Nature's Peril Part 1 (The Nature Mage Series) (14 page)

He screamed
in defiance and lashed out at the rock. He didn’t attack with force, or air, or any kind of strike he knew. He just drew deep from his very essence and attacked. A tumultuous river of glowing green power shot across the room and battered the rock. It resisted his assault, glowing intensely as Gaspi’s power surged against it. The glow grew brighter and brighter, and Gaspi felt himself growing faint, but he pushed on, drawing deeper still, committing everything he had. The rock’s glow intensified, morphing from red to white, and then, in a last blinding flare, it exploded.

Shards shot across the room, and the whole hut shook. Gaspi threw his arms up to protect his face, but he was much too slow. Sharp fragments of rock embedded themselves in his fle
sh and he fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding face. Loud crashing sounds came from all around him, and voices were raised in alarm.

Urgent hands pulled his fingers
away from his face, and within moments cooling power washed across his torn flesh, drawing out the fragments of rock and healing his wounds. He opened his eyes to find Bret bending over him, looking into his eyes with grave concern. Gaspi’s vision began to blur, and he knew he was going to pass out.

“The boy
’s innocent,” he said as blackness swamped his vision, and then there was nothing.

…

Gaspi faced the villagers of Aemon’s Reach, trying to persuade them that he was still the boy they had once known, but try as he might, they wouldn’t listen. Roused to superstitious anger by Jakko and his father, they came for him with burning brands, faces contorted with hatred and fear. Gaspi ran from them, unwilling to attack people he had known all his life, but they surrounded him in the village green, hemming him in from all sides. He spun around as they neared him, appealing to them with tears, but there wasn’t a friendly face among them. He dropped to his knees, covering his head with his hands and weeping bitter tears as the first blow landed…

…“You wouldn’t leave me here and go off to Pell without me would you?”Emmy asked, looking at him uncertainly.

“What do you mean?” he asked
, confused. The quest to Pell had been planned for weeks, and everyone knew Emmy was going to be part of it. “Of course I wouldn’t.”

“You promise
?”

“Of course I do
!” he said. Where was this coming from? He’d never leave her behind.

“You wouldn’t lie to me would you Gaspi?”
she asked, and suddenly he realised that he
had
lied to her, and was deeply ashamed. He had set out for Pell, leaving Emmy behind without even discussing it with her.

“I’m so sorry Emmy,”
he said, but when he looked up she was gone…

…He was climbing a steep hillside with Heath, huffing and puffing in the hot afternoon sunlight. The druid trudged on ahead of him, tirelessly placing one foot in front of the other, but Gaspi was exhausted and he was starting to fall behind. Reaching out with the slightest touch of his power, he drew on the breeze, having it swirl around him and cool him down as he climbed.

Heath stopped and turned around, looking at him in disgust. “You think the wind is there for your comfort? Do you think you are the Lord of Creation?”

“Sorry Heath I forgot!” Gaspi said.

“Sorry’s not good enough!” Heath said. “
You clearly learned nothing while you were with me!” The druid shook his head in dismay and turned around, walking on up the trail at a pace Gaspi couldn’t maintain.

“Heath!” Gaspi called, reaching out a hand and scrambling after the druid, but Heath was disappearing into the distance with
every step…

…Gaspi stalked away from Everand’s room in a fury. Who did the arrogant toe-rag think he was, trying to steal his girlfriend? He strode through the Warren and transported down to the Atrium, storming out of the tower as people scattered out of his way. Seething with frustration, he lashed out at a nearby tree, splitting it right down the trunk. Gaspi stopped, mortified by what he’d done. Heath would be horrified! Gaspi looked away from the ruined trunk, glancing around to see if anyone had seen him do it, but there was no-one nearby. He looked back, but where the trunk should have been, Everand lay on the ground, his eyes open and staring blankly in death.

“No!” Gaspi cried, running over and falling to his knees at Everand’s side. Where was the tree? H
e hadn’t attacked Everand? Or had he? He reached out and took Everand’s hand, but it was cold and lifeless. Everand stared sightlessly at the sky, his unblinking eyes blank and accusing.

“NOOOO!” Gaspi cried again,
but there was no-one there to comfort him…

…Gaspi floated in infinite blackness, his heart hammering in his chest. Where was he? Why wasn’t he falling? He felt like a flickering flame on the verge of being snuffed out! Sensing the presence of something immense, he opened his eyes as wide as he could, looking left and right, up and down. Below him, smoky reddish light flickered into being, illuminating the rocky floor of a cavern so enormous it was beyond his comprehension. A lake of fire glowered at its centre, its surface tumultuous and troubled! Great spears of molten rock leapt into the air, casting flickering shadows across the shattered shore. A figure crouched at the edge of the lake, brooding and hunched. It dangled a single finger in the lake, stirring slowly.

With a jolt,
Gaspi realised he was moving, sinking towards the panorama below. Panicking, he tried to stop it, but to no avail. He didn’t know why he felt so frightened, but he knew as clearly as he’d ever known anything that he didn’t want to go there. More than anything else, he didn’t want to attract the attention of the crouching figure.

As Gaspi sunk the scale of the
scene became clear to him. What has seemed immense was now massive beyond description. The cavern was a whole world, the lake was a sea, and the crouching figure was as large as a mountain! Its ponderous thoughts echoed around the cavern, bouncing off the rocks and blasting everything else from Gaspi’s mind. Each thought was long, resonating with a hundred different nuances

It dwelt on plans it had laboured to fulfil
for eons. The death of every green and growing thing, the end of love, the decimation of human hope, a kingdom of emptiness and despair, populated by a million screaming citizens begging for an end that would never come. Its plans were near to fruition now. Its greatest servant had control of a Darkman, and even now was gathering an army. All across the world people offered sacrifices, feeding its hunger for power. On the Isle of Mists, the Skelkans offered themselves in ritual death, their worship swelling its reserves day by day. Before long it would be ready to break out of the prison forged for it long ago by its ancient enemy, and when it did, the world would be wreathed in flame and shadow.

