Chartile: Prophecy (34 page)

“
Dimitri,” Piper breathed,
clutching at her chest. “You scared me to death.”

“
You are still plenty much
alive,” he laughed, and tossed her a large cadenceberry. Piper
caught it in the jewelry box, and quickly plucked the fruit from
atop the gem, stuffing the box into her bag once more.

“
So, what was in there?”
Dimitri asked, his mouth full of berry. He pointed to where the box
had disappeared back into Piper’s bag and popped another handful of
berries into his mouth.

“
A gift,” said Piper
proudly.

“
From Mother?” Dimitri
asked and raised an eyebrow.

“
No,” said Piper. “From
Valin.”

Dimitri swallowed hard. “From Valin?” He
shook his head, clenching and unclenching his fists. “Piper, he is
using you.”

“
For what, Dimitri? Can a
queen not accept a gift from one of her subjects?” She tossed her
braid in a mocking gesture, and rose, heading back for the trees.
Dimitri grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to him.

“
He is using you to become
King. I am not as naïve as everyone seems to believe.”

Piper yanked her arm free, and looked at
Dimitri with stern green eyes. “What if he is? You do not wish to
be.”

“
So that’s it then? I
cannot be your King, so you are going to throw me aside? Royalty
seems to suit you well.”

It was Piper’s turn to grab Dimitri as he
turned away from her. “Do not tell me you can’t when you know the
answer is you won’t.”

“
Piper, if I knew that is
what it would take for you to marry me, then I would do it! By
Rashiri, I would do anything for you, do you not know that by now?”
He shrugged. “It does not matter.” He looked at her bag where
Valin’s gift lay hidden in its depths. He pulled his sleeve free of
Piper’s grasp, though there was little strength behind it now, and
sulked back to the trees.

“
You never asked me,” she
snapped, but Dimitri ignored her.

She followed him back to the clearing of
trees and watched him put an end to Jayson and Jack’s argument
about who would start the fire with magic. The logs erupted in a
great spire of flame that nearly singed the boys’ eyebrows as
Dimitri strode past. Jack and Jayson leapt back with screams. Piper
rushed forward and quickly decreased the size of the fire.

“
That was dangerous,”
Valin scolded. Dimitri spun around and grabbed the front of Valin’s
tunic, pulling him close to his face. “Do not start with me. I know
your game.”

The last thing Dimitri saw were ice blue
eyes boring into his then he lay sprawled on his back. Jack stood
over him, saying something about a sharing circle. Jayson was being
held back by Leo and yelling at Valin. Dimitri felt someone kneel
beside him and a warm energy wash over his head. The throbbing in
his eye subsided, but only slightly.

He looked up to see Piper scowling at
him.

“
You are an idiot,” she
said getting to her feet. A strange kind of whirl wind encircled
the camp fire and doused it within seconds. She pushed Jayson and
Leo aside, meeting Valin’s blue eyes with her green.

Valin quickly dropped his gaze
apologetically.

“
My Lady, I—” Then he was
on the ground as well, covering his left eye with his
hands.

Piper looked over her shoulder at the boys,
her voice cool and calm. “There is a bush full of cadenceberries
somewhere around. Why don’t you go look for them?”

Confused and slightly afraid, Jayson, Jack
and Leo walked off in the direction of the wildflower patch,
occasionally looking over their shoulders as they went.

Piper looked between the two men lying on
the ground spread eagle before her. She spoke with the voice she
had used when addressing the Dwarvik Council of Elders. She was so
angry, she hardly noticed.

“
We are here to confront
Taraniz and to rescue my grandmother. Nothing more. Once my future
has been established, I will decide where each of you stand in it,
no one else. Until that time, both of you will continue this
undertaking, focusing strictly on the task at hand, and taking care
of Jayson, Jack and Leo. If you are unable to do so, then you will
leave immediately. I am not asking you, I am commanding you. My
words and orders are clear. Now, decide.”

