by Kim Wedlock
But it was nothing. A spider out to hunt.
He watched it scurry across the forest floor and pause just out of the reach of a fragment of moonlight, its silver glow reflected back from its eight orbs. It was small, no larger than his fingernail, but its species was easy to identify by those two oversized, forward-facing eyes, calculating and fiercely intelligent. He watched it closely as it stared back at him, then tracked it as it dashed off deep into the leaf litter to continue its hunt for food, until his own sharp eyes lost it to the darkness.
His back stiffened and purpose sharpened his focus, and as his ears pricked at distant sounds, his hand once more twitched towards his blade.
Chapter 21
It was the tell-tale cacophony of birdsong - hoots, trills and caws that sounded like something being strangled - that announced the arrival of dawn. Fingers of mist trailed through the trees, rolling softly in the breeze channelled beneath the canopy, moving as if in search of something, while distant beasts rustled and rummaged as the scent of the rising sun marked the end of their rule. From the camp, the forest looked alive with ghosts.
They had managed, somehow, to find some kind of rest through the peculiar night, but none wasted any time with slow waking and rose more than ready to leave, regardless of whomever may still have been in a fitful sleep. Rathen had been the first, whom Garon had awoke to find standing vigilantly ahead of him and staring out into the trees, while the inquisitor couldn't recall falling asleep.
"Are you feeling better?" Aria asked Anthis as they set out, noticing sooner than the others did that he walked without the slight sideways hunch he'd been plagued with since Stonton.
"I am," he smiled appreciatively, at which she blushed. "I think a good night's--well, a night's sleep, helped. All this walking is hard-going."
Her small nose wrinkled in distaste. "It is. I hate it. I mean, it feels nice, the grass and the mud, but it hurts my legs - they're not as long as all of yours. I wish we still had horses." Her expression collapsed. "Oh, poor Fog!"
Anthis frowned sadly. "I can carry you if you'd like," he offered in an attempt to make her smile, and it worked, though she blushed again and turned away to hide her cheeks.
"Thank you, but I'll manage. I'll only make your clothes dirtier."
He followed her gaze down to her feet and noticed that she wasn't wearing any shoes. He glanced towards Rathen as he spoke quietly with Garon, wondering if he was aware, but he decided not to mention it.
"What's out here?"
Anthis looked back to her in puzzlement. "Pardon?"
"Out here, in the wild lands." She cocked her head, far more thoughtful than concerned. "We're all hearing things at night, but Daddy won't tell me what it is."
"Well that's because he doesn't know."
She narrowed her eyes in great suspicion and turned them upon the back of her father's head. "He knows."
"Well," he said slowly, looking briefly towards the mage in similar distrust, "all I know are stories; talk of creatures that never leave the reaches of these forests or venture near populated areas - despite no one ever having seen them, the descriptions are vivid."
"Yes but creatures like what?" She groaned impatiently. "That's all anyone keeps saying!"
"Well, like--"
"Spriggans?"
"Yes," he smiled curiously at her enthusiasm, "spriggans, supposedly, and golems and dryads, creeping vines and moving trees, faces in the water, phan--"
Rathen sharply cleared his throat.
He smiled sheepishly and looked back to the eight year old. "But they're just rumours. Stories, like I said. It's easy to get lost in woods this dense so it's safer to just not go through them at all. Telling people those kinds of things lurk in here keeps them from coming in."
"But it didn't do that for us."
"No," he admitted, "it didn't, but we'll be all right."
"We will - even though they're clearly not just stories."
"And just how do you know that?"
She fired him a suddenly flat look. "Because we all heard something screaming last night."
Anthis blinked, his plan foiled. She had only slept through the first night's near-encounter. "Heh... But we will be fine."
"What will we do if we do meet any?"
"We'll leave them alone, and they'll leave us alone."
"If it's that simple, why are you all so frightened?"
