When the demons reached the girls, they grabbed them and lifted them up in the air, carrying them on their backs across the riled crowd. The girls screamed, feeling the slimy touch of boney hands on their backs. They tried to hold tight to one another but the demons pulled them apart. Their voices crying for one another were drowned in the chaos.
When the stampede reached the cluster, two giant roots reached out and wrapped their tips around the girls’ bodies like a python about to constrict its prey. The girls screamed again.
Back inside, Connor still lay on the ground, dizzy and exhausted. But the sound of his sisters’ screams stirred him to action. He leapt to his feet and retrieved his sword.
“Your sisters are in my grassssp, dear boy,” Radicle said laughing.
Connor gritted his teeth. He charged forward, ducking below a swiping root, then leaping over another. He darted left, then right, then flipped on the ground and gashed his sword across another root. Radicle shrieked.
Connor came to a sturdy wall of roots. He circled it but it was closed on every side, as if the roots had been melded together. This had to be Radicle’s last line of protection. The First Root was inside. Connor knew it. He began to hack his sword at the outer wall, screaming as he made deep gashes with each thrust. Radicle’s shrieks became more intense. It seemed these roots were more sensitive than the others and brought him more pain when thrashed. Connor could tell the roots wanted to move away but were resisting, the way a man might cling tight to a treasure.
Connor had made enough of a divot into one root that he stopped hacking and instead began to carve with his sword, slicing out a circle to squeeze through. As soon as he broke open a pocket in the wall, Radicle shrieked and the roots all thrashed out! Connor was knocked back, falling to the ground. But he jumped to his feet a second later, steadying his sword as the inner wall of roots wiggled and squirmed out like enraged snakes. Connor expected them to whip toward him, but they remained raised in the air, tremoring as if in pain and allowing him to slowly creep forward. He stepped into the very center of the cluster and looked up.
There he was—Radicle—clinging to the roof of the inner cluster like the uvula hangs down below the back of one’s throat. It was like nothing Connor had ever seen, this…thing. It appeared to be both a root but also a creature all at once. He was long and slender like the other roots, though smaller in size, and rather than being dry and firm, was covered in a kind of slime or ooze and had a spongier form. At his base, dozens of smaller roots, also soft and slimy, reached out like arms, or tentacles, and his color was that of a pinkish hue rather than a dark brown, giving him the appearance of a squid or some other sort of mysterious sea creature. From where Connor stood, he saw no face or features, and so it was not a mouth that moved when Radicle spoke but rather the small tentacles at the bottom that wiggled, as if they were the chords of his voice box.
“Ah…so you have made it before me, have you? No bother! I have your ssssisters in my grasp. Make a move toward me and I will crush their little bodies.”
“Let them go!” Connor screamed.
The tentacles squirmed and shook as Radicle laughed.
“Just like that? All you need is to ask something and I do it, is that what you think, ssssimple boy?”
“If I’m just a simple boy, why do you need to hold me at bay using threats toward my sisters? Are you afraid of me? Put them down and fight me fairly.”
Radicle’s body turned from a light pink to a deep, rich red, like when blood rushes to someone’s face. The larger roots wiggling in the air went erect and tense and slowly started to lower toward Connor.
“Careful what you assssk for,” Radicle said, the tentacles wiggling yet again. “You have made it this far, but you have no idea what you ssstand before. You and your kind have lived for too long without the knowledge of my existence. I have grown in power in accordance with your ignorance. Now, it is too late. The Counselor and your queen in the castle send a little boy to confront me at this hour of my final assault? It is inssssulting.”
As Radicle was talking, Connor had crept forward, keeping his sword held before him and crossed against his chest. He was almost directly below the First Root, gazing up into his inner guts where the tentacles wiggled.
“Yet I ssshall do as you ask,” Radicle went on. “I sssshall throw your sisters to my children for them to play with, and I sssshall put an end to this silly game we are playing.”
The roots on the outskirts of the cluster let go of Maggie and Lucy. The two girls screamed as they dropped thirty feet to the ground. Hundreds of demons leapt into the air, waiting to catch them.
At the same moment, several of the roots on the inner part of the cluster flung down toward Connor. He jumped right, then left, then ducked and rolled and jumped into the air. He steadied his right leg on one of the swiping roots and used it like a spring, pushing himself higher and toward a different root. He landed his left leg firmly on it and sprung up yet again, running along the thrashing roots like steps. Then, he took flight, hurling his body in the air. Connor screamed as he floated toward Radicle. He lifted his sword and sliced it across the top of the slimy First Root.
A shriek rang out, reverberating across the entire lair, louder than any noise Connor had ever heard. He tumbled toward the ground, yet so did Radicle, now detached from the roof. They fell beside each other. Connor grimaced as he landed harshly and tumbled forward. He struggled to his feet and pointed his sword toward Radicle, but the horrific creature was in the midst of a death curdle, thrashing about violently like a fish out of water. The tentacles shook and wiggled in vain.
Finally, he stopped and all went quiet.
