Magic Match

Muld, Syndi and Aloea join forces with their rescuers to combat the power of the Arch Druid, Calarom.

18.

Magic Match

 

They surfaced in the middle of a nightmare.    Above the pool were the four airships of their rescuers swaying in a terrible storm.     Grey and black clouds circled above like a giant pinwheel with lightning arcing out in all directions.    It was certainly no natural storm, though Muld could not see Calarom or any of his followers on the shore of the pool.

The wind howled like an enraged animal, whipping up the water of the pool and pushing against them.

“I don’t like the looks of this at all!”  Syndi shouted over the raging wind as she and her companions struggled to keep standing and wade toward the shore.

There was an abrupt change in the tempo of the wind which made the three of them glance up into the skies overhead.

A terrible sight greeted their eyes.     The angry clouds above now were spinning around and around, generating a funnel.

“Oh!   Dear Lord, a tornado!”  Syndi exclaimed, as they watched in horror.    Before they could do anything else, the funnel descended from the clouds and then, as if drawn by a magnet, it veered almost horizontal and moved toward one of the four airships hovering above them.

But as the tornado was about to contact it, a glowing blue sphere appeared around the ship, and the cyclone covered the sphere hiding the ship for a few long moments.    But the magic protecting the airship was strong, and the tornado lifted slightly and then moved quickly toward the next nearest vessel.

This time, as the vortex approached, a giant ghostly hand appeared in front of the tornado, shielding it from the funnel.

“That’s one of my parent’s rings generating that magic hand!”   Syndi said, “That must be their ship.   Hopefully the magic hand will be enough to keep them safe.”

The tornado, as if it were a sentient being, tried to move above and around the giant magic hand, but the hand moved to block it at every turn.

Finally, the cyclone turned and moved rapidly toward the third airship.

No magic flashed up to protect the ship and the tornado swallowed it up into the middle of the spinning column of air.

The magic that kept the airship levitating in mid air kept it from being pulled upward or forced downward, but did not prevent it from being spun horizontally like a top.

Faster and faster the storm twirled the airship until it appeared as just a blur.   Then two figures were ejected from the spinning vessel.    They were flung high in the air and fell quickly as Muld, Syndi and Aloea watched in horror.

But from the fourth airship there was a flash of light and the falling figures slowed suddenly until their descent was a gentle, non-lethal tumble.

“We’ve got to do something!”   Syndi said as they watched the aerial show.

“We need to locate Calarom,”  Muld replied, “I think I have an idea.”

He pushed his way against the wind, wading toward the shore with great difficulty.    Syndi and Aloea hurried after him, shielding their faces from the blowing debris in the air.

Muld began chanting a spell but the two women could not make out what he was casting.    As they waited for him to complete the spell, Syndi glanced upward, anxious to keep track of the battle raging in the arcane storm in the sky.

The tornado was still spinning the airship, but now there was lighting, creeping along the vortex like ivy on the side of a tree, slowly moving toward the ship’s location in the funnel.

“Hurry, Muld; I don’t know if that ship can handle a lightning storm.”

Muld nodded, focusing on hurrying through the spell.    It was another Practical Magic spell, used to determine the source of an enchantment on something.    It was called ‘Spell Source’ and when pointed at the area of effect of an active spell, it would show the location of the caster of the spell.

When he had completed casting it, an area a distance away on shore began to glow green.     Syndi realized what the glow meant and an idea came to her, so she cast ‘Faerie Fire’ to highlight the area for everyone to see.    Muld was pleased at her choice, and so he quickly chanted the ‘Amplify’ cantrip to make the glow of the Faerie Fire much brighter.

Now the bright green light could be seen from afar.  

“Hopefully they’ll see it from the airships,”   Muld said, joining Syndi as she watched Aloea casting a spell of her own.

The Lizard-woman made a buzzing sound and pointed toward the glowing area and from all directions various insects began moving toward the light.   

