A Fidus Aranea Page 7

Use yer bow ta test the ground ahead, make sure it's firm." She unsheathed her sword and held it at the ready. "I'll watch our backs. Okay?"

  "Okay, partner!" She grinned, excitement shining in her eyes. "Team Girl laughs in the face of death as we brave the dangers of the bog of doom! Ha-ha-ha!"

  Eile grimaced and pressed the fingers of her left hand into her forehead. "Just...be careful where you step, will ya? Shadow, you stay here."

  "I'll be sure to tell Mayv where to scatter the flowers."

  She gave the cat a dirty look. "Thanks a bunch."

  "Don't mention it."

  Sunny made her way to the closest ridge and started out over it, probing the earth with her bow before she took each step. Eile made sure she stepped into Sunny's footprints. At first the ground seemed quite firm, but after a couple of yards Sunny started to sink. For a moment her heart seized up as she expected Sunny to be sucked down out of sight, but she only sank to her ankles. The ground was getting softer, but the vegetation seemed able to hold it together.

  "Ick!" Sunny squealed as she extracted her foot.

  "Keep moving!" She sank as well, but fortunately no deeper despite her armor. Apparently the herb mat was strong enough to bear their weight without breaking.

  Sunny took another step. "I hope I tied the laces tight enough. I don't want to be stuck out here without boots."

  After nearly twelve Dream-months, Eile had gotten pretty good at estimating the passage of time without a watch. It was sort of like dead reckoning. By her calculation, it took them a total of forty-five minutes to reach the central mound. It was a nerve-wracking trip; with each step, she expected them to stumble into quicksand or fall through an unsuspected dirt bridge and sink into a deep bog hole. But they made it safely, and she figured the journey back would be faster.

  Sunny lifted her skirt and examined her feet. They were covered in muck half-way up her shins. "Ugh. I'm gonna need to get new shoes after this." She then dropped the hem and looked around, while Eile looked with her.

  The mound was no different from any of the others, except larger. It was covered by an herb mat, but in its center stood the Golden Mushroom. It resembled its name exactly: a standard toadstool stalk and cap, but metallic gold in color. In fact, it looked like it was made of real gold.

  "Here." Sunny held out her bow, and she took it.

  "We'll take the same route back." She watched Sunny put on her gloves and go up to the fungus.

  "Right." She spoke in an absentminded fashion as she knelt down.

  In the same moment, Eile felt something strange in the woods around them. The hairs on the nape of neck stood up as her skin crawled and turned to goose flesh. Raising her sword, she turned around in all directions, trying to identify it, but she saw nothing. But she heard it: muffled thunderclaps like the stamping of huge feet. Then she felt the ground tremble with the concussion shock. Something was coming, something huge, but she couldn't pinpoint from where.

  She looked back at Sunny. She had heard and felt it too, and she stood slowly as she looked around.

  "Sunny!" She tossed her the bow. She caught it and nocked an arrow, ready for whatever came.

  The sounds grew steadily louder as the tremors intensified. Then Eile saw them: gigantic anthropoid figures striding around the perimeter of the hollow, just beyond the tree line. She tried to count them, but lost track as they crossed and recrossed each other's paths. They moved faster than she expected from their size. She looked for Shadow, but the cat was gone.

  Before she could try to find her, one of the figures emerged into the hollow. It came at her with startling speed as it covered great distances with each enormous stride.

  "Sweet Jesus!" She saw it clearly for the first time: it looked like a tree!

  Sunny screamed. Eile whipped around in time to see a second tree-creature stalking off with her in one hand. She struggled, kicked, and pounded on the fingers, but it had her in an iron grip.

  "Eile!! Help me!!!" The monster merged with the woods and vanished from sight.

  "Sunnyyy!!!" She started off after her. The creature coming up behind her passed her in two massive strides, then turned and swung an arm at her. It caught her before she could dodge, picked her up, and threw her backwards in a high, long arch. She landed in one of the pools with a shocking splash. Terrified, she flailed about for some moments, desperately trying to stay afloat, when she realized she was already resting on the bottom. She sat up and wiped detritus away from her face as she sputtered to expel the foul tasting water from her mouth.

