Tree of Ages Box Set

by Sara C. Roethle

She rose from her bed and padded barefoot across the rugs that covered the wooden decking of the ship, withdrawing a key from her pocket to unlock the door. Opening it just a crack, she peeked out to make sure it was indeed only Kai waiting outside. She wouldn’t dare let any of the crewmen see her in such a disheveled state. She was their leader, after all.

  Kai stood outside the door, looking worried, and also surrounded by . . . was that fog? Anna had never seen fog so thick. It nearly obscured Kai’s features from a few feet away.

  She opened the door a little wider and ushered him inside, shutting it quickly behind him after he’d entered. After a moment, she locked the door as an added precaution, against what, she did not know.

  Kai looked around Anna’s cabin, as if searching for some sort of clue about her reclusion.

  Anna, feeling tired and dizzy, still had enough gall to tap her bare foot impatiently while glaring Kai down for an explanation.

  He smiled ruefully. “So you’re really not going to tell me what’s going on?”

  “I’m ill,” she snapped. “Nothing more.”

  Kai sighed. “As you might have noticed during that brief peek outside this room, fog has closed in upon us. It’s too thick to even see the water directly below us, so we’ve been forced to come to a standstill. We can either wait it out, or move forward with the hope that we’re lucky enough to avoid any reefs or ice. Just to throw in my opinion, I’m not feeling terribly lucky.”

  Anna nodded as panic clutched at her chest. She couldn’t get to the Archtree soon enough. What was a short delay to some, was torture to her.

  “I’m worried that there is something abnormal about this fog,” Kai added.

  Anna took a moment to actually look at Kai. His shoulder-length, chestnut hair was beaded with moisture from the fog. It clung to his cheeks and shimmered on the stubble that had formed on his chin and jaw. She’d always found him rather handsome, though men were not her preference. Plus, she’d take a best friend over a romantic partner any day of the week. She only had to look at what romance had done to Kai to back up that decision.

  “What do you mean, abnormal?” Anna asked with a groan. Of course it was abnormal fog. Nothing was right in the world anymore.

  “The way it formed,” he explained, “and how dense it is. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It almost makes it difficult to breathe.”

  Not quite meeting Kai’s eyes, Anna asked, “What does Finn think?”

  Kai snorted. “I’m surprised you’d ask her opinion on something.”

  Anna finally met his gaze, if only to glare at him. “She is a magical being, perhaps even of the Faie. It would make sense for her to know something about this.”

  Kai shrugged, his expression unreadable. “She doesn’t even know who she is, not really. Plus, she just ran off and locked herself in her cabin again, so it’s probably not the time to ask her.”

  Anna smirked, imagining Finn slamming the door in Kai’s face at something he’d said. “She has a flair for the dramatic, I’ll give her that.”

  Kai sighed and moved past Anna to sit at the foot of her bed. “Says the other woman who’s locked herself in her cabin,” he teased as he looked up at her.

  Anna gritted her teeth. She wasn’t fond of showing weakness to anyone, but sharing her troubles might help matters. Sharing them with someone like Kai was an added comfort. He would never view her as weak.

  “Ever since I was taken by the Travelers,” she began.

  Kai sat up straighter, giving her his full attention.

  Anna cleared her throat nervously, “Ever since my time with the Travelers,” she began again, “I’ve been seeing things. At first it was just Finn and Àed. Finn shines like a captive star, and Àed like the soft golden light of the morning sun.”

  Anna let out a shaky breath. Kai wasn’t looking at her like she was crazy.

  “Now everyone is starting to shine,” she continued. “Even you. You shine a soft green like light peeking through a canopy of leaves.”

  Kai seemed suddenly concerned. “So you’ve hidden yourself away, because we’re all shining too much?”

  Anna sighed. She had no idea how to explain things properly. “At night,” she went on, wanting to get everything out before she lost her nerve, “I go to a place that’s all gray and misty, with stone walls and long hallways. I’m usually alone, though I’m quite sure I saw Branwen there once, of all people.”

