Forest of Spirits

by S. J. Sanders

Instinctively, he sought his mate on their bond for her strength and gentle presence. He recoiled when he felt the block on their bond.

  He had to do this alone.

  “And what,” he forced himself to say, “do you now foresee of Diana?”

  The vegoia cocked her head and hesitated, her eyes seeing beyond him. “As the weave of fate changes with every action, the pattern that emerges shows the queen risen against the king and the world quakes with the impact of their blades. She will rise and you will be undone until…”

  “Enough!” Silvas barked, his heart weighed down with a sense of great sickness.

  So, it was true. He had no choice. His hand gripped the hilt of his sword, and a tremor swept through him, shaking him to the core. He could not allow her to rise as a threat to the forest. His heart bled and his body quaked with the suffering that swept through him.

  The vegoia laughed from where she twined around her rock. He shot her an angry look, his lip curling back from his teeth with a loud snarl. It startled her enough that she went silent.

  “Do not mock my pain,” he bit out.

  Her disdainful snort echoed through the cavern. “You will bring about your own pain, idiot king,” she rebuked.

  Her tail snapped against the rock as she flung herself into her pool. He stared after her, watching the ripples until they finally ceased. He’d insulted her—that much was obvious—but he couldn’t bear to hear another word of the sad fate that awaited him. To have given him a mate destined to be his enemy… The gods must have wanted him to suffer. He could barely breathe through the agony biting into him.

  “My apologies, sister,” he whispered toward the pool before spinning around and stalking back to the staircase.

  Ascending to the lowest floor of Arx, Silvas sealed the entrance and turned to face the shadowed sentinel awaiting him. Raskyuil leaned against the wall, his eyes gleaming in the dark. He was the only one among Silvas’s guard who knew the location of the descent to Dorinda’s cave. The male cocked his head curiously.

  “What is the word?” he asked in a low gruff voice.

  “I am to make for the spring of the Pegaeae so that Nocis and I may be purified and restored,” Silvas said as he swept by the troll. He heard the male peel himself from the wall and his footsteps following as expected.

  “You seek to restore your godhood? About fucking time. I shall inform lady Diana to prepare then.”

  “No,” Silvas snarled, startling his guard. He took a deep breath, fighting for balance as he gripped the hilt of his sword. No doubt Cacus was tracking her somehow and would seek to attack him when he was vulnerable in the water and his sword was away from his hand. “You will increase the guard on her chambers. She is not to go anywhere unaccompanied, and she isn’t to leave the room at all at night. Keep her there until I return.”

  He sensed Raskyuil’s frown behind him as they ascended through the halls leading toward the courtyard.

  “Forgive me for asking, but wouldn’t it be wiser to take her with you? You said that your fates were sealed together in this task… I would imagine a trip to the Pegaeae Springs would be especially important for her to accompany you.”

  “I was mistaken. She needs to be guarded and watched, far from Cacus. Keep her away,” he growled, every word sinking as a shard into his heart.

  “I see,” the troll grumbled. “And what would you like to me to do with Alseida? She was threatening Diana earlier. Even had a group of naiads with her.”

  Silvas could barely control the impulse to hunt the nymph down and eject her from his territory. Despite everything, he refused to let anyone harm her.

  He would deal with his uxorem himself.

  “See to her removal at once. She is to leave the halls and lands of Arx and never return,” he said, struggling to keep the tremor out of his voice.

  In his peripheral vision, he saw Raskyuil snap his head in acknowledgment. “Yes, lucomo. I will see to it immediately.”

  Stopping in the courtyard, Silvas turned and watched Raskyuil’s shadow depart before quickly pulling off his clothing and casting it to the ground. Reaching out with his senses, he embraced the form of a roc, letting the giant eagle flood through his mind.

  Never again would he take the form of a griffin nor crocotta. He would miss running with the clan, but he wouldn’t torture himself with the memory of her legs clasped around him and the pleasure he found with her body close to his.

