by Darius Hinks
Naieth lifted her hand to her mouth.
Ariel shook her head. ‘Destroyed?’ For a moment she was unable to meet her king’s eye. ‘That can’t be. The stones are protected.’ She gave Naieth a pleading glance. ‘Aren’t they?’
Orion let out a bitter laugh as he remembered the stone giant, crumbling before him. ‘They were protected.’
‘You killed the guardian?’ Ariel’s voice was hollow.
‘You cannot imagine what it’s like to be filled with this power!’ Orion clapped his hands against his head and closed his eyes, trying to drive the spirits from his mind. Visions of the forest replaced them, rolling across his thoughts, filled with the hunger of the hunt. He was a hawk, diving for its prey, hurtling towards the earth with wind screaming through its feathers. He was a fox, shivering in the snow, tearing at a frozen, week-old carcass. He was a wolf, howling in the darkness. He was hunger, rage and violence, all bound into one. His pulse began to race as reality fell away, revealing a parade of ghosts, calling him to abandon the physical world and let the hunger consume him – to abandon himself to the eternal hunt. He felt his resolve slipping. He would brave anything to escape the pity and hurt he saw in Ariel’s eyes.
‘Orion,’ said Ariel. ‘How did you manage to destroy the guardian?’
‘I used the power that binds all of us.’ He glanced at Naieth. ‘She knows what I mean, the web at the heart of the forest. It has no beginning and no end. We cannot escape it. The spirits weave it into our dreams. The one named the Wrach – the Blind Guide – he knows its source. He knows how to bend it to his will.’ Bitterness twisted Orion’s words into a snarl. ‘He claims to be a simple guide, but he is a liar.’
Naieth removed her hand from her mouth. ‘These are all guiles and feints, Orion, guiles and feints. Such maps and prophecies do not haunt the Great Weave. The Dark Paths have no true guide, whatever the Wrach may claim. Even to the Brúidd the Gyre is no more than a shadow.’
Ariel frowned. ‘You used this web to destroy the stones? Why? Why would you do such a thing?’
Orion was deaf to her question. At the mention of the Brúidd he turned his thunderous gaze on Naieth. ‘I am not the cause of all this!’ He began pacing around the chamber, lashing out at the shadows. ‘Something drove me to do things I would never have done. If not the Wrach, then someone else! By Kurnous, I never would have unleashed…’ His words faltered and he stumbled to a halt, staring at his bloody skin.
‘Unleashed what?’ Naieth strode after Orion and held her staff aloft. Light blazed from the knotted twigs, throwing harsh shadows across his face.
Orion continued staring at his hands and gave no reply.
‘My king,’ said Naieth. ‘You must speak openly now. The last stars of the asrai are fading. Morning is almost on us. Your lords are scattered and divided. While Prince Haldus was leading us to victory we fought as one. He forged your subjects into a weapon worthy of your name, but Haldus has returned to his mountain peaks, and your people are divided once more. Whatever dangers we face, we will face them with you alone to lead us. Your hunt has scattered anyone else who could have aided us – Lord Beldeas and his Lady Ordaana, and their captain, Eremon – they have all been scattered to the four winds by your rage, along with any of their subjects who survived the fall of Locrimere.’ She looked back the way they had come. ‘And now, after a night such as this, it seems that even the dead are weary of your rule. The sweet music of this dell has become a fractious din. We have been attacked tonight by the ghosts of our own children.’ Her voice faltered. ‘With all my memories and foresight even I have never heard of such a thing. None of us have. We are wilted and weeping, my king. We were attempting to preserve those sundered from the Oak, but we were attacked by the very souls we were trying to protect.’ She waved her staff at Ariel who was still watching Orion with a pained expression. ‘And your queen sensed…’ Her words faltered and she turned to Ariel.
Ariel looked confused and shook her head.
Orion frowned. ‘What?’
Ariel stared back at him. ‘Something has been born into the forest; something that should never have lived.’ She looked back at the entrance to the chamber. ‘I can’t place it, but it reeks of ruin. And it’s so hungry. It wants to grow.’
Naieth gripped Orion’s arm. ‘What did you unleash? What were those old stones protecting? You are in the evening of your year, Orion, you must speak quickly. What did you see?’
