The Last Druid (5 page)

“The poor book,” she said
aloud without first thinking.

Ca
lla jumped to her feet with a yelp, turning to stare straight at her.  “
You!
”  Mai couldn’t tell if she saw more of surprise or panic in her eyes.

“
So you do remember me,” Mai said, walking forward.  “I did mention I would return after I recovered.”

“I
finally managed to convince myself you were only a figment of my imagination!”  Calla backed away from her on all fours as quickly as she could.

“
Quit being ridiculous.  And just where do you think you are going?”  Mai waved her hand through the air, calling on the energy dwelling in the earth beneath their feet.  No sooner had she completed the motion that long vines shot out of the ground, flying towards Calla.  With a shriek the girl scrambled to her feet and tried to run but she wasn’t fast enough—the vines caught up to her fast, wrapping around both of her wrists.  She barely acknowledged what was happening before they started pulling hard against her, and she fell backwards to the ground; she was reeled towards Mai like a fish on a line.  When they finally came to a stop Mai didn’t give the girl a chance to try freeing herself—while she released Calla’s hands the vines wound about her torso, securing her to the spot.  Calla struggled hopelessly against them.

Mai sighed as she sat down next to her.  Why did this girl have to make things so difficult?  She
thought back to that first meeting: the girl had been so frightened when Mai tried her best to be friendly, even when she tried to lighten the mood with her more playful antics.  Calla really did have no idea of the ancient world’s existence.  The girl was afraid of her.

This
would complicate things a bit.

“I
did advise you not to try anything reckless,” she said, her voice flat.  “Now will you hear me out?”

Ca
lla continued to struggle.  “What are you?” she asked, fear saturating her voice.

“What I told you I was.  And please stop struggling—you will only succeed in bringing yourself harm.”

The vines still had some of Mai’s magic connected to them and had been tightening their hold on the girl the more she struggled; they were starting to cut through the dirt where they came out of the ground.  Calla gave one last attempt to escape and lay on the ground breathing heavily, completely exhausted from her effort. 

Mai
smiled a little, but only a little.  “That’s better,” she said.  “Now will you hear me?”

“What do you want from me?”

“Right now, only your undivided attention.  I spent several weeks just trying to get here to find you, and you have not made it any easier for me to accomplish my task.  Now if I take the vines away will you promise not to run off?”  Calla was just opening her mouth to reply when Mai waved her hand through the air again, pulling her magic away and making the vines release their hold.

Cal
la slowly sat up, running her hand over her midsection where the vines had held her so tightly; Mai could see the red lines that had been left behind.  “This doesn’t make any sense,” she said, so frightened she didn’t raise her voice above a whisper.  “This can’t be happening.  This isn’t—”

“Real?”  Mai looked at her.  “I know it is a frightening experience for you, but I assure you this is no dream or sign of insanity.  I
f it is any consolation, I too wish this was not happening right now—I would not wish to frighten another being in such a way if I had any other choice.”  The wind started to blow from behind them, coming at them from the distant woods.  “Can you hear them, Calla?  Those voices in the air?”

She watched
as the color slowly drained from Calla’s face.  Mai could tell the girl was able to hear them, the laughter and singing of the plant and animal life in the forest.  She watched her face as her expression slowly changed—she was afraid.  So she knew something of her gift.

“Th-they’re not there!” Calla said desperately, putting her hands over her pointed ears.

Mai clicked her tongue.  “Try harder to deceive me next time—I know you can hear them.  You have been able to hear them since you were a child, and you have been afraid of them all your life.  You never dared to say a word to anyone, because you were afraid you would be seen as insane, and
that you would never be able to have a normal life.  Do not to deceive me any more girl—is all this true?”

Mai watched the fear intensify in her face; her words weren’t helping the girl very much.  But judging from how
Calla dropped her head in defeat she was at least on the right track.  “Yes,” she said quietly.

Mai smiled halfheartedly.  “
It is disconcerting, I know.  They are not a trick of your mind—they are the voices of every living thing in the natural world.  You can understand them even though their slow lives often go unnoticed.”  She stared out at the horizon as she spoke.  “They know nothing of the storm that shall soon turn their way.”

“What do you mean, ‘storm’?”  Calla asked, but not out of interest.  She stared at Mai suspiciously, her eyes wide.

Mai hesitated for a moment before continuing.  “
My world is dying, Calla.  My kind are rare enough to begin with but now there are very few of us Nymphs left, along with our Lady, Elenia, a few other spirits, and a handful of people who have believed in our existence since the ancient days.  Together we are the last remaining piece of the ancient world, and we are in danger of being erased from history altogether.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Calla said
.  From the way she held her head slightly tilted to one side, Mai guessed she finally pricked the girl’s curiosity.

“
You Elves used to be part of it, you know,” she went on, hoping she could at least partly explain her meaning.  “Your ancestors were, anyway.  Many of them had the same gifts you do—being able to see and hear us, listening to the life around them, some of them even capable of the magic arts.  But as she slowly started to leave them to grow on their own they started moving away from Her, until eventually She became nothing more than a name in your myths and legends.”

“Who
do you mean by ‘Her’?”

“The Lady of all life, one of the Three
Guardians of this world: Elenia the queen of the natural world.  Does that sound familiar to you now?”

Ca
lla shook her head.  Mai’s story was continuing to confuse her.  “I’m afraid that still isn’t ringing any bells.”

Mai felt herself pout. 
“Well, this is going really well.  I expect the next thing for you to say is that you have never heard of magic or the Druids who wielded it.”

