GROVE OF THE MOTHER TREE
We didn’t run into any more hostile trees, though not for lack of them trying. If you think a giant, murderous tree stomping around is easy enough to avoid, you’d be wrong. Turns out, treants are very good at looking like...well, like trees. Normal, nonhostile trees that will not come to life and try to squish you for passing in front of them. Fortunately for us, both Furball and Nyx were experts at spotting which trees were trees and which trees were looking to step on our heads. Following the two masters of stealth, we managed to sneak around the half-dozen or so treants on our way to the grove without being spotted by any of them. Even Coaleater.
Finally, the briars and trees opened up, and we stood at the edge of a small clearing. I say small, but only because there wasn’t a lot of space left, due to the biggest tree you’d ever seen in your life sitting smack in the center. I didn’t even know what kind of tree it was, just that it was huge, dwarfing even the biggest treant. It would probably take a hundred or so people to stretch their arms around the gnarled trunk, and its branches soared up until they disappeared into the canopy overhead, spreading out like a leafy ceiling. Moss, mushrooms, creeper vines and toadstools grew from the trunk and around the massive roots, and a continuous rain of leaves drifted from the branches above, spiraling to the ground like feathers.
“I take it this is the Mother Tree,” Coaleater remarked, craning his neck up to stare at it. Pinning his ears, he snorted and tossed his head. “Let’s hope it isn’t hostile, because it would take a very long time to chop down.”
“You cannot chop down the Mother Tree,” Nyx said, sounding faintly horrified. “The forest would die, as would all the treants and dryads attached to her. This tree has been here longer than any of us.”
Coaleater blew a puff of smoke into the air. “Then perhaps we should ask the Mother Tree why she has been sending her children to kill everyone else.”
Warily, we stepped into the clearing. There were no explosions, no twiggy hands surging out of the earth to grab at us, so we started walking. Toward the huge tree in the center of the grove.
“Puck.” Beside me, Nyx shuddered, causing all my alarm bells to go off. “Can you feel it?” she whispered.
I gave a slight frown. “What are you—?”
And then I felt it.
A taint on the air, in the earth and trees and rocks surrounding us. The same malevolent, roiling glamour we’d felt in Phaed. Disgust and loathing, and a deep, pulsing rage toward the insignificant fleshy creatures who defiled the forest and used her children for their own gain. The flesh creatures did nothing but exploit and waste and destroy, and it was the forest that suffered the most. Perhaps it was time that the trees rose up to do a little damage of their own.
Oh boy. This was going to be interesting.
“Mother Tree,” Meghan called, taking a few steps toward the massive trunk. A root as thick as she was curled back as she approached, like a snake getting ready to strike, but the Iron Queen didn’t flinch. Ash, however, slid his body between it and Meghan, one hand on the hilt of his sword.
“I am Meghan Chase, Queen of the Iron Realm,” Meghan went on, facing the giant trunk. “I bring no trouble, Mother Tree, to you or your children. I wish only to talk. Will you speak with us?”
“Insects.”
The branches overhead rattled, shaking the canopy and sending a shower of leaves hissing to the ground. In the center of the trunk, the gnarled bark shifted, moving around like wax, forming the vague impression of a face. A pair of eyes emerged, shiny and black, and a slash formed in the trunk as words spilled forth, slow and rusty, as if they had not been spoken in centuries.
“Parasites,” the voice whispered, though it still caused the ground to shake and the branches above us to tremble. “Weevils and termites, digging into my flesh, burrowing through my blood. Carrying your diseases, leaving nothing behind. What do you want? Haven’t you already taken enough?”
“Mother Tree.” Meghan stepped forward. “My friends and I have taken nothing, from you or this forest. We wish only to pass through in peace. Likewise, the Thorn Sisters have great respect for you and the woods in which they hunt. Why do you send your children to attack them? Have they offended you in some way?”
“Offended me?” The Mother Tree didn’t sound amused. She sounded disgusted—as disgusted as an ancient tree could sound, anyway. “Their entire existence is an offense to the forest,” she rasped. “They, and all the other flesh creatures who take and take and take and give nothing back. They have become as greedy and destructive as the humans in the mortal realm, who raze the trees and destroy the earth with no thought or regret, unable to hear how the land screams out in pain.”
“Surely that isn’t true, Mother Tree,” Meghan reasoned. “At least, not here. I’ve seen no signs of destruction. No swaths of cleared forest or chopped trees. Perhaps your anger at mankind is what’s driving this, but the fey who live in the Briars are not deserving of your wrath.”
