Daire couldn’t see the druid. The second Amelia appeared, attached to that tree, the old man had vanished. Was she dead? Was she even here? Daire didn’t want to think the worst, but they were on the brink of the world being destroyed. What else was he supposed to believe? Fear threatened to swallow him up. He tried to think on what was true. He had been brought here for this reason, to fulfil this purpose. To stop the druid destroying the tree.
That was what was true.
Amelia was here, as was Bryn. He needed to protect both of them. Regardless of what he faced, Daire had to keep in mind what he was here to do. The reason he’d been brought by Providence to this place.
Bryn grabbed two handfuls of his T-shirt, under his jacket at the back. She was with him. He would make sure that was the safest place for her to be. But she also knew enough to not restrict the arm he held the sword with. Her confidence had been battered. Especially the confidence she had in her own sanity. She didn’t believe this was really happening. She even thought she’d made him up.
Regardless, her faith in him wasn’t going to be misplaced.
She gasped. He spun and saw her attention was behind them both. Daire moved, keeping her behind him as he turned.
Amelia hung from the tree.
Bryn broke from him and darted around his body to head over there.
He didn’t want her moving too far away, so he went with her. “Bryn!”
Branches littered the ground, half the wicker man structure now leaning against the tree. Still flickering with the flames that had engulfed it.
Maybe he didn’t believe Amelia was really there. He followed Bryn, moving over the scattered children. He saw them now, and most were unconscious. Some had been severely burned. Maybe they were all dead and the signs of life were nothing but an illusion meant to distract him.
Daire was beginning to doubt his own sense of perception the way Bryn had been doing. And likely it was all the druid. Just another game of reality vs. illusion meant to tie them in knots while his enemy finished what he’d come here to do.
But the tree was here. And the druid was nowhere.
So what was going on?
Bryn reached his niece. Amelia hung against the trunk, secured there with her arms stretched out to her sides. Blood dripped from cuts all over her, draining onto the bark and down to soak the soil at the roots.
Maybe he just didn’t want to believe this had happened to her.
“Amelia.” Bryn reached out to touch her. “You—”
His niece disappeared.
Flames roared against the tree. Bryn screamed and jumped back. He pulled her away. “What on earth…”
Children littered the ground once again.
“My God.” Daire tugged her against him, but kept his sword ready while he held her with the other arm. He hugged her close, his chin against her head. “Stay with me.”
The druid’s mocking laughter grew louder. Daire found him across the cave, beyond where a stream ran along the floor between them.
“Distract him,” she whispered. “Maybe Amelia will reappear and I’ll be able to help her.”
Daire gave her a squeeze. She shifted around his body.
The druid waved his arms in circles.
Daire called out to him. “I won’t let you do this.”
“It’s too late. My plan is already in motion.”
“You aren’t going to destroy the tree. It’s lived too long like this.”
“Diseased,” the druid said. “Corrupted.” The tree of the knowledge of good and evil swayed against the force of an unseen breeze.
“But living,” Daire said. “Not so hard to destroy after all. Even with fire. And blood.”
“Cursed blood. My favorite kind.” Laughter echoed then, though the druid had closed his mouth.
Daire’s fingers flexed on the sword hilt, his muscles desperate for a fight. He knew how to fight. But he didn’t know how to kill the druid. Help me. What he needed was knowledge of how to end this. How to destroy the druid.
They had been made immortal at the same time. Daire knew his own limitations and had always assumed he could be killed. He nearly had been by the dragon. That was as close as he’d ever come to death.
He’d always figured he wasn’t invincible. It would be hard to come back from having his head cut off, for example.
The tree groaned, the same way a house did under the pressure of a storm that would tear it apart.
Bryn screamed. Daire ran at the druid and swung his sword, distracting him at least temporarily.
“She’s here!” Bryn called out, her voice laced with pain.
He couldn’t help Bryn or Amelia unless he destroyed the druid…who disappeared in a cloud of mist. Claws slashed at him and caught his cheek. Ripped it open. Daire cut off a hand. It fell to the floor, and immediately shriveled to dust.
He glanced back, where Bryn was working on whatever bound Amelia to the tree. “Do you need help?”
Amelia’s left arm dropped to her side. Bryn yelled, “I’m doing it!”
Daire turned and splashed across the stream. He ran to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then stopped. Would this even work? The fruit was rotten.
He grabbed an apple-pear thing that had skin like a peach. It collapsed under the strength of his grip. He tossed it on the floor and wiped his hand on his pants, then picked another. This one looked a little better, at least on one side. He took a bite and prayed nothing wriggled inside. Sour flavor burst in his mouth. Daire chewed through it, swallowing before his stomach could catch up and rebel.
Then he tossed the rest on the ground and waited.
Prayed.
