Chapter Twenty-Six
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Although Iona had slipped into a heavy sleep before Liam had even turned off the light, Liam wasn’t so lucky. He tossed and turned for hours, until eventually falling into a fitful rest that ended just before the sun rose. He glanced at Iona, who still seemed exhausted even in sleep, and decided it was better to let her rest.
In the hours he’d spent not sleeping, the sense of panicked urgency had grown stronger, pushing Liam out of bed as the first rays of light streamed in through the window. The string of impulsive decisions that had led him to this moment weighed on his mind. Guilt had begun to creep in during the small hours of morning, threatening to turn into regret. What if he’d made a mistake? What if he wasn’t enough to keep the forest safe after all? Each day that passed put Vall in greater danger. The more time he’d spent thinking over the plan, the clearer it became—there was no sense in waiting.
The idea, once it had taken root, grew like a weed until he could not stay in bed any longer.
Quietly, he dressed and slipped from the room, careful not to wake Iona. It would be safer to leave her there, anyways. The decision was rash, most unlike the calculating, risk averse man he’d always been. But the forest needed protection, and he would be the one to do it. Iona’s presence would only put her in danger and risk exposing her existence, which Liam was sure meant nothing good for her people.
Not that he had much of a plan, really.
Only the foolish hope that Andrew had some sense of self-preservation, and would not resort to anything truly heinous to protect his business. Most likely, the simple threat of the story would be enough to make him back down, and reconsider his action. At least, that’s what Liam told himself to calm the nerves festering in his stomach.
Liam poked his head into the other room, where Vall was still asleep. The color seemed to have returned to their features, the bandages no longer soaked with fresh blood. Liam assumed Vall was healing faster than a normal human. He was grateful, trusting Iona would fuss properly over Vall when she awoke.
Next he went to the kitchen, and made himself a quick cup of coffee, before sending a text to Annie. It was a Thursday morning, so she’d be working soon, but it was important to get the plan in action before he left the house.
If you don’t hear from me by dinner time, send the story to the Times.
Looking back at how dire his message sounded, he hastily sent another. It was important he not cause her any unnecessary panic. There was a slight chance he would be putting himself in danger, but it was best not to dwell on it. A precaution he hoped would be overkill.
Not in danger, just won’t have cell service.
He left the phone on the counter, not bothering to wait for a reply. Better to let Annie get his voicemail than to risk her trying to talk her out of his plan. His resolve was strong, but it didn’t stop the nerves from chewing at his insides. If he was going to finish things the way he planned, he needed to do it before he had time to reconsider.
Liam looked outside and pulled on his coat. It was dry, if frosty in the early morning, and the sky looked relatively clear. It wasn’t raining just yet, but dark clouds hung ominously in the distance. His hands shook as he stepped out into the dimly lit forest, but not from the cold. He clutched the folder filled with the papers Annie had given him. He swallowed down his fear, letting the earthy smell of the trees and loam of the soil comfort him as he marched forward to meet the enemy.
Gradually, the sun rose over the trees and filtered through the limbs, now bare and void of their leaves. Only the heavy spikemoss and the branches of the evergreen trees kept light from reaching the understory. In their homes among the bramble, birds chirped in the early morning.
Liam’s mind was so preoccupied as he rehearsed what he meant to say to Andrew, that he didn’t register when the forest began to blur around him. His boot rose from the ground and in the space between one footfall and the next, the world shifted. It felt like missing a step on the way down, his breath catching and his heart thundering. He stepped into an area tucked behind the cover of the understory just outside the clearing where Andrew worked. His head spun, and he promptly bent over and hurled onto the forest floor beside him, the acidic coffee burning his throat as it came back up.
After his stomach settled, Liam looked around in bewilderment, having just traveled through the forest as Iona had. Not that he’d done it on purpose, but it was startling that he’d managed to do it in the first place. Before he could even consider what that meant, a wave of exhaustion washed over him. He staggered against a nearby western hemlock, and swore under his breath.
Despite the early hour, the machinery whirred and buzzed with life. They’d cut down nearly all the marked trees, and the pile of stripped lumber lie on the far side of the clearing, ready to be loaded up and shipped out. This time, Liam could feel it—the pain of the felled trees that hung in the air, threatening to choke the air from his lungs. The fear of the animals, down to the smallest of mice and insects seemed to flood Liam’s senses, something he hadn’t noticed before and now wondered at how he could have been so blind to it. He closed his eyes, feeling down through the roots of the hemlock he’d leaned against, sensing the interconnectedness of the roots that grew there and those which had been so violently severed from their trees .
