The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (30 page)

"Reynolvan, ready your magic," she ordered knowing the other wizards would be following the order as well. Quickly the young lady followed up her warnings to the wizards by having the marines with them prepare a defense near the longboats on the beach.

When the team came rushing down the moss covered path, her eyes opened wide as Annalicia spotted what looked like a horde of bushes creeping along behind the team of wizards. Maura with her personal fire wizard, Idenlare, urging her forward, led the other four in a near full run.

Liam, one of Sebastian's wizards, held the back line with the mage Frell and a fire wizard named Serrena. The final man was Sergeant Kulvayr, another member added to Sebastian's mission, though he had been foisted upon the mage by the king.

These four appeared more in control of their situation than the research wizard who was supposed to be in charge and Annalicia questioned Liam quickly, "What happened up there? We heard thunder and then I felt the use of magic in the fort."

Nodding his head, the much taller, blonde haired man answered, "I think Sebastian may have run into trouble with his team. The thunder had to be his use of lightning, though it must have been a powerful bolt from the sound of it.

"After that, the fort seemed to come alive. It was likely an old orc fort, but the inhabitants are all long dead. In their place are these plants that can move. The lightning woke them and they started to try cutting us off before attacking us.

"I think that they may be intelligent as well. They seemed to know how to move to cut us off, but our magic drove them back enough to make our escape."

Looking at the man, she noted a tear in his sleeve by his shoulder. Frell and the Sergeant looked to have been scratched by branches along their sleeves as well. Even a couple tears on some of their pants meant these plants hadn't let them escape unscathed.

"We had better have a look at those scratches to make sure that you all aren't hurt more than you realize," she stated pointing at his shoulder.

Noticing the tear, Liam looked surprised before remembering, "It got a little tight in the fight. Fire did nothing to them, even though they look like moss and leaves. Ice made them shrink away, but it was both too warm and there is too little moisture up there to create a lot of it."

Allowing Anna to guide him and the others towards their temporary base camp, which mostly consisted of some large rocks pulled close enough together to sit; Liam sat while she pulled at the cloth looking to see the depth of the cut. There was a little blood, but it seemed like little more than a scratch to her eyes.

"Your healers might be able to make it go away with a little magic, but we can bandage it and clean the skin in the mean time," she stated with a smile.

The man returned her gesture with one of his own. He was actually fairly attractive, Anna thought. He was closer to her age than the wizards who had come with from Malaiy. Sebastian's entire team was young, except for those added later. It was nice to be able to speak with younger wizards and some were also women, but Annalicia still felt separated from them. Part of that was from the continual overbearing attention from Reynolvan and the others.

"I wonder what Collin and Bas will say when they here that a lady tended my wounds?" Liam joked.

Annalicia managed a smile, but felt the disapproval of the Malaiyan wizards watching as she checked on the returning team. Even Liam's words helped remind her of their differences. It was hard to think who she would find that would be enough like her to understand the wizard who was also royalty. Both parts of her identity made it difficult to relate to other people or to be understood by others as well.

"I am just another wizard, Liam. They might be more surprised that an air wizard with no healing ability actually tried."

He laughed and the girl sensed that it was genuine. It was nice to laugh and just be someone that fit in, even if it was for a short time.

After gathering bandages and soaking some cloths in hot water brought from the ship and heated by magic to speed the process, the young woman checked Liam's scratches again and quickly frowned.

"Your shirt..." she said pointing to the water wizard's blue tunic. The tear remained, but there was green moss mixed through the threads now as well. Anna didn't recall seeing more than a few green marks when she had looked at his scratches earlier, but it had been less than twenty minutes to prepare the cleaning cloths.

Liam glanced awkwardly at his shoulder and frowned. "Was it like that a minute ago?"

A cry from a few yards away drew their attention as Frell lay on the ground shaking. Annalicia moved towards the woman asking the men nearby, "What happened to her?"

Green moss marked several pieces of her brown falcon's uniform. Her short sleeves revealed scratches on the woman's arms also. Green skin around the cuts from the moss creatures' reaching to grab at her looked like an infection spreading from the cuts as if it had been left unattended for days.

Fisen, one of her water wizards, looked at the lady in confusion, but answered, "She was sitting waiting for us to clean the cuts when her eyes glazed and she fell over. They didn't appear poisoned or deep, so I am not sure why she is having such a reaction."

Kneeling to check Frell's pulse at her neck away from the wounds, Anna noted an elevated throbbing as well as her awkward breathing patterns. Looking at the woman's clothes, she noted more of the strange moss extending well beyond the cuts and tears. It seemed to be spreading before her eyes.

Another cry of shock brought her attention to Sergeant Kulvayr. The man was as healthy as any of them one moment and now he too had collapsed. Annalicia ordered quickly, "Get any of their clothes off with the moss on them. Nara might be able to diagnose it when she returns with the others. Maybe Maura can take a look at it as well. She's a research wizard after all."

The woman mentioned looked shocked by the idea, but Anna moved towards Liam. He had stood looking on his teammates in worry as they both collapsed so oddly. None had received mortal wounds, at least by first glance.

Anna added a second warning, "Check the rest of the team for that moss. Even their boots might have tracked it with them."

"What in the world is happening to them?" Liam questioned still looking relatively fine to her. His eyes seemed clear, but sweat was beading his brow. While it might just be from his body responding with worry, Kulvayr had been sweating more when they returned and had actually dried quickly after sitting. Maybe the man had recovered fast, but it could be another symptom of whatever was affecting him.