"Because," he began easily despite her sceptical frown and the others' concerned glances, "we're worried we might startle them. No one likes to be made to jump, spriggans and golems least of all."
Aria frowned for a moment as she chewed over his reasoning, but appeared quickly satisfied. She nodded and smiled. "My daddy doesn't like that, either."
Rathen suddenly stumbled at the lead, and Aria's smile vanished immediately. But he didn't look back or growl in embarrassment. His attention was fixed among the trees. His pace slowed as he examined them, and Garon shortly faltered beside him and began looking about in similar caution.
"What is it?" Anthis asked quietly as he and Aria hurried behind Petra to join them, but before either could answer, they wavered in their stride just as the first as they crossed the boundary into what seemed to be an entirely new forest.
All around them the sharp and jagged shadows they'd become so accustomed to were replaced by a soft but deep shade, and the towering trees seemed to bend away and ignore them rather than loom overhead and gawk. What had first simply been 'green' was now emerald, pea and pine, and the dew that balanced on the tips of delicate blades of grass shone like tiny, ethereal diamonds. There drifted the gentle babble of water, and accompanied by the rustle of leaves as a breeze passed overhead, shifted the ambience into something comfortable, soothing away their ever-present, underlying agitation. There was room for a single, easy breath before their caution returned.
Anthis's eyes widened as the familiar but troubling beauty settled. "Magic." He looked towards Rathen. "Does that mean there's a ruin nearby?"
"I wouldn't know...but we've yet to find magic without one..."
The young historian peered beyond the others and down along the path, keeping a tight hold on his inappropriate enthusiasm. Ruins in the Wildlands weren't unlikely - the forests hadn't always been so feral - but he knew of none here by name or purpose and the prospect of discovering one, or even just setting foot in one he'd never visited before, filled him with a childish excitement.
But this was no place for that excitement to be allowed to lead him, and the pain in his abdomen had receded enough that he was now just as alert to the prospect of danger as the rest. Anything could be hiding just feet away from them in these enchanting woods - or within the ruin itself.
He kept close to the others and followed the mage's far more certain pace.
Rathen barely noticed Garon step back and concede him the lead, and neither was he aware of how closely the group followed him. His mind was torn only between focusing on the magic, where he wished it to be, and being dragged off by what came with it.
He hadn't realised he still carried such tension between his shoulder blades; it was only now as they slumped and his back eased that it revealed itself, drawn out by the unnatural peace that swirled like a golden mist around his heart. But it and the unreasonable compulsion he felt to succumb to it was stronger than it had been in any other instance, and he had to fight to keep his mind where it mattered.
Aria suddenly gasped from beside him, jolting his attention back to his surroundings, and he stumbled at the sight of the sheer drop just three paces ahead of him, concealed not by what he'd thought were bushes, but by the tops of trees. He cursed beneath his breath as he caught himself, but the landscape's sudden descent hadn't been what had provoked her, nor indeed the others who came to a stop on either side of him and followed her gaze with awe.
His own black eyebrows rose in surprise when his addled mind finally gave him leave to notice the obvious.
From their vantage atop a sylvan cliff, the forest sprawling
out below them revealed its endless reach, as if a veridian blanket had been dropped by Vastal to smother the world in life. It rolled for as far as the eye could see, thick and lush, but imprisoning, and obscured all that lived within from the hateful, hunting gazes of the world that may have been beyond - for who could say that this forest had not suddenly engulfed it?
Rathen's heart dropped despite the magic's buoying influence as he realised just how far they had yet to go, and he sensed a similar cloud of dejection fall upon the others.
But Aria didn't sigh wearily as the rest of them did. Instead she squinted out across the canopy, peering at something that caught her eye, then took a small, very careful step forwards, though it made no difference to her perspective. She pointed out over the colossal thicket a moment later. "What's that?"
