Aster Wood and the Wizard King (Book 5)

by J B Cantwell

  “How long will the journey take?” I asked, also needing to clear my throat from the fear that seemed to have glued it shut.

  Larissa turned and looked at one of the bees, the largest in the group. As she did this, she stroked one of its legs, almost lovingly.

  “Two days,” she answered, turning back to face me. “We will have to rest for a few hours here and there, but these beauties can fly for long distances without breaking.”

  “And how will we … communicate with them?” Kiron asked. “Is it only through you that we can get answers to questions that arise?”

  “I suppose you’ll have to rely on me, yes,” she said. “But I will be flying alongside you all.” She turned and held out one hand to Cait. “You come first, dear.”

  I nearly protested. These things were large enough to eat someone Cait’s size in one bite. But I had seen Larissa’s way with animals, and I had to forcibly remind myself that she had always come through for us. She had ridden Pahana, himself, during the last battle of Stonemore. That giant panther would not come to the aid of just anyone. And despite Kiron’s rumblings about the untrustworthiness of his sister, whatever had once passed between them seemed to be long lost history now.

  I stepped forward behind Cait, not to prevent her from nearing the beasts, but to join her.

  If she was going to be brave about this, then so should I.

  Larissa stepped up beside two of the largest bees. She whispered something, always stroking the thick, black hairs that stood out from its many legs. Then, she led Cait to its side, helped her navigate her way through the legs and to the underside of its abdomen. My breath caught in my chest as I saw the bee’s stinger hovering just a few feet from Cait’s head. Then, the animal closed his legs around Cait’s tiny body, enveloping her into a lattice of limbs. It was like watching someone enter into a jail cell. The bee lifted off the ground, hovering just a few feet up, and waited for its mates to do the same.

  Larissa led me to the next bee, the largest. She gave the request, and soon I found myself being swallowed up by the horror, myself. Nightmarish, shining legs enclosed me on every side. I felt irrationally sure that the limbs must be coated in some kind of poison, but I held on anyways. The bee took off abruptly, and I gripped onto its front legs for support, the beating of its wings loud and baritone in my ears.

  One by one, the wizards each entered the space beneath their bee’s abdomen, allowing themselves to be secured and lifted from the grass. Even Donnally, the most fearful of our group and under threat of abandonment, seemed appeased by Larissa’s encouragement. I wondered if she had some sort of power over all animals, human and otherwise, to bend them to her will.

  Then, all at once, the entire party was airborne. The bees waited for no instruction, no direction. We rose high above the tree tops so fast it was dizzying. Then, when the whole group was assembled, the bees took off at breakneck pace. My whole body tensed as I gripped onto my bee’s legs, praying that the feeling of being caged by a terrifying animal would not be the last thing I felt before death.

  Gradually, as the first and longest of the minutes passed, I began to relax. There was no need for me to grip so tightly anymore. With all six of the bee’s legs folded across one another, it seemed I was quite safe to simply sit and watch the strange world of Grallero float by beneath us. Thankfully, the noise of all those wings was less as we moved through the sky, and the unexpected quiet relaxed me somewhat.

  Now that we were so high up, I could see the damage that the bees had spoken of. About ten minutes into the journey, the forest where we had been walking these past days ended abruptly, and I saw that it would have only been a day or so longer before we would have come to the end of the vibrant land that had sustained us since our arrival on Grallero. Now, far below, the world became a wasteland of desert. Occasionally, large plumes of dust rose from the ground, creating huge cylindrical storms of dirt that rose nearly as high up as we were.

  The planet seemed vast, but maybe it was just the lack of vegetation that made the expanse below seem so big and unending. The ground we flew past, not unlike that on Yunta, reminded me also of the deserts of Earth. The destruction at the hands of the Corentin had shriveled every sign of life in all three places. His will seeped like acid into the beautiful places in the universe, turning them dry and barren.

  It was disgusting.

