Page 29 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

There he went with that “I’ll die first” business again. The problem being, I thought now it could be a real possibility and a reality I couldn’t cope with.

With Steele and I smack-dab in the middle of the most serious situation of my life and me not wanting to think about any of it for the time being, I tried for playful instead. We needed some playful. We deserved playful. “You get very regal when you turn serious, did you know?”

“I’m a prince,” he said. But I swore I saw a dusting of pink brush across his cheeks that hadn’t been there a moment before. Apparently, he wasn’t quite ready to unclench his butt cheeks and relax a little because that was the most he answered. I wanted a few moments of lightheartedness. We were nowhere near the Forfex palace. The trees were clearing the way for us to take us even farther away. Today Millie did not get what Millie wanted… and he was causing me to talk about myself in third person.

The trees continued to clear the way all the way until it opened up to a bog with smelly, rotting vegetation and murky water.

Steele and I stopped at the water’s edge. Overhead, the sky darkened black, though only over us, over the bog. The clouds swirled angrily, thrashing out with bright purplish-white bolts of lightning. Static and wind lifting my hair and my dress up to exposing my thighs.

Then the wind picked up again, but not to talk to me. I heard no words. My hair whipped my face. A storm looked poised to dump dangerously on us.

So busy checking out the sky, I didn’t pay attention to the crowd gathered around us until the prince cleared his throat and I didn’t just start, I jumped onto Steele, giving him no choice but to hold me, one arm slung under my bent knees and one secured behind my back.

With my shock leaving, I noticed now the trees weren’t simple trees at all. I mean, they still looked like trees, but with branches that became arms and hands, and roots split into legs and feet. Those faces I thought I’d seen before. I’d seen them because they were very present.

And then they spoke.

I’d heard the wind, taken the wind’s advice to run, so seeing a talking tree shouldn’t have bothered me. But come on, a tree?

“Can all trees talk here?” I finally found my voice.

“Trees are trees,” Steele answered me. “These aren’t trees. Although they don’t show their presence very often.”

“What exactly are they, then?”

“We call them the ‘Dicit Lingo.’”

“That means?” I asked again.

“Talking trees.” The one who appeared to be the leader of them stepped forward. “It’s a simplistic name for our kind, as you could not understand our language or speak it. He can only understand us because you’ve made it so.”

Ignoring that remark, I said, “Talking trees it is.” I noticed Steele still wouldn’t set me down. “Do you have a name?” I asked the leader.

“You may address me as ‘Maior.’ But I fear we lack the time for pleasantries, Millicent Merchant. You must leave our land for now. If you stay, they will kill us. If you die, they will kill us.”

“Who?”

“All,” was all he said in response. As if that answer helped in the least.

“How do we leave?” I’d take an answer from anyone who was willing.

“Look.” Maior held his hand out, pointing toward the bog. It was still murky and smelly, now swirling and churning as violently as the clouds overhead, which still hadn’t dropped a lick of rain on us.

“You want me to go in there?” I asked incredulously.

“It’s the only way,” Maior said to my bewilderment. Sure,hewouldn’t think there was a problem. No one was asking him to jump into a murky bog of grossness.

“Come on, Mils. My brave girl. I’ve got you.” Steele’s grip tightened around me.

And in that moment, I knew without a shadow of doubt, not only did he have me now, but he’d always have me if I let him. My fear lifted. Gone. Quicker than in the blink of an eye.

To prove my faith in him, I held my head high and said, “Let’s go.”

As he stepped into the bog, I looked over his shoulder to catch Maior’s eyes. “Thank you.”

Then Steele jumped into the swirling vortex of boggy waters. I couldn’t take a breath but didn’t feel in danger of suffocating either.

The sound of water thundered in my ears.

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