Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy (35 page)

Mara smiled as she gently embraced the cleric. “I wanted to ensure that everything arrived intact and on time.” She pulled back from the cleric and her smile vanished. “I had no idea things were as bad as you led me to believe, Malachi. I thought you were exaggerating when you told me what was going on. Now I see that you weren’t stretching the truth at all.”

Malachi sighed and spread his hands. “I’m glad you responded so quickly. There are many people in need of your supplies. You have no idea how good it is to see you.”

Mara smiled again. “It’s good to see you too, Malachi. It’s been a long time since we met face to face.”

“That’s true,” said Malachi. “It’s too bad we have to meet under these circumstances.” The High Cleric beckoned the leader of the grey mages to follow. “Come. Your cloak is drenched. I’ll get you to your quarters and have a spare set of dry clothing brought to you.”

“Thank you,” said Mara. As they walked, Mara asked Malachi whether there was any more progress with the disease.

“We recently discovered that healing magic with the faelora herbs helps offset the internal pain most of the people are enduring,” said Malachi happily. “Combined with the dwarven spirits, many people are moving about when ordinarily they would have been bed ridden.”

Mara stopped walking. “I’m sorry. Did you say - ‘dwarven spirits’?”

Malachi turned around. Seeing the incredulous expression on the grey mage’s face, he couldn’t help but laugh, his paunch jiggling merrily. After his fit of laughter, Malachi responded. “Yes. That was my first reaction when I heard the idea.” He put his arm around the mage and led her to her room. “I’ll explain it when you’ve settled in. First, you need to get out of your wet clothes before you catch cold.”

They had just reached Mara’s room when a young cleric came bounding up to the High Cleric.

“Excuse me, Sir!” panted the cleric. “A sentry from one of the outposts has arrived and needs to see you at once!”

Malachi grunted. “Very well.” He turned to Mara. “I won’t be long. You can -.”

“I’m coming with you,” said Mara sternly.

Malachi looked into the mage’s eyes and saw the resolve. “Very well,” he said at last. “Come on.”

Outside, the sky seemed to have gotten darker. A sentry stood surrounded by a number of other soldiers who talked excitedly. Malachi approached them just as General Larsen arrived from another direction.

Seeing the High Cleric already present, Larsen spoke. “Out with it, Milani!”

The sentry turned to face his commander with a pale face. “We have been attacked, Sir!” stammered Milani.

“Attacked? By whom?” demanded the general.

The soldier shook his head for lack of words. Finally he answered. “All sorts of creatures! Ogres, lizardmen, cyclops, creatures made of stone, everyone! A handful of us barely managed to escape with our lives!”

“What about the other outposts?” asked Larsen.

The soldier fearfully shook his head. “There were so many!” He shook his head again. “God help them all!” he said in a terrified whisper.

Larsen and Malachi exchanged fearful faces. Mara looked between the two men and her face became ashen as well. If these men were worried, she was even more so. She had brought numerous mages to assist with the distribution of supplies. Now it appeared as though they would be needed for battle instead. Hopefully there was still enough time to ship more mages up from the Tower of the Sky via North Lake. The black magic the grey mages wielded was no match for the powerful magic of lizardmen, but every little bit they had was better than nothing. For not the first time, Mara wished that grey magic was more powerful than it was.

* * * * *

Martha exhaled with a great huff. “It’s no use. I can’t sense it anymore. We’ve lost it for good this time.”

“It was too little too late,” said Milena. She sat down on the roof of the Tower of the Moon and disappointment spread across her features. “If I had just come sooner.”

“It’s not your fault, child,” said Martha consolingly. She sat down beside the druid and put her arm around her. There was a cold wind and in the distance storm clouds were brewing.

“All together we could have summoned the air elemental right into our plane,” lamented Milena. “Then the lizardmen wouldn’t have been able to summon it away from us.”

“What would we have done then, child?” countered the rotund druid. “Using all of our magical energy to hold onto an elemental while those who need us are dying all around us? No. It makes little difference in the end. The lizardmen would have prevailed eventually. If we were dealing with the earth or water elemental, on the other hand, we wouldn’t need to use nearly so much energy. Those elementals are what provide much of our druid magic. But we use air magic less, so our magic is not as powerful when it comes to summoning an air elemental.”

