Accidental Archaeologist

by Kathryn Wells

  He attached the cart to the back of the carriage first, summoning some rope to tie it with, adding magic to the knot to hold it in place even more. After that, he felt the weight of everything, including Morweena, Hamlet and Lily, by levitating it all off the ground slightly. The strain made his head ache, but he was able to get the measurement he needed and a moment later he had successfully altered the gravity of it all.

  He stood next to the horse, which had been watching him suspiciously, and made it walk on. After a few steps the horse stopped, surprised by the sudden lightness and looked around at him. Thordric grinned at it and got back up in the driver's seat.

  Now all he had to do was get them to the nearest spring.

  They arrived just as evening was setting in, but far from being empty as Thordric had thought, the spring was full.

  As it was underground, they left the carriage next to an area set aside for use of the guests. With the cart added, the carriage took up quite a lot of room, but Thordric had little time to worry about it.

  Morweena led them towards what looked like a stone hut, but once inside they found that it was the start of the steps leading down into the cave where the spring was.

  As the small staircase opened out fully into the cave, both Thordric's and Hamlet's cheeks flushed pink. The spring, set a little way back from the stairs, was much larger than either of them had suspected and, to their embarrassment, was full of nude bathers.

  'Don't you bath naked?' Lily asked Thordric, as though he was crazy.

  'Of course I do,' he said, swallowing. 'But I don't do it in public!'

  'Why not? Everyone looks the same without any clothes on, so why does it matter?' she asked.

  'It's simply not decent,' Hamlet cut in, his cheeks turning pinker still. Thordric mumbled his agreement.

  Morweena laughed at them. 'They don't bathe like this where they come from, child,' she said to Lily. 'Seeing men and women bathe naked together is very strange for them, I'm sure.'

  Lily looked confused, but Morweena shook her head. 'I'll explain it when you're older, child. Now, I must speak with the attendant.'

  She started to wander off into a small side cave, but, seeing the look of embarrassment of both Thordric and Hamlet's faces, took hold of both their sleeves and dragged them with her.

  They found a woman standing behind a desk with a shelf full of purple and pink towels behind her, writing in what appeared to be a notebook. Putting down her quill, she looked at them all.

  'Morweena,' the woman said, clothed in a calm blue dress. 'I didn't expect to see you here again after what happened with the manager's wife all those years ago. If I remember rightly, she chased you out with a basket of dirty towels.'

  Morweena smiled. 'It was rather a bad experience. However, I had to come back due to a somewhat urgent matter.'

  Thordric rolled his eyes. Her tone of voice was so casual that she might have been asking the time of day.

  At this point Lily came bounding into the room and up to the woman. 'Mother, we need some of the crystals growing at the bottom of the spring.'

  'Lily? What in Neathin are you doing here?' the woman said.

  'She came with us, Eliza,' Morweena said.

  Lily scowled at her. 'I came with Thordric,' she said. 'You just happened to be there too.'

  'Indeed, child,' Morweena replied. 'Now, Eliza, about those crystals. We really do need them I'm afraid.'

  Eliza frowned, but then caught sight of the emblem on Thordric's robes. 'You're a member of the Wizard Council,' she said, almost accusingly. 'What are you up to?'

  This time Hamlet explained. After half an hour, despite still being suspicious of them and mostly due to Lily's insistence, Eliza closed the spring to everyone but them.

  'I hope you don't expect me to dive down and get them myself, though,' she said, escorting the last few stragglers to the stairs.

  'Of course not,' Morweena said. 'We'll do that ourselves. Now, strip off everyone.'

  Thordric and Hamlet both looked at her wildly. 'What?' Thordric exclaimed.

  'We have to be nude to go into the spring, it's the policy here,' she replied, so seriously that they had no choice but to believe her.

  'But there's no one about to make sure that we do,' Hamlet pointed out.

  'And what am I?' Eliza said behind him. 'One of those trees you're so panicked about?'

  Hamlet gulped.

