Page 45 of Lore of the Wilds

Asher had returned to his brooding, and Lore fell behind the silent fae. She was in awe that he didn’t make a single sound or get scratched by a single branch. It was as if the trees themselves bowed out of his way, the earth welcomed his footfalls willingly, and the leaves on the bushes turned silent when he brushed them.

Meanwhile, Lore’s every step snapped a twig or crunched dry leaves. The branches seemed to reach out at her hair, snagging in her curls, and leaving leaves behind out of spite.

When the two finally came upon the packed red dirt of a road, she wanted to cry from happiness. No more rocks waiting to twist her ankle or spiderwebs to dodge.

Lore pulled her scarf up around her face, covering her hair and ears. Most of the individuals they would pass likely would have never seen a human and she would stand out. Only the tip of her nose and the glint of her dark brown eyes peeked out of the blue scarf and, as long as she kept her eyes downturned and didn’t get too close to anyone, nobody should notice that she was human. Though she was significantly shorter than the dark fae, her research in the library had shown that she was the average height of many of the other creatures traveling the trade road.

Asher was smart and knew his homeland well; he’d had them exit the woods in a busy location, one filled with all manner of creatures. Some, like Asher, looked almost human, save for their larger eyes, pointed ears, and animal characteristics. Others were as different from Lore as Lore was from a bunny. There were blue creatures with saltwater dripping down from their seaweed-like hair to pool at their feet. Some were even stranger still, flying above them with giant membranous wings that twinkled in the sunlight, casting rainbows on hers and Asher’s cheeks. Others with feathered wings pulled flags behind them, boasting advertisements for lodging and eateries in the sprawling city before them, Veyesh.

And what a city it was. It made the city surrounding Wyndlin Castle seem like a cozy village. Wooden gates carved from tree trunks towered before her. She craned her neck up and up... then still farther up, but couldn’t see where the canopy ended and the sky began.

“Close your mouth. You look like the fish I caught this morning.”

Lore slammed her jaw shut, cheeks warming. She stilled her features, trying to mimic the business-as-usual attitude of the crowd as they crossed a giant bridge. She had a wild urge to run to the edge and throw something down into the river below, to watch it float within the powerful current beneath her, but that would draw too much attention. Nobody around her seemed fazed by the sight of the rushing water, meandering through the gates and going about their day.

Thoughts of the river scattered when two flying dark fae in familiar Alytherian black and gold uniforms glided down to the gate, their pearly wings shimmering in the sun. They conferred with the gate guards for a moment, halting the procession into the city.

The guards, upon closer inspection, seemed to be stopping people at random to check merchant’s wares and search families. Lore noted from where she stood in line that some coin tended to wink in the light when travelers were stopped. The dark fae with the ability of flight seemed to be the only ones not targeted for these searches; instead, they were allowed to skip ahead of the line as the guards bowed their heads and waved them through the gates.

While there were plenty of children riding on wagons and running throughout the line, some holding on to their parent’s skirt, their tiny, pointed wings fluttering behind them, there weren’t many dark fae children.

But she had other things to worry about than the offspring of the dark fae as the line between them and the gate dwindled. Lore’s palms began to sweat. There was no doubt the guards were on alert for two fugitives on the run. And, if by some miracle the guards had not been looking for them, and a simple bribe wouldbe all they needed, Lore wouldn’t even know what the asking price was, or how to go about bribing a guard.

“Asher, I’m worried,” Lore whispered to him, quelling the urge to reach out and grab his hand. His stony silence since they left the cave had made it clear how angry he was with her.

“I have a plan,” he said, his tone clipped, as the last group between them and the gate were admitted past the checkpoint.

They stepped forward as a guard, an aging female peering down at a clipboard, asked them to state their purpose in the city, her voice bored. Asher began to spin a tale when she glanced up and noticed Lore’s hood. She cut him off. “Girl, draw back your hood, we need to see your face,” she ordered.

With shaking hands Lore reached up to her hood and gripped the smooth edges of the fabric, but she made no move to draw it back. Even if, by some miracle, the guards hadn’t realized they were fugitives, one look at her human ears and they would know. Lore and Asher would be detained and imprisoned.

The guard squinted her eyes in suspicion at Lore’s hesitation and repeated her order. If Lore didn’t follow her directive she would call out to the other guards, and they would remove Lore’s hood for her. She froze, not knowing what to do. It was too late to turn and run. They should have hidden in the woods longer and come up with a different plan. If she had known that there would be a checkpoint, she wouldn’t have followed Asher outside the dense forest.

Lore’s heart pounded in her chest as she glanced at him. Asher had said he had a plan, but now he wasn’t looking at her or even the guard, who was growing increasingly impatient. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the river behind them. The guard opened her mouth to call to two patrols on the other side of the gate, who were questioning a woman leading an animal so laden with packs and parcels that Lore couldn’t even tell what kind of animal it was.

Lore glared at the back of Asher’s head, willing him to make something happen, when she saw him flick his wrist toward the river.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Lore ducked her head in instinct as a deafening series of cracks reverberated through her body from the direction of the river. Birds by the hundreds erupted in flight from every direction, their frantic cries overwhelming the roar of the river and city sounds wafting through the gate.

Lore, along with everyone in the vicinity, looked toward the river. Gasps rang out as it dawned on the crowd just what was transpiring. A massive tree, one of many that lined the edge of the roaring river, had begun to splinter as visible shock waves rippled through its trunk.

For one single moment, not a soul outside the gates of Veyesh drew a breath as they gazed on in terror. The thick, gnarled roots of the tree had begun to pull free from the earth as the tree began to sway.

Though it was the shortest tree growing along the bank of the river, the circumference of the trunk appeared to be the size of Lore’s childhood room. If it fell backward, it would crush a portion of the city wall and decimate the buildings behind it. The shingled roofs and smoking chimneys that rose above the wall would come crashing down, killing anyone inside the buildings or in the surrounding streets.

If it fell toward the bridge, it would crush the overpass, and anyone on the bridge who wasn’t pulverized beneath the tree, or its expansive branches, would be dropped into the deadly river below. If the water didn’t kill them, the crumbling bridge would.

The people watched in horror as the tree tipped closer and closer to the bridge. Some began to scream and run; others froze in place, unable to move from fear. A few people began to pray, crying to their gods for help.

Asher was muttering under his breath, his brows pulled together in concentration, his gaze on the swaying tree.

“Asher, oh gods, don’t let it—”

With an eerie groan, the bark itself seeming to scream a death rattle, its ancient roots ripped from the earth, and the tree capsized.

The tree did not fall at an angle onto the bridge, nor toward the wall. Instead, it fell parallel to the bridge, and pitched onto the river.

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