Forest of Spirits

by S. J. Sanders

  He snorted in disbelief, his brow drawing down into an impatient glower. “One that I don’t recognize nor remember, and one who somehow survived Cacus’s attack.”

  “You are still thinking of her in terms of what a human can survive based on her appearance. She may have entered the world as a human, but bonding with you changed her to who she was destined to be. You saw for yourself her power. Do you think that it wouldn’t rise to protect her in an emergency? Or that those in the villages near your palace would have survived if her instinctive defenses hadn’t destroyed that creature’s tainted pets that he set loose upon your people?”

  “I don’t know,” he growled. Turan threw her arms up in the air.

  “Stubborn,” she snarled, the elegant lines of her face contorting into a fearsome form, revealing the terrible strength beneath the beauty of the goddess. An angry growl rolled through her, but just as quickly it disappeared, and she peered over at him evenly though her posture was rigid with disapproval. “Even your warrish brother who enraged men into battles for their adoration had to bond to the female who was his soul. Despite your snarking about Eru, he too required my intervention. That did not make his bonds any less true. Why, if I had never set the obstacles before his bride, he likely would not have united with her and would have circled around her helplessly as she cycled through numerous lifetimes more.”

  “I am sure that they recall it the same way,” he said dryly.

  She waved a hand and made a small, irate noise. “Children are never grateful for the best efforts of their parents. But yes, they know the purpose for my interference and that there’s reason to my methods.”

  “Of course, you would claim such after all was said and done, regardless of what suffering she had to endure to ensure their bond,” he said sourly.

  “I give up!” she huffed with an expressive wave of her hands. “Fine, chase your tail while what is left of your forest slowly withers away without you. I did my best to point you in the right direction, but even I know that sometimes children must work it out for themselves. A word of advice: follow your heart, and your instinct. They will guide you, and ultimately bring you home.”

  His jaw hardened as he looked away. Females, bonding, and sentimental platitudes did not help his situation. He snorted. Use his instinct… It wasn’t as if he were not utilizing his instinct. It aided him in his hunt as much as it could, and it wasn’t being particularly useful. As for his heart? He rolled his eyes. Leave it to his mother to be concerned about sentimentalities and bonding over very real concerns like the fate of the cosmos. Although his earlier memories were still shady from the expanse of time, he knew very well that she’d been pestering him for ages about finding his uxorem, even before the war with the Tainted Ones.

  A low sigh drifted to him as he felt her come up beside him, her presence warm like the sun. “Despite your suspicious, stubborn nature, I do love you. Please heed my words. You will not succeed otherwise.”

  A waft of her scent surrounded him as lips lightly brushed his cheek. He turned his head, but a warm breeze whipped by him and Turan was gone, leaving him alone once again. The fountain at his side was silent and the water was absent without even a drop glistening from its basin. Even the doves had vanished in the breath of a moment. Desolated silence was once more his only companion.

  Taking one last look around what had once been a city park, Selvans debated whether or not he should continue his hunt through the city. His mother’s concern was touching, but the hunt drove him. He had hoped that he would find some clue here. There were many places that prey could hide within the human underground systems. His nostrils flared as he scented the air, turning his face toward a sudden breeze.

  Nothing.

  No. It was time to move on.

  Chapter 39

  December

  Light snow fell outside the tavern, and Diana watched it wistfully. Their part of the country never got much snow, so the sight of it always seemed a bit more magical, especially as the winter holidays neared. The trees stood as silent sentinels against the winter sky, their boughs laden with snow. Though the sight was beautiful, she missed the soft murmur of the hamadryads that, as Silvas had once promised, had roused near her cabin. All throughout the summer, they had been one link to her life in the Eternal Forest.

  A few times, she was tempted to use the flute Aquilo gave her to see if she could coax Zephyr, the warm wind of spring, to arrive earlier, but it seemed wrong to change the season just to suit her needs.

