Page 28

Ahead, the bridge cracked into two pieces, broken by a branch growing underneath it. The bark of the tree was pitch black, as dark as a moonless night.

Its leaves were the same shape as the other elder trees, but they weren’t vibrant green. Instead, yellow laced through their veins, leaving only hints of green between the diseased spots.

“Do you see a way down?” I asked. I was not excited at the idea of touching the bark of the tree. Somehow, even that felt dangerous.

“There are stairs over here!” Lerolian yelled, and I blinked. How long had he been walking underneath the bridge?

Tallu and I followed his direction down a narrow set of stairs that led to the forest floor.

I had barely put my foot down when a snake slithered across the top of my boot and around my ankle, tighter and tighter. Dancing back, I brought a knife down, cutting the snake in two pieces. Its head turned, opening to bite down on my ankle, but Tallu stomped on it, his heel crushing the animal.

I nodded at him gratefully and looked at Lerolian. “Have you seen anything else?”

He shook his head, but turned to look up at the massive tree. I had thought the elder trees we grew were large. But this was twice as wide. I could walk an hour and still not make a full circle around its trunk.

“There is a taste of blood magic. Normally, it is as healthy as the beat of a heart. But when we use it for other purposes, when we raise the dead, or control a man with a drop of his blood… that is how this tree feels.” Lerolian walked toward the tree, and we followed him. When Lerolian could touch the tree, he pointed between two roots.

Riini sat there, her legs crossed among the leaves and twigs fallen from the tree. With her eyes closed, the shadows painted her the same color as the bark of the tree.

Her tendrils swirled around her, all touching the tree root. When she breathed, a spark of color rose from inside her chest and traveled along her tendrils, absorbed by the elder tree.

“Riini?” I asked quietly.

When she opened her eyes, they were bright orange. She closed them again.

The ground moved around her, and I stumbled back. It was not soil and debris from the massive tree. Snakes and insects surrounded her, and I had woken them.

They hissed, the sound rising in pitch as they moved toward me, sinuous and relentless. I retreated until I ran into Tallu. He gripped my shoulders tight, raising his hand and preparing to use his electro magic.

I could hear it beyond my ears, the rumble of his power, that voice that vibrated in my skull whenever anyone used magic. But then Riini opened her eyes again, speaking with a voice that wasn’t hers.

“I see you, imperial dog,” Riini said. But just as before when she had spoken with the elder trees’ voice, I knew it wasn’t her.

“Riini!” I shouted her name, but she didn’t even react, her face twitching uncontrollably, and the snakes were crawling over me, wrapping around my ankles. Cockroaches climbed up their backs, and I kicked them away.

“I will kill you,” Riini said, but her voice choked on the last word.

“Riini!” Joxii screamed, running down the stairs we had just descended. She nimbly made her way through the mass of snakes and insects, dropping to her knees in front of her sister and grabbing her face. “Riini, I’m back.”

She pulled a small satchel from around her waist, and opened a water pouch, pressing it against her sister’s lips.

“Riini, come back to me,” she whispered.

Riini blinked her eyes, one brown and the other that acidic orange. “Joxii?”

“Here,” Joxii said, putting the water skin back to her sister’s lips.

Riini managed to raise one hand, tilting the water and drinking it thirstily. As she drank, Joxii touched Riini’s tendrils, tapping them gently until, one by one, they separated from the elder tree.

Riini slumped forward, dropping the water and Joxii scooped her up, rushing to us. She clutched her sister tightly, eyes wide, and chest heaving.

“Help me get her out of here,” Joxii begged. As she headed toward the stairs, the insects and snakes moved with her, an enormous wave following Riini.

I grabbed a fallen tree branch and swept the insects aside, pinning two of the snakes. They turned and hissed at me, but Tallu let loose the bolt of electricity that had been building in his chest. I could smell blood and heard the scream of his magic.

Don’t you dare touch him.

Joxii was already at the top of the stairs, and I grabbed hold of Tallu’s hand, pushing him ahead of me. Kicking at the snakes and insects, we managed to get to the top without being bitten. Joxii was sweating, and I opened my arms.