Forest For The Trees (Book 3) (63 page)

“The seal is open.  Go in.  Hurry!”

“Are you mad?”  Marik could hardly credit Colbey’s
calmness.

“That or the Taurs,” Dietrik decided.  “Fry in the pan
or be cast into the fire.  What difference does it make in the end?”

Without farewell, Dietrik stepped into the rippling
reality and vanished.

“I can’t believe you two!  Haven’t you listened to
anything I said?”

“Mage!  Go in before it closes!”

“I’m not about to jump in there!  We’ll go back the
way we came!  There must be another root we can climb and find a way—hey!  Let
go of me!  Colbey!”

The scout dragged Marik to the corridor.  With a
mighty heave, he flung Marik into the ripples, then marched through after him only
moments before the canvas solidified, becoming only a simple space between
trees.

Which it was.

“My reservations concerning this unnecessary venture
remain unaltered.”

Adrian gazed upon the looming Euvea trees.  Their
menace was heightened under their starlit countenance.  He kept his arms folded
in steadfast resolution.  “And my feelings remain unchanged as well.  I will
not return to my king without an admission from the deceiver’s own lips.”

“Proof beyond all that your laws require lay under the
very feet of your monarch.  The followers of the god of earth are your concern
by the vow of your ancestors.  The being who was once the man called Xenos is
my concern, and the poison he carries.”

Jide stepped forward.  “Like it or not, whatever you
are, we don’t share that opinion.  An obsidian fragment is the blacker evil
than a bunch of damned fools playing dress-up in a long forgotten cave.”

The Red Man’s brow furrowed in consternation.  Rail
laughed mightily and offered Jide an approving nod.  In heavily accented
Arronathian, he said, “Humans are never content to miss out on the best action,
Red!  You should know us by now.”

“Indeed, it is a lesson mankind insists on repeating
endlessly across each successive generation.”

“So swallow the bitter truth, then.  I, for one, am
amazed any political type
anywhere
is willing to pull his head from his
ass and actually do something useful.  And it’s getting cursed cold.  You spent
too much time arguing and let them pull ahead of us again.”

Rail slung his large blade into a resting position on
his right shoulder.  Jide paused long enough for the mercenary to pass without
the protruding weapon striking him before he followed.

Last of the four, the Red Man waited and gazed at
their backs dispassionately before entering the massive Euvea grove.

*        *        *        *        *

Colbey raised his left hand to shield his eyes. 
Midmorning sun warmed his skin.  Dew sparkled their last moist refractions off
the new day’s treasure hoard.  Soon the final moondrop pearls would evaporate
in the morning’s rising temperature.  They stood in shadows cast by the twin
Euvea trees.

Dietrik stood foolishly staring into the streaming sun
rays painting golden shafts through several thousand dust motes hovering
between the open trees beyond their corridor.  Colbey let the man continue to
fill his eyes with tears.  He instead chose the wiser course of staring
unblinkingly at the shadowed earth between his boots.  His eyes would adjust to
the change far quicker than forcing raw sunlight through the retinas.

The mage tottered backward after only a moment.  He
landed hard on his backside and hands.  Colbey watched him peripherally to
ensure he made no thoughtless moves.  Until the mage accepted the reality of
the sealed area, he would have to manage the man as a mother looking after the
welfare of her toddler outside the home.

“This…can’t be possible,” the mage muttered in a
chanting litany.  “No possible way…we are being fooled…”

“I can think of any number of illusionists who would
pay dearly to know how it was done, in that case,” Dietrik answered in the
quietest tone Colbey had heard him use since rescuing them.  “Sight
and
sensation? 
I can feel the light on my skin.  The illusionists would take in a king’s
ransom during Summerdawn if they could manage this.  It is even better than
bardsong.”

“Trust the truth your eyes reveal to you,” Colbey
said, addressing them both.  “What you see is nothing more nor less than that.”

“Men can’t walk from night to day in a single step.” 
Dietrik spun to face Colbey.  The scout did not miss the fact that the
mercenary was forced to squint equally as narrow to see him in the shadows as
he’d had to peer into the sunlit forest.

