Accidental Archaeologist Read online

  'Vey? Vey, can you hear me?'

  'Thordric?' Vey's voice sounded loudly around the room. 'Where are you? Have you reached Neathin Valley yet?'

  By this time, Tome had fallen off his chair. 'How…?' he began, heaving himself up.

  'Who was that?' Vey asked curiously.

  'His name's Wizard Tome. He's a Wanderer,' Thordric explained.

  'You found them so quickly?'

  'Well…not exactly,' Thordric said.

  They explained to him what had happened, though Tome could hardly believe they were speaking to a man who was two thousand miles away. After that, it was Vey's turn to explain the changes he had made to the Council; how he had stopped the hatred everyone had for half-wizards; switched to only developing useful spells and potions to sell to the people and providing magical support in case of an accident or emergency.

  'What do you mean by “magical support” ' Tome asked. 'It sounds like a waste of magic to me.'

  Vey laughed. 'You're not the only one with that opinion. I had a lot of trouble trying to convince some of our older members that it was a worthy cause.'

  'Oh?' Thordric said. He had been babysitting his sisters when Vey had introduced the idea.

  'When there's a building that needs some repair because of a storm or other natural cause, we help to fix it. Actually,' Vey said, somewhat proudly. 'I went out to do some repairs myself just last week.'

  'I suppose I can see the use,' Tome conceded, though he didn't sound completely convinced. 'So, now that you claim the Council has changed so much, do you expect us to come back?'

  'That is up to you,' Vey said. 'If you wish too, then we will happily accept you back. If you do not, then we won't pursue you. Either way, the doors of the Wizard Council will always be open to you.'

  'They're open to everyone now,' Thordric put in happily.

  Tome stared. 'You're letting normal people see the secrets of the Council?'

  'We felt that it was best not to have any secrets,' Vey said, rather sternly. 'Secrets only make people suspicious and, after what Kalljard was planning, suspicion is the last thing we want.'

  Thordric spent the night in the Wanderers' hide out. He found that it extended at least a mile underground and there were natural springs everywhere.

  The hide out was made up of a series of caves, each linking to another and, Thordric realised, there was a spring in every other cave. Not only this, but the caves deeper in were covered in crystals and strange clumps of minerals. He even found a pale plant growing completely up one wall.

  'Do any of these have properties useful for potions?' he asked one of the Wanderers, an ancient wizard named Yim.

  Yim smiled. 'You're quite astute, boy,' he said. 'Yes, many of them do. That red stone there is what I use to colour my beard.'

  He pointed to a large, spiked cluster of crystals that were growing just in front of them. Thordric saw that it was indeed the same colour as Yim's beard.

  'Also, that vine over there,' Yim continued, pointing to the plant covering the wall., 'is particularly useful for making rope. It's what the buoyancy rope that we tied you with is made from, though we soak it in a potion made with certain minerals to increase its floating power. Without it, it only lifts you up by a few inches.'

  Thordric ran his hand across it and found that his feet were starting to rise off of the ground. 'It's amazing. Does it grow anywhere else?' he asked.

  Yim shook his head. 'Many things in this cave only grow here. Even by the large springs, closer to Valley Edge, nothing like this grows.'

  'Where do you make everything? Can you show me?'

  Yim looked uncomfortable. 'I'm not sure if Tome would allow it. He's very sensitive about outsiders being here.'

  'But he let me stay here,' Thordric pointed out.

  'Only to keep an eye on you,' Tome's voice sounded behind him.

  Thordric turned and found that Tome had once again used his magic to disguise himself. This time, he was a boy younger than Thordric, barely out of school. 'I'm going up to the surface,' he told Yim, ignoring Thordric's snort at how strange his deep voice sounded coming from the boy's lips. 'Keep him in your sight, but let him go anywhere he wants as long as he stays down here. I don't want him going up to the surface and getting lost somewhere.'

  Thordric scowled at him. Why would he want to go out in the dead of night in a strange place?'

