by Joel Ross
Like the goblin city.
“What’s the white stuff?” he asked.
An ant lion climbed into Ji’s hair. The Gravewoods.
“That’s the Shield Wall?” Roz furrowed her heavy brow. “But it’s not a wall at all! It looks miles wide and no higher than the treetops.”
Only humans call it the Shield Wall, Nin said. It is realtruly the Gravewoods.
“You said it’s evilmagic?” Roz asked.
Nin didn’t answer for a moment. We don’t chattalk about the Gravewoods. Ogres are full of shame.
“You’re ashamed of the Gravewoods?” Roz asked. “Why?”
We did wrong, Nin said, then changed the subject. The Gravewoods are terrible dangerous unless ogres guide us through.
“Dangerous how? We need to know what’s ahead of us, Nin.”
“I don’t know what’s ahead of us,” Sally growled. “But Brace is behind us.”
“Can you smell him?” Ji asked.
“Not exactly.”
“Then how do you know it’s him?”
“Because grass is dying around the army. Entire fields are shriveling.”
“He’s casting a spell,” Chibo remarked, his grip tightening on Ji’s hand.
Fear drove them faster uphill. Ji stumbled but didn’t slow, keeping Chibo close while Roz forged a path ahead.
“How far . . . ,” Ji panted, “are the Ogrelands?”
“Do you see the highest mountain?” Roz asked, shading her eyes with a three-fingered hand.
Ji followed her gaze. “One mountain is twice as tall as the rest,” he told Chibo. “The top half is all snow.”
“That’s Mount Atra.” Roz shifted the weight of her backpack. “It’s on the far side of the Ogrelands, so we’re quite close. We’ll see the Shield Wall any moment—I mean, the Gravewoods.”
The Gravewoods, Nin repeated with an edge of fear.
“Would you tell us what that is?” Ji asked an ant lion on his shoulder.
“Yeah,” Sally said, “and how we’re supposed to get through it, if it’s so scary.”
Ogres will guide us on safepaths, Nin said.
“Safe from what? What are you tal—” Sally’s ears swiveled. “Whoa. That’s not right.”
“Oh, boy,” Chibo said. “What now?”
Sally loped into a wooded grove and stopped at a ginkgo tree with wildly fluttering golden leaves.
“Oh,” Ji said, slowing behind her. “Yeah.”
Roz cleared her throat. “That is quite . . . out of the ordinary.”
“The tree?” Chibo asked. “It’s just a tree.”
“The leaves are moving,” Sally told him. “For no reason.”
“There’s a reason,” Roz rumbled. “There’s just no wind.”
“Why did we walk toward the scary tree?” Ji asked.
The leaves spun and twirled into the shape of a face. Brace’s face, twenty feet high and fifteen feet wide and made of ginkgo leaves.
“If you can hear me,” the tree-face said in a woody sort of voice, “you must stop right now.”
Ji gaped at the huge leafy nose and the massive mouth that moved when Brace spoke. Because holy guacamole, that was a huge leafy nose and a massive mouth that moved when Brace spoke.
A shiver ran through the leaves. “Jiyong, Miss Roz, and—you others, please listen.”
“That jerk still doesn’t know my name,” Sally muttered.
“If you venture too deep into the Shield Wall,” the leaves said, “you will die.”
“And you want us alive,” Sally growled, her ears flat. “So you can kill us.”
“If you hear me,” Brace said, “stop running. I know that one of your”—the leafy face paused—“‘friends’ was an ogre, but that will not save you.”
Roz glanced at an ant lion on her sleeve. “You must tell us about the Gravewoods, Nin.”
“The ogres are gathering in goblin tunnels outside Summer City,” the leafy Brace said. “They think Her Majesty doesn’t know, but her terra-cotta warriors are waiting. They’ll slaughter the ogres before they reach the Forbidden Palace.”
Slaughter! Nin said, cub’s mind-speak shuddering with horror. We must warnscare them!
“Once ogres form war parties,” Brace continued, “they become violent and mindless. After the ogres—”
“They’re our friends!” Chibo interjected.
