Page 107 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

Crying out in shock, I screech to a halt and backpedal furiously. Sharp thuds echo as the arrows strike tree trunks to my right. I whip around and sprint in the other direction instead.

The same thing happens several more times. When I try to take one turn, so that I can loop back towards the river, an entire cloud of arrows streaks right past my face.

It isn’t until it happens a fourth time that I finally understand what’s going on.

A chill snakes down my spine as realization floods my mind.

I’m being herded.

But by then, it’s already too late.

I jerk to a halt, almost stumbling and falling over, as an entire wall of drawn bows materializes in front of me. Flailing my arms, I fight to recover my balance. And when I finally straighten, bows with nocked arrows are pointed at me from every direction.

My pulse thrums in my ears. I drag in deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart, while desperately trying to make out who the bows belong to.

Then at last, a figure from straight ahead steps out of the foliage around her.

Except that the foliage follows her out too.

My jaw drops.

Shock clangs inside my skull like giant bells as I stare in open-mouthed disbelief at the person in front of me.

A dryad.

Mabona’s fucking tits, it’s adryad. I’ve heard stories about them, but I didn’t think they lived here. All the legends say that they live in the deep forests to the north. I stare at the female dryad before me.

She’s shaped like a woman wearing a flowing dress. Except her dress is made of branches and vines and leaves. And so is her long hair, which ripples around her as if on a phantom wind. Red flowers grow around her head like a crown. The splashes of red are a stark contrast against her pale green skin. Millenia’s worth of wisdom seem to swirl in her brown eyes. As if she has lived through all the ages of this world. Seen it all. Lived it all. And knows it all.

My mouth dries out as she locks those intense eyes on me.

“What is a fae from the Seelie Court doing in our woods with a dragon shifter?” she asks. Her voice is low and smooth, but she spits out those last two words as if they taste foul.

I swallow. “Trying to find my way back out of here.”

She cocks her head, the vines in her hair rippling with the motion. “How did you get here?”

“We fell through a hole in the tree trunk ceiling thing,” I stammer.

“Where?”

“I’m not exactly sure. About four hours walk, I think.” Raising my arm, I point in the direction we came from. “That way.”

“What were you doing in the woods in the first place?”

“I’m a contestant in the Atonement Trials.”

Silence falls over the woods. A few bowstrings creak faintly as the dryads holding them pull back a little farther. I draw in a breath and try to keep my focus on the only dryad here who is not currently pointing an arrow in my face.

She narrows her eyes at me. “What is the Atonement Trials?”

I’m momentarily stunned that she doesn’t know, since it’s such an integral part of our lives. But I suppose that if they live down here, there is no reason for them to have heard about it.

“It’s a competition,” I explain. “The Iceheart monarchs host it once every one hundred and fifty years. They make us fight each other until there are only three left, to prove that we’re worthy. And the ones who win are given permission to leave the city.”

A sharp hissing sound rips from all the dryads around me. I flinch, thinking that they’re going to shoot me.

“The Icehearts,” the dryad leader snarls in a voice full of poison. Then she narrows her eyes at me as a contemplative look passes over her face. “I knew that they trapped you in your court. After all, you rarely venture into the forest. But I did not know that they make you fight each other for sport.”

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