“Are you okay?” Brian inquired. As the red-haired man spoke, the wizard seated behind him reached out and placed a gentle hand on Katie’s shoulder. When she finally lifted her head, Edward could see the sadness in her eyes. He hated seeing her like this; the brown of her irises seemed as if they were melting, the unshed moisture causing them to shimmer like grime-encrusted diamonds. “We should resume our journey to the south. If what Kronos and Kieron told us is true, we need to stay ahead of the army that’s pursuing us.”
“What about Amber?” Katie asked, hoping to stall their departure long enough to find a chance to sneak away so she could investigate the strange, red creature.
“I’m sure she’s still with us as we speak. Just because we can’t see her at the moment doesn’t mean she isn’t close by.”
“Even so, I would feel a lot better if I knew for sure,” Katie argued.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to sit around and wait for nightfall. For all we know, the mechanical army that Kronos and Kieron warned us about could be upon us by then,” Edward insisted, while Brian and Julie bounced their gaze between the bickering members of their group as if they were watching a ping-pong match. To emphasize his point, Edward tapped the shaman on the shoulder, then pointed in the direction of the dead forest. “We’ve wasted too much time already, let’s go.”
As the mechanical horse bearing the men veered toward the withered woods, Katie reluctantly urged her mount to follow.
Chapter 4
Refusing to heed the Black Knight’s warning to only travel at night, George flew high above the canopy. He only leveled off his ascent when the army of machines below had become minute reflections of sunlight. Even though it was easy to tell the location of the regiment, from this distance they appeared to be nothing more substantial than broken shards of glass littering the ground. As he circled the formation like a vulture waiting to swoop down on its prey, the stiff breeze ruffled his flowing, brown locks. Gradually his anger was wiped away—like an eraser on a schoolroom chalkboard—allowing him to relax.
He almost expected the voice of his demonic ‘master’ to be carried on the wind, which was rushing across his face and floating back from one of his mount's heads, to suddenly interrupt his serenity. When several minutes passed without incident, George left the army of machines behind as he steered his steed to the south, determined to find the group of mortals. Were the Black Knight’s minions closing the distance, or was the troublesome party getting even further ahead? In either case, they might be more difficult to spot during daylight hours, but even so, George was resolved to find them. It may be easier to spot a fire at night when they'd set up camp to rest, but searching for them during the day meant he would be able to see a potential adversary coming for him, like the creature that had chased him through the sky the other night. If it tried to attack him again in the light of day, at least he would know what he was up against.
***
After navigating through the increasingly dense forest—as they traveled further south, the trees were no longer withered and dead, but instead lively and growing greener by the minute—for several hours, the weary group stopped at Katie’s insistence. “I don’t know if it’s the steady stomp of horse hooves that is lulling me to sleep, or the lack of any other sound, but I’m getting really tired,” she complained.
Edward nodded. “Perhaps, if we take a break to eat, it will invigorate your body so you can continue a while longer.”
“Don’t count on it,” Katie grumbled. “My eyelids feel like they’ve been dipped in … hell, I can’t even think of what. I’m too tired to form coherent thought,” she lied, hoping Edward wouldn’t realize she was trying to deceive him. There was still enough daylight left, and if she could manage to sneak away, Katie would be able to backtrack to the Tree of Life by following the hoofprints like they were a trail of breadcrumbs. She only needed the opportunity. “Maybe, after we fill our bellies, we can get some rest as well?” She raised her eyebrows in a hopeful expression.
Frowning, Edward forcefully exhaled through his nostrils. “If we must,” he stated in exasperation. “I’m not exactly thrilled with the delay, though.”
“Try to think of it this way. If we rest now, it may be dark enough when we set out again that Amber can resume being our guide. In my opinion, it would be better than traveling in a set direction, which could ultimately lead us away from our intended destination.” A smug look appeared on her face. Katie was confident that her argument had a great deal of validity, so much so that Edward wouldn’t be able to ignore it.
“I understand your point, but it doesn’t make me any happier,” Edward griped, dismounting the mechanical beast. He quickly surveyed their surroundings, trying to locate a space open enough to build a small fire. “It looks as if we’ll be eating cold rabbit,” he announced. “The forest is too dense to safely utilize a campfire.”
“I have no problems with that,” Katie remarked nonchalantly, opening the chest cavity of her steed. With Julie’s help, she dispersed the bedding. Once the blankets were spread over the ground, Brian approached the women after removing a few portions of meat from the hollowed area of his horse and handed them their food. “Thanks, Brian.” Katie smiled weakly at the shaman, hoping Edward was watching the exchange and that her ruse of tiredness would fool him. When she noticed the wizard was standing on the opposite side of his mount, staring into the forest and missing her charade entirely, Katie sighed and took a bite of her food. It wasn’t until several minutes later that Edward joined the rest of them.
Brian picked up the remaining portion of meat and offered it to him, but the sorcerer waved it off. “No, thank you. I’m not really hungry right now.”
“Suit yourself.”
As Julie finished eating, she glanced up at Edward and asked, “Are we setting a watch?”