  Sadly, summer passed too quickly for her liking. Although she had spent much of her days outside gardening and occasionally hunting, it just hadn’t been enough time. She had watched as her new friends had become increasingly sluggish until finally, one day, they slept. Now she was alone. She didn’t dare to spend too much time with anyone. During the summer she had discouraged visitors to protect the hamadryads from the foolish actions of frightened people. Now, however, there was another reason to avoid human contact. Someone was bound to notice a very significant difference in her. And not just the fact that her deep summer tan had failed to lighten with the wane of summer or that she had a barely perceptible fuzz covering her in a soft suede that seemed to be getting darker as the weeks passed.

  She had a tail.

  She kept it discretely tucked into her pants to the best of her ability, but she was afraid that someone would notice if she moved or bent wrong. It was not that she expected that someone was always ogling her ass, but one never knew. Her tail was hard to miss and had grown in overnight while she’d been enjoying the most wonderfully erotic dream in which she was still in that cave on the mountain with her mate. It had been a surprise, and her screaming and snapping it around caused quite a bit of damage before she got control of it. It had taken days to learn how to hold her tail and when to tuck her tail in against her leg, but she quickly gained an appreciation for it.

  For one, unlike a lion’s tail, which it resembled, it was prehensile. She was able to grip with it. After a few trial and error disasters, she appreciated having an extra “hand” to help her out. It was long and sinuous, tipped with the softest fluff that was longer than the length of her hand from wrist to fingertips. It was even longer and more luxurious than Silvas’s tail, and that privately sparked an odd sort of pride within her. She almost wished that he were around so she could show it off. Paired with the fact that her ears were developing long pointed tips at the ends, she simply no longer looked normal. She had all fall to get used to her new features, but with the onset of winter and the more apt people were to get cozy with each other and crowd in closer indoors, it made her all the warier in town or socializing.

  Aside from wearing long, bulky coats to disguise any peculiar bulges in her pants, she kept her ears covered the best she could with hats or hoods on the rare occasions, such as today, when she ventured into town. It was uncomfortable, but a necessity. She had long become accustomed to the odd looks from other patrons of the market and tavern. She didn’t care what they thought of her so long as she got enough in trade with her barter to acquire the basic goods that she required. Even if she hadn’t lost her position at the tavern, she would have had to quit by now… No great hardship though, aside from the rations of food that she no longer had access to.

  She frowned down at her bowl of stew. She hadn’t gotten anywhere near the trade credits she had hoped for the preserves and hides she brought to town. With supplies getting tighter, the value was reduced by half in trade credit. Soon she was going to have to kiss some of her luxuries like salt and sugar goodbye. She wondered if she could find a book on beekeeping at the open library.

  “I’m telling you that I’m going to half to replant some fruit trees come spring. A blight took a good portion of my orchard this fall,” a rough voice groused behind her. Diana’s newly flexible ears turned beneath her hood toward the speaker with interest. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The fruit withered before we even had a chance to pick it. Nearly a quarter of t
he crop gone.”

  His companion grunted, the silverware clinking as they ate.

  “Must be the same shit that’s killing the trees in the woods near my place,” the other man said. “They just up and lost all their leaves one day, trees rotting until all that’s left are husks. We went and cleared out a bunch of them hoping to preserve the woods. Not sure if it helped. It certainly hasn’t done us any favor for catching game. Hunting has been poor all autumn, and there’s nothing to be found living in my neck of the woods. I’ve been finding carcasses rotting out in the sun like they just keeled over where they stood. Got to face the fact that the entire forest appears to be dying.”

  The spoon slipped out of Diana’s hand, clanking against the side of the bowl, stew splashing on the table. Her breath caught in her lungs as she stilled, listening in on the conversation. The fur on her body prickled as if an electric current ran through it. It was starting already. She had been warned, but she had naively believed that she would have more time before they started seeing the effects of it in the human world.

  “Might be a good thing considering the way it expanded with the mists. Maybe it’s just nature correcting itself.”

