The Tome of Arbor (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 9)

by M. R. Mathias

  Vanx saw what was coming next and did something only his love for his dog would let him do.

  The ringtailed, bear-bodied coon, brought its powerful fist down on Poops spine, and the dog yelped. Vanx had to force the dog from his mind again, even still he felt the severe pain the pooch was in.

  Vanx took a great overhead swing and let go of his sword. He watched as it spun two full turns on its way to its target. When he was sure it was on its mark, he did a single cartwheel that landed with two feet on the ground, then two hands on the ground. From there, he launched, tucking and spinning right over the damned creature.

  He landed with a foot on each side of his whining pup, but could do nothing for him just yet.

  His sword had struck true. Before the thing fell, its chums were tearing it apart. Vanx saw the glaive and rolled toward it. When he came up holding it by the hilt, he stabbed Moonsy quickly, and then made to jab Anitha, but she was gone.

  He poked Poops in the butt, and felt the wave of healing magic wash over his familiar.

  His family sword was lost in the bloody mess now, and all he had was the glaive, a sword that healed instead of hurt.

  Chelda was covered in splattered gore and still pounding and kicking anything that braved her proximity, and now that she saw Vanx had brought Moonsy back around she began to fight with more intensity, if that was possible.

  “Save her.” Moonsy pointed at where Anitha was being stretched by a creature holding her feet and another holding one of her arms.

  Vanx didn’t have anything to fight with, so he picked up one of the rocks that had been hurled at the elves and threw it right at the creature holding Anitha’s feet. To his surprise, it dropped her when the stone hit. Poops darted out and leapt at the coon-tail still holding her arm, and sank his teeth into its furry wrist. Again, he was slung away, but another beast, a savage feline creature came bounding in, and not only clawed that confused thing deeply across the back, but then bounded to Poops’s side and urged the dog back out of harm’s way.

  Vanx moved in and got ahold of the collar of Anitha’s uniform.

  Chelda was being driven back. Vanx saw that there were still twenty or more of the vicious cannibalistic things closing in, and a handful more were out there eating all the scraps.

  “What do we do now?” Chelda called. “I can do this all afternoon, but not by—”

  Chelda’s words stopped as she tripped.

  “Oh no,” Moonsy croaked from the ground. She’d seen Chelda go down. Gallarael, in her fully shifted feline form, didn’t hesitate. Vanx had to physically restrain Poops to keep him from joining them. Gallarael appeared right there in the mix with Chelda, but then blood started slinging away in all directions, and it was impossible to see if it was Chelda’s, Gallarael’s, or the mob of creatures crawling over the pile.

  “Can you teleport us away or something?” Vanx asked Moonsy. He too was covered in blood, and it was his own, from the claw that had raked his forehead and brow.

  “They’re too far from us.” The elven general looked at Vanx for answers.

  Vanx had none. But even against the terrible odds he wasn’t about to let his friend or his lover die. He ordered Poops to stay with Moonsy and charged into the mix without so much as a weapon.

  Chapter

  Twelve

  A dragon hunts its prey,

  and roasts it with its fire.

  Where does a dragon eat its meals?

  Why anywhere it desires.

  – Dragon’s song

  Vanx scanned the gore covered ground for his sword but didn’t see it. He did stoop down and grab two rocks as he put his body in the pile of ring-tailed bastards his friends were under.

  He felt claws tear into his legs, or maybe they were teeth. Then something, a heavy fist, he figured, pounded him in the ribs. He hit one of them with both rocks at the same time and it dropped to the ground, but he knew this was it. Before he could even turn to make another swing he was tackled, and then pounced on by three or more of them.

  His arm was pulled and twisted, and he thought it was being ripped off, but then a screeching call resounded across the forest. Then another. He started to feel hope, but then a rock came down and hit him square in the face, leaving him in blackness.

  When Vanx opened his eyes, he felt himself being drug across the ground. He raised his head to see Moonsy and Anitha, each with one of his legs in their hands.

  “Poops,” he sat up, looking for the dog.

