Chapter 9 #2
He imagined Emperor Otto—whose towering ego had always been so paradoxically fragile—hearing any such stories spread about the might of his Imperial high general …
… And Gerard’s shoulders relaxed as certainty filled him.
Setting aside his mug, he brushed his hands briskly against his trousers to remove the last of the venison’s grease.
Then he strode towards his starting position by Lorelei’s side with the same focused determination that had transformed him from the weakest member of his boarding school to the head of the Serafin Empire’s armies.
This time, he and Lorelei were directed to line up on the field beside four other partnerships who had successfully completed all of their own earlier challenges.
The pair of hobgoblins wasn’t there, but the others—ranging from tall and haughty fae archers to red-capped gnomes with long, curving dark claws and dagger-like teeth—would all be worthy opponents.
Gerard lowered his chin in a respectful nod to his competitors, and even the high fae gravely returned the action as their glinting green gazes swept across him in speculation.
Lorelei, of course, gave them all a jaunty wave, scattering colorful glitter through the air with her usual abandon. “Good luck, darlings! We will truly hate to beat you.”
At that, the closest gnome snorted, her leathery lips pulling back into a grin of amusement. “Good luck, Princess.”
“You’ll need it!” added her partner with cheerful malice.
Lorelei’s bright expression dimmed. “‘Queen,’” she corrected them softly. “Not ‘princess’ here anymore.”
Gerard’s eyebrows rose at the echo of old pain in her voice.
A high, haunting hunting horn sounded in the air before he could ask any questions. The world whirled around him and the grassy field fell away beneath him for a moment that felt endless …
And then sticks and leaves crunched under his feet with the force of his landing. Head spinning, he straightened slowly from his first, instinctive crouch, inspecting the thick forest that now surrounded them. Beside him, he sensed Lorelei doing the same, her figure turned tense and wary.
The others were all gone … and this felt nothing like the forest he and Lorelei had walked through earlier on their way to the tournament.
Here, the trees loomed over them with knotted trunks and tangled branches.
The leaves that formed a choking canopy above were so dark that they looked nearly black, and they glistened with an unpleasant-looking moisture.
The knots in the trees merely looked misshapen when inspected full-on, but from the corners of Gerard’s eyes, they seemed to take on nearly human faces with sinister, gloating expressions.
No birdsong or buzz of insects cheered this ominous silence. It hung around them like a shroud. Waiting.
Turning, he met Lorelei’s gaze. She pressed her lips firmly together. He nodded in perfect understanding.
Neither of them would speak out loud to alert whatever menace awaited them.
Wordlessly, he gestured at the scene around them and raised his eyebrows. She shook her head.
Unlike some of their earlier trials, this was no simple illusion meant only to be broken—at least, not until they had first successfully completed the challenge that lay within.
But as for what that might be …
Without any instructions, they would have to use their wits to divine what was expected of them.
Lorelei was already scanning the thick canopy overhead, her eyebrows furrowed with concentration.
Gerard turned his attention to the twisted trunks of the trees nearby, and to those oddly shaped knots along their sides, which looked like no natural configuration.
His first instinct had been to wince away from the sight of them when viewed sidelong—as any human would if they glimpsed a shadowy hint of impossible faces leering at them in the dark. They would reassure themselves that it was only their imaginations at work.
But Gerard was standing in a world where his own imagination couldn’t compare to fae reality—and he had learned as a child never to cower away from nightmares.
Holding himself perfectly still, he focused all of his attention on the bulbous knots in the trees to either side of him, allowing those sinister faces to take on clearly defined shapes and detail in the corners of his vision.
Noses twitched. Teeth gnashed with threat. Long, black tongues licked out as if to taste his scent. A whole variety of furious, intimidating expressions played out across all the different lurking faces …
But as he kept himself still and unmoving, every one of their eerie gazes swiveled in the same direction.
Gerard turned as carefully and as quietly as he could.
A giant, twisted old oak splayed its massive trunk—at least twice the width of Gerard’s own substantial shoulders—across the forest floor before him. It was closely flanked by two smaller trees that leaned heavily against it, both of them wound about in chains of poison ivy.
In the trunk of that great oak, centered at the level of his heart, was a large, ominously gaping hole. Inside it, all he could glimpse was utter blackness.
Who knew what kind of venomous creature might be lurking inside, only waiting to lunge when disturbed?
Scooping up a long, fallen stick from the ground, Gerard crossed the space with two careful, quiet strides, and—bracing himself—levered the tip of the stick cautiously into the hole.
No resistance met his movement. Even as he stepped forward, closer and closer until he was peering directly into it, he couldn’t see a single hint of life within the darkness—and the stick moved easily through it until only his own hand remained safe outside.
The back of the tree was nowhere to be found.
Turning back, he gestured to catch Lorelei’s attention.
She had been kneeling down, inspecting a pile of fallen acorns, but her eyes widened as he pointed to the oak, and she jumped to her feet to hurry over.
Tipping her head close against the tree’s bark, she inhaled deeply …
and then she grinned in a sudden, delighted flash of mischief that seemed to light up the whole gloomy clearing.
Lifting her chin with perfect confidence, she stepped directly into the trunk of the tree.
As her bare foot hit bark, she disappeared from view.
With a fierce grin of his own, Gerard followed.
The supposed oak melted around him like a dream, leaving him standing behind Lorelei on a narrow footpath lined by thick, towering hedges and blanketed in late twilight. The first stars already glittered in unfamiliar patterns high overhead.
How long had they spent in that dark forest?
Lorelei half-turned to arch an expectant eyebrow at him. Gerard nodded, pointedly compressing his lips.
These new surroundings might not—yet—feel quite so ominous, but the same expectant silence held sway here. It would be foolish to break it now.
It would be even more foolish to let himself reflect on how shockingly easy it felt to communicate without words with his greatest nemesis.
… Or, worse yet, on how treacherously natural it felt to do so.
No. Setting his jaw, Gerard wrenched his malfunctioning thoughts firmly back under control.
He was Queen Lorelei’s prisoner, not her partner … and he would win this challenge purely for the honor of his empire.
With that mission once more in mind, he tilted his head meaningfully. His beautiful—no, wicked, impossible—captor gave a graceful shrug in answer and then started forward, leading the way along the path towards the next stage of their challenge.