He leaned a hand against the tree, and rested his head on it. Daire took a few breaths as his stomach realized the state of what he’d just eaten.
Come on.
His hand tingled against the tree.
Daire lifted his head and looked at his palm. It was clean. Whatever blood had been on the skin there, from the cuts he’d gotten, had been removed. He squeezed the end of his finger and a tiny cut. Blood beaded on the tip of his finger.
He touched it to the tree.
The drop of blood disappeared. Absorbed. Sucked into the tree.
Branches closest to him shifted.
Life. Knowledge.
Amelia’s blood was cursed, which would impart that curse into an already corrupted tree. Was it enough to destroy it? Daire wasn’t sure.
Just like he wasn’t sure if the tree would be saved with his own, immortal blood.
The pieces clicked together in his mind. Why he—of all people in the world—might have been brought here. Gifted with immortality. Could he actually use his own blood to combat the druid’s attempt to destroy the tree?
He ran back to where Bryn was helping Amelia down. He held her torso up while Bryn tugged the vines on her feet and broke them. “Got her?” she asked.
Daire lifted the girl over his shoulder and carried her away. “What about the kids?”
Bryn brushed hair back from her face. “Where are they?”
He looked around, hardly believing the floor was clear now. Moments ago it had been covered with the bodies of children. “They’re gone.”
“If they were ever even here.”
Daire laid Amelia down. Her head lolled to one side, and she didn’t wake up. “You think you could get her out?”
“I can try and carry her, but we probably weigh about the same. It’s gonna be tough.” She sank to the ground beside him and sucked in a breath. It emerged from her throat as a sob.
He pushed aside the question of what had happened to the children, and said, “I have to try something.”
She blinked up at him, but he couldn’t explain it. There likely wasn’t time. He wasn’t going to risk borrowing more if it meant he wouldn’t be able to at least try.
Daire ran to the tree. To the spot where Amelia had hung only moments ago. He ran his sword blade down the center of his palm and hissed out a breath as it cut through the skin. What was the big deal about one more wound? At least that was what he told himself. Maybe, in order for this to work, he had to give the tree all the blood he possessed.
He glanced back at Bryn and Amelia.
Could he end it all like this?
If it saved the tree, then yes. But would that kill the druid? If Daire died and the druid lived, just as immortal as ever, that put everyone he cared about in even more danger. Not to mention the rest of the world.
He pressed his palm against the tree. The reaction was instantaneous. It tugged on his hand. A sucking sensation, as thought the tree itself was drinking from him. Great gulps of Daire’s blood.
Bryn screamed.
He spun around and saw the druid grasp Bryn’s neck with one hand and lift her.
Daire took two steps. His whole body jerked, his hand still attached to the tree. And it wasn’t letting go. He tugged on his hand, but it wouldn’t give.
Bryn choked and gasped. She croaked out his name, almost too quiet to hear, while the druid laughed.
Please.
He had to help her.
Daire tugged again. He cried out at the pain, but managed to pull his hand from the tree. If the tree hadn’t let go, he’d have cut it off. Not easier said than done, but somehow he’d have managed it anyway.
But he didn’t have to. And so he ran to her, finally free of it by sheer force of will.
The druid raised his hand.
Daire flew backward and hit a wall. Flames erupted around him.
Bryn kicked at the druid and squirmed in his grip. Wriggling. She clawed at his hand while Daire was pushed against the wall at his back. There was a wall of heat at his front. He was trapped. The flames licked his skin. He cried out, unable to contain the pain of being burned.
No.
He wouldn’t die standing still. That wasn’t how this was going to end. If he was cut down running through fire, so be it. At least he would be meeting his attacker head on, and not cornered like a defenseless animal.
He braced and headed right for them, fast as he could. Daire broke through the barrier and swung his sword.
This time his aim was true.
He brought it down before the druid could disappear, cutting off his hand at the elbow. Bryn fell to the ground.
The druid screamed. Daire took advantage of the time it would take his enemy’s brain to catch up with what happened, and realize his limb had been cut off. He shoved the druid along the floor, moving him with the force of his own body and momentum.
Daire pushed him against the tree, grabbed his arm and put the sliced-off end against the tree. He pressed the blood into the bark.
Immortal blood, imparted to the tree of life. A surge of life to combat the curse the druid had placed on Amelia’s blood. Maybe enough to stem the tide of what had already begun.
Daire held the arm in place and refused to let go. The tree shuddered behind him, reacting to the sudden surge of immortal blood. Never mind that the druid had used twisted means to obtain his immortality, catching Daire in it as well, the tree only saw a source of life that was more powerful than what it had been surviving on for centuries.
At the edge of his awareness, Daire heard the dragon roar.
The druid began to laugh. “Blood. And fire.”