He looked back at the men in their machines, oblivious to the suffering they caused. There were only three of them this time, and he scanned the cabs of the vehicles until he found the one Andrew himself was operating.
His heart hammered in his chest as he stepped forward into the clearing.
Andrew was in the cab of a machine, a giant clawed thing with a long arm that hinged upwards. He was using it to group the felled trees, now stripped of all their branches, to them with the others. Just looking at the man’s face was enough to send a shiver of rage down Liam’s spine.
Liam approached from the side, careful to clear the long arm in its path, and hammered on the plexiglass window on the side of the cockpit. It was several feet above where Liam stood, his reach just long enough. Andrew turned, his face contorting with anger. The machine powered off, and Liam scrambled back as the door swung open toward him.
“What the fuck, kid? You got a death wish or something?” Andrew asked. He was much higher than Liam from his vantage point and it made the overall effect that much more intimidating.
Andrew looked, as he often had, like a man used to working outside. He wore a heavy flannel button-down shirt in a dark blue, tucked into reinforced canvas pants. He wore heavy gloves, and a blazing orange hat that his dark crop of hair flowed out from. His beard, black as his hair, was rough and untidy, but matched the ruggedness of the rest of him. Liam took a step backwards, nearly tripping over the severed end of a stray root, desperate to put some space between Andrew and himself.
Suddenly, his plan felt quite foolish.
Liam had never been very brave, and in all those years he’d envisioned himself confronting the older kids that bullied him in grade school, he’d never once done it. His hands were sweating. He had a small moment to worry that he’d ruin the papers he held before remembering the copies were only meant to prove his point, and he’d set Annie to deliver the digital ones to her friend at the Times.
He thought again about Annie, about how sad she’d been at the destruction of the trees in the forests and the legacy of her people in the valley, so they could be tuned into lumber and shipped across the world for a greedy profit? And Iona… she’d been so worried to see Vall injured. To lose what might be her closest friend would be devastating to her. His sense of responsibility to protect the trees, the most valuable resource in the valley had grown over the past few weeks, and that was enough to drive him forward.
He steeled himself as he looked up at Andrew and cleared his throat, preparing the words he’d been rehearsing.
“I think you’ll want to listen to what I have to say,” he started. It didn’t come out quite as smoothly as he’d hoped, but it didn’t matter. It only mattered that he said them.
Andrew only rolled his eyes. “Whatever, kid. Just get out of my way—I really don’t have time for this. Get your tree-hugging ass out of here and I’ll even let the rest of it go. I’m feeling that generous today.”
Liam cleared his throat again and stopped the hand that reached up out of habit to comb through his hair. Instead, he stepped forward and thrust the folder towards Andrew, who eyed it but didn’t reach for it.
“There’s evidence about your operation. How you’re stealing lumber from private property and the Forest Service without documentation. It’s illegal, you know, and the story is all lined up to be posted in the Seattle Times.” Liam finished, and tilted his chin upwards, meeting Andrew’s eyes.
Andrew scowled down at him for a moment, but then relaxed. He even ventured a smirk. “I’m not worried about some little news story, alright? They’re just trees! Everyone needs to calm the fuck down about them.”
Andrew stepped down onto the tread beneath him, then planted his feet in front of Liam, standing uncomfortably close. Close enough that Liam could smell the cigarettes mixed with the coffee that lingered on his breath.
Liam stood there, struggling to find the words, but nothing came. The reckless adrenaline that had pushed him faltered. He felt so like the small child he’d been, teased relentlessly for the things he lacked, instilling in him early the worthlessness he carried on into his life. A part of what always pushed him to achieve something was to prove those kids wrong, to show them that he was worth something .
But there he stood, jobless, with nothing to show for it. Unable to even form a few words when it counted.
He stammered out a few broken syllables before clamping his lips shut, feeling the world closing in on him, panic tightening in his chest and stealing his breath.
In that moment, confronted with Andrew’s menacing snarl, Liam felt himself shrinking.
