'Sorry,' Hamlet said, watching as Thordric's eyes bulged slightly and he twitched now and then. 'It's the only tea I had left. I had to use all of the calming ones myself.'
Chapter Fifteen: Trees, Trees, Trees!
'The trees had already started growing when I arrived here,' Hamlet said. 'They extended out perhaps half as far as they do now. At first I thought they were just supposed to be here, but they covered the entire dig site and there was no one around. It seems that the more days that pass, the faster it grows.'
Thordric watched him, feeling the tea losing its effect finally, though it should have lasted much longer than that. He frowned, but Hamlet simply smiled at him. He pointed to the Crystos Mentos around Thordric's neck; it was glowing faintly. 'I've never seen a stone glow like that before,' he commented.
Was that what was taking away the effects of the tea so quickly?
'Anyway,' Hamlet continued, shifting slightly. 'I thought that maybe they had gone back to their hotel in Valley Edge and I thought about going there too, but my Professor didn't give me enough funds to stay anywhere except this tent.
'I found my way by following those veins of gold that I believe you saw on the floor. They all lead here, you know. Once I got here, I found that they had left a lot of equipment behind, some of it so delicate that it might have been ruined had I not taken it down and put it away. That's when I noticed them. Five oddly shaped trees, all in the centre of this place. One even looks as though he was dusting off an artefact, but the roots everywhere seem to have completely covered whatever it was.'
'Are they still there?' Thordric asked, trying to crane his neck under the tent flap but falling off his chair instead.
Hamlet laughed quietly. 'You can't see them from here, there's a thorn bush of some sort hiding them. That's how I got this scratch,' he said, indicating the one above his eye.
Thordric sighed, disappointed, and sat back up. 'So you think those trees were once human, like Tome?'
'Your friend back there? Yes, I do. Particularly after what I saw the day before yesterday.'
Thordric raised his eyebrow.
'I was out near to where I found you just now, looking for some clue as to what caused all of this. Someone was walking around in here, so I went to see who it was. There was an old man rummaging around the tree roots. He had a curiously red beard but a head of white hair…You know him?' he asked, seeing the horror on Thordric's face.
'Yes; at least I think I do. He's a wizard named Yim. One of the Wanderers I told you about on The Jardine. Tome was one too.'
Hamlet frowned. 'Well, that puts my theory to bed,' he said.
'Theory?'
'I thought when I saw you here that wizards might be free from this thing, but if you say that old man was one, then I must be wrong. I saw him turn into a tree. It was like he'd been frozen, but then his skin, even his clothes, turned into wood and his features too. The only way you could tell it had been him at all was by the beard of lichen covering it.'
Thordric sighed. Grale had told him the truth after all; he had seen the missing men turn into trees. It was enough to make anyone want to forget it.
He stood up to stretch his legs, his hair brushing against the top of the tent. 'So you still don't know what this big discovery was that you were sent here to dig up?' he asked.
'No,' Hamlet shook his head. 'The roots growing over it can't be cut. They can't even be burnt.'
'I think you should take me there,' Thordric said.
Hamlet agreed and led him back out of the tent. Behind it, as he had said, was a thorn bush growing at least six feet high, though there was a small hole in it which looked as though someone had squeezed through.
Hamlet went through it, holding his arms over his face, Thordric did the same, but there was a long tearing sound as his robes caught the thorns. He looked down and found that there was now a large slit going up to his hip, revealing part of his underclothes. Blushing slightly, he tried to fix it. What should have been an easy spell took him almost five minutes, for his magic still didn't want to come.
'Here they are,' Hamlet said in front of him. Thordric hoped he hadn't noticed anything.
He looked to where Hamlet was pointing. Just as he had said, there were five trees all looking eerily human. Examining the closest one, Thordric found there was a pickaxe embedded in it, though it was the handle that was attached to it instead of the axe head, just as though the tree was holding it. Another appeared to be holding a lamp and, looking at the one Hamlet had said was crouching down, he saw various brushes and scraping tools embedded in the roots by its feet and one in its hand.
