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Siege of Shadows

Sunfire

Sini stopped at the cusp of the clearing, pressed back by the presence of the Elder Grove.

Behind her, the Lumen Greenwood stretched out like a sea of shadows. The trees thrummed with life. Strands of energy wove up the trunks and along the branches, spraying out into the leaves. Walking through the speckled green light of the elven forest for the last two days with her new companions, she’d thought those trees were more alive than anything she’d ever felt.

But they were nothing compared to this.

A wide, flat glade lay before them, drenched in sunlight. She stretched her arms into the light and her skin tingled. The stones in the two rings on her fingers—the small orange one for warming and the yellow for illumination—glowed dimly as they always did, leaving thin trails of light behind them as she moved. But the pricks of sunfire that danced along her fingers in pink strands of light were new.

She stared at her hands for a heartbeat before shrinking back into the shadows, rubbing her fingers. Sunlight always held sunfire, falling to the earth like a fine rain. But it had never done that before.

Everyone stopped at the edge of the trees, silent and still.

She glanced at the odd group who had rescued her and Rett from the Sweep just three days before. None of them seemed to feel the sunlight. It wasn’t surprising that Evangeline and Ilsa didn’t, there was no reason the human women would. Or Douglon the dwarf.  But she’d thought the grass elf might and had almost expected either Keeper Will or Keeper Alaric to feel it.

Why did no one ever feel the sunlight?

Of course, the sight of the grove was enough to stop them on its own.

Enormous trees lay toppled out from the center of the wide glade. Half their roots jutted up into the air like clawed hands, the rest were still anchored in the churned earth. Deep gashes scarred the ground, and from the torn earth rose a stand of…the only word for them was trees.

Their towering trunks stood side by side in a wide ring, vicious and angry. Dark green leaves, jagged like saw blades, jutted out from between ruthless red thorns. Power thrummed out from them. The air quivered with energy. It called to Sini and unnerved her at the same time.

Even Rass’s usual chatter had grown quiet. Since they’d entered the elvish forest, the grass elf had scampered among the trees, almost wild with wonder at the place. Sini had barely believed Rass was an elf at first, but here her elfishness was obvious. Rass belonged in these woods in a way that Sini didn’t, in a way none of the rest of them did.

Rass had begged Douglon to teach her to hear the trees and to Sini’s surprise, the dwarf had agreed to try. Will had told Sini part of a story in half-whispers when Douglon wasn’t too near about the dwarf and an elf named Ayda. She’d saved his life once by transferring so much of her own energy into him that he gained her skill of hearing the trees.

Ayda was the reason they’d come here. This story Sini had heard in its entirety. Ayda had been the last elf, and she held the power of all her people inside her. She had used it to help Alaric finally destroy Mallon.

It still felt unreal that she was free of the Roven and traveling with Keepers. She’d been almost four long years on the Sweep surrounded by people who hated them, and yet she’d never been convinced Keepers were evil. Certainly neither Will nor Alaric fit the image of a controlling, manipulative monster. In addition to the wild freedom of getting to leave the Sweep, she felt a glorious hope that maybe all the good things she’d believed about her old home really were true.

The unsettling feel of the grove made her shrink back and tuck her hands into her pockets. Her knuckle knocked against the avak pit from lunch. To distract herself, she rolled it between her fingers, focusing on the smooth surface of the pit, thinking about the way the fruit juice burst in her mouth. How it heightened all her senses.

Her fingers paused, caught by an idea. This grove reminded her of avak.

Rett stepped closer to her and she leaned into him, pressing her shoulder against his arm, reassured by his presence. In many ways, Rett was more like a child than a man in his forties, having been hurt in an accident years ago. During her slavery, though, he’d been like an older brother: always nearby, always protective, even as she grew up and he stayed forever childlike. He studied the trees with a scowl. “Don’t like those.”

“Welcome to the new Elder Grove.” Douglon had grown quieter as they neared the grove, and now his voice was hushed. “Ayda made these trees when she found the original grove destroyed. I’ve seen them three times now, and they’re still terrifying.”

His eyes looked straight ahead, unfocused. Despite his words, his expression wasn’t afraid, it was wounded. With a catch in his breath, his gaze dropped to the ground near one of the toppled trees.

A body lay among the roots, white against the forest floor.

It could be no one but Ayda.

After she had helped destroy Mallon, Ayda had sacrificed herself to save Alaric’s wife Evangeline, in the process giving her, too, some of the elves’ knowledge. Evangeline couldn’t call upon the knowledge at will, but sometimes, unbidden, the answers to questions just came to her.

