The Mountains Rise (12 page)

Little grew between them, other than small
,
highly shade tolerant plants, small stunted bushes and the like. There were absolutely
no other trees
besides
the god-trees themselves once he had passed beyond the verge. Riding was simple,
for there were hardly any dead limbs. There was no path, but his way was clear in
every direction.

The god-trees were so vast that they were spaced with at least a hundred feet between
each of the monstrous trunks. Small patches of light found the ground at irregular
intervals
,
providing enough light to prevent the deep forest from being in perpetual gloom,
although it was still rather dim.

Most startling of all was the way his new senses presented the trees. Unlike the
oaks and elms of the more normal forest
,
these trees shone brightly with the strange power he had come to associate with the
wardens. Their auras were complex, in the same sort of way that he had come to expect
of human auras, but the patterns were different, alien. It felt as though they were
watching him.

He began to sense human figures in the limbs high above. They were hidden from sight,
but he could find them with his mind. They ran along a network of paths created by
the vast branches that spread from tree to tree. There weren’t many of them, and
they seemed to pay little heed to him as he rode beneath them.

It was the trees that scared him. He could feel their attention pressing inward on
his awareness. The stories always described the forest gods as human
-
like in form, but he began to wonder if the stories were wrong. Perhaps the forest
gods were the trees themselves.

More riders appeared at the edge of his perception, five of them this time. They
rode in a wide
-
spread line, moving in a direction perpendicular to his path, far enough ahead that
they would meet him soon if he didn’t change course.

Shifting his path to the right he headed directly for the nearest member of the line.
The riders on the far end would have to circle around to reach and assist the first
one now, rather than coming at him from all sides if he had continued on to meet the
one in the middle.

As the other rider came into view
Daniel
charged directly for him, hoping bravado might accomplish what his lack of skill
could not.

This one had also shielded his horse as well as himself
,
and while Daniel searched for some means to distract or disorient his opponent the
warden struck his unprotected mind, smothering his thoughts. Daniel felt himself
beginning to lose consciousness and he
started
tugging on the reins to stop his horse before he fell. Mentally he struggled, tearing
at the soft bonds that seemed to slow his thoughts, urging him to sleep.

The warden watched with some surprise as he continued to fight, bringing his horse
to a full stop and dismounting even as his body swayed.

Unable to force his quarry into unconsciousness
,
the warden made the same mistake the one at Kate’s house had, he switched from the
mental attack and used his power to create bands of pure force, imprisoning Daniel’s
body.

Why would they do that when someone might just do this?

Flexing his power Daniel fought for a moment with his would-be captor until
,
once again the bands broke in a blinding flash of released energy. This warden released
them just as they snapped though, avoiding the worst of the backlash. Staggered,
the man dismounted, drawing his blade.

Daniel didn’t wait for him to recover
.
H
e took to his feet, running as fast as he could to one side. The warden followed
but quickly discovered he was no match for the teenager’s long stride. After just
seconds he gave up, running back to his mount.

The other riders had closed on him now, pacing him easily, like wolves harassing a
deer. They used their power to catch his feet, tripping him, laughing when he fell
face first into the soft dirt and leaves. He wouldn’t stay down, however.
Each time he
leapt up and continued to run, fear giving more strength and speed to his legs.

The first one of
the
five that he had encountered caught up with them, shouting a warning to his companions,
“Careful, he’s strong.”

They laughed and another caught his legs again, sending him into a running fall.
The warden didn’t hold him, though and let Daniel jump up to run again. “Don’t think
he’s dangerous just because he made a fool of you, Dravek!” said one of the women.

Daniel sensed another figure ahead, that of a woman, though her aura was different
from the others. She had no shield for one thing, and she appeared to be sitting
on the other side of one of the massive tree trunks. Not knowing what else to do,
he ran in her direction, vaguely thinking perhaps he could take a hostage.

The wardens sensed her too, and they began to slow, letting him get ahead of them.
Their expressions seemed fearful.