"What's what?" Rathen asked, gently pulling her back from the edge as he followed her gesture towards a small patch of forest where the trees had thinned. Against the magnitude of the landscape it was easy to miss, but once attention had been drawn, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Nearby, rising from the tangle, were six pillars of sandstone, each perfectly pentagonal and arranged in a wide circle perhaps twenty feet wide. All six arched towards the centre, but while two managed to meet and three others tried, the final had been shattered and stood a few heads lower than the rest.
An irrepressible grin wrapped over Anthis's face. "That would be our ruin."
Rathen dared a step closer, his mind braced expertly against the peace that had initially been dizzying, and peered cautiously over the edge. As far as he could see, there was no downward slope to the cliff in either direction, no narrow trail to follow even should they press their backs to the cliff face, and the path they'd followed simply ended as abruptly as the land dropped. But though that drop was steep, the roots that latticed over its surface looked old and thick enough to hold strong foundations.
Petra sighed with resignation. "We're going down there, aren't we?"
"It looks safe enough, if we're careful."
Aria peered over from beside him. She made a dubious hum. "It's a long way down, Daddy. I've not even climbed a tree this high..."
"Then this will be a new experience for you," he smiled reassuringly. "All part of the adventure, right?"
A grin swept across her face. "Absolutely."
"Good. Wait here - all of you. Anthis, keep Aria close. I'll go first."
Garon appeared about to object, but Rathen gave him no chance to do so as he crouched and reached for the highest roots. The surface was smoother than he'd expected, worn down, and as he peered along the cliff face again it seemed that the path did in fact continue after all, only vertically. With a little more confidence, he tested their strength with a firm shake before pulling himself over the edge, squeezing his breath as he delicately sought his footing on a lower limb. Everyone stepped forwards as he dropped below sight, equally holding their breath with each movement he made, expecting him to slip, while mentally noting precisely which roots held his weight.
He called for them to follow once he'd made it a quarter of the way down - Aria first, then Anthis, Petra, and Garon taking the rear - and before long he'd dropped beneath the highest trees and found the ground beneath, the daunting sight of the endless forest mercifully concealed once more.
He reached up and helped Aria down from the roots, who had scurried after him with surprising agility and now beamed proudly at her accomplishment, then turned to look around the enchanted lower forest as the others continued their descent.
The trees that swallowed the area were just as dense and beautiful as those on the ground above them, and he was finding it increasingly easy to ignore the magic's peaceful lure despite being closer to its source. But no birds sang. No animals rustled. Having spent as much time in forests as he had, that was a detail he found difficult to ignore.
Rathen frowned, but he sensed no illness surrounding it. It was likely that the magic had frightened everything off...
Anthis reached the muddy ground and stared off solidly in the direction of the ruins, edging half a step closer every few seconds while casting impatient glances towards Petra and Garon as they covered the last few feet. Once they'd joined them he remained behind Rathen's lead, if barely by a full pace, but as soon as the very first traces of white stone appeared through the undergrowth, his self-control escaped him.
"Be careful," Rathen warned as the foolish young man surged past him, but Anthis didn't slow, and Aria giggled as he cast them another of his brief, impish grins.
Rathen looked down as the ground hardened beneath his feet. The damp earth and knotted roots had given way to broken sandstone tiles, once surely laid neatly but now shattered and pushed apart by the unstoppable growth of the wilds. Roots wended their way through the seams in a curious geometric pattern, while others were raised and pulled apart by the expanding trunks of trees as they grew into giants over centuries. It was an intriguing sight, Rathen mused romantically, as if trees had been planted within a temple floor so that their own canopy might serve as a roof.
But the woods soon grew sparse, and as the structure they'd seen from above loomed into view, it was immediately evident that this ruin was unlike any of the others. Aside from the fact that the stone used was not local like the rest, the masonry was of an exquisite standard. Details were finer, even besides the fact that they weren't as worn or weathered as they had been elsewhere, and edges and corners were sharper. It was so clearly cut that it could have been carved within the last century. But of course it hadn't, because it was certainly elven.
