Hugo woke up. His body cried out in discomfort, gripped in the hard, bark-covered hands of the oak. The tree was staring down at him. “Molad?” it asked.
Hugo shook his head.
“Good,” the tree said, and it set him on the grass.
Hugo rubbed his back. It felt like he’d fallen from a great height. He couldn’t keep doing this. He needed to find a less painful way to switch places with Molad. Something sparked in Hugo’s mind as he studied the tree…the talking tree…He remembered what Brinley had said about Lignumis and the tree bark, and the last tree that he had been looking for, here in the Wizard’s Ire. He whispered a name so softly that neither of them heard it.
“What did you say?” the tree asked, bending closer.
“Lignumis,” Hugo repeated. The tree shivered. Hugo watched, dumbfounded, as the tree moved through a year of seasons in a single moment. Spring leaves widened, seeds sprouted from the buds at their base and fell to the earth. The branches sighed toward the ground and the leaves dried up and curled and fell, leaving only a wooden skeleton behind them, diminished by the shedding of its heritage. The bare tree shrank further, branches folding down into the trunk, trunk sinking into the ground, splitting at the base to form legs, arms, a head.
A man stood where the tree had been, his feet rooted firmly in the earth. He lifted them with a great effort and looked at Hugo. He had a close-clipped beard the color of oak, and a young face. Hugo thought he must be barely old enough to grow a beard like that.
“Lignumis?” Hugo said again.
The young man reached out, gripping Hugo so tightly that he could tell the strength of the oak was still in him. “What did you say?”
Hugo spoke the name again and the young man cocked his head, tasting the word as if for the first time in a long time.
“Yes,” he said after a moment. He spoke slowly, with the care and patience of a much older man. “No one calls me that here. I buried that name so deeply that years later, when my strength came, even I could not find it.”
Hugo nodded, looking around at the darkness. “I can see why you would want to hide who you are here. How did you survive?”
Lignumis released his arm. He touched his face with his hands, felt his beard, and smiled. “I have not taken my own shape since the Magemother told me to hide.”
“What?” Hugo asked in amazement. “Never?”
Lignumis shook his head. “Never. She told me to hide, told me that Lux was lost, and that I would not be safe until my power had grown. I was old enough to find my own hiding place, she said, so I went looking for one, and was captured by the Janrax instead.”
“You got caught by the Janrax?” Hugo said. “That shape-shifter?”
Lignumis nodded. “I was trying to get across the bridge into this place,” he said, waving an arm at the trees. “Foolish of me, really. I told myself the Ire would be the last place Lux would look for me, but I was really just curious. I think it was the forest calling to me. I needed to see it. I couldn’t get across the bridge by myself, of course, but the Janrax helped me.
“How?” Hugo asked.
“He was the one who made the medallions that Shael has been using to get across the bridge to the Wizard’s Ire. He tried to take me straight to Shael as soon as I was in here, of course, but luckily I was able to escape.”
“And they never found you?” Hugo asked, impressed.
Lignumis frowned. “I forgot my own name, to make sure they never did. I knew that there were things in this forest that would see through the shapes of trees and shrubs and pine needles and see a man. I wanted to make sure that when they did, they would not recognize the man as me.” He paused, considering. “I always remembered that I had something important to do, and that I must hide myself from the darkness that lives here, but until you spoke my name, coming out of hiding was not a possibility in my mind. Will we go now? Has the time come for me to return?”
“Yes,” Hugo said. “I mean, you can go. I have to stay a while. You can head for the bridge, and I can call the Magemother and tell her you’re coming. Make sure you throw the medallion back through for me or something.”
Lignumis gave him a questioning look. “You will not return with me?”
Hugo shook his head. “I have something else I need to do. I need to get back to that box.”
Lignumis frowned. Something of the oak’s hardness entered his expression. “That is a fool’s errand, brother,” he said. “No one who sees the box or its guardians survives.”
“I have to,” Hugo said. “Besides, I’m not going for the box. I’m going for the trees.”
“The trees?” Lignumis asked. “The twistwoods? You should not touch them.”