“—start marching to battle, they lash out like rabid beasts. They’ll kill you long before the Shield Wall finishes turning you into—” Brace’s face blurred, the leafy gaze looking to his left. “What’s that, Ioso? The goblins? You must—”
The magic stopped. The huge face slackened into normal leaves and branches . . . for a moment. Then the leaves curled and blackened and fell to the ground.
“Um,” Ji said, after a few seconds. “What’s this about ogres getting violent and rabid?”
“A war party is a squad of ogres who vow to fight to the death,” Roz rumbled slowly. “Ogre war parties are known for their ferocity, but I’m not sure that Prince Brace is telling the whole truth.”
The clayfighters are waiting, Nin said. That much sounds wholetrue. The ogres will be slaughterkilled.
“Nin’s right,” Sally growled, prowling past a boulder. “If they attack, the queen’s terra-cotta soldiers will wipe them out.”
Chibo spread his wings nervously. “We need to warn them.”
“We will.” Ji followed Sally toward the hilltop. “And Nin will tell us about this stupid Shield Wall.”
A few ant lions crawled higher on the backpack straps. The Gravewoods.
“I don’t care what you call it!” Ji snapped. “Just tell us about it!”
No, we mean right there. The ant lions pointed their antennae. The Gravewoods.
A higher hill rose on the other side of a gully. No meadows or grass grew on the facing slope, because the white “band” wasn’t dirty snow or marble buildings: it was a range of foothills covered with jagged stone pillars and bizarre stone sculptures.
“A petrified forest,” Roz breathed.
Sally’s tail lashed. “A what?”
“Trees and bushes—a whole forest—turned to stone.”
This is what keeps the ogres feebleweak, Nin said.
Roz lifted an ant lion on her finger. “The Gravewoods does?”
The ant lion nodded. Our hillfoots are turned to stone. We spoketold you this!
“You did not,” Ji said.
We did! A deep sense of shame curdled Nin’s mind-speak. We spoketold you the whole sadstory.
“I guess we weren’t listening,” Ji said, giving an ant lion a sympathetic look. “Tell us again?”
Nobody safecrosses the Gravewoods unless guided by ogres . . . or mages.
“Nobody crosses safely?” Ji squinted at the petrified forest. “What happens if you try?”
First your skin scabflakes. Then your throat parches, your eyes dry and crack. Every step, more full of pain. Every step, more parchdry and rockfleshed.
“Rock fleshed? You turn to stone?”
Over miles and miles. Step by step.
Roz cleared her throat. “Unless you’re guided by ogres?”
Or mages. Then maybe safecross.
“Maybe?” Ji asked.
Longago, a spell was cast that turns flesh to stone if you try to leave the Ogrelands—or enter. A powerful and terrible spell.
“I suppose that’s why the humans call it ‘the Shield Wall,’” Roz said. “Because it keeps the ogres from invading.”
“But ogres can still leave,” Ji said.
Snailcarefully, Nin said. And not safely. Even for ogres on the safepaths, the Gravewoods are dangerous.
“So we need ogres to lead us across?” Sally asked after Nin trailed off. “Let’s find some.”
“Awesome,” Chibo fluted, clearly trying to cheer Nin up. “I love ogres.”
“I’ll love if they’ll tell us how to find the Ice Witch,” Ji grumbled. “And I’ll dance a
jig when she breaks this spell.”
Goodnews! Nin said. And badnews.
“What bad news?” Ji asked, as Chibo said, “I love good news!”
A few ant lions pointed toward a dozen huge shapes moving among the crumbling stone trees across the gully. Ji caught the flash of glossy red skin and curving white horns through the gloom of the petrified forest. Quick glimpses that looked like the bulls and lions and gorillas he’d seen in Roz’s books—except utterly different.
Those are ogres! Nin announced. Grownfull ogres! We found them!
“What’s the bad news?” Ji asked again.
Oh, well, Nin said, with a hint of nervousness. They peeksee like a warparty. Brace spoke the realtruth. The ogres are marching to war, protecting the borders, and . . .
“And what?” Roz asked.
If we enter the Gravewoods, Nin said, abashed, they will attack.
“Attack who?” Sally growled. “Attack us?”
A warparty will haltstomp anyone who comes scaryclose to the Ogrelands.
“We’re not scary,” Chibo said. “We’re scared.”
