Page 77 of The Shadow Path
“They’rerocks.” Despite everything, Carys had to smile. “Even you’re not strong enough to break rocks, Duncan.”
“Damn it!”
“I’ll try to move it from here.” Laura’s eyes darted between the forest god and Carys. “Maybe the earth will listen to me.”
She put her hands in the ground and began to whisper as Duncan continued to try to pull her leg from the narrowing crevice.
Nêrys?Cadell was shouting at her mentally.What is happening?
My foot fell into one of the crevices, and it’s stuck between two rocks. Duncan and Laura are with me.
I’ll keep him moving. Perhaps if the earth shifts again, it will loosen.
Cadell took to the sky, soaring over the forest god’s head and drawing his attention up and over the trees, before he swooped back and circled the forest.
Trees and bushes cracked as the giant moved. Birds flew out of the treetops in panic, and animals and creatures that had been sheltering in the woods ran and scattered.
Deer bounded from the shadows, furtive lynxes darted away, and rabbits raced into the meadows and country lanes. A pair of unicorns fled from the shadow of the trees, glancing over their shoulders as they ran away. A flurry of glowing sprites followed them.
“Nothing yet!” Duncan continued to keep her ankle in one firm hand while he shoved the tip of his sword into the ground to try to dig around the rocks. He glanced over his shoulder at the roaring giant who was watching the dragon swoop around his head. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s a nightmare.”
While Cadell was flying, Dru spread his arms and the ground around him answered. Two columns of earth shot from the pathway in front of him and jabbed at the forest god, knocking the giant creature off-balance for a short time before he turned, opened his massive maw, and bellowed at the earthen spears before him.
When the forest god opened his mouth, living earth poured from the gaping cavity like drool from a dog’s mouth. It appeared as if his teeth were made of white stones, his beard was dripping moss, and though he had no tongue, the earth itself moved within his mouth, crunching and grinding as the creature roared in anger.
The god brought his great arm across the stone columns Dru shot toward him, bashing and breaking them as if they were made of sand.
Twisting roots made up the architecture of his arms, and curled branches that ended in bunches of verdant-green leaves took the place of hands. When he reached, the branches curled and twisted toward the ground, grabbing a twisted blackthorn tree and pulling it from the forest.
The giant lifted the tree and swung it toward Dru like a slow-moving sword, but the fae prince ducked and let out a roar of laughter.
“Look at you, old man!” Dru shouted. “Ah, for the love of the old gods, you are a gorgeous thing, aren’t you? I haven’t seen your like in five hundred years.”
“Dru!” Naida shouted at him. “Get away from it!”
Cadell was still flying around the giant’s head, trying to draw his attention. No bellowing, no fire. He watched the massive creature with wary gold eyes.
I do not want to harm him,Cadell said in her mind.We are trespassing on his home.
If you leave, will he calm down?
Perhaps,Cadell said.But I cannot leave you.
Carys looked down at her stuck and twisted leg, then at the forest around them. The ground was ripped and bare roots exposed. The forest god might have been the one who had planted this forest and made it grow, but now it was the one destroying it.
Creation was destruction was creation. In the oldest stories, you often couldn’t separate one from the other. They were inextricably linked. Like a forest fire, this old god’s fury might be the very thing that made this forest renew.
Nêrys, his corporeal formdoesappear to be made of branches.
I understand.
Branches were wood. Branches could be burned by dragon fire.
Carys had a vision of the forest god tromping along the Essex countryside, kicking at sheep, squashing humans and animals like bugs, and tearing up wool mills as it ripped up the roads and fences that scarred the land.
Then she had a vision of the old god twisting with fire, his verdant-green cloak turning black and his massive leg-trunks burning to ash.
Don’t burn him. Not yet.
