Accidental Archaeologist

by Kathryn Wells

  'If that's the case, boy, then why hasn't Morweena complained of such, then?'

  Thordric thought for a moment. As far as he knew, Morweena hadn't had any Crystos Mentos in the house before they had given it out to everyone. Then why hadn't she been affected?

  He blinked. She hadn't had any crystals in the house, but she had the dust from the springs. It must have had the same qualities as the crystals themselves. If that was true, then it was the carving that had been causing Lizzie's arthritis.

  'Lizzie, would you mind giving me that carving?'

  'Not if it's important. It will take a few days, though. Eric's already left and there's not another ship for a while.'

  'I'll summon it, then,' he said. If it was from the dig site, then it might be a key to stopping the growth of the forest.

  'Boy, that's ridiculous. It's too far; not only will you strain yourself but you don't know what the thing looks like.'

  That was true and summoning only worked when the caster knew what the object looked like. 'Does it look the same as the one that Morweena has?' he asked.

  'Yes, but hers is black and mine is white. Other than that they're identical.'

  'Then all I have to do is imagine her one white. It will work, I promise.'

  Roomer went with him back to Morweena's to make sure that he got back safely. He was still feeling weak and had to sit inside the carriage while Roomer drove.

  The forest was closer now, barely metres away from the hide out and so, to protect the horse, they had tied several crystals to the harness. The horse had been rather glad to see Thordric appear, because the sudden closeness of the trees had been making it nervous again. After he had given it some more super oats and water, it ran straight into a canter.

  The carriage, with Thordric inside, bounced along behind it even more than usual, but they made good time and arrived back at Morweena's within the hour.

  'Thordric, dear boy, you're safe,' she said, floating up to him with at least a dozen crystals around her neck. 'And who is this fine gentleman?'

  Roomer blushed and opened his mouth to speak, but Thordric cut in.

  'He's a friend of Tome's,' he said, quickly. 'He wants to help us find a way to stop the trees from spreading.'

  'But I thought that's what these crystals were for?' she said, just as Hamlet came down the stairs.

  'They'll only stop us turning into trees, Morweena,' he said, squeezing past her to stand next to Thordric. 'We have to find a way to get to the source and stop it there. Right, Thordric?'

  'Yes. I don't know how to do it yet,' Thordric started, 'but I believe Morweena's got something that can help us.'

  'I have?' Morweena said, looking rather blankly at him.

  'That's right. Lizzie's got one too.'

  'I still don't…' she said, making Thordric sigh.

  'Tome gave the two of you presents, didn't he?' he said. 'A carving of some kind?'

  Morweena frowned for a moment and pulled at her hair. 'Oh, yes…' she said. 'I remember now. Lovely little thing it was, too.'

  'Well?' Hamlet said.

  'Well what, young man?' she asked, blinking.

  Thordric swallowed, trying to keep his temper. 'Where is it?'

  'Where?' she replied. 'It must be somewhere in the house, but I'm not sure exactly where. It was quite a few weeks ago, you know.'

  At this point, Thordric was certain that Morweena was the most infuriating person he had ever met. 'Fine, we'll just have to search the house.'

  Without even bothering to consult Morweena, he told Hamlet and Roomer what Lizzie had told them about the carved pyramids. 'This one should be black,' he said, while Morweena found it best to go and make tea. 'It's about a four inches high, too, and the point is quite sharp.'

  They each took a separate room to search. Thordric took the lounge, Roomer took Morweena's bedroom and Hamlet took the bathroom. As Thordric had only managed to clear his bedroom, the rest of the house was still piled high with Morweena's many possessions. Searching for such a small object would be difficult, but he knew that Hamlet would probably have it worse because he didn't have any magic to speed up the process.

  In the lounge, Thordric thought it best to shrink everything as he checked it so that he could be certain the pyramid wasn't behind anything. There was plenty of dust in there to and, by the end of it, he had plenty more crystals of Crystos Mentos, enough to make him wonder if it wouldn't have been easier just to make them from here instead of getting them from the springs. Still, that wasn't important now. As long as everyone was safe, that was all that mattered.