  And, I saw now, we probably wouldn’t have made it across the desert on our own.

  I dug through my pack, searching for something to reassure me. There at the bottom was the pile of gold marbles I had created, but I dared not remove them from their pouch. A shiver ran through me as I imagined what would happen if I were to drop any of the precious stones from this height. I shoved them down deeper into the pack. I couldn’t take any chances.

  Instead, I took out the Book of Leveling. I had asked Kiron for it the day before so I could look through it for any clues about how to complete our task more quickly. I spread it out across my legs and began to study.

  Whatever Jade had known about the planets we were to visit she must have learned from her former education. Here in these pages, little detail about what awaited us at each leg of the journey was written. Occasionally, a notation might be found in the margins. “Snow,” or, “Mountains.” But little information other than basic planet names and the number of stones required to balance was in the book.

  It was not the distraction I had been hoping for.

  After a while, I stuffed the book back into the pack, secured it to my back and lay down, belly to ground. I watched as the desert rolled by. My bee seemed unaware or uncaring of my movements across its legs, and I slowly began to be more comfortable with this strange mode of transport. Since entering the Fold, I had traveled by ship, panther, sail and link. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I could find comfort within the grasp of one of the more horrible animals I had ever encountered. Now, I found myself dozing, and soon enough I was asleep, rocked into oblivion by the flight.

  For two days, I lived as if in a dream. Though Larissa was available to us to pass messages back and forth as she flew freely on her own power, none were relayed. I guessed that the boredom combined with the steady hum of wings had lulled my companions into the same stupor I was experiencing. We didn’t talk much on the ground, either, not that there was much opportunity. Aside from one brief stop on the second day to allow us all time to eat and rest, the bees pushed onward.

  In between sleep and consciousness, I realized that the landscape below was beginning to change. Faint strips of green ran down the sides of vast mountain ranges, offering a glimpse of hope on this dying planet. The bees drew closer to the rocky peaks, noticeably slowing as we neared them. And finally, days in the air, they landed, releasing their legs, and us, onto the rocks.

  Larissa walked among them, muttering to herself or to them, I couldn’t tell. Cait scampered to her and took her hand, clearly relieved to be free of her cage of legs.

  We all groaned, stretching our legs and backs. I dropped my backpack to the ground for the first time in days, and even its featherweight released from my shoulders was a relief.

  “This is the place, then?” Kiron asked, approaching the bee Larissa was standing beside.

  “Yes,” she said. “The pedestal lies in the valley below. We are to watch for the yellow jackets, the bees’ natural enemies. They are not kind like our friends here.” She patted one of the bees on its nose.

  Kiron walked toward the edge of the rocks. I followed behind, and what I saw took my breath away.

  It was like looking at a vast, flowering garden. Grass and trees and blooms sprang from the earth below in bright colors and odd shapes. But, just visible against the green, large, flying shapes hovered around the land.

  “We’ll need to walk at night,” Larissa said. “We’ll be less likely to draw attention to ourselves. Even now, we should hide. We need to avoid a confrontation with the wasps at all costs.”

  “Done,” Kiron said.r />
  Then, he approached the largest bee, the one who had given me my ride. He bowed deeply before him. I followed and did the same. Everyone joined us. Even Donnally. And though no thank you was uttered, the message was received.

  The buzzing of wings was deafening as the group powered up and took off.

  “Goodbye, friends,” Larissa said, one hand outstretched as the bees departed.

  They kept low as they journeyed back toward the desert, not wanting to give away their position to the wasps. I felt oddly sad at watching them go. They had been our allies on this planet, no matter how frightening they appeared from the outside. I wondered how many other allies we might find in our travels, and I gritted my teeth as I realized the truth.

  Probably not many.

