Finally, about an hour later, they reached the entrance to Taga Village. It was a tunnel about ten feet long, cut through the stone face of the canyon wall. Bits and pieces of board were strewn all around it. Akeno surprised Jacob by talking. He said that the boards used to seal the entrance shut.
“The Lorkon blasted their way through,” he said.
Aloren raised her eyebrow. “The Lorkon themselves? I was under the impression that they sent servants.”
Akeno flushed, and Jacob felt like yelling at Aloren for being so critical when the Makalo obviously had a hard time talking in front of strangers.
“Same difference,” Jacob said. “They’re behind it either way.”
Akeno sent him a grateful expression while Aloren turned her back. Jacob snorted inwardly. Whatever.
Before going through the tunnel, Seden gave them another warning about the witch. “Snakes serve her. If you see anything off or weird, get out of there.”
Aloren didn’t scoff this time. Jacob almost commented on the fact that he’d seen lots of things that were “off” or “weird,” but held back.
The trees on the other side of the tunnel were dead, misshapen, and shriveled. They were almost painful to look at. The land around the trees also appeared to be dead, and there were animal carcasses all over the ground. The stench was so strong that Jacob’s stomach lurched, and a sharp feeling of nausea hit him.
All of this, however, was not what caught him off guard the most.
Everything—including the sky and his companions—was completely devoid of color.
No one moved for a moment as they stared at the forest.
“Why is everything black and white?” Jacob asked.
“We don’t know,” Seden said. He glanced at Aloren. “Most say it’s the witch’s control over the landscape.”
Aloren rolled her eyes, but didn’t respond.
Jacob turned to her. “What’s your explanation for it?”
“I don’t have one,” she mumbled.
Seden grinned victoriously.
While he was taking everything in, Jacob had the slight sensation of being on a boat, rocking side to side. It took a moment to put his finger on why. He studied the forest around them, finally noticing that the trees were moving, shifting away from them. Then he noticed something else. There wasn’t a trail on this side of the tunnel.
When Jacob commented on it, Akeno surprised him by being the one who answered.
“As Seden said, the forest is infected by the witch. She tries to trap people, and the forest helps. Not only that, but it does its best to remove any evidence that people have ever traveled here.”
“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Jacob said, “but I’m convinced that there’s an actual witch here.”
No one responded—not even Aloren—and Seden led the way into the forest. Jacob was grateful the trees weren’t so thick that walking without a trail was impossible. Still, he wasn’t comfortable with his surroundings. He felt watched, and that made the hairs on the back of his neck raise.
The farther into the forest they went, the more the trees moved. Seden eventually pulled out his sword and hacked at branches that crisscrossed in front of them.
“That’s only going to make them mad,” Aloren said, stepping across a huge log.
“So . . . be . . . it,” Seden responded in between whacks of his sword. “We have to . . . get through . . . somehow.”
Aloren was right, though. The trees began whipping around in a frenzy, almost as if they were freaking out.
Dodging branches, dead animals, and stumps, Jacob stumbled through the forest, doing his best to ignore the angry trees. He kept his eyes on Seden and Aloren, but it was difficult to keep up.
The air tasted stale and dirty, and each breath he took was agonizing. He tried to limit the amount of air that entered his lungs, but the stench of death was overwhelming.
The forest was growing thicker. Jacob’s palms began sweating and his heartbeat hitched up even faster when he noticed that the distance between himself and the two ahead of him was growing. Were the trees letting them through while trying to stop him?
“Guys? Can you slow down?”
They didn’t look back. Had they heard him over the sound of the thrashing trees?
“Stop!” Jacob yelled.
They still didn’t hear him, and he froze, blinking in shock when the trees shifted and moved, putting them completely out of view.
Akeno gave a little shriek. “We can’t lose them!” He started running, easily passing Jacob.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jacob said, jogging again, grabbing trunks and branches to catapult himself past the trees.
The forest grew even thicker, making it nearly impossible to see, and what little light there was danced around as the branches thrashed. After only a few minutes, Jacob could no longer see Akeno, and very soon he couldn’t hear him, either.
He stopped running, not sure where to go since they hadn’t exactly been following a straight line.
“Hello? Akeno? Aloren? Anyone?”
No one answered, and he wasn’t surprised. He barely heard himself—the stupid trees were too loud.
Something cold and smooth brushed against Jacob’s cheek. He frantically wiped it off his face, spinning to see what had touched him. Nothing was there but the moving branches.
He started forward again, cautiously peering ahead. He gasped as another cold, smooth thing ran through his hair. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the animal—or whatever it was.
Seconds later, an extra weight slid across his shoulders and over them, circling his neck. He reached up to grab it, recognizing the feel of the creature. It was a snake about two feet long. He yanked, flinging it off. Jacob stumbled backwards, nearly falling, as the pale-colored snake flattened and floated swiftly to a nearby tree.
The trees stopped moving.
Chapter Six
With the stillness, the light no longer danced, and Jacob could see better. Nearly every surface was covered with snakes—the ground seemed to have come alive. Several of them floated through the air.
