Page 47 of Into the Heartless Wood
Strength to aid her fight
against the Eater.
My sister turns to me once more. “I will not help you again. If you value your life, you will remember that you are our mother’s monster. Go to her. Receive a new orb. Fill it up with souls you take yourself.”
“I will take no more souls. I will no longer be her monster.”
“Then you are a greater fool than even our brothers. You do not deserve the heart our mother gave you.”
My sister leaves me
in the empty wood.
I stare at twisted iron.
At the lumps in the earth
where the slaughtered men lie.
I did not kill them.
But
that
is
not
enough.
I go to the place I was born.
The ring of birches.
There are other trees here now,
growing in the place of me and my sisters.
They are tall.
Silver.
Strong.
I sit at the feet of the oldest one.
I lean back against its trunk.
I try to draw strength
from this place that usually comforts me.
But I find none.
My fingers will grow back, little by little.
I will be once more whole,
