Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) Page 17

  Turning her head away from the fire wizard drawing Serrena’s gaze to Maura and Idenlare, Anna returned to look the woman in the eye though it was a slight look upward. “I think those two might require more than just Liam and Frell’s guardianship, don’t you? Who else would you send to stand up to a fire wizard with wind skills or even to Maura? Sebastian didn’t entrust me with watching over this part of the mission or even Liam. I can help guide you all from this ship, but my own people won’t let me risk my life in the least.

  “I envy you the ability to stand strong on your own two feet. If I had your freedom and power, there are many things that I would do,” the silver haired girl added wistfully before turning to walk away without waiting for an answer.

  “Pretty and intelligent,” Liam put in with a mock shiver. “Even Bas hasn’t been able to put Maura in her place quite so well.”

  Still acting grumpy, Serrena retorted, “Don’t you try buttering me up as well, Liam, you’re nowhere near as good at it as Lady Annalicia.”

  He noted the full title used when referencing the Malaiy air wizard. Such tones of respect meant that Serrena at least grudgingly respected the young woman. “Even so, if we do run into trouble, I would be happier with you backing me up than someone I don’t trust.”

  The girl grunted in response so Liam continued, “Idenlare is probably strong in a fight with his dual mastery. Most of them usually aren’t just book smart. Maura still remains to be seen, though I can assume that she must be competent away from a library or they would have sent a diplomat wizard or someone else.

  “I’ll need you and Frell helping me keep an eye on them when we’re there. We don’t need some wizard going off half cocked creating trouble where it doesn’t need to be.”

  “You trust them that little?” the reddish brown hair fluttered in the wind as Serrena turned to face the man.

  He shrugged. “Have they given us any reason to trust them?”

  Leaving Serrena to think on that, Liam went to prepare his backpack.

  Sebastian wanted to use his scythe spell to clear the branches and vines from their path, but as they entered the jungle the mage thought that he felt some of what Nara must have noticed from the beach. He could see leaves rustling above their heads, but sound seemed muffled near the jungle floor. Even the branches being pushed made less sound than he thought they should.

  A sense of unease settled over the group as they pushed forward ever deeper into the jungle. Nothing felt quite right and that feeling seeped into the eight equally. When they spoke, it often came out in hushed tones.

  “No, animals that I can find,” Collin stated from near the front of the group, “or traps either thankfully. I haven’t even heard a bird call.”

  For Sebastian, that statement brought about part of what bothered him. It was an island well away from the mainland and was likely to be one of the newly formed pieces of raised land after the Cataclysm. Knowing all that still didn’t make the jungle feel any less creepy.

  “That’s strange,” Nara suddenly spoke aloud causing them all to halt questioning if the woman meant something dangerous might be ahead.

  “What is it Nara?” Bas asked for the group.

  The woman looked for the words as she spoke slower than her normal pace, “Well, normally a nature wizard can feel the life of plants quite separate from that of the animals living in it. Here I sense no animals and yet the plants around us seem almost like a combination of plant and beast.”

  “Every plant?” Sebastian asked looking closer at the greenery surrounding them. If the plants were animals, would they see the humans walking through them as enemies in their territory?

  “Not every plant, but then again many of these plants that look separate seem to be interconnected somehow. My senses tell me that most if not all of this jungle seems like branches on a large plant, but that’s impossible. There are different species here that I know from the mainland that are definitely individual plants.”

  Yara was the first to wonder aloud the question, “Are those animal like ones connected as well?”

  “They might be,” the nature wizard agreed frowning at the confusion of the impressions she was receiving.

  Captain Drayden had his sword in hand and he gestured towards the nearest bush in front of him. A tangle of vines wrapped from the bush to the tree beside it. “Are you telling me that if we were to cut say a branch, that the entire island would feel it? It’s not like an entire jungle is a single plant and even if it was, trees don’t fight back when you prune them.”

  The man raised his sword and cut a small branch holding red berries. Nearly everyone raised their hands and protested with a group, “No!”

  When nothing happened, the captain nodded, “See? They’re plants. They’re in the way and can be cut. If there are no traps to worry over, then maybe we should just hurry this up. Maybe you can use that wind spell to cut our way through, falcon.”

  The wizards and mages ignored the soldier a moment. They all waited for what they had expected to come.

  “Come on, people. What’s the hold up? It may seem strange but there’s nothing to fear here. Is there?”

  Nara’s eyes widened slightly, “Uh oh, I don’t know what is coming, but the jungle feels like it is vibrating.”

  Drayden looked ready to argue the point further when the trees above seemed to shake with the wind. The sound was deafening after the supreme quiet of their walk so far. The ripple of energy seemed to drop through the leaves and move around them. Bushes and vines shook, but the eight felt no wind.

  A vine lashed out catching the captain’s left arm. His sword in the right cut the line as he cursed.

  Like cutting the vine had set off a deluge of energy, the plants suddenly lashed out at the group. Nuts fell from the trees landing among them striking their heads and shoulders like stone pellets. Cries of pain and shields of blue sprung up among the mages like second instinct. Collin and Nara were slower to respond, but they too held mage shields to block nature’s bullets.

