“When lusting loins rise—come, sinner, thy time is nigh. Come, sinners with envious minds. At my side, thy time is nigh. Despondent sinners, don't you sigh. Come, sinners, thy time is nigh.”
The ground softened under Sarn’s boots, and it sucked at his feet. An invisible force wove around him, spinning Sarn about so he faced the same direction as the crowd.
He jerked forward as something cold tore out of his back. An arm, black as a subterranean cave, wrapped around his throat and pulled him into a headlock—again.
“I’ve got you now,” a familiar voice said.
But it couldn’t be one of Dirk’s cronies. This thing was shadow made solid. Sarn struggled to break his hold.
“This I, your only ally, say to the sky: come, sinner, thy time is nigh.” The creature choking Sarn froze.
Come, sinners, thy time is nigh. It shuddered and let go right before something sent it flying. The shadow-man merged with a huge black winged thing bearing down on them. It filled the cavern. So that’s what Sovvan had seen.
“Come, sinner, to your dark Father fly. At my side, thy time is nigh,” it said as it extended its ebony wings.
“Run, Papa!” Ran tugged his hand. Why was Papa just standing there? His eyes were open, and their green glow was lightening to white, but the giant black thing was gaining on them. It had no eyes, but its head, and its sharp beak, turned in their direction.
“Don’t you hear the voice?”
“What voice? I don’t hear anything.” Ran listened hard and heard a dark murmur almost drowned out by the padding of many feet.
Papa just stood there, transfixed by the voice in his head.
“It’s calling me.”
“Don't listen to it.” Ran tugged Papa’s hand, but he didn't move.
A shadow-creature swooped over the crowd. Ran shivered as the giant black thing winged to the top of the cavern clutching bodies in its fore- and hind- claws. Two teenagers leaned out of its elongated beak. It was flying away, but there were more shadow-creatures lining the walls, and they herded the people toward another tunnel.
Ran tried again, but Papa still didn't move.
“What’s the voice saying?”
“Come, sinner, to your dark Father fly. At his side, thy time is nigh.”
‘Sinner’ sounded like a bad thing and Papa was not bad so, “you’re not a sinner. Don't go to this ‘dark Father’ either.”
“What’s a sinner?” Saveen asked. “I hear something, but I can’t make out what it is.”
“Hey, that’s my question.” Ran scowled at his friend for beating him to it.
As another shadow fell over them, everyone stopped. There were tiny flames dancing on the foreheads of the people who were trying to stop their loved ones. Some of those flames extinguished when the shadow fell over them, then their bearers' eyes rolled back until their whites showed. Entranced now, they shuffled on with the other blank-eyed marchers.
So those flames are important. Ran bit his lip. Does Papa have one?
Yes, something inside him said.
Ran tilted his head back to check, and there—a small fire flickered in Papa’s heart. I must protect it.
Ran tugged Papa’s hand. “Up, please.”
Papa nodded and lifted him into his arms just as that thing made another pass. But Ran held tight to Papa and kept his little body between the shadow and the guttering flame inside Papa.
You can’t have him. Papa belongs to me. Papa’s not a sinner. He's a good person and good people only do good things.
But the shadow kept coming, growing larger as it neared. Ran squeezed his eyes closed and pictured Ghost Bear talking to the Queen Tree in that place of light and shiny, shiny leaves. He inhaled the earthy scent of the forest still clinging to Papa’s clothes and called to Bear because Auntie Sovvan was busy keeping the black thing from spreading up Papa’s arm. She couldn't manifest without hurting Papa, but Bear could.
Help me, Bear, Please!
Bear lay forgotten on the ground. The spirit blinked its button eyes, but that didn’t improve the view. A stalactite wept on him. That cold peck on his furry cheek brought the ghost’s situation home. Looks like I’m stuck here until the level of magic rises to what it was. Damn.
‘Here’ was Sarn’s cave, but neither the young mage nor his adorable son was home. Where did they go? I swear I only closed my eyes for a moment.