“You think not, flesh queen?” Oh, this wasn’t going well. The Mother Tree’s voice had turned icy, which caused Ash to step closer to Meghan, every muscle in his body coiled to react. “How many trees have they felled to build their homes?” the Mother Tree went on. “How many saplings have they uprooted to craft their bows, spears, and weapons of death? How many branches have they ripped asunder and burned in their firepits?”
“That is just basic survival,” Ash broke in. “The fey of this world have always depended on the forest for their homes and tools. This is nothing new, Mother Tree.”
“The wolves do not uproot my trees to hunt,” was the uncompromising reply. “The deer do not build fires to keep themselves warm. The bears do not need bows to fell their prey. Only the fleshy two-legs must continuously destroy to survive. Like a colony of termites, eating, eating, eating, until the tree they depend on for their home is consumed and chewed to nothing. Then they simply move on and find another tree to kill.” Branches rattled, and all around us, the roots of the tree coiled beneath the ground like giant worms. “You...you are an infestation, all of you. Why should we not take offense to this?”
Meghan’s voice was hard, as if she realized talking to this fanatical, overgrown shrub was getting her nowhere. “Is that why you sent the treants to kill the fey who live here?”
“I did not send my children to do anything,” the Mother Tree said. “I do not order or give commands. The younglings simply realized the stain and took it upon themselves to remove it from the forest. They act without my guidance, but their actions do not displease me.”
“Mother Tree.” Ash stepped forward. “The fey here depend on the forest for their survival. If you continue to allow your children to kill, there will be a war. And then more trees will die.”
“The earth is tainted,” the Mother Tree went on. “You do not understand. I feel it, in the ground under your feet. I stretch my roots out, and...”
Suddenly, she shuddered, and the earth shuddered with her. Leaves spiraled to the ground, and flocks of birds took to the air, as the ground literally rumbled and shook, causing us all to brace ourselves. The face in the tree contorted, warping into an expression of rage and agony, before it went slack.
“Um, okay,” I said as the tremors finally stopped. “That was weird. Did the old shrub just throw a temper tantrum and go home? What the hell is going on here?”
The Mother Tree still stood there with her eyes shut, unmoving. We all shared a glance, and Meghan stepped forward when the trunk stirred, shedding leaves, and the eyes opened.
Oh crap. A fist made of ice dropped into the pit of my stomach and stayed there, freezing me in place. I stared at the Mother Tree, or rather, at the face in the trunk of the Mother Tree. Because the gaze pinning me in place was not the angry, unreasonable forest guardian we had been speaking with until now.
It was him. Or it. Whatever it was. The presence I’d felt before, staring at me from the eyes of the monster in Phaed, trying to figure me out. Curious and intrigued, but somehow...sleepy, as if it wasn’t quite awake yet. I felt it again, that same cold curiosity, mingled with the edge of frustration. Frustration that it wasn’t quite conscious, as if its thoughts weren’t entirely clear yet.
It lasted only a moment. One split-second glance. Then, the Mother Tree blinked, and the other presence was gone.
I shivered, all the way down to my toes. Around me, I could see the others were feeling the same; grim and shaken by what they’d seen, even if they couldn’t quite understand it.
“What was that?” Coaleater muttered behind me.
The Mother Tree shuddered again. Opening her eyes, her face twisted, warping even further into a mask of horror and rage. I felt a ripple go through the earth at my feet, as if the roots of the great tree were writhing around, trying to escape a predator.
“Aaaaauuugh,” the ancient tree groaned. “Too deep. Too deep, I can feel it. Roots cold, burning. Something...beneath the earth. Can’t pull back.”
Meghan looked at the ground, her expression pale with understanding. “Something beneath,” she whispered. Stretching a hand over the earth, she closed her eyes, and glamour began swirling around her. I felt the pulse of Summer magic, felt it following the roots of the great tree down into the darkness. I saw her frown, a furrow creasing her brow, as she sent the magic deeper, deeper...
Suddenly she gasped, and her eyes flew open as she recoiled, nearly falling backward. Ash lunged forward and caught her, holding her steady as she regained her balance. Above us, the Mother Tree wailed, an unearthly cry of rage and despair, sending ripples through the entire forest.
Heart pounding, I looked at Meghan, who clutched Ash tightly, her face white. She was shaking, breathing hard, as if we had just fled the Briars with that pissed-off dragon behind us.