The elevated pavilion, tall and open to the elements, was laced in vines and roots that encased its base, reached across its flooring and wound up and around the elegant columns, like jewellery wrapped in fine, silver wire, and the light that dappled it between the shadows of leaves made the pale stone appear almost golden.
"It's beautiful," Petra breathed as they stepped out from the trees and onto neater paving, staring up at it, enthralled, while Garon only stiffened and Aria nodded vigorously from her side.
"Even prettier than the others! Is this one elf-made, too?"
"It is," Anthis said from within the pavilion, having already found his way up to peer closely at every minute detail. "Short post-magic. I make it about...nine hundred, nine fifty years old. Maybe just short of a thousand." He stepped back into the centre of the platform and looked straight up to where the two arches met. "They put a little more thought into aesthetics here than they did pre-magic, but it's still reverent. They hadn't fallen to arrogance yet."
"So this still wasn't made by magic?" Rathen asked as he ran his hand over the rough stone.
"No." He turned his studious gaze down to the centre of the floor. "It was made by hand and with a lot of care; magic just polished it up, which is why it's still standing as well as it is. Like I said: they were still reverent enough to put time and effort into these things. It wasn't until they realised just how much magic could do for them that they turned away from honouring the gods with their time and just cast quick spells instead - when they honoured the gods at all." He smiled to himself as his eyes grew distant. "It must have been wonderful to see in its prime."
"Broken, crumbled, swallowed in moss and vines...I actually think it looks wonderful as it is." Petra's eyes widened as each gaze fell upon her in surprise. "What? I can't appreciate the beauty in something?"
"No, that's not it at all," Anthis replied quickly. "I agree completely - unless," he glanced down to Rathen, "that's the magic's doing?"
The mage shook his head. "I doubt the magic can take all the credit." But as he looked back to the others, his eyes suddenly hardened and his tone changed to match. "Something might live here. A standing structure like this would offer easy shelter."
"In a place where nature is so valued?"
"This ruin is a part of the wilds now, reclaimed like everything else in its boundaries. Just be vigilant." Then Rathen turned his mind away, leaving that matter to Garo
n as his focus returned to the magic. The sooner he was done there, the sooner they could be away.
Among the elegant columns and finely carved runes, Anthis easily lost himself in his work, his heart at greater peace than it had been for weeks. Kneeling on the stone flooring, shuffling between the flagstones, he peered raptly at the engravings in the tiles, sketchbook in one hand, pencil in the other, and spared only half an absent glance when Petra and Aria found their way up to the top of the platform a few minutes later. The two paid him equally little attention, circling around the pavilion and looking with less practised eyes at its details, until Aria wandered over to the altar set upon a dais.
"They made a bird bath!" She cried in approval, standing on her tip toes to peer into the basin.
"That's a ceremonial bowl," Anthis corrected distantly, though he didn't rise from his knees. "For wine, flowers and so on. Priests would have addressed a gathering here - small groups of people would have filled this pavilion in some cases, or collected below while the priest stood up here with a few other religious figures."
"Why?"
"For rites and observance one kind or another - mostly to Feira, Vastal's Face of Nature, though this forest probably wasn't this dense or wild back when it was built."
"Rites and observants like what?"
Smiling at her curiosity, he finally looked up. "Worship," he replied, surprised to find her suddenly standing beside him, "offerings, pleas for a good harvest or hunt, or to give thanks for one, rituals--"
"Rituals?" Petra repeated from across the floor.
"No, not sacrifices, not bloody sacrifices!" He groaned tiresomely. "Teas! Offerings of their harvests! Anointing new priests and priestesses!" He shook his head as he looked back to the tiles. "Not even pre-magic elves were so barbaric. They worshipped their gods with clear consciences; they knew what they wanted, and they gave it to them."
"How do you know all of this?" Aria asked with a curious tilt to her head.
"I found out a lot of it for myself, and I've read the rest from libraries and other people's findings."