Hunter's Night

by Melinda Kucsera

  “What happened?” Robin opened her eyes and wished she hadn’t. Her mind was all churned up as if someone had inserted a spoon and stirred vigorously.

  “I was about to ask you that. That creature stared at you then you passed out, and all those lupine creatures fled.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Robin shoved herself up to a sitting position then froze as her gaze snagged on a green-glowing thing. It wriggled through the snow like an earthworm, but it wasn't alive. It was just a glowing string like the one she’d found at their campsite after the Wild Hunt had departed. Robin reached for it then stopped herself.

  “Where were those wolves standing?”

  “Those creatures were not wolves. They were something else.” Strella turned on her heel and stalked away. Whatever those creatures were, they bothered Strella.

  “Did you see a green band around their necks like a collar of some kind?”

  “No, I didn’t see anything like that, but I’m guessing you did.”

  “It was more of an impression really. I never got a good look at it. Where did the one that—um—stared at me stand?”

  “Near where you’re sitting, why?”

  “No reason.” None that Robin was ready to admit because it sounded a little insane even to her. How could a wolf, even one that was supernatural in some way, leave a glowing thread behind?

  But this was the second time she’d found a glowing string where a supernatural creature had been. Robin picked it up, and it curved around her opposite wrist, not the one with the string the Huntress had left behind. But Robin still had no idea what that meant. Things just kept getting curiouser and curiouser by the moment.

  “Are you ready to go?”

  “Can I pee first or is that not allowed?” Robin snapped back, missing the lighthearted banter they’d shared earlier. It had been a welcome relief from the recriminations circling around in her head.

  “Yeah, sure, just make it quick.”

  “Thanks.” Robin rose but didn't feel like peeling her layers down to expose the bits of her she most wanted to keep covered. But nature called, and her bladder felt like an overfull cup.

  She’d been eating handfuls of snow every time she’d gotten thirsty, and that had finally caught up with her. So had hunger, but Robin doubted Strella would stop long enough for a snack. Robin sighed and fumbled with her belt. Better to get this done quickly before she froze her tush off.

  * * *

  “Do you feel like we’re being watched?” Strella asked sometime later after she too had taken a pee break.

  “We are being watched. This is the enchanted forest.” Robin waved at the bark-covered giants in front of her and veered left to avoid one. “They might be sleeping ‘The Winter Sleep’, but you can bet some part of them or their hive mind is still awake and aware of our passage.”

  “So, I should refrain from chopping down any trees or starting any fires, eh?”

  Strella glanced at Robin, but it was too dark even with the lumir stone dangling from her coat button to make out her expression. Only a strip of black skin around Strella’s eyes was visible between her knit hat and the scarf she’d wound around her face.

  “Don’t even joke about that. They take their three rules seriously.” Robin eyed the trees they passed between. Neither one moved, but they were watching them, and the sensation made her skin crawl.

  “We should have camped down here in the valley instead of on that mountain. They might have protected us if we had.”

  True, they might have. One of the enchanted forest’s three rules was ‘do no harm,’ and it enforced that rule with deadly efficiency.

  “Whose dumb idea was it to enchant the trees in the low-lying areas and not the ones on the mountain peaks where their protection would be even more useful?”

  Robin shrugged. Her education had begun and ended with the Litany of Allies, Enemies, and Other Folk. Memorizing that epic poem had taken years of study, but the knowledge embedded in each phrase had saved her life more than once.

  Under her breath, Robin picked up the Litany where she’d left off before this strange conversation had begun. She was certain the answer was tucked into a stanza somewhere. Everything had a mention in the Litany, even the Wild Hunt, and she needed all the information she could get to hunt them.

  Strella joined her as she reached the ‘Other Folk’ portion. It was a gray area set aside for races, creatures, and other magical stuff that was neither a friend nor a foe to humanity but somewhere in between depending on the situation. The past was a winding road. Too often, its bends affected the future. If the Wild Hunt rated a mention, it would be in that gray area.

