Aster Wood and the Wizard King (Book 5)

by J B Cantwell

  It felt like an eternity, but it might have only been minutes before Cait squeezed my shoulders, indicating we were close.

  And then I could see it. Up ahead, a clearing in the trees surrounded a depression in the earth. I was there in seconds, just as the first of the wasps began circling over the small break in the trees above. They might not have been able to make it through the thick stand of forest we had hidden within, but here, all they needed to do was point their noses downward and rocket toward us.

  I ran for the symbol, which I recognized now as the hallmark of the pedestals, and stood directly over the diamond.

  Immediately, the ground beneath me shook and the diamond began to descend into the dirt. I just barely held my footing, and I imagined with a sharp stab of pain that Kiron and the others must be tumbling to the ground out in the valley from the earthquake made by my actions. The wasps would take this as an advantage, their skies free from the disturbance that affected only those of us on the ground.

  “Larissa!” I called as I sunk into the chamber. “Find the others! Lead them here!”

  In the distance I saw Larissa’s form ten feet off the ground pause, and then shoot after me again. My head was nearly below the surface once she got close enough to exchange plans. Above us, the wasps crossed over the clearing, angrily trying to discover a way down.

  “Make the link once you get them into the woods!” I called.

  “How will we find each other?” she asked.

  I don’t know. It’s too fast. I don’t know.

  My head was below the ground now.

  “Just get them as close as you can,” I said. “We’ll just have to figure it out then.”

  One of the wasps overhead had begun buzzing back and forth across the opening, slowing just enough to begin descending down the column of air between the trees.

  “Go!” I shouted.

  I just saw her form rise from the ground and shoot away when the first wasp was upon us. It stopped at the opening, trying to smash its way into the hole after us. Cait gripped her arms around my neck hard. I jumped down from the platform, trying to stay as far away from that thing and its angry stinger as I could.

  The work of the balancing was easy, though, now that I had the gold spheres ready to go. I checked my list one last time, making sure that I was right about how many I needed.

  Two. Just two.

  I approached the pedestal and carefully extended my hand. The bowl that hovered above the pedestal looked the same as the one back on Yunta. The wasp above us was furious now, and I felt sure that if Cait could have found her voice again she would have been screaming. I tried to shake off my own prickling skin, my panic, and focus. I placed the first ball into the bowl.

  It brightened immediately, beginning its spin.

  Only one left.

  Then what?

  The beast above was trying to push his way into the chamber, buzzing more loudly now with its frustration. Small chunks of earth fell from around the edges of the opening. If we gave it too much time, it would dig its way in, I was sure of it. I could think of only one way to save us. But it would be temporary, and could cost us our lives in the end. I wished now that I had spread the gold out among the group, or at least given some of it to Kiron to watch over. If we became trapped down here, as I expected we would, the quest would have no chance of completing their mission without me.

  But it was too late. I would just have to find a way out.

  I dropped the second gold stone into the basin.

  As before on Yunta, the room exploded with light. I tried to cover my eyes, but my arm over my face barely blocked out any of it. I heard the rumbling of the platform as it began to ascend back to the surface.

  Cait pulled at me, trying to tell me that we needed to leave. But I found her little hands and held them still. Then, kneeling down, I pulled her into a tight hug. I felt her tears hit my cheek as we held onto one another.

  “It’s ok,” I said directly into her ear, close enough to her that I knew she could hear me over the angry buzzing and rumbling. “I have a plan. Just wait.”

  But I didn’t have a plan. And as the platform finally made it all the way to the surface, I had no choice but to face the truth.

  We were trapped here.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Quiet fell across the cavern, and though I could just make out the bowl rotating through the brightness, it made no sound as it slowly spun.

  I pulled Cait’s arms from around my neck.

  “Sit down,” I said. My words echoed oddly off the cavern walls. My ears were still ringing from the sudden extinguishing of the noise.

  I sat beside her, set my staff to my right, and pulled my pack around on my left. Keeping my eyes closed the whole time, I dug through the bag. I found an old ratty t-shirt from Earth and three misshapen socks. I sniffed at one of the socks and found it wasn’t offensive. I tied it over my eyes, and I immediately felt relief from the brightness. I still couldn’t see what I was doing, but my eyes no longer burned. I felt around for another and reached for Cait.

  “Here,” I said. “This will help.”

  I tied it around her head, and she sighed heavily, dropping her hands from her eyes. She wiped the tears from her face with an angry frustration I understood.

  Ok. Think.

  “We just need to stop for a minute,” I said. “Figure out what to do.”

  I wished I could see her, to hear her talk to me, to try to understand what she might guess was the best way out of this mess. But I was the only one who could communicate now. And that meant the idea had to come from me.

  We could wait. If we sat down here until sunset, the wasps would retreat back to their nest. Maybe they would even go sooner than that, finding that they were unable to peck their way into the chamber from above.

  But if they were unable to get in, with those huge arms tipped with talons, what made me think I would have a chance of getting us out?

