by Sarah Dalton
The girl leans back against the tree and closes her eyes. After the food, and after watering Gwen, we both settle down on our blankets. We have arranged lookout sessions tonight, making sure that one of us is awake at all times. For all we know, someone could be looking for the girl, and they may decide to snatch her back in the night. So I sit with my dagger on my lap as the black of the night begins to swallow us whole.
*
Click-ick-ick-click-ick-ick-click
The familiar sound sends a shiver down my spine. The girl’s head snaps up from where she was dozing. She whips her head around, and her chest rises and falls in quick succession. Her eyes are wide open with terror.
“Where is it?” she whispers. “I can hear it but—”
“You know what it is, don’t you?” I say.
The girl clamps her mouth shut and turns away from me. I pick up my whetstone and begin to sharpen the dagger on my knee. More than once, I feel her stare on my bent head. So much rests on this girl that my fingers tremble. She is the key to finding the Wanderers and avenging my father. She knows something. I saw the expression on her face when we mentioned Father’s murder. I have to play her like a negotiation in the marketplace. I have to wait her out until she’s so desperate she starts talking.
It won’t be tonight, and even though I am bursting to say so many things, I simply wake Cas up from his slumber, inform him that he cannot say a word to the girl, and rest my head for a few hours before dawn.
In the morning, I wake with a surge of hope that Anta might have found his way back to us. He is not there again. My stomach drops like a felled tree. Cas sits by the fire, whittling a piece of wood. He stops and places it in his pocket when he sees me wake. I glance over to our prisoner. She sits defiantly, with her chin in the air.
“Any trouble?” I ask.
He shakes his head and says in a loud voice, “Looks like there isn’t anyone coming for her.”
I can’t help but smirk when the girl blinks and shakes her head so her hair falls over her face, hiding the wetness on her cheeks. She’s beginning to crack.
Cas and I share a breakfast of berries and water from a nearby stream. Cas helps the girl drink a few gulps of water. I let him, starving her out is one thing, but I couldn’t deprive her of water as well. Gwen grazes by our feet. The only thing that mars the morning is the occasional clicking sound from the mysterious monster in the woods. Every time the noise starts up again, the girl gasps and stiffens. She knows what the monster is, and I long to go over to her and make her talk. Curiosity is itching away on the surface of my skin. But I won’t do it.
Cas sits next to me on the grass and says in a low voice, “What are we going to do with her? She’s had no food and she’s getting weak. We can’t keep that up forever.”
“We’ll take her with us and get her to show us how to find the Wanderers,” I say. “She’ll crack soon.”
“What if she doesn’t? We’ll be murderers, just like them,” he says.
I don’t want to think about that. “Let’s get moving and decide on the way.”
Cas nods and begins clearing away our camp. I stamp out the fire and pack up our blankets into Gwen’s saddle. The girl watches us with furtive eyes.
“You’re not going to leave me here, are you? Not with that monster waiting in the forest,” she says.
“Maybe,” I say. I fasten Gwen’s bridle with my head turned away from her.
The girl squirms against the ropes. “I don’t care. I don’t care about dying.”
“Could have fooled me,” I reply. “You seem like someone who cares very much about death.”
“It’s not death I care about,” she says. “It’s the way I die.”
And then I realise that we still have power over her. I nod for Cas to get on Gwen, and we begin walking away. Behind me, I hear the sound of the girl struggling against the tree.
“To leave me here would be murder!” she shouts.
“You mean like my father was murdered?” I spin on my heel and stride towards her. “You mean like he was bludgeoned to death by your Wanderers?” My hands automatically clench at my side.
The girl drops her gaze from my eyes. “I don’t know nothing about—”
“Yes, you do!” I scream. My stride breaks into an urgent run. “You know all about it. You were probably there—”
“I wasn’t,” she says breathlessly, shaking her head. Beads of sweat form on her forehead. “I wasn’t. I swear.”
