“GOOD MORNING,” PENNY greeted Noah, trying to sound chipper, but the rattling of her teeth made it difficult. He stepped closer and looked into the clear water of the stream she had been washing her face in.
“We should reach Umbrie-Alantier by the end of the day,” he reported. Before the discomfort of the moment could grow, Noah added, “Penny, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
Penny immediately began mapping out an escape route, but Noah unabashedly continued without waiting for her response.
“Something’s been weighing on my mind,” he admitted, kicking at the snow. “What is it, exactly, between you and Arlington? You two seem to get along very well.”
Penny’s chest loosened and she laughed. “Oh, Hector? He’s just my—” Suddenly something that seemed so natural inside her mind could not be put into words. She had to think for a moment before finishing, “—close friend? He’s been with me ever since I came to the Nation of Men, and well, I guess he sort of looks out for me. And I do the same for him. At least I try to.”
“Well, Penny, I don’t want that,” he said assertively, and it took her a moment to realize what Noah was talking about. She became highly ruffled as Noah grabbed both her hands and pulled her close so that they stood face to face. “I want to be the one who looks out for you.”
“Well, it’s not like it’s a job title or something,” Penny joked.
“It’s just, when I see you two together, I feel like I’m losing you. Like there’s this massive distance between us.” He drew even closer. “Please, Penny. Consider my feelings, please. I’ve never felt this way about anybody before. I’d do anything to have you as my partner.”
“Noah, I—” Penny tried to object, but Noah cut in before she could say any more.
“I’ve been wanting to ask you for a long time now. Please, won’t you hear my Declaration?” he asked softly, brushing the hair out of her eyes.
“I-I don’t even know what that is. Noah, please, hold on. It’s my fault, I haven’t been up-front with you. There’s something I need to tell you, too.”
“So you feel the same?” His face lit up. “Penny Fairfax, I Declare to you my undying love and affection. Will you accept my feelings? Will you stand beside me?”
Penny felt like she couldn’t fully register the meaning of his words. “Noah, this is just so confusing, I really don’t know what to say, but I—”
“Then don’t say anything.”
Noah moved too fast for Penny to stop him. Before she knew what was happening, he had pressed his lips to hers. The moment she felt his hands grow lax, she whipped hers free and pushed him away. Noah looked horrorstricken at her reaction. Penny could hardly formulate a coherent sentence to express the raging tumult of emotion within her.
“But Penny, I thought…what did I do wrong? Tell me.” He reached out to her again, but this time Penny backed away and glanced back into the woods, looking for somewhere to run. There were tears in his eyes and Penny felt sick.
“Nothing, you did nothing wrong. I’m just—I’m not—oh, god, I can’t do this,” she breathed, cringing.
Noah’s vulnerable expression turned to an affronted one. “Penny, do you understand what you’re saying? The King just Declared to you. This reaction, this is out of line. You can’t do this. No one has ever done this,” he said, all gentleness gone from his voice.
The moment was too horrible. Penny turned and blindly ran off into the snowy woods as fast as her feet would carry her. The trees passed by in blurs of white and black and her feet ached with numbness from the snow, but Penny could not seem to stop herself until she was deep in the woods and sure no one pursued her.
She leaned against a tree, panting and trying to gather her wits. The uncomfortable feeling of having been violated began to lose its sharpness, and Penny turned to begin following her footprints back before they were covered by falling snow. To her surprise, they were nowhere in sight.
“No. That’s impossible,” Penny whispered, her anxiety spiking again. She spun on point until she thought she could remember the direction that she had come and bolted down that path. There was still no trace of footprints, but she pursued the path with a strange sense of urgency.
It had to be the right direction; it felt right, it felt familiar. Her friends would be waiting for her. Perhaps she could even hear them now, but Penny’s mind was too full to be sure. She burst out of the trees and stopped short.
