Chapter 3

Mark looked around and wondered why Vasari had dropped him on a path in the middle of a forest.

He hoped he didn’t get lost getting out of it. The forest was dimly lit but cool. It had been early evening when they left the Palace, but here there was still just enough light to see by. He doubted it would last long though.

As a precaution, he told his satchel to appear, and he bent down to retrieve it. He rummaged in it and removed his wand. He could at least use it as a torch. He had been careful to not let the people at the palace see his satchel or his wand. The large satchel had special spells on it that kept it both hidden and let it follow him.

Mark had deliberately left it in his room when he went down to the library. He knew as soon as he blinked that it would turn up beside his foot just after he appeared wherever he was going. It was also special as it was virtually bottomless and held all manner of items Mark had placed in it for later use.

He slung it back over his shoulder and headed down the path. He wondered how he would enjoy a winter in the forest. He sniffed the air. By his reckoning, they had gone just north of west. He brought up a map of the area in his mind’s eye and decided he was in the Bellini Ranges.

He’d gone about 100m when he heard a strange sound. He stopped and listened. He heard it again and then it was followed by a dull thump on the ground. He peered over the edge of the path but the light had dropped off, and it was simply a shadow.

He created a light ball and sent it over the edge. The side of the path dropped down about 2m on a decent slope, and small bushes filled the little gully. The small simian looked back at him startled. It was sitting on the back of a person. Surrounding the body were four sets of eyes.

Mark gasped when he realised each set of eyes were made up of at least eight eyes, and they belonged to the biggest, hairiest, scariest bloody spiders he had ever seen. He dropped the light ball down and sent it flying at the one nearest the body, and it scuttled backwards.

He then buzzed the other three spiders. They all scurried away from the intense glowing ball. He kept harrying the spiders with the ball of light until they had all backed off and scuttled away from the body. He chuckled when the little simian threw the stick it carried after one of them to encourage it to keep going.

He hoped the bright light had killed whatever night vision the spiders had as he slid down the side of the slope. He carefully approached the body and said softly, “Hi little fellow, can I have a look at your friend?”

The simian looked at him and then gently stroked the dark red curls on the head of the woman. Mark knelt down and felt for a pulse. It wasn’t strong, and she was cool to his touch. He gently probed her body with his mind.

“One of them got her, didn’t it?” he said to the simian. The simian made a whimpering sound and nodded its head at him. Mark gently rolled her body over. Kneeling beside her, he positioned the body so he could pull her into a fireman’s lift. It was going to be awkward with his big pack on his back, but he had to get her out of the forest so he could treat her.

He said to the simian just before he picked her up, “It’s a shame you can’t give me an image of her house.” The simian locked eyes with him and did as he asked. Mark was a little stunned. He was going to have to spend some time with this little fellow he decided. The brave little creature fascinated him.

“Well, thank you. In that case, I’ll pick her up in my arms since I don’t have to carry her far.” He repositioned his body, placed her pack on her stomach and as he went to lift her, he said, “Jump on Little One.”

The little creature bounded lightly onto his shoulder and grabbed the neck of his coat as Mark lifted the woman from the ground. He felt the simian send him the image again and he blinked to the location. He determined that he was at the back of the building. The hairs on the back of his neck raised and his medallion became warm on his chest.

Not all was right here. For one, the building was dark but for one faint light coming from deeper in the building. Cautiously, he approached the door and using a telekinesis spell, he opened it silently. He edged into the room and his night vision took in the mess of the wrecked laboratory.

As quietly and carefully as he could, he worked his way to the next door. He used his powers to crack the door open and listened. The hallway was dark, and he heard no movement. He let out his senses and felt for life in his immediate vicinity.

Mark found it in the room beside the one he was in, but he determined that they were animals and not humans. He eased the door back and turned to his right. There were four doors down this hall, and all were open. He quietly walked to the first and peered in.

It was a bedroom, and it had been trashed. Mark moved to the next room. This one had been searched he decided, but the bed was still intact. He gently placed the woman on it. He removed the pack from her tummy and rolled her onto her side.

Once he was happy that she was comfortable, he retrieved the quilt from the floor and dropped it over her body to help get her warm. He said quietly to the simian, “Guard.” It hopped off his shoulder and sat beside the woman’s head.

