by Teddy Jacobs
At this there was a collective sigh, and a groan from the tree, that shook the branches again.
Erik smiled a bitter smile. Even mentioning him causes great pain to our tree mother. She has seen so many of her kin poisoned or destroyed.
The tree shook again.
Erik frowned. So let us talk of something else for the moment. You are all tired and weary, hungry and very wet. Come into our guest rooms, and when you are warm and dry and fed, we will speak of how we can help you on your way, and perhaps strengthen your group.
And then a green girl was in front of me, smiling, and waving me on, and I looked over at Kara as she was led away too, and the others, all to different parts of the tree. Then I was in a room — there was no other word for it, though it was made of branches and leaves, a room that was alive and green. On the floor there was a bed, and there was a place to sit, and a place to wash, and the girl showed me with a lot of pantomine how to wash myself. But I reached out to her with my mind.
Thank you. What’s your name?
Her green face turned a little red then. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you could speak with us. Most city folk can’t.
I am not most city folk.
She nodded. We’ve heard of you. My name is Ulrike Erikson.
Does that mean that Erik…?
He is my father. But you need to bathe now. The water is warm; it is small but useful magic. Wash now and put your clothes in here, and they will be cleaned and dried as you wash.
Useful magic.
Ulrike nodded. I must go. We will see each other soon.
I reached out his hand to keep her there, and touched her hand.
There was a shock, and warmth flooded my body. She looked me in the eyes then and I wanted to pull her to me, to pull her warmth to my rain soaked cold. But she pulled her hand away, and I felt hot in the face. The moment was gone.
You need to wash and rest, Anders. After you have bathed and dressed again, rest. Everyone will rest. We all sleep here in the late afternoon, to refresh our minds for the evening supper. And then we will talk. One day, when the talk is done, we will dance. And if you will, we will dance together.
And then she smiled at me once more before I could answer, and she was gone.
I left my clothes where Ulrike had indicated and washed myself. The water was hot as promised and smelled like clean pine. It made me sleepy, and something about the tree made me feel safe and snug. When I had finished washing myself, I put back on my clothes, which were dry and clean, but a bit greener than I remembered them. They smelled good too, a strong smell of pine that relaxed me. The bed of needles was soft and warm, and soon I was asleep.
Perhaps it was the magic of the tree, but for once my dreams were free of the dark lord. Instead, things forgotten from my childhood came to my dreams with a brilliant clarity: swimming under water in a lake and holding my breath so long that my father up above had scolded me; my first attempts at magic — I had made a piece of paper move with my mind, and flown a paper airplane around the room in circles until my father, proud but annoyed, had snatched it out of the air.
V
I awoke refreshed to find a hand on my shoulder.
It was not Ulrike, but Elias.
I frowned, and Elias seemed to find this highly amusing.
Ulrike wanted to wake you, but I beat her too it. You like her don’t you?
I was about to respond, when Elias laughed. Better not answer me with your thoughts until you learn to shield your mind. Otherwise Ulrike and the whole tree will be laughing about you until we leave.
I smiled and spoke instead. “Show me how to shield my thoughts like you showed me how to pull the energy.”
Images flashed into my head. Elias was showing me his mind, a bright blue beacon, and around it, broadcasting out, were this thoughts. This is how you do it, and why everyone can hear your thoughts. Everyone who has the ability that is.
Show me how to shield them.
Elias nodded. This is how you need to do it. Look.
Again, my vision filled with images of my mind. This time though, the blue beacon was covered with an orange concentric shell. One small hole opened up, reaching out to another mind: Elias, looking like another bright beacon, but purple. And his purple beacon was covered with an orange shell too, but it opened up to accept my thoughts and let them in.
This is how you send and accept private thoughts. And this way no one can scry into your mind, and read your mind. Without shielding, someone could read your head even when you are asleep. We have tried to shield you as best we could, but it is time for you to shield yourself. Woltan and Kara agree.
Try it now.
I nodded. I imagined my mind, built an orange shield around it, impenetrable.
I opened my eyes, and Elias was smiling. “You did it too well! You can’t even hear my thoughts any more. Let some thoughts in, just don’t let people take anything away you don’t want to share.”
I closed my eyes and reimagined the orange shield. I imagined myself sensing the thoughts coming in towards me, absorbing them. Then I imagined having thoughts to send, and sending them directly to someone. I looked at Elias with my third eye. I sent a thought out toward him, and felt the shield close again after it went.
How’s this? Can you hear me?
I opened my eyes and looked at Elias.
Elias nodded with a smile. And now at last no one else can. One last test. I will try to probe your mind, when you are ready.
Will it hurt?
Elias shook his head. You may feel like someone is tapping or knocking you. If I was much stronger or evil, it might hurt a little bit. You’ll get used to it.
I nodded. Probe me.
