Wicked Path (The Daath Chronicles Book 2) (26 page)

ather never said much about Stormwood, except that the trees were big terebinths. Staring at a gigantic trunk almost as big as Lord Tyre’s castle, I couldn’t believe my eyes. This wasn’t big, this was gargantuan!

“Is that really a tree?” Raven tugged at my arm and bounced on her toes.

“We call them the ancients. They are the oldest and most cherished trees in Tarrtainya.” Cael continued walking. “The tales say these trees were here before anything walked the lands. This is a sacred wood.”

“My father never mentioned them being this big.” I gazed upward, unable to see the treetops. The giant trees created a sky canopy and only specks of sunlight filtered to the ground.

“To most, they’re just giant trees, but to The Order, it’s home.” He ended his sentence in front of one of the trees, rubbing his hand along the bark, until he stopped and pressed in, revealing a massive secret door. Bark rippled before my eyes, becoming malleable. Cael shifted pieces of the bark until a handle appeared.

“Welcome to Stormwood.”

Cael pushed the door open and Raven walked in first. I followed.

The inside of the tree reminded me of a tiny village. Small homes were carved into the wood; curving stairs and rope bridges crisscrossed from the dirt ground to the high top. Lanterns illuminated the inside of the tree, making the entire place glow warmly.

“Impossible,” I said.

“Not impossible,” Cael corrected. “These trees are holy, protected by The Creator. Their wood is strong and resilient. When The Order discovered Stormwood, ages ago, they began building inside the trees.”

“What about the fire? This entire place could burn.” Raven spun around, letting out little gasps while pointing at the hanging lanterns and wooden huts.

“Fire can’t harm this wood.”

Raven and I both stopped walking and stared at him.

Cael smiled. “I told you, this wood is holy.”

A girl dressed in blue and black robes with whitish-blonde hair ran to Cael, smiling. “You’ve returned!” She slammed into him and gave him a big hug.

“Hello, Ginna. This is Avikar and Raven.”

“It’s very nice to meet you.” She smiled at Raven. “Cael’s told me a lot about you.”

Cael blushed and gently moved Ginna to the side.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Raven’s gaze shifted toward Cael. “I hope he was nice in his storytelling.”

Ginna giggled. “Oh, he was.”

“Ginna, why don’t you show them to the quarters. I need to meet with Malak.”

“Of course. Follow me.”

We walked deeper into the tree, past women washing clothes in bins and children chasing after a chicken. This wasn’t what I expected when Cael said we would be going to The Order’s hideout. I imagined a stuffy, cold structure with old, grumpy men in black and red robes. Yet, there were children and women here, and it reminded me of the small community of Lakewood.

Ginna led us to a stairway carved out of the inside of the tree that circled around the trunk. Wooden platforms supporting small, thatched shacks lined the stairway. The structure of the village consisted of a mix of ropes and wood.

“Here’s where you’ll be staying.” Ginna pointed to me. “Hey, Jonas!” she yelled into the doorway of a shack on our right. “Got a visitor!”

A man with a bushy gray mustache that curled up at the ends stepped out. “Send him in,” he said, wiping his hands on a cloth.

Raven grabbed my arm. Her fingers dug deep and she leaned against me.

“And where do the women stay?” I slid my arm around her waist, hugging her to my side.

Ginna pointed to a similar shack near the next rising staircase. “Over there.”

I leaned into Raven. “You’ll be fine,” I whispered. “But if anything happens, whistle. I’ll come for you.”

She held onto my arm, biting her lower lip. “Okay.” She let go, and I gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head before she followed Ginna across the bridge.

“Well, come in,” Jonas said. “I’ll show you your cot.”

The inside of the shack was larger than I’d expected: one long, rectangular room. Three bunks lined the wall across from a cooking space. A wooden table sat in the middle, surrounded by wooden stools.

“You’ll sleep here.” Jonas pointed to one of the lower bunks. He walked toward a wooden door on the right side of the room and opened it. “Back here is where you do your business. See this pot?”

I nodded.

“When you use it, dump the contents into this outside bucket and pulley it down.”

The back wall of the bathroom had a large window cut out of it. A bucket tied to a rope sat on a ledge. I looked outside the window to the bottom of the village.

“One of the cleaners takes the bucket, empties it, and pulleys it—” Jonas sneezed, interrupting himself.

I waited for him to finish, but he sneezed four more times, then twice more.

“Are you all right?”

Catching his breath, he shook his head. “Nose doesn’t agree with living in a tree.”

He patted his round belly. “That’s it for now. Sit and clean up if you wish. Suppertime will be soon. I need to finish my work.”

“Thank you.”

I looked out the window again, feeling sorry for whoever had to clean out my bucket.

sat at a long wooden table surrounded by regular folk, no fancy robes or armor, just workers. Raven sat across from me wearing a plain green dress that brought out the almond color of her skin. She wore her hair braided on the right side, and I wondered how they convinced her to put on a dress.

Cael still hadn’t returned from his meeting. Malak’s name had sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it before, or who he was.

Raven dipped a wooden spoon into a bowl of soup that simmered with rosemary, leeks, and potatoes. She sipped slowly and caught me staring.

I winked.

Conversations went on around us, but all of it merged into one loud noise. Raven glanced back and forth at the people sitting near us. She’d never been outside of Daath, and I could only imagine what her thoughts must be.

“What is this place?” I asked Ginna who seemed more than happy to tell us.

“This is the work tree. We provide supplies for The Order.” Ginna smeared boiled blueberries over a piece of fanna. “There are a total of six trees: the work tree, the healing tree, the training tree, the base tree, the living tree, and the holy tree.”

“Are they all this big?” Raven smiled as she gazed up at the high ceiling.

“No, some are much smaller,” Ginna said. “This is the biggest because of all the work we do. The others are half this size. Tomorrow, I’ll show you the rest, except the holy tree. No one but priests and guards are allowed in there.”

“Keeping my friends company?” Cael patted Ginna’s shoulder and she slid over to let him sit.

“I was just telling them about the trees,” she said. “I thought I could show them tomorrow.”

“Where were you?” I asked. We hadn’t seen Cael since we first arrived in the afternoon.

He smiled and nodded at the man sitting next to Raven. “I updated General Malak. He has men stationed around the forest. Lucy won’t get close.”

He sounded confident, but this was Lucy. She may have not shown herself since the pass, but she was out there. What was she waiting for? I wanted to believe we had lost her and that she was wandering the mountains searching for us, but luck and I were never the best of friends.