The Heartwood Crown

by Matt Mikalatos

  She and Break Bones had decided on Aluvorea. It was closer than the Southern Court, another place they had debated, but the people there were unpredictable. Jason and his friends had moved back into the Wasted Lands first, taking cover in the darkness, then waited for night to make a break for the great trees of Aluvorea. The Scim forces had split from them at the border and returned to patrol their own land. Jason was relieved, because even though they were theoretically on the same side, at least for now, several of the Scim warriors tightened their grip on their weapons whenever they came near him.

  He and Darius were still in their chains. Break Bones had tried to sever them with his stone ax. Darius sat before a large stone and held his hands as far apart as he could, turned his head away and closed his eyes. Break Bones had swung his ax, shattering the stone beneath, but Darius’s chains had been unharmed. Break Bones attacked the chains with a manic fervor, sending up sparks. Dissatisfied that his attempts to break Darius’s chains had been unsuccessful, he looked for Jason, who had quietly hidden behind Baileya. She said the chains were almost certainly enchanted by the Elenil, and further experiments in breaking them were set aside.

  Which meant two days of wearing the shackles for both Jason and Darius. It annoyed Jason but seemed to take a heavy toll on Darius. He grew increasingly sullen and frustrated, and more than once Jason saw him stop to knock the chains against a rock or tree. Jason didn’t love the shackles, sure, and the thought of wearing them until they could find the right key among the Elenil made him nauseous, but the thing that weighed more heavily on him was the loss of Nightfall. He had insisted they try to find Nightfall’s body to send back with the Scim warriors, but they could only find a small patch of bloody sand. Break Bones said it was possible one of the other warriors had taken his body to return to his family, but he wouldn’t risk sending a message to find out. Instead he had given the Scim warriors strict instructions to send word—not via bird if they could help it—to the old dilapidated mansion. Break Bones was skeptical that Nightfall was truly dead. “Did you see his lifeless body? No? Then you are taking the word of the Elenil. I prefer to see that the light has gone from his eyes myself.” Break Bones thought the boy might have gathered his strength and returned home. He would check in there when he could. Despite himself, Jason felt a small flutter of hope.

  They could see the trees of Aluvorea as black shadows against the stars several hours before they got there. Jason thought at first they were mountains. By dawn they had just reached the entrance to the forest, and the golden morning light danced over the moss-covered boulders on either side of wooden steps that rose between two trees the size of towers. The trees were larger than any Jason had ever seen, and the wooden steps looked almost like they might be roots from those trees, cleverly grown in just the right way to make stairs. He couldn’t see where the stairs went, exactly, only that they disappeared into the shaded recess of the forest. A chorus of birdsong came from the trees, and steam wafted from their trunks as the early sun warmed them. Jason couldn’t help but notice that the sunlight didn’t seem to penetrate far into those dark woods.

  “The Sentinel Trees,” Break Bones said, “or so the Scim call them. To walk between those two trees is to enter Aluvorean territory.”

  Delightful Glitter Lady shivered in Jason’s arms. “I feel exactly the same way,” Jason muttered.

  “We must be cautious,” Baileya said. “The Aluvoreans and the Elenil have a strained relationship, but they are still allies.” Her eyes moved to Break Bones. “And they have no love for the Scim.”

  “Nor we for them,” Break Bones said. “In truth, I should leave you here at this gate. I desire to speak to the archon of the Elenil about this recent breaking of our treaty. What say you, Darius?”

  Darius looked at Break Bones, his face deadly serious. “If your plan is to speak with cold steel, brother, I’ll ride with you.”

  Break Bones laughed. “I’ve never had much use for words.”

  “They’ve chained me like a slave and stolen my mask. I have much more than words to share with them.” Darius’s face clouded over even darker. “I will not forgive this.”

  “You’re going to ditch us right before we meet the talking trees? I’ve seen this movie,” Jason said. “The trees come to life and eat us.”