  Chapter Nine: To Valley Edge

  Tome had come back just before dawn, or so Yim had said and, after resting for a few hours had agreed to take Thordric back to Valley Edge.

  Feeling as though his muscles had turned to stone and his eyelids had frozen shut, Thordric found his way out of the room they had given him and went back through the caves to where Tome was waiting.

  This time he had chosen to disguise himself as the Inspector again, though, Thordric noted wryly, he must have taken it from the Inspector's appearance some years ago, as it was missing the great blossom of grey hairs that had started to appear recently.

  Thordric was sure that it was all his sisters' doing. He knew that when his mother wasn't around, the Inspector had no control over them at all, even if he used the Toddlers Instant Calming Powder that Thordric's friend back at the Council, Wizard Myak, had spent years trying to perfect.

  Tome raised his eyebrows as Thordric staggered towards him, hardly able to walk in a straight line. 'You seem far more tired than is natural for someone of your…youth,' he said. Feeling groggy himself and with his back and legs aching, the word 'age' was something he wanted to avoid that morning.

  Looking at Thordric properly, he frowned. 'Did Yim show you our Making room?'

  Thordric tried to straighten up, but found it was just too hard. He gave a muted grunt that was all he could manage.

  'And did he happen to give you some of the potion he's been developing?'

  Thordric grunted again.

  'I see,' said Tome. He let out a small chuckle, sounding very odd coming from the Inspector's lips. 'I should have warned you about that. That particular potion has wonderful effects just after you take it, but in the morning…'

  He reached in his pocket and produced a bottle of what looked like small chips of crystal. 'Here, hold one of these under your tongue for a few minutes. You'll start to feel much better.'

  Thordric took some gladly, doing as Tome had advised. Within moments, he felt so good that he could have raced through the entire hide out and back. He straightened up and felt the ache seep out of his muscles and grinned. 'Thanks, I'm not sure I could have gone anywhere feeling like that.'

  They climbed up a steep set of stairs that led to a small opening directly underneath the hole that Thordric had been thrown down when he had first arrived. He could see the illusion of the rock blocking the opening, but as soon as Tome touched it, it fell apart to reveal the sunlight from outside.

  Compared to the soft glowing fires down in the caves, the light was so bright that Thordric had to wait for a moment while his eyes adjusted to it. As he did so, Tome levitated him up to the surface and then did the same for himself. It was even brighter outside than he had thought, for the sunlight reflected off the dry ground. It didn't make it any warmer though, for a chill wind was beating at them both.

  'What is it you hope to find in Valley Edge? I thought your only job was to find us?' Tome said after swearing loudly as he caught his foot on a rock.

  Thordric shook his head. 'That was only part of what I wanted to do. I'm hoping to find out if there are any half-wizards there.'

  'Well, I've been around Valley Edge a lot, though I try to keep my distance from others as much as I can. I have felt a few inklings of magic now and then, so I suppose there could be some there. Of course, it could just be those wizards from the Council that tried to find us all those years ago. I never bothered to remember their faces, so I can't say either way,' he shrugged. 'What do you plan to do if you find any?'

  'I wanted to send them back to Vey so he can enrol them at the Wizard Counci
l Training Facility. He's a half-wizard too, by the way.'

  Tome stopped and looked at him. 'You know, boy, before I met you nothing ever surprised me. But now, everything you've told us is just so different from how things were, I…' he hesitated, still not wishing to say the word. 'I feel as though I've aged more in one day than I have in my whole life.'

  He sighed, but Thordric wasn't listening. 'When you kidnapped me, I was brought here in a carriage,' he mused, looked at the miles of dry landscape in front of him, with not even a hint of Valley Edge in sight. 'Why don't we have one now?'

  Tome forgot his misery and looked rather guilty. 'We stole that one just to bring you here; I had to return it last night. Bit of luck, really, that the driver had just been answering a call of nature when my friend jumped into the driving seat. The horse didn't mind either, because we gave him a large bag of super oats before we got you.'

  'No wonder the townspeople don't trust you,' Thordric murmured.

  'What was that, boy?'