  A frustrated cry left his throat as he flapped his wings and leaped into the air. Two beats of his wings and he broke through the trees, leaving the palace and his mate far behind him. It would take him half the night to travel to the spring, and he didn’t want to delay his return even for a minute.

  Chapter 32

  At high moon, Silvas descended into the silver-lit grove. The leaves of the trees, though weak and half-withered, bore testament to the beauty of this sacred place. The fountain itself was almost crystalline as it reflected the gentle light.

  Dropping beside it, he released the form of the roc, the feathers drifting away from him as he resumed his true form. He stood there upon the moss-covered rocks that lined the edges of the spring and waited, his body taut with tension. His tail flicked slowly, the only movement he allowed himself, as his eyes fixed on silvery spring that fed into a natural rock basin.

  The water rippled, and slowly a naiad, her silvery hair flowing around her shoulders, stepped out. She was radiant, the drops of water appearing as stars on her dark body as if born from the royal womb of the night, and her eyes the darkest blue of watery depths. Her gaze fell upon him as she waded into the shallower waters until naught but her sex was exposed to the air. Her naked body was supple with muscle, her breasts high and round. She was undoubtedly the most beautiful of nymphs. Her hot gaze slid down his body, lingering on every sculpted muscle. Her tongue stroked over her lips, the scent of her desire perfuming the air.

  “It has been a long time. It has been ages since I have enjoyed such a fine feast for my eyes. What brings the lucomo to my spring? Is it because you desire to lay within my arms and watch the ages pass us by?” she breathed in enticement. “Do you desire me above all things?”

  Lust spiked briefly through him in reaction to the powerful nature of the naiad, his cock swelling in reaction. A low growl broke free from his chest. He traveled too far to play her games to test his will and the true desire of his heart. His lust was a superficial reaction to the nymph’s beauty and it only served to make him ache for his mate, his entire being grieving in separation from his uxorem. His temper immediately flared to life.

  “I did not come for you, Thera, pegaeae nymph. I came to seek your spring’s divine blessing to restore us,” he growled. Lifting Nocis high, he imbedded the sword in the soft ground between the rocks in emphasis as his words rang out.

  The nymph’s flirty demeanor dropped away to be replaced by a soft smile as she stood, the lapping silvery waters flowing over and around her. Her hand stretched forward beckoningly, her voice ringing out as she addressed him.

  “Very well, Selvans,” she intoned, her voice sounding hollow and roaring as flowing water. “Approach with Nocis and return to your glory.”

  Yanking Nocis free, Silvas stepped down into the fountain’s pool, the forest quiet except for the fall of water and the gold chiming lightly from his antlers. The water was cold and biting, plunging through him as he waded deeper. With the sword outstretched, he handed to it the pegaeae. Her dark hands outstretched and took the sword.

  Stepping back from him, Thera waded deeper into the water to approach the fountainhead. Rather than rough, weathered stone, it had been carved in some past age to resemble a lion’s head, the water gushing from the opening beneath its mouth. Raising the blade laying lengthwise across her palms, a hum vibrated from her as she lifted it to the view of the heavens where the moonlight shone down through a break in the branches. A sheen ran along the length of the sword as she plunged Nocis beneath the fountain’s spray. Silver ligh
t burst from the edges of the sword where the water drops struck it.

  The nymph lowered it until it was completely submerged. The water lit up as if the moon itself was contained within the round pool. The hum became louder, deeper, as the water rippled and bounced from the epicenter. The sword, beneath the water, appeared darker, negating all light that surrounded it. This was the nature of the sword. Tendrils of miasma were pulled away, burning all the darker like the empty blackness at the center of a flame.

  When the pegaeae lifted the sword from the pool, the waters parted so fast that not even a drop remained as she turned to present it to him. She met his eye, her expression hard as she laid the sword on a cloth woven of white fleece beside the fountain. He’d not seen where it had been procured from but wasn’t surprised that she would have such necessities for attending the cleansing.