  I could use the staff. I ran my hand along the cool wood sitting beside me, trying to imagine how to make it do what I wanted it to do. Just thinking about the magic I wanted to perform with it had been enough before. I had stamped it on the ground, sending out an array of cracks within the stone at my feet. I had suspended pieces of gold in midair, shaving them down to the perfect size for our needs with nothing more than my mind guiding the wood.

  But would I be able to blast our way out of this cavern with it?

  I felt sure the answer was yes. The cavern had been sealed, that was true, but if I wanted it badly enough, I was willing to bet that I could break our way out of here with minimal effort.

  There was only one problem with that plan. The entrance would once again be breached, probably forever left open to the elements and anyone with enough information to find this place and steal the gold back from the basin. Grallero had its magic sealed up tight now. It seemed like our efforts would be a complete waste if I were to open it up again.

  It was a desperate plan, and one I didn’t like.

  I lifted my hand to my chest and felt the rough stone link hanging from my neck. This was Kiron’s link, one we had used many, many times. Though travel by this type of short distance link wasn’t always comfortable, in this case it was reliable. I gripped it harder as I chewed on the idea.

  It was dangerous. I had never used a link from below ground before. What was to say that we wouldn’t just end up underground somewhere else on Grallero, stuck like fossils into solid rock? I had had the same fear before, back when I was less accustomed to using links. But that time I had worried about ending up in the cold of space, forever lost in the vastness of galaxies, dead before I had a chance to take my first breath.

  The truth remained, though. None of my fears of travel by link had ever come to pass. I had always landed in the desired location, or close enough to it, in once piece. And while it wasn’t always a smooth journey from place to place, using Kiron’s stone links had never failed me. Even on Earth.

&nbs
p; And now, it seemed, it would be our only chance to survive.

  I strapped the pack back over my shoulders and held out the stone. I no longer knew which direction we had come from, but at the moment I just wanted to get free from this sun-drenched cavern. I grabbed Cait’s hand.

  “We’re going to jump,” I said.

  Her grip tightened around my fingers. I held up the stone with a shaking hand and pointed it, slightly upward and my best guess of which direction to take. I hoped the angle of my arm would somehow tell the link that I wanted to land on solid ground and not within it.

  “Forasha,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.

  We landed out of the cavern, our hands torn apart as we rolled through the branches shed from the forest trees above. Twigs poked and scratched our arms and faces.

  But we were alive.

  I ripped the sock from around my eyes. Everything looked too dark, as if I had stared at a lightbulb for too long and now my vision was blotted out by the intensity of the light. I could just make out the space around me, still just shapes and shadows. As my eyesight adjusted bit by bit, I saw that we were well hidden among the trees. Not far from where we had landed, the bright light of day shined through the leaves. I hoped Kiron and the others had made it out of the open space. Though a cold feeling of dread I could not deny filled me at the thought of them.

  “Cait!” I called.

  She was lying in the underbrush about twenty feet away from me. She sat up, her face contorted with pain. I reached her in a flash and found her battered, but not grievously injured. I untied the sock from around her eyes, and she blinked up at me, tears streaming. I opened my arms and she collapsed within them.

  “It’s ok,” I said. “We’re out now. It’s over now.”

  The loud buzzing from somewhere up above told me it was not over, though.

  “Come on,” I said, standing up and helping her get to her feet. “We’d better get moving. Here, hop on. We’ll be faster if you ride on my back. Can you find the way to Kiron and the others?”

  She nodded, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand.

  I bent down so she could climb on, and we set off.

  “Ok, kiddo,” I said. “Tell me where to go.”

  She pointed sharply to the left.

  I moved as fast as I dared, avoiding as best I could any more scrapes to either of our bodies by stray branches in our way. It didn’t take long. The wood was small, and I was fast. We came upon the group, huddled into a tight ball as if they were watching the last embers of a fire burn down.

  “You survived!” I called, moving toward them more quickly now. Just a couple of heads turned, Kiron’s and Father’s. Then, as I walked up to the group, I was surprised to find Tristan stomping angrily toward me.

  “This is your fault,” he snarled, and it was not lost on me that he was the largest in our group. Thick and muscled, he was a forbidding figure, and I shrank back despite myself.

  Kiron grabbed him by the arm, but Tristan was much bigger than Kiron and shook him off easily as he approached.

  “You left us to them!” he bellowed. “And now look what has happened!”

  Cait slid down from my back and scampered away. I looked over Tristan’s shoulder and saw that Larissa stood at the center of the group, holding up what had to be our next link in her palm.

  “Don’t look at them,” Tristan snapped, jabbing me in the shoulder. “You’ll deal with me now.”

  “I don’t understand,” I spluttered. “What happened?”

  Finian had joined Kiron at Tristan’s side.

  “Donnally was taken,” Finian said. “By one of the wasps. It happened as we were trying to assemble to use Kiron’s short-link. The buzzing grew suddenly louder, and then he was gone.”

  “I know,” I panted. “I looked back and saw—”

  “This is your fault,” Tristan accused.

  “But where did they take him?” I asked. “Maybe we can get him back.” Though the sinking feeling in my stomach told me that this outcome was unlikely.