  'Oh, nothing,' he lied. It looked as if it was going to be a very long walk, so they might as well have something to talk about.

  'Why do you call yourselves the Wanderers?' he asked, watching as Tome strolled along playing with the Inspector's moustache, humming happily. 'I thought it might be because you had no real place to stay, but if you've got a permanent hide out…'

  Tome stopped humming. 'We don't call ourselves that, Kalljard did. If you really want to know, we call ourselves Brothers of Truth.'

  Thordric sniggered. Tome rapped him rather sharply on the head. 'We were young when we chose the name and thought that simply disregarding everything that Kalljard said was the true way to live.'

  'So…you ran away?'

  Tome rapped him on the head again. 'We didn't run away, we escaped from his twisted ways.'

  'You still thought the same way about half-wizards as he did, though,' Thordric pointed out.

  'We were nervous of them, I admit. After all, everyone has been told for hundreds of years about the dangers of them. I saw a lot of half-wizard magic go wrong with my own eyes, you know. It was just after I had enrolled at the Wizard Council Training Facility. I was very young, and like everyone else, never considered that it was because they hadn't been trained.'

  'But that must have been a hundred years ago,' Thordric said seriously.

  This time, Tome wasn't content with just hitting him. Instead, he threw a handful of evil smelling powder at his head that caused him to shuffle along the floor on his knees every few seconds.

  'I may be old, but I'm not that old, boy,' Tome said and, to Thordric's horror, the Inspector's moustache curled up to his nostrils just like the real Inspector's did when he was angry.

  'So why did you come out here, then?' Thordric asked, uncontrollably bending his knees to shuffle along the floor again.

  'Because Kalljard had less control here. There's a lot of strange magic around these parts and he didn't trust it. That's why he founded Jard Town so far away.'

  Thordric blinked. He had forgotten that Kalljard had been the first person to make settlements in what was now Jard Town. The founding of the Wizard Council had been his idea too, not long after Jard Town was built, over a thousand years ago. It was around then that all the hatred and fear against the half-wizards had started.

  He sighed. He and Vey and the rest of the Council still had a lot of work to do in undoing everything that Kalljard had done wrong.

  'What do you think the world would be like if Kalljard hadn't taken over everywhere?' he asked Tome.

  Tome shrugged. 'I have no idea boy. There's no point in wasting time thinking about it either. No matter what you do, you can't change the past. Though I did hear a rumour once that Kalljard had been born stillborn, but somehow his father managed to revive him. Gives you something to think about, doesn't it?'

  It took them all day to reach Valley Edge, and a good part of the night too, thanks to Tome's shuffling powder. It was so strong that Thordric hadn't been able to shake the effects for hours.

  They arrived, cold and hungry, outside the hotel that Thordric had supposed to have booked into on his arrival from The Jardine.

  There was no sign of life coming from inside, nor any light. With disgust, Thordric spotted a notice on the door saying, 'Closed due to lack of business'.

  What was he going to do now?

  'You could always come back and stay with us, boy,' Tome suggested.

  Thordric scowled at him. 'I'm not going back there unless you find a carriage.'

  'Suit yourself,' he said, and sidled off to leave Thordric standing on the hotel doorstep.

  Throwing down his bag, he sat down on the steps and huddled up against the door. He might as well get some sleep until the sun came up.

  He woke up to a sharp jab in his shoulder. Tome stood in front of him, grinning and twiddling the Inspector's moustache again. Thordric blinked. He hadn't expected him to come back.

  'You found a carriage?' he asked, looking around to see where it was.

  'No. I thought about what you were saying yesterday and decided that it wouldn't do you any good to stay with us if you want to find any half-wizards living here.'

  Thordric looked confused. 'So what are you doing back?'

  'You could at least show me a little gratitude, boy. I've been wandering around all night for you.'

  'Doing what?'

  Tome rapped him on the head again. 'Finding you a place to stay, of course. Now, get up and follow me.'

  Grudgingly, Thordric did as he was told. Tome led him around the maze of bright painted houses until he was so confused he would never have found his way out on his own.