  “So you dream that you’re trapped in a place with long, lonely halls,” Kai observed. “I’d say that perhaps says something about how you live your life. Maybe it’s your subconscious thoughts coming through.”

  Anna stomped up to Kai, still seated on her bed, and glared down at him. “They’re not just dreams,” she chided. “It’s like I really go there, but my body remains here. I went to such a place when the Travelers had me, when they made me look for the Archtree.”

  Kai stood so abruptly it almost knocked Anna off her feet. She had no idea what had suddenly excited him so much.

  “Why would you wait until now to tell me the Travelers are looking for the Archtree!” he shouted. “What if they’re already there when we arrive?”

  Anna cringed, but remained calm. “I found it in my travels within the gray place, but I was unable to give them an exact location, as I wasn’t traveling across normal terrain. I did find it though, and that seemed to satisfy them.”

  Kai slumped back down onto the bed, shocked. “So it exists then?” he breathed. “It’s not a myth?”

  Anna nodded. “Why do you think I believed you when you said you’d memorized a map to its location? I wouldn’t have hired an entire crew to find something I believed a myth.”

  Kai glared at her. “Well, sorry for not assuming that you’d already traveled to the tree in your dreams.”

  Anna lowered herself to sit beside Kai, feeling drained from their conversation. They sat in silence for several minutes until she questioned, “What do you want to ask the tree?”

  Kai frowned. “I thought you wanted to ask it how to find this fabled shroud.”

  Anna curled the corner of her lip. “I asked what you wanted.”

  Likely knowing that Anna would not cease her questioning until he gave in, Kai answered, “I think I’d like to ask it what happened to my family. If they were punished after I left.”

  “Everyone who knew you believes you to be dead,” Anna commented, unsure of why that would have been Kai’s question. “They would not have been punished for your disappearance.”

  “They would not have been able to keep up with the work without me,” he explained as he rubbed a hand tiredly across his eyes. “They would have fallen even further into debt. Not being able to afford food is punishment enough.”

  “So go back there,” Anna decided. “Don’t waste your one question with the Archtree on something you could find out yourself.”

  “And if I’m seen?” he countered. “If they were not punished for me dying, then surely they would be if their lord learned that I had survived to run away.”

  Anna sighed. “When all of this is over, and we’re free to live as we please again, I’ll check for you. Do not waste your one question.”

  Kai seemed somewhat taken aback. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

  Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “Do not act so surprised. I can be selfless.”

  Kai nodded, still seeming just as surprised, but not speaking. Anna couldn’t blame him. Until recently, she wasn’t sure she had a selfless bone in her body. Perhaps the Travelers had done more damage to her than she realized.

  Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, she sighed. “I’m tired.”

  Kai raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you sure you don’t want to come out on deck for a bit? The fog will soak you through, but it still might be good for you.”

  Anna looked down at her lap and shook her head. “I’d really rather not see anyone until we reach the Archtree.”

  Kai frowned, then accepted her a
nswer with a nod. He patted her knee companionably. “I’ll come check on you later.”

  Anna opened her mouth to tell him not to bother, but he’d already stood and headed for the door. She frowned after him as he left, wondering what had happened to make him so much nicer than he’d ever been before. She crawled the rest of the way onto her bed and lowered her head to her pillow, not intending to sleep, but feeling too weary to do anything productive.

  Hours later, she lay on her bed, drifting in and out of consciousness, unsure if what she was seeing was a dream or reality. As her eyes fell shut once more, she found herself in a forest, enshrouded in fog, just like her ship.

  She was hiding near a massive oak tree, using its thick trunk to conceal her cloaked form. She felt light, like she might float away at any moment, though the chill of the forest mist felt just as real as anything she’d ever experienced.

  A moment later, her eyes found what she was hiding from. She shifted to peek around the tree’s trunk, watching warily as the hooded figures came into view.