Despite
its many victories, there was one thing that troubled it - one of the Bloodstones had been broken. It had felt its power shatter, vanquished by a greater force – a force that was anathema to its very nature. The figure shuddered. The ground beneath its feet shook in response, and great towers of flame surged from the lake of fire, falling back into it with thunderous concussions that made Gaspi’s head hurt.

Gaspi willed himself to stop sinking. The figure below was much nearer now, its curved back filling his vision. He had to escape before it became aware of him. Even as he
finished that thought, the figure below him tilted its head to one side as if listening, a movement so colossal Gaspi felt dizzy just looking at it. He felt its awareness surround him like a giant fist, capturing him entirely as it scoured his mind. The figure below started to rise, a mountain come to life. The curve of its back straightened and lifted as it rose to one knee. Gaspi’s heart was beating so hard he thought it was going to explode. He had to get out of there! Right now! He struggled and struggled, but there was nothing he could do. He screamed as the figure stood up and began to turn. Somehow he knew that if he saw its face, he would die.       

A
nd then he felt a presence at his side – something entirely different from the being below him. Turning his head, he found himself looking into two flawless green orbs, holding him with their all-seeing gaze. “Loreill!” he gasped. “Help me!” Loreill moved nearer, his diaphanous spirit-body fluctuating with waves of green light. The spirit drifted into his body, infusing him with strength. The shadowy figure’s mental grip fell away, and Gaspi felt the elemental speaking to him, urging him to wake up.

“What?” he asked, confused. Wake up? But that would mean he was…

…

Gaspi
opened his eyes to find the same green orbs he’d been dreaming about looking back at him.

“Loreill!
” he said, flooded with relief. The cavern, the shadowy figure, the lake of fire! It had felt so real – surely it had been more than a dream. Loreill comforted him, flooding him with healing power, urging him to let it go. There would be time to think of all that later. And then thoughts of the dream were pushed aside by a much more urgent experience. The bond flowed with life as he and Loreill were re-joined. He gasped, letting the elemental’s presence wash through him, and lost himself in the joy of the bond.

Minutes later, when the bond was fully re-established, the flood of emotions
slowed, leaving him with the life-affirming awareness of the spirit’s presence. Gaspi smiled contentedly. It felt amazing to be reunited with the elemental. It was like some part of him had been missing and now he was whole again. He could feel Loreill’s joy radiating back through the bond.

“When did you get here?” he asked, still struggling to believe
his own senses. The elemental was hovering in front of him, so close that Gaspi couldn’t see anything else.

“Gaspi!” someone
said from nearby, and Loreill moved aside to reveal Taurnil pacing towards him. “You’re awake!”

“
Taurn,” Gaspi said, relieved to see another friendly face, and then the whole episode in the hermit’s hut came back to him in full force. Glancing around, he saw that they were still within the hermit’s clearing, in the middle of which lay the ruins of what had once been his shack. He was lying on his cloak, with another one spread out over him like a blanket. “How long have I been out?”

“
About a day,” Taurnil responded.

“
When did Loreill get here? What’s going on?” Gaspi asked in a rush.

“Hold on, hold on,” Taurnil said.
He dropped to one knee and clasped him on the shoulder. “Can you sit up?”

“I dunno,” Gaspi responded
, remembering how much of himself he’d given to destroying that dark stone. Drawing on your resources to that extent was dangerous and debilitating, and he might take a good while to recover. “Give me a hand.” Taurnil grasped his hand and pulled on it gently until Gaspi was sitting upright.

“Hold on mate,”
Taurnil said, grabbing a backpack and two more cloaks, and shoving them behind Gaspi’s back. “That’s better.”

“Thanks,” Gaspi said, leaning back against the
pack. Loreill immediately zipped around his neck, assuming his favourite position like a glowing scarf.

“So when did Loreill get here?” he asked again.

“A few hours ago,” Taurnil said. “He’s been by your side ever since.”

“And where are the others?”

“Ranging, collecting firewood, that sort of thing.”

“What about Fortunate?”
Gaspi asked. Taurnil looked at him, nonplussed. “The boy – that’s his name! And what about the hermit?”

“The boy ran off right after you fell unconscious,” Taurnil
responded. “The hermit escaped too.”

“Damn,”
Gaspi said. It made sense that the hermit had escaped. The spell Gaspi had used to hold him would have dissipated the moment he fell unconscious. “We need to find out everything we can about that stone from the hermit, but finding Fortunate’s much more important. I want to help him.”

“We’re looking for them
,” Taurnil responded. “Look at you – always so concerned about everybody else. How do you feel?”

“Shattered
. Like I did after enchanting your staff.”

“C
an Loreill help with that?” Taurnil asked.

“
That might work. Loreill?” Gaspi asked. The spirit’s withdrew his head from within the coils of light around Gaspi’s neck and regarded him seriously while he considered the question. After a moment the answer was clear, and Loreill ducked his head back within the coils of light.

“No Taurn, he can’t help. It’s not
like an injury – I just totally drained myself. Emmy would be able to help though. She shared some of her energy with me once, and it made a big difference. I’ll ask Bret when I see him.”

“Fair enough,
” Taurnil said. “Gasp, what the heck happened in that hut? One minute I was falling asleep in the clearing, and the next I woke up in the hut and that stone exploded.”

Gaspi
opened his mouth to answer, but then envisaged having to tell the horrible tale to each person individually. “Why don’t you go and get the others? I don’t want to explain more than once.”