Douglon had brought Ayda back here to the elven wood in preparation for her burial. He knelt down beside her now, bowing his head.

Will, Alaric, and Evangeline stepped closer to Ayda. A thin layer of crystal, clear as glass, covered her body. Rass crept toward Ayda’s feet, the little grass elf peering down at her larger tree elf cousin with a sorrowful face. Ayda’s skin was pale and smooth and her hair fell over her shoulders and arms in a rich gold. She was dressed in a plain white dress with a thin chain of purple flowers wrapped around it like a belt.

Will frowned at the trees. “We can’t bury Ayda here.” All traces of the wariness that had shadowed the Keeper on the Sweep had fallen away a couple days ago when they had entered Queensland. He was relaxed and confident and happier than Sini had ever seen him. Or he had been until now. “She was too bright and lively to lay in the shadow of these.”

Heads nodded in agreement.

Sini glanced at the vicious trees. The idea of putting anything into the ground near those brooding pillars made her shiver. The trunks were crowded close together, each so wide she couldn’t have wrapped her arms half way around them, even if she could have gotten past the thorns. But from between two trunks, something glimmered. She took a step closer and saw a narrow passage through the trees. There was definitely light inside. Bright, warm light.

Turning sideways, she slipped in, giving the red thorns as wide a berth as she could. Rett called after her, but she didn’t answer. There was something treasure-like about the light, hiding inside the cocoon of the baleful trees that pulled her in.

She broke through into the center of the ring of trunks and stopped, stunned.

The glen was an oasis. Maybe fifteen paces wide, the trees that had appeared so savage outside were utterly different in here. The leaves were still a dark, rich green, but the edges were feathered and rippled gently. The red thorns were replaced with sprays of luminous scarlet petals. Sunlight poured down on thick grass and the light smell of fresh mornings filled the grove. The air shivered with sunfire.

“Sini?” Will’s voice came muffled through the trees, concerned.

“It’s in here!” she called back.

“What’s in there?” Douglon muttered.

Sini turned slowly, her face pointed up, taking in the trees, letting the sunlight soak into her cheeks.

The others squeezed through the trees and joined her. No one spoke as they stared, awestruck, into the trees.

“I can feel them.” Will’s brow furrowed. “They have emotions. They’re yearning for something.”

Sini breathed in the air. It felt thicker, richer. She closed her eyes, trying to read the emotions of things the way Will could. She couldn’t feel anything from the people around her, but the forest did feel like it was longing for something. The ache seeped into her, fanning a feeling she’d pushed away for years. Unbidden, the memory of her mother surfaced. Her little brothers, their faces always too thin. Lukas, laughing. The longing for all of them took her breath away. She blinked back tears.

“They miss Ayda,” Douglon said quietly from the edge of the glen. “And the other elves. This is where she should be buried.” Without waiting for any agreement, he left, and Alaric followed. They returned bearing Ayda’s body. Using whatever tools they could find, everyone dug.

The earth was surprisingly soft beneath Sini’s fingers, and before long they had dug a grave in the center of the ring of trees. Alaric and Douglon set Ayda’s body in it. Alaric set his hand on the crystal that covered her. Orange light glowed around the Keeper’s hand, and the crystal disappeared.

Sini held her breath for a moment with everyone else, as though Ayda might open her eyes, but her body was the only thing in the grove that held no life. Douglon’s hands clenched a thin blanket from his pack. He climbed gently down into the grave and pressed a kiss to her forehead before covering her. Without a word, he climbed out and began to fill the grave.

Sini covered Ayda’s feet, pushing the soft earth into the grave.

When they finally stood beside a mound of fresh earth, silence fell over the group.

A tremor ran through the ground.

Sini glanced around, but everyone else was looking solemnly at the new grave. Will stood on the far side with his sister Ilsa. Alaric and Evangeline stood next to Sini and Rett. Rass sat at the foot of the grave with a long, mournful face, brushing her fingers though the blades of grass. Douglon pulled his axe off his back and set the head of it on the ground, resting his hands on the end of the handle. Light skittered along a line of red flames carved into the shaft.

Next to Sini, Rett began to hum a low Roven dirge, haunting and slow.

Will cleared his throat and began speaking, with Rett’s song as a backdrop. “I met Ayda before going to the Sweep. I spent three weeks with her here in the woods, wondering when she was going to introduce me to other elves. Not knowing there weren’t any.” He grew silent for a moment. “She was more alive than anyone I’ve ever met. Approachable and terrifying at the same time.

