The Whispering Trees (25 page)

K
ara sat silently through dinner that night.

“Eat,” Breem said, nodding toward the roasted meat at the center of the table. “You are to go into the cave again tomorrow. You need your strength.”

Kara, who had lost her appetite for meat many mind-bridges ago, took a dish of yellow mashed vegetables and spooned some onto her plate. She caught Safi, who had eaten nothing but a small bowl of red rice, eyeing the food hungrily.

“You want some?” Kara asked the girl.

Breem shook his head. “Sordyr's instructions were clear: This food is for our honored guests only. Not my daughter.”

Kara spooned a heaping portion of the vegetables onto Safi's plate and added two slices of meat.

“Eat,” Kara said. She met Breem's eyes. “Or your honored guest will be very displeased.”

Sighing deeply, Breem nodded to his daughter. Safi glared at Kara with blatant mistrust, as though this act of kindness were surely some kind of trick. She tore into her food nonetheless.

“The Forest Demon seems pleased with you,” Breem said. “This is good.”

Kara would not have used the word
pleased
, but at least Sordyr had believed her story. “I can break Rygoth's hold on you,” Kara had told the Forest Demon when the cage reached the surface, “but not all at once. She's far too powerful, and I'm still weak from my encounter with Imogen.”

It was fortunate that Kara, during her time in Rygoth's mind, had managed to free Sordyr of the single root; he had felt its hold loosen, and taken this as a sign that Kara was telling the truth. After two millennia of being tethered to the ground, such a minor unshackling must have tasted like freedom. At the very least, she had bought herself some more time.

It was the first step of their plan.

“How long have you been in the Thickety?” Kara asked Breem.

“My whole life.”

“What about Kala Malta? How long has this village been here?”

Kara saw, from the corner of her eye, Taff sneak Safi a piece of meat from his own plate. A conspiratorial smile passed between the two younger children. When Safi saw Kara looking in her direction, however, the smile faded from her lips.

Why does she hate me so much?

Breem folded his hands behind his neck. “My people have been here a long time indeed. As long as my grandfather's grandfather can remember.”

“Have you ever left the island?”

“Why would I do such a thing? Here we are provided with everything we need. Food. Water. Shelter.”

The man smiled, but Kara saw the strain behind it.

Sordyr won't let them leave. He needs them for some reason
.

“The Thickety is a dangerous place to raise a child,” Kara said.

“To others, perhaps. Not to us.” He reached over and stroked Safi's hair. “The Divide keeps us safe.”

Kara scanned the white scars stitched across the man's body.

“Not that safe.”

“These?” Breem laughed. “These are nothing.”

“I've seen others in Kala Malta with such marks.”

“We are a hardworking people. Accidents happen.”

“And what is this work that you do?”

Breem shrugged. “Farming and such.”

“I grew up around farmers,” Kara said. “And they bore all manner of cuts and bruises as a consequence of their labors. But those burn marks on your face? I've never seen the like.”

Breem poured himself a cup of amber liquid. He drank it swiftly and rubbed the froth from his beard.

“These are nothing but common injuries,” he said. “You might be
wexari
, but you are still only a child and surely cannot tell the difference between—”

“Don't treat me like a fool. Where I come from, there are people called Clearers who help burn the Thickety before it spreads. They have many marks like that on their hands, only flatter and wider. Yours, though—I don't understand. It looks like you've been whipped by fire.”

The smile faded from Breem's face.

“Why are you pushing this matter?”

“Because maybe I can help you.”

“Stop it!” Safi shouted, slamming her hands on the table. “Stop pretending that you care about us! It makes me sick.”

“Safi,” Breem said.

“But I do care,” Kara said. “I see the scars. I see what he's done to people to make that terrible fence. You might be too scared to admit it, but I know that you're a victim of Sordyr's evil, just like us.” Recalling a motion that Father made when trying to punctuate a point, Kara leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “We should be helping each other.”

“I would never help you!” Safi exclaimed, springing to her feet. “You talk of evil, but I know what you did.” She shook her head. “What you're
going
to do. I saw it!”

“That is enough!” exclaimed Breem. “I forbid you to talk about this.”

“No,” said Kara. “I want to hear.”

“Safi,” Breem said, his voice lowering to a harsh whisper. “
Please
. We can't let anyone know about your . . .
gift. He might . . . he might
make use
of you.”

But Safi was not listening to her father. She leaned across the table, her green eyes centered on Kara.

“Villages will burn,” Safi said. “People will die. The World will be covered in darkness. And it will all be because of you.”

After dinner, Safi was ushered into her room, where she quickly fell asleep.

“Do not disturb her,” said Breem. “She is frail and needs her rest.”

“She didn't seem so frail at—” started Taff, but Kara nudged him into silence.

“I didn't mean to upset her,” Kara said.

Breem studied her face for a long moment.

“I believe you,” he said. “If I didn't, I wouldn't leave you alone with my daughter. Not for a heartbeat.”

“You're leaving?” asked Kara.

Nodding, Breem picked up a small satchel that
looked almost silly in his huge hand; he had the type of body meant to hold sacks of grain and long axes. Breem slung the satchel over his shoulder, producing a clinking sound that was probably made by something as innocuous as tools but nonetheless reminded her of Mary.

“The original plan was for me to play host until your stay at Kala Malta ended, but that has changed. My presence is requested at—” Breem paused here, catching his words. “There is a problem that needs to be remedied.”

“What sort of problem?” Taff asked.