“But you know about it.” My eyes are open so wide the morning air chills them, and my fists are squeezed so tight my knuckles hurt. I struggle to maintain enough control to stop myself from hitting her.
“I know of it,” she says in a very small voice.
I slap her face. “Next time it will be my fist.”
“Mae!” Cas shouts. He hurries over, dragging Gwen by the reins.
“Tell me!” I shout in her face. “Tell me where they are.”
“What, so you can kill them?” she says. “So you can kill my family and friends? I don’t think so. You won’t get the chance. They eat people like you for breakfast.”
Cas seizes my hands and holds me back. “We want Ellen back,” he says. “We don’t care about anything else.”
“Speak for yourself,” I say, glaring at the prince.
“Why did they take Ellen?” Cas asks the girl.
She turns her head to the side.
The clicking begins again, closer this time. “If you don’t show us which way your precious Wanderers went, we’ll leave you here to die by whatever that is in the woods,” I say.
The girl’s eyes widen. “You won’t leave me here.”
“Do I look like I care about you?” I say. “One of your kind killed my father. We’ve not even given you any food. Does that sound like someone who cares? Does it?”
She closes her eyes tightly and hits the tree with the back of her head in desperation or exasperation. “No. No it doesn’t.” When she opens her eyes, they are full of tears.
“If you think crying is going to make me feel sorry for you, then think again.” I step back and fold my arms, trying not to let her misfortune pull at my heartstrings. Even if she didn’t have anything to do with my father’s death, I have to remember she is part of their group. I have to use her to get to them.
“I’ll show you,” she says. “If you give me some food.”
I nod to Cas. He removes some smoked meat from Gwen’s saddlebags and holds it at the girl’s lips. She eats greedily.
“Untie me,” she says.
“Fine,” I say. I untie the ropes from the tree, leaving her arms and legs bound but loose enough to allow her to walk, and then tie her to Gwen’s saddle with a long length of rope.
“Is this really necessary?” she says. “Where am I going to go?”
“Right back to your ‘friends and family’,” I say in a mocking voice. “Are you going to tell us how you ended up alone in the first place?”
She sighs and makes a noise like a growl. “More food first.”
Cas passes her a few berries.
“Is this it?” She rolls her eyes.
I step closer to her. “Yes. Now tell me what you’ve been doing in the woods and why you’re alone.”
The girl flinches away from me. Anger rises up like a tide, and it shows in my expression because she edges back away from me. “Fine, I’ll tell you. I… I got lost from my camp. We were travelling through the woods in a group. I hung back to shoot a rabbit, and I must have got caught up in the moment. When I turned back to rejoin the camp, they’d gone. It was almost nightfall. I tried to follow their tracks, but I lost them. Since then I’ve been alone in the woods.”
I don’t want to, but I feel sorry for her. Only a few days ago, I lost Cas and Anta at the same time. It was one of the loneliest moments I’ve ever experienced.
“How long ago was that?” Casimir asks.
She glances at me with a glint in her eye that almost seems like guilt. “Three days
,” she says eventually.
I sigh. She’s even further away from her camp than we are. “So you know where they’re heading?”
“I’m not sure,” she says. “But I have my suspicions. If you untie me, I can help. I know their tracks, too. When you find them, I can tell you whether they are the right ones to follow.”
“You really don’t want to be alone anymore, do you?” I say. “What’s your name?”
“Sasha,” she replies.
“Sasha,” I say, rolling the name on my tongue. “Weird name.”
“I’m Casimir,” he says. I shoot him a glare. “What?” he says, looking at me. “I’ve already told her I’m the prince. She may as well know my name.”
“I knew it already,” Sasha says, a grin playing on her lips. “Everyone knows about the prince.”
“Yeah, and everyone knows about Ellen, which is why your people stole his future bride and killed my father in the process,” I snap.
“And my bodyguards,” Cas says sadly.
Sasha’s eyes drop to the forest floor. “I know. I… I’m sorry.”
