The breeze picks up as my thoughts bloom in my mind, a little in awe of the forest. Faint whispers of chimes or maybe voices travel on the breeze, and I pick them out.
“Do you hear it?” I ask.
“What?” Everyone stops as if I just raised the alarm.
“No, not a person. Something on the wind… sounds, notes… like the forest is talking.” I sound like I’m going crazy, but the breeze curls around me at my thought as if answering my question and soothing me.
“You hear the forest?” Capella repeats from behind.
“Maybe?” I say, “It’s like I feel it, too. Is that bad?”
She doesn’t answer, and Raiden looks back towards her before we start walking deeper in.
“The forest is sacred among Naturals. All Kirrasia, really, although it’s become more fit for fairy tales these days, but we still believe,” Capella starts, seemingly happy to explain all the gaps in my knowledge. “Naturals, while gifted powers from Aslendrix, believe that our power also comes from nature, the earth and the trees around us. There’s an energy within all living things, which we’re more attuned to than others. It’s how we can make things grow and prosper and heal people, amongst other things.”
Until you touch me, and I bring death.My wayward thought shocks me, my fear seizing hold and twisting my perception. My influence, my power, does that.
The trees rustle at me as if shaking their head at my thoughts, or am I now completely mad and sensing things from trees?
Capella continues, “It is thought that a Natural’s magic is returned to the earth, and in particular, the forest after they die, like a seed of knowledge and truth that they never return to Aslendrix. Over the years, it’s believed that all that power created the Jarkoreth that now guard the forest. There used to be Naturals who would watch over both the forest and the Jarkoreth like shepherds. They could talk to the forest as if it were a sentient being, but it’s been years since there was anyone who did that. They used to wear these beautiful leaf brooches, a mark of their job and skill.”
My feet stop dead, and I swing my gaze to Capella as a shiver races down my body, right into the ground beneath my feet. “What did the brooch look like?” My voice is urgent and sharp.
“Er, I’m not sure. Thin metal, shimmery green, well, not green, they’re meant to be variscite, the colour of the forest itself,infused and made here with the essence of the trees and the earth in the brooch, bearing the wearer protection and the gift to hear the forest.” She finishes with a slight shrug of her delicate shoulders as if it doesn’t matter. My blood runs cold as I picture my brooch, one of the only things I held dear, and it seems it could be from Kirrasia. I remember the markings, the fine gold edge, the knot in the stem and the green that seemed to shift and dance with light, the notes and noises I’d heard now whisper loudly,Yes, yes, yes, come…This time, there is no mistaking actual words.
“Ever, you look a little pale,” Micah states. My finger rubs over the ring on my finger.
“Micah, you’ve been in my room. Do you remember the items on the bedside? The few things I brought from Estereah?”
“Um, no?” His face contorts as if he’s trying to remember and doesn’t want to admit he paid no attention.
“Ever, what is it?” Raiden asks.
“I have a brooch. A beautiful green leaf brooch that a stranger gave me as a child. It’s been something… special to me since then.” My eyes sting with tears as I think back to the window ledge in my old room, those items the only decoration. “It’s with me here. In the training residence.”
Raiden and Capella share a sceptical look, and I read the doubt in their eyes.
“You’re a Fifth. Who knows what you can do here?” Ravi dismisses me. “Maybe it’s the Jarkoreth waking up.” He chuckles.
“Don’t say that. Nobody’s seen them for years.” Raiden rounds on Ravi. “Okay, fairy tale time is over. No more scaring Ever. We have a plan, and we need to carry it out, or we really will be finding out if the Jarkoreth still hunt at night,” I can see her smile is brittle, and my nerves clench around my gut.
thirty-eight
. . .
Ever
Raiden leads us on, further away from the river, which winds this way and that as if toying with the ground and earth around it, unable to make up its mind as to which way through the trees it wants to travel. We stray away from it and pause at a spot that looks no different to many we’ve already passed, but apparently, this one is what Raiden was looking for.
She nods to Capella, and then, together, one hand connected, they seem to still themselves and place their free hands on the ground, sinking their fingertips into the soil and mossy surface.
Slowly, green vines and other plants begin to grow, sprouting and taking shape. They weave together, forming a barrier between the spot they chose and the surrounding trees.
The foliage continues to thread together, shielding us from anyone coming from the east—the direction we’re assuming the others will attack from.
We can’t have trekked more than an hour or two, maybe a little more, so we should be safe, but if they do reach us, it won’t take much for them to sprint for their victory.
That’s the other option—defend against them reaching their finish line.