Dashing around the trunk
,
his eyes caught a glimpse of otherworldly beauty. The maiden in front of him was
clothed only in a gossamer gown of a transparent white material. She looked up at
him from where she sat, her face unworried. Her hair flowed down over her shoulders
like a rain of living silver until it reached her hips.

Refusing to let her appearance distract him, Daniel ran straight for her, holding
the wooden sword in his right hand.

The woman’s visage never shifted, she continued to stare at him blankly, as if she
couldn’t comprehend his actions. Lifting one hand
,
her lips parted and something spiraled outward from her, merging with the wood of
his weapon.

As he ran
,
the wood changed, twisting and growing into a long scaled beast, like some nightmare
of a viper. It wrapped itself around his arm and tightened while its head sought
his throat. In a panic he pulled at it with his free arm
,
but it had tightened and felt stronger than iron. The head snaked around his throat
and began to constrict.

Daniel fell to the earth, struggling to breath. His head felt as though it might
explode from the pressure
,
while his heart began to pound in his chest. The woman leaned over him, looking
down pitilessly. She spoke to him
,
but the words were unintelligible.

The riders had stopped, more than twenty yards distant. They had left their mounts
and were now kneeling, heads bowed. One of them spoke, using the same unknown language.

Just as Daniel knew he was about to expire, the wooden snake loosened slightly around
his throat, allowing him to draw breath.

The silver-haired woman spoke again, staring at him with icy blue eyes that almost
matched his own color.
She tilted her head slightly and as her hair shifted he could see the tip of one
delicately pointed ear appear.

“I can’t understand you,” he managed to say.

The same rider spoke up again, and Daniel wondered if they had just translated his
words. The lady replied in a harsher tone
,
and the warden lowered his head, as if in shame.

This must be one of the forest gods,
thought Daniel.

As the thought occurred to him
,
the god reached out with one slender hand and touched his forehead. He felt her
power enter his mind and with it came two strange visions. The first showed him choking
again, his face turning purple as he twisted on the ground, dying slowly. The second
vision showed him kneeling before her, kissing the ground at her feet.

The meaning of it was pretty obvious even to him, death or servitude.

Thinking of Kate again, he made his choice and struggled to his knees in front of
her. Using his left arm for balance
,
he lowered his head to the mossy ground
,
but rather than kiss it he shifted and put his lips against the soft skin of her
foot. Without thinking, he used his power to touch her aura, attempting to send a
pleasurable sensation along her leg.

Her body shivered slightly
,
while behind him
,
he felt more than saw the wardens gasp. He wondered if they would kill him now,
but none of them moved.

The forest god withdrew her foot and gazed down on him curiously
,
and Daniel felt as if he were falling into the azure pools that were her eyes. He
was paralyzed with a feeling of awe and wonder. Her fingers moved again
,
and she put her hands together, drawing them apart slowly as a necklace of swirling
energy appeared between them. Reaching around his neck
,
she
brought the ends together at his throat, but they didn’t join.

She spoke again and touched his brow with one hand, sending him another image, indicating
that he needed to use his power to join the ends.

With his left hand he followed her arm until he found the place where her fingers
held the two ends
,
and with a pulse of his own power the necklace fused into an unbroken circle.

The forest god spoke again
,
and while he still couldn’t understand the words
,
he could already guess their meaning.
“You are mine.”

The wardens spoke with her for a moment
,
but all Daniel could understand of their conversation was that the silver-haired
woman seemed to be telling them no. In the end they left
,
and the two of them were left alone.

She said one more word to him and then began to walk up the side of the tree. After
ascending twenty feet she looked down at him curiously, as if she couldn’t understand
why he wasn’t following. She spat out a string of words, but they meant nothing to
him.

“I can’t do that,” said Daniel, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.

She walked down as easily as she went up, with absolutely no regard for gravity whatsoever.
The only way he could tell it still affected her was because her long hair hung straight
down toward the earth even though her body was perfectly horizontal, perpendicular
to the trunk.

