Page 47
“Come. We have arrived. Now it is time to see if the forest you grew will eat you alive.” Spider grinned, showing far too many teeth, and her tendrils snapped out with tremendous force. She laughed, the booming sound loud over the water.
It took nearly a full day to get everyone onto shore with all of the supplies that Namati and Spider had been willing to give us. Luckily, given the proximity to the mountains and the Ariphadeus, Tavornai was no longer quite so swampy in this part of the nation. Instead, it was a rocky shore and we had to climb our way past to reach the land.
Servants and soldiers prepared a camp for us, and I noticed no one was looking too hard at the forest around us, at the glowing vines and the trees that seemed to shiver toward anyone who got too close. I wondered if there was a way to keep people safer. Could I mark everyone here as people the forest shouldn’t eat?
At the edge of the camp, I reached out and put my hand against one of the trees. I immediately recognized it, as one might recognize the cousin of a dear friend by face and build alone. This was the child of one of the trees the pirates and I had sent out into the barren land of Tavornai.
It lit up under my hand, moss spiraling from my palm in a green glowing pattern. I could feel its roots under the ground reaching out and touching the tree next to it and the tree after that, all of the trees in the forest of Tavornai echoed back, just as they did with the elder tree.
I wondered if that was a function of this forest alone, or if all forests were like this. If I traveled back to Dragon’s Rest Mountains where tall pine trees grew in a blanket of green along the white peaks, and I touched my hand to one of those trees, would they also be able to speak to every tree on those mountains, their roots touching underground?
But I wasn’t even talking to the trees yet, wasn’t using true magic; I was just aware of what the tree could tell me, like I was putting my hand on a block of ice and understanding how I could carve it. Reaching inside myself, I chose a small memory: eating breakfast that morning and looking out over the ocean at the horizon, wondering what was beyond this. Was there anything beyond this?
The magic sparked something and the trees all around us began to grow, but I pulled back, pushing instead for something else. I didn’t need them to grow. I needed them to recognize friend from foe. It was a difficult task even for humans, and the tree offered a solution—one I could feel echoed from deep in the forest, from one of the elder trees.
Like a master craftsman teaching an apprentice, the elder tree instructed this tree and the vines on it what to do. Flowers opened along the vines, their pollen puffing up into the air and landing on all seven hundred of the imperials with us. Most didn’t notice, but several began sneezing, and a few even looked up into the air, catching sight of the fluorescent dots floating on the air.
Sagam reached up with his hand, his eyes going wide as pollen collected on his skin.
Then it was done, everyone with us marked as not for killing.
“Is it strange?” Lerolian asked.
I turned to look at him as he came up from behind, standing next to me.
“I was only ever taught how to do the one magic. In fact, I’m not sure I could ever do another. Blood magic was simply part of who I was. Yes, it cost something to perform, but it felt natural.” Lerolian sounded nostalgic. No, he sounded almost regretful.
“It’s not strange to perform all these different kinds of magic. Animal speak costs you almost nothing.” I considered. “That’s not true. Animal speak costs you something in your own mind. You have to be willing to understand the opinions and thoughts of another. Your own can never be so fixed that theirs are not worth listening to. It’s the basis of the magic, not that we teach children that. That costs something. To truly understand another, to truly understand anyone, costs something in yourself.”
I patted the tree again, watching the touch vibrate through the bark in a wave of fluorescent light.
“So learning all these different kinds of magic has taught me the costs of all of them. Desire, anger, sacrifice,” I said thoughtfully.
“How many types of magic do you think you could learn?” Lerolian asked.
I didn’t know that I wanted the answer. How big was the hole that Kacha had dug inside me?
“Airón,” Tallu said from behind me.
The pollen had him, creating a glowing effect around him as though he truly was one of the gods of old. He looked magical.
He gestured and I saw that the emperor’s tent had been built, servants moving around it, preparing something for us to eat. Letting go of the forest, I walked back to camp with him.
Two days later, a day from the mountains that bordered the Ariphadeus, Empress Koque and Prince Hallu appeared.
Seventeen
The scouts who moved around our convoy, in front of us and behind us, brought word that someone was coming; it was only Iradîo and her birds who were able to tell us who it was.
Both Koque and Hallu seemed unharmed, if a little dirty and sweaty from their travel through the forest. Joxii and Riini accompanied them, both of the girls looking flushed and full of magic.
Tallu received Koque and Hallu in the temporary shelter his servants built for him every time we stopped. Koque bowed low as though it was a throne room, and her dress was not covered with strange green stains and marks of dirt.
Prince Hallu followed, his fingers forming a triangle for his brother that Tallu waved off.
“Empress Koque, brother, we are surprised to see you,” Tallu said. He didn’t glance at me when he spoke. “I understood that you had found safety with the children of Tavornai. I was satisfied to leave you there until the situation in the Imperium was settled. If Kacha and his men could not conquer the jungle, we had little expectation that anyone else would be able to.”
“It is true that our time with the children of Tavornai has been safe,” Koque agreed. “However, we were loath to be separated from Your Imperial Majesty for so long. Prince Hallu is your heir and the only safe place for him would be by your side.”