  “Maybe, but damned if it isn’t the eeriest of things. Everywhere I go in the woods just reeks of death. Come spring I may just work on developing some of the nearby land for crops. If the forest does die away, I can’t risk my family going hungry. We’re managing with our small number of livestock and the chickens. I think this is just it for the forest.”

  “Good riddance. That place is evil since the mists took it. Grow the crops, just stay clear of planting orchards would be my advice. We’ll all be better off when that evil place dies.”

  Diana forced herself to her feet, her body trembling uncontrollably. She was seized with the need to see to the trees around her home. She hadn’t checked them closely since the onset of autumn when the hamadryads had settled down for their slumber. She needed to take another look and make certain that the sickness hadn’t reached her corner of the forest yet. She had to get out of there.

  “Are you okay, Di?” the waitress asked, glancing up from the men she was serving.

  Diana nodded in her head in a jerky fashion and stumbled back away from the table, her fingers wrapping around her sack. “Yeah, I’m fine Stace—just not feeling well today. Perhaps best to head home and get some rest.”

  Stacy pursed her lips. “I don’t blame you. Winter has been rough on all of us since the ravaging, perhaps more so this year than before. You get plenty of rest and I’ll catch up with you when you’re next in town.” She hesitated. “It’s been a while. Everyone is worried about you.”

  “Sure,” Diana mumbled as she buttoned up her heavy winter coat and pulled on her thick wool gloves. She had no intention of getting cozy with her childhood friend or anyone else. Not after the majority of the people in town had applauded when a troll had been beheaded when he stopped in to trade for supplies the month prior. In retrospect, she was thankful that Raskyuil had slipped away when he did.

  Throwing her sack of goods over her shoulder, she hustled out of the warm building into the snow. Although she was well bundled up like everyone else, the cold barely affected her even though she could see her breath fogging the air. Standing there at the entrance of the tavern, she scanned the street and grimaced as she saw Devlin, her latest and most persistent “suitor.” There was hardly a week that went by without him visiting at least once. She didn’t want to risk him seeing her.

  Dropping her head, Diana adopted the forward momentum of the winter shuffle, her body drawn into itself as she slogged through the snow in a far less graceful manner than how she had walked when she arrived earlier that afternoon. As anticipated, he looked right past her as he hustled to the tavern, whether to catch a warm meal or because he had caught word that she was there and was hoping to intercept her, she didn’t know.

  Muttering a thanks to the gods under her breath, she quickened her pace, her strides becoming longer and lighter as she left the town behind her. Not for the first time she dwelled on just how much easier her life would be if she had brought Keena with her. Not that the townspeople would have allowed the crocotta to live among them. Diana predicted that in a few years, they weren’t going to have much of choice as the beings of the other worlds flooded in to share this plane of existence. She had no doubt that she would be around to see that day.

  Diana squinted against the falling snow and sighed to herself. She was already making peace with the fact that she wouldn’t be able to stay forever. Not if she wanted to have any peace. Her world was nothing like the Eternal Forest. No one would accept that she wouldn’t age, and while she had serious doubts that they would be able to kill her, she knew that it didn’t mean that they couldn’t make life uncomfortable or even painful for her. She would stay for as long as it was safe, then she would pay her final respects to her family and move on.

  She debated perhaps just departing into the forest. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out that the resident spirits didn’t challenge her presence. The first time she’d seen the silvanus that guarded her wood they had both been surprised. Fear had raced through her, facing the male who had stepped out unexpectedly from behind a tree, and for a moment had regretted the fact that Anola remained stored in a trunk in the cabin rather than carried strapped to her.

  Thankfully, Anola hadn’t been needed. The silvanus had bowed low, his twisted horns scraping the earth as he solemnly addressed her as ati. It had been an embarrassing moment, but he not only gave her wide berth when she entered his forest, he often ventured to her home to leave wild game at her steps when the days were particularly brutal.