Removing his wand from his side, he then moved down the long hall to the other end and the room where he had found other life signs. He dropped a ‘no see me’ spell on himself and stepped through the doorway and then to his left and blended into the wall.

He observed the six men sitting around a table eating. Typical soldiers, he assessed. He had seen and interacted with enough of them at the Palace to know their kind. The two men who truly interested him were sitting in a lounging area.

One was obviously the leader of the soldiers, but just like his men, he wore no insignia. He was of medium height, and Mark judged that he was possibly of the Burgis race, like the soldiers. He had the same sturdy build and was obviously fit.

Mark determined that he was in his mid-thirties, and he wasn’t wearing magical items, but something about the man fascinated him. The Burgis race tended to produce fewer magicians than the other races unless a parent had mated with a Shifter.

The leader was sitting back in the high armed chair with his booted feet up on an ottoman, smoking a short stemmed pipe. He blew out a cloud of smoke and said, “So where is she?”

“How the fuck should I know. Jean should have been back hours ago. She must have heard your men stumbling through the forest. She is probably dead by now. No one stays in the forest at night. Those bloody aracnzies will kill you in your sleep if you haven’t already gotten caught in one of their friggin nets.”

“Yes, even my people will not stay in the forest once the light is gone. However, Pauli, we will have to go back into the forest and find her body in the morning. Her research isn’t here,” the leader said.

The small skinny man grumbled. Mark decided that he had a most unpleasant aura for a predominantly Pix type person. Pauli looked pasty and not in good health. His dirty blonde hair was thin and scraggly. He also had a nervous disposition and fidgeted where he sat.

“The bitch puts her latest findings in that pack of her’s. She treats me like a lackey and not a scientist. She won’t even let me in her lab when she is working. She even takes her samples with her. I’ve looked, but I can’t find any hidden safes here,” he whined.

“Then how do you know she has a treatment that works for my people? I hope you haven’t called us here on a wild chase,” the leader replied. The threat in his voice was easy to determine.

“I have learnt what her notes on the cages mean. She uses an old script, but I can read it. She has successfully treated the gnawers. She had done it five times now, and they all survived. The last time she treated a flicker, it died. So she still doesn’t have the antivenin for Shifters correct,” Pauli told the soldier.

“If she lives, will she succeed?” the soldier asked with interest.

Grudgingly, Pauli replied, “Yes. She is very single minded and brilliant in her field. She didn’t even socialise with the others. Did you have to kill them?” he whined again.

“Yes, we will burn the place when we leave,” the leader said in such a matter-of-fact voice that it chilled Mark and the man called Pauli.

Mark edged back out of the room and hurried back down the hall. He entered the room that he now believed was Jean’s and quickly searched for a change of clothes and a coat for her. Stuffing them into his backpack, he hurried into the room he had left her in.

He rolled her into the quilt and placed her bag back onto her tummy. “Little One, I need a safe place to take her,” he whispered to Kia as he picked Jean up. It was too dangerous for them to stay here. Kia jumped back onto his shoulder and tapped his face.

Mark looked at her, got an image and immediately blinked them.

The cave was dark and cold.

Mark created a light globe and took in his surroundings. It was about 9m at its widest and 6m deep. The sloping ceiling, however, was at least 15m high where it butted against the huge tree that blocked the entrance. The rocky floor also sloped down towards one of the side walls.

Mark placed Jean gently onto the ground in the flattest area near one wall and freed her face from the quilt. She was still unconscious, but she felt warmer to his touch. The healing spell he had dropped on her, seemed to be working. She was breathing more easily.

He walked to the front of the cave. A massive tree had grown across the opening. He could see a small tunnel that had been created in the 3m thick wall of the cavern that the flicker must have used in the past to enter the cave. It was big enough to let a spider in, so he carefully moved the rocks to close it up.

He inspected the massive tree. While Nature wasn’t his strongest trait, he could still work with it to the extent he needed to. He determined that the centre of the tree was deadwood. The tree drew its nutrients from its outer rings.

Touching the tree, he had estimated that it was at least 5m in diameter. Rocks had built up around it, so that only about a 3m wide wall of tree protruded into the cavern that he was in. It was offset leaving about 4m of the cavern to his left of the trees trunk and 2m to the right. He would create an entrance through the tree.