Connor breathed heavy as he stared at the lifeless corpse. He questioned if he had actually done it, if he had actually killed Radicle. But as he stood there recovering from the battle, the ground suddenly began to shake.
29
THE END OF SHADOWS
The queen stood on her balcony watching her forces being overrun by the Shadow Army. Bands of demons were slaughtering her knights and scurrying up the mountain like roaches. They would be in the cave that led to the Mysteria Tree in just minutes. Meanwhile, the sinister roots were squirming like snakes toward the mountain as well. They too would slither into the cave and even tear through the stone of the mountain to strangle the sacred tree. Her Mysteria Knights waiting inside the Tabernaculum would not be able to withstand this onslaught for long.
She peered across the island at the Shadow Tree. It appeared the children had failed. Perhaps they had been captured, or even killed. Her eyes watered. The story would be lost, and this great evil would soon seep into the realm of men and women.
She decided she would have to journey into the secret chamber in the mountain where Anastasia and the villagers and her servants were hiding. She could lead them to Kristoff’s ship and get some of them on board. She would ask the Counselor to find them safe passage to a new story where they might be able to live in peace. She could at least save some of them before the Counselor withdrew his presence from this story.
But just before she turned away from the battle to run back into her throne room, a high-pitched wailing echoed over the entire island, blowing back the tops of the trees in the forest and rocking even the surrounding sea. A burst of wind swept over the village, across the battlefield, up the mountain and against her face, knocking her back.
Down on the mountainside, Revin and Sir George, some of the last of the queen’s forces still alive and fighting, stopped and gazed across the island toward the bellowing wind. Everyone else in the battle stopped as well. Suddenly, the demons of the Shadow Army screamed toward the sky. They fell to the ground, withering in pain as their skin sizzled and melted. It was as if they had been set ablaze by an invisible fire. They groaned and shrieked and gnashed their teeth until, in a matter of seconds, all of the Shadow Army had melted into the land, smoke rising from where they had once been. Meanwhile, the many roots that had been thrashing through
the air and slithering up the mountain convulsed like an animal being shocked. They began to wither, shrinking and shriveling up. They dropped to the ground and went limp like beached whales.
Revin and George looked to each other, both with sweat and blood splashed across their faces. They turned up toward the balcony. The queen’s attention was on the Shadow Tree in the distance. It started to shake and waver. Cracks of wood popped so loudly they could be heard all the way from the castle. It slowly began to lean back and eventually fell from view behind the forest with a loud crash.
The evil tree that had for so long dominated the skyline view from the queen’s castle was no more, but she felt no joy, only worry. Had the children made it out in time?
When Connor felt the ground begin to shake, he turned and ran, sifting through the many roots that had once been sturdy and powerful but now hung limp. He could easily brush by them and made it out of the cluster in less than a minute. He was surprised to see steam rising off a sticky, tar-like substance layering the ground.
His eyes darted about the chamber for his sisters.
“Connor!”
It was Maggie.
“Over here!” he heard Lucy yell.
There they were, standing on the slope of the chamber leading to one of the tunnels, waving to him. He ran through the steam as the warm glop stuck to the bottom of his feet. When he reached his sisters, the three of them embraced.
The ground began to shake more violently.
“Come on!” Connor screamed. “We have to get out of here!”
They headed up the tunnel. Behind them, the web or roots began to rip apart, popping and cracking like sticks breaking in two. The large roots of the cluster began to fall, losing their grip on the chamber ceiling. Just over their heads, the lateral roots wedged in the walls went limp as well, swooping to the ground.
The walls shook as the children sprinted up the tunnel. The torches lighting their way began to fall. Dirt and rock fell from above. It didn’t seem they would reach the surface before the tunnel crumbled in around them.
But then, there it was – sunlight pouring in from the other end!
They leapt up into the bunker and below the mound of dirt that arched over it, darting out just before it collapsed and enclosed the tunnel. The children peered up as the Shadow Tree began to tip, leaning back toward the sea. The ground cracked beneath them. Roots popped up, losing their grip on the land. Large branches broke off from the trunk and crashed all around them.
The children ran toward the forest. When they reached the tree line, they took cover in the brush and stopped to watch as the giant tree tipped over and fell from the sky, crashing across the land and into the sea, sending massive waves of water up onto the beach.
The children all looked to one another and hugged. They had done it. They had saved their father.
30
A HERO’S WELCOME
“You did it, Connor!” Lucy said, squeezing her brother’s neck. “I can’t believe you did it!”
“We all did, Goose,” Connor said, hugging them both.
The children decided not to enjoy the moment long. Though the Shadow Tree had fallen and the army of demons was no more, they did not want to spend any more time on this side of the island than they had to.
Their return trip through the forest was far different than the first. Without the threat of enemy patrols lurking in the woods or the ominous mission of confronting Radicle looming on the horizon, the children strolled casually amidst the trees, laughing and talking. They relived the scariest moments of their adventure and battle. Connor told the girls about confronting Radicle in the cluster and what he looked like, while the girls relayed their harrowing moments when they were captured by the demons and lifted up by the roots, and how all the demons melted into the ground once Radicle had been killed (Connor was none too pleased to learn their melted bodies was the glop he had run through).
