Chapter 15
THE KITH
The sword was an awkward weight in Lavinia’s hand. Sweat from the humidity and the run dampened her palm. She had to hold the grip tight.
Ferns whipped her legs as she raced through the forest of massive trees, strange creatures yelling at her from the canopy. Startled birds and winged lizards scattered before her. Gasping for breath, she realized she could no longer taste salt in the air. The sea was far behind her, but from the sounds of it, Ty was catching up. Lavinia burst forward again, running deeper into the forest.
The forests had risen along the shoreline on the sixth day of the journey north. Lavinia first saw the trees in the light of the moon, thinking that the land had become hilly. Then one of the last outlets on the delta of the river Turcot opened along the shore, the sound of the rushing water audible in the quiet night. Then she realized the rolling mounds were the beginnings of the Forest of Falin. Those trees were tall, larger than anything Lavinia had seen in her life. They were nothing compared to the behemoths that rose from the land here, around Drufforth.
Lavinia stayed on deck when Ty came up that the morning. She knew they were close. The forest grew larger, the trees rising to over five hundred feet. Mist clung to the leaves in the midmorning sun. Flashes of animals and colored birds darted among the green. Finally, the shore pulled back in the swoop of a harbor and the strangest town Lavinia could have imagined came into view.
“Is that it?” Ria asked, her voice thin as if she was ill.
“I don’t know. What else could it be?”
Niri must have been expecting to arrive today as well. She came on deck within moments of their conversation and let out a slow breath at the sight of Drufforth.
Massive roots flowed out from shore forming living wharves while runners plunged into the sea formed support pilings. Along the shoreline, knots of trees had been bent and grown together to create the supports and trusses of houses. Above everything, the enormous trees rose to lofty heights.
“Drop the sail. I’ll take us in,” Niri said to Lavinia.
They met Skree and his wife Gaylin as they tied the Grey Dawn to the largest wharf. Only three other boats were in the harbor. Innocently, Lavinia thought Gaylin and Skree were Kith.
“Nah, we aren’t the Kith. We are just like you.” Skree’s gaze rested mostly on Ty’s dark-eyed face. The faint scar on Skree’s cheek was visible beneath laugh lines. But he rubbed the white marks over his knuckles as though they still bothered him. “We found some peace and decided to stay.”
Gaylin smiled fondly at her husband. Her hair was more gray than russet, but that was the only age on her face. “You’ll know the Kith when you see them, dear.”
“We’ll go ahead and move ya off the boat and into the inn. Get ready for work on her.” Skree said, leading them to a table at the inn located at the foot of the wharfs. The trees that made the structure were so old that they had almost grown together. Narrow windows filled the gaps, letting in light.
“You think it will be that simple?” Niri asked.
“You being a Water Elemental and all?” Skree asked. Niri blushed but did not deny his comment. “I don’t see any harm in ya. They’ll see the truth of the matter and make their decision. We’ll send a runner tomarrah to let them know yer here.”
After so many days of sailing with the group divided as night and day, Lavinia had wanted to believe it was going to be that easy. They would stay in this quiet place made of living trees along the sea. Then as they gathered their belongings from the boat, Ty found Lavinia pulling the sword out of its hiding place.
“Where did you get that?” Ty asked, angry.
“On the boat, after Sardinia.”
“That isn’t yours to keep.”
“It isn’t yours either,” Lavinia snapped back hotly. She clutched the sword to her chest as Ty looked at her in surprise.
“What do you think you are going to do with it? You can’t use it sailing. When we get home, you’ll have your apprenticeship.”
“Why?” Lavinia clipped his words short. “Do you think there is anything new I can learn about sailing? And apprentice when? When this is done? I’m not leaving with you and Ria, if you go. I’m staying to finish this with Niri. You aren’t my father, Ty.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying, Vin. You aren’t going to learn to sword fight, for goodness sake. Why would you?”
“Because I want to.”
“Don’t be such a child.”
Lavinia’s anger coiled inside of her like a snake. “I turned seventeen two days ago, Ty. I’m not a child. I would have left for my blasted apprenticeship in just over three months. Like it or not, Ty, I am an adult.”
Ty’s face blanked, his gaze shifting far off for a second. Then he lunged at Lavinia. “No, you will listen!”
Lavinia jumped back, whirling and sprinting for the door. She was closer to the cabin stairs than Ty, and made the wharf before he was on deck. With Ty in pursuit, Lavinia ran headlong past the inn and straight into the forest.
She'd been running since. Her lungs ached so that she thought they would split. Stopping again, Lavinia listened for the sound of her brother, holding her breath to hear over her gasps. She could not even hear the sound of breaking waves. The forest rustled leaves high overhead, an animal grated a call, but there was nothing else. Lavinia panted, the sweat on her cooling in the slight breeze. Her pants, damp from the mist drenched ferns whipping her legs, stuck to her as she bent over. She breathed in the smell of earth and broken plants.
It was the slightest noise behind her, the rustle of fabric rather than leaves, that sent Lavinia spinning around. She pulled the sword from its leather sheath as she turned, holding it before her ready to fight. There was nothing.
She waited, knowing someone was nearby. Slowly, she scanned the small woodland opening. Then he became clear to her.
A man who looked about her age stood in front of a wide tree trunk twenty feet from her. His skin was patterned and striped like bark. His hair, a russet brown, blended into the forest around them along with the browns and greens of his clothes. She blinked, finding his green eyes staring back into hers. Lavinia let the sword point waiver. She had finally found the Kith.
He moved like the wind, smacking the sword with a long stick she had not even noticed he held. The sword jarred her hand so that she released it. She glared at him angrily, lunging for the sword. He flicked it out of her reach with the staff, and it disappeared into a clump of ferns. His green eyes laughed at her.