  Before Robin had recited more than a couple of stanzas, something white moved in her peripheral vision. “What was that?” Not another attack, Robin was tapped out right now. But she gripped her bow case, which she’d been using as a walking stick again.

  At six feet dead even, it was a hollow tube made of a light but tough woody vine. Her bow fit snugly into it. Her bow case was also thicker than a traditional quarterstaff and heavier but still quite effective in a fight. Daddy had drilled her in stick fighting until her arms had ached, and she’d loved every minute of it.

  No daughter of his would ever find herself unarmed in the forest. All she needed was a branch in a pinch. If only she’d lain hold of her bow case earlier, that fight with the Wild Hunt would have gone very differently. But she’d bundled it away from the snow to keep its leather cover as dry as possible.

  Robin blinked at a patch of approaching white, but it refused to resolve into a recognizable shape even when she swung her bow case up into a defensive position. The metal capping its base glinted in the lumir light, and exhaustion fogged her mind as Robin readied herself to fight. Strella kept going for a few paces before she realized Robin had stopped.

  “What is it? Why’d you stop?”

  Robin didn’t answer. A column of white, soothing light approached them, and it seemed to grow the closer it came. Maybe that blow to the head had addled her brain. Or maybe not, maybe massive light beams wondered around this valley accosting travelers. She really had to start listening to the local gossip from now on because forewarned was forearmed, as her father used to say.

  Robin blinked again to clear her eyes just in case she was hallucinating this whole thing, and the column of light suddenly had texture and depth. Because it wasn’t a light beam coming toward them, it was a giant glowing tree.

  “Do my eyes deceive me, or is that tree coming toward us?” Robin waited for Strella to get over her shock and sputter a reply.

  “It looks like a tree, but trees don’t walk—I mean—slither around on their roots. There’s no mention of that in the Litany.”

  “Well, this one does.” Robin pointed with her bow-case-turned-quarterstaff, and her arms complained. Hopefully, if it came to a fight, adrenaline would shove some much-needed strength her way.

  Strella cocked her head at the tree. “If it can walk, can it talk?”

  That was a great question but, “I don’t think I can handle talking to an enchanted tree after what we just went through.”

  Strella gave her an unreadable look then shook her head at the missed opportunity. Robin motioned with her bow case for Strella to take charge, and Strella held up a large hand palm out to the oncoming tree, which had increased to four times its original height.

  “Halt. Who goes there and what do you want?”

  In silence, the silver tree processed toward them with a regal air. Light flowed down her bark, imitating a ball gown, and the air around her shimmered with her power. She was a Queen among trees, and she towered over everything.

  Not a Queen among trees, but the Queen of Trees. “Oh my God.” Robin stared. “I thought she was just a myth.”

  Only Shayari would have a mythic Queen who was also a giant, enchanted tree. What was she doing here?

  Robin reached for Strella, but her traveling companion was already sinki
ng to her knees in the snow. Robin followed her lead. It seemed like the right thing to do.

  “Your Highness,” Strella said, and Robin echoed her. Here, at last, was the help she so desperately needed.

  A glowing branch snaked past them and danced lightly over Cat’s supine body. Where it touched, silver light bloomed then faded so quickly Robin thought she’d imagined it until her gaze crossed with Strella’s. Deep reverence had transformed her traveling companion. Robin glanced away discomfited by it.

  As that branch retreated, light wrapped around them, permeating every pore. It lit Robin up from the inside and burned away her exhaustion and the cold nipping at her toes. What was the Queen of All Trees doing to her?

  Robin wanted to ask but could find no way to do so that wouldn’t alienate the one entity who could help her. The Queen of All Trees’ light swelled up until everything was that true and perfect light.

  “Where will you go, my child?” a woman whispered in Robin’s ear, and everything inside her compelled her to answer.

  “To Mount Eredren to beg for help to find my daughter. She was taken from me.” Tears fell as Robin confessed that, but the Queen of All Trees’ light burned them away.

