The Wizard's Curse (Book 2) (55 page)

“Wait. Just wait,” said Ancient Oak between breaths. “He needs time to calm down. We all do.”

“What? Just stand here?”

Ancient Oak nodded slowly, keeping his eye on his little charge. “It may take twenty or thirty minutes but you won’t be able to talk to him until he’s calmer.”

Tarkyn gave a wry smile, “You’re better at this than I am. Thirty minutes of just standing here seems like a lifetime to me. I suppose you stand longer than that all the time on lookout duty, don’t you?”

Ancient Oak’s eyes crinkled with silent laughter. “Just a bit longer.” After a pause he added quietly, “I think he will calm down more quickly if we are not talking around him.”

“Oh.”

It was nowhere near thirty minutes later when Tarkyn had had enough. He decided, mainly due to his own inability to stand still, that a change of tactics was required. So gradually, he sent forth a little trickle of warmth, understanding and acceptance. After building up its intensity for a few minutes, he added his belief not only in Midnight’s integrity but also in everything he had told him. Midnight scowled and crossed his arms. Tarkyn put his hand on his heart and steadily met Midnight’s brilliant green eyes.

Then Tarkyn sent him a request to come to him. Midnight immediately sent back a query on whether it was a command or whether he could choose not to. Tarkyn let out a little sigh and told him he could choose but that he would like him to. Tarkyn realised that he was towering over the boy so sank down to sit cross-legged on the stony ground and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, after several minutes of inspecting a mark on his sleeve, peering with great interest at Tarkyn’s suspended corona of light and looking around to see if the quiet woodman was still there behind him, Midnight took the two steps to bring himself within reach of Tarkyn’s arms. With no further ceremony, Tarkyn grasped him firmly around the waist, pulled him down onto his lap and wrapped his arms around him. Midnight offered no resistance and, in fact, heaved a huge sigh of relief as he leaned in against Tarkyn.

“Oh, the poor little bugger. He’s had such a hard time, hasn’t he?”

Ancient Oak nodded, “Yes, he has. Not too many people in the world have to cope with being the focal point for a curse.”

Tarkyn smiled, “No. Even worse than being the focal point for an oath. At least that has some advantages.” He looked down at the brown-haired head and sighed, “So, what are we going to do now?”

Midnight looked up at him and touched his cheek with his hand. Then he pointed to Tarkyn’s mouth and then to himself with his fingers moving everywhere with a query.

“He wants to know what I want him to do.”

Ancient Oak gave a grunt of laughter, “Well, that’s cutting to the chase. You can tell him, can’t you, as long as you don’t order him to do it? Does he need to understand any more than that?”

Tarkyn shrugged, “I don’t know. Can you relay what we’ve done so far to Stormaway and see what he says?”

The message came back that Midnight had to know what he would be required to do and that his actions would be helping the mountainfolk, even if his reason for doing them was to please Tarkyn. Tarkyn began by making it clear that this was a request not a command. Then he showed Midnight’s actions bringing the mountainfolk from being unhappy and angry, to being happy. He waited while the little boy thought about it. Then Midnight used hand gestures to ask whether Tarkyn would remain his friend if he said no. Tarkyn nodded. Then Midnight looked him in the eye and shook his head in an emphatic refusal.

Tarkyn heaved a sigh and smiled wryly at Ancient Oak, “Well, we tried. I can’t push it any further because then I’d be coercing him. Maybe when he’s older and been away from them for longer, he may consider it. They will just have to depend on their self-belief until then.” He gave Midnight a squeeze. “I don’t blame him. I don’t know that I’d do it to help people who had been so cruel to me, no matter who asked me.”

“We might be wiser not to go back to the firesite just yet, though,” suggested Ancient Oak, “I’ll get some wine and a drink for young one brought out here instead. What do you think?”

Tarkyn nodded and checked whether Midnight would like a drink. Midnight nodded then asked whether Tarkyn was upset at him. Tarkyn smiled at him and sent him reassurances. Midnight asked if he was sad. Tarkyn shrugged to show he was a little sad but okay. Drinks arrived borne by Rainstorm, and Midnight broke off the discussion to slug down a big mug of fruit juice.