Even ghosts needed a nap every now and again, especially after being drained by a rogue black lumir crystal. That showdown with the Ægeldar had taken far more out of the ghost than he’d realized.
Rolling on his belly, Bear pushed to a stand then flopped onto his bottom and glared at his stubby legs. His cloth home wasn’t anatomically correct. Without access to magic, he couldn’t tailor his pudgy torso into something better suited for a walk about under the mountain either. Double damn.
And right on cue, Ran called for him. You have the worst timing, kid. Bear shook his head and made another attempt at getting vertical. It ended the same way as the last time. Well, maybe he could crawl to the lad.
Hang on Ran, I’m coming. It just might take a while.
Bear scooted across the uneven floor on his bum but stopped by a familiar set of circles. Maybe she could help this time. Bear touched those silver curves. There were one hundred and forty-four in total. Maybe there was enough magic in them for one last call. Through the cloth covering his paw, he extended his spirit into the circle that circumscribed the other one hundred and forty-three. Pale light ran around those curves, lighting up the chains within chains forming her sigil.
Hear me, Queen of All Trees, but that was as far as he got before the light in his button eyes winked out. Bear flopped forward onto his belly, inanimate as before. His stitched nose touched her sign and Bear fell through it, into a light so pure, it hurt his eyes.
The Queen of All Trees jerked in surprise. A fell voice whispered on the wind:
“Come, sinner, thy time is nigh. Coins buy the apple of your eye. Come, sinner, thy time is nigh.”
No, it couldn’t be. But what if it was? She stretched her thoughts out to the white blur marching across the mile-wide trail of devastation. “Shayari, we have a problem.”
Shayari paused, but her sister-queen didn’t turn. Her thoughts winged back as clear and loud as if she stood next to the Queen of All Trees instead of several miles away. “What problem?”
“The Adversary.”
“You deal with him. He doesn’t know I exist as an independent entity and I’d like to keep it that way.”
Shayari resumed her march, but her steps were slower than before. The magic-less ground was draining her and so was that rogue black lumir crystal. The more it drew off her power the slower her progress became. The very land she traversed sucked at her feet and tried to stop her. But Shayari trudged onward, one step at a time. She was miles behind the crazy cleric, but that nutty woman and her entourage would stop to rest and refuel eventually. And when they did, Shayari would catch up.
The Queen of All Trees laid a branch over the cracks spider-webbing her bark. It was a physical manifestation of the damage the black lumir crystal was doing to her and the underpinning of this world. But she remained on the brow of a hill, surrounded by the wounded and the dying instead of fleeing.
I can’t leave them, or they’ll die. The Queen of All Trees caressed a convulsing oak tree with her silver branches. Her will held it to life.
Her sign blazed on the ground at her roots. White light licked up from it, and a stuffed bear regarded her with button eyes. She waited, but the ghost didn’t speak. Maybe he couldn’t. His fuzzy spirit-home fell forward as she sent a root through the fading portal. When she retracted her root, a ghost Bear came with it, clinging to her bark.
“You’ve got to help them,” Bear said as she put him down. He morphed into a proper bear and reared up on his hind legs.
“Them, who?” But her thoughts were already bending toward Mount Eredren.
“I�
��m sure you can guess—our potential curse breaker and his sweet enigma of a son. Who else is constantly in danger?”
The Queen of All Trees thought of Shayari for a moment but didn’t mention her iron-willed sister-Queen.
“Bear, help us!” Ran shouted at the top of his lungs.
Come, sinner, thy time is nigh, the Adversary sang, pitching his call below the level of thought where instinct ruled.
“If I call him, the Adversary will notice.” The Queen of All Trees shifted her roots. She had plans for that gifted young man, but only if he survived his twenty-first birthday, five months hence. On November 2nd, he would finally have full access to the curse breaking half of his gift. If the awakening of that gift didn’t kill him and the son whose life depended on him.
“If you don’t call him, you might lose them both.” Bear held both his paws up imitating a triple beam balance.