  Here, Poops responded in Vanx’s mind. After a heartbeat of relief, his concern immediately went from his familiar to his love, and his friend. “Where are Gallarael and Chelda?”

  “In the pile,” Moonsy jabbed him with the Glaive of Gladiolus. “Now shake off the cobwebs and help.” She barked the order as if he were a lowly sprite under her command.

  Vanx complied and was glad someone had created a sense of order for him. His mind was scrambled, and he couldn’t figure out what had happened to all of the things trying to kill them.

  He saw Chelda, but Gallarael had been in changeling form, and was harder to pick out. Anitha found her, though, and Moonsy stuck Gallarael, and then Chelda with the glaive, and then dropped to her knees and recited an elven prayer for hope and life.

  It didn’t take long for both of them to stir.

  Once concern over the ones he loved released its grip on his heart and mind, he asked Moonsy what happened.

  “The great hawks came,” Moonsy pointed to the two large predator birds. They were down the clearing feeding on coon tailed carcasses. They must have carried them away to eat undisturbed.

  “How did they stop the attack?” Vanx saw so many dead tree-coons, he couldn’t imagine how the birds had killed them all.

  “They didn’t stop it Vanx,” Anitha said, as she helped roll one of the things off Gallaral’s feline form.

  “Then what happened to all of these turds.” He pointed at all the dead creatures around them. His mind seemed to be swimming through a haze.

  “You and Chelda killed most of them.” Moonsy pulled her confused lover to a seated position and dropped to a knee to cleanse the disgusting, coppery blood from her face.

  “Again, what happened?”

  “The tree-coons fled when the birds came,” Anitha said. “Your sword is over there.” she pointed.

  Vanx vaguely remembered, just before the battle ensued, that he’d grabbed the Hoar Witch’s crystal at his neck and screamed out for the great hawks. He hadn’t known if they’d heard him or not.

  Anitha was in his face then, Poops too. The elf seemed concerned about his forehead, and she used a dagger to do something that was really painful to his scalp.

  “He will need the glaive again,” Anitha said. She smiled a huge smile at Vanx. “Thank you, Master Vanx.” She suddenly seemed like a shy child. “Thank you for saving me.”

  “And me,” Chelda said.

  “And me,” Gallarael’s voice brought his attention to her. She was in human form now, and had none of the blood and gore on her clothes that had been caked on her fur-like skin.

  “I owe you, too, Vanx.” Moonsy nodded. “I should have summoned the hawks. They suggested you used the witch’s shard to call them in. That is what saved us all.”

  “There was no way he knew they’d scare the creatures away,” Gallarael said, sitting opposite Anitha, over Vanx’s body. “Don’t let his ego swell too big.”

  “Ask Chelda.” Vanx grinned, letting slip a half-felt bit of elation over having survived. “Those big birds, like the roc that attacked Anitha,” Vanx looked at Chelda who nodded, and gave him a wink. She was covered in so much blood, her skin and clothes were stained crimson, save for her face. “They eat the coon-tailed bastards,” Vanx continued. “We saw it happen when we were first here.” He raised his upper body up to one elbow and looked at Chelda again. “Remember? Zeezle almost shit his pants. He was right under the tree Poops ran the damn coon-tail up.”

  “Those were the days.” Ch
elda’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “You should have kept that old man’s map. It probably had more to it than you saw. Maybe not, though. He was a crazy farkin’ son of a whore.”

  Vanx’s heart stopped beating, but only as he decided that, even though Chelda was brash, and bold, and pretty much kept her musings to herself, she was as sharp as they come. The fact that she didn’t talk a lot made it easy for people to think she wasn’t paying attention, or was a dullard, or just a silly woman who cared little about anything.

  But no, Vanx felt the rightness of what she’d just said, and knew in his heart that even Zeezle, had missed it, and Master Ruuk, too. And Ruuk was a Zythian wizard of great knowledge and skill.

