by C Lee Tocci
“I don’t know.” Todd rubbed at his scalp as the wind ripped into his face. “Jeff, check on Endrune, see what they’re up to.”
Jeff barely glanced at his computer. “I’ve been checking every few minutes. They’re still at the complex. It looks like they’re tightening security. Kind of dumb, I think. Like locking the cage after the bird got out.”
Or maybe they’re getting ready for the birds that are about to be regrabbed? Todd thought. “Where are we? Can you tell?”
“Somewhere in Plainfield County.” Jeff rose to his feet and looked around the other side of the container. “About two hundred miles south of Grey Rock.”
Ahead of them, a huge swath of blackness emerged out of the moonlight night. It looked like a forest, but it seemed a strange place for it. Around them, the plains had been flat and gravelly with scrubby chapparel and only the occasional tree to break up the desolation. A thick patch of trees, clustered so near the train tracks, seemed odd.
“That’s weird,” Jeff muttered as he ducked back behind the shelter of the cargo bin. “I don’t see that forest on the satellite map.”
As Todd watched, the trees seemed to grow and reach toward the tracks, closing the gap that the train was rushing towards.
“Everyone! Up!” Todd barked.
Donny, Marla and Lilibit jumped to their feet as Todd watched the engine plunge into the shrinking opening in the wall of trees. Within seconds, their flatcar was surrounded, rushing through what looked like a tunnel of leaves.
It was pitch black in the forest; the dense foliage deadened all sound. Even though the train was still barreling forward, the wind died out and the rattle of the wheels was muffled. Branches rasped against the cargo boxes, snapping off and flying in every direction. Todd ducked to avoid a bough that flew back and nearly took off his head.
A long whining creak made Todd look back ahead. A hundred yards forward, a tree slowly toppled over, its thick trunk crashing into the train. The limb held back the cargo box as the flatcar beneath it continued to hurl forward. With a screech of twisting metal, one container smashed against the next, starting a domino-effect that, in seconds, would crush them between slabs of metal.
“JUMP!” Todd yelled as he grabbed Lilibit around the waist and threw her through the air into the forest. Gripping Marla’s wrist, he dragged her with him as he leaped off the flat car. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jeff push Donny off the other side before jumping himself, hardly a second before the cargo boxes slammed together.
The sounds of metal shredding filled his ears as he sailed through the air, waiting for the impact of crashing into the trees.
He never landed. Dozens of vines swung outward, grabbing his arms, wrapping around his chest and binding his legs. The trees straightened, pulling him up into the treetops, away from the writhing carnage of the train below. Todd tried to catch his breath to cry out “Kissy-face!” but a creeper slapped around his face, filling his mouth and blocking his words. Helpless, he struggled against the restraints as he hung in the air.
The forest grew eerily quiet as the train pulled away, leaving behind the crumbled cargo boxes strewn along the tracks. Todd’s hand still grasped Keotak-se’s staff, but it was useless; he wasn’t able to knock it against the ground to make it flare. He tried to reach for his knife, but the vines held fast.
He could make out the silhouettes of the others, twisting in the air, all of them bound and gagged by the trees. The quiet turned into a black silence. The night was pitch-dark, hardly any moonlight making its way through the canopy, when a faint rustling was heard, followed by a high, squeaky sing-song voice.
“How foolish are you? My trap you did spring! And now from the treetops, all of you swing!”
A tiny man, no more than two feet tall leaped down from a high branch. His hair was pulled up in ratty bunches and his face and clothes were tinted with blocks of colors. Todd realized he was one of the Keeper of the Trees: a race of merry little people that nurtured the trees of the world with their songs and their service to Quaba-ho, the heartstone of the forest, but there was something different about this Keeper. The baubles in his hair were grey, his clothes were dingy and the blocks of color on his skin were faded. Yet, what was most disturbing was his face; the Keepers they had met on their way to Kiva had been charming and cheerful; the sweetness in their hearts could be seen in their childlike faces. The eyes of this Keeper were mean and his face had a vicious and sinister sneer.
