He turned to Halfax.
“And you. The plan, the scheme… It is certainly a gift of Epidime to tug and pull at the minds of simpletons so thoroughly. I taught them of the cutleaf poison. That would bring you here. That would bring you looking for the book.”
“Your assassins tried to kill me. And Myn as well.”
“They wouldn’t have succeeded.” Loci pointed at Jade. “Your greatest gift is your good fortune. In staying here, you granted me that. And you enjoy it as well. If there was but one way to survive, you would find it. And if there was but one way to be sure you would arrive with your trusty dragon by your side, I would find it. Don’t you see? Don’t you see how important it is, how valuable it is that you return to me? Can you imagine the power if you remained here and more like you followed. If the crossroads of history continued to tread new paths across this clearing?”
“You are mad,” Jade uttered.
“Forgive me. Consciousness is new to me. I am only finding my way,” Loci said.
Their host stepped toward Myn.
“You are too new. I don’t have a proper feel for your gifts. What distinctions can you add? Time will tell, of course.”
Both Jade and Halfax stepped between him and the girl.
“What are you going to do with us?” Myn asked. “Now that you have us?”
“I do not know,” Loci said. “With each moment I can feel my options expanding. Now that you all have shared with me your will, I can feel the strength of the ley lines beneath us. I can use the strength. Please, Jade, Myn. Come inside. Make yourselves at home while I consider what to do with this power.”
“I have no interest in doing what you say,” Jade said.
“The focus of my power is the tower. The beings who gather there have the greatest influence upon my strength and my nature. You, Jade. We can do such good if you were to lend me your strength more directly. Those most distinctive parts of your being can be distilled in me. Woven into the fabric of this place. The possibilities.”
“I will remain here, just the same.”
“So be it. I shall retire to contemplate. I would be happy to supply your every need. I am your host. It is only right that I cater to my guests.”
Loci vanished. Above, a hole in the clouds opened and the sun slid into position, illuminating the clearing. It shifted around them, blossoming to a veritable paradise.
“Do not accept anything offered,” Jade said. “Anything could tighten the grip of this place upon us.”
Myn stared out into the shadowy echo of a forest that surrounded them. “What are we going to do now?”
Jade pondered their predicament, then gazed up to the tower.
“I don’t know. But the good news is, we’ve still got the most powerful weapon we could have. We have all of the knowledge of the tower. All of those books.”
“But to get them, we’ll need to enter the tower.”
Jade turned to Halfax.
“Hal, be a dear and fetch me some books.”
The dragon turned to the tower and stalked forward. He leapt to the roof of the cottage. It splintered and collapsed beneath his feet. Stout claws sunk easily into the stone of the tower itself. He hoisted himself up and heaved the roof off the top as though it were little more than the lid of a massive container. With little effort, he snatched a whole book case and hopped down to deliver it.
Before he’d even set the heavy case down, the cottage and tower were restored, but the books remained.
“Let’s get to work. There must be something here that can help us.”
#
Several hours later, the group was surrounded by mounds of texts. The three of them leafed through in search of something, anything that could help. The tower’s library was staggeringly diverse, and it had even more books than Jade remembered. They had access not only to the books that were presently in the tower, but any book that had ever been in the tower. It was an embarrassment of information. If there was an answer to their situation, it was within these pages, but finding it could take a lifetime.
Most of the research was done by the queen and princess. Though Halfax could read—indeed, he was the one who taught Jade—books weren’t terribly convenient for a creature of his size. He had a different focus.
“Stay away from the edge, Hal,” Jade advised.
The dragon tested the insubstantial ground with his paw.
“So much of this is illusion and trickery…” he rumbled.
“We don’t know how strong this magic is. There is no telling what will happen.”
“There is one way to tell,” Halfax said.
The dragon coiled his legs.
“Halfax, don’t,” Jade said sternly.
He didn’t listen, and he didn’t hesitate. With a prodigious leap, their protector drove himself out past the edge of their prison. The shadows enfolded him. Jade and Myn watched, terrified, as his form vanished between the trees. They could still hear the rustle of underbrush and the crunch of ice and snow. Step by bounding step it became less distinct. The sound wasn’t fading away, it was spreading, as though they were surrounded by a dozen such creatures, each sprinting in a different direction. Slowly the attempted retreat became more distinct and precise, and a shape appeared in the shadowy woods not far from where he left.
Halfax burst from the trees and skidded to a stop in the lush glade. He took a moment to assess his surroundings, then roared in frustration.
“All paths lead back here,” he fumed.
“All things considered, it could have been much worse. Don’t try anything like that again,” Jade said.
Myn looked up from the book she was reading.
“Mother… The things that Loci said…” She handed the book she had been reading to Jade.
Jade looked to the page. Her daughter had been reading through a compendium of mystic creatures of Ravenwood and the surrounding countryside. She’d made certain that when she handed the book to her mother, it was on a specific page. As the queen read over the description of the beast, Myn raised her voice.
“Loci,” she called. “I have questions.”
Their host swept together in front of her.
“I would be delighted to answer.”
