Chapter 32 Irena
IRENA
Valen seems completely unconcerned by Thornmere, but it must be an act. I can feel the prickle of magic all around us—it’s like a thousand tiny invisible hands plucking at my skin and hair. This forest is alive—and it’s watching us, waiting for us to make a mistake.
I don’t intend to make one. I’m going to get straight through these woods to the Sorceress and find a cure for my mother.
But my certainty weakens after a few long hours of walking.
My dancing slippers weren’t made for this kind of rough usage—I can feel every rock and tree root in the dusty brown path.
Also, I’m getting extremely hungry. The slice of stale bread Valen and I both had for breakfast wasn’t very sustaining.
He says we need to wait and save our food for nightfall, in case we’re still on the path at that point, but I’m hungry now.
Just as I’m thinking that and my stomach is growling in a most unladylike way, I see something by the side of the path—it’s a bramble vine with long, sharp thorns.
But hidden among the greenish-black leaves and long brown thorns I see hints of deep purple—bramble berries!
They’re as big as my thumb and bursting with juicy ripeness.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Valen remarks, as I step up to the bush. Several long vines have made their way across the path, they lay in a kind of circle on the dusty road. Without thinking, I step into the circle and begin picking the berries that surround me.
“The sign didn’t say anything about not taking berries—it just said to stay on the path. And I’m still on the path,” I point out defensively as I pop a berry into my mouth. It bursts on my tongue, filling my mouth with sweet, slightly bitter juice. Delicious.
“It might be a trap,” he says, frowning.
“I don’t think so,” I say, and eat another berry. I offer some to him, but he shakes his head.
“Eat what you want but hurry—I don’t want to be caught in here after nightfall.”
“Do you think it will take that long to get to the Sorceress?” I ask anxiously, taking a few more berries. I’m very careful not to pick any of the berries on the bush that are off the side of the path. I only take the ones from the vines that have overgrown the path.
“Don’t know.” He shrugs, his broad, bare shoulder rolling. “But I’d rather not find out. Let’s keep moving.”
I take my handful of berries and keep eating them as we walk. The dark, sweet juice gives me a much-needed burst of energy, but it makes me thirsty and my hands are sticky. I wish I had some way to clean up and quench my thirst.
I think of asking for a drink from the wine bottle—we filled it with water last night and plugged it with the cork. But I don’t like to admit to Valen that the berries might have any negative consequences—even small ones. So I keep going down the dusty trail, wishing for water.
And then, just as though someone or something had heard my wish, I see a still, silvery pool only a foot from the path.
As we walk up to it, I debate with myself.
On one hand, it’s off the path and I don’t want to break that rule of the forest. But on the other hand, it’s fresh, pure water—I can tell how clean it is by the way the surface is so clear—almost like a mirror.
Just seeing the cool, smooth water makes my thirst worse until it’s almost like a fire in my throat. I hang back a little, letting Valen get ahead because I know he probably wouldn’t approve of what I’m going to do.
I’m not going to step off the path—I’m not stupid. But I am going to lean over and scoop up some of that water. Just enough to wash my hands and quench my thirst. Then I’ll keep walking like nothing happened. Hopefully the constant rustling of the leaves will cover the sounds of my splashing.
I wait until Valen is several yards away from me—his big form almost lost in the shadows—before I kneel on the side of the path. I reach for the water…but somehow the pond is further away than it looked. I had thought it was only a foot away from the path—but it seems to be more like three feet.
But my throat is burning now—I’m so thirsty I can almost smell the water. I lean over, keeping my knees on the path, and reach for it.
It’s wet and cold and it quenches my thirst immediately. I spend a moment washing my hands and face—most refreshing—and I’m just getting to my feet after drying my hands and face on my shift, when I see it.
There’s a face in the water.
I lean over to get a closer look—the face is familiar.
“Mother?” I whisper.
And suddenly, I can see her—she’s there. I hear her soft, sweet voice, and see her familiar eyes looking back at me.
“My child,” she whispers. “I miss you. Why have you gone so far away?”
“I’m searching for a cure for you,” I tell her. “I’m going to get you a Healing Draught from the Sorceress—the Lady of Thornmere.”
Without noticing, I’ve taken a step forward as I talk to her. I don’t even feel it when my foot slips off the path and into the grassy verge beside it.
“Come to me, my darling.” My mother holds out her arms.
Instinctively, I step towards her…and then, as suddenly as she appeared, she is gone.
I look for her in the still water, but it’s nothing but a pond again.
Realizing that her image must have been a trick of the forest, I turn back to the path…
only to find that it’s somehow yards and yards away from me now.
In fact, it’s barely visible—a thin brown ribbon running through the massive trees.
My heart fists in my chest and my breath grows suddenly short. The palms of my hands feel clammy. I must have stepped off without really noticing it—I need to get back!
I take a step towards the path, but somehow, that puts it even further away. Now I can barely see it at all. What in the Goddess’s name is happening?
“Think, Irena!” I mutter to myself. Suddenly, I remember something that red-beard said back at the inn. “He must’ve left the path and forgotten that in order to go forward, you have to go back,” he’d said. At the time, it made no sense to me but now, I wonder…
I took a step towards the path and that put it further away. Maybe I ought to take a step away from it instead to see if that brings it closer?
Tentatively, I shuffle one foot backwards, away from the path. Suddenly, I can see it more clearly again. Yes, it’s definitely closer.
My heart pounds harder and I take a deep breath. All right, I’ve got this—I can do it. I just have to walk backwards, away from the path to get back to it. I just need to go slow and take tiny steps since whatever magic is doing this seems to multiply distances somehow.