  Turning to help Yara, the mage’s eyes opened wide in shock as the girl screamed. Her feet were pulled out from under her into the brush and, before she could disappear from sight, Bas leaped out to grab for her hands reaching out for him as the girl fell. Catching just one, his shield disappeared as the strength of whatever pulled Yara took both of them.

  Latching onto her hand with both of his, Yara’s eyes looked to him in fear. Whatever had her was strong, but their grip held.

  Stones and roots below, thorns and other branches above, the two were pulled and pulled as nature tried to cut them. Sebastian wished for the protective jackets left back on the ship. Thick, northern clothes were still strong, but as the rough trip continued, the mage managed to cast a protective spell, “Stone skin.”

  It was a calculated risk. The only other time he had sent the spell onto another being, a Fallen gargoyle turned to stone. He didn’t want to harm Yara and only wanted her protected. His spell had been intended to stop the gargoyle and it had done that very well.

  Extending the spell to the clothes and skin of the two flailing travelers, the thorns began to break away and stones could no longer bruise them. He noted Yara’s skin take on a dusty gray appearance, but he could tell that she moved as he would in the spell. With the protection in place, the two just had to hold on until the ride was over. Nara’s prediction of the giant jungle interconnected seemed much more plausible with the distance they traveled.

  The vine lifted and slapped the couple to the ground once and then again. A third and final twist made Sebastian lose his grip, but it no longer mattered. As the mage rolled to his feet, he witnessed a mass of thick vines whipping around a purple flower as tall as most trees. He watched as the petals on top opened and closed like some carnivorous jaw of a predator.

  Lifting Yara higher as if considering its meal, the plant held the wizard precariously between life and probable death in its maw.

  “Scythe,” he hurled the magic win
d blade at the thick vine nicking the outer shell and simply made the plant shake even more violently. More vines suddenly began to reach for the mage.

  Taking hold of the Hollow Sword, Sebastian repeated his spell invigorating the sword with the shimmering blue of wind magic. Like Annalicia in the ship, the battle mage attacked the vines nearest him. A screaming wind tore at the vine and severed the limb in a single blow.

  With his offhand, he cast the spell that had sent Serrena to the other end of the island to prevent. “Fireball,” he challenged the stalk casting it for the large target. A vine whipped through the air snuffing the ball with ease. Like water soaked tinder, the flame had no effect except to perhaps anger the plant even more.

  He tried to strike the vine swinging Yara like a ragdoll. Another vine blocked his attack, but it was further away than the earlier severed vine. The sword’s wind blade cut, but didn’t severe the massive limb. Seeing the sword’s limitation was reach, Sebastian cast his reflex spell and proceeded to dance among the vines.

  The word dance called to mind a powerful weapon of his arsenal, “Lightning dance.” His blade dipped to touch the ground like a lightning rod. From his left hand, a swirling trio of lightning bolts flung towards the central stalk of the plant. Like Bairh’loore, the Hollow Sword spared him the brunt of the earth’s biting power. Unfortunately, the plant survived the attack by blocking with its tendrils and their swift speed. One vine exploded as it superheated in the exchange. The juices within the charred limb had torn the piece of plant from the inside out with a violent expansion. Another vine slowed turning black with the strike.

  “Lightning,” he channeled into the sword. Brown mingled with the wind magic before sparkling with white electricity. This time his attack severed both a defending vine and the one holding Yara.

  A small cry as the girl dropped to the ground couldn’t be helped. He only hoped that his stone skin spell had lasted long enough to spare her the brunt of the blow to the ground. Unfortunately, Sebastian had no time to check on the healer more as the plant concentrated on the creature pruning its limbs one by one.

  Dropping the blade with two hands holding the hilt, he dragged the point in the earth as he charged it with another call for lightning. His eyes had to avoid the flare of power in the blade’s channels. The edges nearly steamed with white hot power. He was pushing the weapon to the brink. The mage could feel it nearly bursting with the power now flowing through it.

  In an upper cut aimed at the stalk hidden beyond its snake pit of whipping vines, Sebastian unleashed the Hollow Sword’s pent up magic. The blindingly bright flare of lightning bounced from the ground into the air shattering vines and blinding Sebastian before he could see if he had succeeded in killing the beast.

  Blinking against the darkness left after seeing the flash so close, Sebastian called up a secondary spell, “Hound.” His other senses increased as the mage tried to regain his vision. It was a stupid mistake and only the addition of super hearing and smell could help try and compensate for the error.

  His reflexes were still at full enhancement as the mage awaited the plant’s retaliation. Blood pumped in his ears threatening to deafen him despite the spell and all he could smell was burning plants.

  He realized that a voice was calling his name.

  “Sebastian!” Yara cried out even as he felt her gentle touch on his back.

  “Did I get it?” he asked rubbing at his eyes with his left hand. The outer portion of his vision was clearing around a dark blur formed where his eyes had watched the bolt rip through the air.

  “Yes, let me check you with my magic. We seem to be safe for now.” He felt her magic enter him through her touch.

