The Whispering Trees (33 page)

Before Kara could answer, a rising wail, like the whistle of a teakettle, shredded the quiet morning.
Stupid
, Kara thought, instantly realizing her mistake—she had been so worried about the Devoted that she had forgotten who else would be searching for them. The Divide. Hideous eyes framed by bark stared at Kara with malignant fury, while branch arms disentangled themselves and pointed in her direction. Dozens of twisted mouths wailed their alarm.

There was nowhere to hide.

“Give me the shards,” Kara told Taff, holding out her hand.

“You can't touch them!”

“I don't have a choice.”

“But—”

“Taff!”

He handed the crimson shards cautiously to Kara. She slid them into her pocket.

“We knew this might happen,” Kara said. “That's why—”

A terrible squawk of pain shattered her next word. Kara followed the sound and saw, high in the sky, the bird that had saved them, caught within the clutches of several tree limbs. Kara heard its voice in her head—
SAVE ME, WITCH GIRL, SAVE ME, SAVE—
and then the limbs pulled it deeper into the black leaves and its voice stopped forever.

He knows
, Kara thought, her grief for the bird overshadowed by more immediate concerns.
Was it the trees that told him? Does he know what we've done?

When she turned her attention back to the village, Sordyr stood framed by the open fence, his orange cloak
stretching back along the main road of Kala Malta. A dozen Devoted, most brandishing wooden spears, stood to either side of him. Other villagers, not directly involved but still curious, pressed up against the Divide. Breem was among them, holding an ax with two hands. His eyes fixed on Safi with a mixture of relief and concern.

“What have you been up to, Kara?” Sordyr asked.

“I went for a walk,” she said, trying to control the trembling in her voice. “Is that forbidden?”

“A walk,” Sordyr said in a mocking, childlike voice. “I don't think so,
wexari
. We both know where you were. Not that it matters. The venom is so old, I doubt its magic even works anymore. But I'll take it anyway. One can never be too careful.”

“What venom?” Kara asked. “I have no idea what you're—”

From behind the Forest Demon's tall frame stepped Mary Kettle.

“Oh yes,” said Sordyr. “The old witch told me everything. I'm disappointed, Kara. After she betrayed you
once, you trust her again? I thought you were smarter than that.”

Mary was a teenager today, but there was no mistaking those slate-gray eyes.

Kara swallowed hard.

“I'm disappointed too,” she said.

“Let's not prolong this,” Sordyr said. “You can still help me. Use the venom on Rygoth. Do this, and I will allow your brother to live.”

“And my daughter!” Breem exclaimed. “Right?”

The Forest Demon clasped his branch fingers together.

“The girl is from Kala Malta and should have known better,” Sordyr said. “An example must be made.”

Turning his attention back to Kara, Sordyr did not see the way Breem clenched the ax tighter.

“You will not harm her,” he said, walking toward the Forest Demon. A Devoted blocked his path and Breem slapped him across the face with the back of his hand. The man thudded to the earth like a sack of grain, blood gushing from his nose. Two other Devoted headed in Breem's
direction. The other villagers—and Sordyr—turned to watch, drawn to the promise of violence.

The distraction was exactly what Kara needed.

She stretched her mind across the trees, as far and as high as she could reach, calling forth creatures of every wake and description.
I need your help
, she thought.
I can't do this on my own. But I will not lie to you. This fight will be dangerous, and many of you will die. But if we succeed, the Thickety will be yours!
It was the largest mind-bridge she had ever created, and it required a lot of building material. Kara dug through her mind. Since she wanted the animals to understand they shared a common enemy, she built the first part of the bridge from the hatred she felt for Sordyr, packing each wrong he had done her into an individual stone. She built the rest of the bridge from her love of animals. This was far more difficult, for she did not want to lose her memories of Shadowdancer or the grettin or the countless other friends that had colored her life. But she needed the Thickety creatures to know they
could trust her, and sacrifices had to be made.

She waited.

Come on, come on. . . .

