Page 23

It still wore the hilt of my sword on its back, moss growing over the leather I had wrapped around the pommel. It was like no beast I knew, and as I watched it I realized it was no animal.

It had never been born. It had been created. The elves of old had grown it as they would a tree or a flowering plant.

They had been losing the war against the Imperium and it had been their only choice.

I closed my eyes just long enough to accept what I was going to do. This was a creature of the forest, which meant I could try to use animal speak on it, but I knew what would work better.

It had been created with forest magic. It would respond to forest magic. It would respond to sacrifice.

I reached up, and freed a dagger from my waist. In one swift motion, I cut free a lock of my hair, and offered it forward. The creature sniffed, its breath making the hair move as though in a strong breeze.

Then it opened its mouth, two layers of teeth ready to chomp closed on my wrist and take my hand with my offering.

“Airón—” Tallu started, but I held up my other hand.

Quickly, I put my hand into the creature’s mouth, dropped the hair and then withdrew it. The creature swallowed, a dark tongue licking over its lips.

I tried again. “Friend? I believe we have more in common than how much we love the taste of my beloved’s skin.”

“Friend? You claim to be my friend?” The creature spoke in a creaking voice, his words groaning on top of each other. “You come into my forest with a dragon, and you are not an imperial soldier, but I saw you come with them, and he is their king.”

“You are right. I am no imperial soldier,” I said.

“No,” the creature agreed. “Then what are you? You stink of magic—forest magic but also magic I have not ever encountered. What are you?”

“I aim to be your friend. We are not here to fight, and I am sorry that I have accidentally put us at odds. We are here because the forest dragon died here, trying to show us something in these dark woods.” I opened my hands again, showing that I was not holding any weapons, bowing my head, but not quite baring my stomach as a wolf might to indicate its helplessness.

“There are many things in these dark woods,” the creature said.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Come.” The monster heaved an enormous sigh, its leaves rustling as it exhaled. “Come.”

It began walking through the forest, and the trees leaned away from it. I was reminded of when Sagam and his sister Joxii protected us when we first entered Tavornai, their elven magic bending the trees away from us, providing us a route to safety.

This seemingly magical clearing of our path felt blunt, like using a sword to chop onions. But as the forest closed around behind us, it became more apparent that this wasn’t the creature using magic, this was simply how the creature existed.

It was made from the forest and the forest moved out of its way to make sure it could do the work intended for it.

“Are you sure we should follow it?” Tallu asked, his voice low.

“Listen to where we’re heading,” I said. Naî finally came down from the branches and landed on my shoulders, no larger than a housecat, but her sharp talons cut into my clothes.

Tallu frowned, then his brow relaxed.

The creature was leading us toward the music.

Nine

It was the children’s laughter that gave it away. The trees leaned away from the monster, but even the movement didn’t hide that something had changed in the dark forest since the last time we had visited. High in the branches, bridges grew between trees, and I heard the slap of bare feet on the wooden slats.

I saw a hint of tendrils as someone small used them to grab hold of the tree trunk and swing herself onto the next tree, skipping the bridge altogether and landing on a rooftop before sliding down and peeking over the edge at us.

Smiling, I waved up at her, recognizing her as one of the children from House Chaliko. As soon as we had determined that Kacha must know where we were, the children had fled deeper into the forest with Lady Chaliko.

I just hadn’t known they were heading this deep into the forest.

“It’s Airón!” the girl called, her voice rising into song that was carried through the leaves. Then there was the sound of a dozen feet running, the strange, flute music disappearing with a yelp.