Eternal Forest: Savage Rising (20 page)

“How is that possible?” Zehlyr questioned. “You can’t be in two places at once.”

“I don’t have to be,” Killika answered. “I’ve summoned these beasts, thus they are linked to me and do my bidding. I’ve only to wish for your death and they will carry it out, no matter where I am.”

“How…how did you do that?” Viyana asked. Zehlyr had never heard her sound so defeated. “How did you summon them?”

“Summoning spells are easy to perform when the land is dead,” the Balisekt Lord answered. “Once the earth is robbed of all life, summoning demons is simple. It’s when you try and summon a spirit in the living forest that things can have disastrous consequences.” Killika turned one last time, gazing into Azalea’s wide, unsure eyes. “Of course, you know all about that, don’t you…dryad?

Chapter 20

              Zehlyr couldn’t believe how powerless he was. There were no shackles on his wrists, no chains holding him in place. Yet he was in no position to save Azalea as the balisekt soldiers led her off with Lord Killika into the Wilds towards elven territory. She looked over her shoulder as the soldiers pushed her along. Her eyes, full of hopelessness and defeat, stared longingly back at him until she was out of sight. Even now, hours after the army had left; her look haunted his mind.

             
The instructions he and his fellow prisoners had received were very clear. They were not to leave the scorched earth. There were no walls or chains to hold them in, but the four fire demons patrolling the area were incentive enough to obey. The beasts were psychically connected to their master. Killika had only to wish for their death, and they would carry it out.

             
Seeing no outs and unable to find any hope, Zehlyr leaned his back against the wall of the storehouse and slid down onto his rear. Out in front of him, the demons paced slowly. They didn’t look at their captives, nor did they attempt to engage with them in any way. For such ferocious creatures, they seemed more like livestock out in the meadow. Of course, Zehlyr knew that could change in an instant, and they’d never see it coming.

             
“I should have stayed home,” Cherin mumbled under his breath.

             
Zehlyr shot him a look of annoyance. “And where would that be?” he asked. “Under someone’s porch somewhere?”

             
“Better than living in a cave like an animal,” Cherin retorted.  

             
“This is really getting old, you two,” Viyana said with a groan. As though scolded by their mother, the two brothers scoffed, but were otherwise silent. Cherin kicked at a rock by his feet. The noise caused the fire demons to snap to attention. Everyone froze as the beasts snarled at them, staring fiercely with their flaming eyes. Once satisfied that the human wasn’t attempting to escape, they returned to their previously docile state.

             
If it weren’t for the fire demons, Zehlyr would have popped his brother in the jaw for his stupidity. Instead, he shot him an angry look, his bottom lip pulled in tight and his brow furrowed.

             
“Sorry,” Cherin whispered. Everything was silent for a while after that, leaving Zehlyr once again to wrestle with his thoughts. His heart ached and his gut burned with rage as he thought of Azalea. He could see her in his mind, tears running down her face, no hope left in her soul. Killika would use her as a weapon of war, a tool to do his sinister bidding. It made him want to vomit.

             
“What is a dryad?” Zehlyr asked softly. The others went wide-eyed in alarm, but their demonic guards seemed okay with calm conversation amongst the prisoners.

             
“A dryad is a spirit of the forest,” Sunrise explained. “They are the Lady’s servants, caretakers of all that she has created.”

             
“Why did Killika call her a dryad?” Zehlyr followed up.

             
“I don’t know,” Sunrise answered. “A dryad is a spirit, invisible to the eyes of mortal creatures. Dryad’s haven’t had physical bodies since the end of the Great Blight, and those bodies did not look human.”

             
“If she is a dryad, that would certainly explain her ability to control the forest around her,” Viyana added.

             
“As well as her aversion to the ruined earth,” Sunrise said. “The Lady and her spirits cannot dwell on lifeless ground, nor can their magic be cast. As an acolyte of the Temple, I am able to wield such magic.” Sunrise raised his hand up to eye level and focused his energy on his palm, but nothing happened. “Unfortunately, this ground has rendered my powers mute as well.”

             
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Zehlyr said, though he wasn’t sure who he was actually trying to convince. He didn’t know anything about dryads, but he knew they weren’t human, and if Azalea wasn’t human, then she…then they… “She doesn’t look like a spirit.”

             
“I don’t know why she appears human,” Sunrise said. “Summoning spells are a form of death magic. Summoning demons is easy on ruined earth, but to summon a life spirit in the healthy forest could have unforeseeable results and disastrous consequences.”

             
Viyana’s head shot up as a revelation came to mind. “Like knocking down all the trees in a square mile of forest?”

             
Sunrise shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose it is possible. Performing death magic in the living forest creates a powerful void that pulls anything around it towards the point where the spell was cast. Summoning a dryad would be a powerful spell indeed, so it sounds right.”

             
“So little Zehlyr’s sweet for a tree spirit,” Cherin scoffed. “How cute.”

             
Unable to hold back, Zehlyr dove at his brother and knocked him down into the ashen ground. The fire demons perked up, but remained otherwise still, seeming not to care if the prisoners killed each other as long as they didn’t escape. Zehlyr managed to land two good blows to the side of his brother’s head before Cherin finally got a hold of his wrist.

             
Cherin rolled his body to the side, toppling Zehlyr off him. He attempted to pin him to the ground, but Zehlyr got to his feet first. Cherin spat on the ground. “What in Lady’s name are you…?”

             
“Do you have no sympathy?!” Zehlyr screamed. “Do you care for anyone but yourself?!”

             
Cherin gave no answered.

