The Whispering Trees (15 page)

Kara got up fast—too fast—and banged her head against the porch's floorboards.

“Taff!” she shouted, clasping a hand to her forehead. “Mary! You have to get up!”

Peeking through the lattice wall to her left, Kara saw that a notsun had changed position while she slept, looping around the chimney of a neighboring house and then lowering itself close to the earth so its red light could spill beneath the porch.

It wanted a different vantage point. So it could see new areas of the village that had been beyond the reach of the light
.

So it could find us
.

A small group of darkeaters began shuffling their way in the direction of the house, as though they smelled Kara's shadow stretching across the earth.

“Taff!” Kara screamed, no longer caring if the darkeaters heard them or not.

“What?” Taff grumbled. “Why is it so bright in here? Where's Mary?”

“What do you mean, where's Mary?” Kara twisted beneath the floorboards so she was facing the place where Mary had lain down to rest. She saw the bulging sack of magical items, but no Mary—only her lumpy old blanket.

“She must be in the village somewhere,” said Kara. “Maybe she figured out a way for us to escape.”

“Maybe,” Taff said, but he did not sound very confident.

Kara peeked between the steps again. The darkeaters had drawn closer, and there were more of them now.

From underneath Mary's blanket, a baby began to cry.

K
ara crawled across the dirt to find a baby, no older than six months, curling her tiny fists open and shut and kicking her chubby legs in the air. Sharp gray eyes left little doubt as to her identity.

“I didn't know Mary could become
that
young,” said Taff.

“Yes,” said Kara, “she might have thought to mention that.”

The baby's frantic wails, breathless and piercing, sliced through the early-morning silence.

“Shh,” Taff said, stroking Mary's cheek with the back of his hand. “Shh! You're going to bring all the monsters! Don't you understand me, Mary?”

The baby did not understand. The baby was hungry. Or wet. Or scared. Kara remembered all the long nights she had spent caring for Taff. Babies' needs were simple, but they had no concept of scale. At that particular moment, whatever Mary wanted was the most important thing in the world to her, and she needed it
right now
.

Kara pulled the baby onto her chest, hoping to calm her down, and then realized it didn't matter.

The darkeaters were here.

They sifted through the cross-checked lattice like fog, and their human shadows followed, stretching as far as the light permitted. Soon the earth beneath the porch resembled a red-tinged lake with a dozen people trapped beneath its surface, clawing for purchase. The angle of the notsun created a long shadow on Kara's right, so she spun, hoping to keep it away from the darkeaters, but that only
created a different shadow behind her. One of the human figures—a woman wearing an odd hat covered with multicolored feathers—pinched a tiny piece of Kara's shadow hand between her fingers. She swallowed it eagerly, and Kara coughed out a tiny trail of floating motes.

Kara heard Taff scream next to her, saw a plume leave his mouth. She pushed him back against the house, where a narrow strip of darkness provided some protection against the red light. They were surrounded by the human reflections now, a sea of arms reaching not for Kara and Taff and Mary—but their shadows.

Kara winced as pain pierced her hand; she had been using it to support her body and gotten too close to the light. She drew it back into the shadows and spit out another mouthful of motes.

The baby continued to wail.

From Kara's right a second notsun appeared. New light began to flood the enclosed space. Once it reached their small section of darkness, there would be nowhere left to hide.

“I have an idea,” said Taff.

Before Kara could stop him, Taff was crawling on his elbows across the human shadows. They were as surprised by his actions as Kara, and by the time they realized what was happening and began snatching at his shadow, Taff had already taken what he needed and slung it over his body.

Mary's blanket.

“They can't eat our shadows,” he said, his voice muffled, “if we don't cast them.”

Wearing the blanket like a turtle's shell, Taff crawled back to his sister. The darkeaters clawed frantically at him but their hands—both human and shadow—passed right through the blanket.

Taff lifted the blanket. Kara crawled next to him.

Darkness surrounded them.

Mary's wailing instantly stopped. She began to gurgle softly, suddenly content.

“Maybe she didn't like the red light,” said Taff.

“I don't blame her,” replied Kara. “What do we do now?”

“They can't hurt us as long as we stay under the blanket. I figure we can just crawl out of the village. Once we get past the flowers we'll be okay.”

They moved slowly, Kara holding the baby in one arm while she maintained her balance with the other, Taff crawling beneath her chest. He unlatched the gate in the latticework and they moved out into the open.

As the red light descended upon them Kara expected to feel darkeater hands tear the blanket from their backs.
Since their human halves can touch only shadows
, she thought,
the dark halves must be able to attack more corporeal prey
. The blanket remained untouched, however, and the two children crawled undisturbed, their hands turning as black as the soil itself.

Once they had left their tight confines beneath the house, Kara rose to a stooped position. The blanket draped over them like a ghostly Shadow Festival costume as they advanced slowly through the village. Kara's thighs quickly started to burn, but it was much easier to hold the
baby in this position than when they had been crawling.

Mary, whose energetic wails had no doubt taken a significant toll on her little body, fell fast asleep against Kara's shoulder.

“What if she wakes up and she's big again?” Taff asked. “There's not enough room for three of us underneath this blanket.”

“I don't think that will happen,” Kara said. “Remember all those nights you spent trying to stay awake so you could see her change?”

“I always fell asleep first.”

“Or maybe the magic doesn't work if someone is watching.”

Taff shook his head. “This magic of yours. There are so many rules.”