In the middle of an expansive meadow stood the most enormous tree that Penny had ever laid eyes upon. Its canopy stretched taller than a skyscraper, and its ample leaves were green and as untouched by snow as if it were in the throes of summer. The trunk was gnarled and ancient, but looked remarkably sturdy. Its colossal roots wove through the surrounding hills, and littered all around were hundreds of monolithic gray stones that looked as old and mysterious as the tree itself.
Penny could feel the draw now to the magnificent arbor. As she passed the first of the gray stones, she could see there were strange glyphs carved into their crumbling, mossy surfaces, but did not stop to inspect them. All at once, her only wish was to get close to the tree, and she walked all the way across the meadow until she could finally stand under the shade of its boughs. The temperature was shockingly different, and Penny removed her coat and let it fall in the grass. She clambered through the winding roots until she was able to touch the tree trunk with her palm.
A glorious feeling of calmness and elation washed over her as she made contact with the bark, and Penny laughed out loud. When she withdrew her palm, it was as if an avalanche of heavy emotions had suddenly crashed down on her. She reached for the tree again, sinking down among its roots as the feeling of relief washed over her.
Penny didn’t know how long she sat there, enjoying the weightless peace and safety she felt. After some time she noticed the tree had a pulse like a heartbeat.
It’s time to go now, she thought firmly, but stayed nestled among the roots, feeling very much like she did when she did not want to get out of bed on a cold winter morning. As her fingers ran over the rough bark, a phrase echoed through her clouded mind:
Herein lies the missing piece. When you reach the hallowed ground, steal away bark from the Tree of Mana.
Penny drew back from the tree and looked up at the towering giant. She fumbled with her bag, digging around inside until she found the tiny chest that Della had given her. She threw open the lid and inspected the inscription. It was just as she had remembered.
Could this be what Della meant? Did she know this was going to happen? Carefully she put her fingers to the tree’s bark and poised herself to tear a hunk off, feeling guilty to mar anything so perfect.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the tree, feeling silly as she said it, but it helped to ease the sense that she was committing some transgression. With a deep breath, she tore a piece of bark off quickly, feeling a jolt from the tree as she did, as if it were transmitting some of its pain to her. With reverence Penny took the tiny hunk of bark and placed it within the chest Della had left for her, next to the gray slab of stone. Another puzzle piece clicked into place.
The stone in the box was the exact same shade as the slabs of rock that surrounded the tree. Penny was on her feet in an instant and running through the stone, looking for one missing a piece. None of the rocks that were woven into the snakelike roots of the tree appeared to have a depression that the stone might fit into, and just as Penny was starting to think her epiphany might’ve been wishful thinking, she spotted one missing a chunk in the shape of the slab. Penny compared the two quickly, then reached to fit it in place. Pressing the slabs together, Penny drew back her hand and waited. All was silent.
When Penny was certain that nothing was about to happen, she dug in her pocket to pull out the pince-nez glasses that would allow her to read the strange glyphs engraved on the slabs. Even after she had placed them on her nose and looked through the enchanted lenses, the glyphs were still unreadable. She made a v
ague noise of frustration, then decided she had better copy the symbols onto a piece of paper to bring back to the others. She found one inside her bag and jotted down all the symbols she could fit onto the scrap of paper.
Penny knew she had to get back to the camp soon. Everyone would be concerned about her whereabouts, but she desperately wanted to linger in the shadow of the otherworldly tree. She had the discouraging conviction that if she left this place, she would probably never be able to return to it.
Step by methodic step, Penny forced herself to return to the woods, keeping her eyes on the massive tree as she went. As the forest grew denser, she was forced to watch where she was going and turned around. Once she had walked a few feet through the snow, she chanced a look back over her shoulder. Just as Penny had predicted, the clearing and its magnificent tree had vanished.
We’ve been looking everywhere for you! You just love to disappear, don’t you? Hector’s mad like you wouldn’t believe!” Annette cried as Penny sprinted back into camp.
