And these trees. What were they to her? Replacements? Other children? They were all sorts of creatures; I could just feel it. Dragons and faeries, elves, pixies… other things I had yet to meet. And something more. Something familiar. I walked deeper into the forest as we all spread out. My feet and my eyes kept searching for some, I don’t know… melody, a song that was calling to me from deep in my mind. Forward on, I stepped with caution. What would happen if I broke a root? What would happen if I broke my own root? My tree was here too. I couldn’t sense it, but I knew. Even though the darkness was no longer a part of me, until the stone was quelled, my sapling grew.
Up ahead, I could make out the faint sounds of a woman, whimpering and sulking to herself. The sound of water, splashing over the ground, and then footsteps running away. Again, the footsteps came as I stayed ever careful to avoid hurting the trees. Sliding from behind a large, rotting tree with crooked branches, I caught sight of the back of a woman in a cream-colored dress.
“I’ve tried to water them,” she cried. “I’ve tried to sing to them.”
“Who are you?” I asked her. All I could see was her lengthy, spiral auburn hair. Dumping water over some roots, the woman then rushed off to a little stream that slithered around the mounds of mud and dying vines. “Hello?” I said to her again, after she came back with a bucket full of water. I was sure she hadn’t heard me, but she was only ignoring me.
“I have to save them,” she spoke fast, rushing for more water. “I have to keep them alive,” she carried on.
“Why?” I asked, stepping around to see her face. “Why not someone else?”
“There’s no one here,” she dumped the bucket, then gazed up to me while biting her lip. Her delicate, ocean-blue eyes stunned me to my core. “Do I know you?” she asked me.
I shook my head, the surprise, the elation, rising up over my shoulders as little trembles and goosebumps. I smiled to her as her gaze grew curious.
“You smell familiar,” she studied me. Her hands felt my hair, her eyes dug into mine. “You smell like… like…”
“Like your brother?” I asked.
The woman’s brow lifted as she took a deep breath. “I haven’t… I haven’t seen him in so long,” her voice light and airy. “I’ve missed him.”
“He misses you too,” I told her. I could see the shimmer of tears coating her eyes. “Come home with us. You don’t belong here,” I felt her hand, but she pulled back.
“No,” she shook her head. When I started to speak again, she was firm. “No, no I can’t. I can’t leave.”
“You don’t have to take care of the trees anymore; I’m here to set them free,” I told her.
“Um, who the hell are you talking to?” Iliana perked from behind a tree. Her hand tight on the trunk as she swung around. No respect.
“This is Nerissa,” I told Iliana. “That’s your name, isn’t it?” I asked the woman. With a kind smile, she agreed.
Iliana, though, started to laugh.
“What?”
“Irene, seriously,” she shrugged, her eyes dancing around the place.
“Yeah, seriously,” I crossed my arms. “What, you don’t believe it’s her?”
“I don’t see her,” Iliana told, plain as day.
I faced Nerissa, then Iliana. I could see them both just the same. Scratching my brow, I heard other people come near.
“Cole, tell me you see her,” I eyed him.
“See who?” he asked, simple and annoyingly so.
“This can’t be happening,” I started to pace, my hands tight on my hips. “Don’t tell me I have some hidden dark element, and that I’m seeing ghosts now.”
“Of course not,” Sanne’s voice fluttered in my ears. Stepping into view, she and Dune were there on the opposite side of the forest.
“Where have you guys been?” I quizzed them. “We were attacked. I could’ve used some help.”
Sanne gave a kind smile, “If I had resolved your differences, you would not feel complete.”
“Screw that,” Charlotte said. “Cosmic crap,” she eyed me. I just sighed.
“What about you?” I asked Dune, who was, until that point, entirely silent.
“I was searching for something of Nerissa’s, so that I may speak to her once again,” he spoke eloquently. Pulling a scarf, a dainty, silky thing, from his pocket, the man held to it like it was the only possession he owned. “Is she here?” he asked me.
“You said you needed blood to locate her,” I demanded clarity. “All this time… she was cloaked from you?”
“Only those of her blood could find her,” he told. “I thought it meant those who have died from the Elysian stone.”
“She died wearing the stone?” I gasped.
“She is connected to the trees, alive with them as they grow,” Dune informed.
“How will we manage this?” Tristan asked, stepping into view. “Lorcan’s ready, but he isn’t patient.”
“We need the stone fragment,” Cole said. “The quelling will fail if the stone isn’t whole.”
Tristan gave a nod, then went off to get it. Iliana, thankfully, followed.
“What can we do for you? How can I lift the cloaking spell?” I asked Nerissa, who then shrugged.
“The spell, if you remember, my dear, was put in place by Markus’ enchanter,” Sanne told me. “It was to gain vengeance over my brother for betraying him with the High Prince.”
“He’s the King now,” Charlotte corrected.
With an accepting sigh, Sanne nodded. “That enchanter was my son.”
“You knew how to free Nerissa this whole time?” Cole demanded an answer. His eyes grew dark as he neared Sanne. “Why would you torture your own brother for so long?”