  Once he'd finished, the room looking completely different with everything having been shrunk and neatly stacked into one corner, he went to check on Hamlet.

  He found him hanging over the bath, coughing and sneezing so much that he hadn't even heard Thordric come in. There was a mist of dust in the air, which Thordric immediately collected into a ball and pressed into another crystal.

  However, there was also a strong smell of perfume, so strong in fact that it started to made him feel quite faint. 'Hamlet,' he gasped, forcing the window open to its fullest. 'Are you alright?'

  Hamlet turned to him and sneezed, oodles of red smoke shooting out of his nostrils. 'I…I,' he began, but sneezed again. 'I took some potion she had lying around; it said it was for allergies, so I thought it would help me with the dust in here.'

  'A potion? Do you still have the bottle?' Thordric asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Hamlet held out a small red bottle, with 'Anti-Allergy' written on a plain label stuck to it. Thordric recognised the handwriting as Tome's, another gift bestowed by him to Morweena.

  He half felt that Tome deserved to be a tree by then.

  Opening the bottle, he sniffed it. He couldn't smell a single one of the herbs used in a real anti-allergy potion. Looking at Hamlet, still sneezing, he summoned another potion from his bag.

  'Here,' he said, giving it to Hamlet. 'This should take away the effects of whatever that was and stop the dust from affecting you so badly too.'

  Hamlet smiled weakly and unscrewed the cap on the vial. In one swig it was gone and with it, all signs of the smoke coming from his nostrils. 'Thanks,' he said.

  Thordric grinned at him. 'So, did you find anything in here so far?' he asked.

  'There's a few more potions, but no pyramid yet,' Hamlet replied. He showed Thordric the rest of the potions and watched as he took great delight in pouring the whole lot down the sink. Several strange smells filled the room, but at least they didn't have any effect of anything.

  'If I ever manage to turn Tome back again, I'm taking him straight to the station house to be charged with theft and selling fake goods,' Thordric said savagely. 'Now, let me have a look here too.'

  He turned to the stack of jars, clay figures and books lining the entire wall, forcing the dust off of it all and shrinking each one down to barely a third of its original size. Hamlet watched, amazement spreading across his face.

  'You make it look so easy,' he said, a little sadly. 'I often wish that I could use magic, but I suppose you've got to be born with it.'

  Thordric turned to him. 'Well, to use this kind of magic, yes. But not everything uses the power of the wizard. Look at these crystals, for instance. They've got their own magic. It works the same way with potions, too. Anyone can make an effective potion if they know how, wizard or not.'

  'Really?' Hamlet asked.

  'Really,' Thordric said. 'When I was first being taught magic by Lizzie, she showed me how to make them and, since she's got no powers herself it must be true. She also said that if you're around magic for a long time, you're sometimes able to feel if someone is a wizard or not. That's how she knew I was one.'

  'Then…would you be able to show me some things? About how to make potions, I mean?'

  'If that's what you want. Once I'm back at the Council you can come and see me anytime you like. Vey as well; he likes teaching others, so I'm sure he would help you. Just don't be fooled
into being his test subject when he's working on something new, though…'

  Hamlet laughed as Thordric shook his head, remembering all the times that Vey had used him to test out his potions.

  After another few minutes, he had shrunk everything in the room apart from the bath, toilet and sink. So the pyramid wasn't in there, either.

  They wandered out and bumped into Roomer, who hadn't found anything either. That left only two places, since Morweena had been adamant that the pyramid wasn't in her bedroom. The kitchen and the attic. Neither Thordric or Hamlet wanted to be around her just then, so it was down to Roomer to check the kitchen where she they had told her to stay. They, on the other hand, had to go up to the attic.

  'I'm sure I saw the trapdoor here somewhere,' Thordric said, looking up at the ceiling on the top floor. It was a high ceiling and rather dark, with shadows looming about everywhere.

  He summoned up a handful of small blue flames and spread them across the ceiling. The shadows crept backwards and there, just to the left, Thordric spotted the handle to the trap door.

