Mantle: The Return of the Sha (2 page)

Misfortune

IT WAS A WARM DAY in Terra when Lizabet, Jonattan, and Bella, had been gathered by their Aunt Roni for a discussion that would alter their lives.

After the death of her mother, Aunt Roni had been the parent figure in Lizabet’s short life and she was now explaining that she, too, was coming to the end of hers. Aunt Roni’s life was expiring and there was nothing that Lizabet could do about it. She felt helpless, but she had been through this conversation once before when her own mother had tried to explain her passing to her when she was just three years old. It was her earliest memory and by far the most confusing.

People in Forris did not generally die of illness or disease since afflictions of that nature could often be cured through various methods, using whatever magic was appropriate. Fories had a finite length of time to live and when that time had expired, it was expected that they would leave life behind and simply live in the memories of others.

War and accidental death could bring this on sooner, but it was a constant philosophical debate among Forie scholars whether or not an accidental death or loss of life during times of war was a disruption to the system of life, or if a person’s expiration was calculated against these unforeseen events naturally.

Usually, a Forie could sense that their time was up and would have several days to prepare and make their goodbyes. Some Fories dismissed this sense of expiration, or didn’t recognize it for what it was, but Roni wasn’t one of these people. She
knew
her time had come, and so she prepared her family the best that she could.

Lizabet was overtaken with grief immediately.

“Lizabet, dear, you shouldn’t cry for me. I have lived an extraordinary life. How can I rest knowing that you are more distraught than I am over my own passing?”

Lizabet weighed her aunt’s words carefully because she knew that she had a point. After all, her Aunt Roni didn’t seem the least bit upset about her expiration and so why did she? “But Aunt, how can I not be sad that you will be put in the ground, never to be seen again?”

“Oh, but dear, that isn’t true! You will see me whenever you like. You only need think of me, and you will remember my voice and see my face just as clearly as you are at this moment. As long as you think of me from time to time, you will never be without me.”

“But Aunt, you will never see me grow into a woman, never see me get old!”

“That is true dear, but I see you
now
. I see the kindhearted girl that I know will become an astounding woman. I don’t need to see it happen, I know that it will,” Roni answered.

“How will you know if you leave us, though?” Lizabet asked through tears.

Roni took Lizabet’s hand in hers and guided her over to the window of the cottage.

“Look outside,” she said. “Do you see that young apple tree just beginning life on the far side of the meadow?”

“Yes, Aunt.”

“Well, I know that even though that tree is young now, it will someday grow big and strong. It will tower over its place in Forris and it will produce splendid red apples. I don’t need to see it grow to know that this is true.”

Lizabet understood her aunt’s comparison between herself and the young apple tree, but still wasn’t satisfied. She also knew that she was running out of arguments, even though she never had a winning argument to begin with.

“I will miss you so much, Aunt, and I’m afraid what might come of us. We will truly be orphans now,” said Lizabet. Her crying intensified with the thought of the word
orphan
.

“Nonsense, child!” Roni said. “Your brother Jonattan and your sister Bella are grown adults and they will take care of you. You need not worry about such things. You will never be an orphan so long as you have people around you that love you. And believe me, dear, when I tell you that you are surrounded by love.”

Lizabet knew it was true that her brother and sister would take great care for her. Her brother Jonattan was, after all, likely to marry and have children of his own soon. He was considered to be one of the most eligible and handsome bachelors in all of Terra, and her sister Bella was also beautiful, with the same bright blue eyes as Lizabet. It was likely that she, too, would marry soon, although she had been overly particular about her suitors, and seemed set to hold out on the idea of marriage until the perfect husband came along.

Yes, Lizabet would be cared for and loved. She was very close with her siblings, especially Bella, who she looked up to as a kind and caring mother figure. But most comforting was that she had Carlotta. Carlotta, although only a chicken, had become Lizabet’s closest friend. They went everywhere together. At first, when Carlotta was just a chick, Lizabet would carry her in a small basket, but now that Carlotta had grown, she would tie a string around Carlotta’s breast so that she would walk alongside Lizabet wherever she went.