“You want us here because it helps you think, and it helps you become more powerful, correct?”
“I want the pieces of my history returned to me because their presence makes me whole again. With that wholeness comes power and clarity.”
“But what about people like me? People who aren’t a part of your history, but are part of your present?”
“You have value. Because time marches forward. Your presence here is welcome, and becomes more welcome with each moment you are here.”
“What if more people came? Or things with more qualities for you to build upon?”
“That would be wonderful, and I would be glad to have them.”
“Then why don’t you call for them? Halfax and Mother say that places of magic scare animals away, but they attract creatures of magic, right? Couldn’t you try to call to those creatures?”
“I believe I could, if I had the strength.”
“Surely if you had some other creatures, some strong ones, that would satisfy you, and you could let us go.”
“Simply having you here has helped me to shape the glade and sharpen my mind, but to reach out as you suggest, I would need your cooperation. I would need you inside the tower, where your influence would be strongest. Where your strength could color mine.”
Myn looked to Jade, then to Halfax.
“I will do that, if it will help us to leave this place.”
“That spirit will not allow us to leave,” Halfax warned. “I can feel the hunger for power. It is a mistake to help it grow stronger.”
Myn turned to him.
“Sometimes the right thing to do isn’t the correct thing to do.” She stepped forward. “Show me where to go.”
#
Myn shivered a bit as she stepped into the cottage. The warmth of spring seemed to end at the doorway.
“Forgive me. You are new here. I don’t know enough of your nature, and I don’t have enough history with you to conjure a friendlier era,” Loci said.
She looked around. The cottage was new. She could smell the greenness of the wood. There was no furniture. She could imagine that the carpenters had only just left the place. The same could not be said of the tower. Even at this early point in the life of the building, the stone where it connected to the wizard’s tower was pockmarked and worn. The tower must have been far older than the cottage, or at least this version of the tower was. There was something different about the structure than when she caught her brief glimpse earlier. It seemed more formal somehow. Carvings and reliefs decorated the walls, though most were fractured and crumbling. The years must have claimed them by the time her mother had come to this place.
“Inside the tower, please,” Loci said. “The wizards so often place themselves high above, but the most direct connection to the ley lines is right here, in the base of the tower.”
The voice spoke simply. Though its motivations and actions seemed sinister, there was no indication in its demeanor that it had malice in mind.
“A chair. You will need a chair,” Loci said.
A modest wooden seat with a tall back and low arms resolved in the base of the tower. Loci shifted its position somewhat, ghostly hands struggling to interact with this piece of physicality.
“This was your mother’s chair. Isn’t that nice? Aren’t you glad to have the opportunity to experience these slices of her life?”
“It would have been nicer if I didn’t have to be held prisoner to experience such things.”
“A guest. Please. You are a guest,” Loci said.
Myn sat down. The moment she was in position, there was no denying that there was something unique about this place. She wouldn’t have described it as a power. Not precisely. But something about this point had a reality to it. It felt as though the world was a story passed from listener to listener. Until now she would have thought that she was listening to a firsthand account. But this… This was the source, the root of it all. Her life to this point was a few steps removed.
“Yes… Yes…” Loci’s voice was clear and calm. “So much better. I feel anchored. Grounded. Let me test my voice, and throw open the doors for new guests.”
The hairs on Myn’s neck started to stand up. From where she was sitting, she couldn’t see the outside, but in her bones she could feel that it was pulsing with new power. She felt a rhythm, a tone begin to vibrate in something beyond hearing. It made her uneasy. But at the same time, it was cloying. It promised the same vague sense of enhanced reality. A clean, cool drink from the fountain from which all else flowed. To the right sort of mind, to the right sort of thirst, this rhythm would be irresistible.
“Your aura is thick with power, Myn,” Loci said. “I feel in it the elements of Jade’s and Terrilius’s, and something more I cannot identify yet. You are the beginning of a potent new line. Chosen twice over. Such unique power. Such a singular twist of spirit. It is an honor to feel that same power weave with my own. Your future will be a wonder. I can almost see the path you will weave. And I can feel motion. Something is heeding our call…”
Loci’s face remained elusive and shifting, but its expression became more scrutable. She could see a sort of bliss, a serenity. But before her eyes, the expression faded to something less certain.
“I can feel your nature more clearly now. More deeply… Behind the power is something else. A bitterness. A stain. I can feel something in you bending and twisting the world as your mother does. But it is not the same. It is as if it were in a mirror.”
Myn could hear Halfax shifting outside. Loci turned, distracted from its deepening understanding of the sort of influence Myn had on this place.
“Ah. Something new… Remain here, please,” Loci said.
No longer satisfied to vanish and appear, it moved as though it were a physical thing, pacing out of the cottage and opening its arms.
“Can you feel it? Something strong comes to my doorstep. With the power you have offered, it could be anything.”
Myn crossed her arms and allowed herself a devious smile.
“With the kind of power I can offer, it could only be one sort of thing…”
#
Halfax widened his stance and curled his tail protectively in front of Jade as he watched Loci step toward the subtle silhouette beginning to approach from the edge of the clearing.