“So clever am I. They’ll all look so sour, when I possess, the stone of great power!”
The Keeper swung down on a vine, swaying to peer into each of their faces as they hung, helpless. The Keeper babbled to himself as he grabbed Marla’s hair and pulled up her head.
“Syxx showed me my future. They’ll fall to their knees. For mine is the right, to be Lord of the Trees!”
He dropped Marla’s hair and swung over to dangle in front of Todd, grinning nastily.
“Popokelli am I! Heed my name well! For the day comes quite soon, when I rule the Dell!”
With a kick to his gut, Popokelli pushed away from Todd and spun over to where Jeff and Donny hung. He poked at them angrily.
“Now where is that girl? That small selfish brat? If she won’t give me my stone, I shall take it, like that!”
Popokelli looked around and growled. Somehow he had missed where Lilibit had hung, not far from Todd. A flicker of moonlight revealed Lilibit, her eyes wide and frightened, keeping absolutely still. With a growl, Popokelli bared his teeth and dived at her, his long fingers lunging.
“I must have the stone! I am destined! It’s mine! For it is only for me, that the heartstone will shine!”
He clung to the creepers that were wrapped around Lilibit. Her screams were muffled behind the vine that gagged her as she thrashed furiously. Todd bit into the limb in his mouth as he fought against his bonds.
Todd didn’t think most people could touch Lilibit’s stone. At least he couldn’t. The few times he’d tried, it had whacked him across the room. Devon was the only exception that he knew that could handle her stone, but would a Keeper be able to steal it? Todd didn’t know.
Popokelli’s nails scratched Lilibit’s face as he fought against her struggles. His long fingers tore at the branches that covered her pants, but before he could rip into her pocket where Ewa-kwan hid, a blast shook the forest, jarring him loose and sending him toppling toward the ground.
An eruption of earth flared beneath them. A fountain of dirt spit upward and Ulex, roaring silently, burst to the surface.
His crystal staff flared with blazing wrath as he slashed and blasted the trees around him. Popokelli caught himself mid-fall and clung to a trunk like a tree frog. He hissed and a dozen vines shot down to bind Ulex, but the razor sharp faces of Ulex’s crystal skin shredded the vines as they attacked. Ulex swung his staff like a scythe and trees toppled in every direction.
One of the vines holding Todd faltered, just enough for Todd to free one arm. Wrenching it down to his leg, he pulled out the dagger he kept strapped there. The blade slashed through the vines like it was slicing water. Todd clung to a retreating vine and swung over to Lilibit, hacking at the vines that reached out to grab him.
He cut loose the vines that bound her mouth and then started sawing through the ones around her arms and legs. “Lilibit!” he hissed urgently in her ear. “Morph into a bird and fly up above the trees. Stay up there until the rest of us join you!”
“But---” Lilibit bit back a sob.
“No buts! Just do it!”
“But---”
“Lilibit!” Panic made Todd’s voice sound hard and angry. “No arguments! Fly up there and wait for us!”
The last of vines dropped away and Lilibit clung to Todd for a moment. The look she gave him was strange, alarmed but not frightened, and he realized that she was worried about him; about all of them.
“We’ll be fine,” he said in a softer voice. “We’ll be up in a minute. Now go!”
>
Her eyes still burning into his, Lilibit gulped a large huff of air, nodded once, and muttered “Kissy-face!”
Her arms fell away from him as they turned into tiny wings. She fluttered around his head until he snapped, “Go!” Her wings brushed one of his ears before she buzzed off, dodging vines and tumbling trees as she headed for the top of the canopy.
Todd watched her until she flitted out of sight, then he swung over to where Marla still dangled, her eyes staring down on Ulex as the furious Netherrockian hacked at the malicious trees.
No sooner had Todd freed her mouth then Marla cried out “Kissy-face!” As she morphed into a bird, the vines were left wrapping around a captive who was suddenly much smaller. She bolted out of their clutches and, with a screech of rage, she plummeted down to Ulex’s side, her claws extended.