She had her friend Dorian also, of course, but even he knew that he couldn’t gain the affection that Lizabet had for that chicken. It was an odd friendship that no one quite understood, but it didn’t matter to Lizabet. She already considered herself an outcast and the fact that her two best friends were a boy and a chicken didn’t seem to make any difference to her in the least.

Once the difficult talk with her aunt was finished, she ran to Carlotta to confess what was happening—that Aunt Roni would die and that they would remain on the farm with Jonattan and Bella. And although Lizabet wasn’t gifted with Animal-speak, Carlotta always understood Lizabet perfectly. No one was ever quite sure just how they communicated. It was a special bond that seemed to allow them to understand the thoughts of the other. Carlotta, on understanding the news of Roni’s impending expiration, quickly told the other chickens and they in turn told every other animal on the Abbot farm, so that by the end of the day, everyone knew what was to come.

****

In Terra, the grief experienced by the animals who lived there could be a wild and chaotic event. Throughout the day, the animals on the Abbot farm wailed loudly and carried on running about, seemingly in a state of panic. Although they were animals, they loved Roni as much as any person could. She had been their caretaker and their friend, so to the animals the loss of Roni was tragic. None of the animals on the farm had ever known a time when Roni hadn’t been their keeper, and it was an unbearable prospect that she would no longer be there to care for them and provide company.

Roni had gone out among the animals to explain what was to happen. This calmed them a little, but two days later, when Roni passed away, they were filled with grief, just as Lizabet, Jonattan, and Bella were.

****

The day after Roni’s passing, the entire village of Terra showed up for her burial. It was a short ceremony, as was the custom in Terra—a simple burial on the Abbot farm. Lizabet had insisted that she be buried under the young apple tree that her aunt had talked of, so that she could be in clear view of the tree as it grew and produced apples as she had predicted. Jonattan and Bella quickly agreed and so Roni was laid to rest under the apple tree, facing east so that the glowing sunrise would cover the grave each morning.

During the ceremony, many people spoke of Roni, and her kind and charitable nature. One man spoke of a time when Roni had helped with the cost of flour for making bread during a particularly poor crop season.

Another spoke of her bright demeanor each time she went into town to sell goods and how she always had a smile waiting for everyone who passed.

These were the memories, Lizabet knew, that would keep her aunt alive, just as she had said. She would be alive in the memories of others. It gave Lizabet peace to finally understand this and she smiled as she always did, even as they covered the grave of her beloved aunt. The others present at the funeral had been carrying looks of sadness and grief during the service. But when the people of Terra who had been standing in the bright sun at the burial of Roni Abbot saw the smile appear on Lizabet’s face, the expressions of grief and loss also turned to smiles. It was infectious and they couldn’t help it. Every person within view of Lizabet stopped crying suddenly and felt the warmth of her smile. They realized that Roni would live on in their memories and that it wasn’t the loss of Roni that they would carry in their hearts; it was the happy memories of her that they had gained.

As Dorian stood next to Lizabet, he leaned over to whisper in her ear, “You know, every time you smile, everyone around you smiles also, no matter if they are sad or troubled. Maybe this is your magic gift. Maybe you have a new kind of gift that no one else has.”

Lizabet thought for a moment about what Dorian was saying. She certainly wanted to have magical gifts, but it seemed too absurd that a simple smile could be anything extraordinary. So she smiled at Dorian and rolled her eyes, dismissing the notion as ridiculous. Carlotta, for her part, pecked gently at Lizabet’s leg to get her attention, and when Lizabet knelt down to her, she then knew that Carlotta also believed the same. Dorian, knowing, but not fully understanding the secret relationship between Lizabet and Carlotta, suspected that Carlotta had agreed with him, and so he smiled at Lizabet with a look that seemed to say
I told you so
.

