The Witch (Dragon Eyes Book 1)

by Kristina Hlaváčková

  Then air around her exploded, while everything else imploded. The entire surface of her body emitted a shock wave. Its power slammed Michael painfully against a tree and knocked over the queen of elves, throwing her skirts and heals above her head. Under them, the earth rippled. In a fraction of a second, Elena was surrounded by the forest. The grass she was standing in suddenly reached up to her shoulders, all around her feet, creeping roots teemed, branches reached for her. Everything seemed to be trying to get to her. Nothing, however, was able to touch Elena, as if stopped by an invisible barrier. The forest began to whisper. Very quietly, at first. Sounds appeared one by one. A bird sang, an ant rustled in the leaves, a wolf howled. Slowly, the soft forest sounds began to mount up, gradually amplifying into unbearable din. Elena stood, her arms outstretched, palms towards the ground, her fingers spread, chin pressed to her chest. The omnipresent light breeze gathered from all over the woods and headed towards the girl. It smashed against the mental barrier she built around herself, and transformed into a furious storm, raging around her, tearing grass and leaves, breaking branches, grabbing the queen’s skirts, ruffling everybody’s hair.

  Elena fortified her consciousness. Hidden behind an impervious wall, she began to search. And encountered the forest. On the instant, she was surrounded by millions and trillions of miniature voices, who were all yelling, screaming, rustling, grating, growling, whistling, cheeping, hissing … at her. Everything was rushing towards her at once; every single particle of the woods surrounded her. Elena suppressed an urge to put down roots, stretch branches and overgrow with moss.

  “Who are you?” she thought and the thought vanished, as if swallowed up by a vacuum. The din around her changed, as though resonating with the voice it absorbed.

  “What do you want from me?” That question also was engulfed.

  “Who are you? What do you want from me?” Was it a voice, or just an echo? It sounded like an echo, but not of her voice.

  “You give me a headache. And it’s my head!” Anger was mounting within her. She fought not to unleash the power in her blood, but blood was beginning to boil in her veins.

  “Who are you? What do you want from me?” It was a voice.

  “I am Elena, daughter of the Berber.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “I want nothing. I don’t know who you are!” The tempest swirling around her changed. Whoever or whatever had spoken earlier was now thinking. Elena waited. And then pictures began to form in front of her eyes. She watched them appear momentarily and then vanish again.

  “You are the forest?” occurred to her suddenly. An uncertain silence followed. Something in that idea was not quite right.

  “You-all are the forest?” she tried to correct herself. After a long period of very noisy variation on silence, Elena’s surroundings began to vibrate with:

  “ForestForestForestForestForestForestForestForestForestForest…”

  The storm raging around Elena, was now so outspread it reached the village. It knocked things over, broke flowers, and grabbed everything that stood in its way and could be carried. Confused, their clothes flapping around their legs, hair billowing wildly, the elves were running around, trying find something to hold on to so they too would not be swept away.

  The forest? Forests can’t have a consciousness! This was not going to work. Very carefully, only slightly, bit by bit, she began to unfocus her concentration on the opponent consciousness. Shapes began to emerge around her. The mist enclosing her began to evolve into clear, almost sharp contours. Elena was standing in the middle of a forest. No, she was stuck knee deep in it. And the woods were trying to devour her. She could taste earth and sap in her mouth. Suddenly, everything was beginning to make sense. Words would not suffice in this dialogue; the world around her was swarming with pictures. And the forest was curious. It did not like Elena’s closed, protected mind. It examined, probed and poked, trying to find out what was that weird creature reeking of fire. The forest was afraid.

  Thinking about it later on, she might have called it a dialogue. That is, if she had to name the mishmash of visions, pictures, feelings, leaves, bark, feathers, and other organically and inorganically unreal splinters, she would call it a dialogue. Leaving aside the fact that it was totally untranslatable the translation would be as follows: Elena was a weird element who found herself in the woods, and had no idea what was happening. She reeked of fire. It was inside her. And the forest was, logically, afraid of the blaze. The fact that the strange fiery something resisted the forest’s inquiries, advanced the forest’s fears. The more the forest probed, the more Elena’s head throbbed making her resist that much more, causing the forest’s fear to grow even further. It took quite a while before the two of them cleared things up. Well, Elena saw the millions and trillions of elements forming an organized chaos as one entity. And the two of them truly cleared things up. To the satisfaction of both. Elena’s head stopped throbbing. The air around her exploded, the rest of the world imploded.

