CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

A man’s life is like a path he walks

A path upon which he can only move forward.

He may look back at the trail behind him, but he may never again revisit it

It lies in the past, that trail, and therefore well beyond his reach.

—Rodarian Dalumis, poet, excerpt from “The Ramblings of Life from a Rambling Life”

 

Cutter pulled his mount—a draft horse he’d procured in a small village they passed—to a halt. A moment later, Feledias pulled his own horse to a stop beside him and, for a time, the two brothers sat silently staring at the woods in front of them. Finally, Cutter dismounted and a few seconds later his brother followed suit.

“You sure we shouldn’t take the horses?” Feledias asked.

“They won’t go any farther,” Cutter said, gazing at the great forest spread out before him. It was early morning and yet the woods were dark, as they always were. “Not into the Black Woods.”

Feledias grunted. “Wiser than us, then.”

“Yes.”

Feledias gave a heavy sigh at that. “I’m sorry, you know.”

Cutter glanced at him. “What for?”

His brother shrugged. “Everything, I guess.”

Cutter nodded. “I’m sorry too, Fel.” He thought of Matt then, at the castle, thought of the others, and of Layna, but Matt most of all. “I’m sorry too. For all of it.”

Feledias gave him a small smile. “Well. Are you ready?”

Cutter shrugged. “Yes.” He started forward then. Into the Black Woods, into a darkness that, it seemed, had been waiting for him all his life. He paused on the edge of the forest, standing halfway between the light of the world and the shadow of the Black Wood, and stared back at the kingdom he had left, his kingdom. He remained that way for a time, trying to etch it into his memory, soaking in the warmth of the sun, for he did not think that he would feel it again.

“Alright,” he said to his brother, “let’s go.”

And then, side by side, the brothers stepped into the waiting darkness.