I closed my eyes again and concentrated on the orange sphere. It felt like someone was poking me, scratching at me, grabbing at me, squeezing me, but where exactly? Not my head, not my body. It was my aura that was being probed, my mind and my aura. Elias was still pounding at me and I felt something that felt like a sharp nail trying to rip into me. I was tired. I concentrated. I redoubled the shield. I poured energy into it — it felt like flexing a muscle that hadn’t been used in a very long time. I figured I would be sore from more than the probing; just closing my mind was tiring.
The probe had faded to a small buzz and to a tickling sensation.
“Okay,” said Elias. “Anders, you can relax now.”
I opened my eyes.
Elias was smiling. You need to work on keeping your eyes open but otherwise that was pretty good. At first your shield was kind of weak but you really brought it up at the end there. What did you do?
I shrugged. I don’t know. I just put my will in it.
Elias nodded. If you keep practicing, the spell and the protection will become automatic, and almost permanent. You will be protected when you sleep. Until then, I think you should reimagine the protection every hour or so, and whenever you wake up at night.
There was someone else then, there, at what served as a door. I felt my face flush in recognition, and was glad at least all my thoughts were not on display. It was Ulrike, and she was smiling at us.
Are you working magic?
Elias smiled. We’re just about done.
We need to go and eat now, Anders and Elias. The others are waiting, and there are decisions to be made. My father urges you with all respect to come at once. Woltan sends the same message. He tried to contact you with his mind but everything bounced off.
She smiled again and I was glad now she couldn’t read my thoughts, although I was afraid she could read them all too well on my face.
He found this so alarming that he wanted to rush over here himself, but my father said I could handle it. Your friend Kara didn’t look too pleased.
Now I knew my face was red.
“Let’s go,” I said, out loud. My thoughts were so mixed up now I did not trust myself to send them selectively.
Ulrike may not have understood my words but she must have understood the messag
e. She nodded and then we were walking out the door onto the tree, up a few stairs and then into a room that seemed impossibly large. There were long green tables and green people sitting at them. Everyone looked up as we entered. I looked around for Woltan and the rest of them and did not see them, and then realized I was tuning out the green people.
Ulrike smiled. You’re starting to look like us. Green and transparent. Very handsome. I fear the effect is temporary, however.
Can you read my thoughts?
Just on your face, Anders. Your mind is closed to me now, except when you direct thoughts my way.
Someone was calling me then. “Anders!” It was Woltan, sitting at one of the tables, gesturing at me. There was Kara as well, and in between us, an empty space.
Ulrike put her hand on my shoulder, and smiled. My face grew hot, and I imagined she could read that as well. Oh well. I need to go sit down.
Ulrike nodded and let her hand drop.
What was she playing at? I walked over and sat down between my two friends. Woltan was talking to me. “They can’t understand when we talk, but then again you couldn’t either when you first came to stay with us. So we must think with our minds, but be very careful — look at everyone you are talking to, and send only to them. There are no spies here, and the tree should protect us. But we can’t take any chances. The dark lord is too powerful and too angry now.”
I nodded. Seated across from me was Ulrike’s father, looking impatient. I found everyone present with my inner eye, and sent a message. Sorry I took so long. My companion Elias was helping me with something. I beg your pardon.
Boy, that was clever. Helping me with something. But did I really want to tell everyone my weakness in hiding my thoughts?
Erik nodded. I know you have barely rested, but the longer you stay here, the more dangerous it is for all of us. We want to send three of our people, warriors and scouts, with you, and then send a larger party of several dozen to help you defend your city. More than that we cannot spare — we must defend the tree, as well. She is our mother: for generations she has kept us safe and we must return the favor.
She has protected us now as well. Woltan smiled. We will always be in your and her debt.
This seemed to please Erik; he clapped his hands and suddenly the tables were laden with food. There were pine nuts, of course, but also all kinds of mushrooms and potatoes, and other vegetables I’d never seen. The tree people seemed to be vegetarians. There was no meat, and no fish either. Everything tasted faintly of pine. Perhaps it was the pine nuts. They were larger than any I had ever seen. They filled me with strange sensations, and when I looked at myself, I swore I was turning greener and more transparent. Maybe it was just a trick of the light — it filtered in through the pine needles around us, and through the green webs of protective energy that encircled the tree.
Our first gift is the gift of camouflage; with the food that you eat here, and the time spent with the mother tree, you will be difficult to see in the best of light, and if you press yourself against a tree or any other plant, you will be invisible. This will not last forever, of course, but if you snack on our nuts and other foods, the effect should last for several days.
Time enough for us to reach our destination. At least I hoped so.
This invisibility will hide you from the dark lord as well. He is so corrupt and evil now, so disconnected from nature and natural magic that anything as green as our tree and your bodies will be just another tree to him. He should not sense the humanity in you until the effect wears off.
But my thoughts keep you from your meals. Eat, now, for strength, and invisibility. And to share one meal with us, with those who would call you friends, those who would eat with you, fight alongside you, and if need be, die with you.
