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The world had not gotten any clearer for Nara, and yet sitting beneath the tree, it felt as though she could breathe for the first time. She was still too hot. Her skin boiled, and she could see the pain on Haven’s face as the stone burnt into his palm. The tree grew warmer behind her. It wasn’t the same heat as the fire tree, not the same comfort, and yet she knew it was where she was meant to be.
She stretched out her hand, and Haven dropped the stone back into it. “Did it tell you anything?” she asked, but he only shook his head, glancing around the cavern.
The stone monster had followed Nara, demanding she lead it to the tree. She had thought it wanted to destroy it, but there was something else, another feeling—security in the stone that she hadn’t felt before.
“Stone led you here,” she whispered, and Haven turned his smile on her then. It went some way towards easing the overwhelming fire within her. “Is it still here?”
“I can’t see it,” he replied, searching the walls again. She could not see the creature she had led either. Could they not enter the chamber? They, she repeated to herself. There was more than one.
She clutched at Haven. How could they ever defeat something so great? And if there was more than one, there was no chance. He turned worried eyes her way. And yet, she had not felt the pull of danger, the need to defeat these creatures.
“Are you in pain?”
“How do we survive this?” she asked, although she knew that was the wrong question. He gave her a sad smile as he ran the back of his fingers down her cheek. She had not sensed the end being close, but then she was not sensing anything. She would burn up before they had the chance to find what she needed. “Is there more than one tree?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he whispered, leaning in. “But we are meant to be here.”
“Do you feel the pull?”
“Sometimes, and then it is gone.”
“Haven, I’m scared,” she admitted. “This life doesn’t make sense.”
“We had to find the tree, and I don’t know why. We had to lead the stone here, and I don’t know why.”
“All of it?” she asked.
He moved to sit beside her, and he pointed across the cavern where a solid line of black stone had appeared in the wall. It might have been there before, but she knew he was right; they had led the stone here. All the stones taken from the people and given to the Guide had done nothing to show it where the tree was.
“Something knew where to go,” she said.
“That may be because it was following you,” Haven said. “You can read the stone. Even though they are stone, they couldn’t find what was living within it. Although it found me,” he said, glancing around again.
“What will they do?” Nara asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, leaning against her. He seemed tired, and maybe this was all they had to do in this life, but Nara couldn’t help but wonder at her mother’s face and her father’s.
“Why now?” she asked as he reached out and took her hand. “I’m burning.”
It seemed as though she could not get any hotter without bursting into flames. The leaves crackled above her. She glanced up as the dark smoke pushed through the branches and the glow around the tree brightened.
Haven leapt to his feet, dragging her with him away from the tree. Although they didn’t make it far before they fell back to the hard ground. He was too exhausted to help her, and she was too weak to help either of them. The tree that had been so fresh and green was ablaze. Flames raced along the branches, the heat only increasing her own heat, the leaves crackling as though it were the fire tree. Only the flames and smoke billowing from the top of it told her this was not right. She shielded her eyes from the intensity and light of the blaze.
There was nothing they could do to extinguish it; they could only watch as the tree they had searched out amongst the stone was lost to the flames she had brought to it. Was this why the stone wanted her to find it—to destroy it?
“I did this,” she whispered, leaning into Haven, who closed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She buried her face in his chest, trying to hide from what she had done.
The world creaked around them as though the stone was moving, the walls opening to the outside world. Nara looked back, remembering the creature that had forced her to find the tree in the first place. Although force was not the right term. It had led her to where she needed to be.
The stone opened to the elements now, snow drifting into the cavern while smoke from the tree found its way out. The black line of stone stepped from the wall—another creature made of stone, the Guide. And the monster who had followed her here stepped from the wall behind the tree, its blue eyes glinting in the light of the fire. They didn’t look at each other.
Something moved behind her, something silent, and yet she felt it as though the world vibrated through her. When it stepped forward, she looked up at a copy of the monster who had followed her. She gulped down her growing fear. All they had done here was create more danger for the people living in this world.
The stone pulsed across the floor. Nara looked for marks in the stone, for swirls and smooth lines, and yet they were missing here.
She was thankful for Haven, his arm still around her. He did not appear as frightened by what they were watching as she thought he should be. They had done nothing to help here, nothing of benefit for these people, and they would still die, forced back to the fire tree—or perhaps this was it, and the different life meant a different death. The creatures took a step forward as the stone men that had pulled them appeared around the tree. The five of them rose from the floor as though waiting for the others to arrive.
“You did not need us,” Nara whispered, yet her voice echoed around the space, the flames crackling louder. She shivered as though the heat was either far too much or she would never be warm again. She wasn’t sure which, and that worried her more than the tree burning before her.
“We did,” said the monster across from her said, its voice softer, as though it belonged to something else.
