Wildwood Whispers

by Willa Reece

  A subtle shifting of the night breeze rustled the dried foliage, vines and branches all around us. I focused on Sarah’s sapling. I wouldn’t be dying in the garden. It wasn’t time to join my sister yet. My heart swelled with the knowledge as if the wind had whispered that certainty to me.

  “You must have thought you’d gotten away with it. The killing. The desecration of the garden. Subjecting those poor girls to abuse for the power and pleasure it gave you. But the wildwood bides its time, old man. It buries its roots deep,” Granny said. “It reaches its branches to the sky. It scatters its seeds and bears its fruit, and then, one day, it calls an army home.”

  Charm growled and several of the Sect people nearby exclaimed. A beam from someone’s flashlight fell on my shoulder like a spotlight, but they didn’t stare at Charm for long because animals started pouring from the wildwood path and the trees—all the animals I’d seen before—ravens, coyotes, crows and squirrels, rabbits and deer, including a giant buck with sixteen points and a scar along the right side of his face.

  Then, up the path, one by one, other surprise guests began to appear. Sadie, Joyce and Kara. Charles in a dapper walking suit as if he was out for a stroll and May with her arm linked in his. The glassblower. The carver. Joshua, the mechanic. The waitress from the diner. Becky the hairdresser. The woman who sold the fungi Tom collected. The potter. I’d served many of them bread at Gathering. And others still I recognized from my delivery rounds. Townsfolk who weren’t fooled by Hartwell Morgan. Artists and artisans and craftsmen. People who lived their lives more connected to the wildwood than most people did these days.

  People like me.

  “You thought you’d come here and find a vulnerable woman you could hurt and harass or even kill. Again,” I said. “You were wrong.”

  Lu had come up the path too. Blood crusted the lashes of my left eye, but I could see clearly with my right. My tears were gone. I didn’t know who had called all the people here. Sadie wouldn’t have had time to make the calls and even if she had they wouldn’t have arrived way out here so soon.

  I’d asked for the wildwood’s help. Maybe this was its reply.

  Several of the Sect men made a break for the trees. The giant buck leapt forward and lowered his rack. He managed to block all but two from getting away. And from out of the wildwood, Tom Morgan came. He ignored the two men who had made it into the wildwood. I heard their shouts of distress as the brambles and briars caught them. By the sounds of their thrashing, the thorns were biting deeper than they had bitten me the night I had chased after Lorelei.

  Charm gurgled near my ear and a laugh bubbled from my lips in response. Moon’s hands loosened in my hair as if the sudden crowd of townsfolk and his men’s desertion had weakened his resolve.

  Or maybe it had been my laughter.

  Tom laid his hand on the side of the buck and the deer raised his head high. Side by side, they blocked the other Sect men on one side of the garden while the people from town blocked the path back to the cabin. The big mechanic, Joshua, was over six feet tall and as broad as a weight lifter.

  I watched as the other animals gravitated toward people. I had been right. Me and Charm. Granny and her cat. The trio had their creatures. It seemed there were many other wisewomen and woodsmen in Morgan’s Gap. The wildwood had used the animals to summon them together when we needed them the most.

  “You have no jurisdiction here. I’ll call Hartwell and the sheriff’s deputies will bring the girl and her baby home,” Reverend Moon said.

  I lashed out. It wasn’t wise. I’d long ago learned that violence only got me in worse trouble, but the scrappy orphan girl who wasn’t actually an orphan reared her head against an oppressive system she couldn’t stomach for one more second. The wildwood helped us. But we still had to help ourselves.

  Unfortunately, Moon let go of my hair and found my neck as I lunged toward him. He had long arms and I barely landed a glancing blow against the side of his face with my fist before both hands closed around my throat. He pushed me back and drove me to my knees in front of him, his superior height and weight behind his grip. His freakishly skeletal fingers wrapped, tight, against my windpipe. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t breathe. I clutched at his hands and beat at his arms, trying to break them free.

  I heard shouts. My friends would try to help me. But some of the Sect people hadn’t given up yet. There was scuffling and fighting all around us. I had no way of knowing if anyone would get to me in time before Moon did to me what he had done to Melody. My head was tilted back. I could see only the contorted horror of Moon’s hate-filled grimace and the crooked black locust branch looming above us.