“As long as it gave Kazin time to find the fire elemental,” interrupted Adriana. She stood across the altar from the others. She was as disappointed as they were.

Milena brightened at the mention of the dragon mage. “Kazin will do it. He’ll succeed.”

Adriana wondered what everyone saw in the mage, but knew better than to question his abilities now. He was perhaps their only hope. Amelia, the oracle who had resided among them up until a few years ago, had determined this with her ability. As usual, she had been right. Before she died, she had also instructed them to send Rubin’s ship south to a small port near Rist. He was to assemble troops and give passage to some important people. Who those people were was unspecified. There were no reasons given, just a command. Reluctantly, Adriana had complied - and not a moment too soon. Some of the sailors were regaining consciousness and they had to be sent off before falling under the lure of the mermaids in the lagoon.

Milena stood up. “Well, since we’re not getting anywhere with summoning, let’s concentrate our energy on healing the sick.” She turned to Adriana. “What have you discovered so far regarding the herbs?”

Adriana shrugged. “The only thing that seems to work is the faelora herbs. They tend to lessen the pain when I use the right spell incantations. It doesn’t eradicate the disease, but it makes the patients more comfortable.”

Milena turned to Martha. “And you?”

Martha sighed. “I’ve studied the books on wildhorn leaves until my eyes practically fell out. Not one book mentions wildhorn leaves that are fermented. Leave it to a dwarf to come up with such a preposterous idea.”

“That preposterous idea could lead to the cure we need,” stated Adriana. “We need to create a similar substance to experiment with.”

“Do you know how long it will take to ferment wildhorn leaves?” retorted Martha. “Not to mention, we’ve got a very small supply of it in our stores. And even then, we still need the ingredients to make the ale.”

Adriana nodded. “I see what you mean.” She rubbed her chin. “I guess we’ll have to settle for what we’ve got. The quantity of faelora in our stores will last for a while. I suggest we use it to keep our patients comfortable until we come up with the right spells and components to cure them.”

“Agreed,” said Milena. “The next things I think we should try are fermented forms of the herbs we have. Maybe something other than the wildhorn leaves will have the right healing properties.”

Martha rose. “I’ll start looking for spells that are known to cure poison. There are a few books on detoxification that I haven’t looked at yet.”

“Good idea,” said Milena. “Let’s get at it.”

Just as they re-entered the tower, the clouds rumbled ominously and the rain came down in torrents.

Chapter 28

T
he chanting grew louder as the trio crept along the bank of the river. The path was narrow and rocky, and the going was tough. In the distance, light could be seen reflecting off the poison river’s surface. The ceiling here was lower, and the stench was compressed in the confined space, making breathing difficult. At last the dwarf called a halt. She stroked her hand through her hair and the silver streak shone in Vera’s staff light.

“If we wish to continue,” said the dwarf quietly, “we’ll have to get our feet wet.”

Cyril shook off his right foot. “I’m already wet anyway.” He had slipped into the water several times already.

Rebecca addressed the cleric. “Do you want to go on?”

Vera looked down at her muddied white robe. “We might as well. It looks like we’re headed in the right direction. If we want to find the source of the poison, we have to keep moving.”

Cyril looked back the way they had come. “I don’t think I want to go back that way if I can help it. It was a long walk.” They had travelled for several hours without finding any routes that led away from the river. It was pointless to go back. Cyril turned forward. “I’m with Vera. I say we go on. We knew we would have to face lizardmen eventually. I for one will do what I can to stop them from their mad experiment.” He clenched his mace so his arteries protruded from his arm.

“Alright then,” said Rebecca. She turned to lead the others into the water. She was not happy about getting wet - dwarves rarely were - but ahead was where they would find their answers. If it meant getting wet, so be it.