“Look,” Hugo said impatiently. “It’s a long story, but I know what I’m doing, okay? I won’t be gone long.”
“There is no reason that you should go alone.”
“Yes, there is,” Hugo said. This was what he was trying to avoid. He had to do what he had to do, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone else along the way. Not if he could help it. Besides, someone needed to take the naptrap back. He couldn’t risk that getting into the hands of Shael. He pressed it into Lignumis’s hand. “Take this,” he said. “Keep it safe. Give it to the Magemother. It is very, very important. Don’t ask me why. She’ll tell you. I can’t bring it with me.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Lignumis asked.
Hugo thought about it for a moment. He didn’t like the thought of visiting the twistwood trees alone, but he didn’t have many options. “I don’t know how long I can keep control of Molad here. I haven’t been very good at it so far. It doesn’t make sense to risk anyone else’s life.”
“How very brave of you, boy,” Gadjihalt said from behind them.
Hugo jumped, reaching for his sword as he turned. But he had given it to Gadjihalt already. There it was, in the big man’s hands as he approached.
“You’re a slippery one, I’ll give you that,” Gadjihalt said. “Might not have found you if it hadn’t been for the leaves.” He stuck his thumb behind him, indicating the long trail of leaves from Lignumis’s hedge. “Don’t go anywhere,” he added, pointing the sword at Hugo. “No quick movements this time, or we’ll kill your friend here.” He pointed behind him and Hugo saw two more men, bowmen, with arrows trained on them. “Lignumis, right? Heard rumors you were here. The master’s been looking for you too.”
Hugo searched for a way out but couldn’t think of one. He could let Molad out, but as far as he could tell, Molad wanted to be captured anyway. Why else would he have brought them to the Ire?
“No way out,” Gadjihalt said. The big man was tying Lignumis’s hands behind his back now, and the archers were only feet away. “You’re coming with us. Definitely in a bag. I tried to be nice, but you obviously can’t be trusted to walk.”
“Where are we going?” Hugo asked, already knowing the answer.
“To the master,” Gadjihalt said. “Where else?”
***
“Kneel.” Gadjihalt’s powerful hands clamped around Hugo’s shoulders, forcing his knees to buckle and bang into the dirt. Lignumis was right beside him. They were in the horrible clearing again, four large, terrible, twisting trees before them, their branches cradling a dark iron box. “We found him just after he found the wood mage,” Gadjihalt said.
To Hugo’s horror, a voice came out of the box. “Search him,” it said.
It was sweeter than he had imagined it, almost frightfully so, and quiet too, barely louder than a whisper.
Hands rummaged through Hugo’s pockets, finding nothing. Hugo breathed a sigh of relief. If he hadn’t happened to hand the naptrap over to Lignumis earlier, things would have just gotten much worse. Hopefully they wouldn’t think to search the other mage. Hugo had been dreading just such a thing since they had been captured, but evidently Gadjihalt had orders not to harm them, though that hadn’t kept them from putting a knife to Lignumis’s throat the entire w
ay. Gadjihalt had wanted to make it quite clear what would happen to his friend if Hugo chose to escape.
Now, in this place, with guards all around and Gadjihalt at his back, Hugo couldn’t imagine escaping. His head was practically bursting at the seams with pain as Molad struggled to break free. Hugo didn’t want to think of what would happen if he let him. Then again, it might not make much of a difference. Things were looking pretty bad. Unbidden, Cannon’s voice echoed in his mind. “Stories, Hugo. Stories.” Well, this would be a good one, if he lived to tell it.
“Ah,” the voice said wistfully. “The youngest Paradise brat. Kind of you to join us. Do you know why I brought you here?”
The voice made Hugo’s skin crawl, though he couldn’t put his finger on why. It sounded normal enough, if sickeningly sweet. Then he realized what it was. Molad loved the sound of that voice. He was practically basking in it. Hugo attempted to ignore him.
“You brought me?” Hugo asked, trying to be difficult.
“Yes,” the voice said. “Of course. That dark twin of yours is an old friend of mine, you know. We’ve accomplished much together in the past, including bringing you here.”