Looking back into the cave, he estimated how much space he would need to stack sections of the tree in it. He then looked up, and he determined that he could create a larger space by utilising the high ceiling. He created several new glow balls to work by.

He pulled rock from the side walls to even out and flattened the floor over the top of the protruding roots of the tree to create a new floor. He then deepened the cave by pushing some of the rock from the back wall higher and lowering the ceiling by several metres. He now had an 8m deep by 9m long area that was 3m high at its lowest, to work in.

Mark turned back to the tree. Using his wand and several spells, he carefully cut a 2m high by 1m wide and 20cm deep opening into the tree. He removed the slab of wood and placed it against the side wall. It would make a great table he decided.

He then cut out more sections as he had for the first. He stacked them into piles near one wall of the cavern as he worked his way through the tree. As he got to the other side and knew he was about to cut out the front of the tree he cut out a smaller hole 50cm square as a window.

He listened carefully as the cool, sweet smelling air rushed inside. Mark felt no danger, and the forest was quiet. He created a small light ball and sent it out and up so he could get a view of the area. The tree was rooted into a shallow but wide gully.

A wide shallow stream had eaten out the other bank 10m away as it worked its way around the tree’s massive roots and other rocks. He could see where a section of the bank had collapsed a little further down the stream and it created a gentle slope they could use to exit from the gully.

He decided it was a good hiding spot and having the stream meant they had water. He cut out the door and put it to one side. Inspecting the rocks in the gully, he found enough metals to form three sturdy hinges and remounted the door. Using the natural knots and indents, he created a handle on the outside.

Digging into his satchel, he retrieved a bag of crystals and embedded a large one over the doorway. He collected some sand and created a thick glass pane to replace his cut-out in the door. Using glamour, he concealed the door, and then he placed spells that controlled who could open the door.

Sand and small rocks had filled the hollows between the roots. A carpet of grasses and mosses covered the tops of the roots, and the smaller rocks provided a decent entrance. He rearranged the larger, flatter rocks a little, so they could get to the stream by walking on the rocks and didn’t flatten the grass near the door.

Happy, he entered the tree and closed the door.

Back in the cave, Mark checked on the woman.

The simian had stayed with her, and he detected little change, but she was still alive. So he went back to work. He inspected the panels he had cut out. He’d had fun fitting all of the eighteen 2m long by 1m wide, and 20cm thick panels into the cave.

He had put them into five stacks. The better wood went into two piles. The softer, spongier wood went into another and the worst, more eaten out slabs into the last two piles; these would be used as firewood. He cut one of the worst slabs into 20cm square lengths and quartered them.

Several crumbled, but he had a good use for them. Using some of the rocks from the ceiling, he created a fire pit in the front half of the cavern with 10cm thick by 50cm high walls, set in a 1m square.

At a high point on the roof, he tunnelled up at an angle and in a spiral pattern to let the smoke diffuse out of the cavern. Near the trunk, he created two new spiralled tunnels about 5cm in diameter about 2.5m from the ground. They were to let a small amount of fresh air in but no light out.

He used the cords of wood to get a fire started. While it got established, he transformed some of the rocks into a flat plate and created a grate with 2cm squares so that they covered half the top of the fire pit. The other half was for feeding wood into.

Mark retrieved a pot and a bottle of water from his satchel. He had to grin as knew the satchel held a lot of items. From what he understood, the spell linked the space in the satchel to some sort of alternate space. So far, he hadn’t run out of space and simply had to call the item for it to appear at the top of the bag.

He happily soaked up the heat from the fire to recharge his magic as he filled the pot with water for tea. He even poured several bags of his crystals onto the grill plate and smoothed them out. He was glad he had collected them before he had been transported here.

He had planned to set up a new crystal room at his outpost, so he had made sure that he had plenty. Over the last year, he had noticed a difference in his ability to do magic with the crystals always near him. He didn’t seem to run out energy or need recharging as often if he was wearing his satchel.

He didn’t believe that he could find the Quaz crystals on this planet as his discreet enquiries indicated that no one here made magical items because they didn’t have a source of the crystals anymore. He idly wondered if this had a lot to do with the problems they were having here as he moved Jean closer to the fire.