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.
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 w
ere 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."
The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus Page 24