Once ogres join together in a warparty, they grow eagerkeen to do battle.
Ji kicked a stump. “You mean they’re looking for a fight.”
“They won’t hurt us!” Chibo insisted. “We’re with Nin. And we’re not a threat or anything. Just five kids lost in the woods.”
“Ye-es,” Roz said, rubbing her horn. “However, Nin knows ogres.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Ji said. “There’s two armies behind us.”
Maybe Chibald is right. Maybe they’ll listen to us. We’re an ogre, after all.
“But they won’t know you’re you,” Sally said. “They can’t hear when you mind-speak.”
“The ogres might stomp us,” Ji said, “but the humans and goblins definitely will.”
“That’s what being a half human means,” Chibo said, his huge green eyes sad. “Everyone hates you.”
“We’ll break the spell soon,” Roz promised, taking Chibo’s hand.
Ji scanned the Gravewoods. Nothing moved among the petrified trees. No shadowy shapes, no war party. He frowned and started down the gully below the last green hill before the stone trees started. Even if the ogres guided them across the Gravewoods—instead of stomping them into salsa—they still needed to find the Ice Witch and convince her to help . . . before the armies caught them.
When he reached the petrified forest, his breath caught. The line between the stone trees and the living ones was sharp as a boundary drawn on a map with a razor. One half of an ancient pine tree rose like a stone sculpture from rocky roots, with eerily perfect bark carvings. On the other half, narrow trunks grew from living roots, twisting and twining toward the sky.
Ji’s palms itched. The stillness of the petrified woods unnerved him.
“Hello?” he called. “Ogres? We’re here with a cub. A cub named Nin!”
No response.
“We need help crossing the Gravewoods!”
Sally prowled beside him. “They’re not close anymore.”
“They left?”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
They want us to follow, Nin said.
“Why?” Roz asked.
“To give the Gravewoods time to weaken us,” Ji told her. “Before they start stomping.”
“Oh,” she said in a little voice.
Ji ran his fingertips along the pebbled bark of the pine tree. How long before the spell of the Gravewoods seeped into his skin? How long before his eyes turned to stone and his lungs to rocks? He swallowed, then made himself take three steps into the petrified woods. The ground crunched like gravel underfoot. Because it was gravel, the remains of fallen stone branches and shattered leaves.
Roz touched his elbow. “The ogres will help us.”
“Next time,” he told her, “let’s not get turned into beasts and captured by goblins and chased by two armies into a deadly forest.”
“Would you rather be cleaning boots?” she asked.
“Yes!” he said.
She arched a disbelieving eyebrow. “I know you better than that.”
“Boots never turned me to stone.” He looked into the Gravewoods. “Okay, let’s go talk to some ogres about a witch.”
A faint trail led deeper into the forest. No birds sang. No bees buzzed, no monkeys hooted, no crickets chirped. Ji’s skin tingled. He climbed over shattered logs and he slunk past fallen tangles of stone branches.
“Where are they?” Sally asked, her ears swiveling. “They were right here twenty minutes ago.”
Nobody answered.
The magic of the lifeless stone forest made Ji’s lips crack. His fingers ached and his eyes throbbed.
“I bet they’re preparing a welcome feast!” Chibo piped. “Ogres would never hurt us.”
No-o-o-o, Nin said hesitantly. But a warparty might. They rockvow to protect the Ogrelands against all dangers.
“We’re not a danger,” Roz rumbled. “Although I suppose we are leading two armies this way.”
Nin gave a blurt of nervous mind-speak: And they might ponderthink that Chibald is a mage.
“Why him?” Sally asked.
No hair, Nin said. Like Mysterioso.
“Like Mr. Ioso?” Ji glanced at an ant lion. “Are all mages bald?”
Also, Nin said, ignoring Ji’s question, they’ll see that we are not ogres.
“Well!” Chibo said, after an unhappy pause. “At least there was only one moon last night.”
“There were two,” Sally told him.
“Well, there weren’t four. No kumiho. That’s all that matters.”
Sally hopped over a clump of stone grass, sharp enough to stab. “Finding the Ice Witch and breaking the spell is all that matters.”