In the middle of them, for they all appeared to be crowding around one point, was a mass of roots all growing in to each other forming a mound. The strange feeling that he and Tome had felt was strongest at this point. He had no doubt that whatever was causing all of this was emanating from there.
'Hamlet,' he asked, getting closer to the mound. 'Do you feel anything strange here?'
Hamlet turned from where he stood examining a vein of gold that was just visible through the roots. 'Like what?' he asked.
That confirmed it. This feeling, though it was very different from what he was used to, was definitely some kind of magic. Perhaps it was the magic of the ancient tribe and, in trying to dig it up, the archaeologists had disturbed it and released it into the ground.
But why was it that neither he nor Hamlet had turned into trees too?
'I'm going to try and cut away those roots,' he said finally, after thinking about it for a few minutes. Maybe it would respond to a magical axe.
He thought about the sharpness of a real axe, able to cut through even the toughest of woods, and willed that sharpness to slice through the roots. A cut appeared in the top root, so he chopped at it again and another cut appeared, but as he turned to tell Hamlet, he saw that the cuts simply vanished.
Frowning, he tried it again, faster this time, but the faster he chopped the faster the roots healed. They were impenetrable.
Giving up, he sat on the ground with a thump.
A sapling grew up beside him and then another and another. In moments he was surrounded and the trees were maturing fast. If he stayed where he was he would be trapped by them, or worse. He sprang up out of the way, breathing heavily as he saw he had just made it in time. The trees closed together until they formed one giant trunk; if he had stayed between them he would have been crushed.
'Hamlet,' he said, grabbing the pale young man by the arm. 'We're leaving.'
Pulling him back through the trees, he didn't stop until they were free of them, outside in the sunlight. To his surprise, he found that they were only a few metres away from the carriage and the horse was staring at them wildly and thrashing about in its loosened harness.
The trees were growing even faster now and had taken up almost half a mile more in the few hours that Thordric had been in there. At this rate it would reach Valley Edge in just a few days, and he thought that the trees were unlikely to stop in the wake of houses.
In the carriage he found some more super oats and a packet of one of Tome's powders. It was labelled 'Steady heart', and, hoping desperately that it would calm the poor horse down enough to take them away from here, he sprinkled some of it onto the super oats.
He ordered Hamlet to stay in the carriage while he gave the oats to the horse, patting it soothingly as Tome had done. He could feel its racing pulse slowing down to normal speed and, with the back of his sleeve, he wiped the foam away from its mouth. The powder was working and in a few moments the horse was still enough for Thordric to retighten the harness and get up to the driver's seat.
Taking the reins and clicking his tongue as he'd seen Tome do, he urged the horse to move. It looked at him for a moment, unsure at having such an inexperienced driver, but seemed to decide that the situation was too urgent to worry and so turned the carriage around in the direction of Valley Edge.
The ride was bumpy, but neither he nor Hamlet w
ere calm enough to be troubled by their usual travel sickness. By evening, aching and bruised and with sweat dripping off the horse's back like raindrops, they finally reached Morweena's house.
Having no idea where Tome had got the carriage from, he left it in front of the house and took the horse around to the back where he quickly put together a stable in her garden. Once the horse was settled, he and Hamlet went inside.
'Goodness, Thordric,' she said, coming out of the lounge with her jewellery clinking together noisily. 'Whatever happened to you?'
She looked around and saw Hamlet, but frowned and looked some more. 'Wherever is Tome? Why isn't he with you?'
Thordric sighed and led her slowly into the kitchen, telling Hamlet to follow. He sat her down at the table and then fetched the kettle and some cake.
Morweena looked from him to Hamlet, her frown growing into a look of panic. Thordric realised then that both he and Hamlet were bleeding from running back through the trees. He summoned some bandages put them on the table, telling Hamlet to roll up his sleeves so that he could clean his cuts and apply the all-purpose salve that Lizzie had given him a few months before.