They found their way back to the cave they had slept in before, bunking there for the night and sleeping much better than they had the first time they made camp there. A rustle outside woke them in the morning, but they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw it was just Revin. At the request of the queen, he had come to find them and escort them through the forest. The girls jumped up and hugged him. Connor approached Revin and shook his hand. Then, the two boys smiled and hugged.
On their trip through the trees, Connor relayed all that had happened in their descent of the Shadow Tree and his battle with Radicle, while Revin told them about his own clash with the Shadow Army. Though all of them were relieved the war was over, they each mourned the loss of so many brave knights who died defending the Mysteria Tree. Revin said their sacrifice would not be in vain, that they would journey to the next realm with the glorified crown of martyrdom, leaving behind a legacy that allowed the Mysteria Tree to keep the life-giving water flowing through its roots.
About midday, they reached the edge of the forest and entered the pasture. The whole village had gathered to welcome them with cheers and applause, forming a line for them to walk through. Everyone patted them on the back and thanked them and sang songs of triumph. The children were so overwhelmed by such a hero’s welcome that they managed few words, but they smiled and shook hands and hugged everyone as they passed by, including Clare, who bounced up and down clapping, still with little Wally on her back.
Toward the end of the path, the villagers gave way to the queen’s knights, formed in two formal lines. They raised their swords to meet at their tips, forming an arch of blades. At the end waited the queen, flanked by Sir George and Anastasia. They stood smiling and embraced the children when they reached them.
Amidst the jubilant commotion, the queen pulled them in close and whispered into their ears, “Well done, children. You have made your father and the Giver of All Things very proud.”
As they were escorted back to the castle, the children were saddened to see so much of the village destroyed. Black smoke still rose from the ashes of countless huts that had been charred by fire. The battle had taken its toll on the queen’s lands.
“Do not lose heart over this,” she told them. “We can rebuild, and we will. Destruction and conflict came to these lands and those who live here, but so long as the sacred tree rests safely below the castle, all things can be made new again.”
Hours later, the queen’s servants had prepared a glorious celebration and feast in the throne room. Tables were brought in, filled with food and drink and lined in flower arrangements. People played music and sang and danced, and all was well and merry.
Later in the evening, just as the sun began to set and bathe the top of the forest in orange light, the children walked onto the balcony to take a breather. They stood in silence watching the celebration taking place down in the village. Children ran about playing and dancing, and fireworks popped in the sky, blending with the thundering of the waterfall. Their vision stretched over the forest to the empty horizon where the shadows once loomed, but now were no more.
“Hey, who is that?” Lucy asked, pointing down the mountainside.
The children strained their eyes. A bearded man in a stark-white robe walked beside the lake, as if taking a pleasant stroll, not far from where the waterfall thundered down and met the surface of the water. It was difficult to make him out because he was so far away, but he caught their attention because his robe appeared to be glowing, radiant white like the sun. His head was drawn down, watching the surface of the water. But then he looked up the mountain, directly at the children. He stopped walking and waved, and it appeared his countenance brightened into a smile. The children waved back, feeling a mysterious happiness well up inside them. The man then continued with his stroll and eventually disappeared behind the waterfall, moving up into the inside of the mountain.
“Are you ready, children?”
They turned around. The queen smiled as the sound of the party rose from behind her shoulders.
“It is time I get you home.”<
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She reached out her two hands. The girls came and took them and Connor followed. They went back into the throne room, filing down the wall around the ruckus of the party. Just before they reached the door, the queen stopped. She nodded and motioned into the group of people dancing and laughing. Sir George, Revin, and Anastasia stood on the side. Revin and George raised their drinks and Anastasia smiled. Connor, Maggie, and Lucy waved goodbye.
The queen led them through the castle and into the Tabernaculum, grabbing a torch off the wall to light their way. As they circled the path, they gazed down into the depths, barely making out the top of the Mysteria Tree. When they reached the tunnel that took them to the sea, they broke right and followed it down. They could hear the crashing of the waves even before they reached them.
Night had fallen but the light of the full moon shone down from the black sky. Kristoff waited beside a rowboat beached on the sand.
“What will happen now?” Lucy asked the queen.
“You will board Kristoff’s ship and find the moon river,” she said over the soft roar of the torch burning in her hand. The orange flame illuminated her tender face. “He will guide you in its currents until the moon reaches its peak. Then, through the mysterious power of the Counselor, you will be carried back to your realm in the same manner in which you were brought here.”
“What about you?” Connor asked. “And everyone else on the island. Will we ever see you again?”
She smiled. “You have assured us a happy ending. We will live in peace and harmony on this island beneath the love and guidance of the Giver of All Things. One day, he will call all realms back to him, and I feel certain that our paths will cross again.”
She crouched and put the torch on the rocky bank, then placed her hands on Maggie and Connor’s shoulders, with Lucy huddled in the middle.
The Island of Two Trees Page 17