  Chelda was as smart as they come. It was just that simple. Her statement caused Vanx to remember that, when he’d possessed that map, he was able to see the island from the sea. They weren’t able to see the island as they’d left it because Vanx had lost the map. Now he wondered what else they might see if they still had the obviously magicked parchment.

  Vanx decided they needed the map before they proceeded. It was secured in a hopefully waterproof scroll-case. One the old wizard had bought him in Harthgar, and he had a good idea right where it was.

  Chapter

  Thirteen

  No matter how many men venture in.

  No matter how hard they try.

  The Wildwood swallows everyone,

  who goes too far inside.

  – A song from Dyntalla

  Since the two hawks were there, and neither Poops or Chelda could ride them, Vanx, Moonsy, and Anitha took the birds, Vanx on one, and the two elves on the other. This was after they’d spent most of the evening resting and full dark was on them.

  None of them were overly concerned now. Everyone’s full attention was on surviving. Anitha had warded them with every protection she knew, and the light spells from two powerful elves at once combined to make them seem like the sun flying through the sky.

  Vanx could hardly see when the elves eased into his field of vision, but when they were behind him, the treetops, and the way the forest creatures fled them, was illuminated in vivid fashion.

  This much light, in the bore-worm tunnel where he and Zeezle fought the thing with the tentacles, and the nasty pale crabs, would most likely ensure that nothing bothered this intrusion, but even with the protective wards and the light, the great hawks wouldn’t fly them into the huge hole. Instead, the three were forced to wade into the fresh water to enter the ancient creature formed, rock-eater tunnel. Vanx decided he was glad he wasn’t an elf, because the cold water was waist deep on them, where it only came up to his knees.

  Vanx was right about the oversized crabs. They fled like roaches scattering from the flare of a lantern. He hadn’t counted on the strange four-legged, frog-skinned thing, that was apparently a nocturnal crab eater, though.

  Anitha was fully prepared. Before Vanx could say a word, she took two steps forward and sent three lavender pulses at the toothy, frog-headed thing. They hit it in the hind end and, though they didn’t do that much physical damage, the spell works exploded, bright and loud, when they impacted.

  The thing leapt at them and Moonsy almost let a spell loose. Her decision to use restraint, was the right one, for it bounded right over them and went splashing to the shore startling the great hawks away.

  “They’ll return when I call them, Vanx. Come on.” Moonsy must have seen him staring back, slack-jawed.

  Vanx had seen something out in the lake. It was serpentine and huge and filled him with a fear like Pyra had.

  “Cast a detection on the lake, Anitha,” Vanx said, trying to master himself. “Let’s get on with this.”

  “Uh,” the eleven spell-caster stammered after the casting. “There must be a guardian creature in this section after all.”

  “I was hoping it was those coon-tailed bastards.” Vanx used his head to indicate they should continue.

  They started deeper into the borehole, and soon Vanx saw the passage leading up. Somewhere in the long windy passage was a creature that was probably still licking its wounds. It had been afraid of light, so Vanx wasn’t concerned about it. He was concerned about the thing he’d seen in the lake, though. Especially since Anitha had let out a little gasp of surprise when she’d detected it with her spell.

  “There is a way out of here, through a passage far too small for that that thing to—”

  “It is a lake dragon,” Anitha interjected. “A very old one.”

  “There is a passage leading out of here that the dragon cannot fit through,” Vanx repeated. “I mean if it decides to pursue us. A short way inside the smaller cavern is where I think I lost the scroll case.”

  The lake dragon didn’t follow them, but Vanx felt no less uneasy because of it. In fact, he remembered things about some dragons and started feeling a little guilt over mighty Pyra and Kelse’s deaths. Those two dragons had given their lives to defeat the Paragon Dracus. The idea that this place was probably hidden so well, just to keep it away from that crazed blue bastard, made perfect sense, though, so he didn’t dwell on the loss of his mighty winged friends that long.

  They searched for a while, but it wasn’t up in the beginings of the tunnel as Vanx had hoped.

  “Is that it?” Moonsy asked, sloshing back into the lake from the gravel strewn beach formed by the tunnel’s mouth.