****

After supper, when everyone had gone home, Lizabet, Bella, and, of course, Carlotta, walked out to the apple tree to say goodnight to Aunt Roni.

“What will happen now, Bella?” asked Lizabet as she sat cross-legged at the foot of the grave.

Bella sat down next to her, put her arm around her, and said, “Well, I imagine that we’ll just keep doing the same things that we’ve always done and life will happen as it always has.”

Lizabet looked up at Bella with a serious expression on her face and very softly said, “Well, that doesn’t sound very exciting at all.”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t,” replied Bella, who was now looking down with an equally serious look on her face.

Bella knew what Lizabet meant. She loved living in Terra on the family farm, but she had an itch dwelling inside her that she couldn’t shake. She wanted to explore and travel and meet people. She wanted to see what was beyond Terra…beyond
Forris,
for that matter. She had never left the village, which was unusual in itself. Most Terrans had at least made trips to other villages, and many had gone to Obengaard to attend the festivals. But since her parents had died and she hadn’t yet married, her opportunities for adventure had been limited. She had no traveling companion and no one to make new experiences with, so she knew all too well what Lizabet was saying to her. Bringing this realization to the forefront made her sad and even a bit angry at her situation. But then Lizabet smiled and the despair seemed to wash away from her thoughts entirely. She wrapped her arms around Lizabet and they sat in silence, smiling down on the grave of their beloved aunt and imagining the world beyond.

The King and the Trees

KING ZANDER OF FORRIS was known by the Fories to be the kindest ruler that one could imagine. He was quick to assist in local matters and he was always concerned when one of his subjects was in distress.

When Zander was just nineteen years of age he had assumed the throne following his father’s passing and, now at the age of thirty-two, he was still unmarried and without children. This presented a problem, since the Fories would be much more comfortable knowing that there would be an heir to the throne, and that the heir would be a child of Zander.

But King Zander had a problem. It wasn’t that he thought the women of Forris to be unworthy of him. Instead, he thought himself to be unworthy of any woman who would be the future queen of Forris.

King Zander, just after being crowned thirteen years earlier, had made a grave error. He had determined that to begin his rule as the new king of Forris he would expand and reconstruct the castle of his father, the great King Alexo. He would reinvent Castle Bannister as his own and expand the city of Obengaard, which he would make larger and grander than anything else ever constructed in Forris. He didn’t intend to improve his castle or expand the city strictly for his own use, though. Instead, he envisioned a place with large courtyards and parks that could be used by his subjects for picnics and parties. He imagined rooms along the great halls that could be used by the Fories who might require shelter when traveling from one village to another.

The error that Zander made wasn’t in the design of the castle, though; it was how he went about building the expansion.

The new king had decided that the castle and city expansions should be built using Sovereign wood so that it would not only last for all eternity, but also so that the structure itself would contain the magical influence of the Sovereign Trees.

Although Zander was the king, it was the Trees of the Sovereign Forest that commanded the highest respect and were revered above all else. This was no different than the great Elder Bears of Tongar or the impressive Centaurs of Bore. In Forris, the trees were the great advisers in matters of state. It was customary that the trees would be consulted whenever there were big decisions to be made that would affect the kingdom as a whole. This was done out of respect for the trees, but also because the trees were the great historians of the land.

Since they had been the originators of the kingdom at the very beginning, they would advise the king on matters of varying degrees of importance. For instance, when King Alexo was contemplating whether a bridge should be built over the Tapi River to connect the villages of Gote and Mistre, the trees advised against it, citing a similar bridge in that same location that had once been washed away by flood nearly three hundred years earlier.

While King Zander did consult the trees about the building of his new castle, he failed to mention that he wished it to be built using Sovereign wood. And although the trees might not have objected, Zander would be required to make the request formally to the trees, who could sometimes take months before making their decision on a matter of such importance. This was Zander’s great error. The trees, being very particular about how and where Sovereign wood should be used, took great offense to this oversight. There were rules that must be followed and directions that must be handed down. Likely, they would have agreed and simply allowed Zander to cut the trees of the physically deceased, or use the wood of trees that had been abandoned by the spirits who had decided to take residence elsewhere. But no formal request had been made, and Zander, in his naivety and ignorance in such matters, cut the trees and built his castle.