  “Nocis is restored. Beware, Selvans. Even when you are have returned to your full power, and the miasma separating you from your divinity is washed away, Nocis will be a terrible burden. It was not forged to be a companion, but to be a weapon to destroy that which threatens the cosmos. It is not evil, nor does it attempt to deceive, but by its very nature it cuts through the rational mind to lay bare the primal instincts of the one who holds it. You know this. The logic of your mind and the truth of your heart will suffer when you hold it without a counterweight. Even the darkest night is not without life as the celestial light of the multitudes of stars and the moon shines down from the vastness of the cosmos beyond.”

  He flinched as she reached and gripped his forearm in a hard grasp. She ran her fingers over the fur covering his arm, her regard intense as her eyes met his. “You are a primal being. You bring life and vitality by being a creature of death, thus you are born white, that which contains all the colors but is none. Death washes and cleanses all things, restoring all to their original state. You feed and sustain through decay, and it has kept the Eternal Forest thriving when the balance is not disturbed. That harmony has been torn away. You need to find your light so the life of the forest can thrive, but also so your nature doesn’t consume you and destruction become absolute.”

  “Riddles, Thera? Do you see yourself a vegoia now?” he asked, his jaw clenching.

  He was frustrated with his inability to understand what she spoke of. It was similar to what the goddess had spoken of to him in the mountains, which made him his entire being go still. Something tickled his awareness, but when he tried to touch it, it slipped away from his grasp.

  Silvas exhaled. “What light, and where do I find it?”

  The nymph shrugged with an apologetic smile. “Despite your accusation, I am no seer. I only know the nature of the sword through my contact with it during purification. Just as I have a glimpse of yours because you stand in my pool. Insight is not foresight. These are two different matters. It seems prudent when dealing with Nocis to warn you that you require an anchor to the world of the living.”

  “Consider your advice heeded then, as much as I can,” he said.

  A source of light to anchor him? He thought of the lamp of the infernal gatekeeper, but he doubted that Charu would offer it, not when it was bound to his mate. He hissed low between his teeth. He could inquire of Dorinda, but he already felt like time was growing short with the forest withering all around him. Even in the pegaeae’s grotto, he could see the touch of death everywhere.

  She noticed the direction of his gaze and her expression turned sad. “Yes, even here in this holy place, you can see the devastation.”

  “I will right it,” he vowed “On my oath, I will fell Cacus and restore the Eternal Forest. I can do no other. It is the purpose of my existence. If the Eternal Forest dies and takes with it all the forests of the living worlds… I don’t know what would become of me without it.”

  “I know what you would become because I see it dwelling within you,” she whispered, her body leaning toward him as if there were a secret to be shared.

  He swallowed and inclined his head. He didn’t want to know, but at the same time, he couldn’t not know. He had to consider not only how his decisions impacted the forest, but how they might affect all of existence.

  She drew closer, her breath touching the bottom of his ear. “Your destructive nature without purpose would be as a plague on all the worlds, Selvans. Everything you touch will wither and die, every place you set your feet will decay all around you. You need the Eternal Forest as much as it needs you. You know that you are inexplicably linked, and have known for ages, even if you have forgotten as mists of time clouded these memories.”

  He nodded as she drew away, her hand slipping down his arm to grip his hand in hers. Thera tugged him forward, leading to the fountainhead of the spring. She gazed up at him, a soft humming sound starting up in her throat. Standing so close to her, he could hear a second strain that had a beat to it like the song of frogs. The fall of water filled his vision as she stepped away, the silver streams inviting him to be embraced and renewed, to release that which had weighed him down for centuries.

  The water called to him even as the song of the nymph lulled his mind into peace. As her fingers unwound from his arm, he stepped forward, his hands raising in supplication. He thought of his mother, her soft smile, the first face he saw when he came into existence. Silvas saw it again as he submerged.