  'If you don't undress then I cannot allow you to enter the spring, no matter how urgent the situation,' she continued.

  'Don't worry so much,' Morweena said. 'We'll all be far too busy collecting those crystals to even notice each other.'

  Chapter Seventeen: Diving for Crystals

  The spring was far deeper than Thordric had imagined, but, given his nakedness, that was a good thing.

  He had been the one to strip off first and go in, sprinting so that the others wouldn't have time to see him.

  The water was hot, but not scalding, and was so clear that he could see the soft green of the crystals at the bottom from where he swam treading water. Taking a deep breath he dove down, deeper and deeper until he managed to touch one. Instead of being loose, he found that they were growing in a large and very sharp clump. The part that he had touched was particularly sharp and cut his palm, sending inky redness through the water.

  The pain was so sudden that he let go of his breath and had to rise back up to the surface. He was just in time to see a flash of naked limbs and frizzy hair dive past him and, a moment later, Morweena's head popped up beside him.

  'Be careful, the crystals are sharp,' he said, indicating his hand and summoning a vial of potion from his bag. It was an extremely sticky substance that dried in moments, even in water. Thordric spread it over the cut and it stopped bleeding instantly.

  'How handy,' Morweena said, eyeing up the potion.

  'Something I developed myself, but it still needs more work before Vey can approve it,' he replied, trying not to think about how he had made it by accident.

  He sent it back to his bag, wondering how to separate the crystals from each other.

  'Oh, yes,' Morweena said, watching him. 'You jumped in so quickly that Hamlet didn't have time to tell you. He found these in the storeroom here and said to use them to break the crystals apart before bringing them up. Rocks like this always grow in clumps, apparently.'

  She held up a small hammer and chisel. He took it, wondering where Hamlet was now, but two splashes behind him told him that he and Lily had just jumped in.

  Trying to avert his eyes from Morweena, Thordric dove back down and began to chisel at the crystals. It was hard work and very slow, for they all ran out of breath quicker from the effort, so it took them several breaths to break off even a small bit of crystal.

  After two hours and only a small pile of crystals to show for it, Thordric lost his temper and announced to everyone that he would break them up by magic.

  'Absolutely not,' Hamlet said, the heat of the water putting some colour into his skin at last. 'We have to be delicate with these. Besides, they might divert your magic somewhere else and end up damaging the entire spring.'

  Thordric sighed. 'But this is taking too long. We need to get these crystals to the people as soon as we can, before the forest reaches them.'

  'Make some more hammers and chisels, then,' Lily said, as though this had been the obvious solution all along.

  Thordric realised it was. If he duplicated his own ones, then he could get them to copy his actions. It would be like having another group of people helping them out.

  Another two hours later, they all sat around the spring in large purple and pink towels with their fingers and toes thoroughly pruned. Next to them was a pile of crystals as tall as Thordric was.

  Morweena had come up with the brilliant idea of putting them all onto several large towels so that, once they were dressed, Thordric could levitate the towels and lift the crystals up the stairs that way, rather than risk using magic on the crystals themselves.


  It worked well and soon they had filled the cart full of them, with more having to be put in the carriage, leaving very little legroom once everyone was inside.

  As they had been putting the crystals in, Thordric had summoned some super oats for the horse so that it would be feeling strong enough to get them back quickly. He also adjusted the weight of the cart again, as the crystals weighed much more than he had thought. The horse nudged him happily and, as soon as everyone was inside, he stepped up to the driver's seat and took the reins again.

  Though it was dark by now, Thordric saw an outline of trees from the corner of his eye. They were very close. He didn't think that they could wait until morning; they had to distribute the crystals the moment they got back.

  Reining the carriage in at Morweena's house and asking Lily to take care of the horse, Thordric went around the corner to see Mr Henders.

  He knocked on the door and Mr Henders opened it, dressed in his nightclothes.

  'I'm sorry to disturb you, Mr Henders, but I need your help. Your brother's too, if he's in,' Thordric said, stepping inside.