  “Who knows where he is,” Tristan spat. “He’s probably dead by now anyways. If you had just waited for the rest of us … If you hadn’t gone off like that …”

  “We were distracted,” Finian said. “Everything was crazy. And then when you left it took us a moment to understand why.” He turned to Tristan. “But it’s not his fault, Tristan. If he had stayed behind it could have happened to any one of us. Perhaps more than one.”

  “Did you finish it?” Kiron asked. “We felt the earth rumble. Was that you, then?”

  “Yeah,” I said, my voice shaking. “We barely made it out of there. There was a clearing above the cavern, and the wasps were just figuring out how to break into it when it sealed shut with us inside. We jumped out from underground.”

  Kiron’s eyes widened.

  “You did that with one of my links?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “The same one I always use.” I held up the simple gray rock I had worn around my neck since Kiron had given it to me nearly a year ago now.

  His face broke into a smile despite the gravity of our situation.

  “Well, look at that,” he said, pride twinkling in his eyes.

  Tristan was enraged.

  “He’s probably dead,” he said. “You know that, right?”

  “We need to get out of here,” Kiron said, recovering himself. “Now. Those wasps were starting to squeeze through the spaces between the trees not far from our first jump’s landing spot. It’s only a matter of time before they find us.”

  “What about Donnally?” Tristan asked, incredulous.

  Kiron gazed up at him, regret deepening the lines on his face.

  “You know we can’t,” Finian said. “There’s nothing we can do. We have to move on now, while we have the chance.”

  “I’ll go,” Larissa said. She emerged from the remaining group of wizards, holding out the newly formed link to Kiron. “I can talk to them. Maybe fly with them. I’ll find a way to get him back if I can.”

  “Do you have a frame?” Kiron asked. Already he had her method of escape on his mind. Without a frame of her own, she would be unable to make a link to escape this place.

  “Yep,” she said.

  Cait ran up to her side, gripping her arms around Larissa’s middle and shaking her head vigorously. Larissa smoothed one hand through Cait’s hair.

  “I’ll see you again soon,” she said. “Don’t you worry. Aster will take care of you.”

  She looked at me, and something about her steely eyes told me that I had better take good care of Cait, or I would have her to answer to.

  Father came to me then and did something I did not expect. He hugged me.

  “I’m so glad you’re ok,” he said.

  When he released me, I saw that the ring of blue around his irises had grown fatter. More of my dad was coming back to Father’s body all the time, it seemed. Hope flared in my chest, but I quickly stuffed it back down, stepping away from him.

  “Is he better, then?” I asked. “My dad?”

  Father considered.

  “Most of him is still held by the possession,” he said. “But part of him, maybe you could call it his essence, is spilling over into me now. I am most grateful that you are alright, Aster. And it is a new feeling. I cared about your safety before, of course. But not like this.”

  I frowned at him, perplexed. Could it be true? The old man back in the Hidden Mountains had said that Dad would be unable to be healed by being in the Fold or drinking any potion, as I had done. He had said that once the mind was altered, there was no cure for it.

  And yet it seemed that with each planet leveled, the murderous spirit of my dad quieted, that maybe he was being healed in some way. I realized with surprise that he hadn’t tried to attack me in several days. Was it the gradual leveling of the Fold that was responsible for this? Was healing possible?

  The implications of that question reached much farther than
just my dad’s state of mind. If it were true then the healing might also affect the planets. I thought of home, Earth, imagining what it might be like to have rain that didn’t maim or kill. A place where things could grow once again.

  “We’ll meet back in the Hidden Mountains in three weeks,” Kiron said to Larissa, snapping me back to attention.

  She nodded, but Tristan interjected.

  “I think we should go back now,” he insisted. “This whole plan is ludicrous. And I don’t appreciate following these kids all around the cosmos. They’ve nearly gotten us killed twice now.”

  “Tristan, you know that all the dangers we’ve faced would have been upon us with or without Aster,” Kiron said. “But I agree that you should not follow us on to Dursala. I want you and Elidor to take the gold to Thalio, Barta and Aeso. We will also meet you back on Aeso in three weeks. Come back to us, whether you succeed or not.”

  “But how will we find the pedestals without the girl?” Tristan asked, unbelieving.

  Kiron looked at Tristan, his eyes hard and a smirk on his face.

  Elidor, who had spoken very little on the journey before now, stepped forward.

  “I have my own brand of magic,” he said quietly. “It won’t be nearly as precise as what this little one has been able to do. But, over time, we should be able to find them.”

  “Elidor is the most accomplished wizard among us,” Kiron said. “Though he doesn’t often like to share this fact. He should manage fine on his own. It’s you,” he indicated Tristan, “who worries me.”

  “What?” Tristan said. “Why?”

  “I think it’s obvious to us all that, while you might be big and brutish, you are lacking in the department of courage.”

  Tristan bristled, his face reddening.

  “It’s not about having courage,” he spat. “It’s about being smart about our choices. Look at what’s happened to Donnally. He—”

  “You’re wrong,” Finian said, stepping forward. “This journey is precisely about having courage. What happened to Donnally could have happened to any one of us at any time. We all chose to be part of this group, Donnally included. We knew that danger would await us, even if we didn’t know what form it would take. It was the courage to try, despite the danger, that was key in assembling this group.”