  And I couldn’t budge his cruel fingers pressing into my windpipe.

  The vision in my one good eye swam with black spots, but the spots didn’t prevent me from seeing Moon’s shock when Charm scurried from my shoulder to one of his hands. Or his pain and rage when my small familiar sank his teeth into Moon’s flesh. I croaked in horror as Moon shoved me away. Because I saw him shake his savaged hand and fling Charm into the blackberry bushes.

  The blackberry bushes.

  Even after all I’d seen and learned, I wasn’t sure I believed in the fae. But I had seen enough to trust in the magic of the wildwood garden. I was on the ground when Moon tried to grab me again. I used my whole body wrapped around his legs to tumble him into the briars where he had thrown Charm with no compunction.

  In that moment, as Moon fell, I allowed the magic that lived in me to reach out to Lu. I’d seen her. She was here. But more than that I felt her. I felt her energy, her light, her music, her magic. She was always here. In me. Our connection zinged through me in an instant.

  But there was another connection to be made.

  A trickier one.

  Jacob.

  I hadn’t seen him tonight. But I felt him. He was here. His energy came to my call, melding with mine even more fully than Lu’s. And I released every inhibition that had prohibited me from fully accepting our trio’s strength. Three. Three. Three. Barely perceptible, I felt another trio add their silent pleas for the wildwood’s help to ours. Sadie, Joyce and Kara. I didn’t know if it would work. I could only merge with my trio and ask the wildwood to answer our call. But combined with the other trio and drawing strength from all the friends and familiars around us, it was enough.

  The wildwood answered.

  I was stunned by the speed in which the thorns cut into the screeching reverend. Vines twisted and tangled and bit, deeper than deep into Morgan’s hands and arms and legs and face to hold him and keep him from doing any more harm. He was left with a blackberry vine crown piercing his forehead and more blood trickling into his eyes than I had in mine.

  Buanaich Maille ri.

  Abide together.

  Moon’s gruesome predicament had caused all the fighting around us to come to a standstill and into the lull a dozen people in military-style black apparel appeared out of the trees. Some of them wore night-vision goggles. And several had guns.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, if you would all direct your attention toward these badges, thank you.”

  Jacob was the one who had spoken. I wasn’t surprised to see him. I never had been really. I had always felt his presence; I just hadn’t allowed myself to accept that heightened perception. Until now. He was dressed in the same uniform as the others. That was a shock. The secret he’d kept from Lu and me finally revealed. Dozens of flashlights had fallen on the ground. They lit up the wildwood clearing well enough for me to see the scratches on Jacob’s face had begun to heal. They no longer looked angry and red. Silly for me to notice, sitting by the blackberry bushes with blood drying on my face and a savaged neck. It was dark. I couldn’t be sure. But Jacob’s attention seemed to linger on me. Not long. But long enough that I was certain he’d cataloged every scrape.

  He held one of the badges he referenced flipped open in the palm of his hand.

  “Federal agents, Reverend Moon. And you’ll find us mu
ch harder to influence than Hartwell and his deputies,” another agent added.

  A Sect man stepped threateningly toward one of Jacob’s people and the man drew a gun that gleamed in the eerie half-light. He didn’t have to speak. The Sect man stopped in his tracks. Lorelei rushed forward at the opportunity to take her baby from the Sect kidnapper. She immediately wrapped the pajama top she wore around the infant as she soothed her against her breast. None of the agents protested. Every decent person in the clearing breathed a sigh of relief to see the baby back where she belonged. Safe in her mother’s arms.

  “All of Reverend Moon’s people need to turn and drop to their knees with their hands behind their heads,” Jacob said. Several of the townspeople had raised their hands in the air when the federal agents had appeared. They tentatively lowered them as Jacob identified his targets.

  My breathing was ragged, but oxygen tasted sweet. Especially when Charm crept out from under the bushes and climbed into my outstretched hand.