Orion pulled away from her and lashed out at one of the chairs, scattering roots and twigs across the chamber. His tone was bleak. ‘I saw nothing.’
‘Then why are you here?’ demanded Ariel.
He grabbed her arms. ‘To mend what I have broken! Whatever happened here and whatever happened at the Torr Ildána, I can mend it. We don’t need Prince Haldus or Captain Eremon or anyone else.’ He lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘Take me to Sativus. Take me to the Spirit King.’
‘Orion,’ gasped Ariel, looking at his hand. His flesh had scraped away from the bone when he punched the chair, leaving the knuckles exposed. Blood was flowing quickly down his wrist. The wound was far too serious to be the result of one blow. There was panic in her voice. ‘What have you done?’
Orion glared at his hand in disgust. He recalled punching the stone giant and realised that his body was rebelling against him – recalling wounds it should have forgotten. ‘This is why I returned!’ he hissed. ‘Do you see? I’m fading. I have no time left, Ariel. I must find Sativus now. Soon I will be too weak.’
Ariel’s eyes widened at the pain in Orion’s voice, but she shook her head. ‘The Council of Beasts is not the enemy. There is something else.’ She grimaced. ‘It is rancid and eager, but it is newborn. The Brúidd are as old as the forest; older maybe. I do not claim to understand them, but I’m sure they mean us no harm. You have pitted yourself against our only friends.’
Orion tightened his grip on her arms. ‘Understand me – I do not mean to hurt Sativus. I mean to undo what I’ve done.’
Ariel looked shocked and Orion realised she had glimpsed the fear in his eyes. He loosed his grip and staggered back into the shadows, furious that he had shown such weakness in front of her. ‘I must find him,’ he muttered.
Ariel dropped into one of the chairs, looking baffled by Orion’s behaviour. The wood was formed into the shape of a raven and as Ariel slumped back, it reached forwards with a creaking sound, stretching its wooden wings around hers. ‘I cannot betray him,’ she whispered.
Orion peered at her through the shadows, unsure if she meant him or Sativus. He realised with a sudden, nauseating clarity that he depended entirely on her. If Ariel refused him, he was helpless. He was her protector no longer. The tables had been turned. Power lay in her hands, not his. The thought terrified him.
Ariel turned to Naieth, her face pale. ‘The tree brought us here for a reason. The message is clear.’
Naieth looked appalled. ‘My queen, you cannot do as he asks. Do not be dazzled by your past. It is a beautiful dream, nothing more. Think of what he has done. Think of how his divinity has taken flight. He has ordained nothing but death for us, Ariel. You must shake him free. You must loose his bloody grip, or he will sever every tie that binds us to the Great Weave. He destroyed one of the Brúidd. He would strip the boughs bare if we let him. When I speak to the spirits I hear nothing but rage. Their anger leaks from every shoot and bough. He is their blackest night. They despise him.’ Her voice rose in pitch. ‘How could you lead him to Sativus?’
Orion looked up from his fist, shocked by such open treason. Then he frowned. ‘What do you mean I destroyed one of them?’
Naieth saw his outrage but was unable to calm herself. ‘The stone guardian! It belonged to the oldest Council of the forest, the same as Sativus and the others.’ She clutched her staff in both hands and light flared again. ‘It was a soul from the morning of the world, a piece of the for
est’s enduring heart, and you unfurled it to the cosmos.’
Orion’s sense of dread grew.
Ariel looked over at him and he saw, to his disgust, that the pity was back in her eyes. ‘Do you know where we are?’ She waved at the circle of chairs. ‘Do you recognise this place?’
He shook his head, barely listening, still wondering if Naieth’s accusation could be true.
‘It is called the House of Dominion. It is the meeting place of the Brúidd.’ Ariel looked at the misshapen chairs with undisguised wonder.
‘No,’ said Orion, ‘you’re wrong.’
Ariel and Naieth looked at him in surprise.
‘I saw their meeting place.’ He stared at the ground as he spoke. ‘They meet by a pool in a sacred grove – a grove of linden trees.’ He shivered at the memory of it. ‘They are surrounded by the changing seasons. Snow turns to sun in a moment and the leaves wither as they emerge.’ He looked up at Ariel. ‘This is not the place.’