“Welcome! Welcome, my new guest,” Loci said. “Please, come nearer. I only wish to be hospitable.”
The approaching figure emerged from the darkness. It was like nothing Jade had seen. But Halfax seemed familiar enough to dig his claws a bit deeper and lower his head into a more hostile posture.
Instead of flesh and blood, the thing seemed to be a shambling collection of dried vines woven into a hollow hulk of a creature. It was human-shaped, but only in the broadest terms. Each motion rattled and rustled. There was no breath, no voice. The vines were twisted into the barest approximation of a human face, with hollows where the eyes should be and a yawning, open void for a mouth.
“What is this…” Loci said.
“It is called a husk. I never thought I’d see one,” Jade said.
“It does not appear to be a source of will,” Loci said.
“Oh, no. Not a source of will. Quite the opposite. A hole into which will flows,” Jade said.
“An empty shell seeking a spirit,” Halfax said.
Loci took a step back. “Then go, foul thing. You are not welcome here!”
It swept its arm out as if to usher the thing away. It mimicked Loci’s gesture. Vines uncoiled and struck like coiled snakes. Loci tried to whisk away, but the vines skewered though. Once struck, Loci couldn’t banish himself. It was as though a stake had been driven through him, pinning him to reality.
The rest of the vines coiled and cocooned the spirit. The clearing around them began to flicker and shift, abandoning whatever recollection Loci had draped across it in favor of its true, proper appearance.
“Myn! Quickly,” Jade called, ensuring she had the book they came for.
She rushed out from within. Jade and Myn climbed to Halfax’s back.
“Be ready to run as soon as the way is clear,” Jade said.
“You did this on purpose,” Loci uttered.
Though struggling with the thing that was entrapping it, the spirit did not sound frightened or in pain. Its voice was entirely devoid of anything but curiosity, as though no other emotion existed. It was almost terrifying to see a being assaulted in such a way, yet react as though it were little more than a point of fascination.
“How could you know?” Loci said, now almost entirely wrapped in the vines. “Such creatures must be rare. You could not have known this is what would answer my call.”
“You used me for my power. You amplified what was special about me. If there was one thing in this whole forest that could beat you, using my power to put out a call would bring it here,” Myn said.
“I see…”
Slowly, the flickering forest around them returned to its dreamy state.
“Then I suppose there is nothing in this forest that can defeat me.”
The vines were still firmly in place, but they had ceased to writhe about with the mindless hunger of the husk. Now they shifted gradually, purposefully, weaving into a form that was far more certain in its humanity. Indeed. It was as though the half-seen figure that Loci had made of himself had simply used the substance of the husk to craft a proper body, albeit out of fiber rather than flesh.
“Interesting,” Loci said. “It would appear I cannot move as freely. And I cannot abandon this form. Physicality is a fascinating impediment.”
Halfax gritted his teeth and lowered his head to look the ne
wly embodied host in the eye.
“If physicality troubles you. Then I shall remove it,” Halfax rumbled.
Loci didn’t know enough to show fear when the dragon threw his jaws wide.
It learned quickly.
Halfax belched a column of flame which instantly set the newly physical being ablaze. Loci’s whisper of a voice shifted to a shriek of agony. Any influence that Loci had over the surroundings vanished as, for the first time in its existence, it had to cope with pain.
The dragon had no interest in lingering long enough to make this creature suffer. His intention was to escape. A few bounding leaps took them past the clearing and into the forest beyond while the strange being behind continued to cry out in anguish. Halfax continued his sprint until well after the spine-tingling cries faded away. Not until the tower had slipped from view and they were deep among the trees did he finally stop to look back.
There was no telling quite how long they’d been in the clearing, but Ravenwood was in the depths of night now. The stillness of the forest, contrasted with the manic rush of the last few minutes, made the weight of what had happened seem to come down upon them all at once. Myn’s fragile bravery slipped away and she practically collapsed against Halfax’s neck. She wasn’t weeping, but her body was trembling with anxiety and fear.
“I’m so proud of you, Myn. I’m so proud. We have the book. We can save your father. And it is because of you.”
“I just… I just did what I had to. I thought… Because he said he could use what made us special… And I’m only special because I’m so unlucky… So I thought…” Myn stammered, as though the constant flow of words was the only thing keeping her from falling to pieces.
Jade hugged her tight.
“I warned you about the tower…” Halfax rumbled.
“I know, Halfax. But we had a job to do, and now the job is done. We need to find a place to shelter until morning—but let’s get some more space between us and the tower.”
Halfax nodded and stalked through the trees.
#
They made camp on some dry ground near a stream. Fresh water, a warm fire, and a hearty meal went a long way to restoring their wits. Halfax had curled himself around the fire, with just enough room between his body and the flames for the queen and princess to lay down their bedrolls. Both Jade and Myn leaned against Halfax. Myn stared numbly into the fire while Jade scrutinized the book by its light. The girl was only half aware that she’d reached out and hooked her fingers between Halfax’s claws as if to hold his hand.
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