Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [78]
"Relax," she whispered. "I'm not going to shoot your friend. I just want to be prepared for whatever else is out there. If that's him hurling fireballs, there's got to be something else out there he's throwing them at."
The three adventurers picked their way through the charred undergrowth until they reached a circle of oak saplings, as close to one another as pickets in a fence. They circled round until they came upon a few saplings that had been broken and flattened to the ground. The ranger leaped into the clearing within the ring. By the light from the smoldering fires and the rising moon, Alias could just make out the silhouettes of three much larger trees lying on the ground.
Breck bent over one of the trees and stroked its charred bark. The swordswoman could have sworn she heard him sob.
"What is it?" Alias asked, stepping up behind the ranger.
"Treants," Breck said, choking back a second sob. "They've been murdered-just like Kyre."
Alias bit her lip. She turned back to see if Dragonbait had anything to say about the fallen treelike creatures. The saurial paladin stood beside the ring of saplings and hissed. Alias smelled the violet scent the lizard used to warn of danger.
"What is it?" Breck asked, turning around to see what upset Alias's companion.
"Dragonbait senses evil," the swordswoman explained.
"Evil was here, all right," Breck said angrily. "It was Grypht. Look there." The ranger pointed to a set of large prints in the mud beside one of the fallen treants. "And there-those must be your friend Akabar's prints," he added, indicating with a nod of his head a set of smaller prints unmistakably made by rope sandals.
Alias felt something brush against her leg. She gave a startled cry and tried to leap aside, but something had hold of her leg, and she fell heavily to the ground. Something curled, serpent-like, about her thigh and up around her waist.
Alias's eyes widened at the sight of the vinelike tendrils wrapping around her.
She screamed and struggled to reach the dagger in her boot.
Dragonbait dashed up to one of the treants and hacked through the creature's branchlike arm with his brightly flaming sword.
The tendrils about the swordswoman's body went limp.
Breck dashed up to the saurial paladin, screaming, "What are you doing?"
Dragonbait stepped back and held his flaming sword out to keep Breck from approaching any closer.
"He saved my life," Alias said, wriggling out of the tendrils.
"He's desecrating a dead body," the ranger growled.
Dragonbait signed to Alias.
"Breck," Alias said softly, "I think you'd better take a closer look at these treants. Don't they look peculiar to you?"
"They look dead," Breck answered angrily.
"They look sick," Alias corrected. "They didn't even burn well. They only scorched-like rotted wood."
"They were wet, like the rest of the brush around here," Breck replied stubbornly.
"Look at them!" the swordswoman demanded, grabbing the ranger's shoulders and forcing him to face the treant Dragon-bait had just encountered. "They're diseased… rotted completely through. Look inside of it," Alias said, pointing at the treant's severed arm. "Have you ever seen a treant with vines growing inside of it like that?"
With the tip of an arrow, Breck poked gingerly at the branch. The vines within looked like maggots infesting a corpse. The ranger turned away from the sight, horror in his eyes.
"Well?" Alias said. "What do you think it is?"
"I… don't know," the ranger said slowly. "I've… I've never seen anything like it before. Have you?"
"Yes," the swordswoman answered. "They remind me of the tendrils the undead god Moander used to control people, but the first time I saw them, the tendrils were all attached to him."
"Moander's dead," Breck said.
Alias shifted uneasily, realizing that the treants could be a sign that the god was returning to the Realms. Akabar could be right after all, but she still couldn't bring herself to admit it aloud. "Yes… Moander's dead." she said.
"Then