AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Magic has twisted the forest. Don’t believe what you see. Follow your heart.” She turned toward Jax. “And his nose.”
Now she speaks with great wisdom.He came up beside the old woman with a nudge of his giant head. She scratched behind his ears, and Jax gave a quick wag of his tail before sliding away from her touch. Together they took off uphill.
Slipping on the rocks, the granite stone started to chip and shift, like shale or powdery limestone just as the lichen lost its rough edge and began to shimmer—slick and slippery like algae. The ground sloped treacherously downward. They moved through the trees in a diamond shape, Meshougi at the back and Jax leading with his nose as they weaved through the forest. The hum of the trees was low and loud enough that Killian’s chest hummed with the vibration. It began to pulse. Then it pulsed twice. Like a heartbeat. Slow and monstrous.
The trees were now so close together that the men had to turn sideways. Jax brushed against each one with his broad shoulders as he slipped around them. The tree bark had shifted from the piney clumps of Raela’s forest to something more like papery skeletons. Branches now grew like angled arms, thick and bent. Each black spot of the birch began to ooze, and the tarry substance clung to their clothing. Slow rivulets dripped from the base of the trees and coated the shale path.
Killian stumbled and caught himself on one of the blackened trees. Pain jolted up his arm. A whisper spoke in his mind,“Coward. Murderer.”He ripped his hand away from the slime and bark, and the pain and voices halted. Killian looked back at Meshougi, eyes wide and questioning.
Meshougi watched him with an owlish gaze before heaving out a huge breath. “And so it begins.”
Chapter 19
Shadows
Killian
“Jax,”Killiansaid,“isthere another way? Can we go back?” Killian cringed at the words that so closely mimicked the tree’s accusations. He was a coward.
The wolf sniffed the air.This way does not smell like death. Something rotten is coming behind us, though. Something like moldy carrion.
Meshougi’s hand settled on Killian's forearm, her beady gaze holding his as she gave him a smile filled with compassion. Killian swallowed a sudden rush of emotion, feeling the warmth from her comfort and nausea from his shame. She squeezed his arm. “The only way is through, dear. One step, and then the next. One breath, and then the next. Sometimes, all we can do in times of difficulty is hold to the truth. Your dreams taught you that what you feel, see, and hear may not be real. The trees tell you the lies you once believed.” Her smile turned a bit sad. “The storm is picking up now, but you have already conquered one challenge—you have overcome. The winds blow, but you must not bend to breaking …” She released him and stepped forward, placing her bony hand on the bark with a wince to help herself down a rocky step. “And don’t listen to the trees.”
Phineas and Killian made eye contact. Phineas was waiting for his lead, his face lined with determination, confidence, and trust—trust Killian didn’t feel he deserved. But he would do his best. Killian swallowed hard before nodding to his companion. Sheathing his sword to better maneuver through the trees, Phineas took the lead, and Jax followed close behind him. Jax’s pelt grew thicker with slime with every brush against the leaves. Phineas’s bulk struggled around each slobbery, twisted branch and crooked trunk. Killian kept his sword drawn and moved sideways, constantly keeping watch over all his companions.
Meshougi began to sing in low and haunting Common, harmonizing with the eerie rumbling murmur of the forest.
"The whisper tides will seek a sigh
Some breath to steal and shriek the lie.
But rightly fight among the fray,
The might of light will guide your way.
"The trees drip words, the words burn hot,
But truth will sear the pain to naught.
So seek your path, and do not stray,
Be strong of heart, come what may."
“Maybe you could sing something else,” Killian muttered, as fear dripped like ice down his spine. He hesitated. The way forward required him to touch the bark again. Closing his eyes, he inhaled slowly.The only way is through.
His shoulder brushed a leaf. “Unloved,” it hissed. “Unworthy.” He tripped, and his knee landed hard on a root.“Alone. Hated.”He pulled himself up by a branch.“Hiding behind a crown you don’t deserve.” “Nothing without it.” “Only good for a betrothal.” “Murderer.”The trees were so dense that every step and twist put him in contact with another piece, and every piece added to the cacophony of voices.
Mushrooms scattered along edges of the tree roots, some red and white, others black as coal. They emitted the smell of rotting onion, and thick oil beaded along the edges and hissed when it hit their clothes and skin.
The voices grew louder as his vision blurred.“You killed your mother.” “You were never good enough to be king.” “It should have been you who died.”A flash of the crown and his father’s frown surged through his mind.“He was never going to choose you. It was always going to be Phineasssss.”He saw his father pat Phineas on the shoulder with a proud smile that Killian had never seen.
Killian shook his head, muttering under his breath, “Don’t listen to the trees. Don’t listen to the trees.”
Ahead, he could barely make out Phineas, his every movement shaky and stilted. Killian used the inside of his shirt to wipe his eyes, trying to see more clearly. He thought he saw Phineas’s cheeks shining with tears. Jax stumbled and whined. He looked at Meshougi who moved forward with her eyes closed and her head tilted upward. She was singing something too low to hear, but with every touch of the trees, her wrinkly forehead spasmed for a moment before it settled again.
The only way is through.
A thousand types of mushrooms now filled the space, covering the ground, trees, and branches. Wide yellow ones climbed the trees, and purple feathery mushrooms dripped like poisonous stalactites from the boughs above their heads. His vision swirled. Then the forest disappeared behind a darkly-colored hallucination.