Progress was slow. They had to stop every few minutes, not only to rest, but also so Taff could peek beneath the blanket and make sure they were heading away from the village and not farther into it. Kara might have felt
better if she had heard some kind of sound from the darkeaters: moaning, growling, anything. But the figures remained perfectly silent, and it was only the occasional glimpse of a dark shape through the fibers of the blanket that let Kara know they were still there.

It was nearly afternoon when they left the red light behind them.

“See?” said Taff. “That wasn't so bad.”

Kara hesitantly rose to her feet—groaning at the pain in her stiff legs—and lifted the blanket. They were just outside the village. Darkeaters pressed against the edge of the red light, wanting to pursue them but unable to advance.

“They're trapped,” Kara said, laying Mary on a soft blanket of moss. “They need the notsun's light to live. They can't follow us.”

“What about the villagers?” Taff asked. “The ones that are part of the darkeaters. Are they trapped too?”

“I don't know,” Kara said.

“Sordyr did this,” Taff said. “I know it. He likes to change good things into bad ones, just like he did with Shadowdancer. Just like he did to this whole place. It's worse than killing them.” Taff picked up a thick stick and hurled it toward the darkeaters. “I hate you! I hate you!”

Unexpected heat scalded Kara's back.

She turned to see a new notsun climbing up the tree behind her. Dozens more were blooming at great speed, cutting off their escape through the forest. Soon every step they took would be flooded with red light.

A familiar voice like rustling leaves scraped its way into her mind.

You didn't really think you could hide from me, did you? This is my Thickety. I know everything that happens here
.

Everything
.

Red light spread across the forest floor toward the waiting darkeaters, pressed against the barrier like beasts in a cage. Kara saw one of the human shadows, the same
pigtailed little girl she had seen before, clap her flat hands with delight.

Taff reached for their blanket but a tree branch swept down like a bony finger and lifted it far out of reach.

You know what you have to do
, wexari
. Command them. Use these creatures to destroy your enemies
.

“No!”

Then you will die. Your brother first
.

The new red light met the light of the village and set the darkeaters free. Shadowy shapes stumbled toward Kara and Taff.

I have no choice
, Kara thought.
But I'll do this on my terms—not yours
.

Her mind raced along ancient branches and drooping fronds, passing animals that would have willingly given their lives for her until she found just the right . . .
There!
The Blighted One sat high in the treetops, its jaws dripping with the fresh blood of its latest prey, its mind a bleak landscape of death and violence. Kara used the cruel
ecstasy she had felt when sending the squits after Grace to build a bridge between them. The beast was a fighter by nature, and tried to push Kara away, so she focused her mind like a whip and struck it, again and again, until it whined with submission.

NO MORE!

You want blood. You want to hurt things. I promise both will come to pass if you serve me
.

She felt the creature's bloodlust rising. In her chest, Kara's heart began to beat faster.

The bridge went both ways.

RAWTOOTH WILL SERVE. KILL FOR QUEEN
.

The creature climbed down the trees, swinging from branch to branch on taloned arms. Kara heard the creak of its approach, the dash of animals as they avoided its descent.

This isn't right
, Kara thought.
This is the grimoire all over again
.

“What is
that
?” Taff asked.

The rawtooth landed on the ground between the darkeaters and the children, sending geysers of black earth into the air. Its legs were covered with tufts of sickly green moss, but its chest and back had no moss at all—or skin, for that matter. Within the labyrinthine pathways of its exposed chest, Kara saw two hearts pump in perfectly synchronized rhythm.

It turned to face her: four diagonal-slitted eyes that flickered open and shut with the speed of a hummingbird. The rawtooth rose to two feet and, tilting its head to one side, crossed its long arms in a disturbingly human fashion.

WHO?
spoke a voice in her head.
WHO KILL FOR QUEEN?

Kara pointed to the darkeaters.

“Them,” she said.

Without hesitation the rawtooth pounced on the first shadowy shape, expecting to bite its head off, and grunted in confusion when its jaws passed right through it. The
darkeater's human reflection—a wan woman with long hair—grabbed the rawtooth's shadow with two hands and bit down hard. The rawtooth shrieked in pain.

This is a foul beast
, Kara thought.
If I did not command it to attack the darkeaters, it would have killed something else
.

Thinking that was one thing. Believing it was something else altogether.

The rawtooth shrieked again as another piece of its shadow was devoured.

It looked at Kara with something like betrayal in its eyes.

Kara, her mind elsewhere, focused on the task at hand. Her body was drenched in sweat. A fierce headache ground against her temples.

“Kara!” Taff exclaimed. “It's dying!”

The darkeaters had surrounded the rawtooth now. They chomped at its shadow with wild abandon, the children completely forgotten. Dust motes rose into the air and were devoured by the eager notsuns.

In Kara's head, she heard Sordyr's mocking voice.

Impressive to tame such a beast. But there is little it can do against my creations
.

“I know,” Kara said, gritting her teeth. “I just needed some time.”

She sent the beetles.

It had taken her longer to build this mind-bridge—starting with one beetle and allowing her mind to spread among the others—all while commanding the rawtooth. She had known the beast stood no chance against the darkeaters. She had simply needed a distraction to keep Taff safe while she prepared her main attack.

It happened fast. Most of the beetles did their work underground, tearing through the notsuns' roots, but some scaled the trees and attacked the flowers directly. Kara looked up and saw a blur of black beetles cover the notsun above her. A brightly colored petal fell to the forest floor and wilted instantly.