“Meghan.” Ash’s voice was low, concerned. He didn’t move, just continued to hold her, but his entire posture was tight. “What happened?”
“There is something down there,” Meghan whispered. “I don’t know what it is, but I could sense its presence. I’ve never felt anything so...”
“Angry?” I supplied in a soft voice. “Hateful? Like it wants to burn down the world and every living thing in it?”
She nodded, pale and shaken, then glanced up at the Mother Tree and took a quiet breath. “Whatever it is,” she whispered in a steely voice, “I can’t let this continue. Her roots are too close.” She raised her head and drew away from Ash, standing tall on her own. “I’m going to try to pull her out.”
The Mother Tree wailed again, her voice scraping like bark against my ears, and turned a furious gaze on us. “Insects,” she almost snarled. “Parasites. You will not touch me with your rotten flesh digits, your tainted glamour.” Her trunk shook, and her voice seemed to echo through the forest, reverberating through the trees. “Leave my grove,” she ordered. “I give you this one chance to depart peacefully, flesh pods. Leave my forest, or we will crush your bones, rend your disgusting flesh, and let the earth drink your poisoned blood.”
Meghan ignored her. Stepping forward, she stretched out her hand again, and glamour began rising once more. I felt the pull of magic, as she seemed to call on the forest itself to aid her, and the Summer glamour was quick to respond, flowing into the Iron Queen and filling her with power.
The Mother Tree hissed, her voice turning ugly and guttural. “I gave you the chance to leave, insects!” she snarled. “But you never listen, you continue to consume and slaughter and destroy. Very well, we will not stand for it a moment longer. The forest will tear your blight from the earth, and your bones will be food for the saplings for years to come.”
A rumble went through the earth. Overhead and all around us, the Mother Tree’s huge branches rattled, hissing with the sound of a million shaking leaves. And then I noticed all the plants—grass, brambles, bushes, toadstools—were shaking and writhing madly, causing a chill to slide up my back.
“Uh, princess? I think we’re about to be assaulted by the entire freaking forest. Perhaps a tactical retreat is in order?”
“No.” Meghan’s voice was strained but unyielding. The Iron Queen hadn’t moved, though a furrow creased her brow as she struggled to draw glamour against the very forest fighting against her. “This has to be done. Try to keep everything back. I just need a few seconds—”
With a crack and a piercing groan, a huge branch swung toward Meghan, moving with unnatural speed. Instantly, Ash snatched the queen around the waist and yanked her back, and the branch barely missed them both as it swept by. Meghan winced, losing hold of her glamour for a moment, but she didn’t even open her eyes. Ash drew his sword and stepped in front of her, placing himself between the Iron Queen and the giant trunk of the Mother Tree.
“Protect the queen,” he snapped at the rest of us, as with eerie hisses, creaks, groans, and scrapes, the forest floor rose up and started reaching for us. Grass covered my boots, vines tried slithering around my ankles, brambles clawed at me with spiky talons. I cut myself free of vegetation and had to duck as a branch swooped by with the groan of splitting wood.
“Dammit, ice-boy!” I sprang toward Meghan and Ash, trying to get to Meghan’s other side, but the surging roots and vines clawed at my feet, slowing me down. “Do you know how hard it’s going to be to fight the entire forest?”
A trio of spinning light crescents flew by my ear, slicing into a tangle of bramble rearing up to impale me, and cutting the shrub into pieces. I glanced back to see Nyx cut a sapling in two as Coaleater reared up and stomped a log into charred, smoking pieces, then blasted a coiling vine into a withered husk. Nyx sprang onto Coaleater’s back, then leaped gracefully off the Iron faery, soared over my head, and landed next to Meghan, cutting through a root reaching up to grab her. Together, the four of us surrounded the Iron Queen, a living barrier between her and the madness swirling around us.
“Insects!” the Mother Tree cried, making my ears ring. “Blight bringers! Destroyers! Crush them! Impale their diseased flesh! Grind their bones to dust! Rise up, my children, and swallow them whole.”
Around us, beyond our protective ring, the forest was crawling toward us like a steady, unstoppable tide. A sea of brambles, thorns, vines, and roots, seeking to bury us beneath a flood of angry plants.
Nyx hurled light blades into the approaching wall, and Coaleater blasted nearby offending plants with flame, but the sea of vegetation continued to creep closer, a constant hiss in our ears.
