Page 76 of The Prince and His Stolen Throne
I held my breath, hoping they didn’t notice me.
Two orcs came into view, at least seven feet tall with bulky muscles and long limbs. Both could have easily wrapped their arms around a normal tree and ripped it straight from the ground. The ancient trees might give themsometrouble, but not much if they worked together. One of them carried a club carved from a single huge branch.
“Who?” the first orc asked, furtively looking around. “The monsters?”
I shrank back against the house, hiding myself in the ivy covering the walls.
“Mon—thechampions,you idiot!” Followed by a second slap to the head.
The first orc rubbed his abused head, thick lips pouting around his tusks. “Oh, right.” He raised his fingers to his lips and twisted them at the corner to signify locking them up before tossing the imaginary key over his shoulder.
His companion snorted, then dragged the other orc forward to continue their patrol.
I listened to their heavy steps fading into the distance. When I couldn’t hear them anymore, I slipped around the back of the house and wove through the trees until I reached an old crossroads.
Rickety metal signs jutted out from a sapling. It was one of the youngest trees I’d seen, the metal putting up a stronger fight than the rest of the city. The signs were bent and twisted at odd angles, so I had to tilt my head to the side and peer upwards to read them.
Behind me: Residential District.
To the left: Marketplace.
To the right: City Hall.
And straight ahead: Library.
There was a blank space before the word ‘library’, like the library’s full name had been erased. What could erase words etched into metal?
I pulled out the compact to check the direction of the inn. The heart was placed somewhere between the library and city hall.
I looked back up at the signs. I’d promised the others I’d meet them at the library before I promised to meet Wilde at the inn … I should at least see if anyone made it there.
“I’m taking a detour,” I said out loud, hoping Wilde would receive the message. “Don’t follow me. I’ll meet you at the inn when I’m done.” Then I closed the compact and shoved it deep into my pack. Hopefully, he would take the hint and let me meet up with the other champions on my own.
Then I followed the signs to the library.
Prince Fitzroy Takes Over the Narration
Fitzroy Unfortunate’s favorite place in the world was the library. It didn’t have to be a particular library—though he had his preferences—just ‘a library.’ It didn’t matter how big or small, if it was filled with rare tomes or adventure novels, he loved everything about them.
The Traumstead Library was one of the largest libraries in the region, participating in both research and community engagement. It’d been featured in hundreds of citations, footnotes, and interviews. Scholars from every corner of the continent wanted to use its collection and add their own published works to it.
Until it’d become one of the first victims of the Grimnight Forest.
Fitz had only learned about it recently, long after it’d fallen to the curse. If he accomplished nothing else on this quest, he wanted to save the library.
When he’d first had that grandiose dream, he’d pictured himself alone. Nothing against the other champions, he simply hadn’t known them well at the time, and daydreams were a perfect time for self-indulgence. Now that he wasactuallyalone in the forest, searching for the library, he wished his dreams had been more practical.
As Fitz crept through the forest, the trees closed in around him. Limbs reached for him like outstretched hands. Knotted faces leered at him from within the bark. Eyes watched him from every patch of shadows. The whole forest thrummed in agitation at his trespass.
He ducked under a branch and one of the twigs snagged in his collar. The thin twig broke the moment he stepped forward, sliding down the back of his shirt. A cool, sticky substance trailed after it. Fitz touched the back of his neck and found it covered with sap the color of blood.
At that point, he threw all caution to the wind and started running, leaping over roots and dodging the grasping branches. Even as his lungs burned and a stitch formed in his side, he didn’t slow down. If he slowed down, the trees would catch him, and he did not want to find out what they would do with him.
He hardly registered the first building he passed. It was a green lump in the distance, barely visible out of the corner of his eye. More popped up as he neared the city. Unfortunately for Fitz, since the city was the center of the curse, it hadmoretrees.
His eyes widened as he spotted one of the trees up ahead. Huge and black, the trunk was covered with burning red streaks, like molten lava flowed through it rather than sap. A large hollow in the center gaped open. Most hollows were smooth and round, but this one was filled with jagged teeth.
What had the mayor said?Someone tried to burn the trees away, and they came back worse.