Her eyes noted the cut on his shirt and thought that the moss had grown in the few minutes since she had last looked. Another source of green caught her eyes. "Your hands, did you touch the bush men as well?" she asked using one of the terms they had used for their attackers.

Liam drew back in surprise at the thought before nodding. "When I went to freeze the stone beneath them it drove them back, but one of the creatures grabbed for me as the spell went off. It turned to ice and broke. I didn't notice any scratches..."

His voice dwindled off as the wizard lifted his hands mimicking his initial movement of an ice spell, but noticed green on his hands and forearms. Some even looked a bit like moss growing out from the skin. "What in the world?"

Anna turned to look at the marines gathered nearby and began to shout orders. "Anyone that has been in contact with the team, remain here. Use the clean rags to wash their skin. Get the infected clothes off of them quickly.

"The rest of you stay back. Keep watch for the others and see if those plant men try to come any closer. We'll need to be warned if they are willing to attack again."

The camp turned frenzied, but her strong presence kept the men and women around her from losing their minds to fear. Some of her wizards remained to help. Maura and her fire wizard looked unsure of what to do.

"Check your clothes for contamination, Maura. Didn't you fight up there also?"

The research wizard shook her head less in answer than to clear her head. Idenlare, her protector was already looking to his boots and clothes. Maura being a thinker preferred to argue, Annalicia thought as the wizard replied, "We used our magic to keep them from touching us. Our magic attempted to drive the creatures away while the others held a perimeter until we fought our way through a corridor formed by Liam's ice."

Anna was about to retort when Liam mumbled suddenly, "I need to sit down."

Her attention was pulled from the older woman, but she reminded her, "Then check your clothes starting with your boots. If the fort is contaminated, then even the floor might have plant material that will affect you too."

Maura gasped at the thought of being infected as well. Annalicia had a feeling the research wizard was too used to being hidden away in a laboratory or library to remember that the real world could harm her. Idenlare had rolled his eyes at her description of their part in the fighting, so Anna wasn't even certain that the woman hadn't completely frozen when the danger appeared. It was no wonder that a battle mage was in charge. Sebastian had a level head in a fight. His direction had been solid at every step along the way whether facing giant crabs or evading the worst of a storm.

While her mind flit through her opinion of the research wizard, her eyes watched Liam closely as she pulled his tunic over his head. By the time he was clear of the affected item; his eyes were already looking unfocused.

"Liam, stay with us. Can you still hear me?"

His eyes suddenly focused on hers. They were blue she noted absently before he mumbled, "You're really pretty by the way."

With that, his eyes rolled back as the man fell to the side.

Hours passed. The other away team returned and was kept away by the remainder of her landing party. Ivanor, with Keith and Jezra, led there even as Reynolvan and Fisen remained with her.

Fisen had touched the moss as well, but Reynolvan had refused to leave. He was her protector and it was good that he remained. The three infected members had remained unresponsive almost from the time that they had collapsed, but Kulvayr had suddenly pushed away those tending him to try and walk back towards the fort. Frell and Liam were less violent, but soon needed to be restrained as well.

Their strength ended as quickly as it began and the three quickly collapsed once more, but it wasn't the last time.

The sun had set, but Annalicia continued to hope that Sebastian or Yara would return with some idea to help. Frustration began to set in and she wished that Liam or one of the others would at least wake up with some amount of clarity to their minds.

Liam seemed to be dreaming. His skin was clammy and the green was spreading. They had needed to pull away all but their underclothes to try and cool their bodies as well. That also allowed them to see the change in the skin of the three infected.

When Annalicia noted a tinge of green on her fingers, she knew that without a cure they would all be doomed. She couldn't let anyone else become infected. Even if the rest of them should die, Anna wouldn't endanger anyone else from her ship.

The wizard began to mumble, but she couldn't understand him and finally in frustration the girl slapped him.

“Liam wake up!” she cried drawing looks from the others who had also noticed some of the green beginning to spread to the caretakers.

To her surprise, Liam actually reacted.

“Cursed,” Liam mumbled unable to completely pull away from the dream. His eyes began to close again, but another slap to the other side of the face kept him from nodding off once more.

“What are you saying, Liam? What curse?” Anna begged him to clarify while there was still lucidity in his eyes.

The man looked towards his infected comrades and noted their clothing growing the moss to the point of concealing the colors of their uniforms. He looked at her with desperation in his eyes and warned, “It’s a curse on the Dark One’s army from the merfolk. Only the salt and sand keeps it restrained on the island. Once it takes over, the jungle calls to you and you become another moss creature.”

“How do we remove the curse, if you know so much?” she demanded keeping his eyes riveted to her almond shaped, green eyes blazing with fervor. She wondered how he could believe it so completely after having been conscious for mere moments.

“I don’t know if we can. The dreams don’t tell me how,” he began to mumble as his mind grew foggy and his eyes began to glaze once more.

"You need to let us go and try and save yourselves. We’re too far gone," he warned already beginning to sound distant to her. Despite that, the wizard stood up looking shaky as he turned towards the ruins of the orc fort.

Moving to bar his way, the much smaller woman wasn't sure that she could actually stop him physically without calling on her magic. Her mind grasped at what little Liam had said as if he had seen the source of this curse that he mentioned.

“You said the sand held the plant life here because of the salt?” the silver haired wizard asked under the light of the first moon as it crested the horizon.

He nodded and started moving forward towards her. A thought popped into her head and Annalicia summoned a wind spell. She tried to be as gentle as she could in the face of the larger man. While he wasn't being violent now, Liam looked ready to go through her to return to the plant men in the fort.