“So, no go, I gather,” said Rainstorm. “It was a long shot at best. How did you go trying to explain it all to him?”

“Pretty poorly, all in all,” replied Tarkyn, grimacing. “I nearly lost him altogether when he thought I was telling him that I believed in the mountainfolk so therefore not in him.”

“Oh, whoops!” Rainstorm looked across at Ancient Oak, “Is that how you come to be sporting a swollen cheek?”

Ancient Oak merely grinned and raised his eyebrows.

“Go on, what else?” asked Rainstorm who had come to know Ancient Oak well over the last few weeks.

“Ooh, just the odd bruise and abrasion here and there. He’s a savage little fighter, once he gets going.” He glanced at Tarkyn, “And one doesn’t like to knock him out. After all, we were trying to have a conversation with him. Can’t do that if he’s unconscious. Tarkyn ended up having to do hi
s
shturru
m
thing. Always interesting to be stopped dead in one’s tracks, I find.”

“Did you cop it too?” chortled Rainstorm.

“I was holding Midnight at the time.”

Tarkyn laughed, “Sorry, Ancient Oak. I did try to catch your eye but you were rather busy, as I recall.”

Tarkyn was interrupted at this point by an insistent tugging on his sleeve. He looked down to see Midnight smiling up at him and nodding.

Tarkyn frowned his puzzlement, “Yes, what?”

Midnight sent him an image of himself helping the mountainfolk at Tarkyn’s request. Tarkyn eyes bugged out of his head, “What? Are you sure?” He gestured to ask why he was saying ‘yes’ now when he had said ‘no’ before.

Midnight shook his head, then pointed to Tarkyn and himself and then wrapped his hands around each other in his gesture for friends. This was followed by rapid series of gestures at the end of which everyone understood that because Tarkyn had stayed his friend when he said ‘no’, he had decided to do what the prince wanted.

“Checking you out, in other words,” said Rainstorm dryly, “Waiting to see whether you would be true to your word about remaining his friend.”

“Doesn’t know you very well yet then, does he?” observed Ancient Oak.

Tarkyn just grinned, “He hasn’t had much to base trust on in his little life. He is wise to make sure.” He tousled Midnight’s hair, “Aren’t you, rascal?”

Chapter
44

Stormaway paced up and down, running his hand distractedly through his hair and looking more upset than Tarkyn had ever seen him. He stopped his pacing and turned to the prince.

“Tarkyn, I have struck a problem.” The prince said nothing, simply waiting for the wizard to continue, “Only the direct descendant of the curser can lift the curse.”

Tarkyn nodded, “Yes, that’s what you told us before.”

“But no one can lift a curse from themselves.”

“Oh, I see. So, Midnight is the only person who can lift the curse but also the person from which it needs to be lifted. Yes, that is a bit of a problem, isn’t it?” Tarkyn folded his arms, “Pity you didn’t think of this a while ago, before we went through all the drama of talking the poor little kid into it

“Oh don’t worry. We still need him. Once Midnight is free of the curse, he in turn must release the mountainfolk from the damage it’s done.”

“Except that we can’t release him from it.”

It was a sign of the stress that Stormaway was under, that he waved the prince’s remark impatiently aside and returned to his pacing.

After several minutes, a long time in the young prince’s life, Tarkyn asked, “Is there not perhaps a hierarchy of wizards so that a higher ranked wizard can overturn the spell of a lower ranked one?”

Stormaway shook his head, “No. There are greater and lesser wizards, of course, but they do not hold jurisdiction over each other. A wizard is subject to the laws of the land, the same as everyone else. So they should obey their liege lord to overturn a spell if requested. But no guarantee, of course.”

“But that is still the wizard himself who would overturn the spell, isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Tarkyn frowned, “So, once a person is dead, their spell can live on forever and if it’s destructive like this one, it can cause misery until all the people it affects have died.”