He was right. Sarn was damned no matter what she did.
“Call him. We might lose him in five months anyway.” Shayari insisted, but she didn’t turn back.
Shayari was a woman on a mission. Once the Queen of All Trees had been that fired up over things, but she’d lived so long that flame had burned down. Only embers remained.
“I can call too. He’s a distant descendant, so I might have some pull.”
Bear glanced around. “Who said that?”
Shayari had projected her voice so Bear would hear it. The Queen of All Trees waved a dismissive branch.
“If you do that, the Adversary will know you exist,” she sent but only the queen striding away from her heard.
Shayari turned, but only long enough to signal her agreement. Holding a long-distance tête-à-tête was taxing her. Even from this distance, it was obvious her energy was flagging. Somehow, Aralore and her acolytes were still outpacing her.
“I’ll call him. Pray he comes.”
“Will do. And you pray I get that black lumir crystal under wraps before it becomes too powerful to contain.” Shayari’s response was no more than a fading whisper when it reached the Queen of All Trees. “That box won't hold it for long.”
The more magic the black lumir crystal consumed, the stronger its nullification field would become. Already its reach on the astral plane far outstripped its reach on the material one. How long before its influence reached Mount Eredren and the secrets she and her sister-queen had buried there?
That box constrained it on the material plane only. Nothing could stop the black lumir crystal’s voracious hunger on the astral plane where magic flowed into this world and her roots.
The Queen of All Trees didn’t respond to Shayari’s barb. Digging her roots deep into the earth, she sent out her call and the ground magnified it as it carried her summons under the mountain.
Come to me. It was a dangerous gamble, but she sent out her call anyway, and the cracks in her bark widened revealing the softer wood inside. Come to me, Child of Magic.
Caught in a Dark Web
“Thieves and beggars, your love I buy. At my side, thy time is nigh. Toss your shame sinners, don't deny. At my side, thy time is nigh.”
A dark shape rose, arms outstretched, offering understanding. His black eyes reflected all the things Sarn had stolen—food, clothes, shoes and even some baubles to fence in his youth—anything to get by.
Come, sinner, to your dark Father fly. At my side, thy time is nigh, whispered a voice below the level of thought.
The summons hooked Sarn and pulled him with the slack-faced crowd. Their eyes were rolled back until the whites showed, but the glow of his eyes died them green.
His map tried to spawn, but the voice spoke louder, and it fragmented. The red arrow pointing to a double upside-down pentacle disintegrated as the voice swelled. It filled his head leaving no room for thought as it painted pictures of his sins.
Shadows plucked at Sarn’s cloak then drew back shaking their smarting hands. It was a gift from a Knight Quester almost seven years ago, and the damned thing kept catching his boots. A tarnished brooch held it closed. It was a silver leaf and it kept attracting his gaze. Something about it was familiar, but the voice drove the thought away.
Beku’s face swam out of the shadows, sallow and concerned. Green light from his eyes highlighted every crow’s foot and laugh line as she reached out.
“I’ll help you escape, but I want something in return.”
Her gaze turned hungry as it scanned him from head to toe. At the time, he was a gangly fifteen and desperate to escape the Orphan Master, Hadrovel. Almost nine months to the day from that failed escape attempt, Ran was born.
Ran, my son—Sarn shook his head but the voice boomed louder.
“Come, sinners, from one-night stands rise. At my side, thy time is nigh. Come one, come all, tell your bastards, ‘stand tall!’ At my side, their time is nigh.”
Something moved in his arms. Am I holding someone? Everything was so jumbled.
“Papa?”
A small hand patted his face, but when Sarn looked down, he could see only a green blur.
“Fruit of a deadly deal deny. Come, sinner, thy time is nigh,” said the voice. “You won’t die, nor in my fire fry. Come, sinner, thy time is nigh.”
“Papa, say something, please. You’re scaring me.”
Arms wrapped around his neck and greasy hair tickled his chin as a small head rested on his shoulder. His arms tightened on reflex. They knew what to do even if he didn’t. Something is messing with my head.