  “The trees of Aluvorea do not speak,” Baileya said thoughtfully, “though some of the plants are carnivorous.”

  “Plants should be vegetarian,” Jason said firmly. “I refuse to go near any that aren’t.”

  Darius put one hand on Jason’s shoulder, an awkward gesture when still in chains. “There are too many people after you, or we could all go to Far Seeing together. But once we’ve had our say with the Elenil, we’ll come back to find you.”

  “I’ve never been a ‘storm the castle’ kind of guy, anyway. The one big battle I was in I got my rib cage crushed in and accidentally killed someone.”

  “Come now,” Baileya said. “You have been in many battles. Have you forgotten the battle of Westwind?”

  “Yeah. That’s the time I tried to shoot an arrow and instead I dropped it—and the bow—into a moat.”

  “But what of when we ran from my brothers in the Kakri territories?”

  “As I recall, you dug a hole in the sand and had a giant bird sit on me.”

  Break Bones spoke up. “What of our battle upon the stairs of the tower with no doors?”

  “Hmm. Let’s see. I got wounded, and then Delightful Glitter Lady knocked you down the stairs.”

  “Yes,” Break Bones said. “But it was you who thought to turn her loose upon me.”

  “Pretty sure that was Dee’s idea. She hates you, you know.”

  Break Bones threw back his head and laughed loud enough to wake Dee, who gave an affectionate look around at all assembled and then made a contented sigh and snuggled back into Jason’s lap.

  Darius smiled for the first time in two days. “So battle is not your greatest contribution. Find another way to help, Jason. We’ll meet again soon.”

  They said their farewells. Baileya was never one for long good-byes. She didn’t try to dissuade them or suggest another plan. Jason and Baileya watched them go, Break Bones riding his great wolf and Darius on his enormous possum. “That’s completely ludicrous,” Jason said. “Riding on a possum, of all things. And in the middle of the day, too. Terrifying, but ludicrous.” He turned to Baileya. “Why didn’t you try to keep us together? Wouldn’t it be better to have four of us instead of two?”

  Baileya put an arm around him. “Wu Song, if it were the whole world against we two, I would not wager against us. You are not skilled in battle, but you are wise and honest. And I am more skilled in battle even than most Kakri. They must follow their story, and we must follow ours, and trust they will wind together again one day. Besides, when would I object to the two of us being alone?”

  Then she gave him that smile, the one that made him feel like water was boiling in his feet and shooting steam through his entire body. He felt his face burning. “Delightful Glitter Lady is here too,” he said.

  Moriarty hissed. Baileya crossed to him and patted him on his wide, feathered side. “And don’t forget our brucok.”

  Jason narrowed his eyes. “Oh, I haven’t forgotten him.” Under his breath he muttered, “My mouth waters just thinking about him.”

  Baileya stiffened, and her hands went to the two pieces of her spear. She quickly assembled it. “Someone comes down the stairs.”

  It was a man, or at least something in the shape of a man. He was lean and tall and wore a hood that covered his face. His cloak had green and yellow leaves woven into the shoulders and cascading down the sides, overlapping one another like feathers or scales. He carried a long knife in one hand, and he advanced toward them with some speed.

  Baileya stood ready, and Jason pulled the knife from his own belt. It was awkward when his hands were still tied together, but better an awkward knife than an empty hand.

  The
stranger stood fifteen feet away but did not speak.

  “We come in need of sanctuary,” Baileya said.

  The stranger didn’t move or acknowledge her. He pointed at Jason but still did not speak.

  Jason didn’t really want to say anything. The creepy hooded figure just stood there pointing at him, which reminded him of a cartoon he knew. But hey, maybe this guy didn’t even speak the same language as them.

  “Um,” Jason said. “O Ghost of Christmas Future, please show me how Scrooge McDuck is a terrible humbug, and make him feel bad so he will give a turkey to Tiny Tim the mouse. Which is kind of dark, seeing as how Scrooge is a duck and everything.”

