by R Cavanaugh
“Rose.” This time it was Liam that spoke, and with a wave of his hand, she caught on and walked right over and stood beside him. “Rose, we will be practicing archery today. I am going to show you how to assemble and disassemble a bow, how to hold it, and how to load the arrows. Also, I am going to show you the proper firing stance.”
“OK,” she said, praying she would at least do this well.
He spent what would be the equivalent of an hour explaining the different parts of the bow and how they worked, how to assemble it and, most importantly, how to load it correctly and efficiently.
After all this he asked her to take her stance; once she did he poked and prodded her into what he called the “appropriate” stance, but what she called the “most uncomfortable” stance.
“I can’t shoot like this!” she cried out at him, all the while barely staying in place.
“You’re going to have to, because that is how it is done,” Valor said, lying there and speaking in a matter-of-fact way.
“It will get easier as you get better,” growled Enigma.
However. it became clear very quickly that she was no better at archery than any of the other skills she had approached.
“You are trying too hard, Rose,” came Liam’s voice, but it felt very distant, separate from herself.
She was exhausted and tired of failing at everything in this world that she tried to do.
“I think I would like a quick break, Liam.” Rose said quietly, and she carefully made her way toward Valor and sat on the grass near him. Once on the ground, she brought her knees up and placed her chin upon them, wrapping her arms around them.
“Why don’t I do things well?” she sighed, speaking freely now that Enigma was engaging Liam in a conversation separate from her own. “I mean, I am trying, and I think I understand, but—”
“There you go,” said Valor, casting her a calm glance. “You think but you are not sure, are you?”
His eyes pierced her own, and they said nothing for a while after that. It was as they sat there that a young man with a tough build and blond hair approached Liam. The man spoke to him quickly before turning very abruptly and leaving.
“I wonder what that was all about?” Rose whispered to Valor, craning her neck to watch the man leave. Valor cast her a strange look that seemed to say, “I know, but I will not tell you because I can’t.” After turning his head in another direction, Valor seemed to decide he had better be leaving.
“Hey,” Rose said, slightly nervous now, “where are you going?”
“I think I will go and see if I can’t find out where James is today,” he said without breaking his stride or turning his head.
“I thought you said you knew where he was earlier,” Rose called after him, agitated, and now fear was slowly filling her heart and soul. Her fears were far from eased when Valor seemed to pick up his pace and didn’t even answer her.
“Rose,” Liam was speaking to her and was now only a few yards away and closing the gap fast, “we need to talk.”
“All right,” Rose answered in an unnaturally high voice; she found herself placing her hands on her hips. Why did I do that? she thought and quickly lowered her arms into a straight position at her side.
“Rose,” he sighed and looked up into her face before continuing, “I was just told that the day after next there will be a sort of send-off happening.”
“For whom, or…” Here she paused and saw Enigma, who was now sitting where Valor had been, was staring at her unblinkingly. “Or for what?”
“Well it’s going to be a kind of celebration for you,” he continued, now turning away and walking toward the edge of the forest.
“What kind of celebration?” Rose breathed. Her heart seemed to be on the verge of stopping, and her mouth had gone drier than the desert.
“Well…” Liam hesitated, and before he could continue, Enigma began to speak.
“It is a send-off celebration that is given whenever a human enters the Forest of Promise in search of their destined animal.” He looked at her and must have been watching as the blood steadily drained from her face in terror. “After the celebration you will enter the forest and begin your search as everyone wishes you luck.”
“You guys are joking, right?” she asked hysterically, looking quickly between the two of them. “I mean, you’re just trying to motivate me.”
But one look at the two of them told her that they were being very serious, and that a lack of motivation was not the reason why the told her. Her heart was sinking farther and farther into her stomach, and her mind was racing.
“Rose?” Liam had put his hand on her shoulder and was looking concerned. Her silence was clearly worrying him.
“I’m fine,” she said in a hollow voice.
“Are you sure?” Enigma said, his eyes reading her thoughts, it seemed, once again. “Because if not, talking about it could help.”
“I’m fine,” she replied, no more convincing this time than the last. But she brushed Liam’s hand off gently and turned to look at him. “Really. I just need to go to my tent and, um…think.”
“OK,” Liam said as she walked away, leaving them at the edge of the clearing.
She was moving very quickly, and her mind seemed to be going just as fast as her feet. It would be humiliating to have all those people watch her. Not only that, but she wouldn’t even measure up in the end the way they expected her to.
Her fears had carried her to her tent, and she quickly ducked inside. It was midafternoon now, and people were busying themselves elsewhere. With a quick glance around the space, she bolted to her corner and grabbed her bag. She wasn’t going to stay, wasn’t even going to leave a note. This was not her world; these were not her people, and she was not their leader.
With these final thoughts, she exited the tent and made her way to the southern edge of the camp, in the direction of what she knew to be a pool of water.