“Annette, wait a minute! I’ve found something amazing, you’ve got to hear this!” Penny protested as Annette grabbed her by the arm and tugged her toward the palanquin.
“Well, you can tell us about it when we’re up in the air. They’re already furious about how late you’ve made us. In you go!” Annette shoved Penny into the open door and shouted to the others it was time to move. As everyone crowded in, several voices assaulted her at once as the palanquin rose off the ground.
Hector’s scolding was the loudest. “Penelope, I don’t know how many times it will take to get this to sink in, but you cannot go running off whenever you please! Do you have any idea what―”
“Did you have to fight off a wild beast?” Noct asked with a smile.
“What did you do to the King? He’s been moping around ever since you ran off. He refuses to say a word,” Simon said with raised eyebrows.
Penny flushed, and the others grew quiet at her obvious humiliation. She found she could not share the personal incident with the group, even if they were her closest friends.
“Did something happen? You can tell us; we’re here for you. We won’t laugh,” Annette said, looking equally concerned and curious.
“I might,” Argent said with a smile and Annette jabbed him with her elbow.
“He…” Penny gauged the reactions of her friends before she started speaking, looking from Simon’s inquisitive grin, to Noct’s furrowed brow, and then to Hector’s uncomfortable frown. “I dunno, he just started saying something weird to me. He called it a ‘proclamation’ or something like that and―”
“A Declaration?” Annette shrieked. Argent began to laugh uncontrollably and Noct’s jaw dropped. Penny felt her face flush even darker.
“What? What’s the big deal?”
“Fire from Heaven, you didn’t turn him down, did you? Oh, Penny. Oh, no,” Annette gasped, caught halfway between a look of horror and an incredulous laugh.
“Well, of course I turned him down!” Penny defended. “I don’t even know what it is, how can I be expected to accept it?”
“A Declaration, dear little Penny, is an offer for a romantic partnership, One that ideally lasts for life,” Argent said, still laughing wickedly, and Penny made a noise as if she were choking for breath.
“Are you kidding me?” sputtered Penny. “It was like a marriage proposal?”
“Well, in a way!” Annette cried. “Someone wouldn’t Declare unless they had very serious plans for the future. It’s a serious offer.”
“Which is why it’s so hilarious that you just rejected the King of the Nation of Men,” Argent snickered.
“I didn’t even know that was legal,” Noct added.
“You women just love to go around breaking people’s hearts, don’t you?” Simon grumbled.
Annette looked horrified now. “Penny, you just have to apologize and tell him you’ll accept. It’s probably not too late, I―”
Penny looked to Hector, who was watching the exchange in silence, his expression hollow. She shook her head. “I can’t! I just can’t!”
“But I thought you liked King Noah?” Annette interjected. “Do you know how many girls would kill to be in your position? You do realize that if you stayed with him long enough, you’d be the Queen of The Nation of Men one day?”
Penny felt faint now. “What in the entire time that we’ve known each other makes you think that I either want to or should be a queen? I can barely look after myself, much less run an entire country. And all that aside, Noah’s a good guy, but I…” she faltered, trying to organize her thoughts and honestly consider them. “I don’t know, it’s more than just my nerves. Sometimes he just makes me feel weird. Like uncomfortable or intimidated. I’m not myself around him, I’m someone else, someone I don’t like and I—I just don’t feel the same way he does. I had to turn him down.”
Silence ensued, but Hector’s eyes were considering her now.
“Just forget it, okay? I’ve found something really important. Something you won’t believe,” Penny said, and quickly told them the story of what had happened after she fled Noah’s advances. She withdrew the piece of bark and the copy of the glyphs she had made, and passed it between her friends as she described the massive tree.
“Now, that is peculiar.” Hector examined the lettering on the sheaf of paper, taking off and putting on his glasses repeatedly as he squinted at the symbols. Clearly perplexed, he set his glasses down on the floor of the palanquin, and drew a strange magical seal onto the wood with his finger. He placed the spectacles on top of it and muttered a few hushed words in Nelvirnee. The seal shone gold for a moment, then disappeared. Hector scooped up his glasses and looked over the paper again. “How irksome, the spell was correctly executed, but it’s still not working. Maybe it’s not lettering, at all.”