“An insect summoning spell?”   Syndi guessed.

“That should upset their control of the storm,”  Muld answered.

“So you think there are a group of them casting the spell, not just Calarom?”

“I imagine that there has to be; that spell is quite powerful.”

 

Suddenly the magically generated storm began to fade off into calm, which told them that Aloea’s insects had disrupted Calarom and his group.

“They’ll be searching for the source of the insects; we need to move quickly,”   Muld told the two women.

By the time they had reached the shore of the pool, the storm had almost entirely dissipated, yet they had no time to notice it as through the trees rushed a group of elven men, with a dark cloud of insects swarming around them.

 They were unconcerned with anything other than reaching the pool and they raced pass them and plunged into the water.

As soon as the men were submerged, the insects dispersed.  But the elven men were not out of danger.     Muld, Syndi and Aloea heard struggling and splashing and turned to find the elves fighting for their lives underwater.

But they could see nothing attacking them.

“What in the world?”   Syndi exclaimed as they took a few steps away from the pool.

“The pool is doing it,” Muld answered, which did not comfort either of his companions.   

“Why didn’t it attack us?   Or Aloea?”  

“I guess we were worthy and Calarom’s men aren’t worthy.”

 

There was the sound of movement coming quickly toward them.   Crashing out the woods came Calarom, but he did not have any insects after him.    With an animal-like growl, he raised the staff he was carrying and spoke a strange word.    Immediately the trees near Muld and the women began to animate.   The branches flexed and moved, violently lashing out at them.

One tree knocked Aloea down and was grabbing at her with its branches when out of the pool came something that looked like a miniature Water Elemental.    It rushed forward and attacked the branches that were trying to grab the Lizard-woman.    But it was made only of water, so it could not stop the animated tree, though it did give time for Aloea to get free.    Muld remembered the mysterious spell she had cast before they had swam to the surface and suspected that this was that spell.

Syndi had wisely backed away from the trees and was chanting a spell to counter the Druid.    However, she didn’t notice a small fallen sapling hidden in the debris of the floor of the forest.   Calarom’s spell caused it to rear up and entwine her legs as she backed away from the Druid.   She fell hard backwards, the jolt knocking the wind out of her and disrupting the spell she was chanting.

Muld was being flogged and whipped by several branches and for a time could do nothing but protect his face, until he saw Syndi fall.

Then he remembered the Fetch spell that he had cast in the underwater cavern. He made a pulling gesture with his hand while looking at Calarom’s staff.

It was torn free from his surprised hands and Muld pulled it to him.     When the staff left Calarom’s hands, the attack of the trees ended.    Without hesitation, Muld flung the druid staff into the magic pool as soon as it touched his hand.

The Druid cried out in rage and in the blink of an eye changed his form to that of a large black bear and leaped at Muld, knocking him down.

Teeth and claws seemed to be everywhere, biting and tearing at him.

 

Muld could do nothing but try to fend off the attack, his arms being shredded by the savagery of the bear.

He didn’t see another of Aloea’s water creatures attack the bear, nor Syndi’s magic missiles attack on the beast.   Neither attack drew Calarom away from his determination to maul Muld to death.

A huge bear claw ripped his jaw open, nearly knocking him out.   Then the bear form of the Druid began hugging him close in his powerful arms, to crush the life out of him.

Muld could not breathe and his arms were pinned at his side.    His head was roaring as consciousness and possibly life raced from him.   Somewhere he thought he distantly heard shouting and the bear moved his head to see.

There was a flash of something metallic, and then something warm and sticky splashed all over him.      Suddenly the bear was gone.   He saw the headless form of the Arch-Druid fall to the ground.    Muld sank down with it.

 

Syndi was at his side in an instant, though he could not hear what she was saying as his ears were still ringing.   Gulping in air with ribs that felt as if they had been cracked by the bear, Muld looked up to see the red eyes of Khord staring at him as he scooped up the severed head of the Druid.

