I woke up feeling like I had just lost a fight. My body was sore and bruised. I was thankful to be alive, but at the same time I was worried about my father.
I saw a grey sky and black trees above me. The air was warm and still, with not even the slightest bit of wind. I heard thunder in the distance but the cloud cover overhead did not look anything like storm clouds. I tried to sit up, but my muscles felt like they were on fire.
“Easy there,” a girl’s voice said. “You haven’t got the strength for that yet.”
“Hope? Is that you?”
Her face appeared above me, as if out of thin air. Her lips curled in a sweet smile and her almond eyes searched my own and calmed my nerves. The medallion I had sent with Faldyn hung elegantly from her neck. It looked so much better on her than it did on me. It belonged.
“Here, drink this,” she offered, bringing a cup to my mouth. “Be careful; it’s hot. It will help you regain your strength.”
The aroma of the foamy drink aroused my senses, the same juniper scent I first smelled when I awoke. I took a quick sip and almost immediately began to feel better. The sweet drink had a rich velvety texture, much like my favorite latte, only much…much better.
“This is good,” I said, taking a longer sip from the cup.
“I’m glad you like it,” Hope replied. “Feeling better?”
“Much,” I answered. I wiped a bit of foam from my lips with my sleeve and sat up easily. Like magic, the pain was almost completely gone.
“Where am I?” I asked, taking in my surroundings. I was sitting in the middle of a grove of blackened trees that looked as if they had recently survived a forest fire. Their limbs and trunks were as black as soot, but what struck me most of all was what they held. Skeletons, hundreds and hundreds of skeletons lined the trees, some of them hanging from the branches and others scattered about the ground. I eyed the scene nervously. “Am I…dead?”
“No, you’re on the Lost Shard,” she said simply. “But I wish you would have waited for me. I could have made your arrival less…dramatic. Why did you leave Noc without me?” Hope asked.
“I was just anxious, I guess. Once I figured out where my father was I couldn’t wait to get started. Then Desi arrived and I kinda got…carried away….”
I took another sip of the drink, but to my dismay I found the cup was already empty. I didn’t realize how quickly I had downed it.
“I understand,” Hope said. “Patience is one of the hardest things to learn. But good things come to those who wait.”
“Is there any more?” I asked, handing the empty cup back to Hope and licking my lips expectantly.
“One cup is enough, trust me. You couldn’t handle more.”
I frowned at the news. Whatever was in her concoction was powerfully good stuff.
“I’ve brought you something,” Hope said coyly, averting my attention from the empty cup.
“What is it?”
“A gift…from Aviad,” she said, handing me a small package wrapped in simple brown paper. I tore open the wrap to find a small vial with a cork seal. It looked empty. I shook the jar and heard a light tink inside. Upon closer inspection, I saw the glass vial wasn’t empty…there was a small speck inside it. The speck was so small I practically had to cross my eyes to focus on it. Hope looked amused.
“Not what you expected?” she asked.
“You could say that. What’s it for?”
“It’s a seed, the start of something new. It will help you repair what has been broken. It will bring life where once there was death.”
“But, it’s just a seed….”
“Not an ordinary seed; it has the power to change this world forever, Hunter. You just have to believe it.”
“This seed?” I asked, looking at the tiny speck in disbelief. It was smaller than any seed I had ever seen. “So, what am I supposed to do with it—put it in a Styrofoam cup of dirt in my kitchen window and water it once a day?”
Hope laughed.
“You’ll know, if you’re listening to the Author.”
“Right,” I said, tucking the vial in my pocket. “Did he say anything else? Did you ask if the vision in the Eye of Ends was true?”
“I...I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it isn’t meant for you to know.”
Of course, it wasn’t. Aviad rarely let me see the whole truth. It wasn’t his way. The truth was always wrapped in riddles or secret messages. Here, have a seed Hunter. You don’t know what it does but use it. Stuff like that was starting to annoy me. I mean, why couldn’t he just tell me what his plan was for once?
“What’s wrong?” Hope asked, spotting the frustration on my face.
“I’m just tired of all the secrets the Author keeps. Sometimes I just wish I could see a glimpse of what the future holds.”
“No, you don’t…trust me.”
“Why, is it that bad?”
Hope chuckled. “There you go again, assuming the worst of everything.”
“Well, it’s kinda hard not to when you’re surrounded by a forest of dead men,” I said, pointing to the surroundings.
“I see your point,” Hope answered, “but it still doesn’t mean everything ends in tragedy.”
“So, it’s good then?” I asked.
Hope sighed. “You really want me to tell you, don’t you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Can you?” I asked.
She thought about it for a moment, and seemed to be genuinely considering the idea. After a short silence, she nodded her head and looked both ways before beckoning me to lean in closer.
“Come here,” she said quietly. My heart beat a little faster in anticipation of what she was about to say next. I leaned toward her and she put her lips right up to the edge of my ear and held there for a moment or two before whispering her secret in a slow, hushed tone.
“Everything will be exactly as it should be,” she said. As she finished, she started to giggle. She had played me perfectly.
“I should have seen that coming,” I said dryly, shaking my head and trying to suppress a smile of my own.
“Oh, but that wouldn’t be any fun,” she replied. “You have to admit some things are better as a surprise.”