“Come on, just look at it again! It’s got to mean something. If it was around the Tree of Mana, it just has to.” Noct swiped the paper unceremoniously out of Hector’s hand to study it himself.
“You’ve heard of this ‘Tree of Mana’ thing?” Penny stammered.
“Um, yeah, who hasn’t? It’s where Lord Nestor was born, after all,” Noct said, rolling his eyes. “It’s incredible that you just stumbled upon it. It’s been searched for since there’ve been people in Elydria. Thousands have died trying to find it.”
“That doesn’t seem right. I find it hard to believe that I just accidently bumped into a lost legend,” Penny argued, but then caught herself. “Though it did sort of disappear when I left the clearing. It was almost like it pulled me in, then tossed me out again.”
“That may be just what happened. The Tree is supposedly the central point of creation in this world. It controls the flow of magic in and out of this world, as well as the current that souls ride when they pass through the Dawn Mirror. It was here long before Nestor. Before everything else for that matter. According to legend, as long as it lives, so does the world around it. Without the Tree, the world and everything around it would perish,” Argent told them.
“We have a similar legend where I come from,” added Hector. “People said that when Lord Seival disappeared, he hid in the Cradle of the Gods, which was a mythic place where a Tree of Life stood. Lord Seival told the people of Nelvirna that the tree grew from the bodies of dead angels―angels who had given their lives to let the world be reborn.”
“I saw a magic tree just like that! I saw it on Earth!” Simon cried suddenly.
“Yeah, yeah, Simon, we’ve all heard about the wonders of your mushroom induced—”
“No, not that time! This was a different tree!” he corrected Penny. “Don’t you remember the day we met? Adrielle took me to that fantastic garden, and I wandered around it for hours waiting for her to come back. While I was there I saw a tree just like that. It was taller than a building and it felt like it was—I don’t know, breathing or something. What if that’s where Adrielle has been hiding all along? Maybe we could go there and find her and a
sk for her help.”
“Easier said than done,” Noct cut in. “Even if that Angel lady is there, we have no idea how to find that place. If you ask me, despite big sister Penny having found all this, we’re still just as lost as before.”
“And that’s why we’ve got to find out some way to read this gibberish.” Penny pointed emphatically at the paper in Argent’s hand. “Della wouldn’t have led us to that particular stone for no reason.”
“You’d think she would’ve just given us a road map and a set of directions if she wanted us to actually succeed at this,” Annette said dryly. “It seems pretty hopeless. Where in the world are we going to find someone who can understand all that nonsense?”
“I actually might be able to help you there,” Argent said, his eyes distant. “When I was young, I was often at the Crafter’s Guild in Iverton. I had a sort of mentor there who was particularly interested in my talents. His name was Professor Walter Digg. If anyone would know how to read this, it would be him. He’s a master of everything that you can imagine—magical theory, crafting, physics, alchemy, mathematics, spelunking, astronomy, chemistry, history, linguistics....”
“That sounds perfect. How do we find him?”
“Not so fast. One thing you should know about Digg is, in addition to being a genius, he’s also completely deranged. Actually, that doesn’t even begin to cover what’s wrong with him. Last I’d heard he was almost arrested for destroying a huge section of the Guild with one of his experiments. The rangers and the Guild Masters chased him out of town and he’s been living somewhere in the wilds. In all likelihood he’s probably dead by now. The man was seventy-five the last time I saw him, and I was around eight years old at the time.”
“Oh.” Penny’s hopes fell. Argent shrugged.
“There’s a chance, though. I’ll try to see what I can uncover when we get back,” he promised. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re going to be in Umbrie-Alantier in a few hours, so keep on your guard.”
Eden Undone (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 2) Page 11