She could have forced them to come. But Kara refused to make the creatures do anything against their will, though she made it clear that once they crossed the bridge they would be hers to command.

Come on
, Kara thought. She watched the skies, the treetops, the ground, looking for some sort of movement.
Come on
.

They came.

They came from everywhere, parting the trees with their trunks and claws, skittering through the undergrowth, slicing through the air on sharp-edged wings. A deafening storm descended upon Kala Malta: chitters and yaks, roars and squawks.

Sordyr took a single step backward.

A wolf with silver fur and a scorpion's tail settled by Kara's side. She stroked its head as she spoke.

“They're with me,” Kara said. She pointed to her forehead. “In here. All of them. And they are so, so angry with you.”

“An impressive display,
wexari
. But I know you. Your
goodness
. You would never sacrifice their lives to—”

She sent the birds first.

A cloud of winged creatures wound itself around Sordyr, a flurry of talons ripping at his cloak and bravely dashing into the shadows of his hood in an attempt to pluck out his eyes. Over the fluttering wings Kara heard the whiz of Sordyr's branch hands as they sliced through feathers and flesh with blinding speed. Kara felt the death of each bird as a clenching in her heart. Sordyr rubbed two branch fingers together, as though trying to light a fire, and from the canopy a storm of thorns was released. The ground was quickly covered with unmoving birds.

Before their numbers could be completely depleted, Kara sent the birds away. They left reluctantly. Despite Kara's protestations, they felt like they had failed her.

There is nothing more you can do, my brave friends
, she told them.
Be proud. You have struck the first blow
.

Indeed, Sordyr's cloak was now torn and tattered, his hood pecked away in too many places to count.

In one motion, he pushed the hood from his face.

Sordyr's skin was the striated bark of an ancient tree, chipped and pitted with years. A tangled mass of wiry branches crowned his head. Swampy eyes swirled with their own secret history, impaled by the two thorns growing from Sordyr's eye sockets like ill-placed antlers.

These horrible eyes never left Kara as the Forest Demon slid a dead bird off his branch finger and tossed it onto the pile.

“Blood,” he said.

At first Kara had no idea what he was talking about, but then she felt the warm liquid running down her face. She placed a finger to her left ear and it came back red and sticky. Frigid numbness spread through her head like a lake quickly turning to ice.

I used too much magic
.

“You are still but a girl,
wexari
,” Sordyr said. “There are too many of them for you to handle. You will only kill yourself.”

Roots encircled Kara's legs. She bent down to pull them away but their grip was too strong. She lost her balance and fell to the ground. New roots wrapped around her arms and pinned her to the dirt.

“I can still forgive all this,” Sordyr said. “It is not too late for us to help each other.”

Kara called forth parasitic worms with double rows of stone-sharpened teeth. They made short work of the roots, allowing her to rise unsteadily to her feet. Kara sent the rest of her creatures forward—save the wolf with the scorpion's tail, who refused to leave her side. The animals charged like starving beasts suddenly uncaged. Several Devoted ran forward in an attempt to block the animals' path. Most were trampled underfoot, though one was tossed like a bale of hay by a beast with a fiery horn.

They were almost on top of Sordyr. For a moment, just a moment, Kara thought she might win.

But then Sordyr raised his hands and from the ground burst fully formed trees, catapulting dozens of unfortunate creatures high into the air. Those that remained were confused and disoriented, and their rising panic made them difficult to control. It didn't help that Sordyr was now hidden behind the row of entangled trees he had created. Natural enemies that had united against the Forest Demon were confused by his sudden disappearance and began to snap at one another instead.

I'm losing them
, Kara thought as her spell began to fray.

She concentrated harder, trying to bring her army in line, and a fresh bead of blood leaked from her right ear.

They can't get to him anymore
, she thought.
The trees are protecting him. . . .

Lightning flashed across the sky. A tree wavered for just a moment and then fell, crashing into the Divide and bringing that section down.