The sound of something crashing through the forest rose behind her. Lavinia gasped, whirling quickly. She couldn’t see her brother, but he had to be close to make that much noise. Desperate, she looked around the clearing for somewhere to hide.
Her frantic gaze came back to the Kith. His expression was concerned now, hesitant as he looked beyond her into the forest and back to her face. With a look, she pleaded for his help, not knowing if he spoke trade or not.
“Come,” he said, voice a low alto, soft and warm.
He held out a hand. Lavinia stepped forward, reaching toward him as he moved toward her. Their hands joined and he pulled her closer, spinning both of them together as if in a dance. The world spun around her, a quick flash of wood grain, then sunlight and leaves. Lavinia stood in the Kith’s arms on a high branch above the clearing.
She leaned into him as she looked down. He chuckled deep in his chest. Inexplicably, Lavinia smiled as well.
Below her, Ty crashed into the clearing. His hair was tangled and eyes dark. He didn’t look angry like she thought he would. He looked lost, as if everything was rushing out of control. He scanned the forest for her, never glancing down to see the fallen sword nearly at his feet or up to see his sister. Ty stumbled out of the clearing, tripping on a fern that grabbed his calf.
Lavinia sighed. “He’ll never find his way out.”
“You know him?”
“He’s my brother.”
“Oh, that
does explain things.”
Lavinia smiled up into his green eyes. “You have a sister?”
The Kith smiled back. “Yes, a younger one, as a matter of fact.” He paused, gaze curious. “I am Darag.”
“Lavinia.”
A second noise below caught their attention. Niri walked more carefully into the clearing, parting the feathery blanket of ferns as if it was a green sea. She paused, scanning the forest. With a startled gesture, she gazed up at Lavinia. Her eyes shifted sideways to the Kith at Lavinia’s side, widening when she focused on him.
“Naiad, why are you here?” Darag asked, tone cool.
“We seek help. Our boat is damaged and we need assistance to fix it.”
“You know her as well?” Lavinia nodded at Darag’s question. “You associate with an interesting sort,” he said to her, his voice rich with laughter.
“You can state your case before the council tonight. I will send someone to show you and your ... party the way. They will decide if we should help you.”
Niri nodded, gaze moving to Lavinia. Before she could speak, Darag continued. “Oh no, I saw the other one. I don’t trust him. Lavinia is welcome to come with me now. You can follow later.”
Lavinia smiled at the unexpected invitation. “I’ll be fine Niri. It will give Ty a chance to cool off.”
“Yes, I’m sure thrashing about in the forest for a few hours to find out you went with someone you just met will make your brother feel much better.” Niri smiled as she said it, giving Lavinia the impression Niri thought Ty was getting exactly what he deserved. “Send him back if you see him. I’ll see you tonight, Lavinia.”
Niri turned and disappeared back into the forest. Lavinia glanced at Darag. “How exactly do we get down?” She was surprised to notice, now that she looked, that his skin was smooth. The mottling that mimicked bark was a color pattern only and not a texture.
His green eyes laughed as he answered her. “The same way we came up.”
He still held her loosely, but now he pulled her closer. He stepped toward the tree, twirling them together. Lavinia was ready for it this time and she felt the strange sensation of joining with the tree, flowing along it, through it, and then they were standing again in the clearing.
“Oh.”
“Pick up your sword; you shouldn’t leave it here. Just be careful with the blade.”
Lavinia glanced at him as she leaned over. “Why?”
“I cannot touch the metal.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Niri said you were like dryads. I thought you’d be able to shape metal.”
Darag looked at her in surprise. “Niri is the naiad you are with? She is right in a way. We are not Elementals like those in the Church.” Darag spat the word much the way Ty had. “We are bound to a tree at birth. We live and die by our tree in the forest. And yes, we can shape wood, stone even, and impure metal. But pure metal would poison our trees and so it would poison us.”
Lavinia paused beside him. “The sword would have poisoned you? Even if I just nicked you?” Her hand trembled as she slid the sword into its sheath.
“Well, maybe not a nick. But it isn’t really worth finding out.”
Lavinia shifted the sword to the side away from Darag as they began to walk through the woods, heading deeper into the forest.
“We will find Laith Lus and tell him about your troubles. He will send someone to fetch your brother and friend.”
“Friends: there is Ria, too.”
“Another one? Your brother, a naiad, and what else, I wonder?” Darag said it teasingly, but Lavinia blushed. “Ah, something indeed, then. Come, it will be up to Laith Lus what is to be done with all of you.”
They walked together through the forest in silence. Lavinia’s worry over meeting Laith Lus was overcome by the towering forest around her. The underbrush grew thicker. Bird calls echoed through the mist and moss, high in the forest canopy. Only flickering light reached the ferns and shrubs scattered between the enormous trunks. Lavinia saw few young trees that she thought she could stretch her arms around and be able to touch her fingers.
“Why was your brother chasing you anyway?” Darag asked.
Lavinia blushed again. “We were fighting over the sword. I want to learn to use it and he just wants me to be a sailor.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You don’t know how to? You turned as if you did. I thought you knew how to fight.”
The heat across Lavinia’s cheeks intensified. “No, not at all.”
Darag considered her. “You should learn, then. I think you could be quite good.”
“That would be wonderful. I just need to find someone to teach me well enough so that Ty can’t stop me from learning!”
Darag laughed. “I think I could manage that before your boat is fixed.”
“Really?”
“If you like.”
Lavinia grinned.
Born of Water: Elemental Magic & Epic Fantasy Adventure Page 15