Jacob looked around, half expecting to see a witch. He didn’t want to call out for his group—he didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself.
Jacob peered through the darkness, gingerly treading forward. He tried not to step on any of the snakes and grimaced when he did, but they weren’t reacting to him now that the trees were still.
As he walked cautiously, something large brushed against his leg. He looked down and made out the shape of a snake two feet in diameter as it slithered slowly past him, then stopped.
Jacob felt his heart do a double beat as his mind raced. What kind of snake was that? Was it poisonous? He couldn’t remember ever having seen one on TV. He scrambled away, but with a quick jerk he almost didn’t see, the snake re-coiled itself around his feet. In a split second, several loops of it encircled him, pinning his arms to his sides, and he couldn’t move anymore.
The snake hissed, eye-to-eye with Jacob, its intelligent gaze piercing into him. Its tongue flicked out, barely touching Jacob’s skin and hair, testing the air around him. Then its body tightened so much that it squeezed the breath out of him. The snake lifted him completely off the ground and started carrying him through the forest. Jacob gasped for air, his vision going red, and was finally able to pull in a breath.
After a few minutes, the forest ended as the snake reached the edge of a clearing. Toward the center was a hill with a very large manor sitting atop its crest. There was no sign of Akeno or the other two.
The manor must have been impressive in its day. Large granite columns graced the front of the building, and the windows, most of which had either been boarded over or smashed open, were massive and elegant. The wide concrete porch that circled the house was now cracked and disheveled, with vines growing through the cracks and up many of the columns. One corner of the foundation had begun to sink.
In front
of the house, to the right, was a large pit. Jacob thought he could hear Akeno’s voice coming from it, and he struggled to break free of the snake’s tight grip. But the snake ignored his attempts and continued slithering across the ground, up the stairs, and through the open front door of the house.
It was musty and dirty inside. Dim light shone through several of the smashed windows. The front entryway was spacious—at least two stories high, maybe three. The floor was marble, and there were marble pillars lining the edges of the room. Stained-glass windows between the pillars let in muted light.
Jacob caught a glimpse of a side room with sheet-covered furniture before the snake carried him up the staircase. There was a hallway at the top of the stairs, the first half overlooking the front entry and the second half lined with doors. All the doors were shut, and many had a slight greenish glow coming through the cracks.
The snake stopped abruptly at the end of the hall. In place of the door was a silvery, translucent sheen that filled the entire doorway. The snake paused before entering. The moment its head passed the frame, there was a loud clap, and the sheen disappeared. The snake wriggled forward a few feet, then released its hold on Jacob. He stumbled and whirled, ready to defend himself, but the snake had already slithered back into the hallway and was biting the top, bottom, and sides of the doorframe. The translucent veil materialized again, sealing the room, and the snake slithered down the hall and stairs.
Jacob rushed to the nearest window, barely noticing junk and oddly placed rolls of thick cloth on the floor, and watched as the snake disappeared into the forest. He waited a few moments, but the snake didn’t return.
The pit was beneath the window. It wasn’t very deep—maybe two or three feet—and Akeno was there, thrashing around in the remains of charred furniture and other debris. Jacob pounded on the window, trying to get Akeno’s attention, but the Makalo didn’t seem to notice.
A cold wind blew on the back of Jacob’s neck, making his hair rise. He turned and nearly yelled—about a foot or so away was a partially decomposed body sitting in a chair, on the verge of tumbling over.
Afraid it would fall at any moment, Jacob kept his hands up as he stepped to the side, barely missing another body that lay across the floor with arms stretched toward the door. He jumped away from it, realizing that what he’d assumed to be rolls of cloth were really bodies sprawled on the ground, reaching for the exit. He made his way to a clear spot and looked around.
The room was very large. There was a massive bed against one wall, a fireplace on another, and several chairs placed in random positions around bookcases, tables, and the fireplace. Nearly every chair held human remains, ranging from full skeletons to decomposing corpses that had been dead for only a few weeks at most. In one corner of the room was a table. On top were two stone jugs and bits of both fresh and moldy food.
The smell of death and decay became so overpowering, Jacob felt as though his lungs would burst. Desperate for fresh air, he steeled himself, then rushed past the dead bodies back to the window.
He grunted, pushing on the lever, trying to open the window. But it wouldn’t budge.
Jacob’s gaze landed on the jugs, and he grabbed one—it was heavy with water. He smashed it against the window as hard as he could. The result was water splashing all over himself and the nearest body, the jug shattering, and the window remaining undamaged. He grimaced.
Then he looked down and noticed several broken objects on the floor below the windows—byproducts of others’ attempts to break the glass.
Jacob groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The sound of his own voice startled him, and he looked over his shoulder at the bodies. He felt stupid when he realized he was checking to see if they’d moved. He forced himself to take a breath to calm himself and studied them. What if, like them, his only way out was through the doorway? But why hadn’t they gone through? They weren’t tied up or anything. They weren’t even near the door. None of them was closer than five or six feet.
