Chapter 38 Rose
Something was stinking. No, rotting. Rose wrinkled her nose, trying to make sense of the putrid smell. Her head lolled back and forth as she searched for the light. She struggled to open her eyes, to pull herself from the blackness in her mind.
But that smell. That awful, putrid smell … slowly, it was waking her.
Then she heard a growl. A low, guttural sound that sent a shiver down her spine. Her eyes snapped open. It was dark here, but soft strands of dawn light were filtering through the trees.
Trees.Yes, there were trees. She had made it to dry land. The last thing she remembered was the cold water, gnawing at her bones. That felt like eons ago now. She was dry again, and no longer shivering. Her head was foggy and her mouth was torturously dry. She must have been unconscious for a long time. A rogue vine caressed her cheek, as though trying to rouse her from the dregs of confusion.
She was in a forest. Yes, she could smell that now, too – the damp air was thick with mulch and she glimpsed branches jutting down from above. The trunks that clustered around her were twice her size and larger still.
There came another growl. Closer now. Then a low whine. There were animals here.
Rose blinked furiously. Her eyes adjusted, revealing trailing canopies that hid the sky. She tried to move but her wrists were tied with vines while another snaked around her middle, binding her to a trunk. She had the sudden, sickening feeling of weightlessness. She snapped her chin down to find her ankles were tied, too. Her feet were suspended several inches above the forest floor.
Oh no.
Panic surged through Rose. She was trapped. Pinned to a tree like a moth, with no one to rescue her. No one even knew where she was! Her friends were out in the bay, so far from Rose she could hardly fathom the distance between them. The more she remembered about her abduction, the more frightened she became.
And worse, the growls were getting louder. Shadows flitted between the trees, prowling closer.
‘Calm down,’ she urged herself. ‘Focus. Think.’
Another vine brushed her cheek. Rose looked up, studying the leafy canopies. They seemed to go on and on. And yet there was something strangely familiar about them. Then she glimpsed something else – a single luminous seed floating through the trees.
Rose’s heart hitched. She was in the Weeping Forest, the dark, sprawling woods near the Whisperwind Cliffs, and just beyond them, the sands of Ortha. The Weeping Forest was a different kind of graveyard entirely. These ancient trees marked the graves of fallen witches from a long-ago battle, and the winds here often keened with their cries.
‘Celeste’s vision has come true after all,’ she muttered.
Rose steeled herself, trying to quell the rattle of her fear inside her.
‘It’s all right,’ she said, closing her eyes. ‘I’m not alone. Not really.’ She could sense the spirits of her dead ancestors all around her even if she couldn’t see them. Their presence gave her strength, made her feel that hope was not yet lost.
But there came that smell again, sweeping through the forest like a rotten wind. And then a growl so close, Rose snapped her eyes open. She cried out as a panther came darting through the trees.
She struggled, furiously, but her hands were bound so tightly it only made her wrists ache. ‘Leave me be!’
The panther cocked its head, its red eyes too bright in the dimness. A shudder skipped down Rose’s spine as she saw it for what it was – a shell of bones, draped in strips of worn skin. Its mouth was full of sharp gnashing teeth. Stars above. The panther was half dead.
No. It was undead.
Oonagh Starcrest had pulled this rotting creature from its grave and dragged it into the forest.
Another beast came from her left. This one was a decomposing snow tiger, freshly dead. Its entrails trailed along the ground behind it, and maggots squirmed inside its gaping eye sockets. Then came another tiger that was missing half of its skull, and the next was gnawing on its own severed tail. All around Rose, an army of undead beasts moved through the forest, slowly surrounding her. ‘Go away! Leave me alone!’
Her wrists stung as she desperately tried to pull herself free. She thrashed wildly, until the vines cut into her skin. The animals growled, scenting fresh blood.
‘No!’ she cried. ‘Stay back! All of you!’ She snapped her chin up, calling out to the trees. ‘Witches of Eana, protect me! I am your queen!’ But the forest was still, silent. ‘Please!’
She was answered by a familiar rippling laugh.
Rose froze as Oonagh Starcrest stepped through a break in the trees. ‘You are no queen,’ she sneered. ‘Your time on the throne of Anadawn is at an end.’
Oonagh’s hair was long and ragged, stained with blood and strewn with twigs. The green of her eyes had turned red, and her cheeks were gravely sunken. She looked like a corpse, so emaciated that Rose couldn’t understand how she was moving at all. A pair of undead ice bears stood sentry at Oonagh’s side. Their heads were little more than barren white skulls, their mouths filled with huge slabs of crumbling teeth.
‘It’s not as simple as that!’ said Rose, raising her chin to try to show she was not afraid, even as she trembled. ‘You can’t just kill me and be done with it. My sister—’
‘Will be along shortly.’ Oonagh swept closer, her beasts swarming at her back. Stars. There were far more than Rose had thought, hundreds upon hundreds of undead creatures skulking in the trees. ‘I suspect she will rise to the challenge of rescuing you. Sisters tend to do that.’
Rose’s hands twitched. How she wished for her dagger, but she had left Daybreak behind on Marino’s ship, leaving her weaponless. Why on earth did she keep ending up in this sorry position? Well. She might not have a weapon but she still had her voice. Her courage. She would wield that instead. ‘This country will never bow to you.’
‘Not without force.’ Oonagh licked her rotting teeth. ‘I assure you, fear can be highly effective.’
Somewhere in the deep forest, a beast howled.
Rose swallowed. ‘It will take more than an army of rabid beasts.’
Oonagh lunged, closing the space between them until Rose could smell the horrid stench of death on her breath, see the cracks in her teeth. Just how much had Oonagh already sacrificed to raise this army?
‘On that we certainly agree,’ Oonagh said, in a growl of her own. ‘I will need more than beasts to make this country bend its knee.’ She glanced up at a floating seed. ‘Which is why I intend to raise my own army of witches.’ Her lips curled, triumph alighting in her eyes. ‘They will destroy you all.’
Rose almost laughed. ‘Even you cannot raise the witches! You have given too much already, Oonagh.’ She looked her up and down, her nose wrinkling. ‘By the looks of it, there is hardly anything left to give.’
Oonagh was unmoved. ‘Oh, my little trembling Rose,’ she taunted. ‘This time I won’t be sacrificing myself. I will be sacrificing something far more valuable.’
Rose’s breath shallowed in her chest. She searched for air, but terror had snatched it all away. ‘You can’t mean …’ She trailed off, too frightened to say the words aloud.
Oonagh’s triumphant grin was answer enough.
Rose quailed. This wasn’t the end of her ancestor’s depraved plan. It was only the beginning. ‘You mean to sacrifice me.’
Oonagh traced a sharpened fingernail along her jaw. ‘Look at all this life inside you. This bleeding heart and valiant soul. Wouldn’t it be a shame to simply waste it all?’
Rose squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shake off her horror. She wished more than anything that Wren was here, her sister standing strong and sure at her side. But Rose was utterly alone.
How had it come to this?
She wanted to weep like the forest often did. To scream until she went hoarse. But more than that, Rose realized that she wanted to fight with every breath left in her body. If only she could find a way …
When she opened her eyes, Oonagh was already turning from her. A new wind stole through the forest, stirring the vines, and for one impossible moment, Rose swore she heard her sister’s voice.
Hold on, Rose. I’m coming.
Oonagh stopped walking, a branch cracking underfoot. ‘Ah,’ she said, jerking her chin up. ‘It seems your sister is right on time.’