  There were twenty or so, and they seemed to glide as they moved through mist so dense that it obscured the ground at their feet, if they even had feet.

  The forest had gone silent at their approach, except for the trees, which seemed to move as the dark figures moved. It wasn’t something that Anna could quite train her eye on. Instead, a branch that would have scraped across a cloak was suddenly bent backward out of the way. Any vines and brambles that reached up above the foggy ground seemed to twist away from the forms, rather than catching at them like they would with normal travelers.

  Anna’s eyes widened as she realized the forms were coming toward her hiding spot. A few more minutes and they would be upon her. Yet, something held her immobile. As the figures in the lead came near, she was able to see inside of their shadowy hoods. What she saw took her breath away.

  Inside the hood of a more petite form, was Finn’s face, at least, she thought it was Finn’s face. Maybe it was a little more angular, not as soft, but otherwise the woman could have been her. Anna’s eyes crept down the woman’s face to see a lock of dark brown hair, far darker than Finn’s, curling out from within the hood.

  Anna’s eyes snapped open as she shot up with a gasp. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d seen, or who the cloaked figures were, but she knew it was important.

  After pacing around in her cabin for what seemed like hours, thinking about the Archtree, about the fact that she was stuck on a ship in the fog and could do nothing to speed their progress, and about Kai, Finn simply couldn’t take it anymore. She would have liked to believe that he didn’t infuriate her on purpose, but he was so adept at it that there could be no other explanation.

  Weary of pacing, she decided to take a peek above deck, to see if perhaps she could be alone outside the confines of her cabin. She left Naoki asleep on her bed, tired from a long day of protecting Finn.

  Hurrying down the hall to ascend the stairs, Finn poked her head up through the trap door to find the deck mostly empty, save a crewman she’d yet to meet who was on lookout near the front of the ship. It seemed everyone else had retired, given it was nearly dark, and the fog was as thick as ever.

  Finn climbed on deck, breathing in the salty ocean air. It felt like the fog flowed directly into her lungs with every breath, depriving her of pure oxygen and dampening her face, though it was still preferable to the stale air of her cabin.

  She made her way to the railing at the side of the deck, and peered down where the water should have been. She could hear it, but the fog kept her from seeing much, except the occasional splash forced upward by the swaying of the ship.

  She clung to the railing, fearful of slipping and plunging into the foggy waters without anyone to see her go.

  Her fear had almost gotten the better of her, urging her to return to her cabin, when she heard one of the most beautiful sounds she’d ever encountered. It sounded like a chorus of voices, but instead of words, they emitted tones that no human throat could create.

  She leaned over the railing once more to peer downward, but was once again met with only fog. She had a horrifying flashback to the Grogochs in Badenmar singing her to sleep, yet she felt no magical pull to the singing she was hearing now.

  She jumped as someone appeared at her side. She had only a moment to register that it was the man who’d been keeping watch, then he leaned forward so far that he fell right over the railing into the water.

  Finn screamed. She thrust her body forward to catch the man, maintaining a grip on the railing with one hand, while reaching the other out over the railing where his body had been just moments before. Her fingers grasped at empty air, then frantic splashing could be heard below. Next came the deafening silence of shock. Everything in Finn’s brain seemed to catch up as two more men appeared on either side of her.

  One was Kai, and the other, the scrawny man who’d wanted to kill Naoki.

  “Wha-” Kai began to ask, then his eyes snapped downward. The singing had begun anew, and Kai seemed enraptured.

  Finn watched in horror as he began to lean further and further forward over the railings. Snapping into motion, Finn wrapped her arms around his waist and dropped her weight down to the deck. Kai continued to slowly pull forward as she heard another splash. The scrawny man must have jumped, though Finn’s back was turned to him, so she couldn’t be sure. She’d thought she’d heard him mutter something like, “Just one kiss,” moments before.

  She struggled against Kai’s weight, begging him to hear her. She considered screaming again, but she seemed to be the only one immune to the eerie song. Perhaps it was her heritage, though that hadn’t saved her from the Grogochs. She didn’t want to wake the rest of the crew, luring them out to their deaths, but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold onto Kai.

