The Wizard's Curse

Chapter 5

5

A loud whumph made them whirl around. The fine old oak was ablaze, and the fire was spreading through its branches into neighbouring trees.

“Aargh!” cried out Tarkyn, his face tightening with shock as he ducked his head down and wrapped his arms protectively around his head.

“What’s wrong?” asked Thunder Storm, horrified by the prince’s reaction.

“Oh, for pity’s sake! The birds, the animals are burning. I can feel their anguish, feel their agony. Oh no!” Tarkyn was rocking back and forth, trying in vain to escape the overwhelming reactions of the burning animals. “I should have thought. I should have warned them. Oh, save me. How could I have been so thoughtless?”

Thunder Storm shook his head. “No one else thought of it either. You are not the only one to blame.”

“Aargh. Oh, the pain they’re in. I can’t stand it. How could I have let this happen? I am their forest guardian, and I stood by and let them all die.”

Thunder Storm put his arm around the prince’s shoulder. “Your Highness, I think they had to die. If they had travelled from the infected trees, they may have spread the sickness.”

Tarkyn raised anguished eyes and gasped, “Thunder Storm, the shields. Make sure they put the shields up.” For a few moments, Tarkyn was swamped by the suffering of the living creatures being burnt in the fire. Their agony was short-lived and soon, grim-faced, he was able to straighten up, as though pushing against a heavy weight. He shuddered, “I have to block them out. There’s nothing I can do to save them but at least I can make sure the rest of the forest is kept safe.

Tarkyn shed his blanket and shivered right up and down his body as the night air touched his bare skin. “Quick, where’s my shirt?” he demanded, keeping his mind firmly on the upcoming task.

“It’s wet, Prince,” said Rainstorm, arriving with a cloak. “Here. Put this on until the fire dries your shirt.”

“Thanks.” Tarkyn drew himself up and unconsciously squared his shoulders as he prepared himself to face once more the horror of the grey parasites. Ripples of trepidation, quickly swamped by a wave of determination, flowed out across the clearing. The woodfolk all stopped what they were doing to look across at their Forest Guardian. They called out words of encouragement and several came to pat him on the shoulder and reassure him. Tarkyn frowned a little at this flurry of reactions. Then he looked sideways at Rainstorm and raised his eyebrows in query.

Rainstorm laughed. “Yep, Prince. You’ve done it again.”

Tarkyn rolled his eyes and shook his head, even though his face was still drawn. “Oh my stars! I’d have been laughed out of court if this had happened in Tormadell. I am a constant embarrassment to myself.”

“I don’t think so, my lord,” said Thunder Storm kindly. “Only a fool would face this threat without fear.”

“Thank you, Thunder Storm,” the prince responded gravely even though a faint smile lurked at the back of his eyes. He took a deep breath. “So. Now that the core of the infected trees is burning, we’d better get started. Perhaps I can send my attack in a circle around the burning trees from one position. I’ll try that. It will be quicker.”

Tarkyn walked over to an elm whose branches were withering on the side nearest the fire. He looked around. “Right. Everyone who is helping with this, stand around close to me but don’t touch me in case something goes wrong and I become re-infected. Do the same as before. Think about the destruction and your anger about it.” He waited for everyone to prepare themselves. “Ready? Here goes.”

Tarkyn drew up a barrier around himself and then placed his palm on the trunk of the ailing tree. Immediately, he tuned into the tree’s suffering and felt the parasites swarming from the branches towards the centre of the tree. As his power connected with the tree, the parasites changed course and headed down towards him. Drawing in the woodfolks’ and his own rage at the destruction that was being wrought, Tarkyn gathered his strength into an unassailable ball of fury. When the kernel of his rage was quivering with contained energy, he unleashed it into the tree against the waves of grey parasites. His released power tore through the branches of the elm, frying the formless grey invaders as it passed. He tuned into the parasites and followed their trail out along the elm’s branches in to the next tree. His fury sought them out and obliterated them as it swept through tree after tree in the circle around the fire. Where his power met the fire burning in the dead trees in the centre, huge fountains of bronze sparks sprayed up into the air. Those woodfolk watching from further away could see the progress of the purging; the forest guardian’s power spitting against the fire as it sizzled its way around its periphery, showering them with flashes of bronze light. A short time later, the bronze fountain had made a full circumference and fizzled out above the damaged elm where it has started.

Still, Tarkyn remained in position. Without opening his eyes, he said, “Thanks everyone. Enough.”

Now he sent out a wave of healing through the damaged trees. Tarkyn did not have the reservoir of strength needed to repair so many trees, but he could at least ease their suffering and cool their burning. In time, they would heal themselves.

As the fire raged in the central cluster of trees, Stormaway threw up a curved green shield around the core of burning trees and nodded to Danton to do the same. A sheet of aqua rose on the other side of the fire and between them, the wizard and the sorcerer contained the fire as it burned itself out.

When the last flames had died away, the woodfolk, the wizard, and the two sorcerers stood looking at the black, smoking ruins of a full copse of old trees. Beyond the black ring, many trees were half-burnt and many more had lost branches or had been smashed by the wrathful winds of the oath’s betrayal. Everyone’s faces were bleak with loss.