Rykert and Felicity had just accepted Fergus’s offer to aid them with the general treasury, something he was thrilled about, when a loud bang reverberated through the school.
Everyone stilled, hands on swords.
“Sounds like Felix and Punzel made a route into the school.” Rykert spoke with confidence.
“What did they do?” Ari and Kellen both looked stricken for a second.
“Felix and a few of the other dragons have been considering making a tunnel between the school and lake.”
“A tunnel. That is not safe.” Kellen’s eyebrows met over his nose.
“It is if there are dragons and sea serpents guarding it.” Lucy pointed out an obvious.
“But what if there are not?” One of the more aged Aasguards countered.
A small Felix flew into the room. He was the size of a dog. “Punzel refused to leave the school unguarded. She insisted we find a guardian before we created the tunnel.”
“You made the tunnel, so who is the guardian?” Felicity played along.
“Come and see.” With that Felix turned tail and yellow wings flapping, led the way into the cellar.
Rykert and one of the other warriors lifted Fergus in his chair on the stairs but otherwise their first warrior had no trouble keeping up with them.
Felix continued down to the dragon area. He crossed the expanse and flew to the edge. There they had knocked out a wall and part of the floor to allow for a dock and entry for an underground river.
Ari gasped. “I had no idea a river flowed there.”
“We suspected but again, Punzel was stubborn. She wanted the students here protected.” Felix pointed to the sea dragon.
“That sounds like my Punzel.”
“And my Issac. He would insist upon the exact same.” Lucy added as she smiled at the sea serpent.
The surface of the water rippled as a creature much like Punzel broke the surface. This one was smaller and green instead of black. But every bit as fierce looking.
“This is Bram. He has lived in this lake for centuries. And has watched the building of the school with interest. He and his family have agreed to protect this entrance.”
Ari stepped forward to greet him, Kellen right behind her. Both of them kept swallowing. “Bram, we are thrilled you are joining us.”
“I have long felt Aasguards should continue training their own.” Bram spoke in a deep voice, one that reminded Rykert of Aern’s. The lake serpent noticed Fergus. He hissed.
“I told you about my warrior, Fergus the First.” Punzel spoke to his back as the lake dragon erupted from the water to glide, there was no other word to describe his actions, to Fergus.
He bumped his snout along Fergus’s legs. This wet the seated warrior. Bram hissed again. “Vaspiris.” He plunged his head into the water and bellowed. The water dampened the sound, but it flared out in rings, building on top of each other, rippling until movement in the water behind Punzel caught their attention.
More green sea serpents like Bram breached the surface. Bram used his head to indicate them. As though none of them noticed their arrival.
“My family. This is my sister Serene and my mother Myrtle. They are both healers.”
The two females rose from the water and in the exact same manner as Bram, approached Fergus. They sniffed him and got him wet all over again. He did not seem to mind.
Myrtle, the mother, leaned back. “What has been done to remove the pain?”
Eliza introduced herself and explained what she had already accomplished. The two fell into a more technical discussion with the sister interjecting what he believed were helpful observations judging from the reaction to her thoughts. The three healers came to a determination although he had no idea as to their conclusion.
“My hope is to walk. And to fight again.” Fergus inserted his desire into their conversation.
All three females looked at him. Then at each other again, and the scope of the conversation appeared to change.
Serene, the sister, sniffed at Fergus again. “You tire easily?”
“Yes. But I am no longer in pain.” Fergus held up one large hand. “I have only been treated for an hour or so.”
Both lake serpents turned to verify this with Eliza. “Your progress is stellar in that case.” Myrtle stuck out her tongue and used it much as Eliza had used her staff earlier. Serene followed suit. The two lake serpents must have come to the same conclusion.
“The poison is diluted but it remains within your body.” Myrtle stated this with confidence.
“That means I will not be able to walk?”
“Not with the poison still inside you.” Myrtle turned to her son. “Please be aware that we might not be able to fully remove the poison. It has been a part of you for a long time. We have some remedies that remove poison but we have never treated vaspiris poison before.”
“Why not?” Fergus’s hand clenched into a fist.
“Because anyone who is infected has never survived before.”
‡‡
At Eliza’s bold statement not one of the Aasguard warriors in the room blinked. No one showed astonishment. Felicity certainly did not gasp. It stood to reason that Fergus would have survived.
Eliza frowned at them. “You are not surprised by this? Shocked?”
Lucy shook her head. “We are Aasguard. We cease fighting when the fighting ceases.”
Quiet agreement rippled through the space.
Myrtle and Serene finished a low conversation in their own language and Serene entered the river. She soon swam away with powerful, mesmerizing strokes against the current.
“Serene is going to obtain the herbs and plants we hope will remove all the poison from your body.” Myrtle’s stunned air did not dissipate. Their knowledge of Aasguard warriors had only begun.
Ari and Kellen remained in deep conversation with Bram. All three of their postures indicated muted excitement.