  'How are we going to get up there?' Hamlet asked, craning his neck to see it. 'I haven't seen any ladders around at all.'

  'We don't need one,' Thordric said, levitating Hamlet up to the ceiling. 'Are you high enough?'

  There was a grumbled reply and the trap door opened. A long, silver ladder fell down from inside as Thordric hastily moved Hamlet to the side so it wouldn't hit him.

  'How very impractical,' Hamlet said, taking hold of it and climbing the rest of the way up. Thordric followed, sending a few of the fires up through the hole so that they could see inside.

  He soon wished he hadn't.

  Chapter Nineteen: Upstairs, Downstairs

  Hanging down from the roof of the attic were cobwebs so thick that Thordric had to cut through them to see what was behind, but that wasn't what concerned him the most. Morweena certainly hadn't been lying when she said that the attic was full. In fact, both he and Hamlet now saw that that had been a gross understatement.

  Amongst mountains of jumble, ranging from abandoned sculptures to derelict clocks, there were yet more books up there. Whoever had stored them there had obviously decided that stacking was beyond their ability, or else had failed to see the importance of trying to preserve what looked like ancient manuscripts.

  Thordric picked one up. He gasped. 'Hamlet, look at this!' he said, grabbing Hamlet's sleeve and pulling him through a cobweb.

  As the soft, sticky web caught his face, Hamlet shrieked and flapped his hands apart, jumping back so violently that he landed in another one. He shrieked some more and began tearing desperately at his clothes. Startled, Thordric reacted by summoning a bucket of water and splashing it all over him. Hamlet froze, water dripping from his nose, and took several deep breaths. 'Thank you,' he said quietly. 'I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't done that.'

  Thordric grinned, taking a clean handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to him. Hamlet took it gratefully, drying his sopping face. 'I'm afraid I've always been terrified of webs like that.' He shook his head and sighed. 'So, what was that book you were about to show me?'

  Thordric blinked; he had almost forgotten about the book in his hands. 'Here,' he said, holding it out.

  'This is…how did Morweena ever get hold of something like this?'

  'I'm not sure, but she'll have a lot of questions to answer when we get back downstairs.'

  They scoured the rest of the attic, with Thordric collecting all of the dust and webbing in a great ball, while neatly stacking and shrinking the jumble into one pile. They found some more interesting books to keep out as they went, but no sign of the carved pyramid. He hoped Roomer had had better luck, but given Morweena's love for chatter, he supposed not.

  'Well, I guess we should head back downstairs,' Hamlet said at last, gloomily sitting by the trap door and letting his legs dangle down. 'If only I could get a glimpse of this thing, then perhaps we could find out just which ancient peoples it belonged to.'

  'We will find it, Hamlet. It must be here somewhere; she wouldn't have thrown out anything that Tome gave her. Honestly, I don't think she's ever thrown anything out in her life, judging by all of this.' He gave one last sweep with his magic, collecting any remaining dust. The ball of it all, floating just in front of him, was now larger than his head.

  'Let me just make some more crystals,' he said. 'It would be a shame to waste all of this.'

  He put pressure on the dust ball as he had done before but, instead of the pale green of Crystos Mentos that he had expected, this crystal was clear and colourless. He let it go in surprise and it fell heavily onto his foot, making him utter a stream of colourful language that made Hamlet turn even paler than usual.

  So none of the books or other things up here had any dust from the springs on them. If Morweena hadn't had an interest in them, then who had?

  Sliding down through the trapdoor, holding on to the ladder, they climbed back down to the second floor. They could hear Morweena talking away in the kitchen, with a few polite grunts coming from Roomer.

  Levitating the books they had found behind him, Thordric headed downstairs with Hamlet following.

  'Ah, there you are,' she said to them as they walked into the room. 'Any luck?'

  They both scowled at her, so much that she drew back slightly.

  'Oh dear,' she said quietly. 'Perhaps you should both have some tea.'

  'Morweena, please. We don't have time for tea,' Thordric replied, throwing the books on the table with a loud bang. To his surprise the table wobbled slightly and fell to one side as something shot out from under it.

