Page 139 of Into the Heartless Wood
There is pity in her face.
I say: “Please. Please help me.”
For a moment I think she will.
I feel her heart,
reaching out to mine.
But she shakes her head, and a cold wind rattles the leaves in her hair. “You brought this upon yourself, little sister. If you cannot bear it, that is not my fault.”
She slips back into the wood.
I am once more
alone.
But the briars loosen, more than they have since my mother bound me.
I sag to the ground, dig my hands into the earth.
I reach out for the wood; I call to the trees.Help me,I plead.Rise against her.
But the trees
do not listen.
They belong wholly,
irrevocably,
to her.
I reach out for my brothers, in their wild dwelling place far away.Cangen, Criafol, Pren. Help me stop her. Please.
But my brothers do not come.
I reach out for Owen, but I cannot find him. He is far from the wood.
The sun rises and sets
again and again.
My mother and sisters do not come to me,
but I do not dare to think
I have been forgotten.
The briars yet bind me to the heartless tree,
choking away my power.
I cannot get free of them.
The wood grows day by day.
I can sense it