  The storm dropped. Suddenly, there was silence. No, it was not really silence. The forest was whispering to itself as it had always done, as if nothing what so ever had happened. A few broken vases and overturned chairs were the only signs of the raging storm. Stunned and confused, the elves were picking themselves off the ground, peeking out from the shelter of their dwellings.

  Swaying a little, Elena stood in the middle of a grass covered crater. Careful not to lose her balance, she lowered her arms to her sides, and lifted her head. She would have really appreciated to stop feeling like embedding roots.

  “Ouch!” Her ankle exploded with pain. A brown pygmy was jumping on her instep, kicking her ankle furiously, cussing something awful. She could have sworn he wore hobnailed boots. Bending over, she picked him up by the collar and lifted him to eye-level. Which turned out to be a really stupid idea.

  “Ney! Bugrid! Gammer!” screeched the pygmy and kicked her nose with the hobnailed boot so hard that a bunch of stars erupted in front of her eyes. She yelped and dropped him. He was running even before he hit the ground. There was a quiet whoosh and the pygmy was gone.

  “What was that?” she wondered dully.

  “I am the one who should be asking that,” replied the queen with her back rigid, a dignified look on her face, and her previously perfect hair in complete disarray.

  “It was a tiny brown chap with a bald head and hobnailed boots,” Elena held to her own, swaying dangerously like a tree in strong wind. The queen stared at her severely. Elena focused her eyes on the elf; still feeling that she was embedding roots and that she had leaves rustling in the breeze. And then there were her eyes. They were not yet fully human. From the height of an almost nine-year-old girl, a quite confused and very angry dragon was glaring at the queen of elves. He was overgrown with grass up to his knees. The forest around them pretended nothing had happened.

  “I demand an explanation!” Alivan commanded.

  “I’m knee deep in grass,” Elena murmured and once more tried to focus on Alivan. This was a dire mistake, because the world swiveled around with her. Her eyes rolled skyward. Straight as a plank, she toppled over to Alivan’s feet. Had the forest had a voice, it would have whispered: oops!

  When Elena woke up in the morning, her head no longer ached.

  “Finally! Ya’ scared me to death!” Michael snapped lightly at her.

  “Good morning to you too,” she greeted him, uncomprehending his mood.

  “Ya’re in hell of a lot of trouble!” Michael proclaimed. Elena sat up on her bed and tried to make some sense of things. She could not.

  “Why? Cause I got kicked by a skinny pygmy with hobnailed boots?” For a moment Michael stared at her dully. Sharing his absolute confusion, she returned his look.

  “Cause ya’ blew up the entire forest to pieces, that’s why. And why do ya’ talk like me?” he managed finally. Elena raised her eyebrows and after a moment got up and padded to the window to look outside, where everything a
ppeared as neat and undisturbed as ever.

  “You’re kidding,” she accused him. And so, Michael described everything that had happened around her yesterday. Listening to him attentively, Elena hunted around for food and ate everything she could find. She was so hungry she felt as if she had not eaten in a week.

  “How can ya’ not remember a crazy storm raging around ya’?” Michael was bewildered. Elena shrugged. And then told him what had happened from her point of view. Öron walked into the middle of her narrative. Michael mumbled something about that guy sticking his ugly nose into everything.

  “The Queen is awaiting you,” the elf announced. Elena decided to finish eating what was in her mouth and then bowed both men out of her room. Quickly, she washed and dressed, needing time to collect her thoughts. At least her head was not throbbing any more, which was quite a relief. Thinking it must have been some kind of a record for her to stay out of trouble for more than two weeks, she grinned at her reflection in the mirror.