“Yes.” His response was gruff, as if he was annoyed by the interruption of his thoughts.
“I’ll take the first one,” Brian offered, rising from the bedding and collecting the scraps from the women to dispose of.
Katie sighed. She had intended to take the first watch so she could slip away and make use of the daylight hours to retrace their steps. However, she realized it might have seemed suspicious to Edward. Luckily, there had been a slight hesitation on her part because if she had spoken before Brian, it would likely have triggered another argument. “I’ll take the second,” she stated softly, yawning for effect. Julie offered to take the third watch, leaving Edward with the last one.
Once the guard shifts had been settled, Brian walked a short distance away from camp and tossed the remnants of their meal in the underbrush. When he returned the uneaten rabbit to the chest cavity of his steed, he noticed that the others were already snuggled inside of their bedding, so he sat down and tried to think of a way to occupy his time.
***
Several hours had passed since his departure from the Black Knight’s army, all of which had proven uneventful. George was almost certain that he should have encountered the group of travelers by now, but he hadn’t seen the sunlight glittering off of the mechanical creatures he knew they were riding. He was beginning to entertain the thought of turning back, though in no way was he eager to do so. Surely Verin would only insult him further when he found out that George had no new information, but really, what choice did he have? If his plan for revenge against the Black Knight were to have any chance at all to succeed, the ghostly entity would have to play a role.
A low growl escaped his throat as he continued his search of the increasingly thickening foliage below. It had been relatively easy to spot the humans yesterday when they were traveling through the forest of dead trees, but now it was nearly impossible. The withered woods had become more lively the further south he flew, almost to the point of looking like a tropical jungle. His view had altered over the last few hours from a seemingly winter atmosphere, to the colorful display of leaves reminiscent of fall, and finally to the greenery of late spring or summer.
It gave George the impression that he had been in the air much longer than he actually had, as if he were stuck in place while the kaleidoscope of seasons spun around him.
Instead of succumbing to the instinct to turn around, George continued heading south. He knew there would be a confrontation between himself and Verin before long, and he wanted to make sure he obtained more ammunition to fuel the impending argument. This way he'd have the upper hand, and possibly even gain the trust of the Black Knight.
***
Brian had woken Katie for her guard shift a short while ago, and as she patiently waited for the shaman to fall asleep, she busied herself by cleaning and polishing her crossbow. When she was relatively sure that everyone was sleeping, she rose to her feet and stepped lightly around the camp to make certain that nobody was playing possum and pretending. Satisfied by their soft snores and closed eyelids, she snuck over to her mechanical steed and mounted. Using the tiniest bit of pressure, she nudged the control lever forward slightly. The machine complied with slow-motion movements, its heavy metal hooves whispering delicately across the terrain, and Katie waited until she felt like she was a safe distance from the camp before urging her horse to greater speeds.
As she retraced their route from the meadow where the Tree of Life stood like an enormous wooden guardian, she was gradually able to inch the control lever farther forward. The further north she traveled, the faster her steed carried her. The foliage thinned slowly at first, but after an hour or so she had the metallic beast running at full speed. Her eyes could just barely pick out the path she needed to travel before she was upon it, much like driving a car too fast at night.
When the gigantic tree began to come into view, Katie eased up on the pressure she was exerting on the control lever. Within fifteen minutes she'd reached the edge of the meadow and brought her metallic steed to a stop. She scanned the area around the base of the trunk and was rewarded by the sight of the reddish creature still lying where she had last seen it. There were only two reasons she could think of as to why the organism had not moved. The first of which, and the one she hoped was the case, was that the being had been asleep since her last encounter. The second option was less savory, and involved thoughts that the creature might be dead, perhaps killed by the massive serpent she had seen nearby when she had ventured closer on her first excursion toward the giant, wooden sentinel. Telling herself that there was only one way to be sure, Katie dismounted her mechanical horse and slowly began to tiptoe across the meadow.
Once she reached the halfway point, the reddish beast came into focus enough for Katie to realize what it was, although her mind insisted that the creature was an illusion. It had to be. Dragons were a thing of fairy tales and fantasy, not reality. She blinked her eyelids rapidly, as if by doing so it would somehow cause the anomaly to disappear. The small red dragon, which was obviously a baby, remained as it was.
As Katie began to consider where it had come from, and the possibility that it was birthed from one of the strange, egg-like fruits of the tree, her thoughts were interrupted by the incessant buzz of tiny wings. Before she had time to react, the blue-skinned fairy leader hovered in front of her face, an angry glint in her minute black eyes.
“You again? I warned you to stay away,” the fairy hissed.
“I only wanted to look. I promise that I won’t touch anything,” Katie pleaded.
“I’m not interested in the excuses you have for your return to our home. No matter how innocent your intentions may be, your trespass will not be forgiven this time. You should have heeded my warning.” The tiny blue woman waved her arms in the air, weaving them back and forth hypnotically, and she began to chant something in a language Katie had never heard before. Swirls of deep blue mist, intertwined with ribbons of black, formed like tendrils of smoke around the fairy leader.