“Where’s your little girlfriend? Not with you?” Andrew asked, and looked around the clearing pointedly. Iona hadn’t followed him, at least Liam hoped she hadn’t, but it didn’t stop his unease. Then, surprisingly, Andrew sighed and pinched at the bridge of his nose, his anger fading into something more akin to irritation. “Look, I mean it, kid. I don’t have time to deal with this today. You go run your little story and get out of my way.”
Liam cast his eyes down, but managed to say what he intended to. “I won’t leave until you do.”
Andrew opened his mouth as if to speak, but his attention caught on something behind Liam instead, panic flashing across his face.
“Jimmy, don’t—” Andrew called, stretching out a hand.
Liam didn’t hear the rest of his words though, as something heavy thumped against the back of his head, and the world went dark around him.
***
Iona woke to a gentle touch on her shoulder, and rolled over, a sleepy smile spreading across her lips. But when her eyes opened, she saw not Liam, but Vall's concerned face looking down at her from beside the bed. They moved stiffly, but the color had returned to their face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice still dry with sleep. “Are you alright?”
Vall sighed, coming to sit on the edge of the bed by Iona’s feet.
“I am alright, thanks to you—and to Liam, I assume. I woke up slightly confused,” they smiled wryly at Iona, before growing uneasy once more, “then I realized what must have happened. It was strange, I’ve never felt that from my tree before. Sometimes a branch will get lost in a storm, or even a larger limb from time to time. But that was… I went immediately to see the damage myself th is morning, once I’d regained my strength. It was those men with their logging machinery, tearing down trees near my home.”
Iona sat upright, pulling the blankets toward herself against the chill of the morning. She’d passed out in Liam’s arms, her exhaustion winning out. But now, he was nowhere to be seen. She glanced around the room, the sun already high in the sky in the late morning.
“Where is Liam?” she asked.
Vall’s mouth pressed flat, and they spoke with an apprehension that bothered Iona. “You won’t like it,” they said. “He was there, talking with that man in the clearing. I didn’t hear the words they exchanged, but it seemed… tense.”
He’d gone without her! She’d been blissfully sleeping in the warm, soft bed and he went to confront Andrew all alone. She struggled to free herself from the heavy blankets, scrambling to her feet. Vall continued speaking but Iona wasn’t listening. She dashed from the room and began digging through the box of old clothes for something more suitable for the outside conditions.
“Where will you go, Iona?” Vall asked, and leaned up against the frame of the door. Iona noticed the way they winced as the wound on their chest was jostled.
“I’m going after him, of course. But you need to stay here. Or go to the hideaway and find the others, or… well, I don’t know, really. You’re in no condition to follow me, though.”
“The boy is in danger, Iona. He may be a human, or mostly human anyway, but I know how much he means to you. Besides, I have him to thank for aiding me. How do you expect me to stay put?”
Iona considered the words. They were true, all of them. If it were her in Vall’s position, she would feel the same. But it was not prudent for Vall to join her, though—at least, not until she’d formulated a plan.
“I don’t know what I will do, Vall. I told Eli to let me fix this. Liam and I devised a plan together but…” Iona spoke out loud, though mostly for herself as she pulled her boots on. “Now he’s in danger and I’m not strong enough to stop it.”
Vall looked thoughtfully at her, then a spark lit up their eyes. “The boy is a descendant of Tove, as you say. She may have decided not to speak with him when she thought he’d left the valley for good, but even Tove would not let her kin die. Tove would have the strength to fight back. To protect her forest and to protect Liam.”
“You think we should go to her for help? After she rejected helping us before?”
“This is different, Iona. You are not the only one who feels the hole where love should be. Since the threat is endangering both myself and her own child, I doubt she would deny aid now.” Vall shifted and winced again, putting a hand up to rest where the wound had been covered.
Vall had always been quiet, but they made up for it with an unmatched perception. As much as Iona hated to admit it, they were probably right about Tove. About all of it.
“Alright, I will go to Tove for help, under one condition. You will go to the hideaway and continue to rest.”
Iona leveled an unflinching gaze at Vall, who yielded before her. They raised their hands in surrender before taking Iona into a ginger embrace.
“Be safe, sister,” Vall murmured. Iona reached up to wrap her arms around them, but they were gone. She staggered a moment, missing the person she’d been leaning against, then took a deep breath and stepped out into the forest.