  And then they were gone, vanished from sight as they sped away from the danger we now faced.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  We spent the rest of the day hidden in a cave, just as we had been instructed to do. The occasional peek over the side of the summit told us that the danger of the wasps had not yet passed. Now that we were stationary and on the ground, a feeling of restlessness permeated the group. We didn’t need sleep; we had all slept more than enough over the past two days. We needed to move.

  As the sun slowly set on the horizon, and the wasps gradually disappeared from sight, we carefully began the journey down the mountain. Cait and Larissa led the way, Larissa holding tight to her hand as they navigated the rocky ledges. Then, as night fully closed in around us, we made it to the grassy slope that ran in ribbons down the sides of the mountain. Here the ground became smooth, and I got the impression that Cait would love nothing more than to lay down and roll all the way to the bottom.

  Our progress was swift. Within an hour, with nothing in our way, we had descended into the valley. It was a giant bowl of green, and the ground in the basin was as smooth as the sides of the mountains.

  There was nowhere to hide, though. We had some time. The days, and nights, here were so much longer than we were used to, and we had extra energy after our days of rest with the bees. But eventually, in fifteen hours or so, that time would run out.

  I caught up with Cait.

  “How far do you think it is?” I asked, keeping my voice low. I didn’t want to risk any chance of waking the threat of the wasps from their evening sleep.

  With her hands she indicated a space about an inch across from her two palms. Then she put one finger to her eye, then pointed up ahead.

  “You can see it?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “So we’re close,” I breathed. “How many hours, do you think?” It was, perhaps, a technical question for such a young girl, but she didn’t hesitate. She flashed her hands.

  Sixteen.

  Sixteen hours until the sun rose fully over the horizon. Maybe we would get a little extra time, being shaded in the basin of the valley. But the dawn would be long, and the wasps would surely be out once first light began to touch the sky. Would they recognize us as intruders? We would be so small to them, like ants on the ground as they flew above. Would they even notice us?

  We could afford to take no chances.

  “We need to move faster,” I said. I backtracked and caught up with Kiron, who was walking beside Finian, mumbling something I couldn’t hear. “We don’t have enough time. There’s nowhere to hide out here, and Cait says sixteen hours until we reach the pedestal.”

  They both stared, but none of us dared slow our pace.

  “We could jump,” Finian said. “It would be uncomfortable, but it would get us there faster.”

  Kiron spoke my own thoughts.

  “We don’t know if the wasps will notice the noise,” Kiron said. “That’s a chance we can’t take.”

  “We won’t make it, then,” Finian argued. “We don’t have enough time. You know we don’t.”

  We walked for a time, each of us thinking hard, trying to come up with a solution. Finally, Kiron spoke.

  “We’ll use them at the last,” he said, touching his hand to his chest. Underneath the rough fabric shirt I knew a cord of short-distance links hung.

  We walked without stopping, not for rest or food. We drank from the last of our filled bottles, hoping there would be another source along the way. I had seen a river from the mountaintop, and if our path brought us past it, we could stop to refill. Food was passed among the wizards as we walked.

  I never tired, even though many hours were passing. I was focused singularly on the goal ahead, my eyes flitting to the horizon every once in a while to make sure the sun wasn’t yet rising.

  But my wishing couldn’t hold it off forever, and eventually the sky began to lighten. One by one, we all tensed, moving as fast as our bodies would allow after such a long night of walking. Ahead, the stand of trees I had seen from the peak stood thick and waiting. Though it was far off, I felt sure that if we could just get there before the sun rose in earnest, we would have a fighting chance of staying hidden. I made my way to the head of the group again where Cait led us all onward as if she were the born leader of our band of travelers.

  “How much longer?” I asked, my voice low.

  She didn’t look up. Her eyes were starting to glaze over with the same far away look she had worn on Earth when we had nearly made it into the depths of the mine where Father waited. She held up one hand in answer.

  Two.

  Two hours until we would reach our destination. Somewhere in the distance, a faint chopping buzz made it to my ears. Immediately, and without speaking, we all began to move faster.