Katie tried to turn and run, but found she couldn’t move, almost as if she were rooted in place. Her eyes widened in terror when the misty colors drifted toward her, like a blanket of evil fog, and twirled around her body as if the smoke-like ribbons were made of rope. The air around Katie felt thick, and she tried to draw a breath, but it entered her lungs with painful slowness, almost as if the oxygen was saturated with molasses. The helplessness of her situation spread through her brain like wildfire, causing her mind to spin out of control. I should have listened to Edward. I wouldn’t be in this mess if I hadn’t let my curiosity consume me. Is this what dying feels like? I would give anything to be back in camp with my friends. I can only hope that this is just a bad dream, and that I’ll wake up miles from this place.
The blue-skinned woman hovered inches from Katie’s face, her lips pressed together in a mirthless smile. “Perhaps, in the future, you will be more compliant and do as you’re told.”
For a few brief seconds, the tiny creature floated before Katie’s eyes, but darkness crept into her vision like the fade to black in an old movie. Within moments, she couldn’t see or hear anything, almost as if someone had placed her inside of a sensory deprivation tank.
***
When Katie finally regained consciousness, she opened her eyelids and saw both of Desolace’s moons hanging in the night sky. She pushed herself up into a sitting position in the grass, yet it still took a few minutes for her to get her bearings.
“Thank goodness you’re awake. For a while I was beginning to wonder if you were sleeping or dead,” Amber’s disembodied voice broke the silence, startling Katie.
After spinning her head around and catching sight of Amber, depression wormed its way into her mind when she realized the recent events were not a dream. Apparently, her journey to the Tree of Life had been real, but was the same to be said about her encounter with the fairy woman as well, or was it all a fabrication of her overactive imagination?
Katie rose to her feet—her joints creaking, popping, and protesting their use as if she were an eighty-year-old woman—and Amber suddenly drifted backward, her glowing form beginning to pulsate. “What’s wrong, Amber?” Katie’s brows furrowed, wondering why her ghostly friend was acting like she was terrified of her. Instead of speaking, the specter pointed. At first, Katie thought the spirit was signifying that she was scared of her, but realized it wasn’t the case when a new voice intruded. The sound was deep and guttural, like a man from a foreign country who spoke another language ... one that was filled with nonsense syllables, making the words impossible for Katie to decipher.
Spinning her head toward the individual attempting to communicate with her, she stumbled backward in almost the same manner that Amber had moments before. She hadn’t expected to be face to face with a dragon when she turned around, even though it didn’t seem hostile in the least. If Katie wasn’t mistaken, it was the same creature she had seen earlier, resting near the base of the tree. It took a minute for her to articulate a coherent sentence, primarily because she was stuttering like a frightened child. “Are you trying to talk to me?”
The dragon uttered a few more unintelligible words, bowing its head slowly, almost like it was attempting to nod.
Unsure of whether or not it was a wise decision on her part, Katie quickly turned toward Amber. “Can you find Edward and the others, and bring them back here?” As if in answer to her question, the ghost became a blur of light, speeding off into the surrounding forest.
Chapter 5
Light was slowly draining out of the day when George prepared to turn his flying steed northward once more. So far, his search for the Black Knight’s adversaries had been a fruitless endeavor. Feeling like he had flown to the edge of the known world—the setting sun was now a half circle on the horizon, casting a reddish-orange glow over the water below him and making it look like a sea of tainted blood—he guided his mount in a gentle, leftward arc. As he looped through the sky, George spotted the reflection of a large ship. It was difficult to tell from this distance, but the vessel didn’t appear to be moving. Instead, it seemed to be bobbing in the waves like a buoy, indicating that it was either ancho
red in place, or possibly unmanned and floating adrift.
Stopping his forward progress, George hovered the three-headed machine in the air and mentally calculated the possibility of the small group of humans making it this far already. Logistically, it didn’t seem possible, but if his nighttime search yielded no evidence of their whereabouts as he headed northward again, then the only plausible place they could be was on the ship. Although he had no reservations about dive-bombing the aquatic vessel to eliminate his prey, George preferred to find them on land. Granted, he was only supposed to be scouting their position and reporting back to the Black Knight, or in this case Verin, but snuffing the life from a person with his bare hands had always brought him great enjoyment. It seemed like it had been an eternity since he’d been able to indulge himself in something so pleasurable. Surely, the demonic entity wouldn’t begrudge him the joy of taking a single life, would he?
***
When Edward cracked his eyelids open and realized that darkness had fallen while he slept, he nearly jumped to his feet. Who was supposed to be on guard duty? Had they drifted to sleep during their shift? Almost without thinking, his left palm turned skyward and flames began to dance above it, casting shadowy, flickering light over the slumbering members of the group. There are only two people here! Who is missing?
As he pulled back the bedding with his right hand and awoke his snoozing friends, Edward restrained a cry of frustration when he realized that it was Katie who was gone. Damn her and her curiosity! I would be willing to bet she has attempted to return to the Tree of Life. “Wake up, we need to get moving,” Edward stated in an urgent tone, his trembling voice on the verge of panic while he shook his snoring friends.
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