Nara wondered then if she had been confused. But the blue eyes reflected the light, and the one behind her, when she turned, appeared to have green eyes. The Guide, black and smooth, in complete contrast to the other stone creatures, had eyes made of the same stone.
“Another tried to lead you here,” Haven said, his arm still tight around her, in some ways holding her up.
“She did not have the same skill. She burnt, but too early.”
Nara sighed. Whether that had been Shadow’s mother or someone else, she could not guess, her mind foggy.
“You took the stones,” she said as the stone men started to walk in a strange side-step around the tree, unaffected by the heat of it, or at least appearing that way.
“We are the stone,” the Guide said, his voice low, not echoing in the space. Nara glanced over her shoulder at the one behind them just as it took a step forward. She wondered at its silence.
Haven closed his hand tight and winced. He must have burnt himself on her stone, but she had thought he had given it back to her. She looked at her empty palms and his closed fist. Did the other stones burn? Did they lead in the direction the stone men wanted? Did the people of this world understand why they were giving what they did, or was that just the Keeper? The man with her father’s face. He did not appear to have the same personality or temperament, but Nara had only followed him through a mountain. Her father had been very good at appearing however he needed to for those around him.
He had been scared, she thought, closing her eyes to the flames. In the moments before they had been dragged from the cells she hadn’t known existed beneath the house she had grown in. Her father had mentioned a curse, and she had thought about that curse and what it might mean so many times. More than she could count. She had wasted too many of her lives trying to determine what it meant for them. But she remembered the fear now in his voice, the desperation that she would bear that for him.
Had she not? Had her leaving with Haven, following him to another life, left him cursed?
“Haven?” she whispered.
“They will not harm us,” he replied, still watching the tree, and Nara knew that to be true as he said it, although she doubted they would survive this. Even with the stone in her hand.
“It is not whispering,” she said, holding out her hand. He looked down at her hand with concern as though it might burn her. Although when he had opened his hand to release it, he bore no mark or injury from it. “It is not our curse,” she said.
He shifted his gaze from her hand to her face and nodded once. Whether agreeing with her or indicating he too had thought so, she didn’t know, and it did not matter.
The large stone creatures had moved towards the tree, and they reached for each other. The smaller ones stepped in beneath the crackling flames that had all but consumed the tree and did the same. The snow swirled around them as the stone creatures sank into the floor. Their outstretched arms melded into one, forming a barrier, a solid wall that closed over the tree.
The glow that had filled the space dropped away, and the stone blocked out the light of the flames. The crack in the cavern wall to the outside world, where the snow and breeze blew into the now oddly silent and dark space, allowed a little light.
Haven turned and closed his arms around Nara completely, pulling her closer to his body. She could feel him shivering. At least he was still solid. She was thankful for the warmth of his body, the stone in her palm cool as she squeezed her hand around it. Perhaps they should try to find a way out, although the idea of heading back into the snow worried her.
The stone surrounding the tree cracked, loud and frightening, and crumbled away as though it were only dust. The tree that Nara had expected to be but a stump was stone. It appeared much as it had when they had found it, no longer the brilliant green but grey. She was unsure if she was relieved it had survived, in a way, or disappointed that it was lost.
Either way, it was all her doing. She wanted to walk towards it, feel the stone, but Haven kept her close and tight in his arms. Strange stone flowers bloomed, the same jade green colour of her stones and of the larger stone she had seen. She wondered if she had allowed that to happen or if it was already in the stone. She thought of the changes to the face of the creature, now gone. Possibly still close, waiting.
There were hints of the black stone in the flowers. As quickly as they had bloomed, they turned to dust, floating out into the world. The breeze had stopped blowing through the crack in the wall, but there was a wind like the one she had felt before, moving any remaining dust out to mix with the snow that swirled beyond the stone.
Nara no longer wanted to move into the cool world. At that thought, Haven put his hand to her face, and she looked up at the relieved smile he gave her as he brushed hair away from her eyes. He cupped her face and, tilting it up, he gently pressed his lips to hers, as though she might break if he kissed her with any more than the slightest touch.
As she squeezed her arms around him, something dropped from the tree. The sound of stones bouncing across the ground distracted them both, and they turned. As the light caught the green stones beneath the tree, Nara let out a small cry of relief.
Haven took her hand, and they walked towards the tree. She was desperate to run, but she didn’t have the energy for it and didn’t need to. The stone and the tree had given back what was hers. She had no idea why that might be, but she was thankful for it all the same.
Haven helped her collect the small, rounded stones, and as he put them into her hand, along with the stone she already had, the relief was overwhelming. Six stones. Her stones. She closed both hands around them, pressing the cool stone into her palms.
They were where they were meant to be. But other than that, the stones did not whisper.