  It didn’t feel like water. That was his first thought. It felt like a rush of light around him. It swept over him with such force that his back bowed. Ice pricked at his skin as the water drove into him until it pervaded every part of him, stripping away that which obscured him into the form of the lucomo who held court amid the woods, washing away his memories.

  Images flashed by him, one after the other, picking up speed as power welled up within him. As the last vestiges pulled away, Selvans threw back his head and roared monstrously… and his pearl white eyes opened. The gold tumbled from his antlers, splashing into the water lapping at his hips. He stared at it blankly. There was something he should remember about that glimmer, a golden bond connecting to his soul, brighter and lovelier than any other. The thought made him wary, so he reinforced the block between him and that soul. There was a reason for it, even if he couldn’t recall it.

  The wind stirred, and he shivered.

  He needed to return to Arx.

  Rushing out of the pool, the water raised and parted before him as he charged to the shore. He bent midstride to pluck Nocis from its nest and slung it over his shoulder, its familiar weight remembered by his body. He took to the air on massive wings that sprouted at his will, no longer contained to mimicking the creatures of the forest like a silvanus.

  He was Selvans, the first of silvani, god of the wood. May the gods have mercy on whomever threatened his forest.

  Chapter 33

  Diana stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the garden. The perfume of the flowers below filled the air, and she drew in a deep breath. If she wasn’t mistaken, her sense of smell had improved. She could make out numerous notes from the strange flowers in the garden beds. In the moonlight, she could see the pale petals of the nightblooms.

  It was peaceful there, but she hadn’t been bothered by a soul since she heard the commotion of Alseida being dragged from the palace grounds. She was exiled, Diana had learned from a naiad who was tasked with bringing her meals.

  She found herself unable to rouse any sympathy for Alseida. Her field of fucks was fallow.

  The dryad hadn’t taken her exile well. By some feat, she had broken free of her escort in a final attempt to get to Diana, unaware. The sound of her body slamming against the door had been startling enough, but that was only the beginning. Alseida had clawed and pounded at the door as she fought off the guards. Diana heard every disturbing sound through the door, but they stopped abruptly when, presumably, the dryad had been hauled away.

  Diana assumed as much, judging by what she had witnessed from the balcony. The mussed nymph had been a sight as she raged and fought every step of the way, screaming
as she was hauled into the trees. It had given her no pleasure, but she had felt relieved knowing that threat had been removed. That was a small gift in the face of the turmoil gnawing at her.

  She caressed the balcony rail with one hand, gazing at the thick vines that made the railing. The garden was the only thing that preserved her sanity over the few days since she had last seen Silvas. Never had she questioned her grip on reality until she experienced the choking sensation that closed her bond to Silvas. At that moment, she could do nothing but scream. She had scraped her hands against the walls, begging for her mate in a mindless panic, begging to be released from the confines of the room that imprisoned her.

  Arx had responded immediately. The wall beneath her hand had shaken, sending her reeling, the rocks grinding as they shifted and realigned themselves. The moment she stepped outside and breathed the fresh air, her appreciation for the unique nature of Arx struck her. The palace held her and offered her what comfort and stability it could, her emptiness still crushing her from within.

  In the darkness, a spark had lit inside of her, and then another, twining through her heart. From out there in the forest, she felt a network of connections all around her, hundreds of thousands of souls touching her being. It had begun with sensing the heart of Arx itself, and then she could feel the hamadryads weeping and calling from nearby. Touch upon touch flooded through her until she felt like she was the center of the entire cosmos of life that made the Eternal Forest.

  After the initial rush they had faded back into the recesses of her mind, but, unlike Silvas, they did not desert her. They were there, dwelling inside her, if she closed her eyes and sought for the connections. And above them all was Arx glowing within her, a part of Silvas even as she carried a part of him through his vinculum marcam, connecting them together. A slight smile tugged at her lips as a spiraling vine sprung up to cling to her hand with soft caresses.