  As if in answer to his question, Grale appeared down the stairs. 'What's all this about?' he complained. 'Can't you see it's the dead of night?'

  Thordric raised an eyebrow. According to the clock on Mr Henders' wall, it was only a quarter to nine.

  'Sit down for a moment, both of you,' he said, walking into the lounge and taking a seat himself. They sat, Grale none too happy about it, and Thordric explained the crisis that everyone was in.

  'That's all very well,' Grale said afterwards. 'But what do you want us to do?'

  Thordric grinned. 'You're going to help me wake everyone up and bring them to the docks.'

  'Of course I'd be happy to assist, sir, but how are we to do this?' Mr Henders asked.

  Thordric's grin widened.

  Bright red flames appeared in front of every house in Valley Edge, illuminating the night and letting out such pops and crackles that even the deepest sleeper jumped awake.

  Thordric admitted that he was impressed. Mr Henders and Grale, for all their lack of experience and training, were doing a marvellous job.

  After teaching them the basics of how to do it, he gave them each a section of Valley Edge to work on, taking the area by the docks himself so that he could make sure that it was the only apparent safe area. It wasn't long before the people realised it and came running in great groups, flooding every inch of space on the docks.

  Dressed in his only set of ceremonial robes and with Morweena, Hamlet and Lily all standing by him next to the huge pile of crystals that he had once again levitated into place, he waited until the crowd had come to a natural silence; every eye focused on him.

  If it hadn't been so important, he felt he would have blushed.

  'People of Valley Edge,' he began, increasing the volume of his voice so that it carried to the very back. 'I am Wizard Thordric, representative of the Wizard Council. I am here to tell you that you are in danger. There is a forest, controlled by a form of magic of which we know little, spreading at an alarming pace. Soon it will reach here and most of your homes could be lost, but that is not all. If you get too close to it, then you are likely to be transformed into trees yourselves. The only means that will protect you from being consumed by it are these crystals beside me. Every person in Valley Edge must carry one on their person at all times and, those of you that have animals, I suggest you make sure you take enough for them too.'

  There was silence for a moment, but then someone in the crowd jeered at him. 'You expect us to believe that?' the man said. 'Nothing grows in Neathin Valley, there's no chance that a forest could spring up out of nowhere.'

  There was a murmur of agreement from the crowd and some even started to walk away, but Thordric held up his hands.

  'If you don't believe me then feel free to go out into the Valley Flats and see for yourself. But I urge you, please take one of these crystals with you, else you might not return.'

  The man in the crowd sniffed, but took a crystal anyway and left the docks. Seeing this, everyone else came forward to take one, demolishing the pile within minutes. It was working.

  Now all they had to do was go back to the Wanderers' hide out. He hoped it wasn't too late for them.

  There was no chance of sleep that night so, just before he set out again, Thordric drank some of the alertness-inducing tea that Hamlet had given him in the forest. He made it an extra strong brew to try and counter the effect that the Crystos Mentos had on it, but when he arrived at the hide out, he was so awake that he thought his eyes might pop out his head.

  Thankfully the forest was still some way off from the hide out entrance, though he couldn't be sure if it had reached the caves closest to it yet.

  Reaching out to touch the rock, the illusion vanished to reveal the hole underneath. He went in, landing on the platform leading to the staircase.

  Once he got to the main cave, he found most of the Wanderers there waiting.

  'It's you,' one of them said. 'We were expecting Tome. Where is he?'

  Thordric winced. He wasn't looking forward to telling them that their leader had mysteriously tuned into a tree while helping him. 'Before I explain, please take these stones. Everyone must have at least one. Keep them on you at all times,' he said.

  The wizards all eyed him suspiciously, but did as he said.

  One of them, a wizard named Roomer, the youngest of the group, frowned deeply. 'Has Tome been up to something again?' he asked. 'He hasn't been arrested, has he?'

  'Don't be ridiculous,' another one broke in. 'Tome wouldn't do anything ridiculous while the boy's here, ready to report back to the High Wizard at a moment's notice.'