Todd watched, awed. He had no idea what kind of damage a hawk could do to a forest possessed, but at that moment, he was very glad that he wasn’t a tree.
Chapter Fifty
Out of the Frying Pan
It was surprising how bright the night was above the trees. To her hummingbird eyes, the moon was as brilliant as the sun. She buzzed above the canopy, frantic. Occasionally, a vine would shoot up and try to snag her, but she’d evade it easily and then go back to flitting anxiously, waiting. Below her, she could hear the creaks and crashes as her friends battled the wicked woods.
A rustling of leaves at the other end of the forest sent her scurrying toward the disturbance, hoping it was one of the others emerging from the fray, but even before anything had crested up out of the treetops, she pulled back. The stench of sulfur and rotten meat smelled stronger to a bird than when she had last smelled it as a human. She flew full speed in the opposite direction even before she caught a glimpse of the newcomer.
The demon Syxx rose out of the treetops with an audible smack like a balloon escaping from a muddy swamp. His black leathery wings furled and unfurled with a sticky, slimy sound, spreading wide to block out the horizon. His leathery body was bloated and scaly, and between those grey-green scales, cracks glittered flame red. His face was bat-like and inhuman and around his head, a circle of horns stabbed and twitched. He fixed his dead black eyes on the hummingbird’s retreating form and roared.
A hummingbird is fast, but it’s no match for a flying demon with a forty foot wingspan; Syxx closed the distance between them quickly. She heard him gulp in air before spitting out a plume of flame and, with that split second of warning, she dived back into the canopy.
The trees were slow to react to her; perhaps they were losing the battle against Ulex and the others, or perhaps they needed Popokelli’s direction, but whatever the reason, she dove in and around the trunks and branchs, easily avoiding the vines as they whipped out at her.
Above her, Syxx roared and slashed at the foliage. She pitched and swerved to avoid stabbing tree limbs as they shot past her.
A blast of flame raked the forest. Lilibit, her wings still fluttering madly, froze in midair as the trees in front of her exploded into a wall of fire. She veered to the left, and then to the right, but sheets of inferno rained down on all sides. She was trapped.
With no other choice, she plunged into the blaze. She flew as fast and as straight as she could, but the flames seered her wings and the rising thermals buffeted her up and down.
And then she was free of the flame. The edge of the forest ended abruptly and she kept flying as straight as her wounded wings could carry her. Her breath squeaked in her beak as she gulped in cool sweet air. She dropped toward the ground, flying low and hugging the barren prairie floor. She didn’t know which direction she was headed, she flew by instinct and the need to put as much space between herself and the wicked woods as possible.
A distant roar and a glimpse of fire behind her raised mixed feelings; mostly terror, but she was also aware of a strange sense of relief and it took her a moment to realize that she was as worried for her friends’ safety was as she was her own; that Syxx still pursued her meant that the others would be in less peril.
There was little protection on the plains. The desert oaks were few and far between; it wasn’t even worth aiming for them. Staying close to the ground meant one less direction that she could dodge; the nearness of the earth was small comfort to her, but it was all she had.
She was tiring fast, and maybe Syxx sensed this, for he roared triumphantly and bore down on her again. She looked around in a panic; she was in the open with nothing for cover, but below her, in the packed gravel, she saw a small round opening, about two inches wide, that looked like it had been made by a small animal. She dove for it and plunged into blackness.
The burrow went straight down for about a foot before it branched off into two channels. With no time to think, Lilibit chose the left tunnel. It sloped downward for a couple of feet beneath a slab of bedrock. And then it dead-ended. Lilibit’s wings scraped stone as they fluttered against the walls of the cavity. Trapped, Lilibit huddled and fought the urge to hide her head beneath her wings.
Above her, she could hear a heavy footfall and loud scrabbling sounds, accompanied an avalanche of grit and sand. Most of the gravel tumbled down the other channel, but a lot of the silt slid into Lilibit’s tunnel. With each wave of digging, another dune of sand slipped into her nook. And each time, Lilibit had to work her way through the dirt so it wouldn’t bury her, bringing her closer and closer to the opening.