Once the tea was ready and their wounds had all been bound, he decided he had put off telling Morweena what happened for long enough.
With Hamlet's help he explained everything, starting with when he and Tome had first entered the forest and felt something strange there. She let out a whimper when he told her what had happened to him and, forgetting that she hadn't known who Tome really was, he told her of how it had ruined Hamlet's theory of only wizards being able to withstand it.
It was then that Thordric noticed that even if it had been right, it didn't explain why Hamlet himself was fine, for he still could not sense any magic about him.
Thordric looked at him. There were still smudges of dirt on his face and his blonde hair was caked in mud and leaves. Then, sticking out the top of his torn short, Thordric saw a silver chain around his neck. 'What's that?' he asked curiously.
Hamlet blinked. 'Hmm? Oh, this?' he said, pulling the chain out to reveal a small bottle of pale green crystals. 'My father gave these to me before he died. He said they had been in his family for generations and that they would protect me if I ever got into trouble.'
'May I?' Thordric asked.
Hamlet gave the bottle to him. Thordric opened it gently and took one of the tiny stones out. It was the same as his Crystos Mentos, though it felt much, much, older. He put it back in the bottle and gave it back to Hamlet.
'I think I know why we didn't turn into trees. It's these stones,' he said. 'I might be wrong, but I think they directed that odd magic away from us. Remember when mine was glowing after you gave me that tea?'
Hamlet nodded.
'I'm sure it was weakening the effect because it wasn't what I needed right then. If it can do that, then perhaps it can weaken the effect of other magic too.'
'Is that what was making it hard for you to use your own magic?' Hamlet asked.
Thordric thought for a moment. 'No. I've used magic before when wearing it and it wasn't any weaker than usual. I think it was whatever magic's growing the trees that did it.'
Nothing had ever weakened his magic to that extent before. Perhaps he should speak with Vey and Lizzie, they might have heard of a type of magic like that.
Chapter Sixteen: The Springs
'Slow down, boy,' Lizzie's voice cracked firmly through the communication device.
She and Vey had gathered together so that Thordric could explain the situation to them both at the same time, but all they had heard so far was that he was in a terrible panic about something to do with trees.
Thordric took a deep breath, looking at Morweena and Hamlet, who were still sitting around the table with him. It had taken them a long time to recover from their surprise at the communicator, particularly when Lizzie had first spoken and Morweena thought she had come back to visit again.
'There's some kind of magic out in the Valley Flats that's making a forest grow. It's spreading so fast that it will probably overrun the town in a matter of days,' he said. 'The worst part is that it seems to be turning people into trees too.'
He told them about the archaeologists that went missing and the human shaped trees and, while he had been there, how Tome had vanished to be replaced by a tree.
'And you have no idea what kind of magic is causing it?' Vey asked.
Despite Vey not being able to see him, Thordric shook his head. 'It's not magic like ours. I wasn't even sure it was magic at first, but since Hamlet couldn't feel it, I guess it has to be.'
'Your friend Hamlet has no powers?' Lizzie asked.
Thordric looked at Hamlet, who had decided to take great interest in his tea cup. 'I haven't felt anything coming from him at all,' he said, feeling as though he was putting Hamlet down somehow.
There was silence for a moment, but then Vey spoke up. 'If you and he were both in the centre of that forest, why didn't you turn into trees too?'
'I think we know the answer to that, though we've only just figured it out. We both have a crystal called Crystos Mentos. Morweena says it grows naturally in the springs here, though our ones didn't come from there. I think it diverts the other magic away from us, though if you stay in one place for too long trees grow up around you. I was nearly trapped by them in there.'
'I see,' Vey said. 'Mother, what do you think?'
'I think Valley Edge and the Wanderers are in an awful lot of trouble. I have to wonder, Eric, why it is that you're still sitting here dawdling. Find yourself a ship and go there.' They heard Vey wince and listened as his hasty footsteps disappeared from the room. 'And boy,' Lizzie continued to Thordric, 'If those crystals do what you think they do, you should give one to everyone in the area. At least then their lives will be safe. Morweena, you worked at the springs. See if you can get hold of them for him.'