             
“You’re a whining child,” Zehlyr said coldly. “It’s all you’ve ever been and it’s all you’ll ever be.” For as much as his anger was directed towards Cherin, he held a little back for himself. He didn’t want to admit it, but his brother was right. He did care very deeply for Azalea. For years he’d been protecting her, though she was more than physically capable of handling herself.

             
No, the protecting she required was from herself, from her own inner turmoil. Having no memory of her life before the ritual, she’d lived in a constant state of doubt, not knowing who she was and wielding a power she didn’t understand. Zehlyr had been there to hold her when she cried, to reassure her when she had doubt.

             
To love her when she felt alone.

             
Now it seemed the truth had been revealed, but it was beyond anything either of them had ever imagined, and it changed everything. If Azalea was a dryad, it meant she wasn’t actually human.

             
Cherin made a fist with his right hand and swung it towards Zehlyr’s face. The younger brother avoided the attack with ease, deflecting it and letting the momentum knock Cherin off balance. With his back exposed, Zehlyr kicked him in the spine, sending him headfirst into the back wall of the storehouse.

             
“Aren’t you going to stop them?” Viyana asked Heeska as they watched from a safe distance.

             
“Zehlyr’s in no danger,” Heeska answered. “He can handle himself.”

             
“What about Cherin?” she asked.

             
Heeska paused. “I don’t much care for him.”

             
Cherin pushed himself off the wall and came at his brother again like a crazed animal. Zehlyr sidestepped the coming charge and landed a blow on the back of Cherin’s neck, sending him onto the ground once again. He swore he heard one of the fire demons laugh softly. Though he didn’t want to admit it, the fact that his years in the wild forest had given him the skills to beat up his big brother filled him with a childish sense of pride.

             
Cherin rose to his feet and stared coldly at his brother. His feet moved forward towards him, and then retreated. His pride was pushing him forward, but sense was holding him back. Gone were the days when he could control Zehlyr through size and family influence, and he was having difficulty coping with it.

             
“You can beat the life out of me if you wish,” Cherin said angrily. “It won’t make me wrong. Azalea’s not human. What future could you possibly have together?”

             
“What are you talking about?” Zehlyr scoffed.

             
“If she’s a dryad, do you think she’s just going to stay as she is forever?” Cherin snapped. His arms went out wide to his sides with his palms facing up. “Sooner or later, she’ll have to go back to doing…whatever it is dryads do.”

             
“The dryads tend to various parts of the forest,” Sunrise said, offering a lesson no one asked for. “The Lady gives them areas to care for, and they watch over the plants and animals within.”

             
Viyana perked up at Sunrise’s words. “What happens to that part of the forest if the dryad is gone?”

             
Sunrise shrugged. “It’s difficult to say. There’s no record of it ever happening. If a dryad spirit were pulled from its assignment, I would assume it would leave the land baron.”

             
Viyana sighed. It was all making sense now. “Cherin,” she said with a quick glance in his direction. “The new settlement.”

             
Cherin nodded.

             
“What are you talking about?” Zehlyr asked.

             
Viyana turned her attention to Zehlyr. “After the Phenomenon, we tried to build a new settlement on the land where all of the trees fell. We found out too late that the ground was completely dead. We planted half of our seed stock in the new farmland, but nothing could grow in the soil and our economy collapsed.”

             
Zehlyr’s head was swimming. The thought of Azalea being a forest spirit was incomprehensible. He wondered if she would ever remember her life before she was pulled into the physical world. Even worse, he wondered what would happen if she were to return to her true form? Would he lose her forever?

             
“If Azalea truly is the dryad spirit that watches over your settlement, then nothing will grow there until she returns to it.”

             
“But what would happen to her?” Zehlyr asked, trying but failing to hide his fear.

             
Sunrise shook his head. “I honestly do not know. Most likely, her physical body would vanish, leaving her natural, spiritual self.”

             
“It’s not like it matters anyway,” Cherin said. “We’re all going to die here once Killika decides to sick his attack dogs on us.”

             
“He’s right,” Viyana regrettably agreed. “I can see no way out of this conundrum.”

             
“Do not lose hope yet,” Sunrise said with odd assurance. “We still have a better chance of escape than you think.”

             
Zehlyr was confused. “What could possibly make you think that?” he asked.

             
Sunrise looked up into Zehlyr’s eyes with a coy smile. He hadn’t seen such a look on the elf’s face before. “Because Firefly isn’t here,” Sunrise answered.

~~\*/~~
 

             
Out in the Wilds, Azalea lost all sense of direction and distance. Being led against her will by an army of balisekts, she hadn’t bothered to mind her surroundings. She didn’t see the point. It didn’t matter how far she was taken away from Zehlyr and their friends. She wouldn’t be able to return to them anyway. It didn’t matter how close she was to their destination, for nothing awaited her there but sinister deeds she would be forced to carry out.

             
Seeing no way out of her terrible predicament, Azalea’s heart ached worse than it ever had before. Her soul was crushed, and it left her a shell of a girl. She kept her eyes on the ground. Her arms remained limp at her sides as she marched. The forest itself was mostly silent. The only sounds she could hear were the thunderous footsteps of the army marching through the trees. There were small conversations going on between the soldiers all around her, but they were held in balisekt tongue, so Azalea couldn’t understand a single word of it.

             
Lord Killika walked beside her. Though she wasn’t physically bound, the unseen shackles that held her will were heavy indeed. It wasn’t her the Balisekt Lord had imprisoned, but those that she cared for, those that she trusted.

             
Those that she loved.

             
She couldn’t bear to close her eyes. In the darkness, all her mind’s eye could see was Zehlyr being mauled to death by those fiery demons. Killika had only to think it, and the creatures would make it so. There was no way to stop him without sacrificing them. It was hopeless. She sighed. If she couldn’t defeat Killika, perhaps she could at least learn something from him.