  “Please, listen to me,” she begged frantically. “It’s magic, you must resist!”

  The singing grew louder, as if the singers sensed Finn’s struggle and wanted to bring it to a violent end. As her arms burned with effort, her grip around Kai’s waist began to loosen.

  She knew she was going to have to change positions to tug him back, but the momentary shift might be all Kai needed to go overboard.

  With a grunt of frustration, Finn stood, keeping her arms around Kai and wedging herself in between him and the railing. Her plan backfired as suddenly she was crushed by his weight as he bent her backward, perilously close to throwing them both overboard.

  Unable to help herself, she screamed. She couldn’t move, and she knew if they went crashing into the water, they would both die.

  Moments later, footsteps thundered on the deck behind them, and Kai was pulled backward away from the railing. Finn went with him as he fell to the deck, placing her weight on top of him in an effort to keep him down.

  She glanced up for a brief second to see their savior, Sativola, his curls damp from the fog, crawling forward to help her pin Kai down. She didn’t have time to consider why Sativola wasn’t affected by the song that filled Finn’s ear louder than ever.

  She looked down at Kai’s frantic face as he muttered, “Just one kiss. I must have just one.”

  Finn’s eyes met Sativola’s once more as the large man pinned Kai’s shoulders, taking some of the struggle away from Finn’s small form.

  “What in Tirn Ail is going on?” Sativola gasped as his damp ringlets fell forward into his eyes.

  “Some kind of magic,” Finn said through gritted teeth as she continued to put weight on Kai’s lower half. “Two other men have gone over already.”

  “Just a kiss,” Kai interrupted, his voice making it seem like he was in unbearable pain.

  Sativola’s eyes widened as he looked down at Kai, then up to Finn. “You better kiss him,” he advised, “as I’m not sure that he’d thank me for being the one to save him.”

  Finn gasped. “How on earth would that help?”

  Kai bucked against them, almost loosing himself from Sativola’s grip, bu
t with a grunt, the large man got a hold on him once more.

  “They’re Sirens, lass,” Sativola explained. “The enchantresses of the sea, singing male sailors to their deaths. The only way to break their spell is with a kiss.”

  Finn looked down at Kai’s enraptured face, then back to Sativola. “Why aren’t you affected then?”

  It was difficult to tell with the fog in the darkness, but Sativola seemed to blush. After a moment’s hesitation he explained, “The Sirens only call to those interested in . . . females.”

  Finn’s mouth formed an ‘O’ of comprehension as she turned her gaze back down to Kai. Neither she nor Sativola were affected because they were attracted to men, not women, which meant if Anna came on deck, she might go overboard just like the others.

  “Kiss him already,” Sativola grunted as he struggled to maintain his grip on Kai.

  At some point Finn had wrapped her legs around Kai to keep him steady, and the thought of kissing him in that position made her entire face heat up with a blush.

  “Now is not the time to be shy, lass,” Sativola chided, raising his voice slightly as he struggled against Kai.

  With a frustrated grunt, Finn plastered her upper half against Kai’s, bringing her face level with his. His eyes stared right past her, searching blindly for the marine enchantresses. The dark stubble on his face glistened with moisture.

  “Not exactly what I’d hoped for my first kiss in over a hundred years,” she muttered as she lowered her face and pressed her lips against his.

  For a moment nothing happened, then Kai began to kiss her back, lifting his arms to wrap around her waist. She felt Sativola’s hands lift from Kai’s shoulders, just as the singing abruptly halted.

  Realizing that the spell was broken, and that she was still wrapped in a far too intimate embrace with Kai, she pulled away and rolled over to sit on the cold, damp wood of the deck.

  Panting, Kai sat up and turned to look at Finn, astonished. “Not that I mind any of it,” he began, his eyes wide, “but would you care to explain what in the Horned One’s name is going on?”