  It was. The map case was bobbing in the water, caught between two rocks that wouldn’t let it float away.

  “Yup,” Vanx grinned. “Now which way do we go to get out of here?”

  “Once we are in sight of the shore, I can teleport us there,” Anitha said. “We can hide in the trees until the hawks come to General Moonseed’s call.”

  “Okay,” Vanx agreed. “But I don’t want to end up being the lake dragon’s dinner.”

  As soon as Moonsy handed the scroll case to him, Vanx checked to see if the map was still in the tube. It was, and it was dry.

  The light seemed to keep everything away as they eased through the water trying to get around a bend so they could see the shore. Then they went, in a quick, unexpected flash, from standing in water, to standing in a swarm of gnats that were using the tree line to avoid the wind.

  Not far away, the new jacaranda Heart Tree had grown so tall that it dominated the night. The moon was almost full, and somehow the tree had found a way to hide most of it.

  Vanx let out a sigh of relief. He wanted to see the passage under the magical wall, Gallarael had found.

  “Here they come,” he heard Anitha say.

  One of the great hawks flapped down between the trees and the water’s edge. The other was illuminated brightly in the eleven light as it glided toward them. The water exploded under the bird and a sleek, dragonly head shot up, its toothy maw opened wide enough to take the whole bird with a single bite.

  Vanx’s heart exploded, and he heard both of the elves scream, but there was little else any of them could do.

  Chapter

  Fourteen

  The dragon belched his fire,

  and the knight he did a dance.

  It was for naught, the fire was hot,

  and he didn’t stand a chance.

  – Dragon’s Song

  “What’s on the other side of the— the magic wall thing?” Chelda asked. They had a huge fire going, and she and Gallarael had their backs almost against the strange structure. They were on each side of Sir Poopsalot, giving him absentminded attention.

  They’d decided that neither of them needed to sleep until Vanx and Moonsy returned. There was so many dead tree-coons, though, that Gallarael figured anything looking for a meal could find one in the shadows instead of bothering them.

  “About the same, only there is an entryway into the building around the corner and down the other face of it,” Gallarael answered. “I mean there is an alcove, and in it, a few steps leading up to some doors, but they looked locked.” She harrumphed, trying to find the right words. “I couldn’t che
ck them because I— I was—”

  “I get it,” Chelda saved her the struggle. “You had paws, not hands. That changeling stuff almost got your head cracked the other day when you came out of the woods.” She paused for a bit. “They are probably locked,” Chelda eventually continued. “Maybe we should go see? It would be safer for us inside.”

  “Safer?” Gallarael laughed. “When has Chelda Flar been concerned with safer? You just want to go see.”

  “Am I that easy to read?”

  “When you start talking about caution, you are.”

  “Either way, I want to go look.” Chelda snorted. “How’s that for caution.”

  “What do you think, pup?” Gallarael asked the dog. Poops gave a yip that Vanx might have been able to decipher, but the way his tail wagged it was clear he would do whatever they wanted to do.

  “I think he agrees,” Chelda offered. She got to her feet. “Come on.”

  “Chelda,” Gallarael felt like a mom scolding a child. “We will go, but in the morning, with or without Vanx. Just wait until there is some daylight. There is no telling what sort of creatures are over there.”

  “Yah,” the eager gargan sat back down. “I suppose daylight would be better.” She seemed disappointed, but only until Gallarael asked her about Harthgar and the final battle with the Paragon Dracus. Gallarael wanted to know all about how Vanx acted when he’d thought her dead. And Chelda, once she started bragging about the exploits of Zeezle and Vanx, held nothing back.

  Then, from the far side of the ridge, the sky was lit up in dramatic fashion. The roaring sound that erupted with the luminary display wasn’t the same sort of roar they’d heard earlier, but it was no less powerful.

  The brightness and feel of the concussion that followed hit them hard enough to make Poops get behind Gallarael and whimper.

  Anitha’s protective wards were far more potent than anyone expected. When the lake dragon’s maw closed over the warded great hawk, an explosion of sorts ruined its meal.