The going was even slower as they waded through the water. They constantly helped one another to their feet when one of them stumbled. As luck would have it, they rounded a bend in the river and found a dry surface at the edge of the river to walk on again. The trio paused to shake the water off of them and continued.

A chanting noise could be heard ahead and the companions knew they were getting close. Judging by the sound, the chanting was that of the lizardmens’ magic. Light now flickered off the walls as well as the water. There was even enough light that Vera could put out her staff light.

The river curled around to their left and the trio crept along slowly, straining to see around the bend. At last they caught a glimpse of a well-lit cavern ahead. They stopped and surveyed the scene in awe. A vast cavern housed the source of the river, which widened out closer to the center. Around the circumference were numerous torches, and a set of stone-carved stairs rose up and away around the edge at least as far as they could see from where they stood. Several small tunnels could also be seen, leading away from the area at just above the water level.

Around the water’s edge were several dozen lizardmen and lizardwomen. They were the source of the chanting that could be heard. About a dozen of them chanted in unison, directing their attention to the object in the water. The object in question was breathtaking in its beauty. It was completely blue in colour, as bright a blue as one could imagine. Although easily five times the size of a human, its features resembled that of a human woman; but not just any woman. This creature was the image of perfection. From the smooth cheeks, finely curved chin, and slender nose, to the literally flowing long hair, to the perfect shapely figure beneath the head, no man could stare at her without falling in love. Some who had witnessed this creature claim that it was by her that mermaids were created.

Vera gasped. “That must be the water elemental!”

Cyril could only stare with his jaw agape. “She’s beautiful!”

They watched for a few minutes and saw the elemental pushing the water, which came out of the ground in front of her, downstream in the direction of the companions. As she did so, the water turned brown and dirty. Although beautiful, her expression showed genuine fatigue. She was half-heartedly contaminating the water. It didn’t take the companions long to realize that the lizardmen were controlling her actions.

Rebecca was the first to come to her senses. She nudged the others back out of visual range of the cavern. “Do you see what’s happening?” she whispered.

The others nodded. “Lizardmen are making her contaminate the water!” whispered Vera hoarsely. “That’s the source of the poison! We have to stop them!”

“There are quite a few of them,” commented Cyril. “I doubt we can kill them all, and I doubt I can fool enough of them to paralyze them first.”

“Maybe we can interfere enough to allow the elemental to escape,” suggested Vera. “I know for certain lizardmen can’t cast more than one spell at a time according to some magic books I’ve read.”

“Good idea,” said Rebecca, “but we’ll have to act quickly. Once they turn their magic against us, we’ll have to get out of there fast! The safest way is back downstream. We know there’s no one down here for miles.”

An idea occurred to Vera. “How well would we do if we were against non-magic users?”

Rebecca gave the cleric a sharp glance. “What have you got in mind?”

A small grin crept across Vera’s lips. “It’s just a thought. It might not work, and I won’t be able to protect us with my shield.”

“That’s O.K.” said Rebecca. She winked at Cyril, who turned away just in time. “I’m sure Cyril and I can handle a bunch of lizardmen on equal terms.”

Vera rummaged through her pockets and successfully found the components she needed. The only thing lacking was her confidence.

The pressure was on. The entire world counted on her spell to succeed. It was a difficult spell to master, even for an experienced cleric, and Vera had never attempted it before, and certainly not on such a large scale. Surprisingly, she remembered it from her text book back at the Tower of Hope. Having it come to her at such a critical time was a stroke of fortune she would not soon forget. The cleric readied herself and looked at the dwarf.

“Ready?” asked Rebecca.

Vera nodded nervously.

Cyril got up and stepped ahead of the dwarf. Rebecca sprang after him, but knew too late that the cyclops had taken the honour of being the one to lead the charge. Once again, she was glad he was on her side.

The lizardmen were unprepared for the unexpected interruption in their magical spell. As they chanted, the water elemental slowly stopped what she was doing. She turned to regard her captors with curiosity.

A tall lizardmage standing off to one side straightened. “I didn’t tell you to stop!” he snarled. “Get back to work!” A number of lizardmages in the second row began to chant, joining their voices with those of their partners in the first row.