Ignoring his question, Breem turned to Kara. “What Safi said about you—I wouldn't put much faith in it.”

“Has she had these visions before?” Kara asked.

“Her whole life.”

“And have any of them come true?”

Breem scratched his beard. “I'll be back by morning,” he said, and slipped into the night.

Kara and Taff took a seat at the circular table. She traced a finger along its ridges.

“We need to talk,” Kara said.

She had wanted to tell her brother what happened with Rygoth for hours now, but this was the first time they had been alone since her descent into the cave. Although Kara liked Breem, she did not feel as though they could speak freely in front of him. He was still their captor and would no doubt give Sordyr a full report of anything she said.

“I know why Sordyr can't leave the island,” she said, and told Taff about the web and the roots, keeping her voice low in case one of the Devoted was stationed just outside the hut. Taff listened in silent amazement, gasping only when Kara told him how her attempt to make a bridge had backfired and Rygoth had ended up inside her head.

“This one sounds scarier than Sordyr,” Taff said.

“She just wanted to make sure she could trust me,”
Kara said. “If she was going to hurt me, she could have done it anytime. I was trapped in her web.”

“So she's a giant spider.”

“I think so. I never saw her clearly.”

“How do you not see a giant spider clearly?”

“Just listen to the rest,” Kara said. “It's important. Sordyr can't be killed, not in the traditional ways. That's why Rygoth created a creature called Niersook that . . .”

“. . . could take away his magic,” Taff said. He shrugged. “Mary told us this story. Niersook's dead.”

“But its bones are still here.”

“In the Thickety?”

Kara nodded. “Rygoth's not exactly sure where, but she told me that in its body a few drops of the venom still remain. If we can find Niersook and get the venom . . .”

“We can take Sordyr's powers away!” Taff broke into a toothy grin. “I love this plan! When do we do it?”

“We don't.”

Taff looked at her, confused.

“I wanted to tell you what happened,” Kara said, “because you deserve to know. But nothing has changed. Just consider our two choices. One—I try to overpower Rygoth and get her to release Sordyr. Difficult and dangerous to be sure, but
possible
—I think she's a lot weaker than she seems. Our second choice is to somehow sneak to another part of the island without Sordyr noticing, find Niersook and this venom that may or may not still work, and then somehow—and this is my favorite part—get said poison into Sordyr's body.” She shook her head. “That's not even a choice at all. It's insanity.”

“You can't free Sordyr,” said Taff. “
That
isn't a choice at all.”

He's right. But what if I fail? What if I can't get the venom?

This thought terrified her more than anything else, because she wouldn't be the one who got punished if they were caught. Sordyr needed Kara. He would hurt Taff instead to teach her a lesson.

“If we set Sordyr free he'll just—go somewhere else,”
Kara said weakly, wanting the words to be true. “The World is a big place. We'll never see him again. We can be safe. I'll return Father to the way he was and the three of us—”

“We can't let him leave the island,” Taff said. “Remember what Safi said? ‘The World will be covered in darkness.' It'll be our fault if we don't do anything to stop it.”

“Why should we believe her?”

“Because I've never been wrong before,” said a small voice behind them. They turned to see Safi, doll dangling from one hand. “If you free him, you
will
destroy the World. I've seen the people screaming. I've felt their terror.”

“Tell us what you saw,” Kara said.

Safi hesitated, as if wondering if she had said too much already.

“Maybe it was just a bad dream,” suggested Taff.

“I don't have
bad
dreams,” said Safi. “Only
real
ones.”

Taff turned to his sister. “It was probably a bad dream.”

“It was
not
!” exclaimed Safi, stomping one foot on the ground. “And I can prove it. Come with me now and I'll show you exactly how the World is going to end.”

A
fter creeping through the sleeping village and a thicket of tightly spaced trees, they entered a small clearing. Six buildings loomed in the darkness. Five were small, with huge metal rings affixed to their roofs, but the last building was larger than all the others combined. Its right end was completely open to the night. This allowed a row of freshly downed trees, stripped of leaves and branches, to stretch inside the building.

“Are those
Fenroots
?” Taff asked.

Kara nodded. Even in the darkness she recognized the
singular color of the tree, considered holy and untouchable by the Children of the Fold. The people of De'Noran had built their entire village around a Fenroot in order to respect it, yet here the tree was being treated like common lumber.

Several chimneys belched black smoke. A sickly sweet smell like burning sugar filled the air.

“What are they doing here?” Kara asked.

“Shh,” Safi said, her voice quick and anxious. Kara wondered if this was the first time she had ever broken a rule. “No one but Binders are supposed to see this. I could get in a lot of trouble.” She shook her head. “I should have never brought you here.”

“What are Binders?” asked Taff.

“People who bind. Like my father.”

“Bind
what
?” asked Kara.

“You'll see.”

Past the buildings, shadowy branch arms wound together into the Divide. With their heads bent forward
in false repose, the people trapped in the fence looked like grotesque scarecrows.

Taff took a step forward and Safi yanked him back.

“Stay out of sight!” she exclaimed. “If one of the Divide sees us, they'll sound the alarm.”

As though registering Safi's voice, a head lifted slightly from the fence but quickly returned to its resting state.

“This way,” Safi said.

They crawled through tall grass past the open end of the main structure, rising only when they reached the opposite side. The building was ravaged with holes and cracks through which dim light and snatches of movement could be seen. Some of the wooden boards were charred black, perhaps from a quickly extinguished fire.
The entire building looks like it's been through a battle
, Kara thought.
What are they doing in this place?