Kara turned to see Safi, her nose in the grimoire. She mumbled a new spell. A second tree fell, this one taking down two others and producing a large gap in the trees that revealed Sordyr. Kara's creatures saw him, began to regain their focus.

“Look at that,” Sordyr said. “Another witch.”

“That's right,” said Kara. She smiled back at Safi. “There's two of us now. You don't stand a chance.”

Sordyr's thorn-pierced eyes glowed with amusement.

“There could be a hundred of you,” said Sordyr. “It would not matter. You are in my home. I
am
the Thickety.”

From the ground burst shambling monstrosities of moss and ivy, man-size rats with poisonous dandelions embedded in their fur, tangles of moving roots in the vague shape of something that had once been alive.

Kara's army faced this new challenge with raised hackles and low growls, but before they could charge, Safi read from the grimoire and a cyclone of wind slammed into Sordyr's monsters. Some flipped away into the trees, but most rooted themselves to the ground and withstood
the blast. When the wind had died down the monsters continued to move forward. They did not shake the dirt from their flanks; the dirt was a part of them. Kara's creatures rushed into the fray and filled the air with snapping jaws and shrieks of pain. She tried to guide them, knowing that if they worked as one unit they would have a better chance, but death after death weakened her. Kara dropped to one knee and the wolf with the scorpion's tail slid beneath her, supporting her weight so she did not fall. Kara turned to look at Safi, who was in the process of casting another spell when a black toad the size of a large dog unfurled its tongue and snapped the grimoire from her hands. Taff attacked the toad with his wooden sword, trying to get the book back, but it hopped into the throng of battling creatures and was quickly lost to sight. Two branchwolves noticed Safi and crept closer, readying themselves to leap. Taff stepped in front of her and raised the sword above his head, but Kara could see his shaking hands.

“We yield!” Kara shouted.

With what little energy remained, she commanded her animals to leave and destroyed the mind-bridge between them. Most slunked into the Thickety, confused at this sudden turn of events. Only the wolf remained, staring up at Kara with a fierce expression, as though daring her to make it leave.

They don't understand why their queen gave up so easily
.

“Kara!” Taff shouted. “What are you doing?”

“There's no point,” she said wearily. “We can't win. Why should anyone else die?”

Framed by the gap between the trees, Sordyr watched her carefully for a moment and then, apparently satisfied, waved a single branch hand. The remaining trees thudded back into the ground, revealing the residents of Kala Malta pressed up against the Divide.

“Kara!” Taff exclaimed.

“Stay with Safi,” Kara said. The young witch was crawling through the grass, looking for her lost grimoire. “Keep her safe.”

Kara started toward the village, the wolf with the scorpion's tail following faithfully at her heels. The clearing was littered with the corpses of those who had fought for her.
All this death
, Kara thought.
Just as I feared
.

Sordyr's monsters crept closer but did not attack her.

It's not their fault. It's him. All him
.

Kara removed a bone shard from her pocket and held it out to Sordyr.

“Take it,” she said.

For the first time that afternoon, she saw genuine fear darken the Forest Demon's eyes. His creatures, sensing this change in their master, howled and scratched at the dirt.

“Come no closer!” he exclaimed. “Place the shard on the ground.”

Kara did as she was told. The bone shard instantly sunk into the black soil and vanished from view.

“Now,” Sordyr said, straightening the remains of his cloak, “let's discuss what's going to happen next. You are
going to free me from Rygoth. Today. No more tricks. No more waiting.”

“Yes,” said Kara, moving closer. With achingly slow movements she inched her hand toward her pocket, where the second shard waited. “No more tricks.”

Just a few more feet and I'll be within striking range
.

He nodded toward Safi, who had come closer, Taff by her side. “This witch will come with me to the World. I can use someone like her to demonstrate the powers of the grimoire. As for you and your brother—”

“Stop!” Mary Kettle exclaimed.

She stepped in front of the Forest Demon.

“Master,” she said. “Look at the way her hand is moving toward her pocket. I think she has another shard there.”