Piper stood staring at the two for several
long seconds. Valin still held a hand over his eye, and Dimitri
would not even look at her. She meant to turn and walk away with
great dignity and grace, much like she hoped a queen would. She
turned, and found her way blocked by the boys who had returned with
handfuls of berries.

“
I tried to tell them, the
birds weren’t eating those, so they must be poisonous,” said Leo,
who was holding the cadenceberries she asked them to find. Jack and
Jayson showed her their collection berries. They were a pale gray
with a single black spot at the base of the stem.

“
I thought I saw a bird
eat one,” said Jayson defensively.

“
There’s definitely more
than enough to go around for all of us,” Jack replied, his face
beaming.

Piper hung her head, trying to let a smile
wash over her face. “Leo is correct,” she said softly. Jack and
Jayson dropped the berries as though they were on fire, and wiped
their hands on their shirts and jeans. “Those are black-eyed
berries. One of the first symptoms of their poison is your pupils
will dilate. You become sensitive to the light and your head begins
to pound. Wash your hands thoroughly, and please pick as many of
Leo’s berries as you can find.”

She heard Dimitri and Valin slowly move to
their feet behind her, but she did not turn around.

“
I want to leave soon,”
she said loud enough Valin and Dimitri could hear her. “No fires.
It could draw unwanted attention. We eat as we go, and rest only at
night.”

Jayson, Jack and Leo nodded. They chanced
glances behind her at Dimitri and Valin who held their heads in
their hands and stumbled to their feet.

“
You… wanna come pick
berries with us?” Jayson asked Piper tentatively.

Piper nearly laughed. “Alright,” she
chuckled, and followed them to the cadenceberry bush.



Piper walked at the head of the group using
the compass Valin had packed to navigate. Jayson walked between
Piper and Valin as Dimitri refused to have him anywhere but where
he could see him. Valin remained silent as the party continued,
except for an occasional warning against a low hanging tree limb or
root along the way. He stumbled more than the rest of the party as
his left eye was almost completely swollen shut. He had declined
Piper’s offer for healing, insisting she needed to save her
strength for the journey ahead of them.

That night, they found another cluster of
trees to sleep in. These were much larger than the last ones they
had rested in the night before. The trees here were so large and
close together that only small spots of sun could break through the
canopy, leaving the ground below rather barren. This had the added
benefit of making the way more clear with less underbrush to hamper
their way. But Jayson, Jack and Leo soon discovered why it was
almost impossible to avoid the main road through the forest.

“
It is how the Elven
palace remains hidden,” Valin explained to Jack. “You are wandering
through the Belirian Forest and the next thing you know, you’ve
walked straight into the Royal Gardens!”

“
Don’t they have some kind
of outer walls, or a moat or something?” Leo asked, adjusting his
glasses.

“
Of course they do,” said
Dimitri and sighed. “If it were so easy to get into the palace, do
you think we would have the tabards?”

“
In our world, we have
trees that are thousands of feet tall, and hundreds of feet
around!” said Jayson, throwing his arms wide.

“
You mean sycamores?” Leo
asked. “The tallest are about thirty feet around, Jayson, and only
a hundred and twenty feet tall.” He paused. “Now, redwoods grow to
about three hundred feet tall and are about seventy feet
around.”

“
Spoil sport,” Jayson
whispered, and stuck his out tongue at Leo. “I wonder where the
biggest one is.”

“
The throne room of the
palace,” said Piper. “It has been carved as the King’s throne and
still grows a bit each year. Our scholars believe it was the first
tree in Chartile, and it was where the ashes of the Great Phoenix
fed life into the earth.” She smiled at Jayson as she came to walk
beside him. She put an arm around his shoulders and gave him a
small hug, her mood lightening as the forest darkened.

“
Who’s the Great Phoenix?”
Jack asked.

“
Ssh!” said Dimitri, and
they froze. A rustling in the distance made them stare wide eyed as
they watched a bush sway and move. A fox jumped at a mouse hole,
then scurried off after the little creature in an attempt at a
before bed time snack. They exhaled the breath they hadn’t realized
they were holding, smiling at each other before
continuing.