  She looked around and found that the tree-monsters were gone.

  "Shit!" She groped for her sword, and when she found it she stood up and ran back to the central mound, heedless to any danger. She gained the top and glanced around, looking for the spot where the one creature had taken Sunny into the woods, but she saw nothing to indicate where they had gone.

  "Arrrgh, dammit, dammit, dammit!" she raged, as much from misery as wrath.

  "Eile!"

  She turned and saw Shadow standing on a farther mound.

  "I know where they took Sunny. Follow me!"

  She didn't argue. She charged off the mound and across a ridge, and followed the cat as it crossed the rest of the hollow and dashed into the woods. Eile ran as fast as she could push herself, relying on instinct to avoid roots and branches, and luck to avoid what her instincts couldn't detect. The scenery around her passed in a blur as her sight focused into tunnel vision and she became oblivious to everything except the chase and her desperate desire to find Sunny.

  God, whoever or whatever you are in this place, please let her be safe. I can't live without her; I can't stand to lose her. Please, I beg of you, let me find her alive.

  From "Oak Do Hate"

  She ran back out to the cart and rode off; the source of the glow seemed to be just ahead. As she got closer her anxiety mounted, and in her imagination she saw all sorts of horrendous possibilities, each worse than the one before. What she finally did see, however, mystified her as she slowed the cart to a halt.

  In the space of the park between the stables and the lake, on either side of the path, were trees, dozens of them, maybe even a hundred or more.

  "There aren't supposed to be trees here." But they were the source of the glow. Each one emitted only a feeble light, but together they lit up the night sky, if only dimly.

  She got out of the cart and walked among them, examining each with the torch. She realized they weren't actually trees, just trunks sunk into the ground, all between five and six feet tall, with two boughs raised into the air, but with no branches, and curiously no leaves. That early in autumn there should still have been some, even if they had turned color. Another puzzling feature: each had a strange, knobby growth, like a giant gall, at the top of the trunk between the boughs.

  It doesn't make sense. Aelfraed hadn't told her about any landscaping being done, and she had been out riding a couple of days before and hadn't seen anything in that area. It would take longer than that to plant that many trees. On top of which, it would have been faster and more efficient to plant seedlings, but no gardener worth his salt would plant mature trees just before winter. And why cut off the boughs, or leave just two?

  As she shined the torch around, she spotted a small reflection in the middle of one of the galls. She kept the beam steady on it as she approached.

  What is that? When she reached the foot of the trunk, she found something embedded into the wood. She studied it in an intent manner, trying to divine what it was. When she finally recognized it, her heart seized as her blood ran cold, and she backed away from the tree.

  "Oh my Holy God!"

  It was a pair of pince-nez spectacles.

  She played the light over the gall. The pattern of the bark was identical to the facial features of Aelfraed, except they were twisted into an expression of terror. She shined the light on another tree; that one had the features of Mrs. Widget, with her granny glasses embedded as well. Beside her was a s
quat tree that looked like Holt, and beside him one that resembled Phillipa Trumbo, the pastry chef. Another reminded her of Doc LeClerc. She ran around the grove; all the trees had human faces on them, most of which she recognized as members of her staff.

  In her growing panic she accidently ran into one of them. As she stepped back, she illuminated the gall-face and felt a jolt: Vlad's countenance stared back at her in a blank manner. Despair washed over her and she reached out to lay a hand on the bark. She wouldn't have believed he would end like this.

  {Neither would I, My Master, but I am not finished yet.}

  At first startled, she broke out into a relieved grin. You're alive?!

  {In a manner of speaking.}

  What of the others? Aelfread, Mrs. Widget, Holt--

  {They are more alive than I. They are just encased in prisons of wood, as I.}

  She felt her irritation flare. Why didn't you reply back at the house!?

  {I could not. My prison prevented me. Only through this physical contact are we able to converse, yet just barely. Soon even this will become impossible.}

  Oh. My apologies.

  {You need never apologize to me, Master. Do you beg forgiveness of a pistol or a sword? I am only a weapon, albeit a broken one at present.}

  Never mind that now! Tell me what happened.

  {I cannot be certain; I have never felt anything like this before. It was a summons that took control of my body. I was like