Stormaway stopped pacing and looked hard at Tarkyn, “Worse than that, in this case. It will be passed down the generations through Hail’s bloodline, turning the mountainfolk into a malicious, evil force within the forest. If they interbreed, the curse will spread throughout the woodfolk and create monsters of them all.”

Suddenly Waterstone, Rainstorm, Ancient Oak, Dry Berry, Blizzard and Lapping Water were standing around them.

“We cannot allow that to happen,” stated Waterstone unequivocally, quite unconcerned that it was clear that they had all been listening in.

Dry Berry stood with her hands on her hips. “Young man,” she said severely to Tarkyn, “I am expecting you to sort this out. A sorcerer caused it and a sorcerer must repair it. You have vowed to protect us. You must find a way.”

Tarkyn threw his hands up, feeling beset on all sides. “I am trying. Don’t attack me. Help me. Help Stormaway to come up with ideas.”

“We are not attacking you, Tarkyn. We are very worried, though” came Lapping Water’s gentle voice. “We can’t leave the mountainfolk until they are released from the curse. Their trouble is our trouble. We are, in the end, all one people.”

Despite his wish to help them, Tarkyn resented being told, with no consultation, that the home guard wouldn’t leave. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered what would happen if he ordered them to continue their journey.

Part of this must have showed on his face because Rainstorm placed his hand on Tarkyn’s arm and said, “From what Stormaway has said, you too know that we couldn’t leave this behind unresolved. It’s too dangerous, isn’t it?”

Tarkyn’s eyes crinkled in appreciation of Rainstorm’s support. He let out a breath, “Yes. I do know that. We must find a way to revoke it.”

Rainstorm hesitated for a moment while he marshalled his thoughts. Then he lifted his eyes to hold Tarkyn’s gaze, “Tarkyn, you are a guardian of the forest. The guardian of the forest has always appeared to help us through a time of great need. I can think of no greater need than this; to prevent the perversion of our whole nation. So…” He took a slow breath, “So, what can a guardian of the forest do, above and beyond other people, that will save us?”

Stormaway’s eyebrows snapped together, “You are right, young man. I think your question may hold the key to the answer.” He waved a hand and wheeled around to resume his pacing, “Let me think.”

After several minutes, during which Tarkyn and the woodfolk stood and watched in silence, Stormaway snapped his fingers and whirled around to face them. “I think I have the answer.” He grimaced, “When I say I have the answer, it is fairly radical. I need to check through my books. I think it has been done once before but the outcome in that instance was not ideal.”

“When you say ‘not ideal’, what exactly do you mean?” asked Tarkyn.

“Hmm. A score of woodfolk were killed before they realised the danger.”

“Oh come on, Stormaway!” exclaimed Tarkyn impatiently, “We can’t have woodfolk being killed. You’ll have to think of something else.”

Waterstone intervened, “You said ‘before they realised the danger.’ Does that mean that if we are forewarned, we may be able to protect ourselves?”

Stormaway thought for a moment, “Yes, I think so. But we are dealing with forces beyond the normal realm so I can’t guarantee it.”

“Old man, why don’t you just tell us what you’ve thought of and let us decide for ourselves?” snapped Dry Berry.

Stormaway huffed, “You are all so impatient. I would prefer to look up my books first and be more sure of my facts.”

“Live with it,” said Rainstorm shortly.

Stormaway sighed and gave in, “Very well. To be honest, there’s not much more in my books anyway. It’s more that I’m nervous about  the idea.”

“You are not reassuring me,” murmured Tarkyn.

“I didn’t say this would be easy.” The old wizard drew a breath, “So, let me give you a bit of background first. When a person dies, their whole being, body and soul, gradually dissipates into their surroundings. You agree?” When everyone nodded, Stormaway continued, “Over time, natural forces, heat, cold, wind, water, spread the elements that were once a person into the soil, down streams and rivers to distant places and even to the sea. From the soil and water, parts of a person move into trees and plants and from there into animals and people.” They nodded again, keeping their eyes on Stormaway. “So, after seven years, there will be a lot of Pipeless still within the forest, in fact most of him. Quite a bit may have dissipated into the soil and the trees but very little will have made its way beyond the forest’s borders.”