  One of the Sect women began to weep and pray, but the others were silent as the agents came up behind them to cuff their hands and pull them to their feet. Even Reverend Moon didn’t speak. At least not until Violet Morgan appeared from the path. In this light, the blood on her face and hands looked almost black. Her hair was damp and matted. Her dress was torn. She limped, but I couldn’t tell if it was because of an injury or because she wore only one shoe.

  “I came as soon as I could,” Violet said. She looked at Tom Morgan when she said it and I knew she was checking him from head to toe to make sure he was okay. Hadn’t I felt Jacob’s eyes on me when he appeared, doing the same thing?

  “Worthless whore,” Reverend Moon cursed. Then he screamed. As one, my trio had reached out to the wildwood. It was too dark for most to see, but we could tell the vines had twisted their thorns deeper into his forehead, and he was silent after that.

  “He tried to stop me,” Violet said. “I… I’m not sure if he’s a… alive.”

  Jacob lifted a communications device from his belt and spoke into it. I assumed he was sending other agents to check on Hartwell Morgan. Conflicting emotions warred in my tight chest. I was thrilled that Violet had fought back against his violent abuse, but I was afraid she would be in big trouble if she had killed him. I was glad that some of the blood on Violet’s face and hands and hair might be Hartwell’s and not hers. It was a ferocious gladness I refused to reject. Any pain Hartwell had suffered he had deserved.

  Lu pulled me up from the ground. I hadn’t even seen her approach. She held me tight with a supportive arm across my back. We stood hip to hip and I reached to wrap my arm around her back too. When I did, I encountered warmth and feathers. A bird startled from her shoulder, and in this light I couldn’t see exactly which creature the wildwood had sent to my best friend, but a sudden, fierce recognition rushed through me.

  A small doe approached Violet, but the former Sect woman didn’t act surprised or afraid. In fact, she reached for the animal and leaned against its sturdy back. She allowed it to help her to walk. She didn’t have to go far. Tom and the large buck came to meet her. And Violet let go of the doe to step into Tom’s embrace.

  “Hartwell supported Moon. He looked the other way and even participated…” I began. My voice startled me. It was little more than a scratchy whisper and every word caused me pain.

  “We know, Mel. I came back to the mountain to investigate Hartwell Morgan and the Sect settlement. And not only for dirty politics. The land grabs skirt the edge of what’s legal, but the human trafficking, the disappearances and abuse. The killings. We’ve been gathering evidence for years,” Jacob said.

  “Tess took you away from Morgan’s Gap,” Granny said. “But she must have told you what she knew. She must have told you about us trying to help the Sect women and about Morgan’s corruption.”

  The federal agents walked their prisoners around the townsfolk. Their vehicles must have been left down the driveway where they couldn’t be seen or heard from the house. They had watched all evening, waiting for events to play out.

  “Lots of Sect folk wanted to run away. They aren’t bad. Just didn’t know what to do,” Lorelei said. “I’m sorry I scratched you. I thought you were one of them trying to catch me and take me back.”

  “You were afraid. Fighting for your baby’s life. I understand,” Jacob said. “There’ll be further investigation. Interviews. We’ll take witness accounts. There’ll be counseling and medical care as well as legal aid.”

  Lorelei had scratched Jacob’s face. She hadn’t realized he was trying to help her that night. Instinctively, I had known I could trust him even though I’d been able to tell the scratches hadn’t been caused by vines. She’d been desperate and it had made her fast and strong. She’d slipped away from both of us. Once he’d lost her, he’d come to help me. I would always wonder if the wildwood had tangled around me to keep me from chasing after her in the dark. Far-fetched to some. Maybe. But I knew, now, that the wildwood was alive around us.

  Two of Jacob’s agents were trying to pull Moon from the blackberry bush. The wildwood garden wasn’t cooperating very well… until Jacob approached. My tension loosened as he came nearer and the vines loosened at the same time.

  Jacob had risked blowing his cover that night. If the wildwood had held me, he had been the one to help me back home. At that point, he’d known Lorelei didn’t want to be found. I might have chased her right into a less benevolent hunter’s arms. I shuddered at the thought of what I would have done, alone, against Moon and his followers. Or that I might have disrupted the government’s investigation by making them come forward too soon.