“I planned to come back through the Greenwood on my way home from the Sweep and see her again. But being here, like this—if we’d just lost her, it would be almost unbearable. But to have lost every trace of the elves as well…” He knelt down and placed his hand on the grave. “I will miss you, Ayda. The whole world will miss you.”

The only sound in the grove was Rett’s humming before Evangeline stepped forward. “I only knew Ayda for a few moments, but I owe her my life, and the elfish memories she left with me are priceless and precious.” She sighed. “Ayda, I wish I could have known you longer. Thank you for your gifts.”

Sini felt another tremble.

Not in the earth, though. In the air around them. Neither Will nor Alaric gave any indication they felt it, and Rett stood perfectly still beside her with his head bowed. Not even Rass appeared to have noticed.

Sini almost said something, but at that moment Ilsa stepped away from Will, searching the grove with a dissatisfied expression. At Will’s questioning look, she said, “On the Sweep the Roven plant grass on the grave. A reminder that new life springs from the old. But…” She glanced up at the trees. “Grass feels insignificant here.”

Sini reached in her pocket for the avak pit. “I have something.” She held it out. “Avak are a bit magical, like this place.” Alaric intercepted the pit and studied it for a moment. He made a curious noise in his throat and gave it to Ilsa. She knelt down and tucked it into the fresh dirt in the center of the grave, a handbreadth below the surface.

There was so much power in the grove, Sini half expected a shoot to burst out of the ground immediately.

Nothing happened.

Will, who’d been watching closely, nodded. “Avak belongs here.”

Alaric stepped a little closer to the grave. “Ayda was nothing that I expected her to be. She started out a curiosity and ended up…a good friend. I owe her everything.” He took Evangeline’s hand. “I will be forever grateful to her. I only wish I could have done something different so that she was still here.”

Douglon stood at the head of the grave, his head bowed. He lifted it enough to look down on Ayda’s grave. “Dwarves do not bury their dead in the ground. We build a cairn of stone around them, holding them in the eternal embrace of the mountain. When you put something under the ground it is devoured by the earth itself, and I have never understood why any people would choose this.”

Sini shifted her weight, shying away from the thought of the inevitable decay Ayda’s body would undergo. Alaric opened his mouth as though he might protest, but Douglon spoke first.

“But even now she continues to change me. Because Ayda does not belong encased in stone. She would have liked the idea of her body being given to the forest. She’d have been giddy at the idea of becoming part of the trees. Especially these trees.”

Douglon looked up at the dark branches. “When we discovered Gustav and the dragon had torn down the old Elder Grove and stolen Mallon’s body, Ayda was so angry. These trees—” he motioned around them “—were her answer. I thought what we could see from the outside was all there was. That the proof of her anger was all the world would get to keep of her. But this is what she was like, right here, the way this feels.” He left his face turned up and the sunlight fell on him. It fell on everything, soaking into the trees, the mourners, and the fresh turned earth. “This is where she belongs.”

They fell silent again, Rett’s humming the only sound aside from the rustling of leaves.

“In the beginning,” Douglon continued. “I thought she talked to the trees because…I don’t know why. Because she did nonsensical things.”

The dwarf’s hand went beneath his beard and rubbed over a spot on his chest. “When she gave me part of herself to save me from that arrow—once I could hear the trees, too—then it all made sense. Their voices soothed that deep loneliness she carried. In the trees she could almost hear the voices of the elves she’d lost.”

He looked up into the trees around them, his eyes unfocused. When he spoke again it was barely loud enough to be heard. “Because when I hear the trees, I can almost hear her again.”

No one spoke, and Sini felt a shadow of the aching loss in his voice.

A pulse rippled through the air of the grove like a silent crack of thunder, and she tensed.

Rett’s humming broke off, and Will and Alaric both started.

“You felt that one?” Sini asked.

Rass drew in a sharp breath and shoved her hands down into the grass, pressing her palms against the earth. She closed her eyes, her little brow knit.

Will looked at Sini sharply. “That one?”

Sini searched the glade, but everything looked calm. “There’ve been several. That was the strongest.”

Rass scrambled forward and spread her fingers out on the ground. “This is a waking field!”

“A what?” Will asked.

“On the Sweep we have waking fields—where the new elves wake.”

Evangeline’s eyes widened. “Yes! The Elder Grove is where elves wake up.”

Alaric’s attention snapped to her. “Are you sure?”

Evangeline nodded.

“Wake?” Douglon asked sharply.

“Where they’re born,” Evangeline explained, her brow drawn in concentration. “The elves come here and put…something into the ground, and new elves are born.” She looked at Alaric. “I’m sorry, I can’t quite figure out what.”