  Elena entered the room. Indeed, the Queen was expecting her and definitely did not look like a nice grandaunt. Michael stood so close behind Elena, he was within arm’s reach. Impatience hidden behind a neutral expression the Queen watched her grandniece bow, holding strictly to protocol. Protocol over and done with, Elena stood on slightly spread legs, her hands folded behind her back, her chin lifted high. Her neutral expression seemed to be the mirror reflection of the look on the face of the queen. Both women studied each other. Both tried to guess their chances, and the intentions of the other one.

  “I demand an explanation!” Alivan broke the prolonged silence. Elena stared. She would have been a lot happier had someone explained things to her instead. So, she was silent. Was she imagining it, or was the queen furious?

  “My people offered you a home and extended their knowledge and skills to you, and this is how you repay us? By endangering us all? I demand an explanation!” The Queen spoke in a voice so icy it was a miracle the water in the nearby jug did not freeze.

  “I am not sure what happened, your majesty,” Elena spoke, thinking feverishly to figure out what to say.

  “You tried to destroy the forest and us with it!” hissed Alivan.

  “With all due respect, your highness, I seriously doubt it was me,” said Elena calmly.

  The Queen stood up. “Who then, pray?”

  Elena wanted to answer, that it was the forest, but even to her, that sounded lame. How much did the Queen really know? Elena took a deep breath. She needed to come forth with a much better explanation than just: it wasn’t me, it was the forest.

  “From the moment I stepped onto your turf, something, or someone, was trying to penetrate my mind. It was giving me an unbearable headache, so I finally decided enough was enough and I tried to find out who it was.”

  “Is that why you were trying to blow the forest to pieces?”

  Yes, the Queen was angry. Really angry!

  “That was definitely not my intention. I simply wanted to find out who was trying to drive me crazy.”

  “And did you?” This time, malice and utter disbelief were almost palpable in Alivan’s voice.

  “Maybe. It was the forest,” Elena answered cautiously. “I don’ think I caused the storm, I think it was the forest.”

  The Queen stared at her. Michael stared at the Queen. And Alivan was furious. That, at least, was quite obvious.

  “You can’t seriously believe I would be capable of such … power,” said Elena before going silent for a moment. Then she mumbled: “Besides, had it been me, it would be a lot messier. Who else but the forest, would put in so much effort to erase all the evidence of the event?” This conversation was getting more absurd by the minute. Thinking about it, all her arguments sounded kind of stupid. But they were true nevertheless.

  “Let me see if I follow you correctly. The forest was trying to get into your mind.” Alivan’s voice was icy.

  “Yes.”

  “Why, pray, would it do something like that?”

  “I did not appeal to it. I smell of fire.” Suddenly, there was silence. Alivan gave the child a penetrating look. Standing there to attention, Elena was obviously convinced of her truth. And something Elena had said began to worry the queen of elves.

  “What did the mind look like?” she demanded after a moment of thought.

  “What?” Elena was confused.

  “You talk about a mind of the forest. What did it look like?” repeated the queen.

  Elena frowned, silently pondering her answer. “Could there be something like a collective mind?” she asked finally, causing the queen’s face to stiffen, but otherwise, there was no response. Alivan waited.

  “I’m not sure how to describe it. It was quite unlike any other mind I’ve ever seen. Maybe you could say it looked like a mosaic formed by a huge number of splinters, tiny bits put together into a shape?”

  Silence. No reaction whatsoever. The elf watched her grandniece thoughtfully.

  “It was like everything living in the forest was thinking at once, thinking the same thing. Trees, plants, animals, insects, maybe even the earth, everything.” Elena tried to explain further, but stopped, unnerved by the silence. Couldn’t Alivan start yelling or something? Get angry, perhaps? Something, anything, to please break the creepy silence! Elena detested that silence. It was a tactics often used by her parents, but Alivn’s was slightly different. There was no way of telling what was going on in the Queen’s mind. Elena’s only meaningful defense was to hush herself. Behind her, Michael shuffled his feet nervously.