Naieth gave Ariel a sideways glance and answered for her. ‘You heard a distant echo. You saw a ghost. The Council of Beasts is a withered relic of former greatness. The House of Dominion was once the centre of the forest, when the Brúidd were still united. I see them in my dreams. Few still live.’
She raised her staff of twigs, throwing shadows from the chairs and across the walls. Bestial shapes reached over the ceiling, as though preparing to pounce. ‘Even to me their movements are obscure.’ She narrowed her eyes and stepped towards Orion. ‘But I believe they gather in spring, to pass judgement.’ She reached Orion’s side and fixed her piercing eyes on his. ‘Is that what you recall? They are your measure, my king. Does that fill you with dread?’ She touched his arm with one of her long nails. ‘Does it needle you?’
Orion’s fingers suddenly itched to commit violence. Ariel’s witch had an unnerving way of peering into his soul. He sneered. ‘What does it matter when I saw them? Why are we in their chamber?’
The certainty faded from Naieth’s gaze and she looked back at her queen.
‘I understand why,’ said Ariel. ‘The message is clear. We need help.’ She looked up at the chamber’s knotted ceiling, and the feral silhouettes rippling across it. ‘As in all things, the Oak of Ages has shown us the answer.’ She glanced at Orion. ‘You have released an agent of change into that which must not be changed. If we wish to undo the harm you have caused, we will need the help of the spirits. The Brúidd will know what to do. Sativus will know what to do. It has always been the way. At times of great need I am led to this chamber. If the Oak is willing, its roots lead me to Sativus. The path is never the same twice, but it is always true.’ She kept her gaze locked on Orion, and her expression hardened. ‘Are you true, Orion? Will you beg him for forgiveness? Will you convince him that we are worth saving?’
Orion felt her words like a physical blow. Rage boiled in his veins and, despite himself, a refusal sprang to his lips, but he stifled his fury. Ariel’s expression was like steel: cold and implacable. He had only ever seen love, humour and deference in her eyes, but now he saw what lay behind them: bottomless, immortal power. The most he could manage was a slight nod of his head.
‘Orion,’ she said, her voice echoing around the chamber. ‘Whatever you have done, we are, as we always were, one with the forest.’
The words were laced with magic and Orion felt the shadows pressing in on him again, snatching his breath from his throat.
‘We are the forest,’ said Ariel, her voice throbbing from the wooden walls. ‘You must mend what you have broken.’
Naieth shook her head in disbelief. ‘You think the Oak would lead him to Sativus? That it would draw the hunter to his prey?’ She waved her staff at Orion’s scarred body. ‘Don’t be blinded by your love. He knows nothing but hunger.’
Ariel kept her fierce stare locked on Orion. ‘He knows more than that.’
Orion dropped heavily into one of the chairs. Suddenly, nothing made sense. He had seen Ariel as a prize to be protected, as a fragile burden, but now, as her fury pressed him back into the chair, he realised that he could barely meet her eye. All the power he had glimpsed in the Otherworld was pulsing from her irises. The visions he had being trying to evade were already here, blazing from her flesh.
‘I…’ He found it painful to drag the words out, but his queen’s implacable gaze forced him on. His fury swelled again as he pictured the white stag, but it quickly faded, leaving him looking at his own wasted flesh. The signs of his mortality were undeniable. His time had almost passed and he had achieved nothing but harm. His only chance was Ariel. ‘I have been wrong,’ he muttered, massaging his throat and snatching short breaths.
Naieth was furious. She rounded on Ariel and finally unleashed the bile she had been stifling since Orion’s return. ‘He’s not your sweet-tongued lover, he’s a monster.’ Her staff trembled in her grip. ‘Kurnous has hollowed out his soul. He is sinew and hate. Take him to Sativus and we will be lost. The seasons will be heavy with blood.’
‘You have forgotten your place, Naieth.’ Ariel’s voice was taut. ‘Does a handmaiden give instructions to the Mage Queen? Does she slander her queen’s consort?’
Naieth’s eyes were straining with emotion, but she lowered her staff and said no more.