“Puck!” Slashing through a swiping branch, Ash turned to glare at me. “Slow it down, Goodfellow,” he ordered, jerking his head toward the wall of plants. “Meghan has to concentrate. She can’t do anything right now, but you can. Put that Summer magic to work before it’s too late.”
“Don’t ask for much, do you, ice-boy?” I snapped, but dropped to a knee in the writhing grass and pressed a palm into the ground. Sending my own glamour into the forest around me, I could feel the anger pulsing beneath my skin, the rage and loathing for all of us fleshy creatures who continuously destroyed the forest. The Mother Tree’s despair pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating.
Gritting my teeth, I extended my will into the thrashing forest, into the roots and branches spread through the dirt. Sweat beaded on my forehead, running into my eyes as I fought the ancient and supremely powerful will of the Mother Tree and tried to hold back the entire forest.
The crawling plants slowed, and a headache began pounding behind my eyes with the effort. I clenched my jaw and kept pouring will and glamour into the forest around me, silently begging the Iron Queen to hurry up. I could feel her glamour suddenly, the alien sensation of Iron mixed with Summer magic, descending into the earth, into the roots of the Mother Tree herself.
A bramble curled around my arm, digging spiny thorns into my flesh as it tried yanking me away. I winced, but there was the flash of a blade that severed the branch, and Nyx stepped in front of me with her light blades out. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the forest reaching for us, twiggy hands, coiling vines, thorny claws just a few breaths away. Despite my attempts to slow it down, another few heartbeats and we’d be buried.
Another thorny vine coiled around my arm, leaving threads of blood against my skin. A root slithered into my pant leg, and something sharp and twiggy touched my neck. At that moment, I felt the strange, steely glamour of the Iron Queen yank on the roots of the Mother Tree, pulling them up, up, and out, spreading them to different corners of the forest.
The Mother Tree screamed, and the forest went wild. The wall of vegetation recoiled, writhing and thrashing, roots and branches flailing about like the ends of whips. Gradually, however, they stilled, sinking back and returning to normal.
Panting, I slumped, letting my glamour drop as around us, the vicious sounds of branches, grass, and leaves faded away, and all was quiet once more.
Lowering her arms, Meghan swayed on her feet, then collapsed into Ash’s arms.
The Ice Prince scooped her up, holding her close, as overhead, the Mother Tree gave a final wail and collapsed into herself. Her eyes shut, and her lined, wrinkled face disappeared, seeming to melt into the bark of the trunk, until a huge but nonsentient-looking tree sat in the center of the now silent grove.
“I did...as much as I could,” Meghan whispered between breaths. “I pulled up the roots...sent them in different directions. They won’t stay that way for long but...at least for now...they’re out of that thing’s influence. This is a temporary fix at best. I wish I could have done more.”
“It is all you could have done, Iron Queen,” said Grimalkin’s voice, as the cat looked up from where he sat on a root. He curled his whiskers, gazing up at the Mother Tree’s empty trunk. “This is the root of the treant’s corruption. Had you not acted, they and all the other sentient plants would continue to attack the fey and perhaps all living creatures in the Briars. But you are correct. Though the treants’ hostility will fade and they will eventually revert to their former selves, it is likely not permanent. Unless you sever the corruption at the source.”
“You did everything you could,” Ash told Meghan gently. “Rest now. We’re getting out of here. Goodfellow...” He shot a glance at me, and I couldn’t tell if he was relieved or annoyed that I was still there. “Can you stand?”
I forced a tired smirk. “Sure, everyone, go check on the Iron Queen. Pay no attention to the guy that actually slowed down the entire forest.” I pushed myself upright, and Nyx stepped forward, letting me lean on her for support. I would’ve told her not to worry, but my legs were shaking, my arms felt like they were made of noodles, and I was feeling unreasonably cranky at the moment. “Don’t pretend that you care, ice-boy,” I told him. “Let’s get out of here. Right now, I don’t feel like fighting anything meaner than a butterfly.”
Meghan sighed. Leaning her head on Ash’s shoulder, she gazed up tiredly at the Mother Tree, her features pinched with concern. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I hope we’ve at least brought you some measure of peace.”
There was no reply from the Mother Tree. The trunk remained blank, empty of face or expression.
Grimalkin hopped down from the root, waved his tail once, and padded out of the clearing without making any comments. With Ash still carrying Meghan, we followed, and the grove of the Mother Tree faded behind us.