Resolving to get out, Jacob crossed the room toward the shimmering doorway. He stopped about three feet away, peering at it. There was a slight movement, a few swirls in the silver. Light pink and blue mists emanated from it, and Jacob was distracted by the color for a moment—it was the first he’d seen since he got here. As he reached toward the portal, something passed over his skin as his hand went through the mist. It was cold—very cold—and a sharp pinpricking sensation started at his fingertips, moving up his wrist to where the mist stopped. Alarmed, Jacob pulled back his arm and examined his hand. No blood, no mark, nothing.
He looked up, took a step closer, and put his hand out again, this time determined to touch the shimmering barrier. The same cold, prickly feeling started at his fingertips and reached his elbow. He held his breath and plunged his arm forward. Nothing happened. But then he saw the sheen separate where he touched it.
Jacob stepped forward, pushing himself into the veil. The cold mist encompassed him, and the pinpricks covered him from head to foot. An enormous pressure enveloped his entire body, making movement difficult, and the air started to swirl around him. As the wind gained speed, his shirt got pulled up and his hair ruffled.
An intense pain hit him, starting in his chest and moving to his extremities. He felt electrocuted—he couldn’t move, and his body shook. He couldn’t even breathe. His fingers felt pulled from their joints, and there was no sensation in his feet. He tried to back out of the doorway, but it was as if some invisible force was holding him in one spot.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds, the feeling left him and he doubled over, gasping for breath. The pain in his muscles was replaced with numbness and he lost his balance, falling back into the room.
Chapter Seven
Jacob lay awkwardly on his side, no feeling in his body whatsoever. Had he been hit by lightning? Zapped with a Taser? Even his brain seemed paralyzed.
Sensation slowly returned to his limbs and he rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. What on earth had happened? Or, more precisely, what on Eklaron had happened? Had he been electrocuted? And why hadn’t it killed him? Did the people in the room try the same thing with similar results? He flipped onto his stomach and gradually got to his knees, ignoring the dead body two feet away.
He stood and turned to face the barrier. It was the only way out of the room—he was sure of that. Did he dare try walking through again? He scowled at the thought, looking at the dead bodies. There was no way he was going to stay here and die like they did. He had to find Dad and Amberly. Mom was relying on him.
With new resolve, Jacob held up his hand and took a step, frowning as the tingly sensation moved from his fingers and up his arm. This time, however, he steeled himself against the pressure of the swirling air and pushed as hard as he could. The same intense pain began, stopping his breathing once again, but he was already moving forward and continued pushing.
A loud pop made him jump, and the pressure, the mist, the pain, and the wind were gone. There was only the simple doorframe.
Relief coursed through his body, and he breathed deeply. Why had it worked this time and not the first? Deciding to think on it later, he took one last look into the room, then sprinted down the hallway and the stairs. He crossed the front entryway and exited the house, expecting something to jump out at him any moment, relieved when nothing did. Where was that witch, if she really did exist? And where had the huge snake gone?
Something odd about the trees caught his attention. They all appeared to be pulsing toward a point in the forest some distance away. And that spot seemed to be moving.
A sick feeling came over him as he realized that whatever was moving through the forest was coming toward him, and that the trees wanted to be close to it—trees that had been trying to attack him earlier. The witch, or something equally evil, was on the way.
Jacob ran to the edge of the pit and saw Akeno randomly digging through the junk. The furnitur
e had been burned a while ago—how long, he couldn’t tell.
He headed down the three-foot slope toward Akeno. “Come on, let’s go.”
Akeno ignored him.
Jacob looked back at the forest. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
Again, Akeno didn’t respond. So, not asking for permission, Jacob pinned the Makalo’s hands to his sides and swung the small creature over his shoulder.
Then he practically flew out of the pit. Ignoring Akeno’s yelling, Jacob sprinted through the forest, praying he wouldn’t run into the snake. It was difficult to keep Akeno on his shoulder—he was kicking and flailing with all his might and almost got away several times. What was his deal?
The trees weren’t thrashing. Jacob figured they were distracted by whatever lay just ahead of them. He was running almost straight toward their focus point, but there wasn’t anything else he could do. He had a rough idea of where he needed to go, and that was back the way he’d come. Hopefully, he’d find Aloren and Seden. Hopefully, the witch wouldn’t find them first.
Jacob kept Akeno’s wrists pinned together with one hand. He used the other to push branches out of the way. Veering right, he widened the space between the oncoming danger and themselves.
As he tore through the forest, a snake flew out of the air in front of him, and he almost lost Akeno. Something caught his attention, and he stole a sidelong glance. Completely unprepared for what he saw, Jacob lost his balance and tumbled headlong into the brush. The dark, piercing eyes of a beautiful woman had locked with his. He rose to his knees, still holding Akeno. She was about a hundred feet away, the trees leaning over, almost touching the ground as they bowed to her.
She was clad in flowing white robes that billowed in the breeze. Her long, dark hair mingled with the robes drifting around her. She smiled mockingly at him, and it appeared as if she found his situation humorous. Her walk was graceful, and though she moved toward the house, when their eyes met, she stopped to face him.
Forsaken Prince (Kilenya Chronicles Book 1) Page 3