‘We have faced such things before,’ said Ariel, allowing a little softness back into her voice as she turned to Orion, ‘but we faced them together. There is no hope unless we embrace the duality of our nature. As a king and queen, we are nothing; as an instrument of the forest’s will, we are everything.’
Orion looked dazed. His head was filled with images of violence and destruction, all perpetrated by him. ‘Perhaps she’s right,’ he muttered, waving at Naieth. ‘I feel as though someone has been acting through me. I feel,’ he hesitated, ‘out of control.’
The king’s shoulders drooped and the strength seemed to go out of him. For a moment, he was Sephian once more – a simple waywatcher, stained with the blood of his people.
Ariel looked at him in silence for a moment. Then she shook her head and took a deep breath. ‘Naieth is wise in many things, but in this matter she is blind.’ She glared at the handmaiden, warning her not to interrupt. ‘I have been with you through the centuries, Orion. I have watched you bind us to the wild, thorny heart of this forest.’ She frowned. ‘But this year I sensed a change. At our very first embrace, I tasted poison in your kiss.’
Orion stared at her. ‘Poison? What do you mean?’ He rose and staggered to her side. ‘I would never harm you.’
‘Not me,’ she said. ‘You have been poisoned. You have been changed. There is a madness in you I cannot recognise.’ She looked back at the entrance to the chamber. ‘When the ghosts of Drúne Fell began to scream, I felt it again – the same madness – the same hatred.’ She looked deep into Orion’s eyes. ‘The Old Enemy is in the forest and, somehow, it is in you. Someone, or something, has led you astray, I’m sure of it.’
Orion was about to defend himself but the words faltered in his mouth. He knew that the madness had left him, but why should she listen? Why should she believe him after all that he had done?
Naieth could contain herself no longer. ‘These are not the wiles of Chaos. There is Kurnous-kindled wrath burning in his breast, as it should, but his flame cannot be allowed to sever us from the forest. Even eternity cannot–’
Ariel silenced her with another glare. ‘Something else is at work.’
She looked back at Orion. ‘Will you meet Sativus in peace?’
A furious reply flew to Orion’s lips, but he clamped them shut and gave himself a moment to think. He took a deep steadying breath and reminded himself that Ariel was his only hope. He nodded.
Naieth was about to speak again but the tree was too fast.
The queen gasped as roots exploded from the ground, enveloping all of them and filling the chamber with noise and movement.
Naieth staggered backwards, clamping a hand over her mouth as soil pounded against her face.
The roots spiralled around Ariel and Orion, lifting them both from the ground.
‘My queen!’ cried Naieth.
‘Find the newborn,’ said Ariel, her voice slicing through the din. ‘Find out what has entered the forest.’
The ground began to judder and Naieth had to lean against a wall to steady herself. She squinted into the maelstrom, trying to make out Ariel’s face, but the king and queen were hidden by the tempest of roots.
‘We will return, with Sativus at our side,’ said Ariel. Her voice sounded as though it were coming from the earth itself.
‘Find out who has defiled our forest, Naieth. Find out who has poisoned my king.’
The roots thrashed wildly around the chamber and Naieth staggered backwards, shielding her eyes.
The thrashing and crumbling continued for several minutes, then, finally the movement ceased and the chamber fell quiet.
Naieth wiped the soil from her eyes and saw that Ariel and Orion were still standing in the centre of the room.
As the roots withdrew into the earth, Ariel looked around in confusion. ‘The Oak is not willing.’ She frowned at Naieth. ‘Why has the tree brought us to this chamber only to deny us passage? Is Sativus to be hidden from me?’
Naieth was too shocked to speak for a moment. Then she jabbed her staff at the king. ‘The forest will not permit it. The Great Weave bars Orion from joining you. It will not send him into the presence of a Spirit King. It is his bloodlust that prevents you.’
Orion backed away, shaking his head, but Ariel was resolute. ‘You do not see everything, Naieth. We must seek his aid together, I know it. If Sativus speaks to Orion, all will be made clear. He will see that we have not betrayed him – not in any true sense. We have all been tricked.’
As the ground continued heaving and groaning, Ariel stepped to Naieth’s side. ‘The Oak’s intent is clear. I must take Orion to Sativus.’ She took Naieth’s hand. ‘If my charms will not suffice, there must be another way.’