“Nor can men run south, and find their heading
carrying them north, can they?  Silence.  Do you hear?”

The mage’s heels scrambled through the loose earth
before he rose quickly to his feet.  “Gods damn it!  They’re right behind us!”

“Then let’s be off,” Dietrik suggested while the
Taurs’ hunting cry trailed away.  “That could not have been from half a minute
behind us!”

“Easy, you two.”  Colbey crossed his arms.  He stood
with his waist twisted so he could peer back between the Euveas.  “Look at the
entrance you passed through.  It is as black and depthless as when you
attempted to enter without the seal’s permission.”

“So what?”

“They will fair no better.  Listen carefully.”

The roars were deafening.  Only when face-to-face with
the beasts in combat had they ever heard the predatory voices this clearly,
felt the power inherent to the vocalizations hammering at their ribcages.

Yet is soon became apparent that the cries were subtly
different.  Rage imbued the furious cries, including a higher pitch that struck
the men as base confusion.  Dietrik shared his conclusion before the mage
could.

“They tracked our scent to just outside.  But they
can’t follow.  They do not know what is happening.”

“
We
don’t know what’s happening!” the mage
exclaimed.  “What strange hell have you brought us to?”

Colbey felt a bitter smile play across his lips.  “A
hell that is nothing except life itself.  Can you name a single trial which
tortures men worse than that relentless journey?”

Neither offered a reply, which he had expected.  He
stepped into the light to break their dumbfounded fixation.

“If we can hear them, won’t they eventually budge on
through?”  Dietrik posed the question while the mage leapt after his friend. 
The mage disliked being left behind in such a strange environment.

“Sound is insubstantial,” Colbey returned.  He watched
the pathway carefully, speaking ahead to the men behind him.  “Therefore the
seal offers no barrier to it.  I was not far from this place when I first heard
the commotion.  The invaders must have chosen to camp where they did because
they knew tomorrow would be spent finding their way through the sealed areas.”

“You claimed they were unable to enter!”

“Around them, I should have said.”  Colbey flung out
one arm to gesture left and right.  “As they cannot breach the seal, they must
work their way around the fringes until they circle the entire area.”

“They did camp earlier than usual,” the mage ventured
to comment.  His voice contained enough strength to avoid a quaver.  Barely.

Colbey nodded.  “They prepared for a day of blind
searching.”

“Tackling a difficult job with their full strength,” Dietrik
agreed.  “We should consider doing no less.  Where is a good place to rest
until morning?”

“It is morning, as you can see.”  Colbey gestured
anew, this time at the broken, sun-filled canopy.  “And we have a lengthy march
before us.  Few of this area’s inhabitants are nocturnal.  It would be unwise
to sleep during the day, for that is this place’s most dangerous time.  Once
evening falls, we will find shelter.”

“All night?”  The mage sounded indignant, closer to
his usual self.  “We walked through the damned forest all day!  We need to
rest!”

“You are in a dangerous world, mage.  Remember that I
am your guide through it.  The pathway is safe for the moment, but soon enough
we will encounter threats of which you have rarely imagined.  Keep these words
in the forefront of your attention.  Attack nothing!  No matter the appearance,
if a danger need be fought, it shall be I doing it.  Many things within the
seals are harmless unless you become an aggressor.  Many others are far from
harmless, yet must be dealt with in specific fashions.  With luck, we shall
avoid most and reach the southern exit from this area without misfortune.”

“And touch nothing,” Dietrik added, remembering his
earlier admonishment.  “I have trouble accepting any of this.  If such fantastic
creatures exist here, how can no one outside the forest know of them?”

“I’ve been telling you about them since last winter!” 
The mage punched his fist into his palm.  “Did you think I was going mad?  I
told
everyone
to be on the lookout for exactly this!”

“For night turning to day?  I must have missed that
warning.”

“Don’t make light of me!”

Colbey interrupted them.  “Keep your voices low!  The
creatures are a danger, yes, but not they alone.  We must hurry if we are to
catch up with the invaders once we leave the seal.”