  Thordric almost wished that Tome had been arrested. At least it would be easier. He sighed.

  'Nothing like that has happened,' he began. 'Unfortunately it's much worse than that.'

  'Worse?' Roomer asked. 'How so?'

  Thordric tried, as best he could, to explain to them all that had happened with Tome and Yim and the forest.

  'He's a tree? Yim too?' the one who had interrupted before said. 'Well, I knew he was getting a bit stiff in his old joints, but to actually turn into wood…'

  Thordric blinked. What did that remind him of? Stiffness in the joints…like arthritis, he supposed. Wait, what was that Lizzie had said to him?

  It wasn't arthritis she had; her body just seemed to stiffen up inexplicably every ten days, since she had been to visit Morweena. Had she somehow been in contact with part of the forest? But that couldn't be right, that had been weeks and weeks ago and she had never said anything about coming out to a dig site before.

  'Are you quite yourself, boy?' Roomer asked, noticing that Thordric's face had gone white.

  'I'm fine,' he said, the effects of his tea wearing off. 'I just need to rest for a moment.'

  His body was heavy and, moments later, he collapsed on the ground.

  When he awoke, he found that the Wanderers had put him to bed, in the same cave that they had given him before. Hearing movement, he sat up and saw the door open. Roomer came in carrying a tray of tea and biscuits.

  'How long have I been asleep?' Thordric asked, suddenly in a panic.

  'Relax, boy,' Roomer said. 'It can only be half an hour at most.'

  Thordric breathed deeply, his pulse returning to normal. 'My bag,' he said, pointing to where it lay on the floor. 'The long distance communicator is in it.'

  Roomer got up and took out the communicator. Thordric noticed that one of the petals on the blue flower poking out of the top was bent slightly, but it straightened out again at the touch of his hand.

  He pressed the button on the side and spoke into it. 'Lizzie? Are you there?'

  Chapter Eighteen: Carved Pyramids

  'Spell's rebounded, boy!' Lizzie said through the communicator. 'I'd just dropped off to sleep. Still, I suppose it must be something important.'

  'It is, though it's probably not about what
you think,' Thordric replied, sitting up in the bed with Roomer watching him curiously, still holding the tray of tea.

  'Go on, boy,' Lizzie said. 'What is it?'

  Thordric thought for a moment, wondering what to say. 'When you were here, did you go anywhere out of Valley Edge?'

  'No. Not even to the springs, though given this reoccurring stiffness I wish I had of done. The only places I visited were in Valley Edge.'

  Frowning, Thordric scratched his chin, noticing that his beard had fully grown back. 'Did Morweena give you anything from the Valley Flats at all?'

  'Not that I recall, but one of her friends did give her a gift. Said he'd got it from a local merchant and thought she'd like it. Some kind of carved pyramid. He gave me one as well, actually,' she said.

  Thordric narrowed his eyes. 'This friend of hers wasn't called Tome, was he?' he asked.

  'Now that I think about it, I believe it was, yes. Didn't you say that one of the Wanderers was called that?' she asked.

  'Yes, he was the one that was with me in the forest.'

  'I see. I remember now that she seemed to think very highly of him, but something about him made me uneasy, as if he had magic but didn't at the same time. Of course, if he was a Wanderer then it all makes sense.'

  'That's not all he is,' Thordric replied. 'You were right to feel uneasy about him; he's one of the biggest crooks I've ever met. I bet he didn't say where the merchant got those carvings, did he?'

  'No, why? What are you thinking, boy?' she asked.

  'Tome has a reputation of stealing things and then selling them on. If those archaeologists brought back something from the site and he took it…'

  'That's all very well, but what is it that makes you think it's the carvings that he gave to Morweena and I?'

  'Your arthritis, or whatever it is. Just before Tome turned into a tree, he said that his body was starting to feel stiff. If that carving of yours is from the dig site, then it might be what's causing it.'