“
We are less than a day
from the palace.” Dimitri cautioned them. “We must to be more
careful.”

They nodded to each other, and did not speak
for the rest of their trek that day. They walked in silence for
only another hour or so, as darkness fell faster so deep in the
forest. Once again, they could hardly see the person in front of
them, and the tripping over roots and tree limbs began again at a
steady increase.

“
This is nuts,” Jack
snapped and he fell face first onto the ground. Valin reached down
and lifted Jack easily.

“
Perhaps it is time to set
in for the night,” Valin whispered.

They climbed as high as they could in the
trees off the main path. They did not bother setting a watch,
hoping to get as much sleep as possible before dawn. They tied
themselves to the giant tree limbs, and settled in, their dreams
turning as dark as the forest surrounding them.

It was still dark when Jayson woke to
movement in the treetops above him. His unlucky encounters with
trolls and then vampires had his heart pumping wildly the moment
his eyes shot open. He reached for his bow, but a stone, or
something hard, hit him on the head.

“
Oh, I am so sorry,
Jayson,” Piper whispered, climbing down beside him.

“
It’s okay,” he whispered
back to her. “What are you doing?”

“
Just — going to water the
bushes. That is what you boys call it, correct?” asked Piper
tentatively.

Jayson blushed and was thankful Piper
couldn’t see it in the darkness. “Right,” he said.

“
Go back to sleep,” she
murmured, and continued on down the tree. “I will come from the
other side when I come back. I won’t wake you.”

Jayson shrugged, hugged his bow to his
chest, and fell back into an uneasy slumber.

“
Piper! Piper? Where are
you?” a panicked voice called from the ground below. Jayson started
awake again. It had seemed like only seconds before that he had
closed his eyes. Spots of light filtered down through the tree
tops, and the small clearing below was cast in a soft gray. He
hurried down the tree ready to sting his bow.

When he reached the ground, Jayson was
nearly knocked off his feet. Dimitri grabbed him by his shoulders
and shook him. “Where did she go? She was in the tree with you!” he
screamed in Jayson’s face.

“
I don’t know,” Jayson
said, and his voice trembled. “She had to go to the bathroom. I
went back to sleep, I—”

“
You let her go alone?”
said Valin from behind Dimitri.

Dimitri dropped Jayson, and turned to Valin.
“Do not begin to act as though you care about her!” He raised his
fist.

Valin caught his arm, and swung Dimitri
around, twisting him at his shoulder. “Do not lay the blame with
me, Dimitri. You started this by turn her against me!”

It took all three of them to pull Valin and
Dimitri apart again.

“
This isn’t helping us
find her!” Leo finally shouted.

“
She took the compass,”
said Jack. “I checked all the packs.”

“
She must have gone to the
palace on her own,” said Jayson, and he released his grip on
Dimitri’s arm.

“
Why would she do that?”
asked Leo. “I thought we were all in this together.” He looked
sadly at Jack and Jayson, his face revealing the hurt they all
felt.

“
Some of us haven’t been
very team oriented, lately,” said Jack, his arms crossed. He, Leo
and Jayson turned to Valin and Dimitri, glaring
fiercely.

“
I may be able to track
her,” said Dimitri more calmly.

“
I can help more once we
get a little closer to the palace.” Valin inhaled deeply. “I know
my way around the areas within its walls.”

“
Then let’s go as fast as
we can,” said Leo. He grabbed his pack and straightened his glasses
with a sniff. “She’s got several hours on us, but she couldn’t have
moved that fast in the dark.”

They agreed, and headed out in the direction
they had been travelling. For the first time, Valin and Dimitri
worked together. They studied the ground and underbrush for traces
of a human trail to follow, and consulted with each other as they
went. Slowly, the surrounding area began to take on a faint gray
look as the sun rose, which made looking for signs of a recent
trail much easier. They were quiet, except when pointing out a foot
print or broken branch. They didn’t know if the growing pit in
their stomach was drawn from concern for Piper or the fear that
they would be confronting Taraniz any moment.