  I’d known all along there were secrets in Jacob’s eyes. I’d been right. But the night’s events had left me disoriented. I couldn’t reconcile the man who had pricked my finger with the blackberry thorn with this no-nonsense government agent. He’d helped his agents free Moon. They were none too gentle as they pulled the reverend to his feet.

  “I hope we can talk sometime soon,” Jacob said as he left Moon to his people and stepped toward me. He also scanned my face intently and, I thought, halfway lifted his hand toward my neck. Lu reflexively squeezed me closer and he lowered it before I could be sure. He nodded as if acknowledging Lu’s concern. For now. “Right. I have work to do,” Jacob said. “The rescue squad is on the way. We’ll leave Violet with you while we evaluate the situation with Hartwell.” I didn’t know how to reply. The wildwood had brought us together, but he’d been undercover all this time. Just as I was going to turn away, a four-legged creature rushed from the wildwood path. I recognized the fox, with its handsome white ruff and russet fur and the brush of its flowing tail. It came to twine around Jacob’s legs and then sat beside him, straight and tall and watchful as ever.

  The fox looked directly at me.

  I met Jacob’s intense stare with a startled stare of my own. Suddenly, more puzzle pieces fell into place—the hiking stick, the orb full of electric emotion, the blackberry thorn, Gathering, the fox watching over… me?

  “His father was one of us,” Granny said. As if Jacob wasn’t right there listening to us. “I thought he was too. Then he went away with his mother and I wasn’t sure exactly where he stood when he returned.”

  In spite of what we’d accomplished as a trio tonight, I still wasn’t sure. He’d always seemed like he was more a part of the wildwood than anyone else, but he’d kept so many secrets from me. From us. I squeezed Lu back and I could feel support radiating from her in empathetic waves.

  Jacob’s colleagues had Reverend Moon in handcuffs now. He glared toward me, but the blood on his forehead and around his eyes made his threatening expression more clown-like than monstrous. The fox stayed where the wildwood path ended when Jacob stepped into the backyard. In the chaotic aftermath of the confrontation, Jacob paused near me and we stood quietly face-to-face.

  “I see him. All the time,” I said, referring to the fox that suddenly leapt away from the path in a reddish fl
ash that was quickly gone.

  “My father carved me a toy fox from the branch of a cedar tree when I was a toddler. Granny was the one who spoke the spell. It’s one of my first memories,” Jacob said. He kept his voice low, but Granny missed nothing in spite of her age.

  “I said a few words, but even as a baby that boy was connected to the wildwood. It was his heart that created his fox familiar,” Granny said. “It’s always the heart.”

  “A kestrel showed up at the shop,” Lu said. “I thought he must be injured. But my grandmother knew he’d come for me.” She gave me a parting hug before she went to help Granny with Violet.

  Charm had reclaimed his perch on my shoulder. Now, he touched my flushed cheek with his pink nose as if confirming what Granny had said. He had been meant for Sarah, but he had chosen me. Tiny, determined, ferocious. A kestrel for Lu. Of course. Beautiful. Fierce. Protective. I’d seen the tiniest falcons swoop and soar over the treetops. Just like Lu’s voice.

  “Now you know why I couldn’t resist the hiking stick,” Jacob said. His lips tilted into a halfway smile that I’d seen before, but it was somehow different. More open, more real. Not as much left to hide.

  “I need to help Granny with Violet,” I said. Unsure of how to proceed. Would he be leaving the mountain now that his work here was done? What about the wildwood and Lu? And me? We’d exchanged gifts. Even though I was new to all this, I understood his acceptance of the carved stick meant more because he shared Granny’s… our beliefs.

  Before I could turn away (or run away), Jacob had lifted his hand to take a stray curl from the side of my face into his fingers. He gently twirled it as if the chestnut lock was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.

  “There’s someone in the Sect settlement I think you’re going to want to meet,” he said softly. This time there was no one around us to overhear. Granny and Lu had taken Violet back to the cabin. Tom had followed. The townsfolk had disappeared back that way as well. Deep down, I’d known. The wildwood had been whispering this truth to me for a long time. Had Sarah known my biological mother was in Morgan’s Gap? I thought maybe she had. That sending me here had been as much for my mother as for hers.