  As her light burrowed deeper into Robin, the ground raced away under her, becoming nothing more than a white blur. The forest receded until there was only the two of them. Robin blinked. Before her stood a regal woman in white robes instead of a glowing tree. A crown sparkled on her brow and at her hip, a crystal sword rested in a plain sheath. It was one of those fabled guardian blades.

  Robin knelt there, struck dumb by awe. This was the Queen all the legends spoke of, brilliant as the dawn and as enduring as the earth she reigned over. “My Queen,” was all Robin could manage before the tears took her and sorrow smote her soul. She didn’t deserve an audience with this august creature, not after she’d imperiled her baby by traveling in the middle of winter.

  “All is not lost. You still have hope, and where there’s hope, there’s a way.” The Queen touched the glowing threads around each of Robin’s wrists. Light radiated out of that Queenly woman so pure and bright, it blinded Robin as it laid her soul bare, and she drank it in. Oh, how her soul had thirsted for this.

  But Robin couldn't feel it. She felt hollowed out by grief and worry and constant movement. Only a husk remained, frost-bitten and seriously doubting its sanity. The Queen of All Trees captured her hands and squeezed them. Her touch was warm and dry, and she was so very real.

  “Hope is the greatest gift we possess. Never let anyone take that from you. Remember that when times are at their darkest.” The Queen let go, and her light retreated as fast as it had arrived, taking its Queen with it.

  Robin stared up through a dark tangle of branches at a sliver of the sun. It seemed to wink at her then someone shook her, and she didn't hurt. “How long were we—?” Robin let the question trail off because none of the ways she could end that sentence could do that timeless moment she'd spent in the Queen of All Trees’ presence justice.

  “Does it matter?” Strella shaded her eyes to protect them from the sunlight shafting down on them. “I can't believe we actually met her. Wow, just wow.”

  “Wow, indeed. I guess it doesn't matter since I can't get that time back, and I don't want to but.” Robin bit her lip.

  The Wild Hunt was getting away. Robin felt it in her bones. But she had no way to track them unless the Queen of All Trees had put her directly in their path. Robin scanned the snowy forest, but there was no sign of anything, and she heard nothing except the wind rustling the tangled branches high above.

  “How do you feel? My head feels curiously warm, and I can feel my toes. I couldn’t before in case you were wondering.” Strella rubbed her face through her gloves and scarf.

  “I feel the same way.” Robin wiggled her toes, and they didn’t burn or tingle for the first time in God knew how many hours. Nor did she feel that crushing exhaustion anymore. It had been burned away. “Did she do what I think she did?”

  Strella didn’t bother to rise. She crawled to the improvised sled and peered under a couple of bandages. “Well, did she heal Cat too?”

  “I think she did, but I’d rather have a healer confirm that.”

  Something sparkled on the snow where the Queen of All Trees had stood. Not ready to walk on yet, Robin crawled until she ran out of slack. Stretching her arm out as far as she could, Robin snagged the glowing thing on her gloved hand and dragged it back to her.

  It was a leaf, and it shimmered with the Queen of All Trees’ power. A silver thread hung from it, and it wrapped itself around her wrist and merged with the Huntress’ thread. How odd.

  “What’s that—some kind of boon? I didn’t know magical entities still gave those out. Then again, I never thought I’d ever run into one. Cat will never believe this.” Strella shook her head.

  “I think it’s her calling card.” Robin held the leaf up, so Strella could see it, but she didn't mention those luminous threads. Robin still had no idea what to make of them.

  Will you come, my Queen, if I call? As she wondered that, Robin turned over the leaf. It was star-shaped, and it reflected her lumir stone. Thank God, that crystal hung on a cord she’d tied to her fur coat earlier, or she’d have lost it a dozen times over by now.

  “So if we need help, we can just summon her?” Strella asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine.” Robin shrugged and stowed the leaf under her clothes in a concealed pocket on her trousers, so it rested, warm and safe, against her thigh.

  “Can you go on or do you need a break?”