Sanne folded her hands at her hips. “You have no idea what torture is.” Her voice was so delicate and gentle it made me shiver. “And, you must understand one thing. Knowing the basis for the spell is not the same as knowing the cure.”
“So, you can’t reverse it?” I wondered.
“I can tell you why she’s unable to leave, that is all.”
“Where is your son now?” I crossed my arms tight around me. The air was more refreshing than when we first arrived; my sweater, though, was still with Elliot.
“Unfortunately, he is no longer with us,” she said.
“Okay.” I waved my hands eagerly. “Then why is Nerissa stuck here?”
Charlotte stepped forward, curious to see what would happen, Cole too. I watched Sanne as she breathed deep, letting her gaze fall to the ground in thought.
“I need to show you something first,” her eyes hit mine with a clarity that brought me right back to the village at its most prominent time. As Isle Lore—the desolate, ash-covered world I had just met—slid from my sight, I welcomed a bright and busy marketplace and village.
“When are we?”
“Clever,” she smiled as we walked. “Do you know why I kept bringing you here?” I shrugged, following her closer to the buildings we had just left behind. Looking back, there was no trace of Cole or Charlotte, or the death that had seemed to take hold of the Isle. “I needed you to see what my world could be with the right kind of love.”
“If you want this, why are you prolonging the quelling?”
Sanne didn’t answer me yet. Instead, she led me up a little hill that then rolled into a meadow of blossoming blue flowers. At the base, near a small stream, sat a cottage. I continued to follow her, keeping close as we ruffled the petals and stained the air with a fragrance reminiscent of blueberries and bergamot. It was a strange combination, but one that made me feel peace in the deepest parts of my mind.
“My son… my sweet Aeron,” she spoke breathily as a little boy came running around the back of the cottage and into the sun. “He didn’t mean for all the destruction he has caused. He was only seeking love.” We stood there for a moment and watched the boy as he ran through the flowers, laughing and waving colorful strings in the air. As they caught t
he wind, he’d let go and watch them swirl into the sky.
“I’m sorry he’s gone, but it sounds like it happened a long time ago.”
“I don’t need your pity,” she faced me with glowing golden eyes. “I only want peace.”
“Then why ask for the stone?”
Sanne took a deep breath and watched the boy with a growing smile. “Aeron created the Elysian stone to preserve the lives and loves of those who perish before their time. As its name suggests, the stone was meant to grant heaven on earth, or wherever you like,” her brow flicked n thought. “Nature, however, is cruel, demanding balance even when unnecessary,” her eyes lifted to the sky as though she was talking to someone in particular. Shaking her head, she faced me again, this time, with tears budding in her amber eyes. “My son made the stone to help the faerie, but it was because he loved her. He had hoped to seal the mortal woman in an endlessly growing tomb of branches and foliage so that he and the faerie could be together. He didn’t realize what he had done until it was too late.”
“How did he die?” The boy was prancing around now as a storm cloud formed in the distance. The wind was getting stronger; I pulled my sweater tight around me and held on as my hair fluttered over my eyes.
“Aeron spent many years here, waiting for his love to wake, but eventually his restlessness got the best of him. Bitter and lonely, my son wandered the planes until he came upon your King.”
“He isn’t my… never mind.”
“Lorcan,” she smiled and shook her head, “that man is too intelligent for his own good.”
“I know,” I nodded along.
“He had heard the stories, read the books; he was ready to make a deal to get exactly what he wanted.”
“Samira?”
Sanne, to my surprise, shook her head. “He had just lost Samira, and, I believe, he had lost all hope in ever seeing her again. Instead, he wanted revenge.” Sanne stepped closer to me and caught my full attention with her heavy gaze. “This is the story you don’t want to hear, my Lady. The tale of the Dark Prince. The torture, the pain… the sorrow. He was different back then,” her eyes trailed to the grass in thought. “Very different,” she whispered.
“What deal did he make?”
“He offered my son the shard that was missing from the stone so that the dead could be put to peace.”
My heart fell.
The shard. The goddamn shard!
“Sanne, we didn’t use the shard in the revoking,” I panicked. My hands trembled as I started to pace around. Only her firm grip on my shoulders stilled me.
“It wasn’t needed,” her eyes held mine. “To take the darkness from a host, only a piece of the stone was necessary.”
Of course. Cole wouldn’t have been so careless.
“But to quell it?”
“You have to mend it first.”
“How?”
The boy—a child version of Sanne’s beloved son Aeron was laughing again in the field as rain began to fall. His trailing strings caught my attention as I found it hard to focus on Sanne’s words.
“One blood to break the stone, one more to mend it,” she told. Aeron was getting closer to us, his laughter growing deep as his voice stretched out over the land.
“Whose blood?”
“The purest blood of the beast. The only creature capable of hiding such a treasure.”
“A dragon?”
Sanne nodded with a smile.
Aeron came running towards us, waving his strings in the wild breeze, laughing with a menacing grin that made me step backward.
“Don’t fear him,” she advised, taking my hand into hers. “It isn’t his fault.”