“Myrtle, can you fly?” The question popped into Felicity’s mind and out of her mouth before she could censure it.
“Of a sort.” Myrtle bustled around Fergus, not really paying attention to the question.
Felicity sought additional information. “Our dragons have wings so they can fly.”
This must have distracted the lake dragon. Maeze opened her wings and flew around the space. Which was surprisingly spacious although many of them needed to duck.
“We obviously do not have wings. But our flippers work so we can…” She stopped as though searching for the word.
“We are more gliders than fliers.” Bram must have overheard the question because he answered.
Punzel perked up. “You can glide? Do you believe I can as well?”
“It might be better if we exit to a training field.” Kellen opened a dragon sized door to the outside and they all exited. Fergus could go as far as the patio and he breathed deeply of the fresh air. A pleasure he had been denied for a century.
Felicity admired him and his resiliency more than she could ever say. This man had been through an experience none of them could relate to, other than Punzel.
Myrtle and Bram encouraged the dragons to take to the air. Then they launched into it as well. Their flippers made a motion that might resemble flying from a distance. Their motions reminded her of the small mammals that caught wind currents and rode them.
Nothing indicated the lake serpents were doing the same, yet they looked similar.
Punzel watched her fresh water counterparts and after a couple of failed attempts, lifted her massive body into the air. She screeched the first time but Bram and Myrtle coached her on how to stop and turn and various other necessities. Soon she gleefully glided through the air with the dragons and the two lake serpents.
Serene entered the patio. She carried several bunches of green plants in one flipper. Instead of joining the flying fun she concentrated on her patient. Eliza took the plants and the two of them made a potion that glowed a bright green. Eliza added a few additional ingredients from packets in her pockets and shook the bottle vigorously.
Then she handed it to Fergus. “Drink as much of this as feels comfortable.”
He opened the bottle and raised it to his lips. A grimace after tasting the concoction but he downed the contents.
“One should never underestimate an Aasguard I see.” Serene said this in an aside to Eliza.
“We mages are hardy but Aasguards apparently best us in this realm.” Eliza took the bottle from him and with the leftover plants, made up a second potion. This one she handed to Lucy, who tucked it into her pocket.
“What side effects might this cause?” Lucy asked Serene and Eliza.
“I am uncertain how it will effect an Aasguard.” Eliza answered as she and Serene turned equal frowns on Fergus.
Serene stirred. “It might make him ill, but some do not experience that.”
“I did add a few herbs to hopefully prevent nausea.” Eliza ran a hand through her shoulder length white blonde hair.
Despite the white blonde color, she might be Fergus’s contemporary age wise. Felicity didn’t know much about mages, such as how long they lived. This woman had seen more summers than most here, and many of them could attest to long years. She had aged as gracefully as Fergus and Mozark, her contemporaries.
“If it allows me to walk, I do not care about the side effects.” A slight growly tone peppered Fergus’s statement.
“Can you feel your legs?” Lucy asked as she studied him.
“No. That is why I have not attempted to stand. I am not in pain, but I still cannot feel my legs. It is as though they are numb.”
“Did you do any exercises with them?” Felicity tried to imagine his life but failed.
“Punzel and I tried. But there was nothing there. No feeling, no control, no awareness. Only intense pain.”
Eliza nodded. “These herbs and plants are powerful. If they do not work, I doubt that you will ever feel your legs again.”
“Most are unaware of two of those herbs. They grow deep in our lake. Lake serpents have been using them for centuries but even other healers are not aware of them.” Serene sniffed at Fergus’s legs.
Felicity thought of their foray into Atlas. “Could we harvest them?”
“That is likely why you have not heard of them. They grow deep. If you can withstand the depths, they are not a challenge to harvest but…”
“Aasguards can withstand depths so we could harvest them for you.” Felicity slanted a look at Serene. “Of course a lake serpent who knows what she is doing might be a better option.”
Both healers laughed. “That is true. I am excited to meet a mage healer. I feel there is so much we could learn from one another.”
“I agree.” Eliza and Serene were already comfortable with each other and Felicity approved.
“This is a school.”
At her statement both of them looked at her. “It is a school. For Aasguard warriors.” Eliza stared at her feet.
“True. However, they need to learn how to heal and I am certain that Kellen and Ari would welcome the two of you coming together and others like you, to learn from each other. If your partnership can result in healing all of us collectively, then this school has accomplished even more than it set out to do.” Felicity felt this to her very being.
“A school for healers of all kinds to come together and learn and teach.” Eliza blinked a few tears away. Serene appeared to join her.
Felicity put out a call to Ari.
Who, once apprised of the situation, in an uncustomary act, showed more excitement than Felicity had seen since Ari’s wedding day. “We hoped that one day this school would grow into something more. We never believed it would be this soon. You must stay with us and learn from one another. In addition, both of you can instruct our Aasguard students. It seems healers would be far better teachers than us on the subject.”
Eliza and Serene looked as though they had been given an easy to make cure-all that never failed.
“We accept.”