Placing her finger on his forehead again
,
she sent another image into his mind
,
while at the same time placing his hand on the thick bark of the tree. At first
he was confused
,
but then his mind cleared
,
and he could see what she was trying to show him. Pushing his power out through
the palm of his hand
,
he was able to create a temporary bond between his palm and the rough surface.

Satisfied that he understood
,
she barked another word and pointed up.

Putting one hand to the tree
,
he used his strange new power and made it adhere, then he stretched his other hand
up to a higher point and did the same. He had no idea how she had been able to walk
up the way she had just done. There was clearly more going on there than simply sticking
her feet to the surface. Releasing his first hand
,
he pulled himself higher with the other and then found a new spot higher up for the
first hand.

It was incredibly difficult
,
pulling himself up, hand over hand. While the bark was rough
,
it didn’t have enough texture for him to find footholds
,
so he was forced to leave his legs hanging, deadweight. On his third hand up
,
the bond between skin and tree failed
,
and he fell, dropping to the ground and landing on his backside.

His new companion gave him a stare that he was all too familiar with. He had seen
it on his mother’s face frequently, and more recently on Kate’s. It was the ‘you’re
too stupid for words’ look. Leaning in
,
she touched his head again, giving him a new picture.

This one showed him using his feet and knees as well, pushing his power out through
his clothing from whatever points of his body came into contact with the tree. She
made a special point of re-illustrating the attachment process
,
and he understood what he had done wrong there as well. He hadn’t penetrated the
surface deeply enough with his power. He had been fortunate not to lose the skin
from his hand, or he could have torn the outer layer of bark loose.

Somehow he thought that damaging the tree might be a bad idea.

Trying again
,
he was able, with a bit of
practice,
to crawl carefully up the tree. He still didn’t understand how she walked the way
she did, but she seemed to accept his clumsy method, watching him with obvious pity.
Her expression reminded him of how one might stare at a dog trying clumsily to climb
a ladder.

She waited patiently for a few minutes
,
but then she grew tired. Planting another image in his mind she showed him the place
she wanted him to reach, far above in the canopy, and then she left him, running nimbly
upward.

“Just another hundred feet or so,” he muttered to himself, looking downward. He was
already close to that far from the ground. Any mistake and he would be dead. The
first limb was still another thirty feet above him
,
and it didn’t seem to connect to anything else. He could probably rest there if
needed.

It took him an hour to reach the place she had indicated. It was a wide branch that
seemed to grow oddly from the tree, splaying outward to form a wide platform as it
joined the main trunk. A variety of objects were scattered around there, few of which
he recognized.
However t
wo large bumps that protruded from the wooden floor looked suspiciously like chairs.

His keeper was nowhere to be seen.

People moved through the trees both above
,
and below, and in every direction around him. Well, he called them people, but he
could tell somehow that these weren’t humans like the wardens he had met before.
They were different, like the silver-haired woman. Most of them were obscured by
the leaves and branches
,
but now and then he caught a glimpse of one with his physical eyes.

They all seemed to have the silver hair and blue ey
es that he had seen on the woman and their ears all tapered to subtle points
.

After a few minutes
,
his new friend returned. Walking closer she placed a finger on his head again, showing
him an image of him sitting on one of the chair-like protrusions, then it shifted,
and he saw himself walking around the platform. The last thing she showed was him
leaving the platform
,
and she accompanied that image with a mild surge of pain.

“Wait here,” he responded. “I understand.”

She smiled and then she was gone.

The rest of the day passed slowly
,
and his first problem arose when he began to feel an unpleasant pressure in his bladder.
It had been hours since she had left him
,
and he could see no obvious means for relieving himself. When he could wait no longer
he chose to pee from the side of the platform, aiming carefully to avoid any lower
branches.

Nightfall came and the air grew colder. He was hungry now, and shivering from the
chill, but still he waited. He tried sleeping on the hard floor
,
but without something to keep him warm it was all but impossible.

With morning he was grateful for the return of the sun, although it wasn’t enough
to warm him back up. His mouth was dry now. He hadn’t had anything to drink since
right before entering the forest the day before. The goatskin sack that he had brought
with him had been left strapped to the saddle of the horse, along with his food.