****

On the day that construction had been completed, Zander was summoned to speak to the trees. At first he didn’t know what to make of the invitation because, as far as he knew, the trees had never summoned anyone to the Sovereign Forest before. Certainly, his father had never been summoned or Zander would have known such a thing. Kings made requests to speak with the trees—not the other way around. But when he returned that night, after a day full of celebrating the completion of the castle, he found that leaves had been stacked perfectly—one on top of the other—in front of his chamber door. And although he had never heard of anyone being summoned before, he certainly knew what this stack of leaves meant. He didn’t need to be told—he
knew
.

With darkness already arriving, he would go to the forest at the first light of day. He did not personally have the gift of night-sight, and although he could have summoned someone who did possess that particular gift, he would not dare take someone with him for this meeting. The trees, although wise, were also very old and temperamental, and might be angered by the king arriving with company for a meeting that had been requested by the trees in such a way.

****

The next morning, when the king arrived at the edge of the forest, he was directed to speak with the tree Dicen. Although the trees acted as a collective when making decisions, it was Dicen, as high minister of the Sovereign Forest, who would interpret the wishes of the others and form a relevant decision. That decision was usually handed down by any number of trees with less stature, and as far as Zander knew, even his own father had never spoken directly to Dicen himself.

So the king made his way through the forest until he arrived at the foot of Dicen. He was a massive tree with a trunk that spanned thirty feet and a top that disappeared into the clouds. King Zander stood humbly at Dicen’s base and waited for him to speak.

The trees, having knowledge of all languages, would conform to the proper speech for their audience. If they were speaking to the ground-living animals, they would converse in Animal-speak, and if they were talking to the birds about such matters as nest building, or to occasionally gather information about lands out of their reach, then they would use Bird-speak. With King Zander, they would speak to him in his native Forie tongue.

Finally, after a long while, Dicen spoke in a thundering voice.

“Zander, you have stolen the wood of the Sovereign Forest.”

At this declaration, Zander stood petrified with fear. All at once, he realized his mistake.

“Since you have chosen to create your home with stolen property, you will be sentenced appropriately,” Dicen said. “I can see from your expression that this news gives you great sorrow. Therefore, your sorrow will be reflected in your face until such a time as the trees of the forest see fit. It has been a great debate among us as to whether we will continue to allow you counsel. It was determined that, for the sake of the kingdom, you will continue to be advised. Now return to your stolen home.”

Zander was in a panic now. It wasn’t clear to him what Dicen meant by this, but it pained him greatly that he had made the trees unhappy. He was a good king, always joyful and happy around others, and he always hoped to brighten every room that he entered.

Am I doomed to sorrow for the remainder of my days?
he wondered. He was only in his twenties at that point and the sentence seemed unusually harsh, even for the trees.

He returned to Obengaard, sad and anxious, but determined not to tell anyone what had transpired. He decided that he would smile when appropriate, laugh when he needed to, and remain cheerful among his subjects—never revealing that he had been sentenced for his thievery.

But when he returned to Bannister Castle, he was immediately confronted by one of his servants, who asked what was troubling him. “Nothing is troubling me,” he answered. This response was the same each time he encountered someone else who would inevitably ask what was the matter.

It wasn’t until he reached his apartments and looked himself in the mirror that he realized that he had lost his smile—or rather, his smile had been
taken
from him. Now he understood what Dicen had meant. He had been sentenced to reflect sadness on his face no matter what his mood. He could be as happy as could be, and still look as though he was very sad.

What a curse!
he thought. It was no wonder that Dicen had said his sentence would be appropriate. The trees had stolen from him as well. They had stolen his smile.

