were all gathered together in lines of houses and other buildings for miles in all directions. It had once been several smaller towns and villages, but the kings of old had slowly bound them all together into one sprawling city the like of which couldn't be found anywhere else in the world most likely, Karlaan thought of his current home.

Moving around to the side of the building, he pushed at the mesh used for a screen over a side window. It was cheap material used by those with little money to keep the insects out. Since Yalan was warm most of the year, the locals often didn't have glass windows. Shutters kept out rain and mesh like this could be used to let light and air into a house without worry of an invasion of insects.

It also made it easy for him to break into the house. Pushing on the mesh tore it free enough for him to slip inside. The ease of his entry nearly made him laugh at the locked door. A locked door gave the owners a belief in their security while they left the windows open to entry for any burglar.

He moved through the first room, a common room with a dining table, stove and chairs for both dining and resting. Checking the three rooms eventually led to the one he had come to visit. Karlaan placed a hand over the sleeping woman's mouth resting her from her dreams with a start.

"Shh," he whispered, "it's just me. I came to see you."

Her eyes went wide in surprise, but as Tareina recognized the man sitting on her bed she calmed slightly. Touching his hand with hers, the woman pulled it away and she asked in a hushed tone, "Karlaan, what are you doing here? If someone were to find out that you were here, you could get into trouble!"

His right hand stroked the curve of her jaw line affectionately and asked quietly, "That's why I came in the night. Your letter warned me that you thought that the king's men might come for me if you spoke to me in person, but I could only wait for so long to see you."

Looking uncomfortable, Tareina appeared uncertain what to make of the situation. She warned him, "People have died at the castle. Needaly was one of them. There is a rumor that she died from poison!

"If they knew that you had given her that fertilizer, they would think that it was you." She paused a moment and he let her ask the question Karlaan knew that she had to ask. "You didn't give her poison instead, did you?"

"I warned her to make sure that it was mixed with water. If someone were to drink it, it would be like poison," he confessed with enough truth to make her gasp. "If Needaly followed my warnings, she knew to add water to make it safe to use. Plants aren't humans. They use minerals and other elements differently, but unless my fertilizer was mixed with something else it should have been safe enough."

It was his turn to pause for affect and Karlaan suddenly worried aloud, "That head gardener wasn't using some other chemicals already, was he? Maybe the wizards tried to make something useful first. I suppose the wrong combination of chemicals could have created a poison! I hadn't thought of that!"