  “Wu Song,” Baileya said, a clear warning in her voice.

  “Did I tell you this story? Scrooge is a duck, and he gives this mouse family a Christmas turkey. Or it might be a Christmas goose, I don’t know. I guess it could be a Christmas duck for that matter!”

  The man in the hooded cape lowered his knife. “Dude,” he said. “I never thought about that. That’s super messed up.” He threw back his hood.

  “David!”

  Baileya laughed and put her spear away, and Delightful Glitter Lady wriggled from Jason’s arms and ran to the newcomer. David Glenn had been Jason’s roommate when he first came to the Sunlit Lands. They had split up six weeks ago in the midst of a big battle: the Knight of the Mirror had given each of them a different magical artifact to keep safe. For Jason it was the Mask of Passing, which he and Baileya had tried to hide in the Kakri territories, and David had gotten a key of some sort. The Disenthraller, something like that. They had given the mask back to the Knight of the Mirror after the fight with the archon, but David had been in Aluvorea, hiding the key there. Apparently he hadn’t left.

  Jason tackled him, and David threw him off easily enough. “What’s with the handcuffs, bro? You try to get away from Baileya or something?”

  “Har har,” Jason said. “Elenil caught me, and when we escaped we forgot to ask for the keys.”

  David grinned. “That makes more sense. Baileya’s not the type to lock someone up when she could just cut their feet off.”

  “She would never do that,” Jason said, offended. He looked at Baileya. “You would never do that, right?”

  “I never have,” she said, as if that somehow answered the question.

  David helped Jason to his feet. “Let’s take a look at those cuffs.” He produced a small key from his cloak. “This thing has come in handy more than once already. Seems to override any lock, even magic ones.” The teeth of the key were too large to fit in the keyhole on Jason’s cuffs, yet it slid in easily, turned, and the chains fell to the ground.

  “Man, we should go get Darius,” Jason said.

  David looked off in the direction he had gone. “The Aluvoreans wouldn’t let me come out until your Scim friend left. I can ask them to send word, but Darius will have to come back without the Scim. They don’t use messenger birds here, so it would have to be someone who could ride fast enough to overtake them.”

  “That might be good,” Jason said, “so he can get out of the chains at least.”

  “I’ll send word, then,” David said, throwing his arm over Jason’s shoulders. “Now come on. I have one more surprise for you two.”

  Delightful Glitter Lady frolicked around David’s feet as he led them up the stairs, his arm still around Jason. Baileya came behind them, leading Moriarty. The temperature dropped as they crossed into the shadow of the great trees. Passing underneath them, Jason shivered, and he stopped for a minute to take in the truly majestic height of them. He almost felt dizzy looking toward the top. “We’re not in Aluvorea proper yet,” David said. “They sent me out, thinking a familiar face might make the transition easier.”

  “The transition?” Jason asked, suddenly nervous. “Please tell me we’re not turning into trees.”

  “You’re not turning into trees,” David said, laughing.

  “Or bushes. Or like, flowers or grass. I mean in general turning into plants.”

  “Bro, am I a plant?”

  Jason looked at him. “I don’t think so. But they appear to have infected your cloak.”

  “Uh-huh.” David stopped and pointed to a hedge of thorns twice as tall as Jason.

  There was a small wooden door worked into the hedge, with a black iron knocker. The door was a friendly yellow and was the opposite of anything frightening. If anything, it looked charming and inviting for a door set into a hedge of thorns. You would much rather go through the door than the hedge, that’s for sure. A rabbit peeked out from the hedge, then popped back into it.

  “Go over to that door and go inside. You don’t have to knock or anything—they know you’re coming.”

  “Who?” Baileya asked.

  “Don’t worry,” David said.

  Baileya stepped forward to go with Jason, but David put out his arm. “Jason first. Just for a minute.”

  Jason hesitated. “It’s okay, Baileya. We can trust David.”

