Page 76 of The Shadow Path
“That tree sprite is a friend and a generous messenger; you should have more respect.” The blue sigils on Dru’s face glowed, and his voice lost its usual amusement. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Come away from the mound, wolf.”
“Or what? It will open up and steal me away?”
Dru’s eyes rose to the top of the mound where cracks were starting to appear in the earth. “We were mistaken; this isn’t a fairy fort.”
Godrik finally realized that Dru was serious and stepped away from the earthen structure. “What is it?”
Dru backed up slowly, his arms outstretched and his eyes locked on the grassy mound, which was starting to move. The grass beneath his feet crawled higher and higher, nearly to his waist.
“I don’t know his name,” Dru said, “but he’s something far older than you or me or any of our companions. Back. Away.”
“Laura, I think we need to get back to Cadell and Duncan.” Carys gripped her hand and turned, but a burst of movement at the top of the hill made her turn back to the rising earth, and the rumble of the ground beneath her feet stole her breath and froze her in her tracks.
Naida stepped forward and her eyes went wide. “It’s a forest god.”
A stony head ringed with grass rose from the earth, the god stretching its shoulders and rising as dark soil poured off it like water.
Its eyes were black rock, and what might have been a mouth stretched and opened as a primeval groan that sounded like grinding stone emanated from the creature’s gaping jaw.
Flowers sprang up on the crown of its head, and as it rose to its full height, moss and grass crawled over its earthen body like a moving green robe.
Carys couldn’t look away. “Oh my God.” It was the most fascinating and frightening thing she’d ever seen.
Dru looked over his shoulder and shouted, “Run! All of you, run!”
Nêrys!
She felt a tugging in her chest and turned to see Cadell dissolve into a shower of gold before emerging in his dragon form with a terrifying roar. His green, iridescent body shimmered from the fire already burning at his throat.
He rose up on his back feet, nearly as tall as the forest god, and spread his wings as he let out a bellow.
Godrik let out a terrifying snarl that pulled Carys’s eyes back to the forest god. The wolf’s human body disappeared, and his beast form burst from a shimmering grey fog and lunged toward the green giant, who lifted a trunk-like leg and kicked the massive wolf into the trees.
The crunch of wood told Carys that the trees had broken as much as the wolf might have.
“Carys, get out of there!” Duncan shouted from the edge of the clearing, running toward them with his hand on the hilt of his steel sword.
The ground lurched beneath her, as if something was emerging from the deep, and she fell. Her ankle twisted when it caught between two rocks in an open crevice.
“Carys!” Laura ran to her and tried to pull her up.
“I can’t move. It’s stuck.” She felt her heart racing. “Oh shit.”
The ground was rolling and jumping every time the forest god moved.
Nêrys, come to me.
“I can’t, I’m stuck!”
Cadell breathed a stream of fire across the tops of the trees, and the forest god took a massive step forward towardthe dragon, bellowing something that sounded like boulders scraping against rocks.
The earth rolled as he walked. He didn’t have feet, but his legs were planted into the soil like tree roots that curled and twisted like tentacles as he stepped from the footprint of the old fae fort and into the forest surrounding him.
Cadell stood on his hind legs, bellowing and trying to draw the giant’s attention away from the humans and fae at his feet.
And Dru stood in front of the ancient creature, his shoulders back and his face defiant.
Duncan ran and reached down into the crevice, folding his massive hands around her ankle and pulling gently but firmly. “It’s twisted, and it’s starting to swell.” He looked up, and his eyes were wide and panicked. “I can’t break the rocks.”