The one good thing about thirst though, was that he no longer had to worry about urinating.
He hadn’t had to do anything more substantial either, probably also because of a lack
of intake. By mid-afternoon he had gone from shaky to downright weak.

Daniel’s ear had begun to ache
,
and it seemed to radiate heat across the side of his head and down his neck. The
warmth felt pleasant compared to the cold that made the rest of his body
feel sore
. By nightfall he could no longer stand.

He spent that night dreaming with his eyes open. Some of the things he saw were pleasant
;
his mother cooking food, Blue playing in the yard when he was still a puppy. They
gave him little relief though, his mother’s food never got rid of the hunger
,
and when he tried to pet Blue the dog melted away.

I forgot he’s dead now.

The images of Kate were the worst. She was crying again, staring at him with eyes
that seemed to lay bare his every sin.
“Every woman but me, Daniel! Why?”

He couldn’t find tears to match his sorrow though, for his eyes had gone dry, much
like his mouth.

The sun found him curled on the platform. He was no longer shivering
,
and he no longer felt the chill, although he still ached everywhere. The pain had
somehow seeped into his bones. The silver-haired woman was standing over him, looking
down curiously. She spoke but the words meant nothing.

He ignored her. It was too much effort to try
to
communicate.

She left and a short time later she returned, holding a live squirrel. It seemed
to be sleeping in her hands. She placed it close to him and put a vision in his mind,
showing him eating the small animal.

He didn’t bother trying to reply
,
and eventually she left again. After an hour the squirrel finally awoke
,
and it found better places to be too.

An eternity passed
,
and then two people appeared. One looked to be his silver-haired woman while the
other was very different. The newcomer was male
,
but his skin was black
,
and his hair was a shining gold, matched only by his gold irises. The female was
pointing at Daniel
,
and the other was laughing, as if she had told him a marvelous joke.

Perhaps that is what I am,
thought Daniel.
A joke the gods tell to themselves, to ease the boredom.

The man’s hue was deeper than any ordinary black, it was the color of pitch, surrendering
very little of the light that touched it. His hair was not to be mistaken for blonde
either, it was as if someone had taken true gold and spun it into fine filaments to
create a golden wig. Leaning close
,
he spoke to Daniel.

“She didn’t know how to feed you properly, wildling,” said the man. “Do you speak
Barion?”

It took a moment for Daniel to realize that
the man was speaking his langu
a
ge
. When he finally did he managed to croak a response, “What is Barion?”

The man smiled, “It is the name of
your language
, baratt.”

Baratt.
There was that word again, and he still had no idea what it meant. The warden had
used it as if it were an insult
,
but this man seemed to have no malice in his voice when he said it.
He had never heard the term ‘Barion’ used to name his language either. Until he
had come to the deep woods he had never considered the possibility that people or
gods might have different ways of speaking.

“You look ill, baratt. I will make sure that food and water are brought for you,”
added the stranger.

The two of them left and Daniel was once again alone. The woman returned after what
might have been an hour. It had gotten difficult for Daniel to gauge time. This
time she bore a bowl filled with water and a dead squirrel. The skin had been removed
,
and the flesh was scorched and burned, as if someone had held it in a fire for a
few minutes.

She tried to cook it,
he realized.

He drank some of the water and gnawed on the mostly raw animal. The parts that had
been licked by the fire were burnt
,
and the rest of it was essentially raw. After a few bites he was unable to continue.
At least his throat was no longer dry.

The man returned that evening, accompanied by two warden
s. Daniel found himself lifted b
etween them, as if on a bed of air
,
and warmth surrounded him. For the first time in over two days he was comfortable,
although his body still ached and burned from within.

“This man has a fever, master,” said one of the humans. “I do not think he will survive
long.”

“Take him to Ellentrea
.
I
f he lives
,
we can probably use him to blood one of the younglings,” said the black-skinned god.

The two men bowed
,
and using their power they carried him away. Daniel noted that when they went down
the trunk they walked in the same manner that the silver-haired woman had.

I need to learn that trick,
he thought before losing consciousness.