“I will fill my canteen there,” she said aloud, but there was no one around to hear her. No animals or humans came down this way much, as there was a small well at the northern end of the camp, just beyond the clearing.
“What does that matter?” she said out loud once more, disgusted with herself for saying anything at all. She trudged through the heavily wooded area.
It took her most of the rest of the day’s light to reach the water on the other side of the trees. As she reached the water’s edge, the sun was resting on the treetops, about to sink down. Well, she thought, it is beautiful, with the great trees and the island reflecting in the water.
Wait! she thought, An island?
Right in the middle of the pool, an island had suddenly appeared and couldn’t be larger than a quarter mile in any direction. Not only was it small, but it was heavily forested with trees that seemed to be growing with every breath she inhaled as she stood there. It was also perfectly round, and that in and of itself was odd.
She hadn’t realized it, but in the water she was now almost standing in, there was a small bar of sand appearing before her. She almost tripped and fell upon it in absolute shock. It seemed to be leading directly to the island’s shore.
She knew it was probably stupid to think that this island appeared solely for her, but she did. It would also be incredibly stupid to cross the sand bridge and go onto an island that could just as suddenly disappear as it had appeared.
“However,” she sighed, “maybe home can be found on that island.”
And with that, she placed her right foot on the sand and then her left; she looked both ways to see if someone was watching. Then she began to run across the mysterious bridge of sand, so as not to have a chance to turn back.
Chapter 20
Wasted and Well-Mapped Time
The House Made of Trees
Exotius stepped over the broken form of Jasmine Traymeda; in his
own opinion, she had long ago outlived her usefulness. The musty, earthy smell of the house was now mingled with the smells of his struggle with her. The smells were of sweat, blood, and death; it was a mixture that he was very familiar with.
King Igneous was standing in her private quarters, an area to which she would always retreat to when she was through talking to whomever it was standing in the main room. Speaking of the main room, he thought; he took a quick glance around the corner to see what was transpiring.
Men that were a part of the king’s personal army were actually at that very moment tearing through the room. They looking for an object that wasn’t wider than most of their hands and was far thinner than anything they had ever come in contact with. They were instructed, however, to take anything useful back to the horses for safekeeping.
“Exotius,” Igneous called from the other room. His tone was that which belonged to a man who was less than pleased. Not that he was very often, Exotius thought.
“Coming, sire,” Exotius called back and thought, as he answered, that they had done fairly well, considering the circumstances. He took one final look at the men to remind them of their job, should any dare get distracted, then he turned and began to walk in the direction of the king’s voice. He continued to think about their good fortune as once again he stepped over the old woman’s body and headed toward her private quarters.
After all, he told himself, they had been in luck when Traymeda’s animal, Indifferens, was nowhere to be seen. This bit of good fortune meant that the old woman had no warning about their coming. Apparently, he thought, smiling an evil grin, she didn’t have that bit of foresight telling her about someone’s imminent arrival.
He continued to smile as he relished the expression on her face as the king came barging through that door, Exotius with him and a small army in his wake. His smile then widened as he thought about how foolish she was to believe that she wasn’t expendable. Everyone was considered expendable to the king, including himself. Here he paused and found himself standing outside of the doorway of what seemed to be Jasmine Traymeda’s bedroom.
Inside on the left and all the way back, there was a small four-poster bed, whose frame had lost its brilliant finish and drapes many years previous, it seemed. There was a second fireplace that was directly across from the bed, and on the back wall, there was a small window that was, he thought, curiously open. Pausing, he thought, That is odd for such a cool night. Near the fireplace was a worn wooden stool and matching table. They both only had three legs but were square, as opposed to the traditional circular style.
“Are you going to frame yourself in the doorway or come here?” Igneous muttered coolly and with an air of impatience that was clearly meant for him. He looked up and placed his eyes upon Exotius, those eyes that could burn.
“Sorry, sire,” he said humbly, but meaning not a word of it as usual.
“No, you’re not,” the king said unsmilingly and beckoned him over to the wall nearest the bed. “Come take a look at this.”
Exotius did as he was told and walked over to the wall. Here his jaw might have dropped if he were the kind of man that would reveal his emotions. The wall had been converted into some kind of hand-drawn map. The map was very detailed and depicted what was considered the most populated parts of Aquamarine; it even included titled locations and a compass.
“Well,” he said, taking a closer look and running his hand over it, “someone had a lot of time on her hands.”
He turned to look at the king and then said,
“Why do you suppose she took the time to do such work?”
Igneous ignored the question and began to move closer himself, so close, in fact, that he now stood only a mere foot away. He then stretched out a hand and began to gesture at the faintest of markings hidden under the labels.
“These old markings that are faint and barely readable,” he said, pointing to a part of the forest near the House Made of Trees on the map, “they are the same everywhere.”