“
The activities of those raving madmen exist only in stories told to entertain younger children.  Magic isn’t real.”

It is a start at least
, Mai thought to herself with a frown; she now had another challenge.  Calla didn’t believe in supernatural forces even though she possessed talents that fell into that category.  And somewhere in the retellings the stories of the Druids had been seriously distorted.  “‘Raving madmen’?  That is one reference I have not heard before.  Your ancestors certainly changed the stories over the years.  But no, they were not lunatics as your tales depict them to be—they were good men, devoting their time to study the world around them, passing on their gifts and knowledge from one generation to the next; the magic arts they used we call Earthmagic.  But as time went on and Lady Elenia became more and more of a fading memory to them their motives started to change; they became less focused on advancing their knowledge of the natural world, on learning from the life that dwelled around them, and chose to follow the sciences—they wanted to find a way to explain their world that did not involve ancient magic or creatures from a forgotten era.  From this change, little by little, their order diminished until there were no more of them left.”

“
So they’re completely extinct.”

“
More or less—to the loss of all that is good, unfortunately.”

Ca
lla tilted her head to one side like a confused puppy.  “And exactly what does any of that have to do with me?  Of you trying to…’find’ me?”

Mai fixed
one eye on Calla’s face.  “Think carefully,” she said.  “Recall how I described this ancient order to you—what they did, what they were capable of.”

Ca
lla spent only a moment in thought before her expression changed; the look she gave Mai was almost icy.  “No,” she said simply.

“
By blood you are the last of that order.  You must understand what I am asking.”

“You just said
they died out centuries ago.  How can I be part of a society that hasn’t existed for at least a few thousand years?”

“That strays into a realm of knowledge I
do not have access to—in other words, I am not sure.  It is possible that some Druid traits skipped several generations, coming into blossom only once in a while before fading into dormancy for another few generations, until it eventually came to you.”  Mai shrugged.  “Speculation, I am afraid, but all we have.  Yet we cannot afford to do too much of that now.  Time is pressing, and we sit here dallying.”

“
And that means what?”

“She
is still alive, Calla—our Lady, the Lady Elenia, and she has preserved a small piece of the ancient world.  She has drawn it to perhaps the most secluded corner of the physical world, but it is no stronghold of safety, I can assure you.  The peaceful existence we have maintained for so long has been shattered, and She needs one who has the strength and power to keep us from the brink of destruction.  To express this in simplest terms, She wishes you to come to her—to be Her champion.”

Cal
la simply stared for several minutes before she spoke again.  “You cannot be serious.”

“It is not just our world that hangs in the balance!”  Mai grabbed Ca
lla’s arm.  “Other realms will fall to the coming flames if nothing is done—even yours, as peaceful and virtually isolated as it is.  The whole world needs you!”

“
No,” she said again.

“Please!”  Mai
tightened her grip.  “We lost all other hope long ago—do not deny us a chance to regain some of it again.”

Ca
lla sighed and started prying Mai’s fingers off of her arm, though not without difficulty; Mai was quite strong.  “My place is here,” she said, standing up and turning to leave.  “I’m not leaving my home over stories of myth.”

Mai could feel the despair settling in
.  “Please!  Think of what I am asking you!  An entire world needs you!  You must reconsider your choice.  I am not the only one sent to search for you: others have been sent as well, all of them from darker forces that seek to destroy you.  You must come before it is too late.”

“Barring some personal or natural disaster,
or even hard evidence that what you say is true, I don’t think that’s possible.”  Calla walked off over the hill.

Feeling smaller than she ever had before, Mai
stifled a sniffle before she turned and let herself be whisked off by the passing wind.

VII

Calla

“By blood you are the last of the Druid order.”

Calla shook her head as she walked down the road.  Magic, ancient gods,
prophecies, mythical creatures—the idea that all of it could exist was preposterous.  Still nothing about the experience was natural; hell, nothing about that girl was natural, from the tricks she had pulled to her unbelievably bright green hair.  Calla refused to believe any of what she had just been told.  Her fingers strayed to rub her wrist where those vines had cut into her skin.

It didn’t make any sense.

“Get a grip, Calla,” she muttered to herself.  None of it could possibly have been real—she must have dreamt about the whole thing.  She lived in the real world, not one inhabited by monsters from the stories she grew up hearing.  Perhaps taking a long walk would help her to forget about it.  The thought made Calla feel much better already, and she decided to walk in the city gardens for a while.

Afternoon was just giving way to evening when Cal
la finally came home again.  After spending at least another hour wandering around on her own, she’d decided to go visit Kira.  Unfortunately she didn’t get to stay for as long as she would have liked: it had been only a few weeks since her friend had announced she was getting married, but already she was busy making her wedding plans.  Calla was waiting for only a moment before Kira took advantage of her presence, placing a large pile of different fabrics in her arms.

“You must make my wedding dress, Ca
lla!”  She had been so excited she was practically bouncing in place.  “I want only you to make it!  You sew so well, I don’t want anyone else doing it.”  And with that Calla was hurried out the door again.

She gave a soft chuckle as she opened her front gate.  Kira was seriously misinformed about Ca
lla’s sewing abilities; she hadn’t made so much as a stitch since she was ten.  The last time she had been given such a request, she cheated and went to her neighbor Ella to ask for help—she was a master seamstress who could truthfully claim the title.  Calla knew for sure that she would be paying the old lady a visit after she had selected the perfect fabric.