“I’m here, Papa. Come back to me. Don’t let the dark think take you away from me.”
“I won't.”
White light cut through his clothes and reflected off his brooch. His pendant flared up shoving the shadows back and the crowd too. Blank eyes filled with sense and the men and women nearest him, threw their arms over their faces to shield their eyes.
Come to me, Child of Magic, said his Queen, and her light burned away the darkness wreathing his mind. Her summons wrapped around Sarn and blocked out that fell voice.
Sarn stumbled into a run. I must go to her.
Before she faded out, the glow of his eyes lit a staircase corkscrewing through the mountain. Then he was taking the stairs three at a time until Ran shouted.
“Papa, you must stop so Saveen can catch up.”
“Ran—”
“I’m here.” Ran patted the arm holding him. “But are you here? You just ran off. Why?”
“She’s calling me.”
“Who’s calling you?” Saveen asked between pants.
“The Queen of All Trees.” Sarn hit the catch revealing a secret exit.
“She’s real?”
“The Queen Tree? Yes, and we’ll see her, now.”
Sarn nodded and stepped onto a precipice overlooking the meadow. “She’s calling me.”
“Have you ever seen her before?” Saveen goggled at Ran, who nodded and grinned at his friend.
“Yes, earlier when we fought a monster. I wanted to tell you but—” Ran shrugged.
“You fought a monster—a real one?” Saveen stared at Ran, who nodded.
“Bear helped too.”
“What kind of monster?” Saveen looked back and forth between them until Ran patted his hand.
Ran shrugged. “It had many arms.”
“He means tentacles.”
Saveen just stared at them. The poor teen had no idea how to react to that intelligence.
“Don’t worry. The monster’s gone now, right Papa?”
“It’s locked up, but I don't know if it’s gone. Maybe that’s why she’s calling me.”
Sarn hit the trail winding down the north face of the mountain at a jog. Saveen hurried to keep up, determined not to be left behind, not with the Queen of All Trees waiting for them.
“Because of the monster?”
“I don’t know, son. Let's go find out.”
Her call was weakening as they descended. Was she under attack, or did she know he would come no matter what obstacle lay between
them?
No one who’d ever seen the Wild Hunt had lived to tell of it. But then, no one had ever seen the Queen of All Trees before today either. If I can draw her out, then I can draw them out too.
Aralore ruminated on how to draw out a pack of supernatural psychos while her acolytes packed away the remains of their meal and readied themselves to move out. A new determination fired their souls, but she still needed proof of her claims. Aralore paced and brooded on the proof part.
Her acolytes didn’t see her dead twin. They didn’t hear the stories Ayoma told about her ‘perfect love’—the one that had fired an arrow through her starry-eyed sister's heart.
Oh, Aralore, you must meet him. He’s the most wonderful man in the world—even better than Inari’s beau. Ayoma had gushed, years ago while spinning around in a filmy new frock.
Three months later, Ayoma had lain dead in the snow. And where was Inari? Not out there tracking down Ayoma’s killer as she should have been.
Aralore rubbed her face and tried to scrub away the memories. But they wouldn’t go. She felt a cold hand on her arm and knew Ayoma stood by her, urging her on.
Avenge me, sis. Make them pay for what they did. Make them all pay.
I will, sis, you know I will. I’ll raze the enchanted forest to the ground. Aralore shivered as that cold hand squeezed her arm then her sister’s shade receded.
“They took my brother.” Somnya held a thick slice of bread piled high with cheese, meat and tomato slices out to Aralore, startling her out of her thoughts. She hadn’t noticed Somnya’s approach.
“I didn’t want to believe it at first. Who does? The Wild Hunt is just a story, but it’s not. It’s real and its seducing young girls and boys right now. In just a few months, they’ll be slaughtered. It makes me sick just thinking about it.” Somnya dashed the tears from her eyes with her free hand while the one holding the offer of food shook. “Eat something, please. You can’t do all the great things I know you’ll do if you starve yourself.”
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