It was getting brighter in the burrow as the entry shaft kept growing larger from Syxx’s efforts but the slab of rock over Lilibit’s head held steady. Suddenly, the digging stopped. The dust settled. And, for a long moment, it was quiet.
Then Lilibit saw one of Syxx’s long finger claws reaching down the shaft. A second fell in beside it and then the two claws curled around the lip of the rock slab. With a grunt, the claws pulled upward. Gravel and sand pitched in all directions and the tunnel grew dark under a cloud of silt.
But the slab did not move.
The sound of angry grunts and scratching claws held Lilibit frozen and trembling. Again and again the claws pulled at the slab above her, yet still the rock held fast.
A scream of anger and a blast of flame shot down the shaft. It seared her wings. Burns felt different to her bird body than they did to her human one, but they still hurt a lot and she twisted her body to burrow back into the silt. The sand was hot and sweltering and she could barely breathe, but at least when she was half-buried, the flames could only singe the tips of her feathers.
She lost count of the number of times Syxx spat fire down the shaft. The stench of sulphur mixed with an odor that at first smelled like roasted chicken; Lilibit realized that it was her own scorched wing. If birds could cry, she’d be bawling, but instead, she just trembled beneath a pile of gravel.
As quickly as it started, the onslaught stopped. Above she heard furious panting as gusts of Syxx’s foul breath steamed into the burrow. The gasping slowed and above her, it grew very quiet and still.
Hesitantly, Lilibit shook her head free of the sand, her beak opening and closing as she took in air. It was hot and fetid and she felt dizzy and weak but at least she was breathing. After another moment of silence, she pulled her body out of the grit, shaking silt from her wings.
It was quiet up there. But not silent. Not for a moment did Lilibit think Syxx had gone; she could hear the smacking of his wings and the heaving of his breath. And then, she heard laughter.
It wasn’t a pleasant laugh. Not the kind of laugh that you’d want to join in with or ask what the joke was; it was the kind of laugh that made you go cold inside and want to find someplace else to be.
“Do you feel safe, little bird?” Syxx asked when the chuckles died away. “How long do you think you can hide beneath the skin of the Earth Stone? I have all the time in creation, but you, tiny one, do not.”
There was a light scuffling as if the demon was seating itself, and when he spoke again, the voice was close, as if he were whispering into the burrow.
“Did you know, little bird, that when you assume the shape of another beast, you assume all its strengths and abilities? But you also assume its weakness and failings as well. And did you know that a hummingbird needs to each almost constantly? If it doesn’t eat, it will start to starve to death within a few hours? To protect itself, it shuts down and falls into a stupor, deeper than sleep, until it is safe to go out and eat again.”
Lilibit listened, not moving. She was already dizzy and her tiny body felt heavier and heavier. She shook her head, trying to clear the haze that descended on her.
“And when the weakness finally devours you and you drop off to sleep,” Syxx continued, “you will lose your focus. When that happens, you will revert to your human body. A body far too large for your little hiding place. The very stone that protects you will crush you. I can hardly wait to hear! I wonder if you’ll even have time to scream. How disappointing that I won’t be able to watch.”
Syxx didn’t sound disappointed. He sounded gleeful. The nook was getting darker. Lilibit shook her head again and pecked at her burnt wing, hoping the pain might help keep her awake.
But it didn’t help. The world stopped spinning, her head dropped to one side and her body toppled over. The cold stone against her cheek thrummed as, above her, someone struck a staff against the earth.
Three times.
Chapter Fifty-One
One With the Stone
The stone beneath her trembled and cracked. The silt that was packed around her was the first thing to fall away into the gap, but as the crack widened, Lilibit found herself slipping down as well.
Her wings beat weakly, but not enough to keep her airborne. As she fell, she felt herself morphing back into her human body, but the crack was widening as she changed and by the time she transformed, the crevice was just large enough to fit her. She slid down another dozen feet and didn’t stop until she was wedged tightly between the two slabs.
