The Wizard's Curse (Book 2) (69 page)

The young woodman gave a quick smile, “You can still underestimate me when it comes to patience, if you like. I don’t seem to have that down to a fine art yet. I ate mine just after breakfast.”

With String, Bean and Hail leading the way, Tarkyn’s home guard threaded their way carefully along a steep narrow path that clung to the face of the cliff before beginning a winding climb down between tumbled boulders. Before they were half way down, tiny white flakes began to drift down out of the heavy clouds and swirl gently around them before settling on their hair and clothing or wandering on down to the ground. The flakes became larger and denser as the snowstorm gathered force and soon the woodfolk were enclosed in a swirling quiet world of whiteness. They loved it. Some of them had never seen snow before. The children were dazzled by it and looked around wide-eyed with wonder at the transforming world around them.

By the time the home guard emerged onto the lower plateau, trees, grass, rocks, logs, everything in sight was covered in a thin layer of white. String and Bean were not even slightly fazed by the change wrought in the appearance of their surroundings and led everyone unerringly to a depression in the ground which, when the gathering snow was pushed away, turned out to be a downwardly sloping entrance to a large cavern.

As they congregated inside the cave, within the corona of sorcerers’ light, Tarkyn leant over and said quietly to Waterstone, “It’s lucky this is such a large cave. Our numbers have swollen since we first set out on our journey to find Falling Rain.”

Watertone looked around at the people gathered there,  “Yes, they have, haven’t they? Golden Toad and his family, Running Feet, North Wind and Tree Wind from the harvesters, Falling Branch and Rainstorm from the forestals and the four new arrivals from  the mountainfolk.”

“Not to mention String, Bean and Danton,” added Tarkyn.

Waterstone nodded, “And Midnight. So, we started out with twenty woodfolk, you and Stormaway and we now have thirty-three woodfolk and five sorcerers, counting both of us. That’s nearly double.” He smiled, “You can’t be too bad after all, to have accumulated all these people. We were scratching around to get anybody at all, to start with.”

As they were speaking, the woodfolk were settling themselves in, some to set up bedding, some to venture out to collect wood, others to prepare lunch. The children settled themselves to play near the back of the cave out of everyone’s way. String and Bean came over to join Waterstone and Tarkyn.

“This is an excellent cave you have found us,” said Tarkyn.

String grimaced, “It does have one slight problem though”

“What? That we are going to be snowed into it?” asked Waterstone.

“Actually, that too,” said Bean. “We’ll have to make sure we keep clearing the entrance. No, the other problem, and possibly more significant, is that I think there has been a mountain lion in here recently. Come and look at this.” He led them over to an area near the front entrance off to the side where the woodfolk had not yet walked. There, clear in the dusty floor of the cave, were the spoors of a large animal.

Waterstone squatted down to examine them. After a couple of minutes, he looked up, “Hard to say how old they are. They look quite new but they could be up to a couple of days old. There’s no wind or rain in this cave to weather them.” He looked at Hail and Blizzard as they arrived, in answer to his mind call, “You two will be better at this. You have more experience of caves. How old do you think these  tracks are?”

Blizzard squatted down beside Waterstone and studied the imprints in the dust. He ran his fingers gently over the surrounding dirt to gain a feel for its consistency. Finally, he stood up and brushing off his hands, reported, “I would say they are less than a day old. Although there is no direct weathering, there will be a slight draft and there are tiny insects, rats and other animals that scurry across the floor of caves. Over time, they will blur old prints.”

“I don’t come down this side of the mountain. None of us woodfolk does. Top of the ridge is the end of our territory,” said Hail. “But I know there are mountain lions all through this area. From the size of these spoors, we are dealing with an old, large one here, almost certainly male. And if he’s grown to be this old and big, he will be fearsome.” She glanced up at Tarkyn, “So I hear you’re pretty good with birds of prey. How are you with mountain lions?”

“I’ve never met one.”

Waterstone stood up, “He can manage wolves.”

Tarkyn shrugged, “Well, I can manage one wolf and then he manages the rest.”