  'How much further is it?' he moaned. He found that his knees were all bruised and it was all he could do just to stand.

  'Stop whining, we're almost there,' Tome snapped.

  He was telling the truth, for around the next corner he stopped, changing his disguise from the Inspector to a man who looked only slightly younger than Tome himself, though his hair and beard were a dull grey rather than white. They stood in front of a large house completely separate from those around it. As Tome knocked on the door, Thordric stared at it, for the house was almost the double of Lizzie's townhouse; the only difference was that it had been painted a vibrant orange with dark green splotches everywhere. He tried not to think of it as a mouldy looking orange, but it didn't work.

  The door opened and a woman, around the same age as Lizzie, stood there peering at them over her spectacles. She had red, frizzy hair streaked with grey and was wearing rather a lot of jewellery.

  'Ah, Tome,' she said, inviting him in. She looked at Thordric, critically analyzing his worn robes and noting the Council's emblem on them. 'Is this the boy, then?

  'It certainly is,' Tome said, and pulled Thordric inside.

  Instead of Lizzie's tidy hallway, Thordric found himself squeezing past stacks of books, baskets and large wall hangings trying to get to the kitchen. He winced as he saw it, for there were plates stacked almost a metre high on every surface, not all of them clean.

  'So,' she said, placing a rather chipped tea pot on the table and fetching some cups and a lopsided cake. 'You're the one Lizzie spoke of so fondly.'

  'You know her?' Thordric asked, watching her pour the tea whilst spilling a great deal on the table.

  'Of course I do. She's my sister in law. Eric, or High Wizard Vey, as he seems to like being called now, is my nephew.'

  Now that she had said it, he thought he could see traces of Vey's features in her face, though he had never looked as dotty as she was.

  So this was who Tome had arranged for him to stay with?

  Chapter Ten: Morweena

  Thordric watched nervously as Lizzie's sister in law took a rather large knife and cut him and Tome a slice of cake.

  'Well, you don't look like much, I must say,' she said, biting into her own slice and spilling the creamy filling all over her front, which fortunately she had covered with a napkin. 'But
Lizzie seems to think you have some skills.'

  She looked at him as she said it and then glanced around the room. Thordric looked around it too and had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

  Tome grinned at them both. 'I'll be off now. Thank you for the tea and cake, Morweena, it was delicious.' He got up, still smiling happily. 'I'm sure you'll both be very happy with the arrangement.'

  As he disappeared back down the hall, Thordric turned to Morweena. 'What arrangement?'

  'Tome said that you would be happy to clean the whole house in exchange for staying here. And redecorate,' she added, indicating the peeling paint on the ceiling.

  Thordric dropped his cake.

  'Dear Lizzie told me all about the work you did for her, and that lovely mural you painted at her house in Watchem Woods. I can't wait to see what you'll paint for me.'

  She giggled girlishly and cut another slice of cake, dropping crumbs all over the table.

  Thordric sat watching her, unable to speak from a moment. 'I, er…of course I'd be happy to help,' he said eventually, forcing himself to smile. 'But I've got work of my own to do.'

  'Of course, of course,' she said, waving her hand. 'There's no rush to get it all done, you can stay as long as you need. Perhaps you could try working on one room a day. I'm sure with your skills, it would only take you an hour for each one, so you'll have the rest of the day free.'

  An hour? Even with magic, it would take at least half a day just to clean it.

  Morweena got up, upsetting the milk jug on the table. 'I had better show you to your room. I'm sure you'll want to get some rest after the trouble Tome told me about.'

  Despite it now being midday, the house was dark inside and she led the way up the stairs by lantern light.

  Thordric kept tripping up on things that had somehow found themselves stored on the steps. He didn't think he'd ever known anyone with so many things. How had Lizzie, who couldn't even stand a teaspoon out of place, have stayed in a house like this?

  'Oh, she didn't,' Morweena said when he tentatively broached the subject. 'She's never been comfortable staying in the houses of others, so she stayed at the hotel instead.'