  They all stared. It was a smooth, black pyramid with some kind of writing carved into the sides. Thordric picked it up, noticing that as he did so the Crystos Mentos around his neck glowed even brighter than it had done in the forest. This was it.

  'I remember, now,' Morweena said, clapping her hands together with delight. 'The table leg was broken some weeks ago, but when Tome fixed it for me it was a few inches shorter. That pyramid turned out to be just the right size to fill the gap.'

  'You mean it was in here all the time?' Thordric said, grinding his teeth.

  'Yes,' she replied, making him put his hand to his temple. At least now he could use it to summon the one that Lizzie had and free her from that strange illness.

  He gave the pyramid to Hamlet, who sat with it at the table studying it seriously. Thordric took out the long distance communicator and placed it on the table, its flower thankfully still healthy.

  'Lizzie,' he said into it, pressing the button on the side.

  'There you are, boy,' came her reply. 'Did you find it?'

  'Yes,' he said. 'I'm going to try summoning your one now. Where is it?'

  'It's on the side in the kitchen, just by the stove. Be careful, boy.'

  Thordric smiled. 'I will.'

  He looked at the black pyramid, imagining it made of white stone instead, and pictured it where Lizzie had said her one was. It wasn't easy, for despite the amount of Crystos Mentos in the room, the strange magic of the pyramid kept on pushing his concentration back. Trying harder, he had a moment, briefly, where he saw the one in Lizzie's kitchen clearly. It hadn't been much, but it was enough.

  A moment later, the white one appeared on the table, right next to the black one. They all stared at it. Thordric breathed a little easier.

  He turned back to the communicator. 'It worked,' he said. 'I'm going to send over some of the crystals we're using to divert the magic. They should clear any remaining effects this thing had on you.'

  Taking out a handful of Crystos Mentos that he had in his pocket, he placed them on the table and willed them back to the place by the stove where Lizzie's pyramid had been.

  'Did it work?' he asked her.

  'Yes, boy, I've got them. Good lu—'

  Her voice was overridden by the alarmingly close sound of creaking wood.

  Thordric and the others rushed to t
he windows. Trees had sprouted up all around them, right through the heart of most of the houses and more were growing every moment. The forest had reached Valley Edge.

  'We've got to leave,' Thordric said, grabbing the books on the table and shrinking them down so that they would fit in his bag. 'Hamlet, you keep hold of the pyramids, don't let them out of your sight.'

  He rushed out the door, the others following closely behind. The people outside were in a panic, running everywhere trying to get away from the trees, but there was nowhere to go.

  A loud whiny from behind the house told them that the trees had started to grow around there too, terrifying the horse. Without thinking, Thordric ran around to the makeshift stable he had built and let the animal out, trying his best to soothe it. It calmed eventually, enough for him to lead it around to where the others were still standing.

  'What do we do now?' Roomer asked, looking in every direction for a way out of the expanding forest.

  'The only thing we can,' Thordric replied. 'We've got to go into it. Back to the dig site.'

  'But what will happen…' Morweena started, but broke off as a large dark shadow passed over them.

  Thordric looked up. Above them all, floating proudly in the sky, was the entire fleet of the Ships of Kal, with The Jardine at their head. As they moved in at full sail, floating a good few metres shy of the tallest tree, they saw that Vey was aboard The Jardine, just visible at the stern. They watched as he climbed up onto the side, balancing himself with his magic.

  'People of Neathin Valley,' his voice sounded, louder than anything Thordric had heard before. Everyone stopped to look at him, awed at the sight of twenty floating ships hanging above them. 'You must evacuate Valley Edge now. The wizards of the Council will assist you with boarding these ships. All animals and livestock will be evacuated too,' he continued.

  Thordric was sure he had glanced in his direction as he stood protectively by the horse.

  'Please make your way to the nearest ships. There is no need for panic as there is room for all.'

  As he finished his speech, they saw that there were groups of wizards from the Council aboard every ship and, by the few startled screams, they had started levitating people up onto the decks. Thordric grinned as Vey beckoned in their direction.