'But Lizzie, I haven't been there for years, and it wasn't exactly under good circumstances that I left, what with the manager's wife chasing me out and—'
'Morweena, this is an emergency. Forget your past indiscretions and pull yourself together.'
Even Hamlet and Thordric drew back from the communicator at the snap in her voice. Thordric had forgotten just how strict she could be, but given the circumstance, he was very glad of it.
'Boy, make sure that everyone in Valley Edge gets one and then give some to the Wanderers. I'm afraid that until Eric gets there you and Hamlet have to try and figure this out on your own. Do whatever you can.'
The communicator went dead and for a moment the three of them sat there in silence.
'I think we may be in need of a cart,' Thordric said eventually, standing up. 'Morweena, how far away is the first spring?'
Morweena looked up, her eyes bloodshot. 'I think perhaps half a mile, no more,' she said slowly. 'Do you think this will really work, Thordric?'
'I don't know, but we've got to try something.'
Thordric harnessed the horse back to the carriage and fed it a handful of oats. It nudged against him fondly and he rubbed its nose. Morweena came out of the house, dressed surprisingly sensibly in a plain jacket and skirt with only a pair of earrings for jewellery. Hamlet followed her out, now clean and wearing fresh clothes that Morweena had found tucked away in a trunk under her bed. She couldn't even remember who they might have belonged too, but seeing as they'd fit, he hadn't pursued it.
'I've got to make a stop first,' Thordric said as they got in the carriage. Once again he had taken up the driver's seat and, once everyone was settled, he nudged the horse into a walk.
They reached Lily's house in half the time it would have taken them on foot. He knocked on the door and waited, but before anyone could answer it, Lily came skipping out from the back garden.
'Thordric,' she said happily. 'Have you come to help me sell apples again?'
'Actually,' he replied awkwardly. 'I wanted to ask your parent's permission to borrow their cart.'
Her face dropp
ed. 'It's not their cart, it's my cart. I'm the one who has to push it all the way to the docks and back and sell apples from it. And no, you can't have it. Besides,' she added. 'Father is away on The Jardine and mother is working at the springs.'
Then she caught sight of the carriage behind him and stared. 'Who are they?' she said, pointing at Morweena and Hamlet, visible through the small windows on the carriage doors.
'They're friends,' he said.
'But I thought I was your friend,' she pouted.
Thordric couldn't help but grin. 'You are. People can have many friends,' he said. Then he turned serious. 'Please, Lily, let us borrow your cart. The people here are in danger and we need it to bring back something to protect everyone.
She frowned at him, still glancing over his shoulder at the carriage. 'Alright,' she said at last. 'But only if I can go with you.'
'Go with me?' Thordric said, surprised. It hadn't even occurred to him that she might say this. 'It could be dangerous though.'
Lily snorted. 'But you're a wizard. If anything bad happens, you can just use your magic to make it better, can't you?'
Thordric wished he could. 'Fine,' he gave in. 'You can come with us if you let us borrow your cart.'
She danced around happily and ran out to open the shed. He helped her bring out the cart, but then found they had a problem. They didn't have another horse to pull it.
'But you usually push it along with magic,' Lily said. 'Why can't you do that now?'
'That's only around town. I have to take it out to the springs. It's much further and I have to try and drive the carriage as well.'
She looked at him. 'Why don't you attach it to the carriage then?'
'It would be too much weight for the horse to pull. The poor animal's barely keeping up as it is,' he replied, looking over at it. The horse looked back with a pleading look in its eyes.
'Make it all lighter,' Lily said simply.
It was his turn to stare. Why hadn't that occurred to him? Making objects lighter wasn't particularly difficult, all he had to do was lessen the gravity on it. He could halve the weight of everything; that should be light enough.
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