****

For nearly a year, King Zander stayed out of sight. He remained hidden away inside Bannister Castle and only allowed a few of his most trusted servants to tend to him. And because he appeared unhappy by the expression on his face, Zander finally gave in and confided his secret to his closest and most trusted advisers and servants. They eventually confided in
their
most trusted friends—who, in turn, confided in theirs. And so it became common knowledge among the Fories that King Zander had been punished by the trees and would appear to be unhappy even though he was not.

The king eventually learned that his secret was no longer hidden, and was determined to set things straight. So on the night of his twenty-fifth birthday, he arranged the largest and most extravagant festival that had ever been attended in Forris. He was very quick to point out, though, that the festival was not given to celebrate his birthday, but rather to celebrate the Sovereign Trees and all that they had done for the people of Forris. He even went so far as to declare the day a
Realm Holiday
known as the
Festival of Trees
, which should be celebrated in honor of the trees each year on that day. He thought that by declaring the day of his own birth a holiday gifted to the trees that the trees might forgive him for his error and return his smile to him. But, alas, this gesture did not change his expression of sorrow.

****

Every year on the holiday, the king would order the celebrations to be more impressive and elaborate. One year, he employed the Fireflies to gather above the festival in such numbers that the whole courtyard was illuminated by their collective glow.

Another year, he requested that all Fories who were gifted as watercalls conjure ice sculptures in the shapes of trees. The sculptures towered one hundred feet and were decorated to pay homage.

His attempts to impress the trees and regain his smile failed each year, no matter what he tried, but every year he tried again and again to make each festival more impressive than the last.

Finally, on the thirty-second year of his birth, he went to the trees to make an appeal for his smile and to ask that they forgive him for his mistakes of the past. When he arrived at the edge of the Sovereign Forest, he was greeted by the outer trees with the usual respect afforded a king of Forris. When he was greeted this time, though, he very politely requested to speak directly with the tree Dicen. He was told by the outer trees that his request would be relayed through the proper channels and that he should return the following day.

Each day, for thirty-seven days, Zander returned to the edge of the forest and each time he was told that his request would be relayed. King Zander knew, as did all Fories, that Sovereign Trees were known for taking their time on such matters. They had, after all, been there since the beginning of time and were in no hurry to accommodate anyone, including whoever happened to be the current king.

But, finally, on the thirty-eighth day that King Zander returned to the forest, he was told by the outer trees that he could indeed proceed into the forest to speak with Dicen.

Although he had been silently preparing for this moment, he was anxious at the prospect of begging for his curse to be lifted. He nervously pondered this as he walked through the forest.

****

The trek through the forest was quick, and when he stepped up to the base of Dicen, he knelt on one knee and lowered his head. He remained that way for nearly an hour before Dicen finally spoke.

“Why have you requested to speak with me, young Zander?” Dicen asked.

“My Lord Dicen, I have come to beg forgiveness for my error in judgment. I was young then, and I was a new king. Please forgive me.”

“But Zander, you are still young—only a seedling in our eyes.”

“Yes, my Lord, but I have grown into a man, and I am no longer the arrogant boy who procured Sovereign wood from your forest without approval. I ask you to return my smile so that I might leave an impression of happiness on my subjects,” he said, beginning to weep. He was desperate and couldn’t imagine another thirteen years with his curse. The thought of it was unbearable.

“Young Zander, you have been free to smile since the time you first left my presence many years ago. You have not been cursed beyond the reaches of this forest and beyond the moment of our last conference. Your inability to smile is not the doing of the Sovereign Trees. The punishment which we handed down only pushed you to self-reflection. This is a circumstance of your own making.”

At this news, Zander gasped. “But my Lord Dicen, I have been unable to smile for all these many years. How can it be that I have inflicted this horrible curse upon
myself
?”

“Zander, you are a kindhearted man and a great and worthy king. You have never wished to do harm to anyone or anything—least of all the Sovereign Trees. Although we have long forgiven you, it appears as though you have not forgiven yourself. You have not allowed yourself to be truly content since making your error.”