  “I can go on. What about you? How are you feeling? You’re doing more of the towing than I am.” Robin grimaced at that unfortunate truth but avoiding it didn't make it any less true. Robin was a strong woman, but Strella was much stronger and taller than her by a hand span.

  “Yes, and I think we have our Queen to thank for that.”

  “For more than that. Do those trees look different to you?” Robin waved to them.

  It was subtle, but the difference was there. The trees surrounding them weren’t in the same locations as before the Queen of All Trees had arrived. In fact, they were sparser to the left and shorter.

  “What are you saying?”

  What was she saying? Robin tightened her scarf and recalled how the world had blurred when the Queen of All Trees’ aura had covered them. “I think she brought us closer to our goal.”

  Strella glanced around, her eyes widening when she noted the difference. “That would explain the snow. I swear it wasn’t this deep before.”

  “You’re right. It wasn’t.” Robin held out her hand, and flurries drifted down around it. “And it’s less windy here. Thank God for that. This snow will be hard enough to trudge through.”

  “Amen to that, but at least it’s still that powdery stuff. Our makeshift sled should glide right over it.”

  Strella clomped over to it and checked the contraption to make sure. It was just a collection of dead branches hastily strung together with rope then covered with canvas and blankets to cushion it and keep Cat warm. The swordswoman deserved so much more than that after her heroic battle. Robin tugged her coat down to cover her rump. It had ridden up during the whole kneeling in the snow bit.

  “How’s she doing?” Robin asked.

  “She’s okay for now, but she needs to get inside soon. This cold isn’t good for her or anyone.” Strella pulled the canvas up and tucked it under Cat’s chin then she scanned the darkness beyond the gold nimbus her lumir crystal cast. It was affixed to a chain she wore around her neck, and it hung just below the knot keeping her scarf in place. “How much closer do you think we are thanks to our sylvan Queen?”

  Robin shook her head. “There’s no way to be certain unless you want me to climb a tree and see what I can see.”

  Nor would that be a fun climb, not when the tree she must scale was one-tenth as tall as the mountain they’d just descended. Robin pushed to her feet, and
Strella crossed to stand by her. Maybe they could catch her daughter’s kidnappers if they hurried. They'd been heading toward Mount Eredren too. If those lights Robin had seen were, in fact, the Wild Hunt and not some other supernatural thing on the prowl.

  If, if, if, her life had become a collection of ifs, and Robin didn't like it one bit. She needed to take back control of her life, and she would when she reached Mount Eredren.

  Strella gazed up, up and up at the enchanted trees they stood between and shook her head. “Let's save tree climbing for later. You still have your compass, right?”

  “Yes, it's right here in my pocket.” Robin adjusted the ropes looped across her chest, so she could pull out her compass. “Is Mount Eredren still south of us?”

  “Probably, which way is south? I've got a hunch about our location, and I'm curious to see if it pans out.”

  “South is that way.” Robin pointed at another giant tree. She supposed south was as good a direction as any. Since there were no landmarks, there was no telling where they were in the enchanted forest right now. But Robin hoped they were close to Mount Eredren.

  “Good. Let’s go see where our Queen sent us.” Strella stalked toward that tree with renewed vigor, dragging the sled behind her as if it weighed nothing at all.

  As Robin set off in Strella's wake, she felt like she was getting further away from Rosalie instead of nearer. The feeling intensified as Robin rounded a tree that was wide enough to support four treehouses. Its bark boasted wavy furrows, and she pressed her hand into them just to feel something other than the cold and the gnawing fear for her daughter.

  Tears pricked her eyes, but Robin breathed through the crying jag and hiked on, remembering what the Queen of All Trees had said. But her quest felt hopeless as another line of massive trees came into view instead of the Wild Hunt or the mountain stronghold she'd been trying to reach.

  “Hey, things are seldom as hopeless as they seem,” Strella said out of the blue. She dropped back to walk even with Robin.

  “Are you a mind-reader?”

  “Nah, I heard you sniffling, and I figured things might look a little grim.”