Her apology surprises me, but I refuse to let her win me over so quickly. “Come on. We have her people to find and punishments to deliver.” I slap Gwen’s flank so that she darts forward, dragging Sasha along.
She gasps and staggers forward, flashing me a narrow-eyed angry look with her blue eyes. She has spirit, I’ll give her that. “What about untying me?”
“No chance.” I return her glare. “You’ll have to direct us as you are.”
Yesterday we were lost and without any hope of finding either Anta or the Wanderers. Today we have one of the Wanderers captured. I should be pleased. But as we walk through the Waerg Woods, I can’t help thinking about Sasha. She is no older than me, even if she tries to act like it. They left her behind. I know what it feels like to be treated badly by a community.
We follow the path into an area of forest unlike any I’ve seen before. The leaves of the trees are almost blue in colour, and the branches stretch out low and wide. Clouds hang in a pink-tinged sky, like balls of pure cotton. Bushes are filled to the brim with bright berries. Cas reaches out to take one.
“Don’t,” Sasha warns.
Cas retracts his hand. “Why not?”
“This is Welhewan, the blue forest. Things are not as they seem here. The berries are poisonous; the leaves and tree bark are, too. There’s a spring up from here but you can’t drink the water. We should turn back and go around,” Sasha says.
“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” I ask. “You could be trying to trick us.”
“If you don’t believe me, eat a berry and find out,” she says through gritted teeth. “Look, I don’t know where my people are right now. They are most likely on the move or working their way to the camp. It’s tricky finding the way to the camp from here—”
“Is it quicker to go through Welhewan?” I ask.
“It’s more dangerous—”
“Is it quicker?” I ask again.
Cas looks at me and shakes his head. “We should go, Mae. I think Sasha is telling the truth.”
“Every part of this forest is dangerous. We keep going,” I say.
“Fine. It’s your funeral,” Sasha says, her eyes flashing anger.
We hurry along. Cas cuts the rope between Sasha’s legs so she can take longer strides. If she’s right, we should get out of this part of the woods as quickly as we can.
“Tell us more about the forest,” Cas says. He walks alongside Sasha with his hands in his pockets. Something pangs in my chest. Why should I care whom Cas speaks to? When he natters on to me, it’s just annoying. It’s good that Sasha is here to take the burden.
“Welhewan is one of the most beautiful parts of the Waerg Woods. If anyone is unlucky enough to get lost in the woods, it draws them in with its mysterious blue leaves and luscious berries. Most people wander through, picking the delicious berries and collecting the leaves to show off. You can survive for days on those berries. They taste amazing, people say, better than the juiciest orange or tangiest wine. The problem is, you crave the taste so badly that you cannot stop eating.”
“So, they aren’t poisonous?” Cas asks.
“Oh, they’re poisonous. You just don’t realise it. You keep eating and eating and eating until your stomach bursts. They’re addictive. You would kill your own grandmother for another one of those berries.”
“What a load of goat dung,” I say. “You’re making this up.”
Sasha pulls at her rope so she can twist round to me and curl up her lip. “I am not making any of this up. It’s as true as the Red Palace is broken. Ask anyone.”
I lift my arms up in mock frustration. “How can I ask anyone? There’s no one here.”
“Not for long,” Sasha says mysteriously. “Welhewan is home to the wood nymphs.”
“Gods prevail,” I say, tipping my head back. “You’re making that up, as well.”
She scowls at me. “I am not. Why would you even assume that I am?”
She looks at me with such an assessing gaze that I feel my cheeks warm with embarrassment. “Of course you’re a liar. You’re a Wanderer, and they are murderers and thieves.”
Sasha rolls her eyes and turns back to Cas. “Wood nymphs are not what you think. They aren’t tiny little elf-like creatures. They aren’t small and winged. They are human-sized. But, since the magic ran out in Aegunlund, they’ve been dying. They lay dormant inside the trees, conserving their magic and trying to lure people towards them so they can suck out their souls to live longer.”
A shiver runs down my spine. Cas says, “Yuck! How do they suck out your soul?”