“What?” Hugo felt sick. He searched his memory, analyzing how things had unfolded. Molad had been helping Hugo, hadn’t he? Sure, he was evil, but he wasn’t conspiring against him. When it came to the bigger picture, Hugo had always been in control.
“Did that darkness of yours not bring you here?” Shael said. “Did it not plant in you a desire to stay? Give you a reason to come here? You came for Gadjihalt’s sword, did you not? I can only imagine that that dragon is behind it. Why? Does he have some piece of information that you require? Some memory, perhaps? Do you hope that he holds the key to defeating me? I can assure you he does not. I defeated him.”
Hugo breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment there, he was almost sure that Shael knew what he was after. Not that it mattered, really. It didn’t change the situation one way or the other.
As if reading his thoughts, Shael said, “It does not matter. You are here now. Here to stay.”
“Why?” Hugo asked. “What do you want with me?”
The voice laughed. “I need you, Hugo. It’s hard to admit it, but I do. Do you know how long I worked, how hard I worked, just to let my voice escape this prison? Too long! And it has nearly ruined me. My strength is spent. I will get no further on my own…that is why I need you.”
Hugo laughed. “I’m not going to help you get out of there,” he said. “You can kill me if you want, but I won’t do it.”
“Oh, I don’t want you to let me out,” the voice said. “I want to let you in.”
Hugo blinked. What? What had he said? Let him in? That didn’t make any sense.
“Do you know how a Panthion works, Hugo?” the voice said. “Of course you don’t. Let me show you. Gadjihalt, open the box.”
Gadjihalt moved to the Panthion and, to Hugo’s astonishment, opened the lid.
Hugo gasped. It was supposed to be locked. It was supposed to be an inescapable prison. He winced, waiting for Shael to leap from the box, but nothing happened.
“Look!” the voice snapped. “Look inside!”
Gadjihalt pulled Hugo to his feet and forced him roughly to the box. It was empty. Just an empty stone box. Gadjihalt closed the lid.
“You see?” the voice said. “That is how a Panthion works. It is a prison, after all. Easy to get in. Hard to get out.”
Hugo still didn’t understand.
“Do you know who can open this box, Hugo?” the voice asked. “I mean really open it? Enough to let me out? Do you know who the only person is?”
“No,” Hugo said honestly.
“The Magemother. None but she can open it.”
“I see your problem,” Hugo said, smiling. This had been a terrible day, true. He was likely going to die—maybe be tortured first, but Shael was not going to escape. Brinley would never let him out.
“Yes,” the voice sneered. “She is not likely to release me. She would never open it for me…but I think that she will open it for you.”
With a sudden rush of understanding, Hugo realized what Shael’s plan was. “You want me to come in there with you?”
“You see the beauty of it?” Shael said. “She will open the box to free you, and she will free me as well. She will not want to do it at first, but she will in the end. She cares too much for her children. That is her weakness. In the meantime, there is much that I will be able to discuss with you, one on one. Just you and I. I daresay you are in need of a decent tutor.”
“What makes you think I’ll let you?” Hugo growled. He wouldn’t, and that was the end of it. He would die first. He would run first. Shael was locked in there. His voice was out, sure, but obviously his power was not. Gadjihalt could not force him to do anything.
“Let me speak to your twin now, Paradise,” Shael said. “I’m sure he will be more accommodating to my wishes.”
Molad surged so violently within him that Hugo nearly blacked out. It was as if Shael was calling to him. Like a dog, Molad rushed to answer. It was all Hugo could do to hold him back. He tried not to let the strain show on his face. It wouldn’t do to let Shael know how close he was to getting what he wanted.
“No,” he said. He had meant to say something grander, something threatening, maybe, or something funny, so that Shael would think he wasn’t afraid. The problem was, he was afraid.
“No?” Shael echoed. “Very well. Then I am afraid I will have to cut your friend’s hand off. Maybe then you will reconsider. If not, he has another one. Two feet, too. I’m sure you will agree eventually. Unless you have the desire to watch a mage die slowly.”