  He walked toward the brambles. He could feel Baileya watching him, scanning for danger, looking for trouble. That made him feel a little more comfortable. He came to the door. The wood was rough, like it had never been worked by human hands, never been smoothed or sanded. Metal bands held it together, but they were polished and seemed almost cheerful. Jason couldn’t help but think that someone had worked hard to try to make this door look inviting, which was, it turned out, making him suspicious. He pushed on the door, and it swung open.

  The room was formed by walls of hedge, and it appeared that hallways of hedge led elsewhere, as if he had entered a great hedge maze. There was no roof, and the floor was simple dirt with straw strewn over it. A rabbit ran across the room, popping into the far wall of the hedge. A blonde woman sat in the center of the room, a blanket over her legs. Her face was emaciated and her eyes tired, but she smiled when she saw him.

  Jason had never crossed a room so quickly. He wrapped Madeline in his arms, and they both were laughing and crying and talking at once.

  12

  THE PRIEST’S TALE

  The Elenil promised on his name

  that no harm would come to her.

  FROM “JELDA’S REVENGE,” A SCIM LEGEND

  The priest stood at the door again. Father Anthony. Shula could not believe he had come back and that he had waited until Mrs. Oliver was gone. Had he been watching them, waiting for this moment? She wouldn’t let him in, of course, but she couldn’t avoid the feeling that the old man knew something that might be important to them. The scars on his wrist looked suspiciously like some primitive version of Elenil magic, much like the light tattoo she had seen on Mrs. Oliver’s wrist. He had known Hanali’s name and recognized Mrs. Oliver. How could this be? Now he stood on Madeline’s front porch, a sheepish look on his face.

  “Marhaban, Shula,” he said, leaning so she could see him more clearly through the glass panel beside the door.

  She didn’t open the door. “Go away.”

  “I need to speak to Madeline,” he said, “about the Aluvoreans. I need to warn her.”

  Shula’s hand drifted to the handle. Did he know something that would be helpful to them? She doubted it. She glanced at the scars on his wrist. She wasn’t sure if they should make her trust him more or less.

  “There were seven of us,” he said, desperation creeping into his voice. “When we were teenagers—like you. We went to the Sunlit Lands too, with no one to guide us.”

  “A trick,” Shula said. “You are lying. Or you are Elenil. We don’t know you. We cannot trust you.”

  “My advice won’t change any of that,” the old priest said. “You are wise not to trust them, not to trust any of us. Shula, there were seven of us when we walked into the Sunlit Lands, but only four came back. Just listen to my story, that’s all I ask.”

  “Let him . . . in,” Madeline said, her voice barely strong enough to make it to Shula. She stood in the living room, leaning against the easy chair. Sh
ula shot her a questioning look, but Madeline had already made her way to the front of the chair and was lowering herself into it.

  The priest entered meekly. He didn’t try to shake hands or say anything else to Shula. He went into the living room, sat on the couch, and quietly introduced himself to Madeline.

  “Go on,” Madeline said. As her disease progressed, she had lost the will for social niceties. She used the minimum number of words and went straight to the heart of a matter.

  “We were seven,” the priest said. “Only four of us returned. One was murdered by a people called the Zhanin.” He waited, seeing if they recognized the name. “The shark people,” he continued when they said nothing. “One chose to stay . . . in the service of the Elenil. He remains there today. Another died, eaten by the forest that is called Aluvorea.”

  “Eaten by the forest?” Shula wondered if her English was preventing her from understanding exactly what this meant.

  “Yes. The people of the forest encouraged this. They trapped her, and against her will she was fed to the trees. We had been running from them—the forest people. The trees were working against us. Everywhere we turned, the path would disappear, or the trees would become too thick for us to walk between them. Finally we found a lake with an island in the middle. We thought we would have a chance there, away from the trees, so we swam for it. But some of them were waiting there, waiting for us. They had directed us to the island, this had been their plan all along. They took Allison and—” The priest pulled a handkerchief from his jacket and pressed it under his eyes. He couldn’t say anything more.