“Mountain lions don’t roam in packs,” said Hail. “If it’s a male, he’ll be on his own.”

Tarkyn smiled and said casually, “Then I wouldn’t worry too much, if I were you. We have five sorcerers here. As long as we are forewarned, we can easily keep him at bay and keep everyone safe.” He thought for a moment and added, “But I might just see if I can connect with him before he decides to return. It might save him and all of us a nasty shock.”

Suddenly a deep-throated roar issued from the darkness at the rear of the cave. Before anyone could move, two streaks of gold resolved themselves into the eyes of a fast-moving black mountain lion that leapt, teeth bared, at the children playing in the dirt at the back of the cave. Even as the huge cat flew through the air, Midnight’s arm swept up  and a dark green dome slammed into place around the screaming children. As Midnight stood his ground defiantly, the mountain lion lunged straight at him, hitting the barrier above him with a dull  thwack, only feet in front of him, before sliding to the floor,  momentarily confused.

Before the lion could gather itself for another attack, Tarkyn threw a dome of shimmering bronze around the dazed animal. Following an instruction from Tarkyn, Midnight slowly moved back from the mountain lion, still with his shield around the other children, until they stood safely among the adults. As Midnight flicked out his shield, the children ran crying to their parents to be comforted. Amid thanks and admiration Midnight, without even a smile, came over to Tarkyn and quietly took his hand. Tarkyn looked down quizzically at him and suddenly realised that the little boy was quivering with fright.

Tarkyn bent down and scooped him up. “Oh Midnight. You were so brave, weren’t you? But I should have realised; just because you reacted so decisively didn’t mean you weren’t frightened, did it?” He hugged him tightly, stroking his back and sending him waves of comfort and praise until the trembling subsided.

Summer Rain arrived with a sweet drink laced with laudanum.

Tarkyn sniffed it and took a little sip before handing it on to Midnight. “How come he gets a palatable drink and I’m given ones that taste  totally foul?”

“Yours require a greater concentration of herbs because you are larger. So the sweetness would not easily mask the taste.” Summer Rain gave a slight shrug, “Besides, you are not a child. You do not need to be pandered to in the same way.”

Although he was quite happy to be pandered to, Tarkyn did not feel equal to the task of convincing Summer Rain. Instead he said, “Thanks for the tonic. Midnight will be all right soon.” He beamed with pride, “Wasn’t he clever though? I had better revise my previous statement. We have six sorcerers here, not five.”

Bean cleared his throat, “Hmm. For all the good it nearly did us. We made a fundamental error there, assuming the mountain lion was out of his den. We should have checked the cavern thoroughly before we let anyone into it.” He glanced uncertainly at Tarkyn, “I’m sorry about that.”

“Yeah, I suppose the storm made us rush people in.” String shrugged, not meeting his eyes. “Still, no excuse. Bad mistake.”

Tarkyn tilted his head to one side as he looked at them, “You can’t possibly imagine that, after this morning’s salutary discussion, I am about to tell you off, can you? Anyway, we are all to blame.” He smiled wryly, “Perhaps Danton and I less than everyone else, as we are least experienced in the ways of the wild. But still…”

“Blizzard and I should have raised the alarm the moment we saw how fresh those prints were,” said Hail, reaching up to give her son a couple of awkward pats on the back. “Hmph. Maybe it’s not so bad that he has sorcerer in him, after all.” She spoke gruffly but the pride shone in her eyes.

Midnight twisted around to send her a slight smile but made no attempt to get down.

Tarkyn smiled at her too and said quietly, “I told you he was a son to be proud of, didn’t I?” After a moment, he turned his attention back to the black mountain lion that was glowering at them from within the bronze haze. “Well, it’s too late to save the nasty shock but I will still try to connect with him. I would rather not kill him unless we must. Are you in agreement with that?”

Waterstone eyed the beast as it raised itself to its feet and paced back and forth, snarling and clawing at the glowing bronze wall in front of it. “I’m assuming you will keep your shield around it?”