“Will burying Ayda here create new elves?” Will asked.

“I don’t think so,” Rass said. “On the Sweep we give the waking field part of ourselves, and care for it until the new elves become more than grass. This grove needs something from a living elf to begin with, and then elves to care for it.” She peered at the trees above her. “This grove is…distant. Closed off. It’s alive, but purposeless.”

Sini sank down to her knees and spread her own hands into the grass. The grove pulled at her, drawing little licks of vitalle out of her palms before it stopped. Energy rushed past her hands, flitting back and forth beneath the surface.

“If it needs something from a living tree elf, it’s going to be hungry for a long time.” Alaric said.

The energy below her hand felt frantic.

“I have part of a living elf,” Douglon said, so quietly Sini almost missed it.

The dwarf still stood at the head of the grave, his face stony, watching Will. “Whatever she gave me when she saved my life, you said you could feel it inside me. Can you take it out?”

Will started to shake his head, but Douglon blew out an impatient breath. “It needs something from an elf. I have that.”

Alaric began to object, but Evangeline touched his arm. “So do I.”

Will studied both the dwarf and Evangeline with a troubled expression. A ripple rolled through the grove again, but Sini couldn’t quite pinpoint whether it was in the ground or the air. The sunlight still rained down on her. But it couldn’t just be the sun. Maybe the very air of the grove was alive somehow. A vibrant flower flung its petals wide on the nearest tree. Sini stood and moved over to it. The bloom wasn’t just bright red. Thin lines of energy trickled across the surface. She stretched up and brushed her fingertip across it. A rivulet of crimson fire rolled down her finger like water. She pulled her hand back and the red light dissolved into the air.

“It will work, won’t it?” Douglon continued, his voice low. “What we have is what Ayda had.”

Will toyed with a small silver bead braided into his beard. “What is in each of you is a single thing. I can’t take part of it.” He hesitated. “And if I take it all, I think you’ll both be back to…” He shrugged apologetically. “Normal.”

Douglon’s hand tightened on his axe. “We won’t hear the trees any longer?”

“I’ll lose the things I know about the elves?” Evangeline asked. 

“Most likely.”

Evangeline’s gaze ran along the trees. “But you think it will help?”

Will glanced at Alaric and gave another helpless shrug. “I don’t know. What you have feels like what the grove could be missing.”

“Feels like?” Douglon repeated. “Could be?”

“Yes. That’s how certain I am. And even if it is exactly what the forest needs, I don’t know whether what you two have will be enough. There’s a chance I would take it from you and still the grove wouldn’t wake.”

“Even if it works,” Alaric broke in, “there are no elves to care for the grove.”

“There are no  silvii, no tree elves,” Rass pointed out. “There are plenty of other elves.”

Will looked at her sharply. “You could do…whatever needs to be done?”

“I think so, but I’d need to stay here.” Rass gave him a grin. “I’ve never met a silvii.”

Will knelt down next to her. “I can’t stay with you.”

Her little shoulders straightened. “I don’t need you to—”

“I could stay,” Douglon raised a hand to ward off Rass’s objection. “Not because you need me to, snip. Just because I’d like to…help. However I can.”

Her irritation faded. “I’d like it if you stayed, uncle.”

Alaric looked at Douglon, Evangeline, and Rass. “Are you sure about this?”

“For a chance to have new elves?” Evangeline said. “We have to try.”

“Why are we still wasting time talking about this?” Douglon asked.

Will motioned for Douglon and Evangeline to come closer and glanced at Alaric. “There isn’t any vitalle here.”

A shocked laugh burst out of Sini before she could stop it.

“I mean,” Will clarified, “I can’t take energy from the grove when I’m trying to help the grove.”

Alaric nodded and Sini pressed her lips closed against another laugh. Why could no one else ever see it? “We can use the sunfire.” At their blank stares, she stepped up to Will and set her hand on his forearm where she could touch his skin. “You start. I promise there’ll be enough fire—vitalle—for anything you want to do.”

The two Keepers considered her for a moment. Alaric looked as though he might question her, but Will nodded. “I believe you.”

With Evangeline and Douglon standing before him, Will closed his eyes. He stretched his fingers toward Evangeline and she held still, her body stiff. Will twitched his hand and Evangeline let out a shuddering breath.

Douglon’s hands were curled into fists at his side, his jaw clenched, as Will turned toward him. The dwarf fixed his gaze toward the nearest tree. Will glanced up at him once, then with an expression caught between determination and regret the Keeper made a small pulling gesture. A spasm flashed across Douglon’s face.