  “How long until we make the trees?” I asked.

  She didn’t answer.

  Her sight might give us inklings of the distance we needed to travel, but to estimate the distance between here and the trees was anyone’s guess.

  “An hour,” Kiron said from behind me. “At best an hour.” His voice was harsh, and he had begun to breathe heavily.

  I wanted to encourage us all to move faster, but the looks on the faces of the men who followed us were finally starting to show the wear of the journey. Tristan, the largest of our group, looked the most tired. And both Elidor and Donnally were limping slightly, I guessed from blisters in their boots. Though Larissa had alternated all night between walking and hovering with Cait in her arms, she was starting to show wear, too. I reminded myself that she hadn’t only joined us for our flight into the trees, but that she had spent the past two days flying alongside the bees, resting only when they did. Only Finian, whose face was set with the iron resolve of a soldier, and Father, who ambled along with no visible complaint, looked untouched by the hours of travel.

  So I didn’t encourage anyone to hustle along. Instead, I simply picked up my pace, hoping that the urgency of our travel would sink in and they would follow.

  I needn’t have bothered, however, because the sound of stirring wasps was growing louder and louder with every step we took. That was all the encouragement anyone needed to quicken their pace. Soon, the beasts were visible high up in the sky, already flying in agitated patterns across the blue. I moved to Kiron’s side.

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  “Camouflage?” Finian answered from Kiron’s other side.

  “No,” Kiron said. “There’s no time. And a few blades of grass across our backs will not fool them for long.”

  We shuffled along now, not quite jogging, but moving faster and faster as the threat loomed closer. With each glance up to the sky a new wave of fear shot through me.

  As the tip of the sun crested over the mountains that ringed the basin, the behavior of the wasps changed dramatically. Where before they had flitted around with no discernible pattern, now they joined together in twos, crisscrossing across the sky, searching for any disturbance within their precious valley.

  And it wasn’t long before they found the threat they were looking out for.

  Larissa stopped dead, staring up, her mouth gaping.

  “These are not the same as our f
riends who brought us to this cursed place,” she said. “Run!”

  In an instant, our feet began pounding the grass. The wasps broke their pattern, gathering others until there were eight, ten, twelve of them flying together. Then, like a squadron of fighter jets, they dove for us.

  And we ran. We ran like fools.

  It was too soon. We couldn’t fail so miserably on just our second planet. Maybe if we had completed five or six of them, another group might stand a fighting chance to finish the job. But the wasps would not allow such a victory, I knew.

  I had the best chance of making it to the pedestal, of at least finishing our task on Grallero before death found me. As I pulled away from the wizards, only Cait waited up ahead. I scooped her little body up as I increased my pace.

  Behind me, cries of outrage or fear rang through the morning. I risked a glance back just in time to see Donnally, who had fallen behind, taken by one of the wasps. His fighting form sped upward away from the group, his shouts of despair reaching every ear on the ground below.

  I ran faster. I could do it. I could make those trees within minutes if I only tried hard enough. I had the speed, my own brand of magic, that nobody else here could match. I had the book. And the gold. And the guide.

  My legs felt surprisingly invigorated by my flight. I had expected exhaustion to catch up to me, but instead I ran faster and faster. I shot across the open field like a bullet, leaving them all behind. If they survived, I hoped they could forgive me. I hoped they would understand.

  A quarter mile from the trees, Larissa caught up with me. She had left the group, too, to keep her watch over Cait, I guessed.

  “Faster, boy!” she bellowed.

  And I listened.

  And then, all at once, we were there, inside the trees. The growth was dense on all sides. But was it thick enough to keep them out? I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t slow.

  “Point me as I go, Cait!” I yelled the words. I couldn’t help it.

  She held out one hand and pointed me slightly to the right.

  The trees blew by us in a blur. Larissa’s flight darted in and out their tall, thin trunks, and I could tell she was having trouble keeping up with us.