“Maybe the little things,” I said in agreement, “but it’s the bigger things that worry me more.”
“Listen,” Hope said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “I know you’re scared and concerned about what the future might hold. But you don’t have to be.”
“I don’t want to be,” I answered. “But the visions my father saw in the Eye…they….”
“Aren’t important,” Hope replied. “If you trust the Writ and what the Author has said about the story to come, you won’t have to worry. Remember the words of the Writ, the ones that Gabby sang?”
“You mean the song about finding joy that’s hid behind?”
Hope nodded and began to sing the tune. Her voice was sweet and heavenly as it rang through the air.
A greater story is being told,
Beyond the things you see and hold.
The pages turn in perfect time,
Leaving what we know behind.
Death is not the end, dear one.
Another chapter has begun.
So be not sad, oh heart of mine,
Find the joy that’s hid behind.
Through darkness light will find its way,
While we await the dawn of day.
As she sang, my chest felt as if a giant, crushing rock had been lifted off. I was at peace. Just hearing her sing reminded me that the Author knew what he was doing. After all, he had sent her to me, hadn’t he? She belonged to the Codebearers…. She was a gift from the Author to all of us.
“Every page has its purpose, Hunter,” Hope said after finishing her song, “even the difficult ones. We just have to believe that things are going to work out the way the Author has planned.”
“But it’s not as easy as it sounds.”
“No, it’s not at first. But like that seed, your faith will grow until it’s as strong and unshakeable as a mighty oak.”
I held the vial up once more and looked at the seed inside it.
“Hunter!” my father’s voice yelled through the blackened woods. “Hunter, where are you, son?”
“Dad, I’m over here!” I yelled back. I started to run toward the sound of his voice but turned back when I realized Hope wasn’t following.
“Go on,” she said. “Your father needs you.”
“But aren’t you coming?” I asked.
“Not right now; there’s something else I must do first,” Hope said. “But I’ll be back soon. Just remember, no matter what happens in the Eye of Ends, the future belongs to the Author. We’re never alone.”
I nodded in agreement at the familiar phrase the Codebearers shared. Hope’s eyes shifted from mine to a movement in the woods behind me. My father had found me.
“Hunter! I’m so glad you made it!” Dad said as he bounded onto the scene. “That was quite the fall, eh? Are you okay?”
I turned to greet him. “Yeah, Dad, I’m…fine,” I said, but when I turned back to where Hope had once stood, she was gone.
“Good! From the looks of things we lucked out. We could have easily ended up like one of those poor souls,” he said, pointing to the tree full of bones. “That would have been a nasty ending, wouldn’t you say?”
“Never alone,” I whispered to myself. Clearly, the Author had been watching out for us. But for what purpose?
“And that’s not all,” Dad continued excitedly, “you’ll never guess what I found!”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Come here; I’ll show you.”
He led me through the grove of blackened trees to a clearing, not far from where Hope had found me. The ground darkened as we approached, and it was dry and cracked in places. In the center of the clearing, a massive tree stump remained. Despite all the differences in the landscape, I recognized it at once.
“The Living Tree,” he said in a theatrical voice.
“Or what’s left of it,” I added, noting how dead it was. There was nothing left but the stump and even that seemed to be rotting away.
“Ah, but its rings are still intact, see?” Dad pointed out. “That’s the important part.”
I glanced over the intricate pattern of the circular grain of the tree. I had never noticed it before, but it actually looked quite a bit like a maze, complete with dead ends and backtracking paths that led toward the middle of the tree and the eye-shaped center.
“So what do we do now?” I asked.
“We sleep, of course!”
“Sleep?”
“Yes, you have to be asleep in order to enter the Maze of Rings.”
I vaguely recalled Simon saying something to that effect in his explanation about the Eye of Ends. It only made sense that the tree stump would require the same thing.
“Wait a minute, don’t we need a Watcher to enter the Maze?”
“Not if Tonomis is already in the Eye himself. Remember, the Eye is a cross section of this tree. The rings will be the same as these. If my suspicions are correct both will lead to the Maze of Rings. The only way to know for sure is to get some sleep.”
“Sleep? But I’m not really tired,” I said. The potion Hope had given me made me think I might never sleep again. I felt more awake than any time in my life.
“Oh, you will be,” Dad replied with a mischievous look in his eye. He knew something I didn’t. He set to work, gathering a collection of small sticks that were lying on the ground here and there. I didn’t question him, I just watched. He had obviously done this before and knew what he was doing. When at last he had a decent handful, he motioned toward the tree stump. “Go ahead. Touch the rings.”
I reached out toward the tree and paused for a moment before my fingers touched the surface. Dad nodded his encouragement and reached out with me toward the rings. The moment my fingers connected with the tree, I felt like every ounce of energy in my body drained through my fingertips and was pulled into the tree itself. My knees gave out and I fell forward onto the stump like a limp ragdoll.
Before I knew what was happening, I opened my eyes and found I was standing on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a vast crater that stretched out for what seemed like miles. Several hundred feet below, a winding labyrinth of stone walls circled inward…and in the center of it all, a pillar of fire streamed upward like a bright column of light. There was no doubt about it; this was the Maze of Rings.