Tarkyn gave a slight smile, “Yes. And Danton can raise his shield around all of you if that will make you feel safer. But I will keep my shield around him. If I removed it, there would be nothing to stop him from leaving and I think we need to know where he is until either he is under control or dead, don’t you?”

“And the good thing is, if you can render him harmless somehow,” said Bean, “no other mountain lion will come near this cave while he is here.”

“You could just stun him,” suggested String. He shrugged, “Of course, you’d have to have someone keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn’t come round or keep a shield over him. So it would tie up one person, however you did it.”

“Let me try first. We’ll keep that in mind as a fall-back position.” Tarkyn turned to Blizzard, “If I can get him safely out of the cave, how likely is it that he will come back and attack us again?”

Blizzard scratched his head as he thought about it, “If you can scare him enough to make him turn tail and run, he won’t come back to face a crowd of people in a confined space. But what he might do is lie in wait further down the track to pick off a straggler.”

“Still, saying that,” put in String, “There could be any number of them out there lying in wait to pick off a straggler.”

“No, I don’t think so. Not in this neck of the woods,” said Bean. “Around here is this bloke’s territory.”

“Yeah, but his range won’t extend all the way down the mountain,” objected String. “As soon as we’re out of his range, we’ll be fair game for the next one.”

“Hmm. These mountain lions aren’t as easy as wolves or horses, are they?” mused Tarkyn. “More like the raptors, I would say. Well, let’s deal with this one first and worry about the rest later. Hail, can you take Midnight? Now Danton, raise your shield around all but me and the mountain lion.” He waved a hand, “You can all carry on with getting things ready, if you like. You’ll be perfectly safe within Danton’s shield. If you need to go outside, perhaps Stormaway or one of the others could shield you for the time being. But with my shield keeping the mountain lion contained, you should be safe anyway.”

He realised that Autumn Leaves and Waterstone were grinning sympathetically at him as everyone ignored his suggestion and sat down expectantly to watch. He rolled his eyes at his friends, “Too much to hope for, I suppose, a little privacy in which to concentrate.”

“I’d say so,” said Autumn Leaves.

“Do you want me to use my shield to contain the animal,” asked Stormaway, “so that you can concentrate on communicating with him?”

“No, thanks. I don’t think I will be able to reach him through someone else’s shield. I couldn’t reach the hounds of the hunting party through Journeyman’s shield.”

Stormaway frowned, “But you just contacted Midnight through his shield.”

Tarkyn raised his eyebrows in surprise. “So I did. And I did yesterday, when I told him to get a drink.” He threw a smile at Bean, “Still, I always did contend that Midnight was not just an animal. So obviously, it must work differently with him. After all, woodfolk can talk to each other but not to animals. Hmm, interesting.” He shrugged,  “However, I don’t think I can reach an animal through your shield. So I’ll use mine.”

That settled, Tarkyn carefully turned his back on everyone and sat down to concentrate. Firstly he parked the maintenance of his shield carefully to one side of his mind. Then he sent waves of calming reassurance towards the caged mountain lion. In response, a deluge of pure aggression and disdain rocked him backwards. The sounds of snarling grew louder and the animal let out a great roar of challenge.

In the background, he heard Stormaway saying, “Stand up. Show him you’re strong.

Tarkyn realised then, that in his first mental encounter with the wolf, they had not actually been in sight of one another. Slowly, keeping his shield intact, he opened his eyes and stood up. Amber eyes glared at gold. The mountain lion lashed its tail and roared out another challenge. And suddenly Tarkyn knew that if he subjugated this proud animal, the lion would lose his territory and would have to leave and fight for another’s range.

He turned away. “I can’t do it.”

A sigh of disappointment rose from his audience. Their forest guardian was admitting defeat. Tarkyn flicked them a glance of irritation and addressed himself solely to Hail and the trappers, “Do you get wolves around here?”

“Sometimes,” said Bean.

“And what is their relationship with these mountain lions?”

“They seem to have some sort of a stand-off. The mountain lion is stronger than a lone wolf. On the other hand, a pack of wolves could bring down a mountain lion but at great cost to the pack. So they seem to have an unspoken agreement that they leave each other alone.”