One of Gadjihalt’s men forced Lignumis’s sleeve up, brandishing a knife.
“Stop!” Hugo shouted, and the man stopped. For a moment, everything was quiet. He closed his eyes in pain as Molad made another effort to escape. There was sweat forming on his forehead now. He was losing. Losing this battle, and he knew it. He couldn’t watch Lignumis get tortured. Couldn’t watch him die. He couldn’t hold out against Molad all night either.
“Fine,” he said. “But you let Lignumis go free first.”
There was a short silence, then the voice came again. “Very well. He goes free.”
“And safe back to the bridge.”
“And safe back to the bridge,” Shael agreed.
“And before he goes you give him a piece of bark from that tree,” Hugo pointed at the twisting black behemoth beside the box.
“Excuse me?” Shael said.
Hugo smiled. “So that after the Magemother frees us, I will have a weapon to kill you with.”
Shael laughed. “Fair enough, Hugo. Whatever you wish, though I think you may be disappointed if ever you face me in combat.”
“We’ll see,” Hugo said.
He watched as Lignumis was released. He watched in satisfaction as Gadjihalt cut a piece of bark from the tree, wrapped it carefully in a strip of fabric from his shirt, and gave it to Lignumis. That had been some of the quickest thinking he had ever done. He almost couldn’t believe that it was working.
But it was. Lignumis was turning to leave. Hugo caught his arm. “Make sure you get that bark to the Magemother,” he whispered. “She’s expecting it.”
Lignumis nodded. “I won’t forget this,” he said, casting an almost guilty look at the black box in the trees. He released Hugo’s arm and left. Hugo was pleased to see Lignumis disappear at the edge of the clearing, turning into a network of vines that swung from tree to tree, making a quick path out of the forest. He would get back safely.
Brinley! he called. I found Lignumis.
What?
I’ll explain later.
Where are you? We’ll come and get you!
No, Hugo said. Go. Get out of here. We’ll be along in a moment. Just leave the medallion on the bridge for us. Toss it back after you’re through.
Hurry, Brinley pleaded.
“Now
,” Shael said, “your turn.”
Gadjihalt put a knife to Hugo’s back with one hand and reached around with the other to open the lid of the box again. “In you go,” he said. “Just your hand will be enough.”
Hugo swallowed. He thought of Brinley, remembering the way she had looked the last time he saw her—pretty, comforting, bending over him and taking care of him. He’d give anything to be back in that room now. He thought of Cannon and his surprising loyalty. Surely he didn’t deserve it. Now he wouldn’t ever be able to repay it.
“In,” Gadjihalt grunted, pressing the knife hard enough to break the skin between his shoulder blades.
He wasn’t coming back from this one. But, if he did, somehow…
Stories, Hugo. Stories.
He placed his hand in the box.
Chapter Twenty
In which a package is delivered
Brinley took the smooth black stone out of her pocket and fingered it absently as she waited at the top of the bridge to the Wizard’s Ire. Hugo had dropped it by accident, or Molad had cast it aside during his escape. She wished that it was still in his possession, instead of back in her own. She tried to feel the peace within it, but it was out of reach.
She hoped that Hugo would come back. He had to come back, and not just because of his own life. He had her mother in his pocket still. She thought Hugo would have had enough wisdom to give Cannon the Naptrap before barreling off into the Ire on an unexplained wild goose chase, but apparently he didn’t.
She winced at the thought. What was coming over her? More than likely, he didn’t have a choice in the matter. Even if he did, it didn’t matter. Now, he was almost certainly in trouble, and all she could do was sit and wait.
It seemed like forever since they had all—Animus, Tabitha, Cassis, the Swelter Cat, not to mention the captain of the guard and his band of rather nervous-looking soldiers—settled down to wait for Hugo.
She returned the stone to her pocket bitterly. If Hugo didn’t come back, it meant that Shael had captured him, and Hugo would certainly need some peace if that happened, not that her stone was likely to help anyway. If he didn’t come back, she might never see him alive again. If he didn’t come back, her mother was as good as dead.
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