  The unnerving quiet went on. And on. And on. Alivan sat down again. Elena stood facing her, trying not to fidget. Seconds went by. Followed by minutes. Thinking about it later, Michael had to admit, it was quite an achievement on Elena’s side.

  “Who told you about the mind of the forest?” Alivan spoke suddenly.

  “No one.”

  “Have you any idea how big this forest is?”

  “Huge?”

  “You could put it like that, yes. Should the mind of the forest be as you describe it, it too would have to be adequately large,” Alivan exclaimed. Elena nodded.

  “Do you expect me to believe, that you, a mere human child, were able to withstand such power?” snapped Alivan. In response, Elena frowned at her.

  “So you do know the forest has a mind,” she declared. It was not a question.

  “Yes.”

  “So why don’t you ask it?”

  “I beg your pardon?” This conversation was not going the way the elf had expected.

  “Why don’t you just ask the forest?” Elena persisted. Silence. Again. And Elena ran out of patience.

  “I have no idea what happened. I just know I had a terrible headache. My brain felt like it was going to burst. That mind was different from anything I’ve ever encountered. So I created a protective bubble around myself and tried to see who it was. And the forest tried to see who I was. So we lay our cards on the table. End of story.”

  “It is very hard to believe that an eight-year-old human child would be able to withstand the power of the forest,” the queen commented icily and Elena shrugged.

  “That, probably is why it is so much easier to believe I managed to create a raging storm, that happened not to leave a single trace on the forest,” Elena blurted out sarcastically. Michael standing behind her, gasped. She was bold. Too bold, heading straight towards being impertinent. She just could not keep the spite out of her tone. But even more surprising was the fact that the elf did not react to it. Alivan was thinking. This argument, actually, had something to it.

  Once again, silence fell. The forest was listening. Alivan tried to listen to the forest.

  “That will be all,” commanded the Queen, releasing Elena from the audience with a flick of her hand. Elena raised her eyebrows. What? Just like that? First, she accuses me of lying and then she just waves me off like a fly? In an instant, all this flew through Elena’s brain. Seeing that the girl was not going t
o move, Michael touched her shoulder. No matter how much she felt like it, there was no sense in throwing a fit. Blast! Grandaunt! Elena spun on her heal and, followed by Michael, marched out of the room. Failon awaited them outside. Now him? Blast! As if it had not been enough!

  For a very long time, Alivan sat silent, thinking.

  “THAT WAS MOST INTERESTING.” She heard Ashrack speak in her mind.

  “What do you make of it?”

  “SHE SPOKE THE TRUTH.”

  “That is not possible.”

  “YOU SAW IT YOURSELF.”

  “I am not sure of what I saw.” Alivan strived to keep impatience out of her thoughts. The dragon did not answer, letting her think.

  “No one, not even the elves can communicate with the forest the way she described.”

  “YOUR PEOPLE READ THE PLANTS, ANIMALS AND TREES, THE FOREST SPEAKS TO YOU, WHY SHOULD IT NOT SPEAK TO HER?”

  “She is but a child. Even for a human, she is extremely young. Her head would have exploded.”

  “SHE IS NOT JUST A HUMAN. IT IS ALSO THE BLOOD OF MY KIN AND YOURS THAT RUNS THROUGH HER VEINS.”

  “That would mean her powers are greater than we had anticipated.”

  “IT ONLY HAS ASPECTS WE HAD NOT ANTICIPATED. SHE CAN SENSE THE FOREST, JUST AS SHE CAN SENSE ANY OTHER LIVING CREATURE,” Ashrack disagreed. This time, it was Alivan’s turn to lapse into silence. Sensing something and understanding it, were two, completely different things.

  “THAT, PRECISELY, IS WHY I ASKED YOU TO LET HER LEARN FROM THE ELVES, THAT IS WHY I WILL ALLOW MY FOLK TO TEACH HER.”

  “She is dangerous.”

  “SHE SHALL NOT BE, IF WE TEACH HER.” Ashrack was becoming impatient. This conversation was heading towards topics that had long been discussed and decided. For him, the matter was settled.

  “You then are convinced she speaks the truth?” Alivan prompted.