“Are you alright?”   Muld was barely able to hear his question, but he was too sore to answer, so only nodded.   The tall Drow man frowned as he looked into the face of the man he had just decapitated.

“I hated to kill him like that, but I knew he was going to kill you if I didn’t.”

“Thank…you…”  Muld gasped, hardly able to open his mouth due to the terrible gash along his jaw, and his ribcage in terrible agony when he breathed.

 

There was a green flash of light and suddenly they were joined by Sophia, Deborah and Syndi’s parents.    The Losasidhe royals rushed to Syndi and Muld, both of them chanting healing spells before they even greeted them.

Soon they felt healing power flow from the hands of her parents into them.

 

“Sorry it took us so long to get down here,”  Sophia said, rubbing her pregnant belly, “That storm was quite strong.   I used a version of the Bard ‘Placement’ spell since Teleportation spells seldom work anymore,  but I had to read it from a scroll and so I sent Khord down here first.”

Deborah leaned over and peered closely at the head of the Arch-Druid, “My, he is rather old, isn’t he?    He must have been elderly before the Burning Tree dream.”

“He was very powerful too,”   Syndi said, smiling at her mother as they finished their healing spells.

Sophia went over to Aloea and the two pregnant women embraced.   Aloea was quite vocal and the Drow Sorceress seemed to understand her language.    The two of them chatted for a few minutes as they waited for the airships’ hover boats to reach them.

“Thank Yesh both of you are well,”   King Eiolmoel said to Muld and his daughter, “We couldn’t see what was going on below us due to the trees, until we saw the Faerie Fire glow and we knew that had to be where the spell-casters were.   But you took care of them before we could do anything!”

“You occupied their attention long enough for us to act,”   Muld answered, happy to be able to breathe without pain, “There are probably some of his followers nearby, though I’ll bet they’re too afraid to attack.”

“We don’t want any conflict with them either.   This is their home; we’re merely here to rescue you.”   He looked out at the pool, “So that is Mórálach’s Pool?   It seems very tranquil.”

“We saw it drown a group of Calarom’s men who dove into it,”   Syndi replied, “But it didn’t harm Muld and me, and it let Aloea swim in it too.”

 

“Speaking of Aloea,”  Sophia said, “I think we are going to be delayed returning to the airships.    She just told me that her water broke during the battle with the druid and she is in labor.”

Syndi and her mother jumped up and rushed over to her, “We’re experienced midwives.”

“Good, because I don’t want to even see my own babies births,”  Sophia replied with a wrinkle of her nose, “Deborah have you ever seen a Lizard-woman give birth?”

“No; is there anything we should know?”

“Her baby will have a lizard’s snout, but it will be rather small at birth and is quite flexible so the head can fit through the birthing canal, so don’t panic.   The hoverboats are almost here, so if you’ll excuse my squeamishness, I’ll join the men on the airship, but I’ll send down Tarah and Ceal.   They’re cooks, but they were telling me yesterday that they both have served as midwives as well.   Summon me if you need any healing magic, otherwise, I don’t really want to see that.”

“It might be a good idea, Sophia, since your turn will be coming soon.”

The Drow lady shook her head, “No thanks; I’ll pray for her and have healing potions ready to go if you need them.”

Without another word, she hurried a distance up the shoreline.   Khord shrugged at the looks everyone gave him and then hurried off after his wife, after carefully setting the severed head next to Calarom’s body.

“Wow, I guess everyone has something that bothers them,”  Muld said to King Eiolmoel as he helped his future son-in-law to his feet.

“I can understand that.   She’ll be in good hands with my wife and Syndi and Lady Deborah though.”

“Just keep praying,”   Deborah told them as the Losasidhe mother and daughter gently maneuvered Aloea to a spot where the Losasidhe queen had spread her cloak on the ground.

“Come on, Muld, let’s go greet those hoverboats,”  the King suggested, and Muld hurried after him after a quick smile at Syndi.