I remembered then to chew, remembered the hot food in front of me. It might well be my only hot food for the next two days. The storm awaited us outside the trees — cold and gloomy and evil. Suddenly the freshness of this forest food and the sharp sticky taste of the pine nuts was exactly what I needed. I tucked in, filled my plate again. We ate, all of us, in silence. The food was magic, and would protect us. But it was more than that — it bound us all together and to the mother tree.
I stopped eating for a moment and breathed in deeply, and felt the fresh pine scent enter my lungs, permeate ever pore of my body. I felt at home with the tree at last, and deep down inside me I knew what I had to do. I sighed. For a moment, people stopped eating and looked at me. Then they were all eating again, quickly, but methodically, honoring every mouthful with their chewing, breaking it down before it was swallowed.
I turned my inner eye inward as I chewed. The dark green of the food exploded into a rainbow of color as it entered my body through my stomach, but also through my mouth, my tongue, my throat. And I could feel the pine scent sticking to me even more now as I ate, the tree recognizing me as one of her own and giving me her protection. Soon, I figured I would be able to understand her thoughts, which rumbled in the background of my consciousness.
I continued eating in silence, and gradually my body relaxed. People kept eating around me, but mostly I heard the food inside me and the mother tree. She was almost ready to greet me. I couldn’t help smiling in anticipation.
Erik clapped his hands once more and the tables were cleared, and there were little spice cakes, the size of a child’s hands. They were sweet, and like everything they tasted of fresh pine.
Erik was looking at me. No one else has ever been allowed to stay or eat with us. Our mother tree granted you all this gift, to help you defeat our common enemy. If you stayed longer, and ate longer of our food, it would be terribly hard for you to leave us. The tree holds on to her children. We are her adopted folk, even if our blood runs red still, and not green.
But I thought you said some of your people would accompany us?
Erik nodded. It is grim for them, and so I have asked for volunteers. We will hear now, who would go, and they will give their reasons, and we will vote.
With my inner eye I could see Erik’s tendrils of thought projecting out to everyone in the room. Suddenly all the faces around me looked very serious.
Who will go with these our adopted kin, who will fight against the dark lord?
I saw a rainbow of thought and excitement race through the auras.
Ulrike stood then, and I could not help staring at her. Now that I was clear and transparent too, I felt a strange kinship to her. But that wasn’t why I was staring. She was beautiful. I wanted to hold her and protect her. I wanted her to stay, but I also wanted her to come with us so I could get to know her. It was very confusing.
Tell us, then, daughter, why you would accompany them?
I have skills they need. But of course that’s not everything. There was a pause, and then her aura flashed red in anger. Almost everyone knows here that it was the dark lord who took my mother from us. I want my vengeance.
Should I not take the same vengeance?
Your place is here, father — the mother tree needs you, and our people need you too.
Erik slowly sighed, his face resigned. I will let you go, and stay for our tree and for our people. But if the dark lord takes from me now my only daughter after robbing me of my wife, no one, not even the mother tree, will keep me from seeking my vengeance. For the good of all, be careful.
Ulrike nodded.
Then I seek the approval of the rest of you — those I would leave, and those I would follow.
Erik stood up. Stand then, with me, those who would let her leave.
The tree folk stood up all in unison. There were silent tears, but no one was left seated.
They all stood down again.
Stand, now, those who would let her accompany them.
Woltan met my gaze, and Elias too. In a split second, it was Elias who decided for us, sending us a private thought. Stand. She is strong and true, and her mind and heart are set. We cannot hold her back.
We stood as one.
Stand now, anyone else who would accompany them.
Two young men, little older than me, stood up together. They were identical in appearance, and I realized they must be twins. We are Lars and Gustaf Larson. Since our birth 17 years ago we have dreamed identical dreams, and for the few weeks we have dreamed of your journey. In our sleep we have seen you Anders as you sparred with your blademaster, escaped your confinement, fought the Keiler and entered the ancient forgotten city. We are strong in stealth, skillful scouts, and battle-ready; our minds are full of magic as well. We feel that we were born to bring a change to this forest, to bring it back in balance by removing the pollution of the dark lord.
Erik frowned. Their dreams are news to me, news I wish they had shared earlier.
Lars and Gustaf look embarrassed for a moment, and a ripple of color went through their green auras. We ask your pardon, Uncle, but we did not know what to think of our dreams until we saw they were true, when Anders Tomason arrived here among us.
Erik nodded. They are strong and wise beyond their years. I trust them to be a strong addition to your voyage.
Elias nodded, and Woltan too. I could see why: just a look at their auras and you could see how strong and pure they were, the one just like the other.
All those who approve their departure, please stand.
Erik stood and his people stood with him. But one girl was left sitting.
It was Ulrike.
All eyes turned to her.
I would be heard.
Erik nodded, and we all sat once again.
Just as I do not worry for my own life, I worry doubly for my cousins, and since there are two of them, perhaps four times more.
There was a ripple of amusement.
But I too approve their departure. They are strong, and we will be stronger yet together.
Erik nodded once again. I risk now my daughter and my twin nephews. But there is much to gain. And more is at risk than their lives. Let all now stand who approve their entry into your group.