“What isn’t?” I begged an answer as I stepped back again, my eyes flickering to the boy as he encircled us with ribbons. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Irene!” Cole shook me as the Isle Lore of our current reality came into view. “What did you do?” he demanded Sanne answer him.
“I showed her the reality of the stone,” she lifted her chin. “And why it must not ever leave this island.”
“Why was he like that?” I had to understand what had happened to Aeron.
Sanne’s eyes traveled over the ash-covered ground, her mind lost to memory. “He took the stone that you now have,” her eyes narrowed, “and walked right up to the tree and stuck it in the sap.” I could feel the shivers crawling up my back as she recanted the moment. “I begged him to stop. He knew it wouldn’t fix everything; it wouldn’t make the death go away,” her lip trembled as she spoke. “But he shoved the item deep into the tree, and the sap… that oozing darkness that smells of old blood and wet rocks, crawled up his arm and clung to his energy. Seeping into his pores, sticking to every bit of flesh it encountered, the sap that once made us, was now claiming him as a sacrifice.”
“You can trust that we’ll finish this,” I offered.
“I know that he created this mess, that he should work harder to earn his eternal peace.” Her brow lifted momentarily. “But I feel responsible; a mother always does. I should never have let him create the stone in the first place.”
I shook my head at her words. “You never regret anything. You always tell me that things happen when they should.”
“My son should not have died,” she pressed her lips tight and lifted her chin. I watched her struggle to compose herself before I asked the question that had been pressing on my mind the whole time.
“How come your son isn’t… reborn?” Horrible choice of words. Biting my cheek, I tried to clarify. “Like how you sort of came back to life?” Not any better. “Your brother said you guys do it sometimes.”
Sanne blinked away the moisture along her eyelids as she took a deep breath. “Aeron was born. He had a father, a faerie man.”
“And you didn’t?” Cole spoke up.
“My siblings and I were created, not born.”
Okay then.
“Look, can we just free my invisible aunt from this place and get the quelling over with already?” Charlotte crossed her arms tight.
“How can we?” I asked Sanne.
“Nerissa was stripped of her energy,” simply put. “It needs to be replaced.”
“What?” I shivered in the cooling breeze of the evening. “How is she alive if her energy is gone?”
“And how does that make her invisible to us?” Cole shook his head.
Sanne eyed me with that same doubtful glare.
“Is she… dead?” I nearly mumbled the words.
“Is who dead?” Iliana had come back from getting the fragment with Tristan. She was shooting me come on, explain, glares while I tried to make sense of Sanne’s words.
“Why can I see her?” the questions wouldn’t stop now. My mind was full of ideas now. “I heard my mother the other night, too.”
“You what?” Charlotte’s eyes opened wide.
“You can see her because she’s tied to the forest, thus the stone,” Sanne cleared. “Her energy was given to the trees so that they would survive. She’s been feeding them for years.”
“You used my aunt for fertilizer?” I shouted.
Cole looked at me, putting up his hand briefly to hush me. “What happens after the quelling? Will she be gone?”
“That I’m not sure of,” Sanne said.
I sighed, mumbling to myself, “You can’t even make her visible.”
“Kill Dune,” my sister shrugged. “Then he’d be the same as Nerissa. And,” she looked to the man, “you can… I don’t know, come back?”
I put my head in my hands.
Cole, at my side as he spoke quietly, advised, “We have to finish what we started.”
“I know.”
“Then let’s do it,” Tristan stepped up. “This isn’t our main concern right now.”
“But Nerissa—”
“Isn’t our main concern right now,” he repeated.
Dune lifted his chin and looked over us. “He’s right. You have a quest to complete, and it
isn’t something I ever needed to be a part of.”
“What about Nerissa?” Charlotte poised, mocking the man’s serious stance. “What if she dies? Won’t you be our newest enemy—one that can’t die?”
“Char, come on,” Caleb nudged her.
“Do what you came to do,” Nerissa stood. “This isn’t life,” she looked around at the withering trees. The ground must have been lush and green at one point. Remnants of vines and bushes littered the place. I could imagine it fully green and in bloom. Now, though, things were dying. They had been dying for a long time. “This isn’t living.”
I nodded at her words. No matter what we wanted, there was so much more at stake. She had spent her days in this sad place, and, from the look in her eyes, she was ready to let it all go. I didn’t really know what would happen, but none of us did. Not even Sanne could predict what would come of Nerissa once the stone was quelled. And if it wasn’t put to rest, then someone dangerous and volatile would undoubtedly find it.
“She wants us to go ahead with the ritual,” I told everyone. “No matter the outcome.”
Nerissa gave me a tender smile, one that reminded me of my father.
“Then I’ll stay,” were Dune’s words. He found a large rock to sit upon, then crossed his legs and peered up at me. “I’ll wait to see what happens from here.”
“You’re not angry?” I asked him.
Shaking his head slowly, the man looked out over the forest. “I trust what you say is from my beloved.” His words brought tears to Nerissa’s eyes. “If she’s ready to move on, then I support her.”
Witherstone- Wings of My Legion Page 22
