Page 147 of Into the Heartless Wood
my monstrous body
still clings to.
The wood marches on and on.
We come to a village. The trees rip the buildings apart,
stone
by
stone.
The humans run from us, screaming.
My sisters lure them back with their song.
I am powerless to stop them.
They laugh as they kill, as bones break and blood drenches the ground.
They fill their orbs with souls. The earth swallows the bodies.
And then there is nothing of the village left
save dust.
My mother watches all from atop the heartless lion.
When the slaughter is over, my sisters come and kneel before her, offering their orbs.
My mother cracks them open one by one.
She drinks the souls.
Gorges herself.
She commands my sisters: “Go. The Eater and his army ride to meet us. He dares to think he can prevail against my wood. Show him he is wrong. Kill his soldiers. Kill themall,save the Eater alone.”
My sisters bow. Then they are gone into the trees.
My mother laughs. She throws back her head and sings to the sky,
and her song
is even more beautiful
and terrible
than she is.
And then
she turns
to me.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