“By seducing you,” Sasha continues. “They are very beautiful, you see, like the rest of the blue forest. It’s a siren call. Men can’t resist the wood nymphs.”
Cas flashes me a quick look. “I’m sure I could resist them. I have eyes for only one woman.”
“What, her?” Sasha stares at me with an expression of mixed disgust and shock.
“No, of course not Mae. Ellen! We are to be married, once… Well, once we rescue her from your people. Why would you even think that of Mae? It so… so…”
“What?” I say, through gritted teeth. “So ridiculous that any man would find me pleasing? Well, thank you very much.” I kick the blue leaves, turning from Sasha, but not quick enough that I miss the way her lips turn up at the corners. I fold my arms and move away from her. I do not like that smirking girl.
“Don’t be silly, Mae,” Cas says. “I’m sure some baker’s boy or miller’s son would make you a fine husband one day.”
I look at him, aghast. “A baker’s boy? Fine. Fine then, I know my place.”
Sasha bites her lip as though to stop herself from laughing. I yank on her ropes so she trips forward. Cas shoots me a hard glare.
“There’s no need for that,” he reminds me.
I move round to the other side of Gwen to get away from them. It didn’t take long for an extra person to push me out, especially one with pretty blue eyes and red hair. I wish Anta was here. Then I could bury my face in his fur and stop the tears from burning behind my eyes. How long has it been since he ran away from me? I thought he would never leave my side. What if something has happened to him? What if he’s been captured… or worse? A lump forms in my throat, and I can’t continue that thought.
Instead, I place my hand on Gwen’s shoulder and feel the way she moves, in long, rhythmic strides. The repetition helps to calm my temper and my worries. She snickers and moves her head around to the side so I can stroke her nose.
“At least you still like me,” I say softly.
But as much as I love Gwen, she isn’t mine, and the ache in my chest from losing Anta—and Father—is still going strong, like a fire that burns down only to be built back up with fuel, over and over again. How many times will I lose those who are important to me?
We trudge on through the blue forest. Sasha grows quiet, an
d Casimir climbs onto Gwen to ride for a while. I walk by his side, silent. There is nothing we can forage in Welhewan, and there doesn’t seem to be anything Cas can hunt, so there is not much to eat or drink. The plump berries taunt us at every turn. In the distance, I hear the soothing tones of a babbling brook, and above us, birds call out a musical song, yet we cannot utilise anything from this part of the forest. We cannot eat or drink from any part of it, and the blue forest seems to continue for an age.
“Can we at least sleep here?” I call to Sasha from the other side of Gwen. My feet and calves are heavy with the long walk.
She appears from behind Gwen. “Yes, I suppose so. But someone will have to be on watch all night. Especially for the…”
“The what? The clicking monster? Tell us what that is, will you?” I say.
She swallows. I see the lump rise and fall in her throat. “It’s the Nix.”
I shrug my shoulders. “And that means…?”
“It’s misery itself,” Sasha replies. “It feeds on your troubles by presenting you with your worst fear.”
Cas stares down at Sasha from atop Gwen. “Your worst fears? How does it do that?”
“Those clicking noises are its body as it scurries through the forest. It has a hard shell on the top of its body and a weird, slimy part underneath with many legs. It scuttles around, waiting for you to become so frightened that you are easy prey. Then it squirts a paralysing poison at you and makes your worst fears play out in your mind, except you don’t realise what’s happening. You think they’re real. The only way to defeat the Nix is to overcome your fear. If you don’t, he eats you.”
Cas sits up straight. His arms are rigid, and he stares directly ahead. I hug my body for warmth. It sounds like a terrible fate, and now I understand why Sasha didn’t want to be alone. I understand everything now; especially why so many people from Halts-Walden were afraid of the Waerg Woods. It’s because of that monster, the Nix.
No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to be able to warm my body. My skin is so cold, my teeth chatters, and it’s because I can’t stop thinking about the horrors that lie in wait for us between the trees.