“We will be well shot of them if we cut straight
through,” Dietrik argued.  “If they must grope like blind men around the edges
the whole way.  How large is this…area?”

“From the northern entrance where we crossed through,
the exterior of the seal extends three miles west, and as much east.  To the
south it is four miles.”

“That’s simple enough,” the mage responded.  “If the
path is easy like this the whole way, we can be out the other end in two
candlemarks.  We’ll be far ahead of them.”

“No, mage.  It will take the better part of a day for
us to reach the nearest southern entrance.  With half the morning gone already,
we will be forced to make camp.  Few creatures in this area are nocturnal,
yes.  But they are skillful hunters.  It will be safest not to move through the
night.”

“How can that be?” Dietrik demanded.  “We have trained
in Kingshome to handle the roughest terrains faster than that!”

“Did you hear my words?  Yes?  I said ‘the exterior’. 
Distance within this seal is unequal to distance outside it.  In many of the
seals, space and time have been unnaturally bent.  Look there.”  He pointed to
several sizable gaps in the forest ceiling.  “And notice that the Euvea trees
grow much further apart.  The space within the seal is far larger than the area
it actually encloses.”

Colbey stopped in the path several paces later after
noticing they were frozen where they stood.  His eyes quickly studied the
foliage closest to the path but found nothing alarming.

Dietrik spoke first.  “And right when I was so bloody
certain the world could not plunge any deeper into insanity…”

The mage found his voice next.  This time the quaver
found purchase in his words.  “It must be some sort of magic…but,
gods
! 
That isn’t possible!  Making a larger object fit inside a smaller one?  A
hundred mages could never do that!”  His gaze darted nervously from leaf to
leaf, startled as a bird.

“Are you certain that is true, mate?  That bracelet
you uprooted in Thoenar could shrink objects and the like.”

“No!”  The mage ran his fingers through his hair.  “Do
we look shrunken to you?”

Casting a spurious look at the massive Euvea trees,
Dietrik replied, “In point of fact, I would have to say we do.”

“You have not changed,” Colbey assured them.  “It is
only one of the many distortions the seals contain.”

“What is all this?” the mage fired heatedly.  “What in
the hells is going on?  And how do you know about it?  What is this place?”

Colbey sighed.  This day had turned on him so
unpredictably.  “That is a long tale, mage.  It will have to wai—”

“We are hardly in the mood for waiting!”  Dietrik
allied with his friend, standing beside the mage in the path, facing Colbey
with a stern expression.  “We’ve had enough of this madness!  Ever since last
winter our lot has grown worse by the day!”

“I am not putting you off,” Colbey insisted.  “As
uncomfortable as it will be for me, there is much I must say.  My instructor
has made that clear to me.  Too many things are clear to me now…”

A heavy silence fell until the mage asked, “Yeah?  I’m
listening.”

Colbey shook his shame from his mind.  “Not here,
where we spend time we can ill afford.  You asked me questions long ago that I
refused to answer.  Tonight you will hear them from my own mouth.  Until then,
we move.”

They followed with a peculiar expression between them
that Colbey dismissed.  He dismissed it because he understood what it meant. 
After all, they would be fools to trust him blindly after the betrayals he had
inflicted upon them.

“Tell us about this place, then,” the mage said to his
back.  “Your story can wait, but what is this forest?  Why would anyone create
a place where so many physical laws are twisted?”

“My coin is on magical experiments,” Dietrik
pronounced.  “Mages testing new spells or practices the crown has outlawed. 
They practice in secret and never clean up after their tests, successful or
no.”

“That is wrong,” Colbey said.  “The seals were crafted
to contain the distortions.  Not to create them.”

“Explain that.”

“In due course.  It is part of my tale.  Count yourself
lucky to have been closest to Sealed Area Fifty-Three.  Within this seal, night
and day are reversed.  Time distortions can be the most brutal.  This one is
relatively minor.  Had you entered Sealed Area Fifty-Two, you would have been
forced to enter a winter so cold that it rivals the worst the northern kingdoms
are known for.”

“Given our clothing, we would have survived a short
time only.”