Black spruce and more black spruce. The Forest stretched on endlessly, with only the change in the direction of the shadows as the sun climbed and sank to make Ember believe time had passed at all.
She wasn’t even sure how many days had passed since they had come under the shadow of the spruces.
Each clearing was like a gift; each small glade a fairing which shone bright. The horses were happy and the dogs loved it, although they complained about not being allowed to follow the tantalizing scent trails which crossed their path.
Occasionally Holly cocked her head as if hearing something, and looked at Cedar inquiringly. Sometimes he nodded, sometimes he shrugged a “no.” Ember wondered what she was hearing, and why it brought a strange kind of calm to her face, like the look of a crafter absorbed in making something, her whole mind and body attuned to the one thing.
They stopped for the night while it was still light, in a clearing with a stream on one side and a standing pool on the other. One side of the pool was taken up entirely by a massive holly tree, bright with white blossoms, which Holly regarded with amusement.
“May be a good sign,” she said. Ember found the holly tree disquieting, but then she always did. There was something about the dark glossy leaves and sharp points of a holly that made it unwelcoming.
Ash whistled the dogs back from the edge of the clearing where they had been investigating a shrew’s hole. Grip came happily, loping over and butting Ash’s side with his head, but Holdfast turned toward the holly tree, and showed her teeth in a silent growl. She was warning of something.
“What is it, girl?” Ash went over to her. “What is it, then?”
He had picked up his bow as he went and now he strung it and nocked an arrow, holding it loosely, as Ember had seen her father’s guards do at archery practice, waiting for the signal to shoot.
Holly went to stand beside him, her sword in her hand.
“Calling…” she said again, and there was a yearning in her voice that worried Ember.
“Not calling me,” Cedar said. “I hear it, but it sounds far away, and I can’t make out the words.”
“What does it sound like?” Ember asked.
“The wind in the trees, the stream in its bed,” Cedar replied.
“No,” Holly said. “It’s a voice.”
“What does it say?”
“Come. Come home. Come home.”
Ember took a step toward the pool. None of them had drunk from that pool, preferring the running stream to the standing water.
“Stay back, my lady,” Holly said. Ember had been schooled in this type of obedience by her parents; it was her duty as warlord’s daughter to let her guards protect her. To not get in their way. So she stayed where she was, by the big log they had all sat on. Curlew and Tern flanked her, swords in hands.
The last of the twilight was almost gone, now, and the moon was barely up, not showing yet above the encircling trees. Holly moved into shadow as she approached the pool, but something about the way her foot slid on the ground brought a memory back to Ember, a realization of why the holly bush had seemed odd to her earlier. Berries. There had been holly berries all around the foot of the tree, and in the water. Berries fallen from the tree, and not eaten.
In the harsh northern winter, when every edible scrap was the difference between life and death, a carpet of holly berries uneaten by birds was impossible.
“Come back!” she called softly. “Come away from the tree.”
“There’s something in the pool,” Holly said, ignoring her, standing next to the holly tree and peering down. “That’s where it’s coming from.”
“Holly, don’t!” Cedar said.
“Don’t touch it!” Ember cried.
Ash moved forward at the same moment they spoke, but it was too late. Holly bent and dipped a hand in the water, scooping some up and looking at it closely in the dim light. Ash paused, drawing his belt knife, but nothing happened.
“Don’t drink it,” Cedar advised. Grip and Holdfast were both growling softly, now, a long undulating sound that sent chills down Ember’s spine.
“It smells of—home,” Holly said. Her voice was odd. Younger, like a child’s.
“Guard, to your duty!” Ember said in her best imitation of her father. Her heart was beating so fast she could feel it shaking her body. She began to move, to force herself to walk toward Holly. She had to be brave. She had to be. Holly would listen to her. She took a step, two, but Curlew pulled her back and it took her a moment to break free of him, her resolution suddenly stronger, so Ash was there before her, reaching out, putting his hand on Holly’s arm, forcing it down so that the water in her palm fell back into the pool. She shook off his touch irritably, and some drops of water flicked across her face, her cheeks, her lips. Her tongue came out reflexively and tasted them.
“I’m not an idiot!” she said, but she didn’t move away. “Can’t you hear it?”
“Come away,” Ash said. “Or I’ll pick you up and carry you.”
Ember had reached her now, and took her hand, pulling her toward the center of the clearing.
“Come away, Holly,” she pleaded. “It’s unchancy, this tree.”
Holly looked resigned and allowed her to pull, but before Holly had taken a step she looked down at her feet and frowned.
“I can’t,” she said in surprise. The dogs had stopped growling and begun whining instead, as if they weren’t sure whether they faced an enemy or not.
“Ember, move back,” Ash said.
“Get her away!” Cedar shouted. When Ember kept pulling Holly, Ash simply picked her up by her waist and dragged her backward, ripping their hands apart, leaving Holly standing, puzzled, alone next to the tree. Curlew helped him pull Ember into the center of the clearing.
“Put me down! Help her instead!” Ember shouted. Then Holly cried out. Around her feet, holly roots were writhing. It’s trying to trap her! Ember thought. Tern and Curlew moved forward, swinging their swords, cutting the roots as close to Holly’s feet as they dared.
She screamed. The dogs were barking, teeth bared, the noise horrible.
“Stop! Stop it!”
“They’re her,” Cedar said, sounding sickened. “They’re her.”
Straining through the dim light, Ember didn’t understand what he meant at first. Then she saw.
“Dragon’s breath,” Ash whispered.
The roots were not coming to Holly; they were coming out of her. And up her body, on her arms, her legs, her fingers, shoots were springing forth, like a dead winter tree coming to life in the spring, but fast, so fast.
Ember screamed, too. The holly twigs, so sharp and hard, punctured Holly’s skin at a hundred points and immediately sprouted leaves. Holly’s mouth was wide with astonishment and pain but then, suddenly, impossibly, she smiled. She looked straight at Cedar, as though he were the only one who could understand, and said, “Called me home.”
Then her head tipped back, her eyes and mouth opened wide and holly shoots pierced her, emerging from mouth and eyes and ears and nostrils, growing frantically, writhing, reaching, and a moment later, a breath later, a heartbeat later, there was no human body standing there at all, only a second holly tree, smaller than the first.
They gathered together, staring, waiting, although Ember didn’t know for what. Didn’t understand why they weren’t running screaming into the darkness, away from the horror. The dogs had gone—they were curled up together in a corner of the glade, whimpering.
Ash stood next to her and she reached out to grip his hand hard. Cedar took her other hand, and Curlew and Tern flanked them, swords still in hand, dripping a sap that was not white, like holly sap, but red. Tears ran down Curlew’s face ceaselessly.
They stood, waiting, for what seemed like a long time, until the moon had risen enough to touch the tip of Holly’s tree. As the first ray silvered the topmost leaf, flowers began appearing all over the tree; the white, pure blossoms like stars in the darkness.
Ember let go of her cousins’ hands and walked forward, and no one tried to stop her.
“You are very beautiful, Holly,” she said. “Are you home?”
As if in answer, petals drifted from the tree and landed on her face and hair, surrounding her with scent. Ash leaped forward in alarm, followed by Curlew and Tern, but she was safe, she knew. They all were.
The Forest had wanted only Holly.