Sini felt an ache of sympathy for them both. Will shuddered beneath her hand. He looked down and his hair hid his expression, but she could feel the tightness in his arm.

He could feel their emotions. She clenched her hand on his arm at the thought, suddenly terribly glad she couldn’t. Will knelt and Sini sank to her knees.

She closed her eyes and lifted her face toward the sunlight, letting the warmth tingle across her cheeks. A trickle of energy flowed out of her hand into Will. He opened up a path for it to flow into the ground.

A wave of sunfire crashed down onto her. It poured into her like a drenching rain, flowing through her into Will.

It swelled and her hand grew hot against Will’s arm. She dropped her other hand to the ground, letting the vitalle pour directly into it. The vitalle streamed down from the sky, pouring through her into the eager ground. More sunfire than she’d ever moved, more than she’d ever imagined.

The gems on her ring began to glow. This was too much for them—too much energy rushing through her hands. She tried to rein it in, but the sunfire ignored her. With two small snaps the gems in her rings split, burst from too much energy. A jab of loss shot through her as their light drained away.

The earth pulled at her, desperate. She braced for pain at the sheer amount of fire flowing through her. But there was only a buzzing tingle across her skin.

Will let out a grunt of pain and shifted his arm under her grasp, clearly feeling more than a tingle. Sini turned the energy away from him, funneling most of it into the earth.

More and more fire rushed through her, growing to a raging river. The vastness of the power threatened to overwhelm her. She tried to pull back, to cut it off, but it raced through her unchecked. She was part of the grove, part of the sky and the sunlight and the trees.

Will shoved something from himself into the earth, and the ground below her rang with a new power. The avak pit, not far from Sini’s hand, shot out a burst of energy that flared through the ground. The grove drank it all in, stirring, stretching.

A wild glory sang out, blazing through the grove. The fire from her hands filled the ground, surged up the trees around them and spread out through the vast Greenwood. The forest wrapped around her, a living thing, unified, drawing her into itself. The voices of the trees rang through her mind. The earth flexed. She was exhilaratingly, terrifyingly, part of this fierce, swirling life.

“It’s working.” Rass’s awestruck whisper came through the tumult.

Will groaned and pulled his arm away, sinking back.

The path he’d made broke off and the flow of fire disappeared so abruptly that Sini toppled forward onto both hands. The sunlight winked back into sunlight, pressing on her head with nothing more than summer warmth.

The grove was just a grove again. She was utterly cut off from it. Beneath her hands she could feel the energy, calm and purposeful, moving heedless of her presence. She had provided what it needed, and it had drawn back into itself. The memory of that vibrant life echoed hollowly inside her, leaving her alone and insignificant. The grove had no more use for her. She was shut out.

She opened her eyes to see Rass kneeling in the grass with her hands splayed into the dirt. Her face beamed with joy. “It’s waking up.”

Sini pressed her own hand into the ground, desperate to feel it again, but there was nothing. She turned to Will. “Where did—?” The question died on her lips.

Will and Alaric stared at her.

“How…?” Alaric started

“She’s not even burned,” Will said

“Channeling that much…” Alaric shook his head slowly. “You should be dead.”

Sini’s skin tingled in memory of the fire. “I’ve never done that much before. It was the grove. It was so hungry. And the sunlight was so…eager.” She rubbed her arms to drive away the feeling.

A part of her was amazed at how much she’d channeled, but she couldn’t focus on it past the emptiness left by the grove. “Couldn’t you feel it?”

Will looked at the red patch on his arm where she’d held it. “The only thing I felt was an unbelievable amount of power from you.” He flexed his hand. “Thank you for not sending all of it through me.”

Alaric studied her like she was the most interesting person he’d ever seen. “I’ve never heard of a Keeper this powerful.”

Sini shifted, feeling self-conscious under their attention. Her gaze caught on the dull, cracked gems in her rings. Her heart sank. Lukas had made those for her to help her channel magic.

Will leaned forward and looked at the rings. “Don’t worry, we’ll teach you to move energy without needing burning stones.”

The thrill of the idea pushed away the loss of both the light and the gems. She’d never been able to move energy on her own.

“Whatever you did,” Rass said, her eyes bright, “it was enough. The grove has what it wants.”

Sini focused on the trees. The longing was gone. She placed her hand on the ground. It felt like normal earth, and paid her no heed at all. She blew out a pained breath.

Silence fell until Douglon cleared his throat, his expression ragged. “Does anyone know how long it takes for trees to give birth to elves?”

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