I shuffle my other foot backwards and the path is only a few yards away from me.
Almost back! I’ll get right back on it and hurry to catch up with Valen, who will never know the difference.
I won’t even tell him about the pond or my strange little adventure.
I’ll be just fine, and we’ll reach the Sorceress’s stronghold before nightfall.
I take another half step back and I can see the path right in front of me—it’s barely a foot away. I can just step right onto it and—
“Not so fast, if you please, little miss.”
The inhumanly deep voice is coming from directly behind me. My shoulder blades tense and the short hairs at the back of my neck prickle—every instinct I have shouts, DANGER!
I tense my body and leap forward for the path, forgetting that I can’t get to it that way.
My forward momentum carries me backwards and suddenly I’m in the middle of Thornmere with the path nowhere in sight.
I give a cry of distress—what am I going to do now? And where is the creature who spoke to me—because it must be some kind of creature. No human male has a voice so deep—a voice I could feel in my bones when it spoke.
Go back again—you have to go back! I tell myself. I start to take a step backwards, trying to get to the path again…only to feel someone grab my arm. I gasp and look down to see a long, green vine winding itself around my wrist.
“As I said, not so fast, missy,” that same, rumbling voice growls in my ear.
The vine tightens and yanks at me, spinning me around to face the most enormous tree I’ve ever seen. But no—it’s not just a tree—there’s a face in the bark. Two knotholes that look like eyes and a horizontal crack that looks almost like a mouth.
I try to convince myself that I’m dreaming or maybe just imagining the whole thing. But then the crack-mouth opens and it speaks again.
“How dare you violate the forest law and take without giving?”
“Wh-what?” I blink up at it, my pulse racing so hard it’s actually making me dizzy. Surely this must be some kind of nightmare—a bad dream. I must be back in the castle at home in my own bed and any minute I’ll wake up—won’t I?
“You stepped into the Ring of Thorns and took berries,” the tree-creature accuses me. “But you left no sacrifice in return.”
Oh fuck, as Valen would say. I did do that. But speaking of Valen, where is he? He could threaten this tree-thing with his fire and make it leave me alone if he was here.
“Valen!” I shout as loudly as I can, but the forest seems to muffle my voice—it’s like screaming into a blanket. Still, I try again. “Valen! Help me! Valen!”
The crack that serves the tree-creature as a mouth turns down at the corners.
“Calling for help will do you no good. Your companion has not broken the laws of the forest—you have.”
“But…but I didn’t know I was breaking any laws!” I plead with it. “Please, just tell me what I have to pay and I’ll pay it!”
“You must pay in blood and pain!” the tree creature declares, and the knothole eyes are suddenly menacing. “Blood and pain, girl—no other payment will do.”
As it speaks, the green vine around my left wrist sprouts long, curving thorns. It tightens and they dig into my flesh, drawing crimson rivulets of blood that run down my arm and patter on the dry leaves of the forest floor.
I shout at the sudden, piercing pain and yank at my arm. But now more vines are growing. They invade my shift and wind around my breasts—a sharp thorn pierces my nipple and my cry of pain becomes a shriek of agony.
“Come now, missy—don’t be upset,” the tree-thing says. “Everyone who comes to Thornmere has to pay one way or another.”
The crack-mouth opens wide revealing a horror—long, jagged splinters of wood which must be the thing’s teeth. Some are longer than my arm and they gnash together hungrily as the thorny vines around my left arm drag me towards it.
It’s going to eat me—oh my Goddess, it’s going to eat me! yammers a panicked voice in my head.
Suddenly, I remember something—only that morning, when he was packing our meager possessions into the burlap sack he stole from the smokehouse, Valen handed me the knife with a broken point.
“Here,” he said gruffly. “For self-defense—in case things get hairy in there.” And he’d nodded at the forest.
I had taken the knife without comment and slipped it carefully into the pocket of my shift. It’s still there now—if it hasn’t fallen out—and thank goodness, it’s on the right-hand side, since it’s my left arm that’s encircled with vines.
I reach into my pocket and find the smooth wooden handle. I pull out the knife and begin sawing at the vine wound around my wrist. The green outer layer parts at once and sap that looks like bright red blood begins to drip sluggishly to the forest floor.
The tree creature roars in pain, its mouth growing terrifyingly huge as the jagged splinter teeth gnash together.
“You little whore!” it snarls at me. “You’ll pay for that—YOU’LL PAY!”
I pay it no attention but keep sawing—I’m desperate! If I don’t get away, it’s going to eat me alive!
The first vine parts and my wrist is suddenly free. I start to saw at the vines around my breasts, but they are already slithering away. I feel their thorns dragging through my flesh as they go and I wonder how badly scarred I’ll be when this is over.
But in order to have scars, I have to live. And that’s my main intention. I stumble backwards as the vines leave me, but the tree-creature isn’t done. It reaches for me with one of its long branches, no doubt meaning to scoop me into its maw.
I duck and turn, running as fast as I can—as fast as the forest will let me.
I have to dodge and squeeze my way through the massive trunks.
My heart pounds and dry leaves crackle under my feet.
Stray branches whip my face, nearly blinding me and leaving cuts and welts on my cheeks.
They tangle in my hair and tear at me, but I won’t let them stop me.
I have no idea where I’m going—if I’m running towards the path or away from it. I only know I have to get away from the tree-thing—far, far away so it can never find me.
But in the back of my panicking mind I realize something—if I’m not careful I’m going to be lost in Thornmere forever.