“Yes,” Exotius said, looking slightly amused, “the words are ‘Not Here,’ whatever that is supposed to mean.”
“It means this was her way of keeping track of where she had looked for it,” the king said in a hushed and disgusted voice, and then he, too, ran his hand over it.
“You mean to say she was searching for the tiara too?” Exotius exclaimed, having to work very hard to remove the shock from his voice. “This whole time she was trying to get the upper hand on you, my king.”
“Look over here,” he said without so much as acknowledging Exotius had said a word. “The Mountains of Treachery, the Mendacious Forest, Lake Veteris Spiritus, and Ancient Aquamarine. They are all marked ‘Not Here.’”
“Those were the places we were going to search,” Exotius grumbled coldly, his mouth twitching ever so slightly. It aggravated him that one week of doing nothing but research now had them no closer to finding that foolish headdress.
“What about HawThorns and the Forest of Promise, sire?” Here they both took a look at the map and saw the same two words.
“Well it must be somewhere,” Igneous said with utter fury filling his cold eyes. Those eyes looked to Exotius as though they were made of fire.
“What about here, sire?” Exotius asked, still looking at the map and pointing at the House Made of Trees. Meanwhile Igneous went over to the fireplace and stretched out his arms, placing his hands on the mantle; his eyes were now resting on the dancing flames.
“It doesn’t say that it’s ‘not here.’”
Still gazing at flames, Igneous seemed to be carefully thinking about his answer.
“She wouldn’t be looking for the tiara elsewhere if she already had it here,” he said through gritted teeth, and his face had hardened.
“What if this is just meant to fool you, sire?” Throwing his hand in the direction of the map in frustration. “It would be just like her to do so.”
“She did not know that I would see this,” Igneous said more calmly as he continued to watch the flames eat away at the smoldering logs. “She thought that I would never eliminate her, that I would always need her. She did this for her own benefit, for her own wondering mind.”
“So,” Exotius paused, “you think she was looking for it on her own? I mean really looking so as to best both sides?”
“I think she would have wanted to sell it to the highest bidder.” Here Igneous looked up and stared at Exotius with a hard look on his face.
Exotius would have found such a thing hard to believe, but then again he didn’t know Traymeda as well as the king. The reason being, of course, that Exotius had refused to work with her at all.
“So where do we stand?” he asked, looking into those fiery orange eyes.
Igneous, ignoring Exotius, stood straight up, and as he did so, the fire extinguished, put out by magic, though the king hadn’t uttered a word. He turned and slowly made his way to the doorway and beckoned to Exotius with a wave of his hand. The two of them continued back to the main room, which had once looked organized and now looked demolished.
“We are leaving,” Igneous barked at his men, who quickly got out of the building through the only door there was and out of the king’s way.
Exotius followed the king outside, still waiting for a response, something he often found himself doing. The men were now busying themselves with getting ready to depart when the king turned to him to speak.
“Now we must return to the capital and prepare for a fight that is sure to come.” He paused and turned back to look at the House Made of Trees. “I think it is safe to say that the tiara is a legend and nothing more—at least to these people.” He finished this sentence with a gesture of his hand.
“What makes you say that?” Exotius said in an undertone, still facing the men; which was a good thing, as two of them were now preparing Wildfire and Infestus for the long ride ahead.
<
br /> “Because,” the king smiled, “if Traymeda couldn’t find it in all her years of looking, it can’t possibly exist, at least not out here.”
“What do you mean by that?” Exotius said, bemused. It was like the king was insinuating that the tiara was in the castle or something.
Annoyed, Igneous turned to look at his top man with a glare that would send most men running—most men.
“If it isn’t here, then it must have been hidden in plain sight somewhere: somewhere I wouldn’t think to look.” He hissed this sentence, continuing to hold Exotius’s eyes in a piercing stare. “What better place than within the very walls in which I live? The place is so enormous, with plenty of nooks and crannies in which to hide something very small.”
“If you say so, sire,” Exotius said, leading the way to the horses and mounting Wildfire.
“I do,” Igneous said smugly, mounted Infestus, and started to lead them toward Decorus Regnum Corset when a crackling noise came from behind them.
“The earth is sucking us in,” Infestus cried, but Igneous forced him to turn around and see what was happening.
Exotius, who had not yet moved, now watched as the House Made of Trees sank into the ground from which it came. It appeared that it had not been nature but magic that had created this strange form, and the magic holding it had died with the old woman. The roots seemed to be like ropes, as they were now pulling the tree carefully down. It was done so gracefully that it seemed to look as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Then it was gone. The clearing in which it stood was now simply a clearing with no reason for existing at all. The trees that were great and always seemed to be full of life were aging before their eyes and now seemed old and dead, giving the clearing a haunted aura.
“Well,” said Igneous, calling his shocked and stunned men back to themselves, “I guess we won’t worry about anyone finding her, will we?”