Warning the ogres not to attack Summer City and saving them from the clayfighters, Nin said. That’s also all that matters.
“Don’t forget escaping the Summer Queen and White Worm,” Roz rumbled. “And avoiding being turned to stone by the Gravewoods. That’s all that matters too.”
“And not getting stomped by ogres,” Ji said, looking into the jagged woods. “Where are they?”
“Watching us, probably,” Sally said. “Leading us into a trap.”
“If this was a trap,” Ji said, “you’d think they’d lead us onto a wider path.”
Twelve seconds later, a wider path opened in front of them: a broad trail covered in the dust of petrified wood crushed by ogre feet.
Ji gulped. “Oh.”
“What shall we do?” Roz asked.
“My skin’s burning and my tongue’s dry,” Ji told her. “And we’re only a mile into the woods. We need to find the ogres fast.”
Sally followed the path uphill, moving on all fours. She prowled between shattered stone bushes and crumbling stone trees. A clay-tinged breeze brought the jingle of weapons from behind them: the sound of the Summer Army approaching. Chibo whimpered and Roz tsk-tsked, but Sally just kept stalking deeper into the woods.
Then Ji heard something else, a faint splash of water. “What’s that?” he croaked.
The river, Nin said, and two ant lions dropped from the backpack.
They landed with a faint tink, and Ji saw two tiny statues, two stone ant lions, lying on a bed of stone moss.
“Nin!” he said. “You’re turning to stone!”
Only a few of us. Like your hairtips.
“My what?” Ji raised his hand and felt the pinpricks of his stony hair. Just the very ends, not even as wide as a blade of grass. Still, he groaned. “The spell’s already taking hold.”
Sally broke a petrified strand from her tail. “It’s just a little fur.”
“Yeah, but what about Nin?” Ji crouched beside the stone ant lions. “How long before your queen dies?”
Days and days, Nin said.
“You’re a worse liar than Sally,” Ji said, scooping the stone ant lions into his palm.
Over the next hou
r, the splashing of the river grew steadily louder. Ji licked his cracked, flinty lips, while Chibo scratched his scabby neck until he bled. Sally started coughing, and even Roz’s breath turned ragged and harsh.
Finally, Sally raised a furry fist. “I hear them.”
“It’s only the river,” Ji croaked.
“No.” She stepped onto a stone plateau fringed with petrified rosebushes. “Look.”
A sheer cliff dropped from the far end of the plateau, and a river frothed at the bottom. A group of ogres roamed the stone-wooded hill beyond the crashing river. Ten or fifteen of them, stalking through the petrified whiteness.
Full-grown ogres, not cubs like Nin.
No two of them were alike, except for their bright red skin and yellow hair. Or yellow manes. Some of them looked like bulls: a thousand pounds of ogre with four legs and sharp horns and broad shoulders. Some walked on their knuckles like gorillas; others raised curved tusks and peered horribly around. A few looked almost human, except for their monstrous faces—with pointed ears and fangs—and claws. Stone rings dangled from most of the ogres’ ears and noses.
“What?” Chibo asked, his wings fluttering. “What do they look like?”
“They’re large,” Roz said. “They’re quite emphatically large.”
“They’re on the other side of the river—” Sally started.
The ogres caught sight of them and swarmed forward with huge leaps, bounding like a herd of agile buffalo. Without any hesitation, they leaped across the river and scrambled up the cliffside toward the plateau.
“Well”—Sally gulped—“we wanted to meet the ogres.”
Ji’s heart fluttered like a kite in a hurricane. “Nin! What do we do now?”
Tell them we’re us! Tell them you’re you! Tell them the evilqueen is strong again, and not to attack!
“Nin!” Ji yelled to the first ogre climbing onto the plateau. “We’re friends of Nin! The cub, the ogre cub you sent to Summer City!”
The ogre roared in Ogrish, and five more swarmed from the cliffside.
Ji stepped forward. “Nin sent us to the Ogrelands with a message.”
A gorilla-looking ogre rose onto its feet and roared so loudly that Ji’s ears rang.
“I—I couldn’t agree more,” Ji heard himself say. “Ha ha! You know Nin. Er, but do you speak a little human? It’s okay if you don’t! I know a little Ogrish.”