  “That bolt blinded me, but my vision’s coming back slowly if you could speed that up I would appreciate it. I can’t see enough to fight right now.”

  The mage realized that he was nearly shouting. The thunder of the lightning had apparently backfired on him in that regard as well.

  His vision suddenly cleared to nearly full and the mage witnessed the devastation caused by a fully charged Hollow Sword. “Oh, thanks. That’s better Yara,” Sebastian stated without yelling as well.

  A blackened stripe of ground led straight to where the central plant stalk was supposed to be. Vines covered the ground both those blackened and the green, but the trunk at the center stood burning and only about the height of a man. Pieces of the upper flower and stalk were scattered in all directions.

  Giving a low whistle, Sebastian declared, “So that’s what a Hollow Sword can do.”

  Yara released her magic finding no real damage to the mage other than what had been done to his senses from his own spell. “You don’t even seem that drained of power. If you had done that using a staff, I think you wouldn’t be standing by now.”

  Looking at the blade emptied off all magic, Sebastian found no cracks or other damage as he feared that he might after abusing the weapon with the great power of the earth. The mage had managed to tread the fine line between holding the power and destroying the sword, though he had a feeling that it was only just. Like a wizard or mage, the weapon could only hold so much power before breaking and he had just tested its limit.

  The jungle seemed quiet once more.

  “Now what?” Yara asked as she looked around at the devastation.

  Pulling out the compass, Sebastian noted the position had remained relatively the same. While he had thought that the direction they had been pulled by the plant was the same, in the jungle direction was hard to keep track especially in the midst of such a strange fight. “We could finish this. I don’t think that we’re far from the source of the marker now.”

  “But what about the others?” the girl asked worriedly.

  Sebastian listened and even added the hound spell. Something sweet was in the air tickling his nose and managing to prevent any scent coming to him of his team, while the strange silence settled by the jungle also seemed nearly magical in its ability to prevent him from hearing anything beyond the two of them. “I can’t sense them at all. This jungle must be magic. I don’t know if it is something that was created by the Cataclysm or something that was created by someone afterwards but this can’t be just a coincidence.

  “We can try and find this point now using the compass or we can try to find the others without any idea of where they are.”

  Yara frowned at the conundrum caused by the situation. The look was suddenly interrupted as her face crinkled up before giving a petite, squeak of a sneeze.

  Sebastian laughed at the sheer cuteness of the sound. He had never heard her sneeze before he realized.

  “Stop laughing at me,” she rebuked him while still managing to smile. “There’s something in the air. It’s really sweet.”

  The girl’s steps moved in the direction of the dot on the compass without having seen the last reading. Sebastian’s nose tickled as well, though he was nowhere near to sneezing. Simply rubbing the feeling away, the man followed the little blond noticing small rips and tears in her yellow shirt and brown pants. It was nothing too severe and he knew that he wasn’t in any better condition. Spots of red could be seen on the yellow, however, and Sebastian realized that the healer needed to be healed yet as well.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked as he followed the girl past the destroyed vine system.

  “Hmmm?” Yara questioned seemingly at least half distracted by the strange smell on the air. She didn’t sneeze anymore from the scent, however. Noting where he pointed to the blood on her shirt, the girl replied, “Maybe we can check it after we find the water?”

  Bas was surprised as the sound of water running suddenly became noticeable to his ears. They hadn’t walked very far, but it was like the sound had moved to meet them as much as they had walked towards it. Rubbing his nose, the mage moved with little thought other than the curiosity of finding the water.

  Chapter 15- The Tranquil Embrace

  Unlike Sebastian’s team to the north, Maura’s team was part of a
larger personnel drop off. With the extra manpower on the shore behind them at the ready to support any decision should she need them, the research wizard seemed even more confident than usual. To Liam, he found that almost impossible since she was insufferably so most of the time since he had known the woman.

  “Liam, be a good man and lead the way,” the woman in brown waved the water wizard to the front of the line. There was a long overgrown path that was still usable leading from the beach and up the hill to the ruins that had been spied from the air by Sebastian and Annalicia. It was that path that Maura suggested with her finger pointing.

  While her words and attitude towards him were slightly annoying to the man, it was Serrena that snarled under her breath and quickly moved to join Liam at the front trailed by Frell and the sergeant. Idenlare walked just behind the woman he was assigned to protect and his eyes moved warily from one patch of growth to another looking for trouble to show.

  Thinking that they were now one for three for finding danger and the other two weren’t marked by the compass, Liam started to pay even more attention to the path and the land around them. If the islands that the Grimnal had surveyed enough to leave traces were indeed a danger, then the water wizard knew that the first line of defense would be seeing the danger coming. His roving eyes started to affect Serrena as well and the fire wizard increased her wariness as much as he.

  Despite all their worrying, the small band of six reached the ruins in short fashion and unmolested. Liam let out a little sigh as he took in the tall stone walls. Vines and lichen worked their way through the stone breaking the once powerful walls into pebbles. The magic that had created the walls long ago was now humbled by even the furthest reach of the jungle. Plants were everywhere.