  She wondered if she would have the same reception everywhere she traveled.

  As she passed a small copse of trees a movement in the snow caught her attention, breaking her from her ruminations. A shadow slipped from behind the trees. Familiar dark antlers branched regally, and the two arcs of his new horns that had sprouted recently betrayed his identity. His body was just as tall and beautifully formed as it had ever been, a long fur cape wrapped around him, his hair stirring in the light wind. Ears tipped toward her, his glowing eyes haunting as he watched her, his lips parting with confusion.

  Instinctively she reached for their bond and encountered the same emptiness that she had discovered every time she sought him over the months. Nothing had changed. Her heart lurched painfully, and she turned away, pretending that she didn’t see him. He still didn’t remember her. He was just as surprised to encounter her as she was to see him.

  She shook her head. What was Silvas doing here?

  Her heart, which rarely stirred with any sort of excitement or stress anymore, picked up its beat, pulsing through her as she rushed forward through the snow at a rapid clip. She did not run. It was stupid to run from a natural-born predator, even a divine one like the lucomo silvani. Even though she didn’t hear his steps or even the exhalation of his breath, she knew that he was trailing after her at a distance.

  That he wasn’t running up to her gave her a small measure of reassurance. He wasn’t attacking. He was watching and following her like just like one of her pesky want-to-be boyfriends. Couching his pursuit in those terms helped relaxed her more. It was nothing she couldn’t handle. If she ignored him long enough, he would just go away.

  A confident smile pulling at her lips, she settled in an easier lope as she crossed the wide, open grounds between town and her home. She felt his eyes on her, but she was no longer concerned. No doubt he would follow her all the way to her home. Well, she would just continue to pretend that she didn’t notice him until he got bored and went on with his hunt.

  A short time later, she was safely nestled in her cabin, sipping the last portion she had of hot cocoa that she had meticulously managed to stretch since the ravaging. It felt like a night that called for cocoa. Outside, she could hear the whistle of the wind picking up as she settled deeper into her crocheted blanket with a worn b
ook in hand. She only got up to stir the coals back to life before settling comfortably into her chair again.

  If she glanced out of the window by chance a time or two, she hadn’t noticed anything out of place or unusual. If it weren’t for the fact that she felt watched, she would have believed that he had left. It was only late into the night that she felt his absence. Strangely, it made her heart ache.

  Chapter 40

  Selvans watched the female picking her way through the snow around her house tending to her regular routine. After weeks driven nearly to madness by the pull of his instinct, he had been surprised to scent someone familiar.

  Diana.

  He had scarcely believed it and had followed his nose until he came across a bundled figure moving as lightly as a silvanus through the snow. He thought to stalk after her and follow her unseen for a time, but to his surprise she had stiffened and turned, glowing blue-green eyes piercing the distance. If there had been any doubt that she was no longer human, that alert, luminous stare had confirmed it.

  Initially, he had debated on turning away and leaving, but he had been unable to. Instead, he had found himself following her to her dwelling where he shadowed it until he found an appropriate spot to make his nest in a large tree overlooking her home. Settled there, he was able to observe the activity in his newly claimed territory comfortably at his leisure.

  At first, it bewildered him that she ignored his presence, but as the days passed, it turned to frustration and then anger. How dare she ignore him! She was the unasked-for presence in his life, and she pretended like she didn’t even notice the lack of him when the only time he felt any measure of peace was now that he was by her side. It was infuriating, and it was oddly amusing and admirable watching the female move about her daily life as if their threads in the weave of fate had never touched.

  Sometimes, though, he was certain that her eyes strayed to his nest when he wasn’t intentionally concealing himself from her awareness—she was still a young immortal after all. He would catch her gaze turn toward him, and slowly it would light up as if she were reluctant to allow her true nature to shine through. After nearly two weeks of trailing her in her daily work, in her hunt through the woods and her ventures to town, he fell upon the reason. She was pretending to be human.